Front runners for the post of Finance Minister

Mukherjee, Montek Among Contenders for India’s Finance Minister

Article in Bloomberg lists the possible contenders for the post of Finance Minister in the new government. Following are the posibilities -

1. Pranab Mukherjee
2. Montek Singh Ahluwalia
3. Palaniappan Chidambaram
4. Chakravarthy Rangarajan
5. Kamal Nath
6. Jairam Ramesh


The complete article copied from source -

May 19 (Bloomberg) -- Foreign minister Pranab Mukherjee, home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram, and economic adviser Montek Singh Ahluwalia are among the candidates who may become India’s next finance minister and take on the responsibility of reviving a slowing economy.
Mukerjee, who is acting finance minister, is the frontrunner for the post and Montek’s candidature is also being discussed, the Economic Times reported today, without saying how it got the information.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will probably form the next government and unveil his new cabinet of ministers this week after his Congress-party led alliance swept to the biggest election victory since 1991.
“The biggest challenge for anyone who gets the key portfolio will be to get the economy back on its pace,” said Dharmakirti Joshi, an economist at Mumbai-based Crisil Ltd., the local unit of Standard & Poor’s. “Another key concern will be how much more fiscal stimulus is needed and at the same time ensure that finances are not impaired further.”
The following are the profiles of likely candidates who may become finance minister in the next administration.
PRANAB MUKHERJEE: The 73-year-old foreign affairs minister added the finance minister’s portfolio after Palaniappan Chidambaram moved to the home ministry. Mukherjee unveiled a stimulus package, the government’s third, in February that included lowering retail fuel prices, cutting taxes on consumer products and injecting capital into state-run banks.
Mukherjee, a member of the Congress Working Committee, the party’s highest decision-making body, was India’s commerce minister in 1980 and finance minister from 1982 to 1984, according to the finance ministry’s Web site.
As foreign minister, he led India’s negotiations with Pakistan after the terrorist attacks in Mumbai in November. He also led the initiative to convince global governments about evidence linking Pakistan-based militants with the November terrorist attacks that killed 166 people in Mumbai.
Pakistan acknowledged on Feb. 12 that the operation was planned on its territory and said arrests had been made.
The political opinion within the party is in favor of Mukherjee becoming the finance minister, the Times reported today.
MONTEK SINGH AHLUWALIA: Oxford-educated Ahluwalia was handpicked by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to run India’s Planning Commission, a state-run body that sets spending and growth targets.
Ahluwalia, 65, has called for higher spending on infrastructure to sustain an average annual economic growth rate of 9 percent in the five years to 2012 even if the government exceeds fiscal deficit targets.
The next administration needs to cut interest rates and unveil stimulus packages of as much as 1 percent of gross domestic product to revive a slowing economy, Ahluwalia has said.
PALANIAPPAN CHIDAMBARAM: Finance minister for four years before he moved to the home ministry in November to spearhead efforts to strengthen security after the terrorist attacks in Mumbai left 166 people dead.
As finance minister, Chidambaram last year wrote off 717 billion rupees ($14 billion) of farm loans and raised the salaries of five million government employees by 21 percent, which economists including Joshi of Crisil Ltd. say may have helped swing votes in favor of Congress.
Harvard-educated Chidambaram, 63, presided over a record expansion as India’s economy grew an average 9 percent each year during his tenure.
Chidambaram, elected from Sivaganga constituency in Tamil Nadu state for the seventh time, is known for cutting individual and corporate tax rates to improve compliance, enabling the government to spend more on programs aimed at the poor. He pushed state-run banks to invest in technology to weather competition from private lenders.
His plans to sell stakes in state-run companies including Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd., India’s biggest maker of power equipment, National Aluminium Co. and miner and power producer Neyveli Lignite Corp. were thwarted by the communists.
He also advocated raising the overseas investment cap in the pension and insurance sectors to 49 percent from the present 26 percent.
CHAKRAVARTHY RANGARAJAN: A lawmaker in the upper house of parliament, Rangarajan, 77, was central bank governor between December 1992 and November 1997 when then finance minister Manmohan Singh started opening up India’s economy.
As governor of the Reserve Bank of India, he promoted financial industry reforms, including allowing banks to set their own interest rates and introducing global standards for measuring non-performing loans. Rangarajan also introduced a temporary lending facility allowing the government to borrow a set amount from the central bank for a limited period.
Rangarajan holds a doctorate in economics from the University of Pennsylvania and has taught at the Wharton School of Finance & Commerce, University of Pennsylvania and Graduate School of Business Administration, New York University. He has also lectured at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad.
Rangarajan served as the central bank’s deputy governor for almost a decade between 1982 and 1991, according to the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council Web site.
KAMAL NATH: The tenure of the 62-year-old trade minister saw India’s exports nearly triple to $170 billion in the year to March 31 from $63.8 billion in 2004, when the Congress government came to office.
Elected to parliament for an eighth time, Nath initiated a program to set up special-economic zones to emulate China’s success at building up a manufacturing sector.
Nath last year championed the cause of developing countries at the World Trade Organization. He walked away from the negotiating table when the U.S. refused to allow develop0ing countries to impose agricultural tariffs to protect their farmers from U.S. exports. That resulted in trade talks collapsing.
India’s commerce ministry, under Nath’s stewardship, initiated trade agreements with the European Union and Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
Nath in January 2006 partially eased overseas investment rules in the retail industry, allowing single-brand companies to enter the South Asian nation.
JAIRAM RAMESH: Massachusetts-educated Ramesh quit as junior trade and power minister in February to spearhead the Congress party’s election campaign. Ramesh helped put together the national common minimum program of the United Progressive Alliance that came to power in 2004.
The 54-year-old Ramesh previously worked as adviser in the Prime Minister’s Office in 1991 and in the finance ministry between 1996 and 1998.