India may not overtly support President Barack Obama proposal for ‘rebalancing the economic order’

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in case it rings in a protectionist regime in US and Britain.

The cautious line to be pursued by India was evident in Manmohan Singh’s statement ahead of his visit to Pittsburgh to participate in the G20 summit.

Manmohan Singh said, “We would like a strong message to emerge from Pittsburgh against protectionism in all its forms, whether trade in goods, services, investment or financial inflows”.

The Indian delegation headed by Singh exhibited confidence ahead of two-day G20 summit on September 24-25 as the country’s 6.7 per cent growth in last financial year was mostly due to domestic consumption and not exports as in case of China.

Barack Obama and his top advisor Michael Froman mounted a campaign during last two days against ‘excess reliance on exports by China, Japan and Germany.' Obama had asked for re-balancing the economic and trade order.

PMO officials maintained that Obama’s proposal for a tilt in economic balance will not impact India either directly or indirectly as our growth is mainly driven by domestic consumption.

“Our growth is primarily driven by domestic demand, our savings rate is robust and the external sector has exhibited resilience. Capital inflows, especially the portfolio flows, have started picking up and we remain an attractive investment destination,” Singh said.

On economic revival, Manmohan Singh said, “the global economy and financial markets have shown a distinct improvement since then, but we are still not out of the woods”.

Singh expected the Pittsburgh summit to focus on medium and long-term issues for sustained and balanced growth. He proposed that any framework should support most vulnerable, open global economies.

The prime minister said that early stabilisation in banking and financial sectors in advanced economies was in India’s interests as it directly impact our capital inflows, exports and investment.

He reiterated India’s position for expanding the capital base of institutions like World Bank, IMF and ADB to finance massive infrastructure needs of emerging markets.

Singh also reaffirmed India’s position on hastening the reforms in multi-lateral institutions to “give greater voice and representation to under-represented countries”.

Meanwhile, top sources said that issue of tainted money flowing into India either through portfolio investments or FDI would form part of G20 discussions in context of bringing about transparency in tax havens across the globe.