Set economic agenda for polls: Assocham to political parties

In view of the upcoming General Elections, industry body Assocham today urged political parties to set an economic agenda to weed out corruption, develop infrastructure and usher financial reforms to create sufficient jobs through economic growth of nine per cent.
In a note submitted to the political parties for consideration in their manifesto, the chamber said: "It is imperative that electoral discourse and governance agenda should accord top priority to the economic well-being of the nation."
"Let judicial reforms and infrastructure be strengthened in a way that the trials of corruption cases are speeded up and disposed off in a matter of months. Economic growth cannot be achieved unless public faith in the rule of law and clean governance is established."

Assocham further appealed to all political parties to avoid making promises of free electricity, heavily subsidised cooking gas and motor fuel because such doles will drain the exchequer leaving very little room for development.
The industry body said that if the investment climate is improved considerably and unnecessary roadblocks are removed, a huge amount of money can be put into urban infrastructure.