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Traditional industries to be strengthened: Sinha

BUDGET 2000

Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha today said that India would be put on the path of growth to ensure a sustained, equitable and job-creating growth path of seven to eight per cent per year, to banish poverty in the next 10 years. This would be India's decade of development, he said.

Presenting the central budget in the Lok Sabha, he listed a number of elements to achieve this objective, which included strengthening the foundations of rural economy, especially agriculture and allied activities. He also spoke of measures to nurture the revolutionary potential of the new knowledge-based industries like information technology, biotechnology and pharmaceuticals.

Sinha said that traditional industries like textiles, leather, agro-processing and the small-scale industry sector would be strengthened, adding that Infrastructure bottlenecks in power, roads, ports, telecom, railways and airways had to be overcome.

He said that India's role in the world economy must be strengthened through rapid growth of exports, higher foreign investment and prudent external debt management.

The finance minister further said that the highest priority would be accorded to human resource development through programmes and policies in education, health and other social services with special emphasis on the poorest and weakest sections of society.

Lastly, the strategy should include establishment of a credible framework of fiscal discipline without which the other elements can fail, he said.

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