PORTFOLIO.COM: What are your concerns and reservations about India that you feel may thwart its economic ambitions?

RATAN TATA: There are several concerns and reservations. The most fundamental is that doing business in India is far more difficult than in most countries that I see us being compared with. Some of the major items that contribute to this are excessive regulation, red-tape and bureaucracy in many sectors, the lack of infrastructure, frequent changes in government policy and most importantly, the fact that vested interests often so easily subvert the system for personal benefit at great cost to the country. I also see economic reforms moving in fits and starts -- as a nation we seem to reform only during a downturn or a crisis. When the going is good, our appetite to push further reforms diminishes and therefore our rapid growth phases are rarely sustained beyond three to five years.

PORTFOLIO.COM: Do you see prospects of strong economic, commercial and political ties between the West and India? What more might be done?
RATAN TATA: We have already seen the strengthening of economic, commercial and political ties between the West and India, especially in the last decade. I think the Doha Round is a great opportunity to strengthen economic and commercial ties in a multilateral framework and I am concerned that it may be delayed for two or three years, unless some of the recent efforts are built upon aggressively. I also hope that the Indian government concludes the civil nuclear agreement with the US -- that is a very important initiative and the US has invested a lot in that effort to build stronger ties.

PORTFOLIO.COM: Could you offer some insights about the corporate community's expectations with regard to a blossoming India?

RATAN TATA: One of the things I noticed during our US-India C.E.O. Forum interaction was that in the US, and perhaps in most O.E.C.D. countries, there is an explicit and synergistic partnership between the Government and industry with both of them keen to promote economic growth. To elaborate, the government in the U.S. views U.S. industry as the primary driver of employment creation and generator of tax revenues, and therefore engages in an open and transparent dialogue as to how conditions can be created, both within the country and in terms of international trade and investment relationships, to increase employment and accelerate economic growth. I think this requires a fundamental change in the political and bureaucratic mindset in India, which, if it happens, would benefit the country enormously. I see only a few senior politicians that have adopted such a mindset and Kamal Nath [India's minister of commerce and industry] is one such person.

PORTFOLIO.COM: How could this be India's "century," given the country's low literacy rate, the percentage still below the poverty line, the percentage of children under five who are malnourished?

RATAN TATA: We could call this India's "century" because we will be given an opportunity to address the issues that you have raised -- illiteracy, poverty, and malnourishment. There is a chance for us to make rapid and significant progress in addressing these key development issues though faster and more inclusive economic growth.

PORTFOLIO.COM: What are the challenges facing India today in terms of growth?

RATAN TATA: The key challenges facing India today in terms of growth is to "de-bottleneck" the system so that we can attract global capital and talent, increase capacity rapidly across industries and sectors and grow to our potential.