In putting together his economic team,Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has clearly kept the laggards of his previous Cabinet at bay. So,in place of TR Baalu,whose tenure was marked more with frequent changes at NHAI than building roads and ports,Singh has inducted Kamal Nath,who has proved his mettle by holding fort at the WTO,liberalising the FDI regime and building new engines of growth through SEZs as the commerce and industry minister. Another critical change is that of Jairam Ramesh,the back-room strategist,who has been allotted the key portfolio of environment and forests. As minister of state with independent charge,Jairam Ramesh is expected to push through projects in key infrastructure sectors such as power,steel,coal and mines. Having been a minister of state for power,he clearly understands the bottlenecks faced by companies in getting environment clearances. In the new Cabinet,four significant infrastructure ministries urban development,housing and poverty alleviation,and power and telecom have remained with those who handled these portfolios earlier too: Jaipal Reddy,Kumari Selja,Sushil Shinde and D Raja. Dayanidhi Maran has been given textiles,perhaps keeping in mind the concentration of the textile industry in Coimbatore-Tiruppur belt in Tamil Nadu. This is one of the worst-hit sectors because of the global slowdown,and Marans performance in his curtailed tenure as communications and IT minister,must have inspired confidence in the Congress leadership. The biggest surprise in Manmohan Singhs economic team is Anand Sharma. As MoS in the external affairs ministry,Sharma is said to have built a good understanding of multilateral talks at global forums. He brings with him this experience which will hold him in good stead at the World Trade Organisation negotiations. In giving DMKs GK Vasan a Cabinet rank for shipping,political considerations seem to have played a role. The DMK has been strongly pushing for the Sethusamudram project,stuck for long. Murli Deora has retained oil and so has Praful Patel civil aviation as a minister of state with independent charge. Dismantling of the administered pricing mechanism is more a political call and Deora can hardly be blamed for not pushing reforms in the sector. Patels record has not been bad either Delhi,Mumbai modernisation has been smooth,but his hands will be full with several things on the agenda including a turnaround of NACIL and modernisation of non-metro airports.
