He was speaking at the Economic Editors Conference in New Delhi on 17 October. Though Maran did cite reasons, he seemed to have based his presumption on the basis of FDI inflows, which have surprisingly gone up 33 per cent to $3.19 billion in the period between January and August 2001, the highest in the last five years.

Maran is confident of India posting a 5-per cent growth in the GDP in the current year. On 16 October, Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha had admitted that the economy is in a shambles and that India could miss its GDP target of 4.70 per cent in the current year.

The FDI inflow increased because foreign companies had bought out their Indian partners and/or investors and converted their operations into the firms 100 per cent subsidiaries. In the beginning of 2001, companies like Otis Elevators, Wartsila Diesel and Carrier Aircon were listed but have, of late, either got themselves delisted or are in the process of delisting.

Maran sees India can attract more FDI inflows but passed the buck to individual states. Reforms have now crossed New Delhi and gone to the state governments. There are no trap doors in Delhi. The government is following sectoral strategy for attracting FDI and has put in place a six-point proactive formula to ensure regular and larger FDI inflows.

Maran is also confident that India would achieve a 12-per cent growth in exports in the current fiscal. This is despite the fact that in the period between April and August 2001, India's exports dipped 2.3 per cent to $17.13 billion. The downturn was largely due to textiles, which saw a 20-per cent decline in exports. Textiles are important to India as it contributes almost 28 per cent to the countrys overall exports. In fiscal 2001, textile exports amounted to $12 billion in comparison to the total exports of $44 billion.

The industry minister based his optimism on the presumption that the American economy would recover, in the process aiding Indian exports. He announced the formation of a 12-member body to formulate the export policy 2002-2007. The body will headed by commerce secretary P P Prabhu.