Slowdown failed to hit India because mkt not as free: Amartya

SANTINIKETAN: The recession failed to hit India because the market here is not as free as in the west, Nobel laureate and eminent economist Amartya Sen said here today.

Western nations had a notion that the market should be a self-regulating body free from control. However, in India the government had some control over the market, Sen said in reply to a question.

On the mid-day meal scheme, Sen said the problems in implementing it should be addressed at the earliest as health and education were related.

In a country like India where malnutrition was a major problem, the mid-day meal scheme should be continued at any cost, he said.

He was talking to reporters aftep a workshop of his Pratichi trust on mid-day meals.