NRIs Investing In India Should Be Given Dual Citizenship, Says Industrialist Lord Swraj Paul

Paul highlighted that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has pledged to end corruption and end the illicit flow of funds which are a "disgrace to a proud nation".

"We have a mature and very experienced President (Pranab Mukherjee), having held every important portfolio; a deeply committed Prime Minister, and a Finance Minister (Arun Jaitley) who is widely regarded as highly competent. All of them are determined to make India a fairer society, and secure for the nation its due place in the world," he said.

Noting that their efforts have generated high hopes, Paul said, "For the first time in a long while, these expectations appear to be within reach."

He stated that if these expectations are to be realised, a few basic changes are needed and India has to simplify the rules and make sure that all inward investment whether in infrastructure, business, health, education, research etc conforms to those rules.

"When it does not, it must be disallowed," Paul said.

Investment that enriches itself but does little or nothing for society does nothing for India today, he said.

Noting that it is also time to end the process where every case has to be individually considered by the government before approval, Paul said that "this is time consuming and opens the door for local lobbyists to stall proceedings." "It also creates opportunity for corruption. A lot of companies trying to invest in India have suffered from this and it has unfortunately given India a bad name. Yet major opportunities for business are in prospect. The Prime Minister has said that just like Corporate Social Responsibility there should also be Corporate Government Responsibility. And this is something we should strongly support," Paul said.