At a time when the industries, to become cost competitive, are having the problem of more employees, it is very difficult to increase employment opportunities in industries till the industries expand and become healthy. For immediate employment to the poor and underprivileged, we have to look towards the development of infrastructure (which is much needed for industrial and export growth also). The development of roads, airports, power andtelecom etc., will raise employment opportunities immediately. But here too, we need funds and have to create a proper environment to have foreign funds immediately. Any bureaucratic procedure will lead to severe problems for employment of many. Infrastructure development will also help our steel and cement sectors which are facing a big recession. At this moment, we need more tax incentives in the infrastructure projects. This incentive should also be given to the foreign investment.

The recent events have shown that we cannot cut subsidies substantially, hence, to overcome the physical deficit we have to find out alternatives. One big alternative is disnvestment in public sector units. Disnvestment has to be in the real sense i.e., the shares should find the place in the market. Hence, a healthy share market is required. The Budget should not dampen the investor's spirit by increasing taxation, duties etc. Instead of raising eyebrows on foreign investment it has to be further encouraged by increasing thepercentage of automatic approval. Review should again be made on the minimum alternative tax (MAT) which was introduced last year. This tax has discouraged the share market. Removal of this tax will particularly help steel and cement industry in addition to helping many companies who are going to BIFR.

We have to encourage our exports in order to remain competitive in south-east Asia. Our exports have shown very poor performance. The recent suggestion made on doubling the export incentive be considered sympathetically. On the export front, our pharmaceutical and software sectors have shown encouraging results. More and more steps should be taken to encourage pharmaceutical and software projects. In the pharmaceutical sector, we need more incentives for research which is currently very negligible in our country as compared to the research and development activity in other countries. The old dispute of Drug Price Equilisation demand with the major pharmaceutical industries should be settled immediately with agive and take policy so that the industries could concentrate without fear of expansion and the government could augment the resources. On software we have a lot of skilled manpower which should be given lot of encouragement with funds and incentives.

Without education no significant achievement is possible. The time has come when we have to think of free education up to the primary level. This will involve a huge expenditure, but in fact this is a real investment and can be met with savings from proposals stated above. We cannot think of eliminating poverty or any significant development without education. We still have to find a mode of incentive the budget can offer to control population growth. There should be a different level of taxation for persons with two children and those having more than two children.

The onion shortage crisis has shown, how people react to such issues and price increases. When we have cold storages and proper warehousing facilities, farmers need not make distress sales andconsumers need not pay high prices. A certain percentage of export revenue on agricultural export be reserved for cold storages and warehouses. It is better to pay power tariffs than not to have sufficient water for crops.

It is now time for us to think seriously on how to remain healthy and competitive under global growth. We have to take serious and immediate attention of the issues mentioned above as time does not wait for anybody.The author is Apeejay STYA group vice-chairman. The views expressed are his own.