PM tightens his grip on India's economic matters

India's economic downslide has forced Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to encroach into the domain of Petroleum Minister S Jaipal Reddy and Industries and Commerce Minister Anand Sharma in the last two days.

Also in store are the "hard decisions" he hinted at the UPA-II's third anniversary celebration dinner at his residence on May 22, with the PMO sources hinting that opening of the multi-product retail trade to foreign investors, despite opposition from the UPA partners, may be one such decision taken this month.

His latest order, on Friday, was about setting up an Investment Tracking System for fast-tracking all mega projects of Rs 1,000 crore (Rs 10 billion) plus, not only in the public sector but also in the private sector. Two bodies will track the projects and report to him every three months to let him remove blockades causing delay.

Only on Thursday, he set up a panel headed by his economic advisory council chairman C Rangarajan to review the production sharing contracts (PSC) signed by companies to explore and produce oil and gas in the wake of controversy raging over steep fall in output from Mukesh Ambani-owned Reliance's KG-D6 gas fields.

He will thus handle the matter himself after Petroleum Minister Jaipal Reddy rejected a PMO directive last month to accede the RIL demand to revise the gas price ahead of the scheduled 2014 deadline. Reddy suspects that RIL has deliberately reduced production to force higher price that will benefit it by around $8 billion. Reddy opposed since it will push up the government's subsidy bill.

Formation of the Rangarajan panel comes after Reddy proposed that the revision issue be placed before the empowered Group of Ministers (eGoM) headed by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee.

A PMO press release says the PM approved the Investment Tracking System for speedy implementation of the major investment projects that are getting delayed for a variety of reasons as their fast forward will provide a fresh impetus to the economy.

He wants quarterly reports on the delays faced by projects on multiple fronts like security clearances, environmental and forest clearances, land related matters and other issues to tackle them quick and fast. He won't break the rules coming in the way of projects but tweak them as the release says: "While existing rules and laws have to be followed, it was widely felt that a lot of the delay is avoidable if only there is a will to resolve matters."

The Department of Financial Services in the Finance Ministry has been asked to monitor mega projects in the private sector, using data available with the banking sector, while the National Manufacturing Competitiveness Council will monitor Rs 1,000 crore plus public sector projects.