Published on Tue, Jan 23, 2007 at 13:57 | Source : Moneycontrol.com
Updated at Mon, Feb 19, 2007 at 15:40
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Offers a different way of thinking: Bhagwati
The Finance Minister has turned author and he has just launched a book ‘Why Good Economics Works for Everyone’. It does offer an interesting insight into economic issues that matter now.
Q: So, let's just hope that our economy runs on autopilot?
Jaitley: Well if India didn't have a finance minister, we probably still would have 8% growth rate.
Q: Successive governments have come and gone and we have seen some sort of continuity in terms of policies, is it easier now for you to sell the India reform story abroad?
Mittal: Most certainly. In 1976, I was holding a clutch of USD 1,000 in my hand with a big dream. Today, we are a No.3 company by way of market cap and so the USD 1,000 has become USD 30 billion and I think that's a salute to the present day governments and the earlier governments. This means that the reform process is working.
When I was doing my mobile project, the French company - which became our partner with a great deal of persuasion - when they landed in Delhi they went to the French Embassy and asked about us in 1992 and the embassy looked at the telephone directory, to see whether this company exists because we were a small company with only USD 5 million in sales and no profits, and we were not in the telephone book.
The French company got worried and when they spoke to us they said, you are not a credible company, you are not even in the telephone directory! And I was at pains to explain to them that you had to go and buy a phone from the market, and in my case because my father was a Member of Parliament, I got two phones from his courtesy list. But the fact is, we have moved from that time to today. Today, when you raise your hand for a mobile phone, or telephone line, ten companies are chasing you to give you a phone and that is again a testimony to the success of government reforms.
When I was doing my mobile project, the French company - which became our partner with a great deal of persuasion - when they landed in Delhi they went to the French Embassy and asked about us in 1992 and the embassy looked at the telephone directory, to see whether this company exists because we were a small company with only USD 5 million in sales and no profits, and we were not in the telephone book.
