NEW DELHI: India's new coalition government got down to work on Saturday as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh allotted portfolios to six of 19 ministers, reminding them that they had "promises to keep".
Manmohan Singh presided over a 30-minute meeting of all his ministers at his Race Course Road residence in the morning before naming veteran Pranab Mukherjee as finance minister and handing over the foreign ministry to Fulbright scholar SM Krishna, both from his Congress party.
P. Chidambaram and AK Antony retained their home and defence portfolios while Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar also remains the agriculture, food and civil supplies minister. Pawar is also in charge of consumer affairs and public distribution.
Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee returned to the railway ministry after a long gap, and promptly went on to announce that she hopes to issue free rail passes to students and vendors.
Mukherjee, who returns to the finance ministry after 25 long years, promised all efforts to lift the economy out of the slowdown and said the regular budget
would be presented in due course.
"The Indian economy remains resilient," he told reporters. "All economic issues will be addressed. My priority is to put the economy back on track. Efforts will be made to insulate the Indian economy from the adverse impact of the financial
meltdown."
Mukherjee, the seniormost minister in the cabinet, immediately got the thumbs up from the industry.
"Pranab Mukherjee as finance minister will do full justice to his job and come up to the expectations of the people of India and its industry," said the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Assocham).
In his first media interaction after taking charge, external affairs minister Krishna asked Pakistan to take "credible action" to dismantle the terror infrastructure if it wants to resume dialogue with India.
Officials said that Manmohan Singh had a busy first full working day in his second five-year innings, at the head of a Congress-led coalition that convincingly won the general elections.
After the cabinet meeting, Manmohan Singh held meetings with his officials - in the morning and again in the evening.
Manmohan Singh, along with 19 cabinet ministers, took the oath of office and secrecy Friday evening, saying economy will be his top priority. On Saturday he told the cabinet meeting: "We have made a number of promises, and we have promises to keep."
According to an official announcement, Manmohan Singh will look after all ministries apart from those allocated to the six senior cabinet ministers until more people are inducted into what will be a three-tier ministry.
According to officials in the Prime Minister's Office, the portfolios of the remaining 13 of the 19 cabinet ministers sworn in Friday would be announced after differences between the Congress and DMK over allocation of ministerial berths are sorted out.
This, a senior minister said, could happen by Tuesday, when a second round of oath-taking is expected.
Party insiders said the prime minister was not averse to inducting A Raja and T R Baalu of DMK in the cabinet but was insistent that neither would get the telecommunications and shipping ministries.
Chidambaram announced after the cabinet meeting that the first session of the 15th Lok Sabha will begin June 1. The new MPs will be sworn in June 1-2 and the speaker of the Lok Sabha will be elected June 3.
President Pratibha Patil will address the joint session of parliament June 4. This will be followed by a debate and the motion of thanks.
The 216th session of the Rajya Sabha will begin June 4 and will continue till June 9.
"The previous government had taken a vote on account
till July 31. It is our hope that the full budget will be passed by then. If it is not, another vote on account for a brief period can be taken," said Chidambaram, who was finance minister till the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack after which he was shifted to the home ministry.
It's official: Krishna gets MEA, Pranab new FM
New Delhi: S M Krishna was appointed the new External Affairs Minister on Saturday with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh deciding to give the key portfolio of Finance to Pranab Mukherjee while retaining P Chidambaram as Home Minister.
Trinamool Congress Chief Mamata Banerjee will head the Railway Ministry while Sharad Pawar and A K Antony will continue as Agriculture Minister and Defence Minister respectively, a Rashtrapathi Bhavan spokesperson said.
The Prime Minister will hold the charge of all the other ministries, which are yet to be allocated, the spokesperson said.
The first expansion of the Cabinet is expected to take place on Tuesday after which all the remaining portfolios will be announced.
However, the wait continues for 13 others who were sworn in on Friday.
The limited allocation of portfolios was announced by the Rashtrapati Bhawan on the advice of the Prime Minister, who preferred to get down to business and distributed ministries on which there are apparently no no differences.
Portfolios for Ministers including Kamal Nath, Kapil Sibal, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Jaipal Reddy, Anand Sharma and new entrants like Veerappa Moily and C P Joshi are yet to be announced.
It's also the first time that portfolios are being announced in a staggered manner.
'Prabhakaran made two attempts to flee'
COLOMBO: LTTE chief Velupillai Prabhakaran made two last-minute attempts to escape to India or Malaysia, but these came too late as the SriLankan navy had put up a effective naval blockade by then. Media reports said on Wednesday that Prabhakaran’s family has been found shot dead.
These failures left no option for Prabhakaran, who had earlier hoodwinked and outmaneuvered the Sri Lankan security apparatus, to stay put in the northern war zone and fight to the last. Prabhakaran made these attempts as Sri Lankan forces made major advances into the rebel-held territory this year, naval spokesman D K Dasanayake said.
Reports said that Prabhakaran’s wife Mathivathani, daughter
and younger son Balachandran were found shot dead on Wednesday.
Their bodies, having gunshot wounds in the head, were found a day after pictures of Prabhakaran’s body were released by the Sri Lankan authorities. The bodies were found in the Nandi Kadal lagoon area barely 600 metres from where the LTTE supremo’s body was recovered by the army. Balachandran was barely 13. Prabhakaran’s wife and daughter were not in Europe as believed but right there with the Tamil Tiger chief.
Vinayagamoorthi Muralitharan alias Karuna, who was the Eastern commander of the LTTE before he fell out with Prabhakaran in 2004, and Daya Master, who surrendered to the army recently, have “positively identified” the LTTE supremo’s body.
FM Pranab's first priority: Presenting budget 09-10
New Delhi:Veteran politician Pranab Mukherjee, hailed as one of the five best Finance Ministers in the world in 1984, will re-enter the North Block as Finance Minister of the new Congress-led UPA government.
Often described as a man for all seasons and seen by his party as a trusted trouble shooter, Mukherjee's first task would be to present the budget for 2009-10 and continue the measures to boost the economy reeling under the impact of global financial crisis.
As author of the interim budget for the current fiscal, it would be easier for him to prepare the full budget for the fiscal and ensure continuity in the economic policies and programmes.
The government is required to get the budget passed by Parliament by July 31 as the vote-on-account (which allows government to withdraw money from Consolidated Fund) sought in the interim budget comes to end on July 31.
Mukherjee is a veritable encyclopaedia on Congress movement and has been a minister in all the party governments since the mid-1970s, save the Rajiv Gandhi government between 1984 and 1989.
The eternal 'number two', Mukherjee was a trusted lieutenant of late Indira Gandhi under whom he was the powerful Minister of State for Revenue during the emergency and later became a full-fledged Finance Minister between 1982 and 1984.
Mukherjee, who after a gap of 25 years became the Finance Minister in the previous UPA government, had little opportunity to excel. It was an additional charge for the External Affairs Minister after the then Finance Minister P Chidambaram was shifted to Home Ministry.
Khanduri survives as Uttarakhand Chief Minister
Dehradun:Uttarakhand’s Chief Minister B.C. Khanduri who had been facing the possibility of being replaced, has managed a survival.
Sources in the BJP told The Indian Express,” The two member committee that had come to take the views of the legislators on the issue of Khanduri’s survival, just read their report at the meeting of the Central Parliamentary Board of the party held in Delhi on Saturday evening. There was no discussion on his replacement. This simply means that he continues.”
It is learnt that health minister Dr Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank and irrigation minister Matbar Singh Kandari along with three other legislators had rushed to Delhi on Saturday morning to further lobby for Khanduri.
The issue that had started as an exercise to locate a possible successor of Khanduri following the latter taking the moral responsibility for the party’s dismal performance in the Lok Sabha polls and asking the Central Parliamentary Board to take a decision on his future, had gradually turned into a power struggle based on supportive numbers of the legislators between the two rival groups led by Bhagat Singh Koshiyari and Khanduri.
Khanduri had claimed the support of 24 of the 34 legislators in the party and had conveyed this to the two member committee comprising Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and Thavar Chand Gehlot that had visited Dehradun on Friday.
This is the third time that Khanduri has managed a survival on the post of the Chief Minister in the face of dissidence over the last ten months. During the latter half of last year, more than 20 legislators had approached the party headquarters twice for his removal. But the party high command had stepped in for his defense and had entrusted him the responsibility of delivering good results in the Lok Sabha polls. Having led the party to a series of polls in the last two years, Khanduri could not get the party to win even a single seat out of five in the Lok Sabha polls. Heavy anti incumbency accompanied by internal strife in the party led to the dismal performance.
Indian Business News
New Govt plans budget by end-July
New Delhi:The new coalition Government hopes to win Parliament approval for the union budget for 2009/10 by the end of July, Cabinet minister Palaniappan Chidambaram said on Saturday.
The date for the presentation of the budget has not yet been decided, Chidambaram told reporters.
"We hope that we will be able to pass the full budget by July 31," he said after the first cabinet meeting of the new Government following a General Election.
"If not, we will have to take another vote-on-account for a very short period," he said referring to a temporary measure to allow government spending.
The central Government had presented an interim budget in February to get parliament approval for necessary expenditure until July 31, and left it to the new government to present a formal budget.
Chidambaram said the decision on whether the government would present a vote-on-account or a full budget would be taken later by the ruling coalition government of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
Financial markets are waiting to get a sense of the new government spending plans and steps to repair public finances. The government had said in February that expenditure may jump later this year to shield the economy from a global slump.
The government faces a widening deficit, slowing growth and huge expectations for fresh stimulus to protect growth and jobs.
Mexico to lay off 700,000 workers in 2009
MEXICO: Mexico will lay off around 700,000 of its total workforce in the current year because of the sharpening of the economic crisis in the country, official sources said.
The prediction was made on the basis of the data compiled by the National Confederation of Industrial Chambers of Mexico (CONCAMIN).
According to the data by CONCAMIN the deepening of the financial crisis coupled with the recent slowdown in the tourism sector because of the H1N1 influenza epidemics will further cause a setback to the Mexican Gross Domestic Product which is expected to be around 6 per cent.
The industrial sector will see a fall of 13 per cent, while the maquilas will see a fall of 16 per cent, CONCAMIN president Salomon Presburguer said.
They can revert the impact by fostering into the domestic market, Presburguer added.
The Mexican GDP has already dropped to 9.8 per cent with a loss of 626,000 jobs with the industry laying off around 323,000 workers.
IPL News|IPL Cricket News| Sports News
Modi mulls two IPLs every year
LONDON: With the Indian Premier League proving a smashing hit in its adopted home in South Africa, the organisers of the Twenty20 razzmatazz are mulling a second and shorter version of the event in the same calendar year at an overseas location.
IPL Commissioner Lalit Modi told 'The Daily Telegraph' that the success of the second IPL has prompted the organisers to explore untapped territories like United States and Canada and the League's Governing Council would discuss the issue after the tournament ends in Johannesburg on Sunday.
"The potential is huge," Modi said. "We have turned the challenges and adversities in moving to South Africa into an opportunity. It is fans who determine if you are successful or not and they have come out in force. It has shown that the tournament can be in any region, in any country. This opens up many different opportunities for us," Modi was quoted as saying by the daily.
The IPL mastermind made it clear that India would host the first season and it's only for the second season in the same calendar year that a foreign destination
would be considered.
"The IPL will be based in India, but the second season we are planning gives us the chance to see if a market exists and we are seriously looking at what we can do with it," Modi said.
"America throws up challenges but the format we have developed works. It is an opportunity for families to spend a day out. Apart from watching great cricket they have an enjoyable evening out. That will work anywhere," he said.
"Before this tournament we did not know if we could do it. But we do know now. We have to satisfy an appetite across the world and build a fan base across the world," Modi added.
Modi said the Indian cricket board (BCCI) would be in touch with its English and South African counterparts but ruled out the prospect of any country hosting back-to-back events.
"We will talk to the England and Wales Cricket Board, and South Africa are natural allies who want us to come back every year. The public and the boards want us but it is not realistic to come back to the same place every year."
While a second IPL in the same calendar year jeopardises Test cricket's survival, Modi beg to differ.
"People who say we cannot work alongside Test cricket just don't understand. You don't need everyone available all the time. You don't need all countries to be free.
"In England the Premier League runs at the same time as the Spanish and Italian leagues. We can do the same. They can run concurrently. To do that we must showcase and produce our own stars," Modi said.
"England are playing the West Indies now so those teams are out but not Australia, South Africa or uncapped England players. That is where the misunderstanding is taking place," he added.
Nadal poised to claim French Open history
Paris:Rafael Nadal believes his game is almost perfect as he targets an historic fifth successive French Open title.
The 22-year-old world number one, whose incredible Roland Garros record stands at 28 wins from 28 matches, has already written off losing his 33-match claycourt streak to old rival Roger Federer in Madrid last week.
He believes a combination of a draining four-hour semi-final victory over Novak Djokovic and the high altitude of the Spanish capital conspired against him.
"I am very happy with my claycourt season. I won in Monte Carlo, Barcelona, Rome and made the final in Madrid. It's almost perfect," said Nadal, the top seed.
"Madrid was a different tournament. The court was fast, the balls were flying
and I didn't play that well."
Adding to his confidence is the knowledge that he has beaten Federer in the last three finals at Roland Garros.
Federer, who is one title short of matching Pete Sampras's all-time mark of 14 majors, needs a French Open to become only the sixth man to complete a career Grand Slam.
But he's travelled this road before. Two years ago, Federer ended Nadal's 81-match winning streak on clay at Hamburg to instill fresh confidence of finally cracking the French code, but he was to be denied once the duo resumed hostilities in Paris.
On the evidence of the 2008 tournament, where Nadal didn't drop a set in seven matches and Federer won just four games in a brutally one-sided final, the Swiss star again looks doomed.
But Federer refuses to concede defeat, believing that his win in Madrid, which was his 58th title, but first of 2009, could represent another launchpad.
"He has never lost in Paris so obviously his confidence is very high, but I think we have seen that if you play Rafa the right way there are chances," said the 27-year-old, world number two.
"In Madrid it was important that I played well when I had to which I wasn't doing before because there was something lacking in my game, just a lack of practice maybe."
Sunday's meeting in Madrid was the pair's 20th career clash with Nadal holding the upper hand 13-7 overall, and 9-2 on clay.
Their rivalry is one of sports' most compelling with Nadal having dethroned Federer as Wimbledon champion in an epic final in 2008 before the Spaniard reduced the Swiss to a tearful wreck after victory in Australia this year in another five-set thriller.
In the unlikely event of the June 7 final not being a repeat of the last three, Djokovic, who had three match points against Nadal in his Madrid semi-final, would be the most likely beneficiary.
But the big-hearted Serbian, who turned 22 on Friday, has lost all nine claycourt meetings with Nadal, including four in 2009 - in Davis Cup, Monte-Carlo, Rome and then in Spain.
Djokovic has reached the semi-finals in Paris for the last two years, losing to Nadal on each occasion without claiming a set.
"It's not that easy. I probably played one of the best matches of my life against him (in Madrid), but he made some unbelievable shots to win those points which he did - again," sighed the Serbian.
Britain's Andy Murray has lost both his claycourt meetings with Nadal and despite holding a 6-2 advantage over Federer, the two have never met on clay.
In two visits to the French Open, Murray has yet to get beyond the third round.
But he is confident he can make a deep run into the event.
"Against the real clay-courters that play a lot of top spin, you can almost try and make it a hardcourt match by playing a little bit flatter and coming to the net and bit an shortening the points," said Murray.
Nadal faces a qualifier in his first match before a possible third round clash with Australian former world number one Lleyton Hewitt.
Federer opens against Spain's Alberto Montanes with old American rival Andy Roddick
seeded to face him in the last eight.
Third seeded Murray renews his fierce rivalry with Argentinians when he meets Juan Ignacio Chela, while fourth seed Djokovic faces experienced Nicolas Lapentti of Ecuador.
If the seeding works to plan, then Nadal would face Murray in the semi-finals while Djokovic would take on Federer.
Sehwag, Gambhir need to shed fatigue before T20 WC: Tendulkar
New Delhi, May 23: India has the wherewithal to defend the Twenty20 World Cup in England but openers Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir will have to overcome the fatigue factor if the team is to achieve the goal, reckons Sachin Tendulkar.
Tendulkar was impressed with the way the Indian youngsters performed in the ongoing Twenty20 tournament in South Africa but the Mumbai Indian captain also pointed out that both Sehwag and Gambhir have not been consistent enough.
"I think, individually the boys are doing well. Look at Rohit Sharma, Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina, MS (Dhoni). In the bowling department Zaheer was doing well before he got injured and RP Singh has come up by leaps and bounds. Only our opening combination of Gautam Gambhir and Virender Sehwag haven`t fired," Tendulkar said.
"I think the key would be how soon they can shed off the fatigue factor. They have been playing back to back for a long time now and it would difficult to keep up the tempo," Tendulkar told a sports website.
Incidentally, India coach Gary Kirsten had earlier expressed a similar concern.
Tendulkar, however, was of the view that IPL has been an ideal preparation for the Twenty20 World Cup.
"...It is. You are playing the same format and you are playing against the best bowlers and also not in home conditions. So, I think this is a good preparation except that the players should take adequate rest between the IPL and the ICC World Twenty20," he said.
The Mumbaikar also reiterated his stance that even though he enjoyed playing Twenty20, he never thought about representing India in this slam-bang format lest it disturbs the team composition.
"I never thought that I would play the ICC World Twenty20. MS Dhoni and his Twenty20 team have done wonderfully well and I just hope they continue to do so. I have no plans to play T20 for India,” Tendulkar said.
About his team`s debacle in the ongoing IPL, he said, "We blew hot and cold. There were times when we could have done better than we did. I think it is a batsman`s format and in our case it was the batsmen who let us down."
Asked for his reaction on Harbhajan Singh`s comment that the spinner didn`t know what his role was in the team, Tendulkar said "I won`t like to comment on that, it is his personal opinion."
No comments:
Post a Comment