Finance Minister Jaswant Singh gave a clarion call to Corporate India to "go out and reach out to the world".
"There will be no limits, no restrictions on corporates if they wish to invest abroad. India must reach out to the world," the minister said at the Financial Express-Electrolux Awards for Women in Business function here.
Singh said Corporate India should not worry about the infrastructural bottlenecks and should not consider itself second to anyone. "India's $100 billion-plus reserves are your assets," he added.
Singh also said the economy grew by 8.9 per cent in the third quarter of this fiscal, outstripping the 8.4 per cent growth in the previous quarter.
"In the third quarter, the gross domestic product grew 8.9 per cent," Singh said. The year would end with a robust 8.1 per cent growth, he added.
However, with an 8.9 per cent growth in the third quarter, the economy will have to grow by 9.5 per cent in the last quarter to achieve the 8.1 per cent GDP growth projected for 2003-04 in the advance estimates released by the Central Statistical Organisation.
Singh said the feel-good factor in the economy was based on the low inflation rate, falling interest rates and a narrowing fiscal deficit.
Singh was in virtual election mode, though he was careful to state that he was at the function as the finance minister and not as the party spokesperson.
He expressed confidence that the annual inflation rate would hover in the range of 4-4.5 per cent by the end of March 2004.
Asked whether the downward move of the wholesale price index was only a base effect and not due to a drop in prices, Singh said, "Any demonstration of this kind is of concern to us, but we are confident that we will manage the inflation rate and it will reach the target we have projected."
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