India’s union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee asked the Opposition parties in the parliament, which have been obstructing the normal proceedings over different issues, to cooperate and help the government improve investment climate to increase growth in the country.

At a a time when most secessions were disrupted, members of the parliament listened carefully to his appeal for 45 minutes as he told the leaders that undermining Parliament would result in harm the reform process and thus harm the country.

He said that even as parties have different views on an issue, the institution of parliament must be allowed to function normally.

The economy registered a growth of 7.3% in the first half of the current fiscal. "There is no link between inflation and growth. We shall have to contain inflation, we shall have to go for higher growth, please don't say that nothing has happened," he said.

He added that the claims that the government is doing nothing to control price rises, by pointing out that food inflation had fallen to 6.6% in November from 22% in February. He pointed out that international trends affected prices in India as rising cost of oil and commodity resulted in higher inflation in the country.