| PC returns to finance ministry, Shinde gets home |
NEW DELHI P Chidambaram was on Tuesday made the finance minister as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh effected a minor reshuffle in portfolios in the federal Cabinet, necessitated by the exit of Pranab Mukherjee last month.
According to the announcement, Power Minister Sushilkumar Shinde is the new home minister in place of Chidambaram.
Corporate Affairs Minister M Veerappa Moily was given the additional charge of power ministry, a Rashtrapati Bhawan communique said.
Chidambaram, 66, returns to the finance ministry after more than three-and-a-half years. He was moved from finance ministry to home ministry in December 2008 in the wake of Mumbai terror attacks with the task of strengthening the country’s security.
He takes charge of the finance ministry at a time when the economy is witnessing a slowdown and a scare has been created among foreign investors by some decisions on tax issues.
The reshuffle of portfolios had been necessitated by the exit of Pranab, who held the portfolio of finance ministry before getting elected as the president of India.
Pranab resigned as the finance minister on June 26 and since then the prime minister himself was looking after the portfolio.
The reshuffle of portfolios is seen as a precursor to a bigger rejig in the council of ministers possibly after the Monsoon Session ends on September 7, with Rahul Gandhi expected to be inducted.
Shinde, 71, will have the first tryst as the home minister. Shinde, a former chief minister of Maharashtra, brings a lot of experience from his six-year stint in the police force. Commenting on his new assignment, he said: “I am happy that the prime minister and Congress president Sonia Gandhi gave me this responsibility. I am grateful to them.”
Shinde holds a record of presenting nine budgets in a row as the finance minister of Maharashtra.
Chidambaram’s return to the finance ministry was immediately welcomed by the industry which hoped that the architect of ‘dream budget’ of 1996 will put the economy on higher growth path and expedite stalled economic reforms.
Chidambaram was in the forefront of economic reforms unleashed during the PV Narasimha Rao government post-1991 and executed by Manmohan Singh as finance minister.
Chidambaram became the face of India’s economic reforms as the finance minister in 1996 during the United Front government under HD Deve Gowda. He presented a budget that vastly slashed tax rates and contained a number of sops for the corporate sector, earning it the title of ‘dream budget’. That budget, however, could not have its full run due to the premature end of the Gowda government.
He made re-entry into the finance ministry after the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government was voted to power in 2004.
Moily was given the additional charge of power ministry on a day the sector battled a major electricity crisis with three transmission grids collapsing and leaving half of India in a crisis.
Moily later said: “It is a very difficult and challenging situation, will have to take stock of it, will always fulfil the responsibilities given to me and will give full attention to power portfolio.”
Agencies
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