In an apparent bid to check manipulations and price rigging, Divestment Minister Arun Shourie on Friday suggested creation of an 'economic intelligence unit' to monitor markets and said he had mooted the idea before Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister.
"I have asked the prime minister and the deputy prime minister to consider an economic intelligence unit where there is a centralised collection of economic intelligence," Shourie told reporters after a series of meetings with top officials to monitor the progress of public offer in five companies for sale of government equity.
He said such a unit would help get timely information about every thing from stock market to commodity and other spheres of economy for the government to react swiftly, and clarified that no formal proposal had been made for this yet.
Shourie's suggestion assumes significance in the wake of his recent assertion that the government identified certain people who pulled down share prices during public offers in anticipation of up to 10 per cent discount in floor prices from the level of previous closing of the share of the particular company.
Asked if he had informed Prime Minister A B Vajpayee about the success of the issues so far, Shourie said he was in constant touch with the prime minister, the deputy prime minister and the finance minister.
On the criticism from Congress that Shourie was speaking more as an editor (while dealing with divestment issues),
he said the comment was political.
"You see the results, even if I speak as an editor," he said.
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