As he strides across his office towards us in his spotless white mundu-kurta, Chidambaram is a man with a purpose, one who has no time for small talk and who brooks no nonsense from anyone: journalists, industrialists, or bureaucrats.

One instantly understands why some of his critics describe him as haughty, but no sooner does he starts speaking than one realizes that he is highly articulate, extremely sharp and a workaholic (it was on a weekend that he agreed to meet us). We understand that when he is curt, it is his disappointment speaking.

After his Harvard stint he was quite enamored of socialism, but soon turned into an economic liberalizer, showing his adaptability to a changing need. Now the demands of coalition politics stipulate that he display similar flexibility, so there is no derision when he refers to Left rhetoric, but makes it clear that his views on reform are quite different from those of the Left parties.

He does not talk much about corporate houses, as he would have in 1991, but of the pulsating India that resides in the rural areas: the farmers, the uneducated, the jobless, and the less fortunate.

The architect of the 'dream budget' of February 1997, stunned the opposition parties yet again with his Budget for 2008-09, when he waived off farm loan to the extent of Rs 60,314-crore (Rs 603.14 billion), cut personal income tax, cut taxes for industry, and increased spend on education, healthcare, irrigation and roads.

In an interview with Managing Editors Sheela Bhatt and Shishir Bhate, Chidambaram spoke about farm loan waiver, the 6th Pay Commission, the Left's stance on reform, job creation, his stint as the finance minister, and what he plans to do for the economy in the coming year. Read on. . .