George Soros: No, no. I think I’ve lost more money in India than anywhere else. And that is because I did not panic that soon enough. It was a right thing to get out before the others. But I think that going forward since the Indian economy was not as badly damaged as other countries, now I think the outlook for India is actually better than most other countries. Partly because India is more separated due of its domestic growth. And of course there is tremendous need for infrastructure investment and therefore an economic stimulus would be very well spent.

•Shekhar Gupta: Would you suggest that the sudden boom that we have seen in the past three weeks, Indian markets have left the world behind. Is it worrying or do you think India deserves?

George Soros: I think that is a reflection of a very favourable outcome of the election – the prospect of a stable government going forward. So in this case, though it was a very big jump and needs some consolidation, I think it was well justified.

•Shekhar Gupta: Is George Soros saying that in this case the markets may reflect the reality on the ground? You are always very skeptical about the markets.

George Soros: Yes, the markets are prone to exaggerate one way or the other. I’ve the interpretation of the markets which is different from the one that used to prevail. Namely that the markets will reflect the underlying very accurately. I have a different interpretation, which says that the markets distort and they always present reality in a biased way and this is really important part that the bias by the markets has a way of affecting the real economy.

... contd.