India’s Singh vows inclusive growth, reforms

NEW DELHI, (Reuters) – Indian Prime Minister-elect  Manmohan Singh vowed yesterday to revive growth and spread the  benefits of economic expansion that swept his coalition back to  power with a decisive mandate in a general election.  

Singh, 76, formally elected by lawmakers of his Congress  party as their leader, said his coalition would pursue reforms  in agriculture,industry and the wider economy to spread the  benefits to the country’s 1.1. billion population.  

“There is some slowing down of investment and employment  generation. We have to revive growth and make it even more  inclusive,” he said in an acceptance speech as MPs thumped  desks.  
Two powerful regional parties from northern India said they  would support the Congress party-led coalition, further  strengthening the stability of the new government.  

Heads of the Bahujan Samaj Party and the Samajwadi party,  two major groups in India’s most populous state, Uttar Pradesh,  said they had written to Indian President Pratibha Patil  pledging their support to the coalition. 
 
The two parties have 44 lawmakers in parliament between  them.  
Singh’s coalition won 262 seats in the 545-member  parliament, just 10 seats short of a majority, boosting hopes  of a stable government.  

Congress campaigned during the month-long election on a  record of spending on the rural poor, including a public jobs  programme in the countryside and a costly loan waiver programme  for indebted farmers. 

Singh said it was important to sustain a high growth rate  to make it more inclusive, but that would require new  investment and better management of public finances.     Growth  in Asia’s third-largest economy is expected to slow to a  seven-year low of about 6 percent this fiscal year from about 7  percent in 2008/09, and from rates of 9 percent or more in the  previous years. Millions of jobs have already been lost. 

Analysts say an expansionary fiscal policy could further  stretch public finances and widen the deficit, which is running  at about 10 percent of the gross domestic product.