News: 'Manmohan Singh says not wedded to reform'

(RTR 03/07/2006) Mumbai - Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, the architect of India embracing a market economy, said he was not unambiguously wedded to economic reforms and there were some things he did not want India to learn from the West.

At the same time, there were several unfinished tasks in the reform agenda he drafted as the country's finance minister in the early 1990s, and the government needed to balance the process with its aim of lifting millions out of poverty, Singh was quoted as saying in a newspaper interview on Monday.

"I am not unambiguously attached to reforms. I feel that India has to compete with the rest of the world on its own strength," Singh said in the Economic Times interview.

"I am not enamoured of India copying the Western consumption style. That is certainly not an option for us when we talk of reforms. The challenge for us is how to pursue a growth strategy and prosper and become a modern self-sufficient country even at a per capita income of $1,500."

He said that when India talked about growth and catching up with the West, it had to be aware that in the end only a small proportion of the country's one billion-plus population would enjoy Western standards of living and high consumption.

Singh's comments reaffirmed the pro-poor agenda of his ruling Congress party, which promised to usher in reforms with a human face when it came to power in a shock election win in 2004.

It also was an apparent attempt to address the concerns of the Congress' communist allies who shore up the coalition and have been critical of the government's efforts to sell stakes in state firms and allow more foreign investment.

Singh said Western levels of consumption led to waste and the West had to cope with problems of excess consumption and wastage.

"That will not only prove costly for us, but by raising our consumption levels, we will also not be able to eradicate poverty even if we wish to do so," he said.

Instead, building a robust market-led economy was crucial to removing poverty, Singh said.

"There's need to create credible ways of managing public enterprises. The labour market needs to be far more flexible. The financial system needs to be more dynamic," Singh said.

"The financial sector must not forget the resource requirement of the rural sector. There should be adequate attention to the social sector."