Amid fervent calls for bold decisions in the economic front,Union Minister Ashwani Kumar today said major reforms are possible only after the forthcoming Presidential polls. "We are currently pursuing the task of building a broad political consensus (on reforms). We are hopeful that we'll be able to do so only after the Presidential elections in mid-July," the Union Minister of State for Planning told reporters on sidelines of an event here. "Right now the nation's attention is limited to the Presidential elections. Things will fall in place (once it is over)." Among the major pending reforms,he cited specifically about FDI in multi-brand retail,easing investment norms for foreign institutional investors and higher overseas investment in insurance. Kumar,however,clarified that there are political compulsions which the government is aware of and it will try to take all the allies on board before moving forward. "We would like to proceed after building a political consensus so that the steps that have been taken actually succeed in terms of being implemented." The government has been repeatedly fumbling in carrying forward its reform agenda,with the recent example being the FDI move in multi-brand retail which was put on hold due to pressure from key UPA ally Trinamool Congress.
