Bangalore: Nobel Laureate and American economist Joseph E Stiglitz today (Jan 15, 2004) said the major impediment for India to sustain its high economic growth is the lack of infrastructure and wrong regulations.

"The major impediment to sustain growth is not collecting taxes, but lack of infrastructure and the wrong regulations. Not excessive regulations but the wrong regulations, that is you need excessive regulations in some areas and some areas less," Stiglitz told reporters at the Bangalore Workshop on Information and Communication Technology for Sustainable Development.

Delivering his talk on "Technology and the Indian Miracle: Lessons for India and Beyond", Stiglitz said besides improving infrastructure including cheap and reliable communication, the regulatory policies should be a key driver to ensure there are no monopolies and enhance competition.

He highlighted the need for ensuring cheap and reliable electricity, a bane in the country despite reforms in the power sector.

Pointing that India's economic miracle began even before the reforms of the early 1990s, Stiglitz, a former chief economist of the world bank and former chairman of the White House council of economic advisers under then President Bill Clinton, said, parts of the country, such as Bangalore, have been even more impressive, rivalling the East Asian miracle.

Asserting that India's growth was broad based, he said the greatest success centred on rapid advances in technology.