India to remain an open economy: PM

Asserting that India was committed to remain an open economy, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has said there was a greater willingness internationally now to work with the country and build relationships of mutual benefits.

It is now a new India committed to remain an open society and open economy where ideas of "brain drain" have been replaced by "brain gain," Singh said in an op-ed article in The Wall Street Journal published on Thursday.

If a commitment to remain an open society is one of the pillars of India's nationhood, the other is its commitment to remain an open economy -- one that guarantees freedom of enterprise, respects individual creativity, and mobilises public investment for social infrastructure, he said.

Just as developed industrial economies enabled "economies in transition" to graduate into open economies, said Singh, "I believe India's policies toward the world have been shaped by this commitment, and we should be proud to identify with those who defend the values of liberal democracy and secularism across the world."

Brain gain! Fewer IITians going abroad!

Today, the prime minister noted, there is a greater willingness internationally to work with India and to build relationships of mutual benefit.

Indian industry and Indian professionals, he pointed out, have demonstrated their ability to step out with confidence from a highly protected environment into a mercilessly competitive one.

"We do have a vast unfinished agenda of social and economic development, and my government's priority will be to implement this," said Singh. "Doing so will further enable us to deal with the challenges of globalisation. The global environment has never been more conducive to India's economic development than it is today.

"The world wants India to do well. However, we recognise that our real challenges are at home. It is for this reason that we place such great emphasis on increasing investment in infrastructure, agriculture, health and education, urban renewal and the knowledge economy," the prime minister said.

Having ensured that there is today no external constraint to growth, Singh said, "We must now ensure that there remain no internal constraints to development."

Acknowledging that there is much more that India can do to draw on global savings and global markets, he said, "As a developing economy we must tap international resources to fuel our development.

"We should be more open to global capital flows and better prepared to take advantage of new markets for goods and services. India is wholly committed to multilateralism in trade but we will seek the reform and democratisation of multilateral institutions."

Globalisation is both an opportunity and a challenge, Singh said, adding that a decade ago, who could have imagined that India would be a major software services exporter and that a new process of "brain gain" -- not "brain drain" -- would be created by opportunities in these sectors?