This was stated by finance minister Yashwant Sinha, who appeared disappointed with the low industrial growth of 1.4 per cent recorded during September. Talking to reporters at the Global Indian Entrepreneurs Conference here on Thursday, the minister said that "we have not taken any decision on excise concessions for certain sectors of the economy but we are looking at a package of measures for specific sectors and the economy,".

The finance minister also said government might disinvest in more than four public sector undertakings (PSUs) in the current financial year itself. The process of disinvestment of Concor was on while GAIL and IOC would be taken up shortly. The other PSU identified for disinvestment is VSNL. "Besides these", he said, "many more are likely tobe taken up during the current fiscal."

When asked about the continued poor performance in industrial production, which recorded a paltry 1.4 per cent growth in September compared to last year, he hoped "performance in October will be better than September".

Pointing out that he had never claimed that the economy would revive in September, Sinha said that what he meant was that the revival would take place after September.

The finance minister further said the growth target for the Ninth Plan was scaled down from seven per cent to 6.5 per cent because of the poor performance in the first two years of the Plan period.

While chairing another session to promote investment flow into India, Sinha said the government was committed to take all possible measures to make the partnership between India and overseas Indians fruitful.

Listing out many of the policy initiative taken to attract non-resident Indian (NRI) investments into the country, he said the government was committed to increase the coverage ofautomatic approval route and reduce its own role in foreign investment.

There was need for streamlining procedures with greater emphasis on implementation, he stressed. In infrastructure and core sectors, Sinha said the government was opening up more sectors like coal and lignite for foreign investment.

Referring to multilateral agencies, he said they have started to speak in a language which was very similar to India's after the country managed to stay out of the currency turmoil in South East Asia.

The finance minister, while delivering the special address during the inaugural session, recalled India's nuclear explosion at Pokharan and said that the dark clouds are still looming large. The explosions did not evoke good response and many countries decided to impose sanctions.

However, he said, to overcome economic fallout the government did not approach the International Monetary Fund (IMF). On the other hand it decided to come out with the Resurgent India Bonds (RIBs) appealing NRIs to contribute toit. The RIB, he said, was a resounding success at a time when the other countries had started talking in unfriendly tone.