"Food is a complex issue and fertiliser is more complex than food, " Finance Minister P Chidambaram concedes.

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Finance Minister P Chidambaram is due to present the budget next week for the financial year starting April.

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India's Home Minister P Chidambaram said the detentions were because protesters had not obeyed police conditions for the demonstration.

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Finance minister P Chidambaram said that foreign investment was still welcome and that a ban on the notes was not intended.

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Finance Minister P Chidambaram said the scheme would benefit more than 200, 000 people initially, and would cover the entire country by the end of 2013.

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With one eye on the global rating agencies that threatened to downgrade India to junk status, P Chidambaram has ruthlessly slashed expenditure in 2012-13 to contain the fiscal deficit.

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Finance Minister P Chidambaram, who met Mr Karunanidhi on Monday night to try talk him round, said there was no crisis and the "government is absolutely stable, it will stay in power".

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Meanwhile, Finance Minister P Chidambaram has pledged to cut India's public deficit to 4.6% of the GDP in the next financial year beginning 1 April, from 5.2% in the current financial year.

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Finance Minister P Chidambaram has also pledged to cut India's public deficit to 4.6% of the GDP in the next financial year beginning 1 April, from 5.2% in the current financial year.

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