As soon as approval comes, details will be shared,” he said.A senior finance ministry official said the government proposes to issue an ordinance to amend the Banking Regulation Act , which will empower Reserve Bank to deal much more effectively with stressed assets.Changes are being made to Section 35A of the Banking Regulation Act as also certain provisions of the Bankruptcy Code. Efforts over the past few years to resolve the bad loans issue have met with limited success, prompting the government to push for a more effective plan.The cabinet cleared a policy for providing preference to domestically manufactured iron and steel products in government procurement, in line with the ‘Make in India’ initiative.The cabinet approved modifications to the Seventh Central Pay Commission recommendations on pay and pensions based on suggestions made by a committee chaired by secretary, pensions. This will entail additional expenditure of about Rs 5,031 crore in FY17. It will benefit more than 55 lakh pre-2016 civil and defence pensioners and family pensioners. It also approved the disinvestment plan for hotels of India Tourism Development Corp (ITDC), which are being given to state governments.

Source: Economic Times May 03, 2017 14:54 UTC