"I am very grateful to be amidst such a distinguished group of businessmen and the doyens of the world's financial community. Ancient Indian scriptures have described of those who are commuters of world as deserving of the greatest respect of their communities and history has shown that businessmen including those who work in the field of finance are the ultimate custodians of possibilities of civilization. I, therefore, salute you and the institutions that you represent and for the active role that you are playing in processes of wealth creation and ensuring that the fruits of this development reach out to more and more people enlarging the conscientious purpose of those who benefit through the processes of wealth creation.

India, in 1991, opened a new chapter in its long and tortuous history. We have always been by and large a free enterprise economy. But we had a large number of bureaucratic concerns and our regulatory mechanism in some ways hampered the flourishing of the inherent spirit of adventure and enterprise, which is found abundantly in our country.

In 1991 we took the momentous decision to reverse that process, to enlarge the scope of competition, both internal and external, in our economic life. We took the decision that India's future lies in integrating itself with the evolving global economy, that it is only then that India's vast latent developing potential can be fully realised. We decided that we need a more power driven approach to devolve our foreign investment, both direct and institutional investments.

I am very happy to note the contribution that the US business community and the ladies and gentlemen belonging to the world of finance in this country and for the magnificent response that we received from them. But today I wish to tell you that we have merely splashed results. As I told President Bush, India's relationship with the United States is moving in the right direction. But there is a vast latent development potential which is still unexploited. It is our duty to work to realise that vast latent development potential, and I sincerely believe that it is possible that the best is yet to come. And I am here to convey to you that India welcomes your active involvement and interest in ensuring that India's war against poverty, ignorance and disease, which still afflicts millions and millions of people in our country. This can be won.

The primary responsibility is our own and we will honour that commitment. But we need the active help and involvement of the world business and financial community to make a success of this unique experiment of development and democracy coexisting, going hand in hand. India is the second most populous country in the world with 1.2 billion people. We have all the great religions of the world represented in our population. We have 150 million Muslims in our country, more than probably in any other country, which describes itself as a Muslim country. We are a truly multi-ethnic, multi-cultural, multi-linguist society. To make out of this, heterogenic, cohesive nation has not been an easy task. And to do so while maintaining our commitment to our faith in democratic values, in our commitment to the rule of law, in our commitment to the fundamental human rights and the fundamental freedom, in the framework of India's extreme poverty has not been an easy task. But we have persisted.

We have received support and help from the United States and other friendly countries in making a success of this experiment. Today, India happens to be among the fastest growing countries in the world. Ever since we launched the reform programme, our economy has grown at an average annual rate of 6 per cent per annum. It is our ambition and expectation that in the years to come this growth rate go upto 7 to 8 per cent, and may be more. We will take all the hard decisions that are necessary to realise this ambitious growth target. It can be done and indeed when the last Congress government was in power, in the mid 90s we had managed to raise the growth rate of our economy to over 7 per cent per annum, the industrial growth rate to above 12-13 percent, export growth rate to over 20 per cent per annum, and it is my ambition to repeat what we were able to achieve in the mid 90s. And in all this, we seek your active help and involvement.

India welcomes foreign direct investment. India welcomes the participation of international financial, institutional investors. We are seeking new partnerships with the business communities, with the financial communities of the United States, and today I am here not to preach to you but to learn from you as to what more can we do to realise the vast latent potential of economic cooperation between the business communities of our two countries and what you expect from us as the Government of India, what can we do to create a climate more congenial to the growth of the spirit of adventure and enterprise, risk taking and all that goes with the processes of wealth creation.

India is an open society and we are today living in a world where the revolutions in transport, communications and information technology bring home to every bed room what goes on even in the most distant parts of the world. So India is an open book. We have been worrying that we have very many challenging tasks. Today I am heading a coalition government, a coalition government in which there are many parties of the Left who are supporting us from outside. Many people ask me, 'Are you confident of carrying forward the process you began in 1991 in the changed circumstances when you are heading a coalition government with such diverse elements?' I wish to assure you that this is a task, which can be accomplished and will be accomplished. Why do I say that? Today there is a new wind of change. I often say politicians should be judged not by what they say when they are in Opposition, but what they do when they are in power. We have in one of our premier States, a government, which is headed by the Communist Party. And if you look at the track record of that government in welcoming foreign investment, in creating a climate congenial to the entry of more and more entrepreneurs from outside, that is an indication of the winds of change that are blowing all over our country.

I do not minimize the difficulties of evolving a consensus, but I do also believe that a consensus which is based on free discussion, active debate will be far more durable in carrying forward the reform process than ever before. If we represent today 70-80 per cent of the electorate, we can work out a cohesive meaningful agenda, perhaps in the history of India there has never been such a vast populous 'Food for All' programme than is the case now. We have evolved a Common Minimum Programme and the CMP has many things, but the important things are: it recognises first India needs large additional doses of foreign investment - both institutional investment as well as direct investment, it commits our government to work to strengthen our capital markets, to strengthen markets that will promote transparency, greater respect for institutions and a strong and fair regulatory regime.

So, you have my assurance that we have all the instrumentalities in place to carry forward the process of reforms. There are often noises to the contrary that they are inevitable parts of processes of arriving at decisions in a functioning democracy, and India takes pride in being a functioning democracy. There are no doubt, also problems. When I talk to business people, they tell me, 'Well, India's infrastructure is a problem'. I do agree with them that infrastructure is our biggest problem and also the biggest opportunity. In the next 10 years we must invest at least $150 billion to modernise and to expand India's infrastructure, and we have major investments needed in energy sector, in power sector, in oil exploration, in roads programme, in modernising our railway system, food system, airports. This is where, I feel, we need a new experimentation with public-private sector participation because the public sector may have a role, but by itself it cannot meet all the requirements. As I see an expanding and very profitable role of foreign direct investment in meeting the challenge of modernising India's infrastructure.

We need a lot more attention to streamlining our bureaucratic processes, of managing the processes of a group. I often saw that businessmen coming from abroad find bureaucratic procedures a hindrance. I do recognize, but I also assume, that bureaucracy is like a horse; you can take it in any direction and it all depends on the quality of the jockey. Our government will ensure that bureaucratic processes, instead of being hurdles to further progress, being hurdles to encouragement of the spirit of adventure and enterprise, become active promoter. We are trying to shift the role of government from excessive interference in this sphere, from excessive regulation, to more and more a promotional role. I hear from time to time complaints about corruption. Now I have no readymade answers to corruption; but I am convinced that if we move towards more and more non-discretionary controls, if we simplify our regulatory mechanisms, if we simplify our tax rates, the system to remove the scope of discrimination, then we will succeed in creating a climate where there will be greater probity, there will be less harassment of honest businessmen.

I assure you, I as Prime Minister of India stand committed to doing all that I can to modernise and to expand India's infrastructure to make our infrastructure world class in the next five to seven years. I stand committed to ensuring that our processes of governance are as transparent as possible, that they are as friendly to businesses and enterprise, that they are as respectful as they should be to all those who are active in the processes of wealth creation. That I will do all that is necessary to ensure that corruption, which is a problem in many of our activities, is contained, controlled and eliminated in due course of time. India's ambitions to work towards a growth rate of 7 to 8 per cent requires lots of support from the international business community. Our savings and investment rates enable us every year to invest about 25 to 26 per cent of our GDP.

I have every reason to believe that in the years to come India's domestic savings rate will go up very sharply because, unlike many other countries, the proportion of working age population in total population is going to rise very substantially and our demographic experts tell me that that should stimulate the growth of savings in a very substantial way. If we have the increased savings potential, we need to put in place financial instruments, financial institutions which will bring savers and investors in a more efficient manner and that is where I see an expanding growth for the financial services industry in our country. We have opened up our financial services industry to participation by investors from outside, but I do agree and I do recognize that more needs to be done in all these areas. And in all these areas I am here to seek your support, your guidance and your ideas as to how by working together, we can ensure that India does emerge in years to come as a major power-house of the evolving global economy.

It is our ambition to do better than what we have done. People talk about the Asian century. I am not an astrologer and I am also not the one who is good at forecasting. Anyway, I am told of those who forecast that when their forecasts come true, in the words of Dante they are condemned to go to hell. But, I have a dream and that is what I stated when I presented my first budget in 1991. I said to our Parliament quoting Victor Hugo, 'that no power on earth can stop an idea whose time has come' and I then said to the Parliament 'that emergence of India as a major power house of the global economy happens to be one such idea whose time has come'.

From the dark days of 1991 to the present days when our economy has been growing at the rate of over 6 per cent per annum, when our foreign exchange reserves are as high as $120 billion, when India's exports are growing at the rate of about 20 per cent, when India's industrial production is growing at the rate of 78 per cent, we have come a long way, but the best is yet to come. And to realise the dream, I am here to speak to you on behalf of my government and our countrymen, 'please come and participate in this new saga of adventure and enterprise, we want to launch in India'. India needs America's support and active involvement. We recall with gratitude the help that President Roosevelt gave to our country long before India became Independent, in impressing upon the British that India must get its freedom to realise its test.

In the years after Independence, we received active support and active help from the United States in modernising our agriculture, in modernising our educational institutional set up, in ensuring that development was provided with adequate foreign exchange resources. But today we need a different emphasis. We want to strengthen the role of US business community including the US financial community in the management of this new wave that we have set, we wish to set forward. India must move to a new stage of development. India must integrate itself into the evolving world economy. It is our ambition to work together to create an economy in which there will be larger support than ever before for two-ways flow of trade, technology and investment. In this task, I seek your active help and involvement and support.