MUMBAI: Finance minister Arun Jaitley pledged to step up public spending in the next fiscal year so that India can achieve "cutting-edge" growth in the face of global economic turbulence and weak private investment. The government is also shifting gears to press forward with more policy changes that can be carried out without parliamentary approval, given the urgent need for reform.The government won't be deflected from its economic agenda despite political obstruction as the aspirations of the wider population need to triumph over the resistance posed by those who subscribe to outdated schools of thought, he said. The global scenario is fraught with dangers as evidenced by the equity meltdown in China, global currency volatility and Brazil and Russia getting knocked back because of the commodities slide.“India is learning the art of how to fight a crisis of this kind knowing fully well that the external situation is not favourable to us," Jaitley said at the ET Awards for Corporate Excellence in Mumbai on Saturday night. "It will have an impact on demand and private sector which is stressed and therefore alternatives are emerging and it is time we spent money where it should be spent."This signals that the government will keep the public spending tap open and isn't likely to be deterred by concerns over the fiscal deficit target as it focuses on ensuring economic revival."We have concentrated on those areas," he said. "It is important to realise that in the coming year itself how we see the situation… It will depend… if we grow something close to 7-7.5% this year, how do get that extra 1% to 1.5% (percentage point)."The Narendra Modi government is looking to administration-oriented reforms as the opposition Congress party has been frustrating its efforts to pass bills such as those pertaining to the goods and services tax (GST)."Not allowing GST to be passed gives some sadistic pleasure but the last laugh will be the best one," Jaitley said.The government is also forging ahead with investment in roads and resolving the ills of the power sector as the debt-laden private sector struggles amid a global meltdown in commodity prices."To get into areas which are not achievable and then make it a testing point of whether we can succeed or not... I think is the route best avoided,’’ Jaitley told an audience studded with political and business luminaries that included Reliance Industries Ltd chairman Mukesh Ambani, HDFC chairman Deepak Parekh and Kotak Mahindra Bank executive vice chairman Uday Kotak."There are still a hundred other areas where you have to more forward and therefore we must try and achieve success stories in those rather than allow the obstruction of one or two decisions to hold us back,’’ Jaitley said.The global economy could face many headwinds and the monsoon could play truant the next year, which would pose a challenge to growth, he said."I hope that the rain gods are kinder to us next year, which itself will make a difference.The second factor will be how the global trade winds blow… I think the world is not going to be extremely helpful," he said. "There‘s going to be increased volatility by the day. There are going to be crisis-like situations thrown up somewhere in the world and you will have multiple crises. In such a situation, we don’t have too many options."He said the government will seek to increase the momentum on reforms."We have taken decisions over the past 18-19 months, each of them in one direction," he said. "Do we hasten that pace? The answer is yes."The lion’s share of the government’s investment spending is likely to go toward infrastructure in general, particularly in rural areas, besides other segments related to the country's villages.Despite an intractable opposition in parliament, the aspirations of states to attract investment could change power dynamics, especially when it comes to much-needed reform such as GST."It is increasingly changing the idiom of politics,’’ said Jaitley. "The states that are lesser developing… (say) that we are a consuming state… therefore we have a vested interest in having the GST passed," the finance minister said. "Eventually, I almost see the writing on the wall, once it is passed, it is going to be passed with the strength of these regional groups. Their own desire for job creation has overtaken all other constraints that conventional politics."