Cairn India MD meets oil minister

NEW DELHI: Cairn India managing director Rahul Dhir on Tuesday met Oil Minister S Jaipal Reddy, immediately after expiry of the January deadline set by the Prime Minister's Office for the ministry to decide fate of the $9.6 billion Cairn-Vedanta deal.

"We have not discussed anything about the deal, it was just a curtsey call," Dhir told ET while coming out of the ministry.

The oil ministry officials said that the ministry has not yet firmed up its mind on the deal and it will take time.

"We must have an easy exit policy to attract investments but that does not mean we will not address our concerns," a senior official in the ministry said requesting anonymity.

The official said that PMO's directive is to approve the deal on merit and we are trying to hasten the process. "But we are also accountable to the system...we can't bind ourselves in deadlines," the official said.