India won’t ape Chinese growth: PM

Washington, Nov. 24: With the world applauding the Chinese economy, the Prime Min-ister, Dr Manmohan Singh, on Tuesday contrasted it with India’s growth which has been achieved in a democratic society and said he would stick to the Indian path.

“No doubt, the Chinese growth performance is sup-erior than India’s growth performance. But I always believe that there are other values which are important than the growth of GDP such as the respect for fundamental human rights, the respect for the rule of law, respect for multi-cultural, multi-ethnic, multi-religious rights,” he said during an interaction at the elite US Council for Foreign Relations here.

India’s growth rate, which slowed down to 6.5 per cent this fiscal due to global financial meltdown, is expected to get back to around nine per cent within two years.

China’s GDP, the world’s third largest economy, witnessed a nine per cent growth in 2008. In the first nine months of the current fiscal, its GDP grew by 7.7 per cent.

“There are several dimensions to human freedom which are not always caught by the numbers with regard to the GDP. So I do believe that even though Indian performance with regard to GDP might not be as good as the Chinese, certainly I would not like to choose the Chinese path. I would like to stick to Indi-an path,” Dr Singh, who is here on a four-day state visit, said explaining why Indian model of economic reform was preferable.

The Prime Minister said India might seem to be indecisive at times, but “once the democracy decides on the basis of wide-ranging consensus, any reforms that are undertaken will be far more durable, far more effective than the reforms introduced by the writ of ruling group in a non-democratic set-up.”

Earlier, Dr Singh told CNN in an interview that development in India cannot be a carbon copy of what happens in China.

When asked about China’s high growth and eye-popping infrastructure development speed, he said “Well, I have no hesitation in saying that I think development in India cannot be a carbon copy of what happens in China. And the Chinese system is very different.”

Reaching out to the American business community, Dr Singh said, virtually all spheres of Indian economy are open for participation by foreign investors and “no investors will be more welcome than investors from this great country”.

Dr Singh allayed fears about any rollback of economic reforms, asserting that his government rather plans to push ahead on key reforms in several areas including taxes, education, skill development and legal sector, though it might happen gradually through consensus.