India Inc welcomes Manmohan Singh taking FinMin charge

NEW DELHI: Industry on Sunday welcomed Prime Minister Manmohan Singh taking charge of the Finance Ministry after P Chidambaram was appointed Home Minister, saying Singh as Finance Minister is known as architect of reforms that transformed the Indian economy.

Prime Minister directly involved himself in tackling the impact of the global credit crisis on the Indian economy. Amidst pressure on the exchange rate and crash in the stock market in the wake of the developments in Wall Street, Singh had appointed a committee under his charge to find a way out of the economic challenges.

"At the recent HT Leadership Summit, the Prime Minister had listed several initiatives under consideration of the government. These include fiscal measures like expenditure on infrastructure and monetary steps such as interest rates. All these relate to the Finance Ministry, which has come under his charge directly," Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry Secretary General Amit Mitra said.

Mitra said Singh is the only one in the government who has served as Finance Minister, RBI Governor and Chief Economic Adviser.

Singh was also Secretary (Economic Affairs) and Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission.

Assocham Secretary General D S Rawat said the "industrial confidence would get a boost" with the Prime Minister retaining the charge of the Finance Ministry.

Singh had gone to Washington to attend the G-20 meeting called by US President George W Bush, where he sought increased role of the developing countries in the new financial architecture after the global downturn.