New Delhi, Nov 21: India will sustain a growth rate
of eight per cent despite the adverse impact of the global
financial crisis, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said on Friday.
"We have the ability to sustain a growth rate of about
eight percent. And we will do so," he said at the Hindustan
Times Leadership Summit here.
Exuding confidence that India had the "resources and the
wisdom to grapple and deal" with the crisis, Singh said all
instruments of public policy -- monetary, fiscal, public
investment and exchange rate -- "will be deployed" to tackle
it.
Noting that the global economy was going through "choppy
waters", the Prime Minister said "we can and we will survive
this crisis".
Replying to questions after delivering the inaugural
address at the Leadership Summit, Singh said the government
had "anticipated the global slowdown" and taken measures in
the budget.
Observing that the global economy was passing through a
"deep crisis", the economist-turned-politician said "we cannot
pretend that we are not affected by it.
"The crisis was not made in our country but elsewhere.
... Due to the interdependency (of the world economies), we
are in the same boat," the Prime Minister said.
Noting that global problems required global solutions,
he said there was a need for a global safety net.
Maintaining that he had urged the G-20 to create a global
safety net, the Prime Minister said this was required to
ensure that the poor did not pay the price for the
"delinquency" of the rich.
With communal violence in some states weighing heavily on
his mind, Singh said, "competitive politics must not be
allowed to divide the people on the basis of religion, caste
or region."
He said cooperative pluralism and respect for diversity
was the basis of democracy.
With the term of the UPA government coming to an end, the
Prime Minister said his ambition for the 21st century was a
fully educated and empowered India.
"The light of knowledge should touch every child," Singh
said as he recalled his rise from a "dusty village" in Punjab
to the top office only because of education. "My dream for
myself was realised in my own lifetime."
The Prime Minister said when US President George W Bush
invited him for the G-20 summit, he thought that it should not
be a repeat of the G-8 meeting in which leaders from
developing countries are "invited for lunch and breakfast".
"But then this has no impact on what you do and what you
say. It then becomes a counter-productive exercise," he added.
Singh hoped that the Indian state and industry sails,
"not in choppy waters, but with speed and dignity".
Bureau Report