In fact, Ahluwalia was his sherpa or chief coordinator in the Summit on Financial Markets and the World Economy called by US president George Bush and attended by G-20 leaders in Washington DC on November 15. Government sources said he is scheduled to submit a detailed infrastructure spending plan in the next 2-3 days to the prime minister.

The economic agenda for the next six months, according to a senior government functionary, will be to impart monetary and fiscal stimuli to sustain the India growth story. “The United Progressive Alliance government will not present a full Budget. Much of the work undertaken in the coming months will be preparatory in nature and provide the Budget framework for the new government,” a Cabinet minister told The Indian Express.

The minister said that the present UPA dispensation will only prepare and present a vote on account — a special provision in the Constitution that allows the government to ensure enough money is at its disposal to run the administration till a full Budget is presented by the next government. The United Progressive Alliance completes its tenure before May-end 2009, less than two months after the new fiscal starts in April.

The main objective of the government now is to implement counter-cyclical measures that will help mitigate the affect of a global meltdown on India. In fact, the prime minister himself heads the apex group set up in the first week of November this year to address the concerns of India Inc, whish is reeling under the adverse impact of the global financial crisis that is now effecting India.

After maintaining a healthy clip of an average 9 per cent growth rate in the last four years, the gross domestic product (GDP) growth has slowed down to 7.9 per cent in the first quarter of 2008-09 and further to 7.6 per cent in the second quarter.

With inflation dropping to 8.93 per cent and expected to fall

further, the Reserve Bank of India is likely to consider a more aggressive easing of its monetary policy. This could mean a further cut in the repo rate (the rate at which the apex bank lends to banks) that stands at 7.5 per cent now and further reduction in the cash reserve ratio (the portion of deposits that banks have to keep with the Reserve Bank) from the present 5.5 per cent.