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Prime Minister Inder Kumar Gujral on Monday called for an all-out effort to accelerate the economic growth rate. He was speaking at his meeting with leading economists of the country, many of whom asked for liberalising the agricultural sector.

''We must work to change the mind set of people in all walks of life,'' Gujral said in his brief opening remarks at the meeting, which lasted over two hours.

The prime minister had convened the meeting to elicit the suggestions of the economists for dealing with the sluggishness in the economy in the short-term and for putting India on the path of a high-growth rate. The meeting was held as part of a series of interactions he has had with representatives connected with industry, trade, economy, scientists, and exporters.

Leading economist Swaminathan Aiyar, in his speech, said the issue of corruption needed to be dealt with not just as a moral issue but an an economic issue that induced inefficiency down the line. It was necessary to take the political system out of the areas of economic pricing, he said.

Gujral said slogans, old or new, did not go to solve the complex problems of the economy. They required not only practical solutions but also holistic thinking.

He urged the economists and academicians to extent their help in making the country aware of the challenges before it and the steps required to meet them.

An official spokesman later told reporters that the general perception of the economists -- about 25 of them participated -- was that all the macro economy indicators were extremely good. Since all the economists could not speak, the prime minister would hold another meeting with them.

The economists felt that the macro economic indicators boded well for the growth rate envisaged but several initiatives were needed to move forward with economic reforms and also remove some of the bottlenecks. Effectiveness in the infrastructure sector not only called for massive investments but also for policy reforms.

It was repeatedly mentioned at the meeting that reforms in the power sector were a must. The National Development Council Committee report on power sector reforms as well as the action plan on these reforms were already available with the government but their implementation had been very weak.

The economists commended the government for ''rather belatedly'' taking the decisions on the petroleum sector pricing policy. Almost everyone who spoke pressed the government to take similar initiatives. ''More than one participant asked for liberalising the agricultural sector,'' the spokesman said.

Some of the economists were not in favour of the present disinvestment policy, mainly on the ground that incremental disinvsestment for financing the government deficit was not a good idea. They advocated privatisation and also wanted that the public sector undertakings should be given greater autonomy. Right people should be put in charge of these undertakings and their tenure should be fixed so that they could deliver the goods.

There was a fair amount of discussions about reforms in the banking and financial sectors, which, the economists felt, was crucial for inducing the private sector to invest in infrastructure areas.

In the area of forex management, there were suggestions that a long-term view should be taken and no ad hoc response should be made to fluctuations in the currency market.

Interest rates and the problem of credit faced by the Indian industry also figured. One of the problems pointed out was that the gap between the cost of money and the interest rate was very narrow, given the year-marking for priority sectors.

There were some economists who referred to a shortfall in plan investments, particularly at the state level. They said poor people in the states were affected by the shortfall. Resources available at the level of states were inadequate and as a result, their economic performance was going down.

They said the savings rate in the country was fairly on the positive side but the public sector saving rate was as low as two per cent to four per cent, compared to the 18 per cent in some of the ASEAN countries. Unless public sector savings improved, there would not be much savings for social and other sectors.

Finance Minister P Chidambaram, who was also present at the meeting, said the resource crunch would not be allowed to come in the way of investments in the infrastructure sector like, ports, power and road.