Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose's words and speeches made more than 60 years ago are still relevant in modern India and New Delhi's Look East policy takes inspiration from leaders in history like him, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee said in Singapore on Tuesday.

Launching the book Delhi Chalo, a compilation of speeches made by Bose during 1945-47 in Singapore, Malaya and Burma, Mukherjee said Bose had stressed that the key issues that should be addressed when India became independent were employment and education.

These issues, the minister noted, were relevant even today in an India undergoing reforms.

Earlier, the minister visited the site of the Indian National Army memorial and described it as a "poignant moment".

Delhi Chalo has been compiled by Bose's grand nephew Sugata Bose, a Gardiner professor of Oceanic History and Affairs at the Harvard University.

Mukherjee noted that Subash Chandra Bose's impact on national movements in Myanmar, Malaysia and Indonesia were indisputable. He said Bose's "prophetic utterances" that India would be free soon, made in 1945, came true in two years when India got its freedom in 1947.

"The period of 1943-45 represents the zenith of Bose's endeavours," the minister noted.

The minister is scheduled to meet his counterpart George Yeo later on Tuesday and also Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong and President S R Nathan.