New Finance Minister P Chidambaram on Tuesday swung into action on the second day after assuming office with a series of meetings with top bureaucrats, Reserve Bank of India Governor Y V Reddy, Securities and Exchange Board of India Chairman G N Bajpai and leading industrialists.

Chidambaram, who had more than one meeting with his secretaries including Expenditure Secretary D Swarup, also in charge of Budget, had an hour-long meeting with RBI Governor Y V Reddy.

"I have assured the finance minister that in our assessment the outlook for prices remain as indicated in the monetary policy. The outlook for price level remains at 5 per cent which is realistic," Reddy said after his meeting with Chidambaram.

The RBI governor said he had given a complete review of the economy and the stance of the monetary policy to the new finance minister.

Chidambaram also met former Finance Minister Jaswant Singh to get himself apprised of the recent economic and financial developments.

Sebi chairman Bajpai is understood to have briefed him about the capital markets, which witnessed turbulence soon after election results ten days ago when stock prices crashed, wiping off Rs 100,000 crore (Rs 1,000 billion) wealth of shareholders.

"We are yet to analyse the data. It will be too premature to say anything now," Bajpai said soon after the meeting when asked whether markets were manipulated after the Lok Sabha poll results were out.

Bajpai did not give a time frame within which the market regulator would complete the probe and submit a report.

The Sebi chief, however, sought to allay fears of any crisis in the market saying: "There is no payment crisis. Our markets are one of the safest in the world."

Bajpai declined to give details of the meeting saying it was a "courtesy call" as Sebi was a functionary under the finance ministry.

IDBI and UTI Mutual Fund chief M Damodaran also called on the new finance minister and other finance ministry officials to apprise them about the latest development.

Chidambaram had a detailed meeting with former Indian Ambassador to the United States, Naresh Chandra, who also heads the committee that is looking into the Dabhol Power project.

Chandra said the Dabhol issue did figure during the discussions with the finance minister but said it was "general" in nature as he did not "bore" the minister with details on his first meeting.

Top industrialists Anil Ambani of Reliance and Kumarmangalam Birla called on the minister and both described the meeting as "courtesy calls".

Planning Commission member and chairman of the committee on FDI, N K Singh, who was revenue secretary when Chidambaram was finance minister in the United Front government of 1996-98, also made a short visit to the new FM.

Asked about the outcome of the meetings, Chidambaram dismissed them as "courtesy calls."