The Hindu Business Line : Lacking energy

INDIA'S DESIRE TO become a major manufacturing base and in turn provide jobs to the unemployed millions will require a team of very competent people in the major economic Ministries, particularly in the infrastructure sectors of power, petroleum and coal that are required to provide the feedstock for the ambitious economic growth target set by the Prime Minister. But Dr Singh's choice of new Cabinet colleagues to carry out the task is definitely uninspiring. It is difficult to pick even one new incumbent who can lay claim to any worthwhile record of proven governance whereas the presence of four members in the Union Council of Ministers having no portfolios indicates that it was the man who mattered and not the task.

While the core economic Ministries of Finance and of Commerce and Industry remain undisturbed, the induction of Mr Sushil Kumar Shinde as the new Power Minister and the return of Mr Shibu Soren to the Coal Ministry are unlikely to provide strategic support to the economic programme. Mr Soren has been in and out of the Coal Ministry on a number of occasions, leaving no visible impact on its functioning. Rather, he has the dubious distinction of being a fugitive Cabinet Minister whose whereabouts were not known to the Prime Minister or the top intelligence agencies in the country and it was to a junior functionary in his office that the Prime Minister finally turned to convince the Minister-on-the-run to hand in his papers. Such a poor sense of responsibility in a Cabinet Minister has not prevented Mr Soren's return to a crucial Ministry.

On the face of it, Mr Shinde in the Power Ministry, does not promise to do any better than his two immediate predecessors in the Ministry. Matters have not moved much in this crucial infrastructure Ministry since Mr Suresh Prabhu was forced out of office by his Shiv Sena party chief; power availability continues to be a major drag on the country's economic ambitions. And Mr Shinde's record as the Chief Minister of Maharashtra and his inconsequential stint at the Centre in the yesteryears are not the credentials that inspire hope.

The change in another crucial economic department, that of Mr Mani Shankar Aiyar moving out of the Petroleum Ministry, comes at a time when a number of out-of-the-box initiatives he had launched were ripening. It is true he was at odds with heads of the public sector undertakings working under his ministry, but a change of guard at this juncture could well halt the hectic activities that the Petroleum Ministry was engaged in with the purpose of ensuring India's energy security. Mr Aiyar's departure also brings under a cloud the Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline project and that planned to link India to the Central Asian gas reserves. It remains to be seen whether his successor, Mr Murli Deora, brings as much energy to the cause.