NEW DELHI, NOV 20: Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee on Saturday promised legal and administrative changes to widen India's eight-year-old economic reform programme, taking the process well beyond its initial diet of deregulation. The population of nearly one billion was crying out for faster growth, and this was possible only through faster reforms, he told business leaders at annual session of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry."People everywhere want water, power, better roads, better hospitals above all they want employment. this all-important endeavour will succeed only by faster economic growth, and more balanced economic growth that removes both regional and social disparities," he said. "I am convinced that faster growth - and we have set a target of 7 to 8 per cent each year - is possible only through faster reforms." India's gross domestic product grew 6 per cent in1998/99 (April-March), compared with 5.0 per cent in 1997 Vajpayee's Hindu nationalist-ledcoalition, which has shed its conservative, inward-looking image to woo foreign investors, won re-election last month in mid-term elections.The Prime Minister said his government had already shown its commitment to reforms in its previous 17-month stint. "We will accelerate and expand this process in the next phase of economic, administrative and legal reforms. financial sector reforms, with the necessary supportive legislative changes, will be an important element of this process," he said.Insurance, market reforms: The new government has begun accelerating a partial privatisation programme in state companies. It has also introduced an insurance reform bill to end a state monopoly in the sector. The bill is expected to be passed in the winter session of Parliament starting at the end of this month. The government has also taken legislative steps to usher in derivatives trading in stock exchanges. Analysts say that economic reforms, started in the early 1990s, have so far failed to address changes incrucial areas such as the legal and administrative sectors.The telecommunications sector for example is still primarily ruled by a British colonial age law, the Indian Telegraph Act, 1885. The government has also had to deal with a tough environment for private firms which entered India to set up telephone companies. The firms have complained against weak regulation.Vajpayee told the conference his government was aware of the issues dogging the telecommunications sector and said an expert group would be set up under Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha to address them. The group will also consider a new law to reflect a convergence of television, computers, telecommunications and electronics, Vajpayee said.Fiscal woes: "The condition of the finance of states, especially, fills us with great worry," Vajpayee said. "Bringing fiscal discipline, both at the centre and in states, will receive high priority." The government's ability to boost foreign and private investment is also hamstrung by a huge fiscaldeficit.Sinha to head telecom panelNEW DELHI: The Central government would soon form a high-powered group chaired by finance minister Yashwant Sinha to resolve the pending issues in the telecom sector, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee said. "I know that several problems still persist in telecom. They include the need to strengthen the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India through suitable legislative amendment, replacement of the Indian Telegraph Act, 1885 with a new comprehensive law that fully reflects the revolutionary convergence of telecom, computers, television, and electronics and a clear roadmap for corporatisation of the DoT," he said.
