New Delhi: States from southern and western India like Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Maharashtra seem to be taking the lead in getting approval for more projects under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urb

Bihar government has reiterated its resolution to make the state self sufficient in power within next two years. However, it has also indicated towards further hike in electricity tariffs in the state.

"Power is vital for state's development," state Energy Minister Vijayendra Yadav told state assembly on Monday, "therefore we are doing everything to get more electricity. We have set a target of 5,300 MW for power generation by 2015. This includes the current central allocation of 1,800 MW. The state government hopes that the Barh NTPC will be ready by 2015, from where we have been allocated 1,200 MW. Apart from this, state power generation units at Muzzafarpur and Barauni would also be ready by then. We expect 800 MW from these units.

Government of India has decided to reduce the capacity of proposed Nuclear Power Plant at Rajauli, Nawada by half. However, the state government still wants the power plant and has already earmarked more than 3,000 acres of land for this purpose and asked the central government to expedite the process.

"The state government has received a proposal from central government in 2008," Power Minister Vijendra Yadav told state assembly in reply of a short notice question on Friday, "in which New Delhi have asked us to provide adequate land and water for setting up a nuclear power plant in the state. The proposal was for setting up a 2,800 MW (700X4) power plant, but later the central government decided to set up only two units, which efficiently reduced project's proposed capacity by half."

The Budget has provided ample resources for farmers and the farm sector even in a year of fiscal blight.

The budget signals a decisive shift to high-value agriculture with allocations for crop diversification in the Indo-Gangetic belt, nutri-farms for growing fortified food crops, Farmer Producer Orga

The United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government’s ambitious social security programme — the proposed National Food Security scheme — could be implemented in Congress-ruled states ahead of others.

The Budget, to be tabled tomorrow in Parliament, is likely to give substantial allocation to the programme. The Centre plans to launch the programme across the country simultaneously. However, given the opposition of some non-Congress-ruled states to certain provisions of the Bill, there is a possibility that Congress-ruled states might implement it first, said sources.

Notwithstanding marginal growth in employment, there were as many as 28 million unemployed persons in the country in 2009-10, according to the Economic Survey 2012-13.

“Despite negligible employment growth, the unemployment rate as per the current daily status (CDS method) fell from 8.2 per cent in 2004-5 to 6.6 per cent in 2009-10,” the Survey tabled in the Lok Sabha today by Finance Minister P Chidambaram said.

Of the 92 major power projects reviewed by the Central Electricity Authority (CEA) for their fuel position, 54 are facing “acute coal shortage”, which is resulting in inadequate power supply/blackouts in various parts of the country, crippling of industrial output and impact on households.

Blame this not only on the stagnation in India’s coal output and a widening demand-supply gap for the fuel, but also on the Centre’s standing linkage committees (SLCs).