There was an interesting paper on India’s emergence as an affluent society in the future. Could you tell us more?

Yes. There is a report called India 2039 that focuses on how India can leapfrog to become an affluent society. It starts with the proposition that the continuation of India’s celebrated growth rate is not pre-ordained and much depends on how we exploit opportunities created in the past fifty years. What remains to be done in many respects is harder than what has been achieved so far. The debate really is beyond simple reforms — trade liberalisation, banking and insurance reforms. These are just a part of it.

Much harder work that needs to be done……

The harder work is broadly in three pockets. First is improving governance. Governance is a much abused word but it is very important. In fact there are many components to it such as improving the functioning of administration, judiciary and effectiveness of electoral system. The second is how to improve the delivery of public services. The quality and reach of basic public services is increasingly falling short of rising aspirations. The third is India’s role in the region and the world. There is much talk about India becoming the third largest economy by 2015 as if it is a given that we will arrive at super powerdom. We would like to question that. How can we contemplate a bright future for ourselves if the region we are in remains permanently unstable?