Unfinished reforms

Now that the UPA government has won the confidence vote of Parliament without the support of its erstwhile coalition partners belonging to left parties, the major objection to some of its important reform measures still pending in the agenda has been removed and the road to move forward with unfinished economic reforms is clear. Moreover, the prevailing situation is also not that unfriendly as to remain away from implementation of the pending reform measures. Though inflation in hovering around 12 per cent at the moment, the economic fundamentals continue to be strong. With the back up of more than 9 per cent growth rate in the last four years and the eleventh plan resounding a good start with 4.5 per cent of agricultural growth in 2007-08 touching a record of 230.7 million tonnes of food gains, the current year economy could be expected to end up with 7.5 to 8 per cent growth. It is not only that the country’s stock market sentiment has revived with renewed confidence immediately after UPA government’s trust vote victory with the sensitive sensex index touching almost 15,000 from the recent fall to 12,000, adding thereby more than Rs 25 trillion to investors’ wealth (on Wednesday). In the given situation, therefore, the nuclear civil cooperation agreement should now be promptly pursued in a vigorous manner so that the deal is taken to logical conclusion as early as possible. This is because realisation of the purpose, meeting the energy deficit of India, will take a number of years and India becoming an economic super power could not be possible without being self-sufficient in energy generation. Secondly, a number of important reform bills have been pending in Parliament, the passage of which are essential for socio-economic development of the nation. The other essential bills relate to reservation for women in public life, insurance reforms, pension reforms, labour reforms, etc. It is important to note that the erstwhile Left coalition partners were also opposed to the raising of FDI cap in insurance sector and entry of foreign investment in consumer goods sector. An important area that requires serious reforms measures is agriculture which has so far been neglected. While the debt waiver and debt relief in agriculture comes to Rs 66,477 crore and the farm credit is expected to cross Rs 2,80,000 crore mark in 2008-09, the benefit to the sector would have been much larger had the government spent this amount in improving agro-infrastructure instead of cash doles and selective debt. source: assam tribune