Jaitley meets Rahul

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today met Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi.
There was no word from the Congress on what was discussed at the meeting held a week before the winter session of Parliament.
Jaitley has been meeting leaders of parties across the divide in recent days to extend invitation for his daughter's wedding next month.
He has repeatedly said in the last few days that he would reach out to Congress and Gandhi to seek his help to clear the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Bill, the government's big reform measure that is stuck in Parliament on stiff opposition from Congress.

(Reopens DEL11)
Meanwhile, a statement released here said The Reference Book India 2016 along with 49 other important titles would now be available on e-commerce sites.

The digital versions of the Publications Division books would be available on Kobo platform for online readers.
Kobo is an open online platform which offers readers with variety of choices among different languages and is among world's largest e-Bookstores, it said.
(REOPENS DEL 68)
Stating that the demonetisation decision could not have been executed any better, Jaitley said the task before the government was to replace 86 per cent of India's currency and in a way without causing any social unrest and any significant economic disruption.

All this had to be done in a matter of couple of weeks, he revealed.
"When you take this decision, a substantial part of the currency has to be printed in advance. Currency printing is an exercise which can take years in some cases because of security features and specialty involved. Its not a month or two-month exercise," he said.
On top of that, the currency has to reach 4,000 currency chests he added.
"You then have to make bundles so that it reaches 1.25 bank (branches), over 2 lakh ATM machines, 1.3 lakh post offices, so about 5-6 lakh distribution points," Jaitley explained.

"Also, it has to be kept as a secret. And then suddenly RBI board recommends, the Cabinet accepts it and within 24 hours, the implementation begins."
Conceding that there is bound to be initial inconvenience when currency replacement takes place, Jaitley felt that the queues have become extremely small across the country.
He promised that over next one or two weeks, "we particularly will have to make sure more and more currency reaches the rural areas".
On queues, he said one has to decide if a few days of inconvenience that will bring about a significant change in the way people live and spend are really much.

"Now they say there is a queue and the old lady is standing in the queue and therefore, we should never go for reforms of this kind. I think eventually we will have to take a long-term vision of comparative advantage," he added.