Economic policies must be devised in interest of nation: Ficci

Economic policies must be devised keeping India's interests in mind and whichever government is formed after the Lok Sabha elections later this year must provide development and stability, industry body Ficci said on Wednesday.

"India's development must come first. Whichever government comes to power, it must provide development and stability," Ficci president Siddharth Birla told reporters here.

He said that the country has to first recover from the slide in job creation, adding that economic policies must be devised keeping "the nation's interests" in mind.

"All political parties must come out with a minimum economic agenda, which must be independent of the politics of parties," former Ficci president Naina Lal Kidwai said.

"The economic agenda of India is non-negotiable, irrespective of political parties," she said.

If stalled projects are cleared and implemented quickly, 1 per cent of GDP would recover, while passing of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) would add another 2 per cent to the overall growth rate of the country, Ms Kidwai further said.

"If we want to achieve 8 per cent growth again, policies have to be implemented," she said.

Mr Birla said that development is as important as environment.

"Environment was a major concern due to which many projects were stalled. Development is as important as environment. Who is going to decide the balance between development and environment, is an important question," he added.

Ms Kidwai commended the Centre for bringing down India's high current account deficit to the current level during the last six months.