It’s a different Manmohan Singh in these speeches. Always emphasising that growth has to be broad-based, but optimistic, sometimes celebratory and commending industry’s role in increasing opportunities:

• On March 13 this year, speaking at the Economist roundtable conference: “The Indian economy is doing better and Indians are doing better...I do sincerely believe that the best is yet to come. Our economy is probably on a growth path which if sustained for a decade or so, will enable us to eradicate the ancient scourges of mass poverty, ignorance and disease to a very substantial extent.”

• Three months before that, in January, at the FICCI annual general meeting: “We meet at a very opportune moment in our recent history. There is an air of optimism about our economic prospects.”

• December 16, 2005, CII conference on Bharat Nirman: What is evident is a “makeover of Indian business in bridging the so-called divide between India and Bharat. Many firms have tried to capture rural opportunities and in the process they have opened up unprecedented possibilities for rural India to get more integrated with the national and global economy.”

• A year before that, addressing Assocham’s JRD Tata birth centenary celebrations: “We must unleash the full potential of individual initiative and enterprise. We must provide a new stimulus to the animal spirits of our entrepreneurs. We must create a social, political and economic environment in which budding entrepreneurs can realize their dreams. When enterprising and creative individuals create wealth, they create new employment opportunities and new hope for our collective future.”

... contd.