releases of CRR funds have also remained unexploited for productive tendings; banks, instead, have curtailed their use of refinance from the RBI Now a stage has been reached where there are no takers for bank credit because of the reduced industrial investmentand production activities. This stalemate could have been broken if only Chidambaram had not resorted to a regime of rigid fiscal contraction during 1996-97 and thereafter. He has sought to contain the fiscal deficit at 5 percent of GDP against 5.5 percentin 1995-96.For achieving