New Delhi, Mar 4 : Finance Minister P. Chidambaram on Monday urged industries to open up to investments other than encouraging Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) to support the country''s wobbly economic health.

Addressing the post budget interaction with industry associations here, Chidambaram lamented that the country''s business houses were reluctant in the field of investments and were sitting on a pile of cash thereby slowing growth.

"We need to get the growth engine going, we need to get the investment process restarted. In the next few weeks, I will travel to the major metropolitan industrial and business centres like Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Kolkata and of course the NCR and talk to groups of industrialists to find out why investments are not taking pace," he said.

He informed that this year''s budget witnessed the return of investment allowance so as to encourage industries for investment.

Chidambaram said the Central Government had kept its promise by containing the fiscal deficit at 5.2 percent this year.

"The first objective was to signal to the world and to India that we are on the path of fiscal consolidation. In my view there was nothing more important than that. We are there at a point where we must declare our commitment to fiscal consolidation and did not take credible measures towards fiscal consolidation, there would be very serious consequences," he said.

Chidambaram further said that current account deficit remained a cause of worry for the Indian economy.

"Today the current account deficit is a more worrying deficit, while the fiscal deficit is in deed a matter of concern the current account deficit is a more worrying deficit. In order to address the current account deficit, the surest way is to increase exports; we have to export to pay for our imports," he said.

Global rating agency Moody''s has lauded Chidambaram''s Budget for 2013-14, and said that it pursues realistic fiscal consolidation path and is ''credit positive''.

"India''s budget pursues realistic fiscal consolidation, a credit positive for the sovereign," said Moody''s in its credit outlook for the country. (ANI)