The government today said it has cleared nine road projects costing about 11,597 crore rupees from four states including Maharashtra and Bihar. The road projects totalling over 1,227 km were cleared by the Empowered Committee (EC) under the Scheme for Financial Support to Public Private Partnership (PPPs) in Infrastructure viability gap funding scheme. The Finance ministry in a statement said,these projects are at an advanced stage of bidding/construction and are expected to result in disbursal of about 500 crore rupees from the central government during the current financial year 2012-13.

 India recognizes the importance of having quality living and cultural infrastructure in cities. Culture and Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation Minister Kumari Selja said that New Delhi is committed to ensuring sustainable management of its historic sites in urban areas. Speaking at the 5th Asia-Europe or ASEM Culture Ministers’ meeting in Indonesia today, she said, the unparalleled pace at which urbanization is taking place, is posing challenges to the traditional historic cities.

The Minister said, the government has set up National Monuments Authority to introduce new ways of sensitive planning, using tools like ground surveys, to ensure that mega infrastructure and other development projects do not harm the historic environment. Ms Selja said, the government and the New Delhi office of the UNESCO have developed a partnership named "Moving towards Heritage based Urban Development" to help safeguard and promote the sustainable use of the country’s unique and diverse urban heritage.

The Minister cited outstanding examples of urban renewal projects within historic cities such as the urban renewal initiative between Archeological Survey of India and Aga Khan Trust for Culture in Nizamuddin area of the national capital.

India will construct a four-lane bridge on the river Feni in Tripura's South district to connect Chittagong division of Bangladesh to boost bilateral trade between the two countries, official sources said on Wednesday in Agartala.

The decision to construct the bridge with four-lane facilities was taken in a high level meeting chaired by Chief Minister Manik Sarkar and Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services Ltd (IL&FS), the sources said.

Earlier technocrats of the two neighbouring countries had completed the survey for constructing the 150-metre long bridge and placed their survey reports to the concerned ministries which okayed the proposal.

Approximately 73 crore rupees would be spent to construct the bridge which would be borne by the Tripura government, the sources said.

The central government has agreed to construct a Land Custom Station (LCS) at Sabroom adjacent to the neighbouring country.

ndia today expressed its keenness to invest in development of war-torn Sri Lanka in a big way. It has also promised to rope in private players to develop ports, exploration of oil and gas and other sectors.

In his official meetings in Colombo, Commerce Minister Anand Sharma, now on a visit to Sri Lanka, reaffirmed India's commitment to building infrastructure and institutions in the island nation.
Sharma said both countries reviewed the bilateral ties with reference to rehabilitation and resettlement of
displaced Tamil civilians.

India has been involved in a number of developmental projects in Sri Lanka as part of its efforts to rebuild the
country after the end of the civil war in 2009. 
The country is also building nearly 50,000 houses for displaced civilians in
Tamil-dominated Northern Province.infrast

After he took oath, Mukherjee was offered a 21-gun salute marking the assumption of office of the highest Constitutional post in the country. In his address, Mukherjee asserted that for the real development of the country, the poorest of the land must feel that they are part of the narrative of the rising India and poverty is erased from the dictionary of modern India. He said the trickle-down theories did not address legitimate aspirations of the poor and those at the bottom must be lifted up for a better life.  Terming terrorism as the fourth world war that the international community is facing, Mukherjee said India had been on the frontlines of this war long before many others could recognise its consequences. He sounded firm in his opinion that those, who instigate violence and perpetuate hatred(cause to continue or prevail) need to understand the truth that few minutes of peace would achieve far more than many years of war. The new President reiterated that India would not be deflected in its mission by noxious practitioners of terror.  Calling corruption an evil that can depress the nation's mood and sap9अशक्त या दुर्बल होना0 its progress, Mukherjee affirmed that the greed of a few could not be allowed to hijack the progress of the nation.  He said the country had achieved much in the field of agriculture, industry and social infrastructure, but it was nothing compared to what India, led by the coming generations, would create in the decades ahead. Highlighting the importance of non-violence in nation building, Mukherjee said violence was external to human nature. Quoting Swami Vivekananda, he said India would rise not with the power of flesh but with the power of spirit.

The annual plan of 4,700 crore rupees for Goa for the current fiscal has been finalized. It was finalized in a meeting between Deputy Chairman of Planning Commission, Montek Singh Ahluwalia and Chief Minister of Goa, Manohar Parrikar in New Delhi.
Speaking on the ocassion, Mr. Ahluwalia said the state has been doing exceedingly well and achievements in all sectors of the economy are satisfactory. Mr Ahluwalia said, the state needs to further encourage private participation in the development of both social and physical infrastructure. Mr. Parrikar said that the objective of the annual plan is to achieve an all round development of the state including infrastructure and human resource development.

India is likely to sign a wide range of agreements and memorandums of understanding with Myanmar to further strengthen the bilateral relationship between the two countries during the forthcoming visit of Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh to Myanmar beginning on Sunday.

These will include bilateral cooperation in the fields of security, connectivity, Infrastructure development, trade, investment promotion and Capacity building. There will be agreements in the areas of Human resource development and people to people contact besides academic exchanges between the two countries.

Briefing media in New Delhi on the visit of prime Minister, the Foreign Secretary Mr Ranjan Mathai said Dr Manmohan Singh's visit is following the successful visit of the Myanmar's President Mr Thei Sein in October last year. He said the visit comes at a time when Myanmar is undergoing rapid transformations. 

Mr Mathai hoped that the visit will enable India to build a new foundation of multifaceted relationship with Myanmar which was laid during the state visit of Mr Thein Sein last year. The Foreign Secretary also informed that Dr Manmohan Singh will be accompanied by the Minister of External Affairs Mr S M Krishna and senior officials. A delegation of Indian CEOs is also visiting Myanmar the same time.

This is the first visit of Prime Minister to Myanmar in 25 years. The last visit was by the then Prime Minister shr Rajeev Gandhi in 1987.

The Planning Commission said it has been adopting policy of seeking funds and resources for investing in basic infrastructure in Tripura. This has brought consistent progress in quality of life and income of people in the state.

I Montek Singh Ahluwalia emphasized the needs for improving the socio-economic conditions of the people in the state. He said the state was achieving satisfactory growth rate particularly in agriculture and services sectors during 11th five year Plan.

On this occasion, Mr. Sarkar said the state government will give more emphasis to create investor friendly environment and open up social sector for private investments in 12th Five Year Plan. In the meeting the Commission has also finalized over 22 hundred crore rupees as Annual Plan for the year 2012-13 for the state.

Growth in the country's eight core industries picked up to 6.8 per cent in February 2012, against 6.4 per cent growth in February last year, on account of healthy growth in coal, electricity and cement production.

The infrastructure industries had grown by just 0.5 per cent in January 2012. Electricity output grew 8 per cent, coal output surged 17.8 per cent, and cement output rose 10.8 per cent in February 2012, according to the provisional data released on Thursday.

Electricity production had grown by 7.2 per cent, and cement by 6.5 per cent, while coal output had contracted 5.8 per cent in February last year. Crude oil production grew 0.4 per cent in February 2012, against 12.2 per cent in February last year.

Petroleum refinery products output rose 6.2 per cent, against 3.2 per cent. But natural gas output contracted 7.6 per cent. Fertiliser production grew 4.1 per cent in February this year, against 4.8 per cent, and steel production increased 4.3 per cent, against 18.5 per cent.

Between April 2011 and February 2012, growth in the core industries slowed to 4.4 per cent, from 5.8 per cent in the same quarter last year.

he Finance Minister, Mr. Pranab Mukherjee on Wednesday called for more investments in the agriculture sector to boost the country’s food security. Mr. Mukherjee said for the first time, India has produced more than one hundred million tones of rice. He said this could not be possible without investment in agricultural extension services and research and development and hailed the scientists and farmers. In this context, he assured that the government will take note of observations of   Appropriation Bills  for future strategy.

Referring to the second green revolution in Eastern India, the Finance Minister said that the government will consider a suggestion to set up a committee of Chief Ministers to promote agriculture in the Eastern States including Chhattisgarh, Bihar, West Bengal, Odisha and Assam. Talking about food security, Mr. Mukherjee said the country has produced about 250 million tones of foodgrains in 2011-12. He said the government has made adequate allocations for ensuring storage facilities.

On the budgetary proposals,  he has taken note of uncertainty prevailing in the country and outside while working out a domestic demand-driven strategy. He said investment in infrastructure, irrigation, rural infrastructure and education is leading towards strengthening the generation of the domestic demand fueling to attain the desired GDP growth.

The Finance minister said he will consider the demand for rollback of excise duty on non-branded jewellery. Later, the House returned the Appropriation Bills, which were passed by the Lok Sabha on Tuesday.