Washington: Former Finance Minister P. Chidambaram advocated constant Indo-American engagement to sustain the higher growth path that the country has achieved after the economic reforms initiated in 1991.

“Had India not associated with the United States, as it did in the last decade, it would not have risen to its present economic level, which is almost equal to that of a developed nation,” he said at a gathering of U.S. lawmakers and Indian community activists in the Rayburn House here on May 19. This interaction had helped India “tremendously,” he said.

Chidambaram, who has visited New Jersey, Columbus, Ohio, Detroit, Michigan Chicago, Illinois, Houston, Texas, and Atlanta, Georgia, during his current lecture tour of the U.S., was speaking at a Congressional Reception held in his honor by two Indian-American organizations.

Chidambaram, who has a master’s in business from Harvard Business School, said Russia, a newly-emerging democratic nation, and China, still a Communist country, had benefited from their engagement with the U.S. India should take a cue from them and build on its economic ties with Washington. He was happy that, by and large, there was no outstanding contentious issue between India and the U.S. What he found disturbing, however, was that both India and the U.S. were quick to resort to anti-dumping laws, which he described as “disguised protectionist policies.” He urged both countries to refrain from levying anti-dumping duties duty on each others’ goods since it had become a great barrier to free trade and economic development. Both nations should take a second look at anti-dumping provisions and use them only as a last resort.

During the question-answer session that followed his speech, Chidambaram appeared dissatisfied with the rate of inflow of foreign investment to India. The annual foreign investment that India had been attracting over the last decade had been $4.5 billion a year as against $40 billion a year in China.

On the prospects of the information technology (IT) industry in India, Chidambaram said most state governments ----- with the exception of Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and, to some states extent, Tamiln nadu and Karnataka ----- lack resources to develop the sector. Amidst laughter, he said most north Indian states might not even know what ‘IT’ stands for. They had a long way to go before taking to this technology, he added.

He said the biggest stumbling block to the development of the IT industry in India was the exorbitant cost of computers. He cited the example of Thailand which has imported a million computers and made it available to young graduates for a $12 down payment. “I wish India could find some such means to provide computers to our people. Instead of being an expensive toy, it could become a tool for economic development,” Chidambaram said.

On the macro-economic front, he said India’s exports grew by 20 percent last year and the rupee as gained against the dollar despite the global economic down turn.

He, however, said he was not satisfied with India’s current economic management and noted that India may not be able to get past the 6 percent growth rate this fiscal year. His estimate was around 5.6 per cent. He said India must grow at least by 8 percent a year for the next 12 to 15 years to get rid of its dire poverty.

Paying tribute to the Indian-American community, Chidambaram said that, during his visit to Houston, Texas, a couple of days earlier, he heard Merril Lynch report that some 10 percent of the Indian immigrants in the U.S. were millionaires. He hoped that the remaining 90 percent would acquire this economic status by the time he visited the country next time.

Earlier, Chidambaram, who is on a lecture tour of the U.S., addressed students at the University of Maryland where he criticized the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government for its failure to provide much-needed momentum to the economic reforms process.

He called the government’s approach a “marvelous inaction” on reform measures, particularly in the field of foreign direct investment. This is an indication that the government is already in election mode, even though the elections are still far away, Chidambaram said. He said the reforms process appeared to be on hold and to drive his point home, he cited the examples of Air-India, Indian Airlines and other public sector undertakings the divestments of which had been virtually shelved.

He was particularly critical of governmental inaction on the Kelkar Committee report on tax reforms and the N.K. Singh Committee’s report on foreign direct investment. The event was hosted by the National Council of Asian Indian Associations, Maryland and the AIMS India Foundation of Virginia.