0. [Quoting Victor Hugo] Nothing can stop an idea whose time has come-Victor Hugo.
India is an idea whose time has come.
1. I find democracies sometimes a crisis is a blessing. That it concentrates the mind. If things are moving alright I think-- you do not get the momentum to get a cohesive consensus built in favor of change. In '91 I said to my colleagues and I said to the leaders of the opposition that if you don't cooperate with me I will have to declare India bankrupt and hand over the economy to the IMF and international--
2. I've always believed India is a country blessed by God with enormous entrepreneurial skills. Now these entrepreneurial spirits were kept suppressed by the command and control system. That started off well with good intentions, maybe it served us well in the beginning. But after time it became a factor on further progress.
3. I would like government to have greater concern as a facilitator rather than as a regulator. There, I think, we have some distance to go. We have also problems in modernizing our political system. There are several states in our union where-- I think-- the politicians are not preoccupied with the great dynamics as I believe they should be. They're still mired in the old-- the-- religious controversies, the past controversies. So India's political system also would need to be modernized.
4. I've always believed that the ultimate purpose of economic policies and development policy is to meet the basic needs of our people. And for that we needed fast expanding economy. Meaningful solutions to the problems of mass poverty that prevails in our country I believe can really be found in the framework of an expanding economy. If the economy is not expanding redistribution of income becomes a zero sum gain. And therefore all the class struggle and it becomes much more vicious.
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