is president obama's health care reform law on life-support or is it already dead? i'm christine romans. welcome to "your $$$$$". >> and i'm ali velshi in new delhi, india. i've been touring this great country for the last two weeks, speaking to people at every socioeconomic level in this country to understand its future, its challenges, and its opportunities and why you need to know about india. how important india is to your economic future. christine? >> thanks, ali. health care reform is president obama's signature achievement, and at the heart of the

president's health care reform law is the individual mandate, the requirement that most americans either purchase health insurance or face a financial penalty. the vim mandate is designed to lower costs by spreading them across a larger pool of individuals. but after three days of supreme court arguments this week, it's pretty clear that the individual mandate is in jeopardy. and that could mean an end to the entire health reform law. candy crowley is the cnn's chief political correspondent and anchors "state of the union." the supreme court is expected to announce its decision in the summer. if it's overturned is it a fatal blow to his legacy or rally cry to the democrats he can ride out until november. >> i think it depends on which party spins it best, actually. i think those are the two scenarios. listen, in the short run, i think this is a blow to the president's signature issue of his first term. in the long run, it really does depend on how it gets spun and how people perceive it.

is it a blow to president obama or is it a blow to republicans who by and large pushed this whole supreme court case and pushed it up to the high court? so, listen, we heard james carville say, i think this would be great. because we can just say, you don't have health insurance? go talk to the supreme court. go talk to justice scalia. so, again, the spin's already begun, and i can tell you better in august or september which party is winning and trying to sort of frame this issue in a way that helps them in november. >> we don't even have a decision yet. we have to wait for the decision and then we have to wait to see how it's going to be spun, and then we wait until november to see for sure, candy. you know, sanjay gupta is cnn's chief medical correspondent, host of sanjay gupta md, and a neurosurgeon, and a father. but he's here to talk about health insurance. around 30 million americans

could get coverage under the law. it was meant to provide access to the health care system. what happens to the uninsured if this law is overturned? >> in many ways, it goes back to the way it was before, which is that people, depending on the reason they don't have health care insurance, maybe if they have a pre-existing condition or they simply can't afford it, they try and find it on the open market, they're not getting it through their job, obviously. it's a touch process and expensive and even some more expensive if you're already sick. but it's worth pointing out as well, christine, we're talking about the law being fully implemented in 2014. there are some things that have already been implemented. for example, no discrimination for children with pre-existing conditions. they can't be charged higher premiums for health insurance. if the whole law is scrapped, that would go away, so the premiums would go up. also, you know, a kid who is sick, you know, under the new law, if the law was to pass, there would be no caps, for example, on how much an

insurance company would pay annually or over a lifetime. and that's implemented right now again for children. that would also go away. you know, there are people out there who can stay on their parent's plan as well until age 26. so that would go away. in some ways, it's not just either the law doesn't happen and we go back to square one, we would have to also scrap some of the things that have been in place over the last year. >> let's go to will kaine, he's a cnn contributor, and he has a number of jobs, and he's also a lawyer. will, put on your legal hat. last week you laid out the case as to why the individual mandate is unconstitutional. it's clearly in jeopardy, but what might it mean for the rest of the law? take a listen to justices scalia and ginsburg and see if you can figure out what the court might ultimately decide. >> my approach would say, if you take the heart out of this statute, the statute's gone. >> why should we say it's a choice between a wrecking operation, which is what you are

requesting, or a salvage job. and the more conservative approach would be salvage rather than throwing out everything. >> so, will, can the rest of the law survive if the individual mandate, which is, i guess, essentially the glue to the whole thing, is struck down? >> that's a very, very tough question to answer. let me explain it this way, christine. this shows you a breakdown of the justices. over here you have what is commonly described as the liberal justices. that's just breyer, justice ginsburg, justice kagan, and justice sotomayor. everything we've heard from them suggests that they will uphold the individual mandate, while justices thomas, alito, and scalia made it sound like they will strike down the mandate. the big questions are roberts and kennedy. which way will they go? and on the issue of severability. if the mandate is struck down, will they strike down the entire 127-page bill? it's impossible to predict right now, but we did hear them say they want to seek judicial

mode modesty. they donate kn't know the answe that. is it more modest for the supreme court to go through the 2,700 pages and analyze what is a constitutional and what is not. >> sanjay, can i ask you how disruptive this is in the medical profession for the watching and waiting and the waiting game about what's going to happen with this law? because doctors i talk to and hospitals i talk to are already implementing things to try to get ahead of new health care reform and what this new health care regime is going to look like. now there's this whole question mark on everything. >> yeah, you know, i think it's been sort of approached with a fair amount of caution. some of the things that are really specific to hospitals in terms of improving medical records, for example, reducing errors, starting to share outcome data with the entire country, these are very specific things that happen within hospitals, and some of that's, you know, under the affordable care act. but, you know, i think in terms of disruptions, i think people have been sort of, you know, cautiously awaiting to see how

this all plays out. so i don't know how disruptive it will be. i think people really haven't, you know, implemented a lot of the changes on physician/patient relationship yet. >> yeah. i think you're right on that toop too. and some of the patient -- there was stimulus money for that too. so there's this other movement unrelated to health care reform that's also changing health care and sort of the delivery of health care the system overall. candy, i want to bring you in. i guess my question to you again is about the politicization -- is that the right word -- of the supreme court. this is a very big case and rarely have you seen so much political fire and brimstone. you had, you know, presidential candidates at the supreme court this week using it as a moment. >> sure, but you've also had, listen, every january when the roe v. wade anniversary comes up, i think on the 19th, somewhere around there, you also see this outside. we saw this in bush v. gore in 2000. so there are these -- by and

large, the supreme court does a lot of things that changes lives, but it's these big things that always come to the forum and bring people to the steps of the courthouse. i will tell you, i think one of the applying issues that you will see coming out of this is what has always been a real key issues for republicans, and in large part, democrats as well, which is, we want to nominate a guy who will pick our kind of justices. believe it or not, on the campaign trail, the supreme court is a pretty big applause getter, particularly when you're in the republican party. because to them, it's always been, you know, right to life and that kind of thing. so i think this will sort of amp up the importance of the supreme court and who gets to nominate, because it is right on that cusp. so if you have a very controversial ruling, you're going to see a lot of talk about the nomination of the next supreme court justice and who should be able to do that. >> candy, sanjay, will, state

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health care costs are spiraling out of control for american individuals and businesses. in 2011, the cost of health care for a family of four under an employer plan was nearly $20,000, more than double what it was in 2002. sanjay, individual employees are being asked to shoulder a greater share of those rising costs. if the president's law is struck down, is there a plan "b" for limiting the burden of health care costs and rising health care costs? >> no, i don't think there is. i've asked that same question, by the way, and to be fair, you know, the whole notion of controlling costs as part of even, you know, this plan, you know, it was hard to parse out. i mean, no one's done a terrific job -- >> it's always about access to care. it was always about access to insurance. it was not as much about l lowering costs, other than it

spread out the burden among so many people that that should at least slow the pace of health care cost job growth. >> exactly. and even that, i mean, if you look, if you sort of track health care costs over the last decade, we've had a slowdown in the increases year-to-year in health care costs, but it's still been, certainly, going up. and the plan didn't have a lot in terms of curbing that. and that was one of the criticisms as well. again, i don't know with regard to whether this law goes through or it doesn't or it goes through in part whether that will have a significant impact on cost. it will have a significant impact on individuals, as we talked about earlier. >> you know, it's been two years until that bill was signed into a law, rather, and yet, today only a quarter of americans would like to see the supreme court leave the law unchanged. this is according to a new cnn/orc poll. 43% would like some provisions overturned, 30% want to get rid some of the whole bill. will, health care costs are serious problem for millions of americans, as we know. if it's not the president's plan, then who is offering a solution?

>> well, not very many people, and this is a very legitimate criticism of republicans. they're very good at criticizing the plan of the president's, but they haven't been very good at providing an alternative solution. i would suggest this. there's only really two ways to ever exert price controls, cost controls over health care. you either allow the market, through free market mechanisms that lower the prices for every other product we have in society to work its magic in the health care industry, or you empower the government to have a large enough influence over health care to put price controls over it. where we sit right now is in the middle, a place that does neither, and we have seen health care costs spiral upwards for years and years, and we will continue to. >> candy, rick santorum making the case for conservatives who oppose mitt romney on the issue of health care. listen. >> it became very clear to me that we were going to make a very, very serious mistake if he got the nomination. because he is uniquely disqualified to make the case

against obama care. >> so, you know, mitt romney's been hearing about this, you know, how he was the architect, the pre-architect of obama care for so long. if the supreme court strikes down this law, does mitt romney earn a free pass because conservatives have now scored their big victory? >> no. simply because their argument is that the president's going to say, maybe the supreme court struck it down, but, boy, they had it in massachusetts too. so, lacook, mitt romney's probls with health care is part of larger problem about what's he for, what's he against? so i think those remain in place. i think the train's left the station in terms of whether or not that will stop him from becoming the nominee, but in terms of whether it will change anything for him in september should he become the nominee, i don't think it changes anything. he's still stuck with that overall perception, of whether it's health care or abortion or anything else, like where does he stand, so it's part of an overall package with romney. >> and speaking of sort of the politics or the politicization

of the supreme court, you know, will was making a really interesting point about 2016. think ahead to where we are in the composition of the court, and whether a big issue like this is in the hands of a very different court. talk to me about that. >> candy pointed out that people talk about the president's power to appoint justices and how important that is. by 2016, justice ginsburg will be 83, justice scalia and kennedy will be 80, and breyer will be 78. that's potentially four justices late in life sitting on the bench or retiring from the bench and four potentials. >> a lot of people saying 2016 is going to be an amazingly different kind of political landscape than it is for president. candy, you're like, i'm too tired to even think about another political -- please, let me get through this one first! but when you're talking about the supreme court, these are the kinds of things you're talking about. i want to let sanjay wrap it up

on the cost angle of this. a lot of people are asking me, doctors and patients and other journalists, what is all of this going to mean if this is overturned for my relationship with my doctor, right now? >> the interesting thing is, i think for a lot of people, you know, it may not dramatically change things for them. that was something that president obama talked about, you know, when he was first talking about health care. you know, if you have -- if you're insured, if you have a physician right now that you have a relationship, a lot of that should not change. so i think, you know, not having the law or not having the law in its entirety, for a lot of people, they may not notice a lot. a lot of companies, as you've mentioned, christine, have raised their premiums. in sort of anticipation of the affordable care act going through. so i don't know whether -- i doubt those premiums will sort of revert back to what they were, whether they're in the form of higher co-pays or higher fees or different insurance plans. one thing i want to say really quick, to something candy was

talking about earlier. i interviewed governor romney about this a couple years ago, specifically, and asked him about the plan in massachusetts, the national plan. and one of the points i think you're going to hear from him more and one of the points he made to me was, laook, what happened in massachusetts, very effective. 98% of that state is insured now, and people in the medical community, patients, it's very popular. what i think he says often, and i think you'll hear more is, look, every state is different. massachusetts is different than alabama, which is different than texas, and therefore, you know, to have health care plans at a national level that impact states so differently, that have different needs, is part of the reason, you know, he advocates these sorts of plans being at the state level. i don't know where that conversation goes from here, but, obviously, it's going to be a big, big discussion topic if he's the nominee. >> all right. dr. sanjay gupta, will cain, candy crowley, have a great weekend, everybody. >> you too. up next on "your $$$$$," just because you're hearing the

word "recovery" doesn't mean you're seeing one. is the middle class missing out? and the middle class may be taking a hit in the u.s., but it is growing in india. ali takes a look at that. there's more whole grain than any other ingredient. that's why it's listed first. get more whole grain than any other ingredient... just look for the white check.

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for a free brake inspection and you'll say... my money. my choice. my meineke. as investors rejoice, millions of americans are asking, where is my recovery? take a look at the total number of private sector jobs versus the performance of the s&p 500 over the past ten years. looks pretty similar, right, including the big drop during the recession. this is the s&p 500, these are the number of people working. but the recovery bounce are where you see the major difference. after hitting a low of 666 in march 2009, the s&p is hovering around 1,400 today. and those the jobs picture is improving, the gains there are modest. they actually happened a little later than the company stock market recovery, and they've been shallower, prompting federal reserve chairman ben bernanke this week to remind everyone that the private sector remains 5 million jobs below its previous peak.

rah rahna and stephen moore. bob, the economy is adding jobs. we can see that from those charts. is this a statistical jobs recovery or proof that life is improving for anybody? >> there is a recovery in jobs. we're getting a couple hundred thousand jobs. a little more a month. but two quick points. one, we were in such a deep hole that that is not really enough to help us climb out of the hole. and two, the quality of the jobs. the quality of jobs are not great. a lot of the jobs that are being created are part-time or low-wage or whatever, you know, so those are two of the reasons why people don't feel they're in a recovery. >> rahna, let's talk more about feelings. in september, 10% of americans described economic conditions as good if that number has risen steadily. today, you've got three in ten americans who say things are going well. it's a consumer-driven economy, so the economy recover without

the consumer feeling better about this? >> absolutely not. and the consumer doesn't feel better, because it's a two-speed recovery. stocks are up, but those benefit mostly the wealthy. the majority of americans still keep their money in housing. the housing market is not back. meanwhile, wages have been flat throughout not only this recovery, which has taken longer than any other in history, but really since the '70s. the average working person hasn't gotten a raise in america since 1968. >> wow! okay. this week i spoke with the ceo of fedex, the founder and ceo of fedex, fred smith. naturally, i wanted to know what message he wanted to send our political leaders on behalf of business. >> well, the country simply does not have an adequate growth rate to provide an increased standard of living. >> the economy's not doing well enough? >> it's not doing well enough. our growth rate has gone down from almost 4% to about 2% over the past 30 years, and that's not enough to both improve people's standards of living, and provide full unemployment.

>> and steven, fred went on to tell me that the current policies are standing in the way of robust growth, which sounds a little bit like someone i know named stephen moore. let's get specific. if we want to see the standard of living improve for the majority of americans, what needs to change first? >> christine, i'm not joking when i say, if i could hand pick anybody to be president of the united states, it would probably be fred smith. this is a guy who knows how to run an operation and run it efficiently, and fred has run fedex amazingly well. look, i do think the economy's recovering. i think it's doing pretty well right now. the question is, how robust and how sustainable this recovery is. i think that if i were advising president obama, i would give him one piece of advice. do not raise taxes in 2013. i think that the economy is way too fragile right now. the recovery is just at too early a stage. >> are you making the assumption that he's the president in 2013? are you making an endorsement or a prognosis here? >> i think it's a big mistake to be -- the economy's doing well.

i worry that starting in september or october, as people say, wait a minute, we're going to face this big tax tsunami starting in january. capital gains going up, dividends going up, small business tax going up, i'm not sure the economy can withstand that. and second of all, i think we should have a much more aggressive energy policy that exploits our own natural resources. >> if i can talk about the tax issue, if you look historically in the periods of this country where we had the greatest growth,' 50s and '60s, we had much higher tax rates. i think that argument doesn't wash. and in terms of a ceo president, i would make the point that running a company and running a country are two different things. and that's the divide we're talking about. >> it's so interesting you go back to the '50s and '60s, the last time the american worker got a raise was 1968. this is also at the same time concurrent with huge, rapid, technological innovations that have fostered globalization. and we see the world changing. i say this every week, right, we see the world changing faster

than american families can keep up. and washington seems absolutely unable to get out of its four-year thought cycle to address what is a really changing reinvention of this country. >> we have become a can't-do society. when i was growing up in those early post-war decades, we were a can-do society. and one of the main things we did then was invest in the future of the american public. one, we have these enormous budget deficits, we have to begin to get some handle on them at some point. but even more important, we have to make some investments in our sf infrastructure, in other areas, in research and development, that's where you'll get the new ideas, the new industries that will power the american future. >> interestingly enough, april 1st, the united states becomes the highest corporate income tax rate country in the world. >> that's a bogus issue. >> no, no -- >> corporations are not paying that tax. >> you ask anyone who's running

a major corporation, and even president obama's own economies say, this is putting america at a competitive disadvantage. >> why are they sitting on these trillions of dollars. >> because they're very reluctant to invest. i just want to make one point. >> they're very risk averse right now because of policy. but i have to say this in terms of a positive note. this idea that the american middle class has not made advances since the late 1960s is crazy. the lanaverage middle class fam, 40 to 50% better off than they were in the 1960s. this idea we haven't made economic progress, i just think is -- >> so we have record rates of policy, but at least we have cell phones? >> access to much better health care. we have access to goods and services. would anybody actually today want to go back to the way people -- >> no one said there haven't been improvements in society in the past half-decade. i would never argue that point. but middle class families have really struggled. >> they were much better off today. >> one of the ways they've kept themselves above -- or among the

ways they've kept themselves above water is women have gone into the workforce, wives and mothers. people are working -- >> but just a minute -- >> people are work longer hours. >> this is a pet peeve of mine. >> and they took on tremendous amounts of debt. >> but the idea that women weren't working in the 1950s the '60s is nuts. >> not to the same degree! would you rather be doing -- >> in the 1950s and '60s on a single income if you had a middle class job. >> but if i can jump in here -- >> jump in rana. >> guys, this is not a gender issue -- >> i'm talking about paid work. i'm talking about paid work. i'm not saying -- and i also think it's a good idea that women went into the workforce, i'm not being critical of that. but i'm saying they had to do that to keep the families above water economically. >> we've tried to basically cover up this downturn in incomes for the last 40 years the -- of two incomes with another thing. but let's put a couple of facts on the table here. the labor percent of gdp in this

society is at all-time lows. and going back to your point about technological job destruction, that link was broken in the '70s. that's when education stopped keeping up with technology. so bob's right that infrastructure and investment and education, these are the things that will get us out of this mess. >> we have more time to talk about this. you're all staying. up next, gas prices are on the rise, so are hopes that somebody in washington can stop them. are we being unrealistic? plus, building on brics. we're talking brazil, russia, indiana, china, south africa. new emerging countries all meeting in india this week and ali's there too. people with a machine.

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you are forgiven if your optimism about this recovery comes to a screeching halt every time you pull into the gas station to fill up your car. seven out of ten americans say rising gas prices have caused an economic hardship for them. this is according to a new cnn orc poll. and with the national average for a gallon of gas passing the

$3.90 mark this week, the hardship is not letting up. bob, can you have a strong recovery with gas prices at this level or are we just all complaining? >> well, we are complaining, but it makes it much more difficult. the recovery is weak already, as we've been saying, so if you layer increasing gas price on top of that, it makes it much tougher. >> everybody wants to blame something, and this is what's interesting. is it speculators, oil companies, the government for having a failed energy policy? is it us? let's talk about playing the blame game here. the majority of americans now say they blame the oil companies for high gas prices. by a wide margin, americans are pointing the finger at big oil instead of either political party or either iran. no surprise when president obama chose to tap into that anger, he tapped into that this week. >> so american oil is booming. the oil industry is doing just fine. with record profits and rising

production, i'm not worried about the big oil companies. >> all right. so the president targeting oil subsidies, that's what efs talking about there. is it the oil companies to blame? they're getting record profits and we're hurting because of it. >> no, it's neither president obama or the oil companies that are to blame. the u.s. oil companies have access to about 12% of the world's global reserves, because the rest are in the hands of state-owned oil interests. gas is based on oil, oil is based on rising demand in china, in india, in some cases speculative markets and what's going on in iran. >> it's interesting, because a lot of times what people say privately about the conversation about gas and oil and subsidies and all that, exactly your point, there's only access to 12% of the world's oil. they say, look, it's a national security imperative that american energy companies are incentivized to get as much energy as they possibly can. and that kind of is a theme underlying all of this, steven. >> look, one thing is, when the

president keeps talks about rising taxes on oil companies, christina, answer me this question, how are you going to get more -- how are you going to low terrify price of gasoline if you're going to raise the tax on it? that as an economic concept make is no sense. but i'm actually really extremely optimistic about the u.s. energy future. we don't have 12% of the world's reserves, we have about half of them. i mean, north dakota, colorado, pennsylvania. i mean, the natural gas, we have 200 years of natural gas. i think you'll see over the next five or ten years, as long as we continue to develop our own resources, you're going to see america move to being an oil and natural gas exporter, not an importer. and how exciting is that? >> we can actually agree on one thing, which is the energy security future is brighter. we're exporting more oil than we have since 1949. the horizon for the development of the kind of reserves you're talking about is longer, so i think we have to do them in tandem with other things, developing green technologies. these are the things that are ultimately going to take us -- >> we have this conversation,

bob, and people say, yeah, i just paid $85 to fill up. they want an answer today and they want to blame somebody and they want somebody in washington who say they can fix it. >> it can't be fixed. i think what's going to happen going forward in the long-term is that gasoline prices, as we've come to know them, are going to continually, gradually get higher. i do think that we need to look at some alternatives, including green energy, but most important, what everyone's views are. we need an energy policy in this country. we need a coherent energy policy, and we don't have one -- >> steve, why do you think they're going to go down? why? >> because we're in incredible abundance. it's unbelievable what's going on with the fracking process, with horizontal drilling. we have access to ten times more oil than we did ten years ago. >> but isn't it so much more expensive to get this stuff -- >> it is, but the price is going down so dramatically. they have so much natural gas in north dakota, they burn it off at night. >> but in north dakota, if i'm not mistaken, we have natural

gas crews in north dakota who are switching to go work on oil rigs, because you're getting more money -- >> let me make a prediction, in the next five, ten years, we're going to start making natural gas to power and fuel our kas. >> and fred smith from fedex, who we were talking about last block, they're looking for their long haul trucks to get l&g facilities along the interstate highway system, and they think that's going to be something that's lucrative for them. >> but you can't make that kind of a change over efficiently without a coherent energy policy. >> but for every dollar of decease we provided to oil and gas, we provide $50 to $100 of subsidies to wind and solar, which only provides 2% of our electricity. >> should we give up on this? >> yes! >> i think we should stop talking about taxes into the companies and start talking, frankly, about a higher consumption tax on gasoline, because we've been paying below rates of country like europe for a long time. we have this idea that gas should be cheap, and it isn't.

>> and the energy companies, they love to point out that you, out of your pocket, more is paid in federal taxes and state taxes than is actually paid in what their profit is at the end of the game. guys, we've got to leave it there. thank you so much to stephen moore, and rana frooharr. up next, which u.s. industry is eyeing india as next big thing? ali is there with that answer. he's going to tell us why other businesses should be watching closely too. you don't want to miss this. look, every day we're using more and more energy. the world needs more energy.

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i'm all lee velshy in new delhi. i've been right to get an understanding of this economy that seems to be moving at quite a pace. economic growth plus 6% expected for 2012. but that's a pullback and it has a lot of people concerned. india has some big challenges and big opportunities. i'm joined now by simon denyer, the india bureau chief for "the washington post." let's help our audience understand what's going on in this massive country that has really been growing at this remarkable pace that we would give anything for in the west, for many, many years. it's slowing down, but it's

still strong. what's your sense of what's happening in india? >> well, look, the long-term picture in india is still really, really good. i just traveled and saw huge investments by ford, gm are expanding, they're betting on the inevitability of long-term economic growth. >> people are saying, in the long run, this place is going to work. >> the middle class is going to want cars, they're getting to that tipping point where all over the country they're going to want cars. >> while that's useful to know, in this country, there are a whole lot of two-wheelers and three-wheelers and now they're theoretically moving into cars. >> and ford and gm are getting a bit late to the party, but investing a lot of money because they see india as a great opportunity. >> and you meet all these industrialists who say, we need greater fdi, they all say fdi in this country, foreign direct investment. sounds obvious, right? country of consumers, why don't they have more foreign direct investment? >> well, one reason is the

indiana government ke indian government keeps changing the rules. it's a retrospective taxation announcement. >> they're taxing them on something that happened years ago. >> and not only that, any american company that's done any merger in the last six years is going to have to explain them to the indian tax man that they pay taxes somewhere in the world, so they don't have to pay the indian taxman. >> and some of that is indicative of what we know as the indian bureaucracy. it is a reason why it's easier to do business in other countries, because you need a lot of permanents here. there's still some corruption here. but there are a lot of companies who must be saying, it's worth it, for $1.3 billion people, 1. billion customers. >> people like kelloggs, coke, pepsi, kfc, mcdonald's, they've all done very well. but it's the second generation we're looking for now. there's $1 trillion on table of indian investment in

infrastructure that the government has committed to make. and u.s. companies are pretty much nowhere in that infrastructure. >> why not? and why is it you're seeing that there are investments from countries from companies in other countries, but not so much u.s.? >> who's big the metros? japan is building the metros. >> this city has a great -- >> a fantastic metro system. one reason for is that a lot of this is public/private partnership. and a lot of american companies to deal with the indian government, that's a tall order. that's a difficult thing. japanese companies, they've had a long history of dealing in public/private partnerships with their state. it may be more difficult to deal with the indian government, but at least they're coming -- >> there's a familiarity. it's a term used elsewhere in the world, public/private partnerships that is not that commonly used in america. business is business, and government is government. >> well, here, government is everywhere. business thrives when government isn't there. but that middle ground where government is involved, where there's rules and regulations, you look at walmart. walmart thought it was coming in with a surefire investment in india.

the indian government had been preparing the ground for years, talking about it for years, we're going to allow foreign direct investment in retail stores. walmart was ready to open supermarkets all over india. the prime minister announced the decision, and then almost immediately, the coalition, his own coalition said they were uncomfortable with it, and he had to stand up and reverse the decisions. >> and part of that is there is a coalition government in this country. vote has become fractured over the years, and there isn't one party that is leading. they have to make deals with other parties. it makes it more complicated. simon, thank you for joining us and explaining this a little bit to our viewers. we're going to continue this discussion on india. one of the things we talk about in the united states is how innovation can lift an economy up. when we come back, i'll talk to a guy who is central to innovation in india. you're watching a special edition of you'"your $$$$$" frow delhi. you'll be delighted to discover how good they taste.

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welcome back to a special edition of "your $$$$$." christine's in new york. i am in new delhi. i spent the last couple of weeks touring around india speaking to, as you just saw, journalists.

i've been speaking to speaking and students, entrepreneurs, innovators and people from government about what this country faces. the challenges and the opportunities. and i have come upon a man who falls into a couple of those categories. sam is an innovator, an inventor. and at the moment he is in the government, he has a cabinet rank. he's a special adviser to the prime minister of india. and he's one of a rare breed who have bridged that gap between industry and politics. something that has become an area of great difficulty in india right now. it seems that at times, government and business are at odds with each other. tell me, for our audience out there, we have a country with greater than 6% economic growth. you spend half your time in america. what america would give for 6% growth. yet i have people telling me, this is tragic. this is very difficult for india. explain this to me. >> i think the way we are today, india has to grow at 8% to 10%

for the next 20 years. >> now, you had the 6% plus for many years. >> but it's not enough. >> right. >> mainly because we have too many challenges. one, disparity. disparity between the rich and poor, educated and uneducated. two, demography. we have 550 million young below the age of 25. that's the work force for the world. and three, growth. development. we need more colleges, more hospitals, more roads, more power plants, more homes. everywhere you look around, we need to expand, we need to excel, and we need to provide equity. so that the poorest of the poor can indeed have access. >> i know that you're optimistic. and in the last two weeks i've seen people in ranges. almost everybody i speak to thinks that the india of the future is a very hopeful

prospect. >> absolutely. >> but lots of people are troubled about the india of the mid future. tell me why. what are the major challenges india faces in the immediate future? and the present. >> i think for the last year or two, we have had a great deal of pressure on the system. especially when it comes to decision-making. >> are you talking about america or india? >> in india. >> it sounds like america. >> yeah, but, you know, we have similar problems. we have a coalition government, and coalition government has its own problems. we need strong government. we need clear decision-making process. and a lot of our processes are all at times obsolete. many of these processes are designed from days ago, they

don't make sense anymore. they are primarily designed for control. today we need processes for collaboration, cooperation, good communication. and i think there's a little bit of disconnect with the old and the new. old says let us go. new says, generational change. and i think we are going through that phase. >> right. and your new is this remarkably young demographic. a very wired country. it's kind of unfathomable how many people use mobile phones in this country. you've got broadband. >> we are a nation of connectivity. we have 900 million mobile phones. not long ago we only had 2 million phones in this country. it used to take ten years to get telephone connection. now everybody's wired. but the first phase of the telecom revolution is ending. the next phase of broadband is

about to begin. >> you spend a lot of your time in the united states. with the idea that my viewer is american, or north american, tell me what the opportunities are in india. you've told me what the challenges. tell me what the opportunities are. >> everywhere you look around there are opportunities. in education, in infrastructure. for example, we would be spending over $1 trillion on building infrastructure in the next five years. $500 billion of that is going to come through public partnership. so opportunities are everywhere. in telecom, we need to build huge broadband infrastructure. applications. everywhere i look around, i find major, major opportunities in india. we also don't have the right kind of talent in many areas. we need more management talent. we need more scientists,

engineer entrepreneurs, innovators. and at the same time we need more plumbers, electricians, we need more, you know, doctors. you name it. >> yeah. >> and that's the challenge we have. >> good to see you. thank you so much for being with us. you're a busy guy. you work in the industry. >> i hope you have a great week ahead. >> we hr had a great trip. adviser to the prime minister here in india. he's an inventor, innovator. one of the things we'll be talking about next week, it's the jobs report. i know it's easter friday next week, but the government is releasing its jobs report for the month of march. this has been 17 months in a row of job creation in the united states. can we go for another month of job creation. is the american economy getting better. i'll tell you a little bit about that when we come back.

the story you need to shall watching next week, the jobs report. more than 200,000 jobs have been

added to the economy for three straight months. 3.7 million jobs were lost as a result of the recession, we still have a long way to go. the big test is whether this economy can continue to create jobs. >> you remember march of 2009, three years ago? that's when the market bottomed out. that was one of the worst job loss months. we at least don't have to worry about the fact that jobs were created in the united states in march. but as you said, how many. 18 months in a row of job creation. is it strong enough to put a dent in that unemployment rate. is it strong enough to keep americans spending and investing and growing that economy. it's crucial and we'll be right on top of it a week from now. >> we'll be interested to see what kind of new jobs we're building. are they jobs you can buy a house with, send kids to college. some of the jobs we're creating are not the jobs lost. thank you for joining the conversation this weekend on "your money." you can stay connected to us 24/7 on twitter.