1. Recent visit of His Majesty King Abdullah Bin Adulaziz to India created an all time history where you were instrumental. We are very proud of you and yet it's a great achievement in your success story. How do you feel about it?

H.E. M.O.H. Farook.:
The recent visit of the Saudi king custodian of Two Holy Mosque, His Majesty King Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz was a historic one. In fact it was a very successful visit and both the countries are going to be benefited. I was sent from India as the Ambassador from political side to ensure a strong relationship and become more closer and greater. It's from the day I landed here that we have been discussing this trip, which now came as a big success for both the counties. I do not want to claim myself as the person who has achieved this as this is a team work, from outside and within India which has gone very well. I am just the leader of that team. All the credit goes to people who worked altogether and obviously I also feel little elated after the King's visit.

2. Today India being the fifth largest economy in the world with a GDP of $506 billon and with a stable rate of inflation of 5.4%, we are in the right track. Obviously the whole world is monitoring our growth. Don't you think that this is the appropriate time to be more aggressive in the international arena creating more and more strong friends including those who were keeping a distance from us?

H.E. M.O.H. Farook.:
It is true that India is in the right track, India is one of the largest economy in the world and I also feel that we should not be complacent of the growth. The growth is satisfactory but more and more aggressive policies will have to be taken to ensure much higher growth. In the economic field as you rightly said, India is in the right direction.

3. India is now the destination. This is the latest "mantra" we hear from investors all over the world. Influx of all international bankers and multinational companies to the Indian soil is an interesting phenomenon. How far you think this will help boosting our economy and the middle class Indians?

H.E. M.O.H. Farook.:
India is now the destination for the investment both in the down and up stream. The whole scenario of the investment in the whole world has taken a new turn. Countries like Saudi Arabia used to go for investment towards the west, now the things have changed. We are now attracting all the new investments and vice-versa. We are also investing in other areas. For example take Saudi Arabia; there are more Indian companies in Saudi Arabia as well as Saudi companies in India. This is the reality and now so many businessmen are coming over there. There was an ice which was not broken yet, but now its broken, the horizon is very vast, and people are most welcome to invest in India. First of all it's a democratic country, its constitution encourage other countries to invest, the government is fair. After the Kings visit, the political scene has been cleared, the economic growth is going to be witnessed in both countries. We wanted to give as much as we could to Saudi Arabia via technology, higher education, medical technology and facilities and also in the field of industry. Saudis are very much interested in investing in India because the infrastructure is very vast. Therefore we wanted to-do it and we are doing it. I request people from the both countries to realise this opportunity and take advantage of the situation and try to do it in the economic field. It is the political clearance which has come and now in our economic section at the Indian mission the work is in ten-folds. Enquiries are incessantly flowing as people want to invest more and more in India as a new and safe destination.

4. Kingdom recently opened up the share market for expatriates also. Simultaneously Al-Rajhi group is set to handle Indian portfolios locally. Your views please.

H.E. M.O.H. Farook.:
The answer is in the question itself, but I must tell you this is a very good sign. Formally we were expecting investment from other countries. The Al-Rajhi group is organising the portfolios and the government of Saudi Arabia has also opened up for the Indian expatriates and other expatriates to come and invest, which is a good sign. We are very happy that such a development has come. I told you earlier that ice is broken, the flow is now started. India's share market has exceeded the US share market as you have said earlier, means that we are on firm grounds and our economy is on firm footings. It is growing up and lot of faith and confidence is there in the share market. I must tell you one thing if there is investment that means people have faith in the Indian economy, and it's growing up to that extent.

5. I would refrain from touching the politics. Recently there has been a tilt in our foreign policy. While standing strongly on the non-alignment principles, do you think it's appropriate for us to be flexible?

H.E. M.O.H. Farook.:
We are absolutely in the right way. In the changing world you can see that we are not aggressive nation from the past history or from last 50 years. We don't want any one inch of other's land, but at the same time we will continue to strictly adhere to our non-alignment policy. Just making agreements on certain matters particularly about the nuclear facilities its India’s concern and commitments, I agree with the Prime Minister of India who said that it is the interest of India that we should have nuclear technologies so that we should get lot of facilities to improve our power sector, what is wrong in it! It is something good and India only benefited in that negotiation and I feel proud that our P. M. has taken a good stand for the development of our country. Ultimately our policy should be based on India's interest and this doesn't mean that there is tilt in our foreign policy.

6. With an august bilateral relationship being built between India and Saudi Arabia do you feel that various problems of the Indians can be solved with the help of this government?

H.E. M.O.H. Farook.:
Saudi Arabia is a country where more number of Indian expatriates are living and resultantly, we have number of problems that will have to be sorted out, with the Saudi Government, little by little and we are able to solve it with the excellent friendly relations we enjoy. One example is, the problem of "Eye for an Eye". It’s a great gesture from the government of Saudi Arabia looking towards the Indian people. So this is only a beginning, we have lot of things to do together and I am on firm belief that we will be able to sort all problems which our expatriates are facing. In fact various problems have been sorted out and the process has started.

7. We the Indians are very proud of you. During your tenure we had three ministers visits, the Saudi King with a strong team of intellectuals visited India and many labour problems have been sorted out. The very chronic problem left with us now is the Indian School Management. Do you have anything in mind to revamp this situation?

H.E. M.O.H. Farook.:
First of all I am thankful to you, and people of our country who are here, and the local people who have got confidence in me that, we are able to sort out many problems. The school is also a problem which we are facing ourselves. With the help of our own people we will be able to do something to make it in the right track. I can assure you only one thing, so many things are in the pipeline, but am not in a position to tell you for the time being but there is no problem at all. Ours is a democratic country and in that process, test has to be done from time to time, if one test/process fails, the other process should start and bring it over to a level and this problem should be solved very shortly and we need not bother and I hope by the grace of God things will be sorted out and I assure the people that everything will be streamlined very shortly.