NEW DELHI, May 21: Days before the swearing-in of new Prime Minister Narendra Modi, top bureaucrats today reviewed the prevailing price situation and discussed proposals to kick start investment cycle with a view to accelerating growth.
The meeting of secretaries of various ministries, called by Cabinet Secretary Ajit Seth, also took stock of the foodgrain situation and Government’s preparedness to deal with any possible monsoon failure.
“This is a regular meeting, which happens periodically on prices. It is a regular thing, nothing new. Every one month it happens… We just gave our inputs,” Finance Secretary Arvind Mayaram told reporters after the meeting.
The officials listed the problems hampering investments and delay in implementation of projects, sources said. Many of the issues were related to land acquisition and timely approval of mega projects.
It may be noted that factory output, as measured by the index of industrial production (IIP), remained flat in 2013-14 and declined 0.1 per cent compared to a meagre expansion of 1.1 per cent in 2012-13.
The output in manufacturing, which constitutes over 75 per cent of the index, contracted 0.8 per cent during 2013-14 compared with 1.3 per cent growth previously.
The availability of foodgrains in case of El Nino effect on monsoon, the lifeline of Indian agriculture, was discussed at length, among other things.
Inputs regarding current food stocks and the likely farm sector output were provided by representatives of the Consumer Affairs and Agriculture Ministries.
The issues concerning decline in the manufacturing sector were raised by secretaries in departments of commerce and industry in the meeting.
As far as inflation is concerned, costlier vegetables, fruits and milk had pushed up retail inflation to three-month high of 8.59 per cent in April.
Vegetables prices went up by 17.5 per cent, fruits by 21.73 per cent and milk by 11.42 per cent during the month.
Taming inflation is the first item listed on the election manifesto of the BJP, which will assume power with Modi taking oath as Prime Minister on Monday.
The party in its manifesto had said: “Our immediate task will be to rein in inflation by several steps, such as: put in place strict measures and special courts to stop hoarding and black marketing, setting up a price stabilisation fund, unbundle FCI operations, etc.”
It blamed the policies of the UPA Government for high inflation which “crippled household budgets and contributed to the overall inflationary trend”.
With regard to the manufacturing sector, the manifesto proposes to accord high priority to job creation and creating opportunities for entrepreneurship.
“We will ensure that a conducive, enabling environment is created to make doing business in India easy,” it had said. (PTI)
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