From correspondents in Delhi, India, 11:00 AM IST

India can sustain eight percent growth, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said here Friday, while expressing confidence that 'India can and will survive the global economic crisis'.

Speaking at the HT Leadership Summit, the prime minister also talked about the political situation in the country, and said: 'Extremist ideologies, political or economic, are harmful.'

Manmohan Singh had earlier said that India will be a land of free, knowledge-empowered people. He congratulated the country's scientists who had put the first Indian probe on the moon earlier this month.

(Staff Writer, © IANS)