Mrs Shobhana Bharatia,
Mr Vir Sanghvi,
Distinguished Guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

I

This is the fourth consecutive year I am speaking at this Summit.

I have been saying pretty much the same thing since 2003.

I do hope that there are some new faces in the audience.

I am reminded of the remark made by Paul Samuelson, the famous economist when he was asked whether he didn't get bored setting the same questions year after year for generations of students. His answer was: No, you see, in economics, we keep changing the answers every year!! The same could perhaps be said of some of us in politics as well.

Your theme this year is India, the Next Global Superpower?

The question mark is certainly appropriate.

But while noting the question mark, I am somewhat uneasy with the very word "Superpower".

For too many of us, it evokes images of hegemony, of aggression, of power politics, of military might, of division and conflict.

But that is not what India has been all about through the centuries and it certainly is not what I would like to see India become.

During long periods of our past, India exercised a profound influence on the course of world history, and it did so without exercising any kind of overt power. Consider, for instance, how Gandhiji, mocked as 'a half-naked fakir' by the British, took on the Superpower of the day through the mere force of his values and ideas.

We Indians have always known our place in the world even when the world was treating us lightly.

My mother-in-law Indira Gandhi was once most amused by an episode in a Peter Sellers comedy, The Party in which he plays the part of an Indian. Ticked off by his hostess with "Who do you think you are Mr Bakshi?, Sellers responds: "Madam, in India we don't think who we are, we know who we are!!"

Do we really need to give ourselves certificates? Do we not know ourselves? Do we really need to seek certificates from others? Do we not feel confident enough?

Why should we think of ourselves as a "Global Superpower"? Why not instead work towards becoming a global force for Peace, Progress and Prosperity?

II

Let me say straightaway that I am proud of the remarkable achievements of our entrepreneurs and our industrialists, of our scientists, technologists and doctors, of our institutions of higher learning.

I welcome the growing confidence with which Indian companies are holding their own against competition in the domestic market while at the same time spreading their operations elsewhere.

I take pride equally in the outstanding accomplishments in so many different fields of Indians living abroad.

I am impressed by the performance of the Indian economy in recent years, a performance that has reawakened interest in India internationally and earned us new respect.

Yes, there is much to be proud about.

And it is not all in middle-class, urban India.

The women's self-help group movement has taken firm root in our country providing new opportunities to empower themselves. This is for me a moving experience.

The emergence of lakhs of educated youth from the weaker sections of society, conscious of their rights and asserting themselves is heartwarming.

The rapid spread of modern conununications technology which, as I travel across the country I see leading to new aspirations in villages and towns, is cause for a new hope.

Yet, we have to acknowledge that there are other realities.

A nation of bursting opportunities is also a land of perpetual struggles.

A country of dazzling prosperity is also a country of dehumanising poverty.

A land of magnificent diversities is also a land of painful contrasts.

We have big, populous parts of our country that are yet to see the fruits of economic advance in substantial measure.

We have large sections of our society that have yet to enjoy even the basics of a decent quality of life and standard of living.

We have some areas of our country where economic growth has been tangible but where the social fabric has come under considerable strain.

We have some other areas of our country where economic prosperity has not been accompanied by social modernisation.

The successes we record must not lead to false illusions of grandeur and power. They should not wrap us in a cocoon of self-satisfaction / mayajaal which cuts us off from the day-to-day lives of the vast majority.

These successes should, in fact, stir our collective conscience and strengthen our collective will to address the challenges we still face.

On this and this alone, I believe, will depend the durability and strength of our true place in the world. It is not just e-quality abroad that counts. Ultimately, what matters more is equality at home.

III

India's external strength will derive from our internal cohesion, the manner in which we nurture our secular values and strengthen our capacity to manage our diversities in harmony.

India's standing in the world will be determined by the extent to which the weaker sections of our society lead a life of security and dignity at home.

India's position in the world will be influenced greatly by our ability to continue to feed our people and to give our farmers and their families a secure future.

India's global pre-eminence will come not from faster GDP growth alone. It will depend crucially on how fast we expand productive employment opportunities, achieve universal literacy and improve the quality of primary health care.

Above all, India's stature will depend on how successful we are in making our entire lopulation, especially the poor and the deprived stakeholders in growth and globalisation. If tangible benefits do not accrue soon enough to our people from the changes that are occurring, they will reject these policies.

How is all this to be accomplished?

We must recognise that even as private initiative is encouraged and expanded, public systems will need to be reinvigorated. In agriculture, more public investment in irrigation is essential. In education, government-run schools and colleges are still the only choice for lakhs of young boys and girls. In transport, mass transit systems - both on rail and road - are essential. In physical infrastructure like power and roads, public entities will continue to playa dominant role. In health, government expenditure has to be stepped up to create new facilities particularly in the poorer regions.

Over the last decade, our political system has witnessed the emergence of local self-government institutions in rural and urban areas. These institutions need administrative and financial strengthening. Our problems are such that we necessarily need a powerful central government, dynamic state governments and pro-active panchayats and 'nagarpalikas' all working in coordination. The basic framework for this is now embedded in our Constitution. But what is on paper needs to be infused with much greater operational meaning. The massive use of information technology can be a great enabler here.

Political competition is intense in our country and we welcome it. But my own view is that amidst this competition, there is a vast common ground. Who can disagree with the need for universal literacy or more responsive primary health care? This common ground must be pursued. Differences are inevitable - remember our DNA: The Argumentative Indian - but even so, basics can certainly be attended to in a more determined manner. Sustained pressure from civil society will undoubtedly strengthen his process.

IV

I have spoken about the priorities for the political class.

I should also say that the privileged sections too have their special responsibilities.

Many of you are probably not aware that fewer than 80,000 Indians report an annual taxable income of more than Rs 10 lakhs.

This is simply not commensurate with our economic performance in recent years.

Our tax system must encourage compliance both by its simple structure and its transparent administration. At the same time, people who benefit from the process of economic growth cannot be oblivious of their obligations to the state.

1 don't have to remind an audience such as this about the low voter turnouts in urban areas as compared to villages and small towns.

Oue democracy can ill-afford such indifference. The loss of trust in rules and governance does not bode well. Cynicism about politics in particular and public institutions in general had led to a mindset that does not acknowledge many of the positives that governments are responsible for. We have to find a way of changing these attitudes.

The growth of a consumer class in recent years has been a most visible phenomenon in our country. This is all to the good as the availability of most consumer goods has expanded and the shortage era has ended.

Gandhiji once remarked that there is enough in this world for everyone's need but not enough for even man's greed.

I am far from suggesting that everyone adopt Gandhian standards of self-denial. But surely in a society of such deprivation, there is room for greater austerity and less conspicuous consumption among the affluent sections and definitely among those of us in public life.

V

Before closing, I would like to place our achievements in their proper perspective. I do so deliberately since there is a tendency to run down whatever we have done in the past.

The foundations of Indian democracy that is providing expanding opportunities for the empowerment of sections of society long discriminated against were laid in the 1950s.

The foundations of the Indian nation-state wedded to secular values and celebrating our religious, linguistic, ethnic and regional diversity were also laid in the early 1950s.

The vast infrastructure of science and technology and of manufacturing was established in the 1950s and 1960s. It was the public sector that developed backward regions.

The 1960s and 1970s saw the Green Revolution that gave us the ability to feed ourselves - the most fundamental aspect of self-reliance.

Those cities that are drawing international attention today are doing so because of public investments made there in research institutions and industry much earlier.

India's IT prowess flowered in the 1990s. The foundations for it were laid in the late 1980s.

Changes in economic policy in response to new situations first began in the 1980s. These changes later enabled the paradigm shift of the early 1990s.

Let us appreciate that there is a larger historical and political context to whatever we do. Whenever India faced new challenges, policies were redirected.

While embracing the change, my own view is that we should not fall prey to "hindsightis" and condemn whatever we have done earlier. Of course, we should be prepared to learn from our experiences but it is all too easy to be wiser after the event.

VI

My message today is simple.

Let us not get too obsessed with acquiring "Superpower" status. More and more successes will come our way. They will surely give us the global role that we seek and that we are perfectly equipped to fulfill.

But we must also concentrate on the basics that still elude lakhs of our less privileged and less advantaged countrymen and women.

It is obvious that India is on a new growth path. We have to sustain it ensuring that it does not exacerbate inequalities.

A certain amount of exuberance is natural considering not just what we are capable of but what we have already achieved.

But on a long and arduous journey, you don't see only how far you have come; you focus on how far you have yet to go.

We have come a long way.

The road ahead is both challenging and exciting. As we harness the enormous reservoir of potential energy and talent, I have no doubt that given a sustained commitment by us collectively, our genius will flower. Only then we will be a "superpower", if you really like to use this term, but we will be so in the true Indian sense and spirit.

Thank you.