ECONOMY AFFAIRS MAY 2012

ECONOMY AFFAIRS MAY 2012

• The Central Government announced the setting up of a five-member technical group under the Chairmanship of Dr C Rangarajan, Chairman of the Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council, to revisit poverty estimates, methodologies and identification of the poor. The committee made a comprehensively review of the existing methodology of estimation of poverty and examine if the poverty line should be fixed solely in terms of consumption basket or whether other criteria were also relevant.
  
  The Union government on 30 May 2012 announced the constitution of a committee under the chairmanship of Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council’s (PMEAC) chairman C. Rangarajan to review the existing production sharing contracts (PSCs). The PSCs are to be reviewed in the backdrop of the recent spat between Reliance Industries Ltd. (RIL) and the Petroleum Ministry. The review followed the Comptroller and Auditor General’s (CAG) draft report that had asked the Petroleum Ministry to carry out a comprehensive review of the PSCs to protect the interests of the Government. The committee will look into the structure and elements of the guidelines for determining the basis or formula for the price of domestically produced gas, and for monitoring actual price fixation as well as for any other issues relating to PSCs. It will rewrite some of the terms in the PSCs signed for exploration and production of oil and gas.
  
  According to data released by Ministry of Statistics of India on 1 June 2012, Bihar emerged as the state with highest economic growth rate in the country. The state recorded an impressive 13.1 per cent growth in 2011-12. Bihar topped the list for second consecutive year. The state was closely followed by Delhi and Puducherry.
  
  The Union cabinet on 31 May 2012 approved a new telecom policy 2012 which seeks to do away with roaming charges across the country. The new policy called National Telecom Policy-2012 will replace more than decade old legislation. The new Telecom Policy also simplifies the licencing policy.It also seeks to provide a predictable and stable policy regime for a period of nearly 10 years. Some of the
  New Telecom Policy-2012 Highlights are-
  1) Increase rural teledensity from the current level of around 39 to 70 by the year 2017 and 100 by the year 2020
  2) Repositioning of Mobile phone as an instrument of empowerment
  3) Broadband -"'Broadband For All" at a minimum download speed of 2 Mbps
  4) Domestic Manufacturing - Making India a global hub 
• The Competition Commission of India (CCI) formed an Eminent Persons Advisory Group (EPAG) on 7 May 2012. The group is constituted to give advice to CCI, on issues impacting markets and competition. The group comprise Infosys founder N.R. Narayana Murthy, former Comptroller and Auditor General V.N. Kaul, former Deputy Governor of Reserve Bank of India Rakesh Mohan, Biocon Chairman and MD Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, former Director, of IIM-Ahmedabad Bakul Dholakia, former Chairman of CERC S.L Rao, former Vice-Chancellor of NLSIU, Bangalore N.L Mitra. The Group will have interaction/meetings with the Commission two to three times a year.
  
• Goa gained top rank with highest per capita income in the country with a total per capita income of 192652 rupees in 2011-12. The national average was estimated at 38005 rupees in 2011-12 against 35993 rupees in 2010-11.Delhi has the second position with a total per capita income of 1.75 lakh rupees. Haryana with per capita income of 109227 rupees positioned third. The estimates were prepared as per methodology prescribed by the Central Statistical Organisation based on provisional data provided by it.