Be partners in growth: PM to states

Setting a broader agenda for states to become partners in the Centre's plan for faster growth and development, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh yesterday said some of the most difficult and complex policy choices had to be made by the political leadership at the state level to achieve the larger goals of development.

"The country is on the threshold of unprecedented opportunities and any failure to utilise them will only be due to the internal problems of development," he said.

The silver jubilee celebrations of the Centre for Economic and Social Studies here virtually became a stage for the prime minister to announce a comprehensive initiative for forging a partnership with states with reforms and growth-linked policies as the end.

Referring to the Silver Jubilee lecture theme of equitable growth, the prime minister said fiscal sustainability of growth was an important pre-requisite for a more equitable growth process and bankrupt governments could not promote equity.