We do not share IMF's pessimism on India's growth rate: Chidambaram

A more relaxed Finance Minister addressed an audience in Washington DC on Thursday, in stark contrast to his July US visit when he was making a desperate sales pitch for foreign direct investment to curb a free falling rupee.

In a speech titled 'Recapturing India's Growth Momentum' at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Mr. Chidambaram said, "We are confident we will be voted back to power. I thought I should tell you lest you waste too much of your time."

But is Mr. Chidambaram getting too complacent?

The International Monetary Fund slashed India's growth estimates to 4.25 per cent for 2013-14, the steepest among all nations, and top economists have been questioning the government's 4.8 per cent fiscal target, saying with the first five months of the year already accounting for 75 per cent of the target, it will require a 'miracle'.

But Mr. Chidambaram continues to sound upbeat, "I know the IMF does not share my optimism, but we do not share the IMFs pessimism. We estimate growth between 5 to 5.5 per cent this year."

The Finance Minister did acknowledge that mistakes have been made in the UPA's 9 year tenure and decisions have been especially slower in the second term.

"I take collective responsibility for the three stimulus packages we instituted during the financial crisis. In retrospect, India needed only one......UPA1 despite being a wider coalition was easier to work with, and with UPA2 despite us (the Congress) having more seats, it's been tougher," he said.

The year 2014 will be the closest presidential face off India has ever had but foreign investors admit that not much is known about either prime ministerial candidate.

Walter Andersen, director, South Asia Studies Program at John Hopkins University told NDTV, "The vast majority of Americans don't know much about Indian politics, there is far greater knowledge about China. There is not a great deal of information about either Narendra Modi or Rahul Gandhi. If anything, Rahul Gandhi because of his connection with a family associated with Indian politics for over a 100 years is probably a little more well-known than Narendra Modi. But in general, there is a lack of knowledge about where the two are and what they stand for."

And while Narendra Modi's dynamic business style has gained recognition even here in the US, foreign investors say that running a country is very different from running a state, where consensus is required more than control.

Mr. Andersen says, "He (Narendra Modi) will bring a certain leadership style. In Gujarat, he seems to be the leader setting the direction, he seems to be everywhere at the same time. But national politics is different. The question is to what extent he will be able to bring consensus to a political system as complex as India is, Gujarat might be complex but India is more complex by a factor of 10."

Mr. Chidambaram is on a week's visit to the US to meet foreign investors and attend the annual meetings of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. He will be participating in the BRICs, G20 and G24 Finance Ministers Meet and will attend the US-India Economic and Financial Partnership Dialogue in Washington DC before leaving for San Francisco on October 13 to meet foreign investors. The Finance Minister will return to India on October 16.