The Prime Minister, Mr. P. V. Narasimha Rao, has made it clear that while there would not be any blanket winding-up of Central public sector enterprises, the chief executives of these units will have to come forward with a plan of action specifying the areas where the Government’s support is needed to make them stand on their own legs... He said that as far as the Government was concerned, there would neither be prejudices against the PSUs nor any permanent favour extended to them as the public sector must learn to move on its own steam.

‘Economic policy thrust on poverty alleviation’

The new economic policy aims to move away from the protection of the industrial sector, which provides 20 per cent of the national income, so that resources can be provided for programmes that aim at alleviating poverty. The Union Finance Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh, said this at the M. S. Swaminathan Research Foundation, while launching the bio-village project and releasing the book “Eco-Technology and Rural Employment”... Mass poverty could be eliminated by combining human knowledge with pro-poor, pro-nature and pro-employment actions

Opposition rejects Govt offer on action taken report

Major Opposition parties today rejected the Government’s offer of expunging “offensive” words in the action taken report on the JPC findings in the securities scam and stuck to their demand that only complete withdrawal of the report coupled with action against Ministers indicted by the JPC would satisfy them. Janata Dal and BJP leaders at separate press conferences reiterated their party position saying the deadlock on the issue continued and their parliamentary parties would review their future strategy.

comment COMMENT NOW