The Hindu Business Line : Managing growth is a bigger challenge, says Kamal Nath

New Delhi, April 19 India’s investments in the US last year was more than the level of American investments that came into India, the Union Commerce and Industry Minister, Mr Kamal Nath, said.

“We made more investments into the US last year than what US made into India. India also created more jobs in the US last year than the US created in India. This message should be taken to the primaries in the US right now,” Mr Nath said in his address at the first IISS-Citi India Global Forum here on Friday.

As India moves on stability, he said the country was building a momentum of growth. “Today when we meet in a gloomy global economic outlook, the question is how India should respond. That is another challenge for India. We are an economy that is domestic demand driven. The challenge today is growth, but the bigger challenge is management of growth,” Mr Nath said.

India’s irony

The Minister highlighted that India had chosen for itself a reforms process model that helped it to globalise in a calibrated manner. Mr Nath said that India’s engagement with the world this year would be about $550 billion.

“We are a large market for the western world. Our imports from Europe are going up by 30 per cent. Our imports from the US are going up by 35 per cent every year. India is now a big importer. In 1991, we did not have foreign exchange more than 15 days for oil. Today our reserves are over $300 billion,” he said.

The Commerce Minister also said that the main challenge for India was how to ensure that growth touches the lives of 300 million poor people who earn less than a dollar a day.

“In this complex India that we talk of so many million cellphone connections a month, there are still so many thousand villages that have never heard the ring of a landline telephone. That’s the great paradox of India. Of course we are rising and we are growing. But you have (a long) way to reach the per capita figures of the western world. But India today is a confident India and an ambitious India and ready to break into the world league,” Mr Nath said.

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