India?s prime minister-elect, Manmohan Singh, laid out his vision for the new government yesterday, promising to balance raising living standards for India?s billion people while promoting business and investment.

?The priority... will be to do everything needed to wage the battle against poverty,? he said at his first major news conference since President Abdul Kalam asked him on Wednesday to form a government.

Singh?s economic vision appeared deliberately non-confrontational and designed to appeal to wide sections of society.

It broadly follows the reforms he initiated as finance minister more than a decade ago and which were carried forward by the Bharatiya Janata Party-led coalition ousted in last week?s national election.

But promising reforms with a human face, Singh is softening the BJP?s privatisation programme, pledging not to sell state banks or energy giants Oil and Natural Gas Corp and GAIL India.

India?s stock market, which took a battering during the election and the chaos that followed as Singh?s Congress party built its coalition and searched for a premier, fell at the opening but then recovered slightly.

The benchmark index was dragged down as much as one percent in early trade by steep falls for ONGC and GAIL.

?We believe India needs a strong private sector, India needs a strong public sector,? Singh said, adding his government would also create an investor-friendly environment.

Touching on foreign policy, Singh, who expects his government to take power on Sunday, said continuing the BJP?s peace process with nuclear rival Pakistan would also be a priority.

Members of the Congress-led coalition are jockeying for key ministries ahead of the swearing in, with markes anxiously watching who the 71-year-old former bureaucrat and central bank governor will choose as his finance minister.

Singh had been favourite for that role himself before being catapulted into the top job by the shock withdrawal of Congress chief Sonia Gandhi.

<B>Key post</B>

The new finance minister will drive economic policy and have the difficult job of ensuring that reforms are not derailed while keeping pivotal left-wing allies of the coalition on board.

Two former finance and trade ministers, Pranab Mukherjee, a commerce graduate from Calcutta, and P. Chidambaram, a Harvard-educated lawyer-turned-politician, are front-runners.

Bimal Jalan, another former central bank governor, is also in the running.

The rise of Singh, a Sikh and India?s first non-Hindu prime minister, ended days of uncertainty that panicked investors, who feared the new coalition would be unstable and could row back on the reforms that have brought an industrial boom in India.

Markets firmed on Wednesday as it became increasingly clear Singh, seen as able to keep his communist allies under control, would take the helm of Asia?s third largest economy and one of the world?s fastest-growing.

And despite the early market falls yesterday, economic analysts said the general response to Singh was positive.

?We have an intellectual and an economist, and a man with a clean image for prime minister, and that is a big positive for the markets and the economy, and for foreign investments,? said Dharmesh Mehta, head of broking at Enam Securities.

?Also, the process leading up to his selection has only strengthened the coalition and expectations are that it will be a stable government,? he said.

Earlier, markets had worried over anti-reform comments by the leftists and doubts about Gandhi?s ability to control her partners.

The 57-year-old Italian-born Gandhi, the torch-bearer of the Nehru-Gandhi political dynasty, shocked her colleagues and tens of millions of grassroots supporters on Tuesday when she gave up her claim to the top job after her surprise ousting of the BJP.

Gandhi said she wanted to spare her coalition from damaging attacks over her foreign birth, although local media speculated fears that she would become the target of militant nationalists also played a part (see column).

Friday is the 13th anniversary of the day her husband, former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, was assassinated by a suicide bomber in the town of Sriperumbudur in southern Tamil Nadu state. Singh and Sonia Gandhi will travel to the town to mark the day.

Rajiv?s mother, India?s ?Iron Lady? Indira Gandhi, another former prime minister, was assassinated in 1984.

<B>Column

Why Sonia Gandhi refused to be prime minister</B>

By refusing to be the prime minister, was Sonia Gandhi listening to her conscience or was it because she was on legally shaky ground on the citizenship issue?

Media reports are claiming that the latter is the case. Some newspapers reported that the president of India talked to Gandhi at length on Tuesday and explained to her that her candidature for PM is on a legally shaky ground.

But the President?s office on Wednesday denied that President A P J Abdul Kalam had discussed the citizenship issue with Gandhi at all when she met him on Tuesday.

But even if the Prez did not raise the issue, others might have had that Gandhi wanted to go on to become prime minister.

According to Section 5 of the Citizenship Act of 1955, Gandhi may not have the right to assume the office of prime minister of India. Under Section 5, the rights and privileges allowed to foreigners who become citizens by application (not by birth) are conditional upon the rights and privileges granted to Indians in the country of the concerned person (Italy in this case). So, a lot would depend on whether India-born people who become Italian citizens are permitted to become prime minister of that country.

Other legal obstacles to Gandhi?s becoming PM apparently come from Articles 102 and 103 of the Constitution. Article 102 says: ?A person shall be disqualified for being chosen as, and for being, a member of either House of Parliament? on any or more of five possible grounds. Clause(d) of the same article says ?... or is under any acknowledgement of allegiance or adherence to a foreign state?.

The Pioneer report says: The term ?adherence? had to be clarified specifically as Ms Gandhi in her affidavit before the returning officer of the Rai Bareli Parliamentary constituency had stated that she owned ancestral property, namely a portion of a house, in Orbassano, Italy, the country of her origin. This fact of ownership, legal experts say, makes her subject to Italian law in this matter and could be interpreted as ?adherence? to a foreign country. Since this portion of the ancestral property was apparently bequeathed to her by her father in his will, she inherited it only after his death. Consequently, the property was not hers when she filed her 1999 nomination affidavit.

Article 103 states that ?if any question arises as to whether a member of either House of Parliament has become subject to disqualification mentioned in Article 102, the question shall be referred for the decision to the President and his decision shall be final?. Clause 2 of the Article says: ?Before giving any decision on such question, the President shall obtain the opinion of the Election Commission and shall act according to such opinion.?

Of course, the issue is academic now, unless Gandhi plans to become prime minister in the future, but, this time around, it may have put obstacles in her path which would have harmed both her and the Congress-lead alliance.

(Times of India)

Terry Friel