India to be part of Asia's common currency

The Indian government is likely to step up its efforts to join the league of Asian countries that are working on a plan to evolve a common currency unit. This comes in the wake of finance ministers of Asean nations making it almost clear that they would not take India into account while studying the viability of a common unit, though there has not been any loud thinking among the other Asian countries about it. Finance minister P Chidambaram does not seem very happy about the 'dancing elephant' being kept away, though formally he said, "We are neither happy nor unhappy about it."Speaking to newspersons on the sidelines of the annual meeting of the Asian Development Bank (ADB), he was not very optimistic about the prospects of formation of a common currency unit in the near future. "Asian currency unit is not going to happen overnight. It will take a very long long time and we cannot set a timeframe for that. However, over a period of time, it may become possible,"he said. However, on the free trade area (FTA) proposed by prime minister Manmohan Singh during his address on Friday, the finance minister said, "sooner or later we have to come to terms with the fact that the world will move towards free trade. Once, if and when, Doha development round reaches a successful conclusion, trade barriers would become fewer." According to him, the government is also working on bonding with several other countries that would help create a free trade area. "We are carefully working on the proposal. We are also very selective and careful in finalising the terms and conditions of joining other participant countries in FTA. There is strong support for a bond with Japan and possibly with China." Interestingly, the finance minister is in favour of ADB lowering its lending rates to pre-2000 days. "ADB's loan charges as compared to the cost of funds from other sources are critical for growth of the bank's business. The financial parameters of the bank have been robust for four consecutive years now. Loan charges should be restored to the lower levels that prevailed before the year 2000. The commitment fee should not be treated as a source of income (for the bank) and it should be possible either to eliminate or substantially reduce the commitment fee through improvements in operations and internal efficiency of the bank,"Chidambaram said while speaking at the bank's board of governors' meeting.