Thaindian News

New Delhi, Aug 15 (IANS) Lack of political consensus on many issues is affecting India’s rapid economic growth, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said Wednesday.

Addressing the nation on India’s independence day, the prime minister regretted that the absence of such consensus was coming in the way of an environment conducive for faster economic growth.

“Time has now come to view the issues which affect our development processes as matters of national security,” he said, in his ninth address from the Red Fort.

Manmohan Singh warned that national security would be hit if the pace of economic growth did not increase, new investment was not encouraged, management of government finances was not improved, and energy security was not achieved.

The prime minister covered an array of issues in his speech but much of it was focussed on Indian economy.

Besides the global financial crisis, domestic developments were also hindering the growth of India’s economy, he said, without specifying what the hiccups were.

India’s GDP grew by 6.5 percent last year, and “this year we hope to do a little better”, he said.

The economist-turned-politician admitted that this year’s poor monsoon would pose difficulties in controlling inflation.

But Manmohan Singh assured the nation that the difficult days would not last long.

“Even as we face problems, we should be encouraged by the fact that we have achieved extraordinary successes in many areas in the last eight years,” he said, referring to the period since 2004 when he came to head a Congress-led coalition government.

“We now need to replicate these successes in newer areas.”