Prime Minister convenes meeting of Council of Ministers today

New Delhi, Nov 1: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has called a meeting of his full Council of Ministers on Thursday during which he is expected to set individual targets to be achieved in the remaining tenure of the government.

This is perhaps the third time when a meeting of the entire Council of Ministers has been convened by Singh.

Besides the Prime Minister, the meeting would also be addressed by Finance Minister P Chidambaram.

Official sources said a higlight of the meeting would be the Prime Minister's efforts to revive the economy and he is expected to seek greater coordination among his colleagues to implement key decisions taken in the recent past.

Among the issues pending to be tackled are a number of legislations related to financial and education sectors like the Goods and Services Tax Bill and the Educational Tribunal Bill.

Also likely to be flagged are the Land Acquisition and Rehabilitation Bill and the National Food Security legislation over which differences were being ironed out.

The meeting comes after the Prime Minister carried out reshuffle of his Council of Ministers on Sunday by inducting 17 new faces and re-assigning responsibilities, especially to young ministers.

Ministers of State, who do not get to attend the weekly meetings of the Union Cabinet, would get an opportunity to air their views.

The first meeting of the Council of Ministers was convened in May 2009, soon after the UPA-II government assumed office.

Another such meeting was convened by the Prime Minister when junior ministers had complained of seniors not allocating them enough work.