No off for FinMin this weekend as FM gets down to work

It was business as usual in the Finance Ministry on Saturday and the officers above joint secretary rank attended office on Sunday also.

Chidambaram, considered a hard task master, took charge of the Finance Ministry on August 1 after a gap of about four years. He was the Finance Minister of India during 2004 to 2008.

The re-entry of Chidambaram comes at a time when Indian economy is threatened by deficient monsoon putting pressure on already high food inflation.

Besides, the other issues which the Ministry has to tackle on urgent basis includes slowing industrial output, subdued exports, rising fiscal deficit and declining investor confidence.

Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia has already indicated that deficient monsoon is likely to pull down the economic growth in the current fiscal to about six per cent, down from 6.5 per cent a year ago.

"If we factor in that agriculture which would not be strong...(growth) would be closer to 6 per cent. I don't think we have sufficiently strong industrial turn around yet", he said.

As regards 2012-13, the Reserve Bank has recently lowered the growth projection to 6.5 per cent from 7.3 per cent in wake of deficient monsoon and global economic problems.