"The steps recently outlined include reduction in the subsidy on diesel, announcement of disinvestment in certain PSUs, measures to strengthen the investment climate (liberalisation of FDI in multi-brand retail, aviation, broadcasting) and are expected to revive market confidence and restore growth momentum," Finance Minister P Chidambaram said in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha.
The government had in September undertaken a host of reform measures which included allowing 51 per cent foreign direct investment (FDI) in multi-brand retail and hiking foreign investment cap in the insurance and pension sector to 49 per cent.
Besides, it also allowed foreign carriers to pick up stake in aviation companies here, besides liberalising norms for information and broadcasting sector.
Further, the government had hiked diesel prices and also limited the number of subsidised LPG cylinder to six per year per family. It has identified a host of PSUs for disinvestment to meet the target of Rs 30,000 crore in the current fiscal.
Economic growth fell to a nine-year low of 6.5 per cent in the 2011-12 fiscal and is expected to be 5.8 per cent in the current fiscal, according to RBI estimates.
"The reduction in the rate of growth of GDP in 2011-12 is attributable to both domestic and global factors... Among domestic factors, the tightening of monetary policy in order to control inflation resulted in the slowing down of investment and growth, particularly in the industrial sector," Chidambaram said.
In the first half of the current fiscal, the economy grew by 5.4 per cent, against 7.3 per cent in the same period last fiscal.