Seven months after the UPA cruised to a comfortable majority in the 15th Lok Sabha polls, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh accepted that he had never anticipated the victory.

“I was doubtful whether we will have a working majority,” Singh said. But he said he took the victory in his stride: “I have taken things when they happen and when they don’t in my stride. I am neither too pleased with success nor too despondent when success is not there.”

The PM was speaking at the CNN-IBN Indian of the Year 2009 Awards, held in partnership with Hindustan Times.

A.R Rahman, the nominee from the entertainment category, won the award.

Obliquely approving of India’s announcements that it will voluntarily cut its carbon intensity (emissions per unit of GDP) the PM made a plea for sustainable development.

“Humanity’s approach to climate change has to be need-based, not greed-based, as Gandhiji taught us,” he said, referring to the Copenhagen summit. “So I sometimes reflect on whether we should follow the same unsustainable path the industrialized countries took to develop and modernize their societies? Ecological disaster of whatever cause or origin will have far greater consequences in India than in the west. We should… have an informed and rational debate on what is in our enlightened self-interest.”

Singh said 2009 had been a good year for India.

“2009 was a remarkable year for us. The rest of the world was in recession. We are affected, but still the second fastest growing economy,” he said.

He added that the world today relished India as a living model of a purposeful market economy with the rule of law.

Asked if it was good for the country that an economist was heading it in difficult times, Singh said jokingly: “Yes.” As if to emphasise the point that India’s global stature was on the rise, Singh said while congratulating the Indian of the Year 2009 winner Allah Rakha Rahman: “When I heard him sing in the White House, you cannot imagine my sense of joy.”

Musician Rahman beat competitors— like Rahul Gandhi, who did not attend the function as he was in Uttar Pradesh on a prior commitment, badminton player Saina Nehwal, the Satyam revival team and NGO Pratham that works on children’s education — to win the award.