Deputy Prime Minister Lal Kishenchand Advani on Sunday reiterated that the National Democratic Alliance government was fully committed to pursuing economic reforms.

Inaugurating the four-day CII 9th Partnership Summit in Hyderabad, Advani said, "We are well aware of the ill-effects of the ballooning non-plan expenditure of central and state governments. Pruning it will take time. In the meantime, we cannot keep the much-needed investments in critical infrastructure sectors on hold."

"We have to create an conducive atmosphere to so that FDI can supplement our domestic investments. We want to pursue our programme of divestment and restructuring PSUs," he added.

However, Advani made it clear that "Whether it is the issue of FDI or PSU divestments policy or any other such issue, we do not want to imitate any particular model of reforms. We will be guided primarily by what is in our national interest and in the interest of fair competition."

He said India has been pursuing economic reforms without social upheaval. "Despite some problems in power sector reforms, there has been a steady expansion of consensus on reforms. Even in Kolkata, one could hear the language of reforms being spoken," he remarked.

He was referring to West Bengal, which is ruled by the CPI-M led Left Front, one of severest critics of economic reforms.

In his hour-long speech, the deputy prime minister said the Indian economy has demonstrated remarkable resilience at a time when growth in developed economies has visibly slowed down. Pointing out that India has continued to grow at more than five per cent over the last four years, he said, "We are not satisfied with this growth rate; we want to nearly double it in the Tenth Plan period."

"We did not suffer from the South Asian crisis or any other external financial shocks. Today, our rupee is stable; indeed it is appreciating. Our foreign exchange reserves are at a record level of nearly $70 billion. Bucking the global slowdown in the Information Technology sector, our software exports have risen to nearly Rs 400 billion (Rs 40,000 crore). Who could have imagined this just a decade ago?" he observed.

Advani said that the resilience of the Indian economy was also proved by its capacity to absorb the adversity caused by a severe drought in 14 states, the worst in several decades.

"I do not claim there are no shortcomings. But for a country as vast as India, we have managed the drought situation quite satisfactorily. India today has one of the largest food-for-work programmes, with an outlay of Rs 100 billion (Rs 10,000 crore), of which half is in the form of foodgrains given to the states free of cost," he said.

He said that despite an unfavourable monsoon, prices have been held in check. A country, which not long ago imported foodgrains to feed its citizens, was today exporting foodgrains worth Rs 60 billion (Rs 6,000 crore) to 25 countries. Today, the problem is not of food scarcity but food surplus," he told the gathering.

Pointing out that India today has perhaps the fastest growing telecom sectors with the lowest tariffs in the world, he said, "Our world-class telecom and Internet services have enabled India's IT companies -- both big ones and small start-ups -- to capture the global market in IT-enabled services."

Drawing attention to the National Highway development project, with an outlay of Rs 500 billion (Rs 55,000 crore), he said it is one of the biggest success stories in contemporary India.

He said there was need for a national consensus on reforms 'and we shall work towards this end with utmost seriousness'.

"India's resilience and growth on the economic front comes on top of an equally remarkable stability on the political front. Two months ago, the NDA government, under Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, crossed an important milestone -- it completed three years in office in its second term. Two months from now, it will cross another major milestone -- it will complete five years in office, taking its two uninterrupted terms together," he said.

From 1988 to 1998, India had seen seven prime ministers, but since 1998, the country has only one. "Vajpayee's leadership has proved that coalition governments at the Centre can be stable and can deliver. This immensely beneficial experience will be further consolidated in the future," he added.

More reports from Andhra Pradesh

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