The Union finance ministry will come out with a series of announcements on economic issues, particularly relating to the manufacturing sector from Thursday.
He also plans to make a series of announcements on economic issues every day from Thursday till the first week of February.
Addressing the closing session of the CII 9th Partnership Summit that ended on Wednesday evening, Union Finance Minister Jaswant Singh said that the issue of the privatisation of Indian Airlines was also likely to be resolved jointly with the ministry of civil aviation.
"We will have an action plan on this issue. Already, 90 per cent of the plan has been readied and the Cabinet has taken the decision not to defer the issue of divestment in Indian Airlines," he explained.
Referring to the demand by Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu for an 'open sky policy' and the complaint that the issue was not resolved despite 50 meetings on the subject, Jaswant Singh said: "Now, you will see things happening."
He said that similarly the focus of this policy should be on what is good for India, and not just for Air-India.
The finance minister also said that he expected to take to the Cabinet on Thursday a proposal to set up a Serious Frauds Office.
He said that healthcare, housing, social infrastructure, and tourism could be the areas that would play a critical role in the development of India's economy.
These areas deserved special development, since they had an enormous potential, he added.
Referring to the problems of the manufacturing sector, he spoke in detail about a possible solution to the woes of the steel industry. These would include debt swapping and amortization.
Jaswant Singh said that the focus of the Kelkar committee report on tax reforms was not so much the suggested changes in tax rates but the focus on administrative reforms through the use of information technology.
For the first time, the relatively conservative finance ministry was considering outsourcing a revenue function.
He also commended the Naresh Chandra committee report on corporate governance. He also emphasised that before wealth could be distributed, it had to be created. More wealth could only be created when there was growth in the economy, which arose from increased production.
In this context, he said that it was commendable that the economy had done well, despite facing three simultaneous and daunting challenges: the drought, the global downturn, and geo-political uncertainties.
Responding to a question on the need to revitalise development finance institutions, the finance minister said that he considered all moneys lent for productive purposes as finance for development.
Today, when banks were flush with funds, it should not be difficult to get loans. However, banks had to get over their fear of the three Cs: CBI, CVC, and CAG.
He said that he believed in the implementation of policies, because there was already a surfeit of policies. He had made his bureaucrats work hard during the six months that he had been in the job, but now they were seeing the results.
He had tried to bring transparency in the Budget-making exercise.
He also complimented Parliament for passing 13 major economic laws. This had entailed 26 sessions (in both Houses of Parliament) over 22 days. This reinforced his conviction, that 'when the occasion rose, we can deliver.'
Earlier, Chandrababu Naidu called for more reforms, especially labour reforms and reforms in civil aviation that would facilitate greater connectivity between Hyderabad and foreign destinations.
He cited the successful holding of this year's Partnership Summit as an excellent example of public-private partnership between CII and the state government.
He invited CII to continue to hold its next Partnership Summit in Hyderabad. This has been accepted, and the venue of the next Partnership Summit will be Hyderabad.
Sanjiv Goenka, chairman of the Partnership Summit, highlighted its successes: 14 plenaries; eight alternate programme sessions; a special session on agriculture; 13 networking luncheons; 50 speakers from 10 countries; 1,200 delegates; 24 overseas delegations; 75 business meetings for the overseas teams; and 41 MoUs totalling Rs 170 billion signed by the Andhra Pradesh government.
CII president Ashok Soota said that the one clear message that emerged from the summit was the strong confidence in the Indian economy, Indian Industry, and the belief that the future of the country and the economy can only be brighter.
He said that the economy had to grow at 10 per cent a year going beyond the 8 per cent target.