The Hindu Business Line : All human challenges have become global challenges: PM

New Delhi, Dec. 19 The Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, on Friday said that although all human challenges today have become global challenges, “the unfortunate fact is our responses remains national or at best regional.”

Delivering the inaugural address at a two-day international conference on ‘Development, freedom and welfare’, Dr Singh felt that one reason for this could be “inherent” weakness of global institutions. “Another could be enduring strength of national interests. I am often amazed by the jealousy with which nations guard their control over international institutions even as they speak of the virtues of globalisation and democracy,” the Prime Minister said.

The conference, which has been jointly organised by Cornell University and Institute for Human Development also coincides with the 75th birthday celebrations of economist, Professor Amartya Sen.

Dr Singh was of the opinion that the debate on globalisation had been too “straight- jacketed” and “divided” between those who seek only global solutions and those seeking national ones. “It has become divided between those who remain obsessed with the ideologies of the market and those who adhere to the ideologies of Statism,” Dr Singh said.

“In a world where intolerance is on the rise, in a world where bigotry is on the rise, in a world where narrow nationalisms challenges universal values, in a world where ideologies of exclusion challenge the inclusiveness of the human spirit, more voices must speak for freedom and democracy. Even if such freedoms are partial and such democracies are flawed,” Dr Singh said.

In his address, Dr Sen thanked the Prime Minister. He said they had both been students together at Cambridge and that from the very start of their friendship he had realised that here was a special man. Little did I know, he said, that one day he would become Prime Minister.

Prof Kaushik Basu, Chairman of the Department of Economics Cornell University and one of the organisers of the felicitation and conference said that India being a democracy, they were not sure whether they should invite the Prime Minister to inaugurate the conference because “we didn’t know who the PM would be by the time the conference came around. In the end, we decided to call Dr Manmohan Singh.”

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