President George W Bush praised India and her people during his visit to the ISB. “India is a great example of democracy. It is very devout, has diverse religious heads, but everyone is comfortable about their religion.” “The world needs India,” he said.

The president shared several remarks on various subjects. Following are some excerpts:

On alternative sources of energy:
President Bush spoke about the need of alternative sources of energy for the country’s growing needs, which could come from safe civilian nuclear facilities. “When India’s economy grows at 8%, you consume a lot of energy. So, it is in the global interest that we are concerned about the consumption of that energy.”

He revealed that he had discussed alternative sources of energy with President Abdul Kalam – who he thought was “a good guy” - the previous day. The discussion centred on the use of bio-mass and ethanol for energy needs in India. He quoted the example of Brazil’s use of ethanol in almost 80% of its cars manufactured by General Motors, a US based company.

On free trade:
On the question of free trade, the President said, “We are working towards a free trade agreement, but it is important to get the Doha Round (on multilateral trade negotiations in the WTO) done.”

With regard to protectionism policy, his comments were, “If you look at the history of the world, protectionism policy leads to recession, and sometimes depression.”

President Bush also had words of praise about Indian education. “Indian schools are doing a good job educating their students in the sciences and maths – the subjects of the 21st century,” he said.

On the opening of a consulate in Hyderabad:
On the eagerly awaited question of opening a consulate in Hyderabad, the President said, “Yes, you have got a deal.”

He then turned to his left to ask Ambassador Mulford, “Is that right?” to which the Ambassador replied, “We’ve reached an agreement.”

President Bush then turned to look at the Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice who was seated to his right, and said, “Now it’s up to the Secretary of State to fund it!”

He said that having grown up in western Texas, he never thought that they would ever be threatened. Even during the Cold War when the polarised countries believed in ‘mutual destruction’ he had not felt threatened. But his perceptions about being threatened changed after the September 11 episode. “We don’t bear grudges. We actually welcome people, and we want you to know that the US is a great country to be in.” “Americans are nice people. But we get a lot of rap, probably because of me!”

On the Entrepreneurship Centre at the ISB:
President Bush reserved some more praise for the Entrepreneurship Centre at the ISB. He said, “It’s hard to teach people to be risk takers, and you have professors here who give you the tools to be risk takers.” Earlier, he had told Professor V Chandrasekar, Executive Director, Wadhwani Centre for Entrepreneurship Development (WCED), “You’ve got a great thing going!”

Anjali Patel, a student from the ISB Class of 2006 was in the roundtable for entrepreneurs addressed by the President. She is the President of the Net Impact Club at the ISB, and told the President that she runs the social enterprise club with a lot of help from the faculty, the Entrepreneurship Centre, and the student body of the ISB. She also talked to the President about “compassionate capitalism” consisting of “providing venture capital funding to small businesses and social entrepreneurs so that they can sustain themselves.” Such projects use “a market based model rather than a traditional aid-based model,” she explained.