Delivering the 33rd Walchand Memorial Lecture organised by the Maharashtra Chamber of Commerce & Industry in Mumbai, Sinha came down heavily on traditional political opinion, and called for a national debate and a new consensus on the need for change. Social unrest and disorder will be directly proportional to failure on progress, he said.

The argument offered by Sinha is as follows:

Public sector:

Reform must go beyond mere disinvestment to disposal of assets. The perpetual drain must go, he said. Only PSU reforms can generate the funds needed to finance infrastructure, higher budgetary allocation is no option. "I fully agree that PSUs played a meaningful role in the past, but the time has cometo dispose off these assets so that newer assets can be created," Sinha said. He pointed out that these units failed to generate enough returns on the huge capital investments made.

He candidly admitted that notwithstanding an attempt to disinvest, reform has not yet begun. "There has hardly been any progress on PSU reforms," Sinha said. A national consensus was required to aid the government in taking such politically-sensitive decisions.

Small Scale Industry:

Dereservation of SSI units is inevitable. "In today's competitive world, it is difficult to provide protection to SSIs." India has to open up sectors and stand up to the World Trade Organisation commitments, and no government, Sinha cautioned, can continue with the policy of reservation. "How does such protection find a place, at a time when we are evolving a common market for Saarc," the finance minister said. Sinha appealed to business and industry to be ready for the challenges ahead. "Swadeshi is often misunderstood as protection for theinefficient and a perpetual flight from competition. But what it actually teaches us is to be competitive, and take up challenges both from outside and within."

Subsidies:

Attacking the `hidden' subsidies in the system, Sinha said people have the right to know the exact amount of subsidy. "There are too many hidden subsidies which has created enormous distortions in the economy. People do realise that they should help the deprived sections, but the subsidies need to be explicit," Sinha said.

State finance ministers cutting across party lines have been making similar suggestions, as they faced the very same set of problems, Sinha said. Only a national consensus can put pressure on the government to address these vital issues, he added.

Efforts must be made to revive a briefly-discussed but shelved project to involve the private sector in social infrastructure development, especially in education, he said. "With liberalisation comes responsibility, business should be ready to shoulder more of it," Sinhasaid.

The government's task is to create conditions for entrepreneurs to risk decisions without interference in a new world where national boundaries will become irrelevant, Sinha said.

Stressing on the country's enormous infrastructure requirements, Sinha said India has failed miserably on this count. "Infrastructure is key to India's progress, but we have lagged behind the rest of the world in this respect," Sinha said. The problems faces by south-east Asian countries at present, said Sinha, is only a temporary setback and the region can bounce back soon, as unlike in India these countries have the right infrastructure in place.

The finance minister dwelt on the urgent need to develop human infrastructure, stating that our disparity with developed nations in this is even more glaring as poverty deprives a vast section of the society from gaining education and training.