Oct. 6 (Bloomberg) -- India must increase investment to achieve a targeted economic growth of as much as 10 percent, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said.

Asia's fourth-biggest economy needs $150 billion for roads, ports and power supply systems to help boost growth from an average 8 percent posted in the past three financial years through March 31. A report last week showed the $775-billion economy expanded 8.9 percent in the three months ended June 30, beating the median forecast of 15 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News.

``If we have to achieve our growth ambitions of 8 percent to 10 percent a year, we need investments of a high order,'' Singh said in a speech in Mumbai while inaugurating the new building of the stock market regulator, the Securities & Exchange Board of India.

The government is confident of enlisting the support of other political parties to take economic changes forward, Singh said. Demands from overseas insurance companies and retailers for India to allow foreign ownership have met with resistance from Communist allies and some other parties in the coalition.

``We may currently be lacking a consensus on the needed reforms,'' he said. ``However, I am confident that we will soon be able to forge a consensus and take reforms forward.''

The country's insurance industry needs a bigger capital base while the country's debt market, which ``falls short of expectations,'' needs to be broadened, he said.

``In our experience, debt markets in India have not quite delivered on expectations,'' he said. ``We need to make efforts to understand why the debt market has not taken off and to take policy measures to make it deeper, broader and more liquid.

To contact the reporter on this story: Gautam Chakravorthy in Mumbai at chakravorthy@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: October 6, 2006 01:29 EDT