NEW DELHI: With the PMO in a mood to listen now that the Left is off its back, corporate India has moved quickly to strike while the iron is hot. FICCI president Rajiv Chandrashekhar met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday with a 100-day agenda listing a series of reform measures the corporate sector wants the government to carry out in the next three months.

“The idea is to stimulate the economy and bring back investment to stave off the risk of an economic slowdown. Most of the measures we have suggested are not legislative. They only need government action and are eminently do-able,” Chandrashekhar told DNA.

The wish-list prepared by FICCI runs into 10 pages and essentially outlines steps for investment formation in sectors ranging from agriculture, finance and banking, telecom, defence and education.

Those needing executive action have been under discussion in the ministries concerned for some time and are obviously on the government’s radar. While the PMO is keen on taking advantage of the positive atmosphere generated by the trust vote victory and move quickly, much depends on the view the Congress takes. Sections of the party have been as guilty as the Left for stalling many of the reforms.

The more difficult measures listed in the FICCI agenda are the ones that require legislative amendments.

These include reforms to push private investment, including FDI, in banking, insurance, labour and agriculture sectors. Though the government has demonstrated that it has the numbers in Parliament, there is concern that an aggressive opposition will disrupt the monsoon session to avenge the humiliation of its defeat in the trust vote.

“There is an urgent need to combat inflation,” said Chandrashekhar. “The measures taken by the RBI so far are anti-growth. What the government needs to do is to bring in more investment to build industrial and infrastructure capacity. We need all kinds of investment — private, foreign and institutional.”

Measures that will have to go through parliament:
Reforming labour laws and making them a state subject
Raising cap on FDI in the insurance sector from 26 % to 49 %
Rationalising government holdings in public sector banks to allow more foreign investment
Passing the pending Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority Bill
Amending the Agriculture Produce Marketing Committee Acts to allow setting up of private mandis, direct procurement from farmers and contract farming