P Chidambaram differs with Montek Singh Ahluwalia on global standards

NEW DELHI: Finance Minister P Chidambaram today differed with Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia on aligning Indian laws and practices with the global standards, saying what was needed was "fair and non-discriminatory" norms.

"Montek said that we should align our laws and align our practices to global standards. I am not sure that global standards are necessarily the best standards. Not all global standards are the best," he said.

Chidambaram, who was speaking at a seminar organised by the Indian Law Institute, said it should be recognised that countries were at different stages of development in this otherwise unequal world.

"I don't think that we should be tempted by the phrase global standards. What we should aim at is standards which are the best standards which are fair, non-discriminatory," he said while responding to Ahuluwalia's suggestions.

According to Chidambaram, the recent global financial crisis had shown that India standards were far better than the US standards.

"For example in terms of banking regulation, we found that the Indian standards were far better than the US standards and we discovered it to our surprise and pleasure and to their dismay in 2008," he said.