India's intelligentsia has been so busy arguing the merits and demerits of nationalisation that it has failed to recognise the value of the country's human assets, Lord Swraj Paul said in London on Saturday.

Lord Paul, the head of the UK-based Caparo Group and a friend of Indian and British prime ministers, added, "In my view the potential of India has been tremendous; India is a developed country and we have great potential in our human assets.

"We nearly lost it because we believed the Western world that a big population is a liability. I don't think we have a population problem.

"Twenty million Indians living abroad generate the same GNP as the whole of India. It's the same people."

He was speaking at the international book launch of The Great Indian Dream, jointly authored by Dr Malay Chaudhuri of the Indian Institute of Planning and Management and his son Professor Arindam Chaudhuri.

Praising the Chaudhuris for their effort in writing the book, which has achieved bestseller status in India after selling 70,000 copies, Lord Paul said, "I differ only on one thing. You talk of presidential government and I don't think it is the best one. When Mrs (Indira) Gandhi came back to power in 1980, many people suggested this to her. I was opposed.

"It's okay when you have a good president in a presidential system. What happens when you have a bad president?"

Describing the book as an important contribution to ongoing discussions about the future directions of the country, Lord Paul added, "We have done tremendously well in 50 years. We have an outstanding democracy, our foreign trade has increased, education is getting better, India is proving its commitment to social mobility.

"The problems are that large numbers of children do not get primary education. We also want safe water and the supply of more elementary health facilities."

Responding to Dr Paul, Arindam Chaudhuri said, "China, Japan and India were all shattered and battered economies in 1947. Everyone else (except us) has made it. We can't wait for 150 or 200 years for poverty to end.

"China attracts 40 per cent more foreign direct investment than us. They have shown us the 'trickle up theory' as opposed to the 'trickle down' theory favoured by Western economists.

"In a short period of time they were able to give economic empowerment to 170 million people. They have come on par with the rest of the world. If you visit Shanghai today, you will see that New York looks like a village by comparison."