PM unveils eight-point economic agenda

Emphasising that implementation of policies was the first and foremost challenge for accelerating GDP growth rate to 8 per cent and beyond, Vajpayee said “our government has shown that we are determined to bridge the gap between promise and performance.”

Vajpayee said that a high-level working group under the industry secretary would soon recommend concrete steps to re-engineer the entire set of regulatory processes at the Central, State and municipal levels. He assured that it would be government’s endeavour to ensure that “the poor and the unorganised sector have access to savings, credit and insurance services”.

The PM regretted that nearly half of the power sold was not billed and much of what was billed was not collected. “More or less this is true about higher education, public transport, municipal services and so on. No reform can succeed if this sad state of affairs persists,” he cautioned. Vajpayee also said that the government would soon launch an initiative for accelerated completion of railway projects which are both, critical and remunerative.