Agencies/New Delhi
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh yesterday conceded the Indian economy was heading into “turbulent weather” with slowing growth and high inflation. Singh told a meeting of his ministers and secretaries that the government must strive to revive flagging business and shore up confidence among investors in India’s economy. “After achieving remarkably high growth rates over the past eight years... we are now running into more turbulent weather,” a statement from Singh’s office quoted him as saying. Economic growth figures published last week showed the Indian economy growing at 5.3% in the January-March period, the slowest quarterly growth figure in nine years. “In these difficult times, we must do everything possible to revive business and investor sentiment (and) we must work to create an atmosphere which is conducive to investment and to removing any bottlenecks to growth,” he said. Singh said the government will remove all bottlenecks in the infrastructure sector and create an environment for investment to revive the growth story.“We’re all aware of the need to give a major push to these crucial sectors and today’s exercise is a part of our efforts in that direction. Our government (is) committed to taking the necessary measures to reverse the present situation and revive India’s growth story,” he said.“We are aware that we have to act on multiple fronts to achieve this and we will indeed do all that is required of us… all of us would agree that development of infrastructure would always be an integral part of any strategy for fast economic development,” the prime minister said. He asked the ministers to “go the extra mile” in implementing what had been planned so that the country can return to 9% growth trajectory soon. A major problem faced by the industrial sector is funding. Almost all the industries have complained that the cost of domestic funds is too high and external assistance hard to get. India needs more than $1tn during the 12t4which 50% is expected to come from the private sector. “The government alone cannot invest such a huge amount and therefore it is important to involve the private sector through public private partnerships (PPP),” the prime minister said, pushing for greater public-private partnership in infrastructure development. According to sources the meeting decided on going ahead with elevated rail project in Mumbai, fast tracking of three new greenfield airports in Navi Mumbai, Goa and Kannur and building new or upgrading existing airports at Lucknow, Varanasi, Coimbatore, Trichy and Gaya to handle international traffic.