The government said it has started investigations into black money transactions by Indians. Inaugurating the Economic Editors' Conference in New Delhi on Wednesday, the Finance Minister Mr. Pranab Mukherjee said about ten thousand pieces of information have been received from different parts of the country. He said New Delhi has also signed an agreement with Switzerland for exchange of banking information. This agreement provides for getting information on specific accounts. The Minister added that talks on a new double taxation agreement are being held with Mauritius.

Mr Mukherjee said the global slowdown would have impact on India's growth prospects. He said the first quarter of this fiscal recorded only 7.7 percent while the projected growth is 8.5 percent. The Minister added that keeping in view the present scenario, it is expected the country will record 8.1 percent growth in this fiscal.

Mr. Mukherjee said that he is disappointed with it but even then India will be one among the 10 fastest growing economies of the world. Referring to inflation, he expressed hope it will start moderating from December and will be at 7 percent at by the end of this fiscal.

Mukherjee said controlling fiscal deficit is a challenge. He said, efforts are being made to keep the fiscal deficit at the projected 4.7 percent.

Addressing the conference, the Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar said that the revised MSP for food grains will be decided in the cabinet meeting either this or next week.

He said 3.2 percent agriculture growth would be achieved in the current plan period. The agriculture production is set to touch 123.88 million tonnes, which is four million tonnes more than the last year. The Minister added that the investment in the agriculture and allied sectors stood at 18.7 per cent of the gross domestic product in the first three years of the current plan.

Speaking at the Conference, Railway Minister Dinesh Trivedi said one trillion US dollars of investment is required for developing railway infrastructure in the 12th five year plan across the country.

Out of this 50 percent investment has to come from private sector. Regarding increasing the railway fares, he said, a proper decision will be taken at a proper time. Mr. Trivedi said his ministry has taken up construction of ambitious projects of dedicated freight corridors.

He said Eastern Corridor is from Dankuni to Ludhiana and western corridor is from Mumbai to Delhi. The minister added that the main funding for these corridors will come from Japan and World Bank. He added that feasibility study for north and south corridor has also been taken up.

The Minister said that Railways achieved a break through of completing over 11 kilometer long Pir Panjal tunnel in Jammu and Kashmir providing the vital rail link to the valley with the rest of the country. He noted that Railways has decided to introduce GPS based train tracking system to have real time train movement information.

Initially it will be introduced in twelve trains, ten of them are Rajdhani trains and two are Shatabadi, he added.

In his interaction with the Editors, the Oil and Natural Gas Minister Mr. S. Jaipal Reddy ruled out possibility of doing away with the subsidy to the LPG cooking gas. The Minister added that the ninth round of National Exploration Licensing Policy, NELP, for 24 block will be finalised soon after the cabinet approval. He informed that 200 cities across the country are expected to be covered through pipeline and city gas distribution network by 2015.