Talking to The Financial Express here, he ridiculed all talk of second generation reforms by the National Democratic Alliance government headed by Atal Behari Vajpayee. "Talking of second generation reforms is a fuss when you are yet to complete the first generation reform process," he said. Singh was here to participate in a seminar organised jointly by the Bengal National Chamber of Commerce & Industry (BNCCI) and the Forum for People's Initiative. Later, he gave the keynote address at the week-long 73rd annual session of Indian Chamber of Commerce. Singh said the issue of lowering the fiscal deficit is not being addressed properly. The unfinished task of fiscal restructuring is standing in the way of more investments in education, healthcare, energy and physical infrastructure sector, he said.

He has doubts about whether the government would be able to achieve its declared 7-8 per cent growth rate in gross domestic product (GDP)."I cannot say with confidence that we can have 7-8 per cent growth rate, which demands 28 per cent growth in investment. At present, the investment growth rate is only 22-23 per cent of GDP," he said. The government is talking of disinvestment of public sector units and had set a target of raising Rs 10,000 crore for the last and current fiscals. "One can easily see the results. Last year, it could garner just over Rs 3,000 crore.

But what about this year?" he asked. In his view, the country has to take a holistic vision of the PSU reform issue. Some of the performing PSUs should be encouraged, some others should have private partners, some could be closed down.

"If we talk only of disinvestment and do not address those issues, we will only create social tensions," he said. Elaborating the investment issue at the ICC meeting, Singh said it is not necessary that all investments should be internal and that the global capital market should be avoided. "Rather, we should frame domestic policies that lead to higher savings, as well as domestic and international policies to support investments," he said.

Despite appropriate policies for the power sector, there was not much private investment in the sector, he said. Referring to the huge amount of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) attracted by China, Singh said: "It is not a fact that multinational companies have invested much in China.

About 80 per cent of FDI in China came from the non-resident Chinese, who are entrepreneurs. On the other hand, most of the non-resident Indians are professionals." Admitting that the fruits of the reforms have not reached the grassroots, Singh said lack of funds for investing in developing social infrastructure hindered the process. "We should have a new instrument of social security for the weaker sections of society," he said. At the BNCCI seminar, noted industrialist Abhijit Sen defended the reforms process initiated by Manmohan.