I have always been bullish about India's potential. I still am, and I feel India is a country that really has an enormous amount of potential and has the human capital to succeed.

My only desire is that India should be a good producer, and no one should be hungry, shedding tears for food in the country.

I am proud of my country. But we need to unite to make a unified India, free of communalism and casteism. We need to build India into a land of equal opportunity for all. We can be a truly great nation if we set our sights high and deliver to the people the fruits of continued growth, prosperity and equal opportunity.

After Independence, Congress ignored the potential of India, which is why even 6-7 decades later, the country could not achieve the success it deserved. There were two main reasons: for a long time, the Congress government kept the country entangled in a 'license raj', and when globalisation arrived, they focused only on imports and even then misappropriated thousands of crores.

The children of today will make the India of tomorrow. The way we bring them up will determine the future of the country.

I've never believed protectionism of that kind will lead us anywhere. I think you can have certain specific rules for engaging with India.. for example, not allowing mineral resources to be taken out of the country.. but there is not a shred of doubt in my mind that when you open an economy you should do it in totality. Foreign investment adds a sense of competition; we should see this as a wake-up call to modernise and upgrade. Companies that do not will undoubtedly die.