FACTBOX - India's 2009/10 budget and the economy

India's finance minister on Monday outlined plans to speed infrastructure development and unveiled increased spending for farmers and the poor in the first budget since the Congress-led government was re-elected convincingly in May.

The government said the additional spending would push the 2009/10 fiscal deficit to 6.8 percent of GDP, much higher than markets had expected, sending local shares sharply lower and pushing up bond yields.

Following are some facts about the budget and key numbers from the 2009/10 federal budget.

SIZE OF ECONOMY (GDP): $1 trillion

POPULATION: 1.15 billion

GROWTH: The government said on Monday economic growth slowed to 6.7 percent in 2008/09 from year-earlier 9.0 percent. It would be the slowest growth in six years.

The budget assumes growth of 8 percent in 2010/11 and of 9 percent in 2010/11.

INDUSTRIAL GROWTH: India's industrial output , which accounts for a quarter of its GDP, grew 2.4 percent in the year to March 2009, compared with 8.5 percent growth the year before.

Output was up 1.4 percent in April.

EXPORTS: India's exports, which form 16 percent of the economy, grew 3.4 percent in the year to March 2009, compared with growth of 23.02 percent in 2007/08.

They fell 29.2 percent in May and fell 33.2 percent in April.

BUDGET ESTIMATES FOR 2009/10:

* Total receipts seen at 10.21 trillion rupees

* Revenue receipts seen at 6.14 trillion rupees

* Capital receipts seen at 4.06 trillion rupees

* Borrowings and other liabilities seen at 4.01 trillion rupees

* Total expenditure seen at 10.21 trillion rupees

* Plan expenditure seen at 3.25 trillion rupees

* Non-plan expenditure seen at 6.96 trillion rupees

* Fiscal deficit seen at 4.01 trillion rupees, or 6.8 percent of GDP

* Revenue deficit seen at 2.83 trillion rupees, or 4.8 percent of GDP

India hikes gasoline, diesel prices, leaves cooking fuels untouched

Just five days before the union budget is to be presented, India Wednesday allowed state-run oil firms to increase prices of transport fuels, resulting in gasoline becoming dearer by Rs.4 per litre and diesel by Rs.2 per litre, following successive increase in global crude prices.

Petroleum Minister Murli Deora told reporters at a hurriedly convened press conference here that the new prices take effect from the midnight of Wednesday. He made the announcement soon after a meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

'The prices of kerosene and cooking gas are not being changed,' Deora said, adding the government will continue to incur a subsidy of Rs.15.26 per litre and Rs.92.96 per cylinder on these two fuels, respectively.

He said even in the case of petrol and diesel, oil-marketing companies will continue to incur a loss of Rs.2 per litre and Rs.1.62 on petrol and diesel, respectively, on account of selling these fuels below cost.

According to Petroleum Secretary R.S. Pandey, the state-run oil companies will face an overall subsidy burden of Rs.30,000 crore ($6 billion) during this fiscal if global crude prices remain firm at the current level.

'The under-recoveries (losses) have reached a level where it has become inevitable to revisit the prices,' he said, adding the government will continue to monitor the global prices and take appropriate decisions.

Pandey said the Indian basket of crude oil was ruling at $70.29 per barrel as of Tuesday, against $58.80 on May 20 and around $40 in December last year. But the burden on oil companies will not be more than what it was in the past.

He said that 'to the extent possible, we will resource the under-recoveries from upstream companies (Oil and Natural Gas Corp and Oil India)'.

'But, the upstream companies's burden will also not be more than what has been in the past,' Pandey added.

The government had last decreased the petrol prices in January 2009 and December 2008.

The previous hike in price had taken place in June 2008, when the retail prices were raised by Rs.5 for petrol and Rs.3 for diesel.

The price of cooking gas and kerosene had not been touched during any of these price revisions.

Interestingly, unlike previous instances, there was no cabinet decision made before the price increase was announced this time.

'This is an inter-ministerial issue. It is only on basis on inter-ministerial discussion that this has been decided,' said Pandey.

The move, which just comes just a day ahead of parliament resuming legislative business Thursday, is bound to invoke strong protests by the opposition. The Left parties had already threatened an agitation.

No regret on Babri Masjid, ready to be hanged: Uma Bharati

As the Liberhan Commission probe report on the 1992 demolition of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya was submitted to the government Tuesday, former Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) leader Uma Bharati said she does not regret the destruction and would be ready to be hanged if found guilty.

'I wanted the old structure to be destroyed though not in that way,' Uma Bharati, now heading the Bharatiya Janshakti Party after quitting the BJP, told reporters here.

Uma Bharati, former central minister and former Madhya Pradesh chief minister, is an accused in the demolition of the 16th century mosque. Hindu rightwing groups have maintained that the mosque was built on the site where Lord Ram was born and where a temple to him stood.

Uma Bharati said she had no regrets for what happened on Dec 6, 1992, but added that 'none of us had planned to demolish the structure'.

Questioning the timing of the submission of the probe report, she accused the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government of 'playing politics', and termed the move as an attempt to appease its 'Muslim vote bank'.

Air India employees to get salary July 3 without cuts

Yielding to pressure from its employees, cash-strapped national carrier Air India Monday decided to give them their June salary July 3, instead of July 15 it decided earlier.

'The management has told us that we would get our salaries on July 3. They have also assured us that there will be no wage cut,' J.B. Kadian, general secretary of the Air Corp Employees' Union (ACEU), told IANS.

ACEU is the largest union among the Air India employees.

The airline employees get their salary on the last day of the month. Earlier Air India had announced that it would delay the June salary by 15 days and also asked the top executives of the airline to forgo their one month pay.

The employees' union protested this move, saying they would go on an indefinite strike from July 1 if the decision was not revoked.

Kadian said the top executives would also get their salary.

ACEU and other unions have been holding hectic discussions with the management for over a week.

But they failed to reach a consensus on the airline's proposal to cut costs.

Air India, which incurred a loss of Rs.4,000 crore last fiscal, plans to ask for a Rs.10,000-crore (about $2 billion) bailout package from the central government.

Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh last Wednesday and discussed the bailout plan with him.

The prime minister suggested him to adopt various cost-cutting measures to improve the financial condition of the National Aviation Co India Ltd (NACIL), which owns Air India.

Recession-hit British showbiz makes actors turn to India for roles

With recession hitting showbiz in the UK, British actresses and models are looking at India for livelihood.

In the past three years, an estimated 1000 British actors and dancers have moved to Mumbai, The Age reports.

Hazel from Kent, who has been in the glamour industry of India for five years now, says: "You can lead such a great lifestyle in India. There is the constant begging, pollution and sleazy casting directors that you have to be careful of, but it's all worthwhile ... I'm almost famous!

"I first did adverts for Ponds, Nokia and Samsung and then got my first proper role in a film in MP3."

British actresses normally earn 1000 pounds a day in Mumbai while they never find themselves running out of new projects in Bollywood.

Apart from recession, the other reason British talent is lured to India is the success of Slumdog Millionaire.

Also to add is the India's fascination with white skin.

Debjoy Ray, of Globosport Modelling agency, said: "Ten years ago there were hardly any white girls working in Bollywood. Now they are everywhere. Indians have a liking for white skin and equate it with beauty."

The India, Pakistan ministers discuss anti-terrorism fight

The foreign ministers of India and Pakistan met in Italy to discuss terrorism and strained ties on Friday, in the second high-level bilateral talks since November's Mumbai attacks.

Pakistan's Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi described the talks between the two nuclear rivals as a friendly and "fair exchange," and told reporters that discussions included the fight against terrorism.

"I think both sides realise that they have a common interest, a common enemy and they have to move on in a cooperative environment," Qureshi said, in the northern city of Trieste.

"We have to engage to defeat the designs of terrorists."

Pakistan has been pushing for the resumption of five-year-long peace talks broken off by India after the attacks on Mumbai. New Delhi blames the attacks on Pakistan-based militants and wants Islamabad to act against them.

The United States is keen for both countries to resume talks to ease tensions on Pakistan's eastern border with India, so it can focus on fighting Taliban militants on its western border with Afghanistan.

In an interview with Reuters before the talks, Qureshi said Pakistan aimed to prosecute those behind the Mumbai attacks.

"We will do our utmost to take them to court, and if we can put together a legally tenable case, we would want them prosecuted and we would want them convicted," he said.

Indian Foreign Minister S. M. Krishna acknowledged that bilateral ties have remained "under considerable stress".

He said an upcoming meeting of Pakistani and Indian foreign secretaries would look at cooperation on terrorism.

"It will enable us to take stock of where we stand on the issue of terrorism and the fulfilment by Pakistan of its assurance that its territory would not be used for terrorist attacks on India," Krishna said.

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh held talks with Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari on the sidelines of a regional summit in Russia this month.

They agreed that their foreign secretaries would meet again and that the leaders of the two countries would hold further talks on the sidelines of a summit in Egypt in July.

Michael Jackson: The entertainer and enigma is no More

Los Angeles: Michael Jackson, defined in equal parts as the world's greatest entertainer and perhaps its most enigmatic figure, was about to attempt one of the greatest comebacks of all time. Then his life was cut shockingly--and so far, mysteriously--short.

The 50-year-old musical superstar died on Thursday, just as he was preparing for what would be a series of 50 concerts starting July 13 at London's famed 02 arena. Jackson had been spending hours and hours toiling with a team of dancers for a performance he and his fans hoped would restore his tarnished legacy to its proper place in pop.

An autopsy was planned for Friday, though results were not likely to be final until toxicology tests could be completed, a process that takes several days and sometimes weeks. Police said they were investigating--standard procedure in high-profile cases.

Jackson died at UCLA Medical Center after being stricken at his rented home in the posh Los Angeles neighborhood of Holmby Hills. Paramedics tried to resuscitate him at his home for nearly three-quarters of an hour, then rushed him to the hospital, where doctors continued to work on him.

"It is believed he suffered cardiac arrest in his home. However, the cause of his death is unknown until results of the autopsy are known," his brother Jermaine said.

Cardiac arrest is an abnormal heart rhythm that stops the heart from pumping blood to the body. It can occur after a heart attack or be caused by other heart problems.

Eventful career

Jackson's death brought a tragic end to a long, bizarre, sometimes farcical decline from his peak in the 1980s, when he was popular music's premier all-around performer, a uniter of black and white music who shattered the race barrier on MTV, dominated the charts and dazzled even more on stage.

His 1982 album Thriller--which included the blockbuster hits Beat It, Billie Jean and Thriller--is the best-selling album of all time, with an estimated 50 million copies sold worldwide.

As word of his death spread, MTV switched its programming to play videos from Jackson's heyday. Radio stations began playing marathons of his hits. Hundreds of people gathered outside the hospital. In New York's Times Square, a low groan went up in the crowd when a screen flashed that Jackson had died, and people began relaying the news to friends by cell phone.

"No joke. King of Pop is no more. Wow," Michael Harris, 36, of New York City, read from a text message a friend had sent him. "It's like when Kennedy was assassinated. I will always remember being in Times Square when Michael Jackson died."

The public first knew him as a boy in the late 1960s, when he was the precocious, spinning lead singer of the Jackson 5, the singing group he formed with his four older brothers out of Gary, Indiana. Among their No. 1 hits were I Want You Back, ABC and I'll Be There.

He was perhaps the most exciting performer of his generation, known for his backward-gliding moonwalk, his feverish, crotch-grabbing dance moves and his high-pitched singing, punctuated with squeals and titters. His single sequined glove, tight, military-style jacket and aviator sunglasses were trademarks, as was his ever-changing, surgically altered appearance.

"For Michael to be taken away from us so suddenly at such a young age, I just don't have the words," said Quincy Jones, who produced Thriller. ''He was the consummate entertainer and his contributions and legacy will be felt upon the world forever. I've lost my little brother today, and part of my soul has gone with him."

Jackson ranked alongside Elvis Presley and the Beatles as the biggest pop sensations of all time. He united two of music's biggest names when he was briefly married to Presley's daughter, Lisa Marie. Jackson's sudden death immediately evoked comparisons to that of Presley himself, who died at age 42 in 1977.

"I am so very sad and confused with every emotion possible," Lisa Marie Presley said in a statement. "I am heartbroken for his children who I know were everything to him and for his family. This is such a massive loss on so many levels, words fail me."

As years went by, Jackson became an increasingly freakish figure--a middle-aged man-child weirdly out of touch with grown-up life. His skin became lighter, his nose narrower, and he spoke in a breathy, girlish voice. He often wore a germ mask while traveling, kept a pet chimpanzee named Bubbles as one of his closest companions and surrounded himself with children at his Neverland ranch, a storybook playland filled with toys, rides and animals. The tabloids dubbed him "Wacko Jacko."

"It seemed to me that his internal essence was at war with the norms of the world. It's as if he was trying to defy gravity," said Michael Levine, a Hollywood publicist who represented Jackson in the early 1990s. He called Jackson a "disciple of P.T. Barnum" and said the star appeared fragile at the time but was "much more cunning and shrewd about the industry than anyone knew."

Jackson caused a furore in 2002 when he playfully dangled his infant son, Prince Michael II, over a hotel balcony in Berlin while a throng of fans watched from below.

In 2005, he was cleared of charges that he molested a 13-year-old cancer survivor at Neverland in 2003. He had been accused of plying the boy with alcohol and groping him, and of engaging in strange and inappropriate behavior with other children.

The case followed years of rumors about Jackson and young boys. In a TV documentary, he acknowledged sharing his bed with children, a practice he described as sweet and not at all sexual.

Despite the acquittal, the lurid allegations that came out in court took a fearsome toll on his career and image, and he fell into serious financial trouble.

Early life

Michael Joseph Jackson was born August 29, 1958, in Gary. He was 4 years old when he began singing with his brothers--Marlon, Jermaine, Jackie and Tito--in the Jackson 5. After his early success with bubblegum soul, he struck out on his own, generating innovative, explosive, unstoppable music.

The album Thriller alone mixed the dark, serpentine bass and drums and synthesizer approach of Billie Jean, the grinding Eddie Van Halen guitar solo on Beat It, and the hiccups and falsettos on Wanna Be Startin' Somethin.

The peak may have come in 1983, when Motown celebrated its 25th anniversary with an all-star televised concert and Jackson moonwalked off with the show, joining his brothers for a medley of old hits and then leaving them behind with a pointing, crouching, high-kicking, splay-footed, crotch-grabbing run through Billie Jean.

The audience stood and roared. Jackson raised his fist.

During production of a 1984 Pepsi commercial, Jackson's scalp sustained burns when an explosion sets his hair on fire.

He had strong follow-up albums with 1987's Bad and 1991's Dangerous, but his career began to collapse in 1993 after he was accused of molesting a boy who often stayed at his home. The singer denied any wrongdoing, reached a settlement with the boy's family, reported to be $20 million, and criminal charges were never filed.

Jackson's expressed anger over the allegations on the 1995 album HIStory, which sold more than 2.4 million copies, but by then, the popularity of Jackson's music was clearly waning even as public fascination with his increasingly erratic behavior was growing.

Jackson married Lisa Marie Presley in 1994, and they divorced in 1996. Later that year, Jackson married Deborah Rowe, a former nurse for his dermatologist. They had two children together: Michael Joseph Jackson Jr., known as Prince Michael, now 12; and Paris Michael Katherine Jackson, 11. Rowe filed for divorce in 1999.

Jackson also had a third child, Prince Michael II. Now 7, Jackson said the boy nicknamed Blanket as a baby was his biological child born from a surrogate mother.

Billboard magazine editorial director Bill Werde said Jackson's star power was unmatched. "The world just lost the biggest pop star in history, no matter how you cut it," Werde said. "He's literally the king of pop."

Jackson's 13 No. 1 one hits on the Billboard charts put him behind only Presley, the Beatles and Mariah Carey, Werde said.

"He was on the eve of potentially redeeming his career a little bit," he said. "People might have started to think of him again in a different light."