At 3.5% growth rate, India would have been poorest: Chidambaram

NEW DELHI: Home Minister P Chidambaram on Tuesday said that India would have ended up as the poorest nation in the world if its economy had grown at 3.5 per cent a year.

"If we had continued to grow at a 3.5 per cent a year, we would have become the poorest nation in South Asia and perhaps poorest in the world. It is important that we must grow," Chidambaram said addressing a Skoch event here.

The minister was presented with the life time achievement award for his contribution as a politician to the country's development and economic growth by the Skoch Group.

Chidambaram, a former Finance Minister, said, "Once we can demonstrate that we can grow at a high rate over a long period of time then I think it is time to sit down and say how that growth should be distributed and made more inclusive.