New Delhi: The second meeting of prime minister's Economic Advisory Council (EAC) on Monday decided to broaden the economic reforms process to cover areas like agriculture, education and health to dispel the impression that the reforms were anti-poor.

Secretary to Prime Minister N K Singh and noted economist I G Patel said that areas like education, rural connectivity, agriculture and drinking water would now be brought under the reform process.

The emphasis would be on the quality of public service so that the reforms became meaningful to the poor. Fiscal reforms and disinvestment also figured in the meeting.

The EAC also decided to come out with a comprehensive and common approach paper. There was a need to take an integrated approach to tackle the problems and the differences among the economists were only on the nuances of the reforms, Patel said.

UNI