After a gap of about four years, P. Chidambaram on Wednesday returned as head of the Finance Ministry amid urgency to give a boost to the sagging economy.
Earlier in the day, Mr. Chidambaram went to the Home Ministry for a short while and thereafter took charge of the new portfolio. He is also believed to have met Congress president Sonia Gandhi in the morning.
Mr. Chidambaram is returning to the crucial portfolio at a time when the country’s economic growth has slipped to a nine-year low of 6.5 per cent during 2011-12 and there was an urgent need to restore confidence of foreign and domestic investors.
He had left the Finance Ministry to succeed Shivraj Patil as Home Minister, days after the November 2008 Mumbai terror attack.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had been holding charge of the Finance Ministry after Pranab Mukherjee quit on June 26 to contest presidential elections.
Besides Chidambaram, Arvind Mayaram took charge as secretary in the Department of Economic Affairs (DEA) in the Finance Ministry replacing R. Gopalan.
—-PTI