India spreading benefits of growth: PM

India like other emerging economies could be a source of strength for the global economy if only the international community takes care that the current economic slowdown does not lead to trade protectionism and creation of barriers to movement of people, services and capital, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said today.

A fast-growing India can help the global economy as the pace of its transformation in partnership with the international community quickens, if only no protectionist barriers are erected around it, the prime minister said while addressing the UN General Assembly.

"A fast growing India can expand the boundaries for the global economy," he said, adding that developing countries increase demand for investment, technology even as they need market access for their products.

Indian economy has been growing at a rate around 8 per cent, the second fastest growth in the world after China, despite the global economic woes, he said, adding that India has also succeeded in lifting millions of people from abject poverty in the last few decades.

"Till a few years ago the world had taken for granted the benefits of globalisation and global interdependence. Today we are being called upon to cope with the negative dimensions of those very phenomena," he pointed out.

He said policy failures in traditional engines of the global economy - countries such as the United States, Europe and Japan - are negatively impacting growth in developing countries also.