Direct benefit transfer is a big reform. Earlier who knew where MNREGA money was going? Now it is sent by DBT. So are gas subsidy payments and student scholarships. For me all these are reforms in governance, transparency.

As quickly as you start spending federal money in large amounts, it looks like free money.

If the country is to flourish, capital must be invested in enterprise. But those who seek to draw upon other people's money must be wholly candid regarding the facts on which the investor's judgment is asked.

We are deeply unified in our support of basic principles: our belief in stability in our financial structure, in our determination we must have fiscal responsibility, in our determination not to establish and operate a paternalistic sort of government where a man's initiative is almost taken away from him by force.

In many ways, from cutting budget, reducing expenses, keeping down, for example, in every field that I know, we have tried to be on the conservative, middle-of-the-road side. But that has not apparently been publicized sufficiently.

They gave me star treatment because I was making a lot of money. But I was just as good when I was poor.