I am convinced the entrepreneurial spirit of the Indian people, if allowed to express itself freely in the marketplace, India will be all right.

Let me say that I think the economic history of the last 150 years clearly shows that if you want to industrialize a country in a short period, let us say 20 years, and you don't have a well-developed private sector, entrepreneurial class, then central planning is important.

Meaningful solutions to the problems of mass poverty that prevails in India I believe can only be found in the framework of an expanding economy.

When I became finance minister in 1991, I discovered that the wealth tax rates income - there was taxation on wealth. It was so atrocious and so high that actually nobody could accumulate money in an honest way. I removed that tax, and the result was that Indian companies for the first time acquired an incentive to grow big, to grow rich.

I think, overall, India is today on the move. The economic reforms that our salvation lies in - operating an open society, political system, an open economy, economic system - this has widespread support.

As the largest and most developed democracies of Asia (India and Japan), we have a mutual stake in each other's progress and prosperity.

I think the proof of the pudding is in the eating.