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Change in labour laws soon, QRs removal not to hit farming: President

India will amend labour laws to remove hurdles in the way of faster economic development, give greater thrust to the infotech sector to achieve the $50 billion export target by 2008 and protect the interests of the farmers and industry in the wake of lifting of quantitative restrictions (QRs) in April.

Addressing a joint session of Parliament on the first day of the Budget session, President K R Narayanan said that amendments to some of the labour laws cannot be delayed, as they will facilitate greater employment opportunities in both the organised and unorganised sectors.

This will also help India achieve a significant competitive advantage in the international market in labour intensive industries like garments, light engineering, toys, handicrafts, leather and in IT-enabled services.

He reiterated the government's commitment to protect the interest of the workers by implementing the much-needed labour reforms.

Expressing satisfaction over the impressive growth in the software sector, he said IT has emerged as one of the fastest growing sectors of the country. This has given us the confidence that the target of $50 billion was certainly achievable by 2008.

The government has drawn up a programme to double the intake of students in IITs and other premier engineering institutions in 2002 and treble it in 2003.

The liberalisation of the trade policy continues to focus on procedural simplification to improve competitiveness of the Indian economy.

The President said that while removing most QRs in April, as per the commitment to the World Trade Organisation (WTO), ''we will see that the transition will not be painful to Indian agriculture and industry, especially to the small scale sector.

He renewed the government's commitment to promote the state of the art textile manufacturing capability and enhance textile and apparel exports from the present level of $13 billion $50 billion by 2010.

The government's approach to public sector undertakings (PSUs) has a three-fold objective -- revival of potentially viable enterprises, closing down of those PSUs that cannot be revived and bringing down government equity in non-strategic PSUs to 26 per cent or lower.

Interests of workers will be fully protected through attractive VRS and other measures.

Urging state governments and all political parties as well as employees of power utilities and consumers to support the reforms in the power sector, the Narayanan said ''the transition may be difficult initially, but will ultimately be rewarding for all.''

On renewable sources of power, he said the goal is to add 10,000 megawatt from renewables over the next twelve years, increasing their share in the additional capacity installed to ten per cent.

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The full text of the President's address to Parliament

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