New Delhi, September 7
Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee today outlined a 14-point reforms roadmap aimed at putting the Indian economy on a high-growth trajectory by removing the barriers in the path of balanced development and sustained focus on infrastructure.

The reforms programme, as outlined by the Prime Minister at a meeting of the Council of Trade and Industry, concentrates on boosting public investment in infrastructure, speedier project implementation, faster rural development, better management of the food economy, labour market reforms and overall employment generation.

“We recognise that at the heart of the slowdown is the crisis of productive investment in the economy. We also recognise that this crisis can be ended only by dramatically stepping up public investment, thereby enabling private investments to ride on the back of higher public investment,” Mr Vajpayee told the Trade and Industry Council comprising top industrialists.

The Centre will also prepare an action plan, in consultation with state governments, for the removal of regulatory and non-financial barriers, he said.

“Removal of these barriers, especially in such sectors that have a high potential for increasing productivity and employment, will help us increase our GDP growth by at least two or three percentage points without a proportionate increase in investment”, the Prime Minister said.

An investment of over Rs 5,000 crore has been earmarked during the coming year for the ambitious National Highway Development Project (NHDP), he said, adding that the amount would be increased during the following year.

The NHDP project, once completed, will lay thousands of kilometres of expressway in the form of an East-West, North-South corridor spreading across the entire country. The first phase of the project is expected to be completed by 2003.

Terming the Railways as “high priority”, the Prime Minister said the first year’s spending plan for the five-year Railway Safety Fund would soon be finalised.

“A comparable amount of investment will also be mobilised for the accelerated completion of many critical and remunerative Railway projects which have been languishing for a long time for want of resources,” Mr Vajpayee said.

Mr Vajpayee asserted that the hurdles in the modernisation of all major airports would be speedily removed.

In the power sector, he said the plan to revive and reform the state electricity boards would be implemented. “We will especially focus on reforms in the distribution sector,” he said.

Regarding the controversial Enron project, the Prime Minister said the Centre, in cooperation with the Maharashtra government, financial institutions, and other partners “will facilitate an early and amicable resolution of the problem surrounding the Dabhol power project.”

The Prime Minister also sought to dispel the notion that labour market reforms would create widespread unemployment in the country.

“I would also like to dispel all misgivings and fears that changes in labour laws will be at the cost of the interests of labourers. We have ample global evidence that these changes will actually create large-scale new employment which is the need of the hour,” he observed. Urban infrastructure, he said, had been identified as a priority area and the government would remove legal hurdles in this regard and give housing construction a big fillip.

The government will also look into innovative ways of using the vast surplus land with different government agencies to generate resources for capital investment and to support housing for the poor.

Indicating the government’s concern about the poor pace of implementation of Centrally funded projects, the Prime Minister said new monitoring and implementation mechanism under the guidance of the Ministry of Programme Implementation would be created to address the issue.

“We will seek the help of the best professionals in the private sector with a proven record in project implementation,” he said.

“The Cabinet Secretary has been entrusted with the task of preparing a blueprint for faster and effective approval of all developmental projects and programmes by doing away with bureaucratic rules and procedures that result in heavy time and cost overruns. The blueprint will be prepared within two months,” he said.

The Prime Minister said reservation would be removed in those small scale industries which have enormous potential for exports and employment generation. “There is already a Group of Ministers involved in this process,” he said.

The government will also step up public spending in rural development programmes “which have a potential to create large-scale employment and also stimulate demand in the rural economy,” he said.

An amount of Rs 5,000 crore will be invested in the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana this year. “We will launch within this month the Rs 10,000 crore Sampoorna Grameen Rozgar Yojana. For the first time, we are providing Rs 5,000 crore worth of foodgrains in the food-for-work programmes to create durable rural assets,” Mr Vajpayee said.

He disclosed that a national tourism policy would be formulated before the end of this year.

In a stern message to industry to put their house in order, the Prime Minister expressed concern over the “worrisome developments” in the financial sector and said “these developments had also shown up the overall poor standards of corporate governance.