World wants India to grow, we must take advantage: PM

ON BOARD PM'S SPECIAL AIRCRAFT: The world could be having apprehensions about China's rise but it wants India to grow and it is time to take advantage of the situation, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said today.

"Unlike China's rise, which possibly gives rise to apprehensions, the world takes a benign view of India's growth. We should take advantage of that (situation) because we don't know how long it will last," he said.

He noted that the world is not apprehensive about India and wants it to succeed.

Singh was talking to accompanying journalists while returning home after his eight-day visit to the US and Brazil, where he attended the Summits of Nuclear Security, IBSA and BRIC.

He said India's problems are at home and "we have to first tackle our own problems."

The Prime Minister expressed these views when asked about the feedback he got after meeting a host of leaders including US President Barack Obama, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, Chinese President Hu Jintao in Washington and Brazil over the last one week.

Commerce Minister Anand Sharma, who accompanied the Prime Minister at the IBSA and BRIC Summits in Brazil, said these fora provided India an opportunity to interact with other leading economies of the world on issues like global financial crisis.

The Summits of IBSA (India-Brazil-South Africa) and BRIC (Brazil-Russia-India-China) agreed to forge closer cooperation for enhancing bilateral trade and on international issues like climate change.

"We need to put in place an international order that is equitable, fair and meets the legitimate aspirations of developing countries," Sharma said.

He said the existing international institutions, both political and financial, needed to be reformed so that developing nations get a fair share.

In this regard, G-20 was emerging as the more responsive body, the minister said.

These Summits discussed issues of concern related to financial crisis, Sharma said.

It was felt that the global financial crisis could lead to rise of protectionism, a prospect which the Indian Prime Minister warned against at the meets, the minister said.

He said though the global financial crisis had shown some recovery, it was weak and momentum needs to be maintained.

Sharma said the BRIC was emerging as a very strong platform and had caught the world's attention because of the potential it has.

The forum has the capacity to take a "collective and coherent" view on various global issues covering political and economic aspects, he said.