Jharkhand state assembly adjourned
till March 15
New Delhi/Ranchi: With UPA legislators preventing the trial of strength from going through, the Jharkhand state assembly has now been adjourned till March 15, after. The Pro-tem Speaker, Pradeep Kumar Balmuchu has sought the intervention of the President to resolve the crisis.

Throughout the day, the House was adjourned on several occasions and ultimately proceedings couldn't continue.

Meanwhile, the NDA seems to have the numbers to oust Chief Minister Shibu Soren, managing to keep its tally of 41 MLAs intact with the support of five independents.
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Industrial growth up eight per cent in Jan. 2005
New Delhi: Industrial growth has shot up to eight per cent during January 2005, while posting a higher 8.4 per cent growth in the April-January period this fiscal.

The growth rate has remained unchanged at eight per cent in January 2005, compared to the same month, a year ago. However, during the first ten months this fiscal growth rate has shot up to 8.4 per cent, as against 6.7 per cent in April-January 2003-04.

According to Quick Estimates of Index of Industrial Production, the manufacturing sector during the first ten months of the current fiscal has grown by 9.2 per cent, as against 7.3 per cent during the same period of the previous fiscal. The sector has grown by 9.3 per cent during January 2005 as against 8.2 per cent during the same period of 2003-04.
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Inflation up marginally at 4.95 per cent
New Delhi: Costlier fuel products and manufactured items, including edible oils, have pushed up inflation to 4.95 per cent during the week ended February 26.

The point-to-point Wholesale Price Index (WPI) inflation rose by 0.12 per cent from the previous week's level of 4.83 per cent despite cheaper mass consumption primary articles.

The price level was as high as 5.21 per cent in the same period for the previous year. The broader based WPI was down by 0.1 per cent to 188.7 points during the week in review and it was 179.8 points in the year ago period.

Government has also revised downwards the inflation to 5.72 per cent during the week ended January 1, as compared to provisional level of 5.78 per cent. The WPI also stood corrected at 188.5 points, for the beginning of January this year, as against the provisional estimate at 188.6 points.
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FM: Food and fertiliser subsidies to continue
New Delhi: The Finance Minister, P Chidambaram has said that he is in favour of continuing with the current policy of providing subsidy to the agriculture sector, saying that no decision has yet been taken on reducing subsidies on food grains and fertilisers.

Replying to a query in the Lok Sabha, Chidambaram said, "No decision has been taken (to cut subsidy on agriculture). All the government has done so far is place a paper for discussion in the table of the house. No decision will be taken until all stakeholders are consulted."

He, however, said the current system of providing fertiliser subsidy needed some "rethinking". Chidambaram also said the government was open to providing export subsidy for the short-term or for specific crops to farmers as was done a few years ago to clear up surplus stocks and maintain the competitiveness of Indian products.

Chidambaram also said that by March 31, the credit to agriculture will exceed the target of Rs1,05,000 crore (Rs1050 billion) to touch Rs1,08,500 crore (Rs1085 billion).
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