Washington: India has said it should "not be punished" for good economic performance and demanded that the developed countries should hike their aid for rooting out the poverty in the country.

"India should not be punished for its good economic performance...India, unfortunately, still has a very large number of poor people and hence should be given more aid to meet the problem of poverty," chief economic advisor Ashok Lahiri said after the meeting of Development and International Monetary and Financial Committees yesterday (Apr 25, 2004).

The Indian delegation - Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor Y V Reddy, Finance Secretary D C Gupta and Lahiri - stressed the (good) economic performance "does not lessen the need for substantial" official development aid to meet the Millennium Development Goal of halving the number of poor by 2015 in India.

Lahiri, however, rejected the view that poverty has risen in India and said, "On the contrary, it has not come down as fast as anyone would wish and we have a long way to go."

Asked about the interest rates in the wake of US Fed chairman Alan Greenspan's indications that rates could go up, Reddy was non-committal and said, "The dominant consideration is the domestic economy and its growth and stability."

Asked whether outsourcing issue was taken up at the meeting, RBI governor admitted that it was discussed but did not go into the specifics.

"Intellectually, the trend is against protectionism and the Indian delegation did raise the issue of outsourcing. At the intellectual and technical levels, there is no argument in favour of protectionism," Reddy said.