Dr MM Singh said, "The year that has just ended was a very difficult year for the world" and in this regard cited the economic crisis,socio economic tensions, "political upheavals in many developing countries" and "a revolution of rising expectations fostered by the extraordinary reach of the electronic media and the connectivityprovided by new social networking platforms."
These issues kept governments around the world "on their toes", hesaid, adding that "we in India have had our share of problems."Talking in the context of India specifically, Singh said the economy slowed down, inflation edged up and "concern about corruption moved to the centre stage".
Counselling against despondency, he said, "we must address the new concerns that have arisen while remaining steadfast in our commitment to put the nation on a development path which ensures rapid, inclusiveand sustainable growth".
"I want to assure you all on this New Year's day that I personally will work to provide an honest and more efficient government, a more productive, competitive and robust economy and a more equitable and
just social and political order."Singh, who was one of the architects of liberalisation initiated in
1991, said that process was aimed at freeing the citizens from the "dead weight" of bureaucracy and corruption."...Old forms of corruption have vanished, new forms of corruption have emerged which need to be tackled. Elimination of corruption is critical to support genuine entrepreneurship," he said, adding "It is
also the demand of the ordinary citizen who encounters corruption all too often in everyday transactions with those in authority.
.Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Saturday made out a case for phased rationalising of prices of petroleum products and reducing subsidies and begin again the process of fiscal consolidation so that growth is not jeopardised.
"Both goals of expanding new investment and achieving energy efficiency require a more rational pricing policy, aligning India's energy prices with global prices," Singh said in his New Year message to the nation.
Elaborating on the issue of rationalisation of energy prices, he admitted, "this cannot be done immediately, but we need to outline a phased programme for such adjustment and then work to develop the support for making transition".
"I realise that this will not be easy, but unless we can achieve this transition we will not be able to promote energy efficiency as much as we should, and we will certainly not be able to attract enough investment to expand domestic energy supplies".
While the government has de-regulated the price of petrol, prices of diesel, kerosene and cooking gas, are fixed by the Centre and are subsidised.
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee recently said that India's subsidy bill is likely to increase by about Rs one lakh crore, over and above the outlay of Rs 1.32 lakh crore estimated in the Budget, in 2010-11 mainly on account rising prices of crude and fertiliser in global market.
Reduction of subsidies, Singh said is also necessary for containing fiscal deficit, which has "worsened in the past three years".
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