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Karan Thapar: Hello and welcome to a special two-part interview with Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee to mark the first anniversary of the UPA-II government. On Sunday, I shall speak to him as the leader of the Lok Sabha about the political challenges facing the government but first as the Finance Minister - the economy. Mr Mukherjee let's start with the performance of the economy. After the downturn in 2008 - 2009, the economy is probably going to grow just above 7.2 per cent this year, perhaps it will hit 8.5 per cent next year, are you surprised by the incredible resilience and strength in such a short span of 18 months?

Pranab Mukherjee: I must compliment the entrepreneurs, workers, professional managers with whose cooperation it has been possible to achieve the target which you are talking of. Most probably, we will achieve the target of 8.5 per cent GDP growth in 2010-11.  Karan Thapar: Let me then ask you at this moment when growth seems to be returning and accelerating, do we have self-sustaining growth or do you still have sectors where you need to encourage growth with government stimulus? Pranab Mukherjee: Of course in agriculture. Now the growth contributions are from manufacturing sector in which industrial production has reached 10 percentage points plus, service sectors are contributing substantially.

Karan Thapar: But agriculture remains a problem.

Pranab Mukherjee: But agriculture remains a concern, and we shall have to ensure that we achieve minimum 4 per cent growth in agriculture annually over a longer period of time so that we can maintain sustainable growth at a higher rate around 9 per cent. Read more....