The Hindu Business Line : Panel to review economic laws, rules

The Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, with the Finance Minister, Mr P. Chidambaram, and the Minister for Commerce and Industry, Mr Kamal Nath, at a meeting of the Prime Minister's Council on Trade and Industry in the Capital on Saturday. Also seen is the Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission, Dr Montek Singh Ahluwalia. - Kamal Narang

New Delhi , Dec. 4

THE UPA Government has decided to set up a standing committee to review all economic legislations and rules on a continuous basis. The committee will have representation from both the Government and the industry.

This was decided at the second meeting of the newly constituted Prime Minister's Council on Trade and Industry.

The Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, who chaired the meeting, called on the industry to come up with international best practices on various procedures and rules that require changes in the Indian context.

(From left) The Hindustan Lever Chairman, Mr M.S. Banga, the Reliance Industries Ltd Chairman, Mr Mukesh Ambani, and the Chairman and Group Managing Director of Bharti Enterprises, Mr Sunil Bharti Mittal, at the Council meeting. - Kamal Narang

Dr Singh is understood to have assured industry leaders that the Government would consider amending some of the existing laws if the suggestions made by the industry were to its satisfaction.

Job reservation: Briefing newspersons after the meeting, the Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister, Mr T.K.A. Nair, said the issue of reservation in the private sector also came up for discussion following which the industry has been asked to work towards affirmative action in their companies. Otherwise, the Government would have to find ways to fulfil its responsibility, he said.

End of Inspector Raj?: Reacting to the long-standing complaints from the industry on the tyranny of Inspector Raj, Dr Singh asked the industry to come forward with specific and practical suggestions to tackle the situation.

Comparing the situation with China, the Prime Minister asked, "If enterprises in China have to deal with less than 10 inspectors, why do we burden ours with more than 50?"

Dr Singh informed the industry that infrastructure was one of the highest priorities for the Government and that the first meeting of the Infrastructure Committee, headed by him, was scheduled for next Friday.

Skill upgradation: On the issue of skill upgradation of the Indian workforce, it was suggested that the industry should adopt more industrial training institutes (ITIs). The industry informed the Government that the Confederation of Indian Industry was preparing a list of 100 ITIs for this purpose. The Department of Science and Technology has been assigned the task of preparing a detailed roadmap for skill upgradation, which will be placed before the council when it is ready.

There was a sort of unanimity among all participants in the meeting that the benefits of industrial development and economic growth have not percolated to the grassroots.

The Prime Minister noted that global investors were displaying increasing faith on India and said, "The endeavour of our Government will be to sustain and stabilise this environment of optimism."

Inflation: Dr Singh expressed concern over the rising rate of inflation but said the recent inflationary pressures were almost entirely due to the increase in world oil prices and it was not possible to insulate the economy from the impact of the northward movement in world oil prices.

"We must also see how to `de-politicise' energy pricing even as we make sure that the poor are not hurt by market forces," Dr Singh said.

The Finance Minister, Mr P. Chidambaram; the Commerce Minister, Mr Kamal Nath; and the Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission, Dr Montek Singh Ahluwalia, attended the meeting.

The industrialists present in the meeting included Mr Ratan Tata, Mr Mukesh Ambani, Mr Venu Srinivasan, Mr N.R. Narayana Murthy, Mr Keshub Mahindra, Mr Rahul Bajaj, Mr R.P. Goenka, Mr Azim Premji, Mr Sunil Kant Munjal, Mr Sunil Mittal, Mr Deepak Parekh, Mr Ashok Ganguli, Mr Anji Reddy and Ms Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw.