The government is working on a new civil aviation policy which seeks to provide connectivity to the smaller cities even as domestic air traffic has been on a growth path the last year, President Pranab Mukherjee said

Former Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel, under whose watch the Civil Aviation Ministry had framed the 5/20 rule, has strongly defended the regulation that insists that Indian airline companies must operate within the country for five years and have a fleet of at least 20 aircraft before they fly on the more lucrative international routes.

The government has announced the 20 winners of the Smart City Challenge competition for financing during this financial year. Minister of Urban Development M Venkaiah Naidu said that the winners were from 11 States and the Union Territory of Delhi and the selection was totally objective and transparent based on standardised processes.

Despite stiff political hurdles, Nitin Gadkari-led Road and Highway Ministry hopes to soon push the long pending Road Safety Bill in the upcoming Parliament session.

The Finance Ministry is considering infusing more than the announced Rs.70,000 crore in public sector banks to help strengthen their balancesheets.´

Since no city of Uttar Pradesh could make it to the top 20 list, the SP accused the BJP government of ´cheating´ the people of the State.

Government will soon exploit economically unviable coal mines for gasification to produce cheaper urea to cut down on huge Rs.55,000-crore annual subsidy on the fertiliser, Union Minister Gadkari said.

As a meeting in New Delhi between the government, lenders and concessionaires could not find solutions to 10 of the 19 languishing highway projects, the road ministry is likely to restructure and rebid them.

Enterprises operating from over 200 Special Economic Zones (SEZs) in the country are likely to be exempted from the minimum alternative tax (MAT) of 18.5 per cent on their book profits.