Democracy is good for everybody.

Jawaharlal Nehru wanted India to develop close ties with China and learn from its experience.

India is a functioning democracy despite its extreme poverty, India has stayed the course.

If the economy grows enough, fast enough, the tech system should be modernized so that the tax revenues rise fast enough also, and we should put more money in education.

Nowhere else you will find a country of India's diversity, of India's complexity, one billion people trying to seek their social and economic salvation in the framework of democracy, in the framework of an open economy.

My top most priority is to deal with India's massive social and economic problems, so that chronic poverty, ignorance and disease can be conquered in a reasonably short period of time.

I have always believed that the ultimate purpose of economic policies and development policy is to meet the basic needs of our people. And for that, we need a fast-expanding economy.