By IANS,
Kolkata : India can manage the effects of the economic crisis building up in the US and there was no need to “press the panic button”, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee said here Saturday.
“We need not necessarily press the panic button because of the US economic crisis. We are in a position to manage it,” Mukherjee told the 121st annual general meeting of the Bengal National Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BNCCI).
“In the next 10-15 years, India is going to emerge as a major economic player and for that there has to be a sustainable economic and peaceful environment in the country,” he said.
“There might be some causes for irritation with some of our neighbouring nations. It’s not possible every time that all sovereign countries will have similar viewpoint like us.”
He said India will face major challenges in the energy sector and food security.
He said the country needed infrasructural growth and sufficient energy supply to meet the future requirements. But these developments have to be brought after safeguarding the interests of all sections of the people, he said.
“(Nuclear) Energy is absolutely necessary to meet our future energy requirement. We can’t afford to have development without it,” Mukherjee said with an obvious reference to the India-US civil nuclear energy cooperation deal.