1st July, 2002
Ministry of Law, Justice & Company Affairs  


ARUN JAITLEY INAUGURATES SEMINAR ON ECONOMIC REFORMS


The Union Minister of Law, Justice and Company Affairs Shri Arun Jaitley has said that acceleration of the pace of development and elimination of poverty have been the main challenges of economic reforms. Inaugurating a day long National Seminar on Economic Reforms---Way Forward, organized by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) on completion of its 53 years to mark the Chartered Accountants’ Day here today, Shri Jaitley said that the basic question was how to add to quality of life of our people and that was the ultimate issue. It were not the issues that economic reforms were pro-rich, it created joblessness and resulted in costly proposition. All these were baseless, he added.

Speaking at length on economic reforms, Shri Jaitley said that it has brought in its wake, competition, quality of services and products and improvement in life style of the people stating that since 1992 there has been ten per cent reduction in poverty, which has come down to 26 per cent now. He said that shortages have been eliminated.

Talking of way forward in the economic reforms the Law Minister said that we must unshackle our minds from heretofore held views to give impetus to second generation economic reforms. Success of libleralisation, so far, owes it largely to the Governments in 1990s and 1999. We must be char about the directions to move forward as short term populism did not pay and was counter-productive.

The Minister talked of changes in the contract law, labour law reforms, and giving a re-look at the legacy, which needed to be undone.

The Chairman, Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) and founding Chairman of SEBI, Shri S.A. Dave, in his keynote address, suggested measures for eliminating poverty by 2015 as a way forward for giving further thrust to economic reforms.

The President, ICAI, Shri Ashok Chandak gave an overview of the accountancy profession and its crucial role in the economic reforms and globalization of Indian economy.