Bangalore: Dr Kaushik Basu, Chief Economic Advisor of the Union Finance Ministry has said that the government can control the prices of diesel and petrol only when all oil companies are given equal opportunities in the global market and the decentralization policy in this regard was implemented in phases.

He was delivering the Dr VKRV Rao Memorial Endowment Lecture on “Indian Economy: Development on the basis of social and ethical foundation” at the Rajbhavan here on Tuesday.

Kaushik Basu further said the Planning Commission would give top priority to development of basic infrastructure in the nation in the next five years period.

Commenting on rising cases of suicides by farmers, he said that crop failure alone was not the reason for the same. He said farmers were availing huge loans to solve some of their  other pressing problems.

HR Bharadwaj, State Governor, Prof SR Deshpande and others were present.