This refers to the report “Time magazine dubs Manmohan ‘underachiever’” (July 8). It is Dr Manmohan Singh’s achievement that developed countries have started taking note of India, and are now getting panicky about India not following the LPG (liberalisation, privatisation and globalisation) prescription with the implicit obedience that they are used to from “pockets” like oil-rich countries or, for that matter, Singapore. No one knows better than Dr Singh that India cannot cut and paste policy initiatives tested in countries like Singapore or Switzerland (with less than 10 million population) or even the UK that has a developed infrastructure and 100 per cent literacy. The prime minister knows the problems of 1.2 billion people and if he is going slow on certain measures that will help the commercial interests of business and industry, but will make the poor poorer and the rich richer, you cannot put the entire blame on coalition compulsions. Incidentally, India’s GDP growth today is at a comfortable rate compared to the “developed” world.
M G Warrier Thiruvananthapuram
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