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Indeed, it is not a time of just one crisis, but of two. The fallout of the attacks in Mumbai may have put the financial crisis on the back burner for the moment, but this week8217;s news that the US has been in recession for a year should remind us of the urgency of both crises.

This is a time of crisis, and we need the best people in every job. Indeed, it is not a time of just one crisis, but of two. The fallout of the attacks in Mumbai may have put the financial crisis on the back burner for the moment, but this week8217;s news that the US has been in recession for a year 8212; and the disappointing export numbers for India 8212; should remind us of the urgency of both crises. Simply put, if India8217;s trading partners slip into a long, shallow recession,

Indian exports will continue to

falter. If foreign investors8217; de-leveraging continues to suck liquidity out of India without the government counteracting it, companies will be driven close to bankruptcy. Jobs will be lost; the fragile political and social gains of liberalisation jeopardised; and a heavy political price will come due.

Thus Prime Minister Manmohan Singh must relinquish the finance portfolio as soon as is possible. Even in the best of times, something as large and as complex as the finance ministry cannot be done justice by part-time management; and these are not the best of times. The prime minister will have no

option but to visibly concentrate on national security issues: the tenor of public reaction demands it. The finance ministry cannot be allowed to work on autopilot while he does: because big changes of direction will be required.

The next six months will be among the most crucial that the finance ministry will ever have faced. Infrastructure projects will have to be streamlined, the financial sector will need support, and international linkages will have to be strengthened. Accounting standards and regulation will have to be harmonised with the rest of the world, and the G-208217;s communiqueacute; will need to be acted on before it meets next in April. At a time when India needs its economy to keep growing, its finance minister must not be distracted by other tasks. Issues such as disputing whether the new finance minister must be from the Congress, or from an allied party, or an independent technocrat, cannot be allowed to weigh in the balance at times like these. All that matters is that s/he command the confidence of the markets, investors and ordinary citizens alike.