Word: chidambaram
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When he served as India's finance minister from 1996 to 1998, Palaniappan Chidambaram became known as a forceful economic reformer. After a stint in the political wilderness, Chidambaram returned to his old job last year in a new role: poverty fighter. He spoke to Time's Aravind Adiga in his office in New Delhi...
...TIME: You said in your budget speech that "India is not a poor country, yet a significant proportion of our people are poor." Are you trying to redefine India's image? Chidambaram: Yes. A number of people both within India and abroad think India is a poor country. It is not. The bulk of India's people remain poor because we are not able to give basic education to our children, we are not able to impart skills to our young men and women, and we are not able to get productive work out of them...
...TIME: Your budget earmarks a lot of money to help the poor. Many Indians are skeptical that it will ever reach them. Chidambaram: I have taken note of the skepticism. We'll monitor not only the spending but also the outcomes. To the extent possible, I will travel around the country to see for myself what is happening...
...dichotomy of farmers with too much and too little water just hours apart from one another produced a bizarre schizophrenia in India's government last week. As Prime Minister Manmohan Singh toured the floods, Finance Minister P. Chidambaram was asking businessmen to pray for rain and warning that drought might cut economic growth to below 5%. And when Singh arrived in Bihar, the state asked in the same breath for $2.4 billion for flood alleviation and $890 million for drought. "It's crazy," says Bihar air-relief coordinator Gautam Goswami. "Absolutely crazy...
...this success depended on deregulation, investment in human capital and internationalization--like the daily video conferences between some Bangalore firms and their corporate brethren in the U.S. Our visit to a slum vividly demonstrated how unevenly the benefits of growth are distributed, but India's dynamic Commerce Minister, P. Chidambaram, emphasized that his generation of Indian leaders, unlike the country's founders, believe only economic growth spurred by further liberalization can eradicate poverty. He was sure that goal could be substantially reached by 2010. By then, if current trends continue, India's annual per capita gross national product will rise...