Strongly refuting that the government was overstating India's economic potential, Finance Minister Jaswant Singh on Monday asserted that "golden age" of growth has dawned on India.

Singh assured that prices will remain stable with inflation at a "very benign" level of less than five per cent.

Variety of circumstances have now come together which "persuades me to say that the macro-economic conditions of the Indian economy has never been better, and therefore I do share with you my optimism that we are on the edge of reaching that point of criticality," he said in a wide ranging interview to private business channel CNBC-TV18.

Singh was however non-committal about growth figures when asked if he was confident of achieving 8 per cent annual growth target set in the Tenth Five-Year Plan.

The decade of nineties has moved on to an average growth of six per cent, which was significantly large in the world, he said, adding, "go with what economists are saying regarding growth figures."

Singh did not agree that declining flow of foreign direct investment would hit the economy. "We do need foreign direct investment but we are not 'FDI economy' like some other countries. We are basically a continental sized economy -- generating power by itself," he said.

He said inflation, now at five per cent, was not an area of concern. "I have no difficulty in sharing with you that at the end of the year you will find that the inflation rate will be very benign and it will not even be five per cent," he said.

Indian corporates were sitting on cash reserves of around Rs 40,000 crore (Rs 400 billion), he said while admitting that they were not investing even though the corporate results were excellent.

"It is a challenge for us. I am trying to analyse what we can do to encourage the corporate world to go further," he said.

On the controversy over divestment, particularly that of the oil PSUs, Singh said there was no need to get disheartened over the delay as it was really a question of managing the political economy.

Consensus had to be arrived at on the issue of divestment and "it will go forward at a pace, which ought to be faster," he said.

"We are dictated by the commands of Parliament. I am a servant of the Parliament, how can I overwrite the wishes of the Parliament," he asked.

The Finance Minister promised to sort out certain anomalies regarding equity holding by foreign institutional investors in new broadcasting companies.

According to an information and broadcasting notification, companies in news broadcasting cannot have foreign institutional investment but a finance ministry notification says 24 per cent equity can be held freely by FIIs in listed companies, which included news broadcasting companies.

On banking sector reforms, Singh said, "We are still moving on IDBI. We have done significant work on IFCI." But he regretted that nationalised banks were not performing their role as they have "run into a psychology of indecision".

Regarding bullish capital markets, Singh said the government is closely watching and so is the market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India.