With members settling in after Sunday’s large-scale reshuffle, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is convening a meeting of the council of ministers tomorrow, to prepare a road map and outline priorities for the remaining period of the United Progressive Alliance’s tenure.
A senior government official in the know said this would be an agenda-setting meeting, for mapping challenges and dealing with these.
Stepping up investment, especially in the infrastructure sector would be at the core of the exercise, he added.
Besides the PM, finance minister P Chidambaram is also to address the ministers and stress the fiscal challenges facing the government and the steps required to overcome these. The immediate challenges include reduction in the subsidy bill, creating an atmosphere in which important legislation, including those on the Goods and Services Tax, the Direct Taxes Code, foreign direct investment- related issues, especially in insurance and pensions, the Companies Bill, the Land Acquisition Bill and other pending matters could be cleared.
On the administrative side, any substantial revival in the investment scenario is yet to be seen and the government would be looking to speedily move forward on this count.
Sunday’s reshuffle substantially changed the constitution of the council of ministers, bringing in new faces and elevating many. Officials from the Prime Minister’s Office indicated one of the main ideas behind such elevation was to create a conducive atmosphere at the top level to push reform measures smoothly.