Mr Sayantan Chakravarty of the India Empire Group introduces the panel for the Inaugural Session. Sitting from left are Dr A Didar Singh, Secretary General, FICCI, Dr E.M.S. Natchiappan, Minister of State for Commerce and Industry, Mr Sidharth K. Birla, President, FICCI and Chairman, Xpro India Ltd. and Mr Inder Singh, Chairman, GOPIO International

The inaugural address was given by Dr. Natchiappan, who thanked people of Indian origin for having affinity for India. He said that Brand India created by Indian expatriate achievers would also be reflected in the quality of goods and services produced in India. “I specifically want to say that India is a very stable country though you would feel it otherwise looking at the headlines the newspaper and channels. Please do not believe the starved and appetite oriented media in India. India’s constitution is very strong and you should believe in it. All three pillars of the constitution are working very peacefully and properly,” Dr. Natchiappan said.

The minister stressed that there are huge investment opportunities opening up in India, including the Indian diaspora, in the National Investment and Manufacturing Zones (NIMZs) that are being created all across the country. The NIMZs are envisaged as integrated industrial townships with state-of-the-art infrastructure; land use on the basis of zoning; clean and energy efficient technology; necessary social infrastructure; and, skill development facilities.

Further, industrial corridors are being created to develop a sound industrial base, served by world-class competitive infrastructure as a prerequisite for attracting investments into export-oriented industries and manufacturing. He said that new opportunities would open up with the roll out of the Food Security Act. The scheme for providing subsidized food will rejuvenate the agricultural and food processing sectors, and will provide immense opportunities for investment, he pointed out.

INFRASTRUCTURE FINANCING

The Infrastructure Finance Panel: L to R: Mr. Shailesh Pathak, Dr. Arbind Prasad, Mr. Dilip Ratha, Ms. Pratibha Jain, Mr. Vineet Agarwal and Dr. E. Sankara Rao

The inaugural session was followed by the session on infrastructure finance, which comprised Mr. Shailesh Pathak, President, Srei Infrastructure Finance Ltd.; Mr. Dilip Ratha, CEO, Global Knowledge Partnership on Migration and Development, World Bank; Mr. Vineet Agarwal, National Head-Financial Advisory Services, L&T Infrastructure Finance Ltd.; Dr. E. Sankara Rao, CEO, IIFCL Asset Management Company Ltd; and Ms. Pratibha Jain, Partner & Head, Nishith Desai Associates. The session commenced with a special address by Mr. Ratha and was moderated by Ms. Jain.

Mr. Ratha said that the government is considering introduction of ‘diaspora bonds’ to facilitate greater inflow of funds in the infrastructure sector in a bid to attract investment from non-resident Indians. He said that such bonds can be adopted for financing education, healthcare, infrastructure, etc, and added that $20 billion to $30 billion can be raised in one year through diaspora bonds The increasing engagement of the diaspora with the home country can be seen in the strong surge in remittances, the return of many to live and work in India, and in their increasing participation in India’s development, Mr. Ratha observed, adding that at $70 billion remittances, in fact, account for more than India’s IT exports. He also spoke about future flow securitization for mitigating sovereign risks and on performanceindexed bonds for counter-cyclical borrowing.