Calculated risks needed to sustain growth: PM

New Delhi, Nov 17 (UNI) Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today said ''a basic political consensus'' was needed on ''some of the difficult'' issues to create an environment conducive to sustainable development by taking ''calculated risks.'' ''If we don't think into the future, if we don't think big, if we don't think anew, if we cannot, and will not, learn from the experience of the world, we will not be forgiven by future generations,'' Dr Singh said in his keynote address at the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit.

Without referring to the Left or other political parties opposed to certain aspects of the reforms, the Prime Minister said, ''We have to have the courage and the vision to take calculated risks that expand the horizons of development and knowledge.'' Having achieved a GDP growth rate of over eight per cent in the three years of UPA rule, the government was now targetting a growth of 9-10 per cent which would also help improve the tax collections, Dr Singh said.

The government was determined to create an environment conducive to ''rapid growth'' without tampering with the moderate tax structure, he said.

Speaking on the theme of the summit -- India: The Next Global Superpower? -- the Prime Minister maintained that India must be willing to benchmark itself against the best in the world, in whatever it did and see how it could bridge the gap between performance and potential.

He said India wanted to 'build a better future' (the theme of last year's summit) for itself, not because of a desire to be a global superpower, but because its people wanted to live in peace and with dignity, in good health and gainfully employed, creating an environment conducive to the full exprssion of their creativity and enterprise.

Observing that India was once again at ''an inflexion point'' in world history, he said advances in science and technology, particularly in IT and connectivity, were making enormous changes in the way people organised their lives, industries, economies and institutions.

India could ''ride this wave'' by using modern science and technology. However, this would require equipping and empowering the young generation to take advantage of the opportunities that were rapidly arising acoss the world.

''We need to have a skilled, confident, healty workforce. We need to have dynamic, creative, enterprising firms which are capable of meeting global challenges. We need to build institutions which are robust, which inspire confidence and which can enforce the rule of law in a fair manner,'' he said.

UNI SN RP RAI2006