Finance minister Yashwant Sinha told reporters here after meeting the economist that it would be ``our endeavour to put his ideas into practice''. Sinha said he had a very pleasant meeting with Sen send and that he was impressed by the economist's views even before he got the Nobel prize.

During the hour-long interaction, finance secretary Vijay Kelkar, chief economic adviser Shankar Acharya and the adviser to the finance minister Mohan Guruswamy were present.

The exchange of views covered various issues like the state of public finances in India, problems and initiatives in infrastructure, public sector reforms, social development issues, decentralisation and globalisation.

Former prime minister I K Gujral had a luncheon meeting with Sen. Thetwo discuused broad issues pertaining to the country's development.

After meeting Sinha, Sen told reporters that ``I had a wide range of discussions on how they perceive the problem and what they are doing to address it''. ``It was very helpful for me to learn what was going on here,'' he remarked. Sen said he planned to have further meetings with Sinha. The welfare economist said there has been a long history of neglect of basic issues like health and primary education and ``you know one is not looking for instant solutions.''

Sen said that India placed too much priority on higher education, that this has been at the expense of primary education.