My top most priority is to deal with India's massive social and economic problems, so that chronic poverty, ignorance and disease can be conquered in a reasonably short period of time.

My top most priority is to deal with India's massive social and economic problems, so that chronic poverty, ignorance and disease can be conquered in a reasonably short period of time.

From the beginning, as a thinking student of 15, 16 years ago, I was troubled by the grim poverty that I saw around me.

The Indian economy grew at 5.5 percent, but if you look at the last 30 years - for example, 1960 to 1985 - the progress made by East Asian countries was phenomenal. In a single generation they had been able to transform the character of their economy. They were able to get rid of chronic poverty.

These terrorists wish to spread a sense of fear and suspicion among our peace-loving people,

Regional economic cooperation in South Asia has fallen far short of our expectations and the dreams of our founding fathers, ... It remains far behind more successful examples in both Asia and other regions of the world. I sincerely hope that SAFTA comes into force by January 1, 2006, but even this will represent only a modest beginning in terms of our goals.