The Hindu : Business : Tackling inflation is important: Lord Paul

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Tackling inflation is important: Lord Paul

Special Correspondent

‘Banking system’s greediness caused sub-prime crisis’

KOLKATA: NRI industrialist Lord Swraj Paul has said that tackling inflation is a more important issue than achieving high rates of growth. “Growth cannot be the only concern, attacking inflation is more important. It is enemy number one,” he said.

Responding to a question by former FICCI Chairman, A. K. Roongta, he said the British Prime Minister Gordon Brown had succeeded in keeping inflation rate pegged down at two per cent.

Lord Paul was participating at an interactive session organised by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry.

The session focussed on social and infrastructural impediments on India’s way to economic resurgence.

On inclusive growth, he said if poor people were left out of the growth process it ceased to have any meaning.

“So, many children do not have any access to education, about 300 million people live on an income of below one dollar a day”, he noted saying that growth had no value if it does not reach all.

Inflation impacted the ‘left-out’ people the hardest, Lord Paul said.

On the sub-prime crisis, he said this was the result of greed. “Banking system’s greediness had caused this”, he said adding that a recession in the U.S. affected all. “It affects China, it affects India .. that is what globalisation is about.”

He said that the relationship between India and Britain were at its peak now and companies like the Tatas had a big presence in the U.K. Pointing out that Britain was more open than a lot of its neighbours, Lord Paul said that when the acquisition of Corus or Jaguar took place, Britain welcomed the Tatas.

On the WTO negotiations, he said Britain had an opinion on the farmers subsidy issue, but it would like to see a successful conclusion of the Doha round of negotiations as otherwise the WTO would be in trouble.

Lord Paul was also keen on fostering ties between the two countries on the education front.

He was accompanied by three other parliament colleagues — Lord A. Bhatia, Ashok Kumar and Baronness Verma — at the meeting.

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