Anand Sharma takes charge of commerce and industry portfolio

India's new commerce and industry minister, Anand Sharma said on Friday that India will intensify its global economic engagement in sync with the country's profile, and the government will take ''every possible'' step to boost  industry.

"We shall see to it that in the global context our economic engagement is intensified as it is expected of a country of India's profile," Sharma told reporters.

Sharma was minister of state for external affairs in the previous UPA government and said that he would benefit from his earlier assignment.
 
He said the he would benefit from his earlier experiences and added that economic diplomacy was part of the global engagement.

Sharma, 56, thanked  UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and prime minister Manmohan Singh  for reposing trust and confidence in him.

Sharma who said he was taking on a "challenging responsibility", takes charge of the trade ministry at a time when India's exports have suffered a severe setback in the global downturn.

Also, the pace of economic growth has fallen sharply following the robust growth over previous years. For 2008-09, the GDP growth was down to 6.7 per cent against 9 nine per cent in the previous fiscal.