India to dictate own terms for globalisation, says FM

Asserting that New Delhi was ‘‘optimistic’’ but ‘‘cautious’’, he said, ‘We shall continue to follow the course by balancing our main interests of harnessing globalisation for obtaining economic growth and removal of poverty in India.’’

Many advanced nations continue to impose protectionist barriers, especially on farm products to the detriment of developing countries, he said, adding ‘‘We are also worried about the sharp rise in barriers to movement of people from developing to advanced nations.’’

‘‘These barriers must go if the world is serious about the gains of globalisation. The stark contrast between the effortlessness with which capital can move while labour cannot has made globalisation a contentious subject and has imparted to it a somewhat undesirable pro-rich flavour,’’ he said.

Finding that higher integration of the world economy has proceeded simultaneously with a marked ‘‘unfair’’ attitude to expansion of trade and business on the part of some countries, Chidambaram said it was imperative to expand the economic frontier by integrating with rest of the world.

Terming India’s progress towards integrating with the rest of the world as ‘‘remarkable’’, he said the country had cut down import tariffs, abolished License Raj, withdrew capital controls, simplified operational procedures for the foreign investors and reformed financial markets.