India happens to be a rich country inhabited by very poor people.
Unity and secularism will be the motto of the government. We can't afford divisive polity in India.
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.
We are a coalition government, and that limits our options in some ways. Privatization happens to be one such area.
It is a struggle for the minds of the people... No cause justifies recourse to terrorism.
We are a mixed economy. We will remain a mixed economy. The public and private sector will continue to play a very important role. The private sector in our country has very ample scope and I am confident that India's entrepreneurs have the capacity, and the will to rise to the occasion.
The future is inherently uncertain.
Judiciary must be encouraged to find ways and means to regulate its own affairs - consistent with the spirit of the Constitution.
Together with international unity and resolve we can meet the challenge of this global scourge and work to bring about an international law of zero tolerance for terrorism.
Life is never free of contradictions.
If you have a rigidly controlled economy, cut off from the rest of the world by infinite protection, nobody has any incentive to increase productivity and to bring new ideas.
Capitalism historically has been a very dynamic force, and behind that force is technical progress, innovation, new ideas, new products, new technologies, and new methods of managing teams.
We got government off the backs of the people of India, particularly off the backs of India's entrepreneurs. We introduced more competition, both internal competition and external competition. We simplified and rationalized the tax system. We made risk-taking much more attractive.
Whatever your views on Pakistan, our effort was that we have to engage Pakistan. They are our neighbours. We can choose our friends, but we cannot choose our neighbours.
The Indian economy grew at 5.5 percent, but if you look at the last 30 years - for example, 1960 to 1985 - the progress made by East Asian countries was phenomenal. In a single generation they had been able to transform the character of their economy. They were able to get rid of chronic poverty.
Nepal is our closest neighbour, and we must make every effort to ensure that, as a small neighbour, we attend to their perceptions. Even when they are wrong, we have an obligation to create an environment in which the common people in Nepal feel that in India they have a great friend.
We - what we need is a dialogue among civilizations. And we need multiculturalism, respect for diversity, tolerance, respect for diverse faiths.
If you don't have a functioning financial system the world economy won't be revived. All the major economies have their responsibility to assist at a pace which is required to clean up the balance sheet of the banking system and to ensure that credit flows are resumed.
Every day, the Prime Minister is a 24-hour servant of the people of India.
Nobody should be allowed to tinker with democracy. We will not discontinue the good works of the past government.
