London, September 20
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh used his first stopover in London to assure the world community that India’s economic reforms are firmly on course and that its policy on hiking foreign investments in areas like insurance remains unchanged.
“The government’s final policy on the FDI remains what the Finance Minister announced in the Budget,” Dr Singh told a group of high profile British CEOs over an hour-long breakfast meeting today.
Dr Singh’s repeated assurance on the future of economic reforms came as a response to the innumerable queries that he faced on this issue, given the nature of India’s ruling coalition. The British community’s scepticism regarding the future of economic reforms was fairly evident during today’s interaction.
He was specifically asked whether the issue of FDI hike in insurance sector had figured in his last meeting with the Left on the eve of his departure for this weeklong trip to the United Kingdom and New York.
Replying in the affirmative, Dr Singh admitted the Left was not completely on board on this issue and there was a need for a further dialogue with them. He, however, hoped that things would be sorted out before the next session of Parliament.
Given the nagging doubts on the Left parties’ vociferous opposition to foreign investments, Dr Singh went out on a limb to reiterate the UPA Government’s commitment to economic reforms. He described India’s reform process to the country’s genius given the fact that these had survived three governments.
Dr Singh made a pointed reference to the development of a new port in West Bengal with foreign investments to make the point that the Left parties are not completely closed to the idea of foreign investments. The Chairman of P & O, the firm that is West Bengal’s partner in this project, was present at the meeting. He expressed satisfaction with the progress of the project.
Dr Singh also clarified that though they do not accept privatisation as an ideology, “we take a pragmatic view on it. Whenever it serves a national purpose, we will pursue privatisation.”
In response to another query, Dr Singh maintained that there was no earth-shattering reason to privatise profit-making PSUs functioning in a competitive environment.
