World Bank President to visit India today

World Bank President Robert B Zoellick begins his 5-day India visit from today to assess the government requirements of multi-lateral funding for meeting its development goals.

"Shifts in the world economy could affect India's growth momentum and sharpen its development challenges. The Bank stands ready to continue to support India with its knowledge and financial resources to meet the challenges ahead," Zoellick said in a statement.

India is poised to grow at seven percent this year, buoyed by strong fundamentals and a high domestic savings rate, he said.

"India's needs are great, so I am here to explore with the Government of India innovative ways in which our joint financial capacities can be leveraged, especially in infrastructure financing, so that India can build the roads, highways, railway lines and power plants needed to propel growth," Zoellick said.

Zoellick, who has visited India four times during his five-year tenure as Bank President, will meet government leaders, including the Union Ministers of Finance, Home and Rural Development, and the Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission to better understand how the World Bank Group can be useful to India in meeting its development priorities.

India is the largest client for the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development and its private sector arm, International Financial Corporation.

The Group in its last fiscal (ending June 2011) made USD 6.33 billion available to India, including USD 3.46 billion from IBRD, USD 775 million from IFC, and USD 2.07 billion from its fund for the poorest, the International Development Association.

Railway Board plans to increase passenger fares

The Railways appears to have firmed up plans to raise passenger fares in AC classes in face of depleting financial resources and little options available to generate funds.

As pressure is mounting on it from various quarters including the Finance Ministry and the Planning Commission to raise fares untouched for last eight years, the Railway Board is understood to be preparing a blue print for a possible fare hike.

The hike could be anywhere between 10 and 12 percent or Rs 35 for every 500 km, highly placed Railway sources said.

With little assistance coming from Finance Ministry and the overall failures on its part to generate internal revenue, Railways have no options but to rationalise fares, they said.

Railway Minister Dinesh Trivedi had earlier this month hinted about a possible hike in fares as "there was a case to do so as input cost had risen over the years".

The fare hike could also be linked to fuel prices to offset that additional pressure, sources revealed.

The passenger fare segment is subsidised to the tune of Rs 16,000 crore.

While a fare hike may not be adequate to cover its rising expenses, the national transporter could also explore other avenues which could be in the form of levying surcharges or cess for infrastructure creation in the Rail Budget proposal, they said.

Reports of two high-level committees on safety and modernisation which are likely to be presented shortly, is expected to put additional pressure on railways to find funds for its modernisation plan.

In such an event railways could also seek annual financial assistance which would be over and above the budgetary support, the sources said.

Railways could seek not less than Rs 40,000 crore as budgetary support in the coming budget, up from Rs 20,000 crore which it had got in 2011-12.

A substantial hike in budgetary support is essential for completion of the existing 149 rail projects and meeting its safety upgrading and modernisation goals. As it is, railways could fall short of its freight target of 993 million tons for the current financial year.

The Railways carried 704.81 million tons of freight traffic till last December.

During the recently concluded general manager conferences, railway top brass is understood to have made it clear that curtailing expenditure should be one of the top priorities of each zone so as to improve its operating ratio, which at present is hovering between 95 and 98 percent.

While the existing policy to rope in private investment have yielded little results, railways could unveil a new PPP policy before the budget with a thrust on speedy completion of vital projects.

Cabinet to decide on future of UID project today

The Cabinet Committee led by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will meet on today to take a decision on the continuation of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) project led by Nandan Nilekani.

Today’s meeting comes a day after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh held discussions with senior Cabinet colleagues to resolve the issue amid reports of difference between Home Ministry and Planning Commission over continuation of UIDAI project.

Reports claim that a compromise formula has been reached according to which Nilekani-led Unique ID Authority of India and the Registrar General of India will be carrying out parallel exercises to collect biometric data.

While the UIDAI will do it in 13 states, the Registrar General of India will collect data in coastal areas and areas where UIDAI has no presence. The two bodies will reportedly share some data. The Cabinet Committee will today take a decision on what data the Registrar General must share with the UIDAI.

The Cabinet committee meeting led by PM Singh will take a final call on extension of the UIDAI project, under which national identity cards are issued to entire population.

"I think we have come to an agreement on how both the projects can proceed together without any difficulty... the Cabinet Committee (on UIDAI) was rescheduled and will happen on Friday. We are quite hopeful that we will have a resolution of these issues in that meeting," Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia said after the meeting.

Besides Ahluwalia, meeting was attended by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, Home Minister P Chidambaram, UIDAI chairman Nandan Nilekani and National Security Advisor (NSA) Shivshankar Menon.

At the centre of the controversy is the collection of bio-metric data of all residents.

While the Home Ministry has maintained that the Registrar General of India (RGI) under it has been mandated to collect the data through the NPR, the Nandan Nilekani-led UIDAI has also been authorised to gather the information.

Home Minister P Chidambaram has sought clarity on the status on who will capture bio-metric data - Registrar General India or UIDAI. The Home Ministry feels that the data collected by UIDAI was not secure as it is not verified by a government servant.

The data collection by UIDAI has been done by hired organisations which is a cause of concern for the Home Minister.

Since the UIDAI has already enrolled 170 million residents, the government will have to take a decision on the future of the body.

UIDAI is likely to complete the mandate of enrolling 200 million residents even before the deadline of March 31 this year.

Ahluwalia has thrown his full weight behind the UIDAI saying the project should continue. On concerns over duplication of work and extra burden on exchequer, he had stated that the project is well worth it.

The Planning Commission wants more resources for the authority for continuation of its work.

According to the Home Ministry proposal, chip-based smart cards will be issued to all residents on the basis of the record maintained by the NPR - a digital database under construction.