Looks like Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh doesn't have anything to worry about, at least for the short term.

As GlobalPost predicted earlier, Singh's United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government is not falling, despite the withdrawal of Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress, because the Samajwadi Party's Mulayam Singh Yadav has stepped in to take her place.

As the Times of India puts it, Yadav's SP, which relies heavily on Muslim votes, will continue to support the UPA because Yadav "does not want to let communal forces [meaning the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)] to come to power."

Yadav's support alone is enough to give the UPA a slim majority. With the outside support of SP (22 seats) and BSP (21 seats), the coalition will continue to have the backing of over 300 MPs in the 545-member parliament, the paper said. For a simple majority, government needs the support of at least 273 MPs.

Meanwhile, Singh looks set to double down on economic reforms, as GlobalPost reported earlier.

According to the Hindustan Times, on Thursday Singh formally notified a measure that will allow "multi-brand" retailers like Walmart into the market with foreign investment of up to 51 percent in local ventures--defying calls to withdraw the move from West Bengal's Mamata Banerjee, whose Trinamool Congress controls 19 parliamentary seats. Moreover, Singh plans to present additional reforms, such as settling an outstanding tax conflict with Vodafone and raising the cap on foreign investment in the insurance sector, in the near future, the paper said.

India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh looks set to double down on economic reforms, even as he faces a rebellion from a key ally that is likely to result in a no-confidence motion next week.

A key ally of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's Congress Party withdrew from the United Progressive Alliance government late Tuesday, raising the specter of early polls if Singh and company cannot secure support elsewhere.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, leader of the Trinamool Congress, withdrew from the coalition after Singh refused to roll back decisions to hike diesel prices by five rupees and allow foreign direct investment of up to 51 percent from "multi-brand" retail companies like Walmart.

Prior to the move, most analysts, including this one, thought Banerjee was bluffing, as she doesn't seem to have a whole lot to gain from early polls. But as right-leaning columnist Kanchan Gupta points out, the unpredictable regional leader appears not only to be severing ties with the Congress, but also laying the groundwork for an alliance with the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (or a possible "third front").

"There are three important points made by Mamata Banerjee while announcing her break with the Congress and the UPA," Gupta writes.

First, she has for the first time publicly accused the Congress of corruption. “Is FDI-gate meant to suppress Coalgate? Many people are asking this question. We are also asking,” she said, taunting the Prime Minister and the Congress.

Second, she has demanded an explanation as to why “black money is not being brought back” and “why is there no action against benaami property and wealth”. The jibe is obviously directed at the Congress leadership and the Prime Minister. It also identifies her and the Trinamool Congress for the first time with the loose confederation of anti-corruption movements.

Third, she has openly accused the Congress of “politics of blackmail” – or “blackmailing politics” as she called it at the media briefing. “I know the Congress better than anybody else. If they have a problem with me, they will reach out to Mayawati. If there’s a problem with Mayawati, they will reach out to Mulayam Singh Yadav. If there’s a problem with the DMK, they will go to the ADMK… But that game is now over.”

By bring up Coalgate, Banerjee has for the first time allied with the anti-corruption movement that has been berating the Congress for more than a year. By attacking the issue of "black money," she has embraced an issue that has long been a favorite of BJP leaders such as Ram Jethmalani, who has accused the most visible Congress leaders of having illegal funds stashed abroad. And by introducing the idea that the Congress has long played her regional party against other regional parties so as to avoid meeting any of their demands, she has implicitly suggested that she might be open to banding together with those regional players to form a third front.

Battling an impression of "policy paralysis" for months, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh pulled two big economic reforms out of his turban on Friday, prompting an immediate threat from one of his allies to pull down the government and force early polls.

For Singh's Congress Party, it's a politically risky move, as Business Standard and others have explained -- though in some quarters it's a "political masterstroke" that has changed Singh from a "ineffectual ditherer" (WashPo) and "underachiever" (Time) to a “courageous reformer," reports Firstpost.in.

One of the reforms, a five rupee hike in the price of diesel designed to cut the deficit by reducing the subsidy the government pays to state-owned oil companies, promises to be deeply unpopular with the middle class and threatens to increase inflation that at higher than 7 percent is already smiting India's poor.

The other -- a move to allow 51 percent foreign direct investment in so-called "multi-brand retail," which will allow stores like Walmart into the market, and 49 percent foreign direct investment in the aviation sector -- has prompted claims from opposition parties and even some of his allies that he is selling out workers in thousands upon thousands of mom and pop "kirana" stores. (Read more about that here).

The last time Singh tried such maneuvers, he was forced to hedge. When he increased petrol prices in May, nationwide protests forced him to accept a partial rollback -- as well as tax cuts and other moves by state governments to reduce the bite.

And when he initially loosened the rules of FDI in retail by cabinet fiat back in November, a threat that Mamata Banerjee, of the Trinamool Congress, would pull down the government by withdrawing from the United Progressive Alliance forced him to put the plan on ice.

Insiders told me in May that the policy paralysis would come to a natural end as the elections -- scheduled for 2014 -- draw nearer. The reason? Campaigns are uncertain and costly affairs, while being part of the government allows Singh's allies to mint money (okay, not literally). If the only difference is a few months, and it's altogether possible that you won't be in any better position after snap polls, there's no upside to pulling down the government. And for every day that passes, the downside for Singh's Congress Party grows smaller.

That's the biggest reason that Singh's latest wave of reforms will probably stick, according to Business Standard.