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“No, but there's reasonable grounds to believe. that we are in the, we have reached the takeoff stage. It's like China. So China, Deng Xiaoping came in in 1979. Till 1991, nineties, mid nineties, Tiananmen Square, there were doubts. But it was a silent revoluti…”

“We know that the UPA government went overboard in terms of stimulus. So what happened during the last few years, high inflation and problems in the, some incipient problems in the balance of payments.”

“Now, 2014 onwards, this government has definitely put more emphasis on infrastructure. And the policy paralysis is gone.”

“Democracy, I think, is very bad for India, but any other system is even worse. And I'm a great believer that what we are doing is right.”

“During Mrs. Gandhi's time, Indira Gandhi's time in the seventies. Yeah. She was finance minister for a short while, then YB Chauhan came. At that time, the highest rate of income tax was 97.75%.”

“So Bangladesh, what has happened is that democracy was slightly compromised, and it's a reaction to it.”

“Our ancestors did set up the IITs and the IIMs, and that is what you see reflected in the IT revolution in India. But did we give enough attention to primary education and secondary education? Perhaps not. That was a mistake.”

“So, seven percent growth day in and day out every year will take you to over 10,000 by 2047.”

“Initially, the problem was enrollment. How to get those little ones into school? That problem has been resolved. That problem has been resolved because now you talk to any poor person and ask them, how much have you studied? They'll say, six . What about your …”

“But now we have come to the Second stage of the problem. That is quality of education. That's much harder.”

“And then there was the freight equalization, whereby the whole eastern region, the mines, the minerals and metals were available all over the country at the same price. So the eastern region lost its advantage.”

“Even in terms of per capita income, you compare our exemption level with our per capita income. And compare the exemption level of other countries with their per capita level. Ours is much higher.”

“Because if you want to be integrated in the supply chain, it's, you need to give More concessional treatment or low taxes on inputs that will be brought in because that is what is going to go out again.”

“So, I think the advantage that we have with the current arrangement is that we have the advantage of being a small country together with the advantage of being a big country. So, the counterfactual would have been disastrous, and there would have been conflict…”

“And mind you, we did not grow fast enough, but still, I think in the first 10 years of independence, we grew more than what we grew in three, 400 years of British, of previous to that.”

“And the railways were much more developed railways than China at the time of independence. Look at Chinese railways now and our railways, we are far behind.”

“I mean, rail freight, rail is the cheapest form of communication and sending goods, not roads, but road traffic is Road transport has a larger share of our freight traffic than railways.”

“And if you ask anyone who is going abroad, you'll find they will say, I'm going there, then I'll come back. Going abroad is difficult, but coming back is even more difficult.”