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NAME: P. CHIDAMBARAM
AGE: 61
DESIGNATION: Finance Minister, Government of India |
DAPPER AND COURTEOUS; EXTREMELY
INTELLIGENT BUT EQUALLY IMPLACABLE—THAT IS Finance Minister
P. Chidambaram for you. A lawyer by profession, and one of India’s
most successful ones at that, the 61-year-old Member of Parliament
from Sivaganga in Tamil Nadu has either admirers or detractors.
There are few who are indifferent to him. And this is unlikely to
change when he presents the Budget for 2007-08 on February 28. The
all-round prosperity that India has been experiencing in the past
few years will probably face its first challenges in the coming
year. As India readies for the growth versus inflation battle, there
will be good reason to read between the lines he delivers in his
measured, precise, clipped accent. By most measures, Chidambaram
is the man for the job. Mandarins in the finance ministry vouch
for his brilliance. “He is razor-sharp. It is quite a challenge
and a pleasure to work with him,” says a colleague at North
Block. An investment banker, who has often worked with Chidambaram
the lawyer, says he is a man with an eye for detail. His budgets,
in some senses, reflect that trait. “He is quite determined
and sticks to his ground once he has made a decision,” the
banker says. No wonder, he hasn’t budged on the securities
transaction tax, fringe benefit tax and the banking cash withdrawal
tax despite widespread criticism of these levies. Political opponents
may or may not admire these traits, but even they admit he has handled
his brief rather well. Whether by chance or otherwise, both his
terms as Finance Minister—in the United Front government of
the mid-90s and in this government—have been marked by high
growth rates. And to think he almost didn’t get the job this
time. He had parted ways with the Congress and joined the Tamil
Manila Congress following the party’s defeat in the 1996 general
elections and returned to the fold only in 2004. But all that is
now water under the bridge. When he rises to present his sixth Budget
(and fourth
successive one) next Wednesday, the entire nation will listen
with rapt attention.
-SHALINI S. DAGAR
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