Peace with neighbours needed for sustained growth: Pranab

Kolkata, Sep 20 (PTI) Peace with Pakistan, China and
other neighbours was required for India to have a sustained
economic growth, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee
said here on Saturday.

"Ten to 15 years of an undisturbed environment is
required for India for sustained growth," the minister told
at the annual general meeting of Bengal National Chamber of
Commerce & Industry here.

Mukherjee said, "there may be causes of irritation or
divergence of perceptions between India and neighbouring
nations. No sovereign country may agree with us on every
issue."

But, India would have to have peaceful co-existence
with neighbours, he said.

Mukherjee said that the two major challenges which
would confront the country were food and energy security.

The food position of the country, he said, was
comfortable for the year.

Taking a dig at the Left parties, he said that the
country required energy. "It is not an ideological issue. Even
the guru of Marxist philosophy Lenin started his economic
policy with electricity."

Mukherjee, who had been one of the main architects
behind the N.S.G. consensus on granting waiver to India on
nuclear fuel supplies, said that the country had earned some
respectability in the international community.

He said that India would require an economic muscle
to make the world listen to us. The minister said that India
would emerge as a major player in the coming years.

"We have already become a trillion dollar economy.
But China is far ahead of us," he said.

On the meltdown of U.S. financial market, the
minister said that he had discussed the issue with Finance
Minister P Chidambaram.

"We need not press the panic button. Our exposure is
limited and we are in a position to manage," he said.

The minister said that investments required to propel
the growth rate to 10 per cent was 40 percent of the G.D.P.