The Hindu : Front Page : India now flavour of the world: Chidambaram

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Sunday, Aug 26, 2007
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India now flavour of the world: Chidambaram

Atiq Khan

Wants to see the country become more prosperous, competitive and safer and civilised place to live

P. Chidambaram

LUCKNOW: Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram on Saturday said the experience of the last 16 years showed that it was possible to create jobs and make India more globally competitive. “India is now the flavour of the world. Ten years ago the world used to mention China but today India and China are mentioned in the same breath.”

Mr. Chidambaram was participating in an interactive reading and signing session of his book, A view from the outside, why good economics works for everyone, at the Landmark bookstore here. The show was organised by the Indian Express Group and the Landmark book store.

Mr. Chidambaram, who stressed that he was here on a private visit and not as Minister, said the biggest goal of his life was to wipe out abject poverty.

He dismissed the popular perception in history textbooks that India was a land of milk and honey.

Pockets of affluence

Mr. Chidambaram stated that pockets of affluence and mass poverty always existed in the country. He described abject poverty as where people don’t have pucca roofs over their houses, have no clothes to change and don’t get two square meals a day.

Striking a note of optimism, he said that the last 16 years showed that it was achievable to create jobs and make a dent in poverty.

In a democracy, there would be a clash of opinion but one must be confident of doing the right thing. India, as a nation, stood tall and proud, he said. He wanted to see the country become more prosperous, competitive and safer and a civilised place to live.

Stating that central India was critical for the emergence of India as a global power, he said in this context there was no better place than Lucknow to participate in a book reading session of his treatise.

‘A different politician’

Editor-in-Chief of the Express Group Shekhar Gupta described Mr. Chidambaram as a different kind of politician in a political world, which could be brutal. Mr. Chidambaram was an instinctive reformer, who was able to bridge the gap between the rich and the poor.

Chairman of Dainik Jagran Mahendra Mohan Gupta and the director of Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow, Devi Singh, participated in the interactive session.

“A view from the outside” is a compilation of columns written by Mr. Chidambaram from 2002 to 2004, when the National Democratic Alliance was in power at the Centre.

The columns were originally published in the Indian Express and the Financial Express. The collection covers subjects as varied as agriculture and reforms to forex reserves and social issues.

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