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Govt Panel To Push Reforms In Foreign Investment Norms

By Pallavi S

  • 14 Jan 2010

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Group of 16

U K Sinha, CMD, UTI Asset Manasement Company (Chairman)

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Dr. K.P. Krishnan, Joint Secretary

Arbind Modi, Joint Secretary

Govind Mohan, Joint Secretary

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K.N. Vaidyanathan , Executive Director, SEBI

A.M. Bajaj, Director (EM)

C,K.G. Nair, Director (PM)

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C.S. Mohapatra, Director (SM)

P.K, Bagga, OSD (CM&l)

Prof Ajay Shah, NIPFP-DEA research programme

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Prof lla Patnaik, NIPFP-DEA research programme

Ravi Narain, Managing Director & CEO, NSEIL

Bahram Vakil, Founder Director, AZB & Partners

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Bobby Parikh, Managing Partner, BMR Advisors

Anand Pathak, Managing Partner, P&A Law Offices

Somsekhar Sundaresan, J. Sagar Associates

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The government is looking to rationalise existing norms of foreign portfolio and NRI investment, a move to have a major impact on flow of venture capital and private equity money into the country. A working group of industry experts have been formed which includes members of both the government as also the industry to consider reforms.

The 16-member group of experts, which was announced in November 2009, will be chaired by U K Sinha, CMD of UTI Asset Management and has as members Ravi Narain (Chairman of NSE), economist Ajay Shah, corporate lawyers Bahram Vakil and Somasekar Sundaresan apart from finance ministry officials (full list above). The panel is expected to submit in this sector.its report by mid-March.

Among the top issues in the agenda for the working group will be to review the existing policy on foreign inflows (other than Foreign Direct lnvestment (FDl) and ways to attract more foreign investment and reduce policy hurdles while maintaining the Know Your Customer (KYC) requirements.

The group will also identify challenges in meeting the financing needs of the lndian economy through foreign investment. It would look at various forms of foreign investment including investment in listed and unlisted equity, derivatives and debt including the markets for government bonds, corporate bonds and external commercial borrowings.

It would also study the arrangements relating to the use of Participatory Notes (PN) which is one of the routes used by FIIs as well as some PE investors to bring money into India.

The group will also re-examine the rationale of taxation of transactions through the STT and stamp duty. Although the government has in the past refrained from scrapping STT despite demands from capital market participants, any change in the policy related to STT will have a major impact on stock markets.

The newly constituted working group will also review the legal and regulatory framework of foreign investment in order to identify specific bottlenecks impeding the servicing of these financing needs.

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