Sinha said the Government will have to work out a comprehensive strategy for not only implementing but also expediting the second generation of reforms.

The reforms, according to Sinha, should not aim at jobless growth. The effort, he said, should be to create more employment opportunities along with growth. The party had proposed to revitalise economic reforms with an emphasis on infrastructure, agriculture, agro-industry, and rural development, in addition to employment generation.

He also said extra efforts would be needed to lure foreign direct investment for supplementing domestic investment for development of infrastructure sector.

The immediate challenge to the Government, according to Sinha, would be to contain fiscal deficit. While presenting the budget in February, the finance minister had planned to restrict the fiscal deficit to Rs 79,955 crore by the end of 1999-2000. However, because of various reasons, including the Kargil conflict, the Government has run up a fiscal deficit of Rs 48,126 crore by August-end this year. The revenue deficit during the period amounted to Rs 33,412 crore.

Sinha admitted that fiscal deficit could not be brought down overnight. Serious efforts are needed now to lower fiscal deficit to 2 per cent of the gross domestic product (GDP) in the next three to four years, he added. Sinha said more than the Kargil conflict there were other factors which were putting more pressure on the fiscal situation.

The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in its election manifesto had underlined the need for controlling deficits--both fiscal and revenue--and promised to examine the possibility of enacting a Fiscal Responsibility Act.

The financial agenda of the BJP-led Government includes reducing pre-emption of provident and insurance funds by the Government to make available long-term funds for infrastructure projects. The NDA had also promised to mandate investments by provident funds and insurance companies in the equity markets.

In addition to pursuing insurance-sector reforms, the task of the new finance minister will be to create a strong mutual fund industry for channelising retail savings. The proposal is to increase national savings to 13 per cent of the GDP.

Sinha will also have the onerous task of pushing as many as 14 important economic legislations pending in parliament. Apart from the Insurance Regulatory Authority Bill, the pending legislations include the Foreign Exchange Management Act, amendments to the Securities Regulation Act to permit derivatives trading, the constitutional amendment bill to devolve 29 per cent of Central revenue to the states, and the Companies Bill.