Thursday, July 22, 2010

Meeting with Union Finance Minister

In Delhi, we met Shri Pranab Mukherjee, Finance Minster of India at his office today. It was 8 pm. Minister Asok Bhattacharya led our little delegation. It was my first face to face interaction with him (Union FM). It was amazing to find how meticulous he still is : he read, line by line, the whole two page note that was handed over to him. There was little explanation to be done: he got on the issue immediately.

The meeting was about using some JnNRUM funds earmarked for larger cities for the smaller ones. (The issue is more complex than it appears !)

The room was beautiful: huge (size of a tennis court), with wooden floors and bright concealed warm yellow lights. Tastefully decorated, with photos of some great persons on the walls. Book shelf, sofas and a meeting table for 15 or so.  He offered us some tea, and separately called for biscuits too.

Shri Mukherjee was wearing a grey banddhgala coat. He talked to the Minister in Bengali but to me in English. But I thought, he needed to take a break and get some rest: he looked a bit tired and weary to me.
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Ms Aditi Dass of Climate Change has sent me photos of an LED street light. This is after she read my last blog post. Here is the picture:

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