Interestingly, CII has called for keeping up government capital spending. It has said that economic growth of 7 to 8 per cent cannot be achieved by private investment alone, and government spending is essential to boost growth. CII envisages a partnership between the private sector and government, with the government building up physical and social infrastructure, while private industry delivers growth. The key word is growth.

It is growth alone which can remove poverty -- the alternative system of putting "social justice" before growth has already been tried in many parts of the world, including India, and found to be a miserable failure. In eastern UP's villages, it is not reservations for backward castes which hasgiven security to a section of the population, but the wages which migrant labourers send home from Mumbai, where growth is rapid.

Migrant labour from Bihar and UP go to the fields of Punjab to work during harvesting, because wages are much higher in that area of fast growth. The aim for a country as poor as our's should be growth at any cost, because growth is the best antidote to poverty. Labour laws which shackle growth must be done away with, since they have become counter-productive.

Reducing subsidies and pricing services on a cost-plus basis, which form part of CII recommendations, are therefore a must. Savings can be used to build infrastructure, which is essential for growth. This approach is essential, because government has limited resources. It cannot fund infrastructure, as well as dole out subsidies while nurturing one of the world's largest bureaucracies.

Unfortunately, however, the benefits of growth are not spread uniformly, and vested interests who will lose out in the race haveenormous power. That is why privatisation is necessary, even when PSUs in question are run efficiently. The simple fact is that privatisation reduces the vested interest' ability to oppose change, apart from releasing the entrepreneurial energies of people. The CII is right, therefore, to make privatisation one of the top priorities in its agenda. The only ones who oppose it are the PSU unions, and this minuscule pressure group must not be allowed to hold the nation to ransom.

The CII agenda is a prerequisite for building a modern India, and every politician knows it, but the moot question is whether they will give up opportunities for making political capital in the larger national interest.