‘It is time India unleashed reforms in financial services sector’

Asserting that relations between India and the U.S. have rarely been better then the present, Obama Administration nominee for Assistant Secretary of State of Commerce and Director General of the U.S. & Foreign Commercial Department of Commerce, Suresh Kumar, on Tuesday said that

-it was time that India unleashed reforms in the financial services sector, open up the banking sector and partner U.S. for bringing technology to the developing countries to counter global warming threat.

Mr. Kumar,said that India needed to warm up to the idea of making improvements in foreign direct investment (FDI) and give thrust to manufacturing.

``If India has to push prosperity to the grassroots including towns and villages, it has to give a big thrust to manufacturing activity. You have to go into manufacturing in a big way and not depend on services now. India has to play on capital base now rather than the intellectual base and reach out to its people in a bigger way,” Mr. Kumar said.

Vast opportunity

Having worked with Johnson and Johnson (India) and also Unilever India, Mr. Kumar shifted his base to the U.S. in 1985.

Speaking about the Indo-U.S. trade relations, Mr. Kumar said a phenomenal opportunity stood before India and the U.S.

“Bilateral relations have rarely been better. It behoves both sides to use this goodwill and opportunity to strike gold. It is a win-win situation and it cannot be one-sided. When India and the U.S. come together in these areas, consumers from both countries will benefit,” he said.

Renewable energy

Referring to the threat of global warming and the recent Copenhagen climate change summit, Mr. Kumar said renewable energy is the future.

“India and the U.S. should come together and deliver on the issue. The U.S. had the technology and partnering the right companies in India to bring those technologies and to use it for improvement of India could be a big thing. India could emerge as the hub for such technologies for the developing countries,” he added.

Stressing that opening trade and removing barriers always helped everybody, Mr. Kumar said India had to improve on simplification of the process for setting up businesses.

The time taken for approvals, granting of licensing, attitude of the bureaucracy and encouraging foreign companies to set up base here was something that required much more improvement and effort to make India an attractive destination for doing business.

Bilateral dialogue

Referring to the constraints in the FDI sector, Mr. Kumar felt that concerns of the U.S. Government and its companies needed to be looked into. “There has to be a bilateral dialogue between the two countries on opening up of the retail sector. There could be sensitive things involved here but nothing can be achieved without understanding the problems and having a dialogue to resolve all such issues,” he said.

On opening up of the banking sector and reforms in the financial services sector, he said the network of foreign banks in India needed to be improved. “Foreign banks should be allowed to offer all their services to consumers and it would be for these banks to be viable and attractive like the nationalised banks attract the consumers. The foreign banks have to move beyond the four metros of Delhi, Chennai, Mumbai and Bangalore,” he added.