Indian Policies Inhibit Foreign Investment, Says U.S. Official

WASHINGTON: India’s investment and tax policies must be designed to lure and not to deter capital flows, a top Obama administration official has said.
Describing India as an engine of growth in South Asia, the U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia, Nisha Desai Biswal yesterday said that the country faces real vulnerabilities.

“Over 400 million people in India lack reliable access to energy. Road traffic is supposed to quintuple in six years but highway construction is slated to grow at a paltry four percent a year”, she said.

“India’s leaders have targeted to spend $1 trillion over five years in infrastructure investment to close the infrastructure gap that prevents real growth in the manufacturing sector, yet it continues to have policies that inhibit foreign investment,” Biswal said in her address to Harvard University, Kennedy School of Government in Boston.

India still ranks poorly amongst all countries as a hospitable place to invest and start a new business, ranked 134 out of 189 countries, she said, adding that India must meet the skills gap to grow its economy.

“In fact, India needs eight times the number of trained architects and civil engineers than it has now to meet its growth projections,” she said.

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