By Steve Schifferes
Economics reporter, BBC News
India's finance minister, Palaniappan Chidambaram, has pledged to end poverty in India within two generations.
Mr Chidambaram told BBC World Service that if economic growth continued, India could end poverty by 2040. India would play its part in the post-Kyoto negotiations on climate change, he said, though he insisted that "we have a right to grow". Mr Chidambaram also vowed to protect poor farmers from the ravages of free trade in agriculture.
Poverty and growth
Mr Chidambaram, who became finance minister in 2004 after the Congress Party unexpectedly won the general election, has presided over an Indian economy which is currently growing at 9% per year, almost as fast as China.
He told the BBC that his task was "to ensure not only growth but that this growth is inclusive growth" which reaches India's 250m poor people. Mr Chidambaram said that "growth is the best antidote to poverty". "Growth gives incomes to people with jobs, throws up jobs for those who are not employed," he said. "Therefore growth is imperative, but it is not sufficient in a country ... where a significant number live in poverty."
The finance minister said it would take until 2040 to wipe out "abject poverty" but he was confident that if growth continued to be strong, it would happen. "We will not have the abject poverty that afflicts about 25% of India's population. People will have homes, work, food, clothing, and access to education and medical care."
Climate change
With negotiations entering a delicate phase on climate change, the position of India and China - who were not given any pollution targets in the Kyoto round of talks - is being closely watched.
Mr Chidambaram said that the West was being unfair to India by demanding sharp cuts in emissions just as India's economy was taking off. "When the developed world was growing, no one asked them: why are you consuming so much energy, why didn't you slow down?" he said. "The point is, we have the right to grow, just as much as the US and Europe had a right to grow in the 19th and 20th centuries." But he said that India was willing "to take our share of responsibility, provided we have access to clean technologies and clean development mechanisms."
Trade
The finance minister said that India's openness to the forces of globalisation had helped stimulate growth, but that there were winners and losers. "The positive aspects of globalisation will be greater capital flows, more trade, more jobs in the services sector, more exports," he said.
India's IT services sector has become a global leader in outsourcing, and earns $25bn a year which boosts India's foreign exchange reserves. The finance minister said it was a myth that India's advantage was its cheap labour. "The point is, India's labour is skilled, and today we are a major hub of manufacturing," he said. "We even export Mercedes Benz cars made in India back to Germany."
But Mr Chidambaram accepted that there were also potential losers, especially in the agricultural sector, which still employs the majority of the workforce. "The negative aspects which we are guarding against are the impact on agriculture," he said. "Agriculture in India today is a livelihood issue, which is why, when we go to the WTO, we do not look at agriculture simply as a trading issue, we have to protect the livelihood of millions of people," he added.
And the finance minister said India would stand firm. "If the developed countries continue to subsidise agriculture and then seek access to India's market, it will of course immiserise our farming population, and we will never let that happen." His remarks on this score will not be seen as helpful for the resumption of world trade talks, which have been stalled since the summer over the issue of agricultural subsidies.
Infrastructure woes
Some economists worry that India will not be able to sustain its high rate of economic growth unless it can dramatically improve its ageing infrastructure. But Mr Chidambaram said that foreign investment could help overcome the infrastructure gap, provided that India "continues to observe fiscal prudence... ensures that there is an enabling environment for investors, both foreign and domestic... and ensure that these investments are made widely and managed wisely."
And the markets seem to agree with him. India's international credit rating was recently upgraded by credit agencies, and foreign investment has been surging into the country - although India is still a long way behind China on that score.
Mr Chidambaram was interviewed by Mike Williams for "The Interview", broadcast on BBC World Service on 3/4 February.
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