Panels galore to chalk out CMP path

INSTITUTIONAL REFORMS/ Budget plans several task forces and commissions

Finance Minister P Chidambaram appears to have taken a leaf out of the books of one of his predecessors, Yashwant Sinha. While Sinha, in one of his Budgets, brought in insurance firms to help provide health and other benefits to the poor, Chidambaram is planning much the same.

One plan, for instance, involves getting insurance firms to provide health cover to 1 million poor families as opposed to just around 11,408 families that have been insured.

What's more, the finance minister has planned a plethora of commissions/studies to help work out just how the promises in the Common Minimum Programme (CMP) are to be met.

To begin with, a sum of Rs 10,000 crore has been left for the Planning Commission to allocate, once it completes an exhaustive review of ongoing schemes and sees how these fit in with the CMP's objectives.

Apart from this, the Commission will also see just how all centrally-sponsored schemes are to be transferred to the states, another commitment made by the CMP.

While agriculture credit is to be doubled over the next three years, a major problem area is the poor financial shape of cooperative banks.

So, the minister has proposed the appointment of a task force to examine what reforms are needed in the cooperative banking system. It has been given till the end of October to finalise its recommendations.

A National Horticulture Mission is to be launched to double production, and an Investment Commission is to be set up to help boost both domestic as well as foreign investment in industry.

A National Manufacturing Competitiveness Council will be set up to act as a forum to debate the problems domestic industry face, and a Board for Reconstruction of Public Sector Enterprises will play the role of not just the erstwhile Disinvestment Commission, but will also find out ways in which PSUs are to be energised/revived.