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India will join the G8 says John Major at HT leadership summitnews
Our Economy Bureau
08 November 2004

Mumbai: India is an obvious candidate to become a permanent member of the UN Security Council, former UK Prime Minister John Major said while addressing the keynote address on the changing world at the Hindustan Times Leadership Initiative in New Delhi.

"India is in the midst of an explosion of ambition." Major said. He had 'no doubt' that within a few years India would become a permanent member of the UN Security Council as well as join the G8 group of industrial nations. "Within the next 30 year or so, it is likely that India's economy will be larger than that of France, Germany, UK or Japan.

Major's keynote address, moderated by former foreign affairs secretary Salman Haider, also dwelt at length on poverty, which 'fuels despair and can be a recruiting sergeant for terrorism'. The Conservative Party member cited statistics that show that one half of the world's six billion people live on less than $2 a day and one fifth on less than $1 a day.

Rich nations do much to help but not enough. Collectively they spend $50 billion on overseas aid. At the same time, Europe and America alone also spend $350 million on agricultural subsidies — or seven times as much on subsidising cheap food for those who are already well fed than the whole world spends on all needs of those whose bellies are often empty.

"It is a statistic that is even more bizarre when you realise such subsidies often cut away the possibility of poor nations selling their agricultural produce into developed markets," Major said.

"It seems to me that if it is right to wage war on terror — and it is — then it is equally right to wage war on poverty and on hardship as well."


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India will join the G8 says John Major at HT leadership summit