Amid global slowdown impacting India as well,Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today said the government is committed to doeverything to put economy back on a high growth path of 8-9 per cent.
"The steps we have taken recently are only thebeginning of the process to revive our economy and take it back to its trendgrowth rate of 8-9 per cent," Singh said at the 85 AnnualGeneral Meeting of Ficci here.
He said the global economy is passing through turbulent timesand "excessive pessimism" at home has hurt the country's growthprocess.
"But I stand before you to reassure you that our governmentis committed to doing everything that is possible to alter the policyenvironment, accelerate economic growth and make the growth process sociallyand regionally more inclusive," he told the industry captains.
The economic growth slowed to a nine year low of 6.5 per centin 2011-12 and this year, too, the GDP growth, as per RBI's estimates, islikely to be 5.8 per cent. In the three years preceeding the 2008 globaleconomic crisis, India was growing at a rate of more than 9 per cent.
The Prime Minister further said the government needs to takeforward the steps it has taken through constitution of Cabinet Committee onInvestment to revive the economy.
"We need to complete the exercise that has begun onGAAR (General Anti Avoidance Rules) and taxation of the IT sector...We willspeed up the disinvestment process which will also revive our equitymarkets," he added.
Liberalisation of foreign direct investment norms in sectorslike multi-brand retail and aviation and cutting subsidies on petroleumproducts are some of the key economic reforms undertaken by the government inthe recent past.
In an apparent dig on parties which oppose reforms, the PrimeMinister said: "Some of the decisions we have taken were politicallydifficult and the naysayers and the cynics have tried to halt us in our track,but we had the courage of our conviction and the interests of our people atheart".