"I am delighted to participate in the thirtieth anniversary celebrations of Business Standard. I can confess to a certain element of personal interest in this function today, as I have been a loyal reader for nearly three decades. When I started reading Business Standard, it used to be an afternoon newspaper in New Delhi, and it is to Mr. Ninan's credit that he succeeded not only in making it a morning paper in our capital city, but also for starting new editions across the country. I therefore compliment the management and editorial team of Business Standard for their professionalism, integrity and leadership in an important segment of our national media today.

I am told that India is one of the few countries in the world to have so many business newspapers. This not only reflects the vitality and vibrancy of our media, but also the new vitality of our economy. The large readership for such newspapers transcends the rapidly growing corporate sector; it also illustrates the growing interest that the general public now evinces in economic matters. This is a good sign, reflecting the growing weight of business and economics in our national discourse.

Therefore it is appropriate that Business Standard also has an annual series of awards to felicitate outstanding leadership in the corporate world. Today's award winners are eminent corporate personalities, whose contributions to the economy exemplify their leadership. I compliment every one of the winners on this recognition. I am confident you will be encouraged to do more for your companies and for India itself.

Business Standard is one of the first newspapers in India to have sought Foreign Direct Investment. This in itself is cause for congratulations, for in doing so, you have helped shape Government policy on this issue. I welcome greater foreign participation in our media because India is fundamentally an open society, with an open economy. However, I also believe the time has come for our media to aim at a global audience. I hope we will soon see more outward investment in media, both electronic and print, to reach out to this wider global audiences. I trust you will be inspired to do more in the coming years.

In my years in public life, I have closely observed the role played by our media in shaping the agenda of public policy, particularly our economic reforms. If today we have a wider consensus in favour of the policies initiated in the early 1990s, it is in part due to the role of the media, both as a provider of information, and by facilitating an open debate on the pros and cons of our policies. I have always welcomed the scrutiny of our media in all aspects of our national life, especially the economy. Responsible reportage, which treats facts as sacred and separates events from comments, plays a very vital role in the democratic process. It is such professional reportage, which reflected and articulated our public opinion and enabled those in favour of reform to carry them through, in the face of opposition from vested interests. I therefore owe a debt of gratitude for the support so generously extended to me in the 1990s when I was Finance Minister. While it is true that there were many skeptics amongst you, I think the relative success of our policies helped convert some of our critics to votaries of change!

I do not deny that opposition to change has often come from vested interests, inertia and also from genuine apprehensions about change. In dealing with this, I take solace from the support of the media, and from Lord Keynes often-quoted dictum: in the long run, ideas matter more than vested interests!

The political consensus that has been the bedrock of the reform process since 1991 has been implicit rather than explicit. It is now well known that successive Governments in the last fifteen years have broadly followed this policy orientation. Many of the major issues of reform, ranging from tax and tariff cuts to changes in FDI ceilings, have been the subject of discreet consensus. Such consensus is rarely stated in public, but has often been displayed in the execution of policy. This is important and essential.

However, I have lately been concerned about this implicit consensus in practice. As an example, let me cite our endeavor to introduce value-added taxation (VAT). An empowered committee of State Finance Ministers, which included many major political parties, worked painstakingly to provide a blue print and a road map. Almost all State Governments, and even the major political formations ¾ across the spectrum ¾ were on board. Yet today, it is saddening to see this political consensus weakening. We need to introspect and see if we are not placing ourselves in the unenviable position of talking in different voices to suit the occasion.

I am confident, however, that the innate sagacity of our people, reflected through our media, will help us move forward in unison in the larger national interest. We have often paid a high price by permitting partisan interests to get the better of our long-term vision in the formulation of public policy. We must not succumb to such temptations in future.

India is at a new stage in its development trajectory. After years of middling performance, we have broken fresh ground in the 1990s. We have witnessed growth in the range of 5–6 per cent annually. This has enabled considerable enhancement of incomes in general, but more importantly, it has also helped reduce poverty significantly. We now need to accelerate further and enter into the 7–8 per cent band of growth. This year's effort follows upon an 8 per cent growth rate in the previous year. All indications at the moment are that we may be able to deliver growth of 7-8 per cent next year as well. This extra 1-2 per cent points in growth rates, which seems minuscule at a glance, are substantial over a period of time. In 20 years, a growth rate of 8 per cent will deliver twice as much growth as compared to a rate of 5 per cent !

This is an achievement of which we can legitimately feel satisfied. However, my experience as Finance Minister in the 1990s helped me understand that while we did address some of the structural rigidities of that time, we should have paid more attention to infrastructure and to energy security. I am convinced that it is only focused attention to infrastructure that can make our long-term growth targets achievable. It has therefore been our Government's policy to make reforms sustainable and credible by upgrading both 'hard' and 'soft' infrastructure. By this, I mean that we will not only undertake a sustained campaign to make our ports, airports, railways, roads, power and water sectors as good as the international norm; we will also focus on the long-neglected sectors of our society. These include agriculture, elementary education, health, rural infrastructure and employment generation. Overall, we have to evolve a pattern of sustained growth which protects our environment, creates new productive jobs on a scale large enough to absorb all the new entrants to our labour force, progressively reduces regional disparities and ensures that our women become effective partners in development. These concerns will form the bedrock of our Government's policy framework.

Over this foundation, we will put in place a superstructure to facilitate sustained growth. We are working to create an environment where creativity and enterprise will flourish, where innovation and knowledge will be rewarded and where growth processes will be inclusive. We will also strive to ensure that future growth is guaranteed by proactively seeking new alliances and options to satisfy our growing energy needs. I think it would be fair to say that in the past ten months, the policies of our government have been proven to be growth friendly. Our media would recognize that policies relating to investment, taxation, trade, banking and finance, FDI, capital markets and small-scale industries have contributed to making industry more efficient, globally competitive and as free from restrictions as possible. The direction is visible, and I can assure you that we will stay the course.

I would like to conclude by encouraging you to go beyond the informative role and play a positive role in ensuring that the institutions of governance do not lose momentum. You can help us maintain a political consensus in favour of change with a human face. I invite you to join us as partners in progress, even as you continue to play your essential role as watchdogs and conscience-keepers. You must also contribute to the effort to strengthen the hands of each and every leader who wishes to take our great nation forward, while helping expose those who wish to derail this effort for narrow and limited personal gains.

I thank you once again for inviting me to be with you on the happy occasion of the 30th anniversary of Business Standard. I wish you and all the awardees today every success. I hope all of you will continue to uphold the best principles of professionalism in your chosen profession."