WASHINGTON: Expressing frustration over the current pace of economic reforms in India, US India Business Council (USIBC) President Ron Somers has warned New Delhi that investors have "myriad alternatives" and it "must compete for capital".
Somers, considered one of the best friends and lobbyists for India before the US administration and the Capitol Hill, in an article titled 'Indian Economy: Reform or Perish' said India needs to be mindful of declining investor sentiment and create a welcoming environment that attracts investment.
"India's leadership must acknowledge that globalisation now presents investors, including domestic multinational corporations, with myriad alternatives. India must compete for capital.
"It is not enough this time to assume that the investment community will suck it up and persevere because of their hunger for India's market," Somers said in the article published in an Indian daily.
Political observers say the article, coming less than a week after US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made a short-notice trip to India, is reflective of the growing anti-India mood in the corporate leadership which has time and again expressed its frustration over the slow pace of reforms in India.
In March, the then USIBC chairman, Harold "Terry" McGraw III, in a letter to Mike Froman, Deputy National Security Advisor to the US President Barack Obama, had said that there is a "vacuum" at the Centre and there is a "rut of policy paralysis" in New Delhi.
However, that was a confidential note to the White House. Many India observers in the US say Somers' piece is stronger than McGraw's letter.
"Not surprisingly, the government of India's public relations machine continues to predict blue-sky growth rates in the mid-seven per cent range, claiming that the current policy paralysis in the country is temporary, even against the backdrop of an anaemic global economic recovery and a continuing European crisis," Somers said.
Somers was not available for comment on the necessity of writing such an article and its timing.
indiatimes.com
Somers, considered one of the best friends and lobbyists for India before the US administration and the Capitol Hill, in an article titled 'Indian Economy: Reform or Perish' said India needs to be mindful of declining investor sentiment and create a welcoming environment that attracts investment.
"India's leadership must acknowledge that globalisation now presents investors, including domestic multinational corporations, with myriad alternatives. India must compete for capital.
"It is not enough this time to assume that the investment community will suck it up and persevere because of their hunger for India's market," Somers said in the article published in an Indian daily.
Political observers say the article, coming less than a week after US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made a short-notice trip to India, is reflective of the growing anti-India mood in the corporate leadership which has time and again expressed its frustration over the slow pace of reforms in India.
In March, the then USIBC chairman, Harold "Terry" McGraw III, in a letter to Mike Froman, Deputy National Security Advisor to the US President Barack Obama, had said that there is a "vacuum" at the Centre and there is a "rut of policy paralysis" in New Delhi.
However, that was a confidential note to the White House. Many India observers in the US say Somers' piece is stronger than McGraw's letter.
"Not surprisingly, the government of India's public relations machine continues to predict blue-sky growth rates in the mid-seven per cent range, claiming that the current policy paralysis in the country is temporary, even against the backdrop of an anaemic global economic recovery and a continuing European crisis," Somers said.
Somers was not available for comment on the necessity of writing such an article and its timing.
indiatimes.com
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