10 per cent growth by 2008 feasible: PM
by Gyanendra Kumar Keshri

     New Delhi: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said here on Tuesday that considering the present economic scenario in the country, India should be targeting a 10 percent growth rate in two to three years' time. "This is eminently feasible if we have the expected increase in our savings rate arising out of a young workforce, if we manage to make a quantum leap in the growth rate of agriculture, if investment in infrastructure provides a fresh impetus to industry and if services continue with their impressive performances," said Dr. Singh addressing the closing session of the 21st India Economic Summit 2005 organised jointly by the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) and the World Economic Forum.

    He emphasised that the policies of the UPA government were growth friendly. "When the UPA government came to office, there were worries about the direction of our policies. There were worries that the economy may falter and that we may sacrifice fiscal stability," said Dr. Singh. He said that over the last 18 months, policies relating to investment, taxation, external trade, banking and finance, FDI, capital markets and small scale industries had all evolved towards making Indian industry and enterprises efficient, globally competitive and as free from restrictions as possible. "We have been fiscally prudent and macroeconomic stability has been maintained without sacrificing essential expenditures on social and physical infrastructure," he said adding that his government had a vision of India, which was determined to fashion - a vision of an inclusive, prosperous, democratic and equitable. "The direction is visible and I assure you that we will not falter in this regard," he said. The Prime Minister pointed out that India economy had been growing at an unprecedented rate. "Following an eight percent growth on the rebound in 2003-04, we grew by almost 7 percent last year and are likely to grow by about 7.5 percent this year," said Dr. Singh. "The estimates of many economic think tanks predict that we are likely to average 7.5 percent growth per annum in the next four years," he added. However, he expressed concern over the very low agricultural growth in the last few years. "While the 10th Plan assumed that agricultural production would grow at the rate of four percent, the reality is that in the first three years of the Plan we have not been able to ensure even 1.5 percent rate of growth," he said. "I am convinced that our farmers - like our industrialist are among the beast in the world and can compete with the best," said Dr Singh. He emphasised on the need for liberating Indian agriculture from controls that shackle their potential. "We have nudged many states into amending the APMC Acts and removing constraints on agricultural trade," he said. "An Integrated Food Law, transferable warehouse receipts and advanced Forward market in commodities, along with amendments to the Essential Commodities Act, are major steps towards having a single integrated market for agriculture in India," he said. "I see immense opportunities for private enterprise in agriculture," he added.

Poor infrastructure and not policy a constraint to FDI: PM

     Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said here on Tuesday that it was not policy but badly designed procedures and poor infrastructure which were constraints to the flow of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the country. "I have often heard complaints from many corners that we have not made progress in our FDI policy. In fact, my own assessment is that today we have one of the most liberal FDI regimes in the world," said Dr. Singh addressing the closing session of the 21st India Economic Summit 2005 organised jointly by the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) and the World Economic Forum. He pointed out that his government had unshackled FDI policies in telecom, publishing, real estate and in asset reconstruction firms. "The troublesome Press Note 18 has been done away with," he said. "Barring the financial, retailing and coal mining sectors, we are extremely liberal in welcoming FDI," said Dr Singh. He said that a Group of Ministers (GoM) was examining ways of rationalising the current FDI regime so that there were less red tape. "Sometimes, our ability to create bureaucratic hurdles in the way of enterprise amazes me," he said. On FDI in retail, the Prime Minister said, "we are engaged in an intellectually stimulating exercise to understand the possibilities that exist in opening up this sector and how best we can harness it for our needs." Appreciating the progress of India enterprises, he said that Indian enterprise had proved to the world that it was capable of taking on competition when it set out to do so. "In 1985, when first Summit met, no one had even heard of Infosys or Wipro, no one had imagined that a Telco car would compete with Japanese cars," said Dr Singh. "We now have a track record of success in some areas to feel confident that we can replicate these success stories in other sectors," he said.

Democracy exerts its own pressures to
reduce corruption: Montek

"I am sure the democratic process would exert its own pressure on the system to make it more transparent and find solutions to corruption". This was stated here by Dr.Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission at an interactive session entitled 'Growth in an Era of Global Competition' at the India Economic Summit 2005 jointly organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and the World Economic Forum today. Ahluwalia stated that the Govt. was trying to make the system more transparent. Ahluwalia stressed that the Government was using information technology and communication to simplify procedures and "we have a more transparent system functioning than ever before." He pointed out that the issues of infrastructure and corruption were often linked by the media. Dr.Ahluwalia differed with a suggestion that corruption in India was linked to funding of political parties by industry. There were countries that had no private funding of elections but issues of .

Fresh impetus, new strategies for Middle East initiatives

     Speaking at a session on 'India and the Middle East: Looking Beyond Oil' during the India Economic Summit 2005, organised jointly by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and the World Economic Forum, Rajiv Sikri, Secretary, East, Ministry of External Affairs, said that India and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries are preparing to sign a free trade agreement (FTA) by next year. "This affords an opportunity to Indian companies for investing in the Middle East," he said. The region is an excellent market and investment destination. The government and industry need to put their heads together to evolve a strategy to attract investments from the region and high-value tourists and students, Sikri said.

It is advantage India in the world

    The global environment is in India's favour but the execution, speed of distribution and implementation of reforms are critical focal points for India. These were some of the key messages from the India Economic Summit 2005, organized jointly by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and the World Economic Forum (WEF) that concluded here today. India needs to reduce government deficit through proper pricing and targeted subsidies for long term gains. Reforms need to percolate down to the state level. Reducing bureaucracy by streamlining government procedures to make them more transparent and effective was another key point. The summit made several recommendations on growth drivers within India. It should maximize the demographic dividend by improving education, innovative vocational training and re-skilling the workforce. India could become the knowledge hub of the world using ICT, encouraging innovation and research while simultaneously enforcing intellectual property rights (IPR). India needs to deepen the links between its urban and rural economies, that would unleash the demand potential of 600 million people who currently earned less than two dollars a day. It could develop its manufacturing capabilities, the summit recommendations say, by encouraging foreign investment, increasing scale and continuing to set up special economic zones. Indian industry, the summit said, needed to invest in agriculture to push farm sector growth to over four percent. It needed to share responsibility with the government to improve environmental management, empower women to contribute to economic growth and increase investment in R and D towards preventing malaria, TB and HIV/AIDS.