In­dia's fi­nance min­is­ter has promised more re­forms af­ter it opened up its re­tail sec­tor to for­eign su­per­mar­ket chains and cut diesel sub­si­dies. Pala­niap­pan Chi­dambaram al­so told the BBC it was un­fair to sin­gle In­dia out for cor­rup­tion, but said more was be­ing done to tack­le the prob­lem. Chi­dambaram is one of the most im­por­tant fig­ures in the gov­ern­ment. The gov­ern­ment is fac­ing crit­i­cism of the re­forms it an­nounced last month to try to boost the slow­ing econ­o­my.

Op­po­nents say the mea­sures, which in­clude open­ing up In­dia's mas­sive re­tail sec­tor to com­pe­ti­tion from for­eign su­per­mar­kets, will hurt the poor. Last month, the gov­ern­ment al­so an­nounced a 14 per cent rise in the price of diesel, which is heav­i­ly sub­sidised in In­dia, and re­duced the sub­sidy on cook­ing gas cylin­ders. But some econ­o­mists and large in­vestors say the gov­ern­ment is not go­ing far enough, and warn that In­dia still faces the threat of a cred­it rat­ing down­grade.

In a BBC in­ter­view on yes­ter­day, Chi­dambaram promised more re­forms in bank­ing, in­sur­ance and oth­er sec­tors. "It will be clear we are on the re­form path," he said. Sound­ing up­beat about In­dia's prospects, the fi­nance min­is­ter said the coun­try would "re­turn to nine per cent growth" once cer­tain "fun­da­men­tal con­straints are ad­dressed."

Lat­est fore­casts from econ­o­mists at the Asian De­vel­op­ment Bank are less op­ti­mistic, how­ev­er, sug­gest­ing that In­dia's growth will slow to 5.6 per cent this year, be­fore pick­ing up to 6.7 per cent in 2012.

BBC