All hands on board: PM’s economic team calls off trips to U S

NEW DELHI, OCTOBER 10: Key members of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s economic team, P Chidambaram, Montek Singh Ahluwalia and Kamal Nath, have called off scheduled official trips to the U S to tackle the ripple effects of the global financial turmoil at home.

Finance minister Chidambaram cancelled his visit to the IMF-World Bank informal meetings during the weekend ahead of the plenary session on Monday. He was also slated to take part in a meeting of the G-20 finance ministers, to be chaired by U S Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson.

In fact, New Delhi and Washington have decided to put off the annual meeting of the Indo-US CEOs forum in New York next Tuesday.

Government sources said the decision was taken by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Thursday. Both Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath and Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Ahluwalia, key members of the bilateral strategic economic group, cancelled their plans to be available back home to enable quicker decision-making.

Reserve Bank of India Governor Duvvuri Subbarao and economic affairs secretary Ashok Chawla are already in Washington for the Fund-Bank meetings that officially begin on October 13. Sources said Subbarao too has been asked to be prepared to return on short notice, if required.

Both sides decided to postpone the Indo-U S CEOs forum since Paulson, US Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez and Trade Representative Susan Schwab — all members of the bilateral group—¿ are busy aiding President George W. Bush in the firefight.

Besides, William Harrison, former chairman of JP Morgan Chase, Vikram Pandit of Citigroup, co-chair and a member of the CEOs forum from the US side, are also battling their own troubles. In India too, Ratan Tata, co-chair of the bilateral group, is perturbed by the magnitude of the crisis that has spread like a contagion from the US to Europe and the Asia-Pacific.

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All Hands on Board by Ashok Chhibbar on 2008-10-11 06:06:02.883604+05:30
I was recently in Singapore and was pleasantly surprised to learn from my cab driver that the PM and all ministers in the Govt travel "ECONOMY" class in airlines to spread the message of austerity. The ministers in India could be as humble too. (Possible only if they shun the desire to feel above the normal citizen who they are supposed to serve!!

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