At the Annual General Meeting of industry association FICCI, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said his government has the “courage of conviction and the interest of people at heart” and taken some politically difficult decisions. “Our government is committed to doing everything to alter the policy environment, to accelerate economic growth and to make the growth process more inclusive,” he said.

He added that the steps the government had taken recently were the beginning of a process to revive the economy and take it back to its trend growth rate of eight to nine per cent.