For India, economy takes the top priority

A Bollywood blockbuster last year, Singh is King, showed a small-town do-gooder taking over and transforming the empire of an Indian gangster in Australia. Part of that fiction can be seen as reality in Indian politics, which has come to be known as the last resort of scoundrels.

Manmohan Singh, an Oxford University educated economist and former finance minister who began India's reforms in early 1990s, is in his second term as prime minister. Known for his honesty and integrity as a politician and efficacy as a technocrat, Singh can be seen as playing the do-gooder in Indian politics. And as a start, the new council of ministers carries his stamp.

The global economic crisis has made Singh "doubly indispensable" for India. Congress Party-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) chairperson Sonia Gandhi and her son and budding party leader Rahul Gandhi have reinforced that belief by making it clear that he is the undisputed leader of the Indian government.