Addressing the 78th annual meeting of the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Assocham), the prime minister said present problems of the telecom sector had been inherited by his government and could not be resolved within the faulty framework of present licence conditions.

He also announced that the new policy being worked out by the group on telecom would take convergence of telecom, information technology and broadcasting media into account.

Vajpayee said the insurance bill would offer significantly improved quality of services to the consumers, new insurance products and catalyse large investments from both domestic and foreign sources and used in infrastructure projects with long gestation period.

A new demographic policy would soon be finalised soon which would reflect the national commitment on the critical issue, he announced.

The health policy of 1983 was also being reviewed to meet the new challenges and new frontiers that rapid technological changes had made possible, according to Vajpayee.

The need for capacity-building in the central organsiations and institutions and renovating the rural health infrastructure would have to be addressed in the new health policy, he said.

``Emergence of AIDS and its frightening spread in the general population has to be resolutely faced. The government's approach to this disease will be suitably incorporated in the National AIDS Policy,'' Vajpayee declared.

The ninth plan document would be shortly finalised to reflect the details outlined in the special action plans for various sectors, he added.

Stressing upon the need to restructure the economy at a rapid pace and fine-tuning development policies in sync with changing requirements of the global economy to improve industry's competitiveness, Vajpayee said there were lessons to be learnt on public governance from the east Asian crisis.

The international response to such crises also needed to be strengthened, both to prevent the recurrence and to do more to protect the people from the consequences of an economic collapse. ``Credible social safety nets must accompany the process of global integration to protect the more vulnerable sections of the society,'' the prime minister said.

The government would remain vigilant to protect the interests of the shareholders and depositors whose money and capital was managed on trust by the corporate sector, he said. It would strive to create investor-friendly policies, remove procedural and infrastructural bottlenecks and create a harmonious environment for high industrial growth.

Underlining the crucial role education played in social transformation and modernisation, Vajpayee said the government was fashioning instruments to make women's education free upto the college level, which would be inclusive of professional education. Girl students at the primary school level would be provided free text books.

Earlier, in his presidential address, the outgoing Assocham president L Lakshman said the country needed to set itself a 10 per cent growth target for the next 25 years. Only a growth of this magnitude would secure the ultimate goal of full employment and poverty alleviation and propel India into the league of lower middle income group of nations with a per capita of $10,000 measured in purchasing power parity terms.

Meanwhile, DLF group chairman KP Singh took over as president of the chamber. Singh, who was the alternate president of Assocham, has been a past president of the PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Phdcci) and deputy president of Assocham.