CEO Manmohan lists India stock in New York exchange

Calling the Exchange, ‘‘a magnificent institution,’’ Singh made it clear: India needed to integrate with the world economy, India needed US investors, India needed their wealth, ‘‘large doses’’ of both FDI and FII, to fight its battle against poverty.

And that his government would take ‘‘hard’’ decisions to free the economy from bureaucratic controls and the compulsions of coalition politics would not derail reforms.

Here was a sales pitch like no other, on the part of CEO of India Inc. ‘‘India is an open book,’’ he said, ‘‘With a coalition government, industrialists ask me, ‘Are you confident of carrying forward (the reforms process). I assure you this is a task that can and will be accomplished.’’

The first Indian Prime Minister to address the world’s largest bourse, Singh set the tone for his extempore speech with a disarming: ‘‘I have not come here to preach but to learn. I am here to learn what we need to do more and what you want us to do for creating a congenial environment for risk-taking enterprise.’’

‘‘The US is an unparalleled source of investment, technology and skills,’’ he said, and India needed to tap this to raise $150 billion over the next ‘‘four to five years’’ for a ‘‘quantum leap’’ to make its infrastructure sector ‘‘world class.’’

‘‘India needs America’s support and active involvement in realising its dream (of faster economic growth and poverty eradication),’’ he said.

‘‘Our economy has grown at an average of 6.0 per cent in the early 1990s and it is our expectation that economy can grow at 7-8 per cent,’’ Singh said, adding that ‘‘we will take all the hard decisions to realise this ambitious target.’’

‘‘We have all instrumentalities to carry forward the process of reforms,’’ he said. ‘‘It is our ambition to do better than what we have done so far…We have come a long way but the best is yet to come,’’ he said.

Stressing on ‘‘two-way’’ flow of trade, investment and technology, the Prime Minister said the country should move on to a new stage of development and integrate with the global economy.

‘‘India needs large doses of investment, both FDI and FII. It commits us to strenghten capital markets with a strong, fair and transparent regulatory regime,” he said.

As if unfazed by the political storm over the Left parties’ objection to the presence of foreign consultants in the domestic planning process, the prime minister, in fact, invoked the example of West Bengal. ‘‘(It) is ruled by a Communist government which is working hard to invite foreign capital…The winds of change are sweeping the nation,’’ Singh said, adding, ‘‘Politicians should be judged not by what they say when they are in Opposition, but by what they do when they are in power.’’

Those present included CEOs from JP Morgan Chase, New York Life Insurance, Moody’s, American Express, Goldman Sachs, American International Group, Dow Jones, Bell Helicopter, Discovery, International Steel Group, etc.

NYSE president John Thain, welcoming the PM said the exchange was happy to invite a ‘‘prime minister who is not only taking reforms forward, but also wants them to benefit every segment of society.’’

The PM pointed out that effective business planning necessitated an India strategy. ‘‘That there is an India story which must be a part of every company’s story,’’ he said, adding that he pledged himself to modernizing India, to contain, control and eliminate corruption.

Simplifying India’s regulatory mechanisms and tax systems would succeed in creating a climate where there’s more probity and transparency, he said.

Acknowledging the very real and overwhelming fear of bureaucracy and red-tapism, the Prime Minister pointed out that bureaucracy was an instrument and not a goal of growth.

‘‘Bureaucracy is like a horse. You can take it in any direction. It all depends on the quality of the jockey,’’ he said.

When Robert Rubin, former Secretary of Treasury and a friend of SIngh’s, asked him about China, the Prime Minister said: ‘‘The world is large enough to accommodate a rising China and a rising India.’’