Is the Indian government in danger of doing too little on two of the most gripping crises of the day: terrorism and economic slowdown?

The question is inspired by the first steps on both fronts. One was bare in details, and the other lacked any muscle.

The creation of an FBI-style central agency to deal exclusively with terrorism might seem like a good idea but cannot be really acknowledged as such until the government is able to provide us some clarity. After all, the devil is in the details.

In a polity like ours, any federal structure is complicated. Already, experts say the problem with a lot of our intelligence is not only in the way it is generated, but also in the way it is shared. Or really speaking, in the way it is not shared between the different security agencies, as well as the armed forces. And then there is the small matter of resurrecting a form of POTA, even if you call it something else, as L K Advani said in an exclusive interview to The New Indian Express.

On the economic front, India’s $4 billion stimulus package is among the puniest one could have anticipated, even given the dire fiscal deficit of around 8 percent. China’s initial stimulus package was worth $590 billion. It now has pledged to raise money supply by 17 percent and raise lending by another $590 billion in 2009.

Increasingly, experts have come around in their thinking, and now believe India will be deeply affected by the global economic crisis, contrary to earlier views. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh emphatically claimed that India’s GDP growth will be maintained at 8 percent. But over the months, the projected growth rate by both the Indian government and a variety of international agencies has steadily declined. The Economist, which featured India in its last issue, is even suggesting India’s growth will decline to 5.5 percent next year.

Singh’s taking over the finance portfolio has raised hopes but so far little good has emerged. In fact, the rather uninspiring stimulus package was released by him. Still, given his stature as an economist, and his record of putting India on an inexorable path of economic reforms in the 1990s, Singh is arguably the best to guide India out of the economic crisis. The Congress Party and the government should put to rest speculation on a new finance minister, and let Singh remain at the helm of financial affairs, while Chidambaram and others handle terrorism.