Now why will this growth rate be sustained over a long period? You get into a psyche of growth that is difficult to break. Take a situation where several billions of dollars are being invested. I am not seeing any slowdown in that. When investment takes place, it produces goods and adds to economic growth.

Going forward, in the next 15-20 years, investment that has happened is going to spawn growth. That is what you call growth magic — which happened in Japan and the tiger economies, or China now. We are just jumping on to that cycle. That’s why we believe that we have started a cycle of 15 to 20-years’ growth. There can be small aberrations because of the global situation. I think it will be difficult for us to slow down below 8 per cent because we have unleashed the energy.

But do corporates have the money to fund such huge investment plans?

Today, corporate profitability will fund roughly two-third of this. I would have been worried if I had seen a corporate slowdown happening. In fact, I was expecting some slowdown. Corporate profits have not slowed down to a stage where funding of growth has been constrained. At least sitting in this room I have not even had one customer come to me in the last eight months and say that my profitability has come down so I may not get funds for the project. It basically means that 60-70 per cent of funding is taking place from their resources. Go back 10 years, 85 per cent of funding was through debt. You got 15-20 per cent promoters contribution that was either equity or cash. Contrast this to now where 70 per cent is their resources.

... contd.