``When we were talking about caution we were being treated as a pariah. Prosperity in material terms was considered most important. But now after the problems in east Asia and other countries the views have changed,'' he said.

``Competiton should be tempered with compassion as this will enable the weak to survive and live,'' he said adding there were instances of social unrest despite the economy registering high growth. Sinha said the world was in a paradoxical situation as the theory of market forces had been challenged following the economic collapse of some of the countries. ``While we discuss global financial crisis each one of is becoming the wisest after the event,'' he said adding some of the capitalist zealots did not considercurrent account deficit, fiscal deficit or short term flows as crucial indicators.

At one point of time the IMF and otherWB had pursuaded India to hurry with capital account liberalisation, he said adding they had changed their stance after the problems encountered by some of Asian countries which had gone ahead with the liberalisation.

He said caution in this regard was now paying results as India had been largely unaffected by the currency meltdown experienced in some of the countries. Sinha exhorted representatives of the management sector to factor in the incompetitive people while undertaking human resource development.