Low deficit,11priorities put Pranab on tight rope

Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee has set himself a basket of 11 priorities to address in the first Budget of the new government. This includes an at least 4% growth rate for agriculture, increasing investment in infrastructure to more than 9% within the next five years, and an integrated energy policy, besides a direct assistance to the poor to create a social safety net.

Latest estimates of government revenue and expenditure show all this will have to be done within the constraint of keeping the Centre’s fiscal deficit at less than 6.5% of the GDP as anything higher could impact sovereign ratings.

The best piece of news that Mukherjee will receive on Monday, as he drives for a quick Cabinet meeting to ratify the Budget before he addresses the Lok Sabha,

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Ashok Chavan appointed Maharashtra Chief Minister, Rane revolts

The Congress party on Friday appointed 50-year-old Ashok Chavan, son of former chief minister and Union home minister Shankarrao B Chavan, as the next chief minister of Maharashtra. External affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee made the announcement in New Delhi, minutes after Narayan Rane, a strong aspirant for the job, staged a rebellion, slamming the party for its delay in naming a man for the job.

In Chavan, the Congress party has clearly chosen a moderate and uncontroversial loyalist to lead the state government in alliance with the Nationalist Congress Party, ahead of the upcoming Lok Sabha and assembly polls. Chavan’s nomination received support from the NCP after Congress president Sonia Gandhi personally spoke with the alliance partner’s chief, Sharad Pawar.

“This is a challenge. This is a great responsibility. Maharashtra needs a tough administration so these things do not happen again,” Chavan told reporters, referring to last week’s terror attacks on Mumbai.

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Pranab rules out military action: Rice arrives Wednesday

India has said it was not contemplating military action against Pakistan in the wake of the Mumbai terror attack. “Nobody is talking of military action,” external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee told reporters. Mukherjee’s statement comes on the eve of the arrival of US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice in New Delhi on Wednesday.

Rice has expressed confidence that there will not be any conflict between the two neighbours. But she told reporters a day earlier that the US government wants Pakistan to ensure total transparency in sharing any details on the 26/11 attacks with India. Pakistan has now offered India a joint team to probe the Mumbai attacks and underlined that it would “frame a response” to New Delhi’s demand for handing over 20 of India’s most wanted men.

“The international community is behind us, including the newly-elected US president, Barack Obama,” Mukherjee said. In response to a query on US President-elect Barack Obama’s remarks that every country had the sovereign right to “protect” its citizens from such terror attacks, Mukherjee said, “What will be done, time will show.”

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