India Inc should invest at home, not abroad, says FM

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Mumbai: Finance minister P. Chidambaram came down heavily on many large investors investing abroad as they feel it is less risky than investing in India.
“This is a short-sighted view, as the advantages of investing in India far outweigh those from investing abroad. This is where the market and demand is and will be for the next 30 years,” Chidambaram said, asking them to rebalance their portfolio and invest more in India.
Chidambaram had said this while presiding over a session addressed by Singapore’s deputy prime minister and finance minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam. Chidambaram said that reviving investment was the biggest challenge facing India.
The load of long-term investment was presently on banks and must be shared by insurance, provident fund and pension funds. “But there are sections that are risk-averse and have outdated ideological fears, so pension funds do not find productive opportunities in India and must find a way to invest in infrastructure,” Chidambaram said.
Talking about the huge construction and implementation risks, the finance minister said while the external environment is blamed for cost and time overrun, quite often it is problems internal to the organisations and the project responsible for delays. He said there must be a way to mitigate these risks.
Earlier speaking at the Sebi’s silver jubilee function, Chidambaram said that the Sebi needs to win the confidence of the small investors who need to know that their money invested is safe.