India Inc hails govt's victory in trust vote

India Inc today hailed Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's victory in the confidence vote saying the government should go all out on the economic reform and take the Indo-US nuclear deal to its logical end.

The apex industry chambers associations said the victory proved that a majority of people's representative were in support of nuclear civil agreement for meeting India's energy needs.

"With UPA passing the confidence vote Ficci is looking forward to a wave of reforms, some of which were held back in the past due to the ideological concerns of the Left," Ficci said immediately after the counting of votes was over in Lok Sabha this evening. "We expect that in the next three months some major bills, including Pensions Bill and Banking Reforms Bill, pending in Parliament will also be pushed through," Ficci added.

The Indo-US nuclear deal would give a huge technological edge to the Indian industry in the area of nuclear power generation by opening up opportunities for Indian companies, the chamber said.

With the backing of its new allies, the UPA government would push through the disinvestment of PSUs to restore fiscal health, see through the passage of the Insurance and Pension Bills to generate the much-needed resources for infrastructure building, and give a fillip to the private sector engagement in defence activities, Ficci added.

Ficci said its President Rajeev Chandrasekhar would be proposing to the Prime Minister a 10-point agenda tomorrow to move the reforms efforts forward in a major way.

Echoing similar sentiments, PHD Chamber of Commerce President L K Malhotra said the victory would signal stability and continuation, which is good for the economy and the industry as reforms initiated by the government will continue.

"It will also signal a stint of reforms which have been debated such as insurance, pension funds and financial reforms," he added.

Assocham President Sajjan Jindal said: "This goes to prove that majority of people's representatives are all out to support the nuclear civil agreement for meeting India's energy needs."

Commenting on the government's win in the floor test, Videocon Group Chairman Venugopal Dhoot said, "It is a good thing that the government has won. India need power and victory should help in making power available to farmers at cheap rates." "US investment will be more in India now; already India has a strong brand equity in the US and that will go up after this," Dhoot added.

Echoing similar sentiments, leading real estate player Parsvnath Developers's Chairman Pradeep Jain said: "I would like to congratulate the Prime Minister and the government. This is a good thing because by this win the government will be able to take forward the nuclear deal." The nuclear energy coming here would help the country to sustain the GDP growth that it has achieved in the last few years, he added.

"In the next 8-10 months, I hope the government will do lots of good things by bringing in newer technology, which will make the country strong," Jain said.

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