By IANS,
New Delhi : Following are the economy-related highlights of President Pratibha Patil’s address to the joint session of parliament Thursday where she outlined the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government’s broad agenda for the next five years:
– Immediate priority to counter effects of global slowdown
– Focus on small units, exports, textiles, automobile, infrastructure, housing
– Divestment of stake in state-run units but no privatisation
– Encourage foreign investment with appropriate policy changes
– Reforms in insurance, pension and banking
– Reorient subsidies so that they benefit only the needy
– Ensure prudent fiscal management
– Move towards common goods and services tax regime
– Encourage pubic-private partnerships in infrastructure
– Expand rural telephone network to achieve 40 percent tele-density
– New targets for rural electrification, irrigation and roads
– Integrated energy policy for adding 13,000 MW every year
– Aggressive hydrocarbons exploration with renewed hunt for oil assets abroad
– Make civilian nuclear energy deal operational
– Massive skill development initiative to realise demographic dividend
– Legislative amendments to protect unfair displacement from farmland
– Brain gain policy to attract global talent to 14 “innovation universities”
– Measures to get back illegal money stashed overseas