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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Cannot afford to miss the bus: Prime Minister

With the Congress parliamentary party officially electing Manmohan Singh as its leader on Tuesday, the PM-designate—he is expected to be sworn in on Friday—said on the occasion that his new administration’s first priority is to re-energise government and make it more responsive and efficient.

Citing the challenges still ahead for the global economy, Singh said there is need to counter the slowdown in investment and employment generation to revive growth, while making it more inclusive. “We cannot afford to miss the bus now. We cannot afford to lag behind the rising economies of the East,” Singh said.

Mooting better financial management and economic reform, Singh said there is need to create a social and political environment that attracts new investment, without which growth cannot be sustained or made more inclusive.

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Ministries speed up to keep new government in top gear

After a two-month lull forced by the Lok Sabha polls, Monday saw the government machinery swing back into action to prepare the ground for the new government, likely to be sworn in on Saturday. Now that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his council of ministers have resigned, and President Pratibha Patil dissolved the 14 th Lok Sabha, officials worked overtime to prepare priority action plans for their new ministers.

Monday was also a hectic day for Congress leaders,who strained every nerve to sketch the new Cabinet, ahead of a meeting with their alliance partners on Wednesday.

“The Prime Minister has asked all ministries to come up with measures that need to be considered and implemented on a priority basis in the first three months of the new government.

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