The Hindu : Time to talk business, build contacts

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Jan 11, 2004

New Delhi

New Delhi

Time to talk business, build contacts

NEW DELHI, JAN. 10. She left India when she was 18. And even though she travelled the world over with her husband, former cricketer Glen Turner, and has sketched out a successful political career for herself, this third time Mayor of Dunedin, New Zealand, has not forgotten her roots. Instead, Sukhi Turner has added one more commitment to her list: a project for improving her village near Moga, Punjab.

"I am interested in developing the infrastructure in my village. The drainage system and the water facilities are a problem and diseases like malaria need to be prevented. I would like to work for those things,'' remarked Sukhi who's perfect Punjabi comes as a surprise. Even though the level of India's economic development has astonished her, she is worried about the lack of discussions on sustainable development and the situation in the rural sector. "I am always asking the question how much bigger can the big cities grow? Instead it is important to invest in rural development. The keyword today is sustainable development and unfortunately, no one seems to be talking about that.''

While Sukhi may describe her relationship with India as "a connection from the heart'' and her desire to improve things in her village as an extension of that, she wasn't the only one talking about investments. With the Prime Minister announcing the lifting of ceiling on overseas investments, economics certainly occupied centre-stage. "Investments would certainly be welcome. That is something we would be very happy about,'' remarked Minister of Multi Ethnic Affairs, Fiji, George Shivraj. As the youngest politician in his country and the only Indian in the present Fiji Government, he is also interested in strengthening Indo-Fiji ties, especially in the education sector.

For Satish K. Batra, a prominent businessman from Germany, the "divas'' is the perfect opportunity to talk business and build contacts. "This is a good way to justify investments when we are sitting abroad. For the moment, India is certainly looking up and it is a climate for investments. There can be positive contributions to India's economy from all over. India has an advantage over other counties in the sense that its diaspora is not just connected with it economically but also culturally and that will always pull us back,'' he said.

"It is a great initiative by the Government to reach out to its own people. Such meeting will help Non-resident Indians in networking,'' said P. Mohamed Ali from Oman who has already invested in his State, Kerala.

But there is also the voice of reason that asserts that sentimentality should be kept away from economics. "People should invest in India only if they think that it is profitable. It is a complete waste of resources both for people and the country if they invest only because of emotional ties,'' well-known economist Lord Meghnad Desai observed candidly. "I don't think the mood in the world is to invest in India at this particular point of time. The kind of investments India is getting at the moment is mainly the portfolio variety. To attract more investments, it is essential that the system is made more transparent and helpful. They should remove the layers of authority and make the system more accessible,'' he said.

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