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When I Became Finance Minister In 1991, I Discovered That The Wealth Tax Rates Income - There Was Taxation On Wealth. It Was So Atrocious And So High That Actually Nobody Could Accumulate Money In An Honest Way. I Removed That Tax, And The Result Was That Indian Companies For The First Time Acquired An Incentive To Grow Big, To Grow Rich.

-Manmohan Singh

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When I Became Finance

Manmohan Singh

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When I Became Finance Minister In 1991, I Discovered That The Wealth Tax Rates Income - There Was Taxation On Wealth. It Was So Atrocious And So High That Actually Nobody Could Accumulate Money In An Honest Way. I Removed That Tax, And The Result Was That Indian Companies For The First Time Acquired An Incentive To Grow Big, To Grow Rich.

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Capitalism Historically Has Been A Very Dynamic Force, And Behind That Force Is Technical Progress, Innovation, New Ideas, New Products, New Technologies, And New Methods Of Managing Teams.

I Think, Overall, India Is Today On The Move. The Economic Reforms That Our Salvation Lies In - Operating An Open Society, Political System, An Open Economy, Economic System - This Has Widespread Support.

China Is Very Important. The Future Growth Of China, China's Influence Is Bound To Rise.

There May Be A Difference Of The Pace At Which India Moves, But There Should Be No Doubt Whatsoever About The Direction In Which India Is Going To Move In Years To Come.

The Emergence Of India As A Major Global Power Is An Idea Whose Time Has Come.

Because The Chinese Insistence On One Child, I Think The Proportion Of Older, Non-working Age Population Is Going To Rise Sharply In China.

We Need Multiculturalism, Respect For Diversity, Tolerance, Respect For Diverse Faiths.

The Chinese Economy Is Growing At The Rate Of 9 Percent; The Indian Economy Growing At The Rate Of 8 Percent - Enormous I Think Opportunities For Two-way Flow Of Trade, Technology And Investment.

The Emergence Of India As A Major Global Power Is An Idea Whose Time Has Come. This Is A Legitimate Ambition For China. This Is A Legitimate Ambition For India. And The Challenge For The Humanity Is To Evolve A World System In Which The Legitimate Ambitions Of Both Our Countries Can Find Constructive Expression Without Threatening Anybody Else.

Yes, I Think India's Economy Always Has Been A Mixed Economy, And By Western Standards We Are Much More Of A Market Economy Than A Public Sector-driven Economy.

I Am Not Very Good At Statistics. I Am Also A Poor Thinker.

Protectionism Has To Be Avoided. Protectionism Is Not Only On Goods But Also In The Area Of Services. Financial Protectionism Is Also Bad And Should Be Avoided.

All Necessary Steps Needed To Be Taken To Tackle Terrorism Will Be Adopted...but We Will Keep In Mind That A Particular Religion Or Section Of Society Does Not Face Problems Unnecessary

What India Needs Most Is A Unified Food Law.

The Service Of India Means The Service Of Those Teeming Millions Steeped In Poverty, Ignorance And Disease. To See That In My Lifetime We Can Soften These Harsh Edges Of Extreme Poverty And Unleash A New Economic And Social Revolution Which Will Bring Out The Latent Creativity And Entrepreneurial Spirit Of Our People, I Think That's What I Feel, I Think.

If You Don't Have A Functioning Financial System The World Economy Won't Be Revived. All The Major Economies Have Their Responsibility To Assist At A Pace Which Is Required To Clean Up The Balance Sheet Of The Banking System And To Ensure That Credit Flows Are Resumed.

I Am Convinced The Entrepreneurial Spirit Of The Indian People, If Allowed To Express Itself Freely In The Marketplace, India Will Be All Right.

We All Know The Epicentre Of Terrorism In The World Today Is Pakistan. The World Community Has To Come To Grips With This Harsh Reality.

India Has Remained A Full, Functioning Democracy.

I Can Assure You We Are A Responsible Nuclear Power.

We Are A Coalition Government, And That Limits Our Options In Some Ways. Privatization Happens To Be One Such Area.

I Believe That Without Looking At Each Other As Rivals Or As Competitors, In A Democratic India, Operating In The Framework Of An Open Economy, An Open Society Has, I Think, Some Significance For Developing Countries, Not Only In Asia But Outside Asia.

Let Me Say That I Think The Economic History Of The Last 150 Years Clearly Shows That If You Want To Industrialize A Country In A Short Period, Let Us Say 20 Years, And You Don't Have A Well-developed Private Sector, Entrepreneurial Class, Then Central Planning Is Important.

I Think There Are Enormous Possibilities. And Today There Are No I Think Barriers To Increased Cooperation With India And The United States.

Agribusiness And Food Processing Are Important Parts Of Modernizing Our Economy, Of Modernizing Our Agriculture And Moving Into A Phase Where A More Modernized Agriculture Helps Not Only Farmers But Also Helps Consumers.

I Do Recognize That India Has To Be The Center, The Hub Of Activity As Far As The Knowledge Economy Is Concerned.

Meaningful Solutions To The Problems Of Mass Poverty That Prevails In India I Believe Can Only Be Found In The Framework Of An Expanding Economy.

India Was A Late Comer To Industrialization, And As Such, We Have Contributed Very Little To The Accumulation Of Greenhouse Gas Emissions That Cause Global Warming. But We Are Determined To Be Part Of The Solution To The Problem.

Industrialization

India's Growth Rate Will Be Accelerated, But In The Process, America Would Also Benefit.

India's Infrastructure Has To Be Modernized, Has To Be Expanded At A Rate Which Will I Think Be Consistent With The Growth Requirements.

I Believe All Societies, All Thriving Societies Of The Future Are Going To Be Multicultural Societies.

Multicultural Society

Protectionism Is A Very Real Danger. It Is Understandable That In Times Of A Severe Downturn Protectionist Pressures Mount But The Lessons Of History Are Clear. If We Give In To Protectionist Pressures, We Will Only Send The World Into A Downward Spiral.

We Have To Walk On Two Legs. We Have To Create Conditions In Which Manufacturing And Services - The Economy Outside Agriculture - Move And Move Fast Enough. And At The Same Time The Working Force That Is Available Must Have Skills Which Will Fit The Kind Of Jobs Which Will Be In Demand.

I Have To Create In India A Macroeconomic Environment Where The Employment In Aggregate Can Go Up At A Handsome Rate. Once That Happens, People Losing Jobs In One Sector Will Not Mean That They Will Become Perpetually Unemployed. From One Sector, They Can Move On To Other Sectors.

Outsourcing, Information Technology Revolution, The Access To India's Human Resources, India's Pool Of Scientists. It Will Help American Companies To Become Leaner, Meaner, More Efficient, And They Become More Competitive, Both In The United States And In Dealing With The Rest Of The World.

If We Have Access To Nuclear Energy, That Adds To Our Maneuverability In Ensuring Energy Security As India Marches On, On The Path To Accelerated Development.

I Don't See, I Think, Any Problems Between India And The United States.

My Vision Is To Work For The Relationship Between India And Pakistan Which Would Be Like The Relation Between Canada And The United States.

India And Pakistan

We Should Put More Money In Health. We Should Put More Money In Devising Credible Social Safety Nets For The Poor.

The First And Foremost Priority Is To Finish The Unfinished Task Which The Founding Fathers Of India Set Out For Us At The Time Of Our Independence: To Get Rid Of Chronic Poverty, Ignorance, And Disease, Which Have Afflicted Millions And Millions Of Our People.

Our Vision Is Not Just Of Economic Growth, But Also Of A Growth Which Would Improve The Life Of The Common Man.

The Indian Economy Grew At 5.5 Percent, But If You Look At The Last 30 Years - For Example, 1960 To 1985 - The Progress Made By East Asian Countries Was Phenomenal. In A Single Generation They Had Been Able To Transform The Character Of Their Economy. They Were Able To Get Rid Of Chronic Poverty.

70 Percent Of India's Imports Of Oil And Oil Products Are Imported From Abroad. There Is Uncertainty About Supply. There Is Uncertainty About Prices. And That Hurts India's Development.

The Premature Migration Of Very Large Numbers Of People From Rural Areas To Urban Areas Can Give Rise To A Lot Of Strains To The Urban Infrastructure, Which Can Also Create Problems Of Crime - Law-and-order Problems.

India Is This Great Experiment Of A Billion People Of Such Great Diverse Persuasions Working Together, Seeking Their Salvation In The Framework Of A Democracy. I Believe It Will Have Some Lessons For All The Multicultural Societies.

Multicultural Society

With The Revolution In Information Technology, With The Revolution In Transport Technologies, I Think Just Geography Has Lost Its All Significance.

If The Economy Grows Enough, Fast Enough, The Tech System Should Be Modernized So That The Tax Revenues Rise Fast Enough Also, And We Should Put More Money In Education.

Indians, We Would Like To Be A Part Of The Nuclear World Order, Accepting All The Responsibilities That Go With Being A Responsible Nuclear Power, And At The Same Time Enlarging Our Options With Regard To Energy Security Of Our Country.

I Recognize The United States Is A Superpower. It Has Various Interests. It Has To Balance Various Things.

I Have To Do My Duty, Whatever Task Is Allotted To Me.

We Got Government Off The Backs Of The People Of India, Particularly Off The Backs Of India's Entrepreneurs. We Introduced More Competition, Both Internal Competition And External Competition. We Simplified And Rationalized The Tax System. We Made Risk-taking Much More Attractive.

I Have 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 Need A Fast-expanding Economy.

The Chinese Have Certain Advantages. The Fact That It's A Single Party Government. But I Do Believe In The Long Run The Fact That India Is A Functioning Democracy Committed To The Rule Of Law. Our System Is Slow To Move But I'm Confident That Once Decisions Are Taken They Are Going To Be Far More Durable.

There Was A Research I Think Team, Which Conducted A Survey About What Indians Think Of Americans, And 71 Percent I Believe Said, Well, I Think All The Nice Things About Our Working Together With The United States. But There Are People I Think That Are Old Mind-sets, Who Still I Think Remain Mired In The Cold War Ideology.

[urbanization] Is The Inevitable Outcome Of The Processes Of Growth And The Processes Of Modernization.

I Sincerely Hope That The Difficulties That Are There In Iraq And Iran Can Be Resolved, That Iraq Will See A New Era Of Hope In Which Its People Will Enjoy A Full Sovereignty. And Also The Problems That There Is With Iran Can Be Resolved Through Dialogue Through Giving Diplomacy A Chance.

Life Is Never Free Of Contradictions

I Do Believe That India Needs A Lot More Foreign Direct Investment Than We've Got, And We Should Have The Ambition To Move In The Same League Many Other Countries In Our Neighborhood Are Moving. We May Not Be Able To Reach Where The Chinese Are Today, But There Is No Reason Why We Should Not Think Big About The Role Of Foreign Direct Investment, Particularly In The Areas Relating To Infrastructure, Where Our Needs For Investment Are Very Large. We Need New Initiatives, Management Skills, And I Do Believe That Direct Foreign Investment Can Play A Very Important Role.

Working Together In Helping Nascent Democracies In The Task Of Reconstruction, In The Task Of Development Is Another Area Where Our Two Countries [india And The Usa] Can Work Together.

Working Together

Democracy Is Good For Everybody.

I Have Always Regard Nonalignment As A Statement That India's Policies, Foreign Policy Will Be Guided By What I Describe As Enlightened National Interest. That We Will Make Judgments On An Independent Basis, With The Sole Concern Being What Is Enlightened India's National Interest. In That Sense, Nonalignment Remains As Relevant Today As It Was In The Early 1950s.

India Is A Functioning Democracy Despite Its Extreme Poverty, India Has Stayed The Course.

Together With International Unity And Resolve We Can Meet The Challenge Of This Global Scourge And Work To Bring About An International Law Of Zero Tolerance For Terrorism.

Nowhere Else You Will Find A Country Of India's Diversity, Of India's Complexity, One Billion People Trying To Seek Their Social And Economic Salvation In The Framework Of Democracy, In The Framework Of An Open Economy.

I Should Like To Express Our Profound Gratitude To The Americans Of Indian Origin. The Way They Have Conducted Themselves, The Way They Have Worked Hard To Carve Out A Niche For Themselves In The Silicon Valley, I Think This Has Also Given America A New Idea About What India Is Capable Of.

The Death Of Distance. There Is Hardly Any Middle Class Family In India Who Doesn't Have A Son, A Daughter, A Son-in-law, A Brother, A Brother-in-law In The United States. That Is A Very Powerful New Bond.

When I Became Finance Minister In 1991, I Discovered That The Wealth Tax Rates Income - There Was Taxation On Wealth. It Was So Atrocious And So High That Actually Nobody Could Accumulate Money In An Honest Way. I Removed That Tax, And The Result Was That Indian Companies For The First Time Acquired An Incentive To Grow Big, To Grow Rich.

My Top Most Priority Is To Deal With India's Massive Social And Economic Problems, So That Chronic Poverty, Ignorance And Disease Can Be Conquered In A Reasonably Short Period Of Time.

We Are A Mixed Economy. We Will Remain A Mixed Economy. The Public And Private Sector Will Continue To Play A Very Important Role. The Private Sector In Our Country Has Very Ample Scope And I Am Confident That India's Entrepreneurs Have The Capacity, And The Will To Rise To The Occasion.

India's Saving Rate Will Go Up. India's Investment Rate Will Go Up. And I Believe That's A Plus Point.

The Salvation Of The World Ultimately Lies In Moving Towards Universal Nuclear Disarmament, But That's A Long Distance Away.

I Believe A Large Part Of Humanity Will Draw Appropriate Lessons From What Is The Wave Of The Future In The 21st Century.

I Look Upon India-u.s. Nuclear Cooperation As An Act Of Historic Reconciliation.

Terrorists Had The Advantage Of Surprise.

India Has, Of Course, Aspirations Of Getting Out Of Its Poverty, Ignorance, And Disease Which Still Afflict Millions Of People. But I Do Believe That We Have Something To Offer To The Rest Of The World, Including The United States.

The United States And India Can Work Together.

Working Together

I Pray For That Moment In Which I Think We Can Claim To The World That We Are Now In A Different, New Era Of Indo-american Relationship Of Trust, Of Working Together, Partnership Strengthened Both By Our Commitment To Common Values, And Also The Identity Of Interests.

If The Economy Is Not Expanding, The Redistribution Of Income Becomes A Zero-sum Game. And Therefore, All The Class Struggle - And It Becomes Much More Vicious.

As The Largest And Most Developed Democracies Of Asia (india And Japan), We Have A Mutual Stake In Each Other's Progress And Prosperity.

So Outside Agriculture, In Manufacturing And Services, We Must Create A Lot More Jobs. But That Also Means That We Must Ensure That Our Systems Of General Education And Technical Education Are In Line With The Job Requirements That A More Modern Manufacturing And A More Modern Services Sector Would Require.

There Are Partnerships Based On Principle. There Are Partnerships Based On Pragmatism. And Fortunately, When It Comes To Indo-american Relations, Both Concentrations Find A New Robust Phase Of Relationship, A Multi-fasted Relationship Which I Believe Exists In The Interests Of Both Our Countries.

If You Have A Rigidly Controlled Economy, Cut Off From The Rest Of The World By Infinite Protection, Nobody Has Any Incentive To Increase Productivity And To Bring New Ideas.

Pakistan Should Be A Moderate Islamic State. That It Should Be A Prosperous Country Is In India's Interests, And It Is In The World's Interests.

Ethical And Responsible Behavior Needs To Become The Cornerstone Of Corporate Behavior

Jawaharlal Nehru Wanted India To Develop Close Ties With China And Learn From Its Experience.

I Have Always Believed India Is A Country Blessed By God With Enormous Entrepreneurial Skills.

India Happens To Be A Rich Country Inhabited By Very Poor People.

I Think The Proof Of The Pudding Is In The Eating.

No Power On Earth Can Stop An Idea Whose Time Has Come.

What We Need Is A Dialogue Amongst Civilizations.

No Nation, No Society, No Community Can Hold Its Head High And Claim To Be Part Of The Civilized World If It Condones The Practice Of Discriminating Against One Half Of Humanity Represented By Women.

I Do Believe That The Future Of Civilization Belongs To Those Who Would Lay Emphasis On Working Together Instead Of Talking About Clash Of Civilizations.

If Certain Facilities, Local Facilities Have To Be Arranged, The Local Authorities Have To Come. And That Makes The Indian System Slow Moving, Indian Administrative System Slow Moving.

I Think Whatever I've Done, I Hope I've Earned A Footnote In India's Long And Tortuous History.

Unity And Secularism Will Be The Motto Of The Government. We Can't Afford Divisive Polity In India.

I Sincerely Believe What Happens In India Has, I Think, Lessons, Morals For The Future Evolution Of Humankind In The 21st Century.

China's Influence Is Bound To Rise.

In A Country Where Employment Opportunities Are Not Growing Fast Enough, The Fear Of Change Tends To Be Very Acute.

Democracies Don't Go To War.

Economic Policy And Decision Making Do Not Function In A Political Vacuum.

I Do Believe That India Is A Unique Case. And You Need I Think Exceptional Skills I Think To Incorporate Indian Into The World Nuclear Order.

There Are Diverse Ways In Which - Right Now, Terror And All That Goes With It Is A Prime Concern. It's A Concern Of The United States. It's A Concern Of India. Joint Strategies, Cooperation, Joint Sharing Of Intelligence, In Controlling Terrorism, In Making The World Free From Terror. I Think That's The Fundamental, I Think, Consideration If Our Development Aspirations Are To Be Fulfilled. And I Think Our Two Countries Can Cooperate.

Nobody Should Be Allowed To Tinker With Democracy. We Will Not Discontinue The Good Works Of The Past Government.

Democracy Is Good For World Peace.

In A World In Which Technology Is Changing At Such A Fast Pace, Where Demand Conditions Change Very Fast, We Need To Look At A More Innovative Mechanism To Cut Down On This Rigmarole Of Many Tiers Of Decision-making Processes.

Sachin Tendulkar Is A Guy You Don't Want To Chat To Period, Because He Will Knuckle Down- Brett Lee Tells You Why One Must Never Sledge Sachin Tendulkar It Is An Amazing Achievement To Play For The Country For Over Two Decades And Still Continue To Be The Team's Anchor. Sachin Makes All Of Us So Very Proud

If Pakistan Honors In Letter And In Spirit The Commitment That It Gave To Mr. Vajpayee In 2004, That Pakistan Territory Will Not Be Used For Promoting Terrorist Acts Against India, The Sky Is The Limit Of Cooperation Between Our Two Countries. Basically, We Are The Same People. There Are Ties Of Religion. There Are Ties Of Language. There Are Ties Of Culture.

I Believe Whether It Is The United States Or Europe, They Will All End Up As Multicultural Societies.

Multicultural Society

A New India Which Realizes Its Destiny In The Framework Of An Open Society, In The Framework Of An Open Economy, Respecting All Fundamental Human Freedoms Great Respect For Pluralistic, Inclusive Value System. I Think That's What Unites India And The United States. And I Do Hope That Working Together, Our Two Countries Can Write A New Chapter In The History Of Our Relationship.

Those Who Create Wealth Should Be Shown The Greatest Respect.

China Is Not I Think A Country Which Does Not Regulate, But There Is A Difference Between The Chinese System And The Indian System.

Globalization Offers Us Enormous Opportunities In The Race To Leapfrog In Development Processes. It Also Obliges Us To Set In Motion Processes Which Would Minimize Its Risks.

The Essence Of Hinduism Is That The Path May Be Different, But The Goal Is The Same.

I Think The Modernization Of Chinese Economy And Chinese Society Is A Prime Concern.

A Politician Before He Can Become A Statesman Has To Remain In Office Long Enough.

India's Political System Also Would Need To Be Modernized.

I Sincerely Hope That Whatever Influence The United States Has In Pakistan, It Will Convince Pakistan That Using Terrorism As An Instrument Of State Policy Has No Place In The World That We Want To Build.

I'm A Small Person Put In This Big Chair.

India's Future Lies In Being An Open Society, An Open Polity, A Functioning Democracy Respecting All Fundamental Human Freedoms, Accepting The Rule Of Law And, At The Same Time, To Emerge As A Successful, Internationally Competitive Market Economy.

If The Economy Is Growing Fast, There Is Call For A Distributing Income From The Rich To The Poor To To Put In Place Social Safety Nets.

I Think The Chinese Do Have Visions Of Being A Great Power. And I Think It's Legitimate. And I Don't See That That's A Danger To Us.

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