MANMOHAN SINGH

India happens to be a rich country inhabited by very poor people.

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.

Our foreign-exchange reserves when I took over were no more than a billion dollars; that is, roughly equal to two weeks' imports.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Life is never free of contradictions.

Nobody should be allowed to tinker with democracy. We will not discontinue the good works of the past government.

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.

Unity and secularism will be the motto of the government. We can't afford divisive polity in India.

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.

It is a struggle for the minds of the people... No cause justifies recourse to terrorism.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Today, the diplomatic method has less to do with a sense of political history and the persuasive powers of its practitioners. Important as these tools are, the vital role of the diplomat in today’s globalized world has been radically altered by the complexities of techno-economic multilateralism. Meeting the challenge of instant news, instant analysis, and instant decisions require alertness and mental agility of a very high order. Sadly, as we have seen yesterday, the threat posed by non-state actors, ranging from conventional terrorists to hackers and white-collar criminals, has also raised the bar for our representatives abroad. Crafting a balance between traditional modes of diplomatic negotiation with the need for instant responses is a specific challenge that must be dealt with

Shared values that bring us together must be more visible, not only in how we deal with each other, but also in our approach to the world. We must strengthen democratic capacities jointly. We must oppose the evil of terrorism together. To meet such vital challenges, we must be together on the same page. We must speak the same language and display the same resolve

Democratic societies with established institutions must help those societies that do not yet have established institutions.