Re: Foreign Direct Investment

[Npsingh123@aol.com]

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Thanks for your perspective. I do not doubt that there can be no substitute
for self- reliance. However the villain of the piece is neither Enron nor the
WTO nor any other multinational company. Villains are home grown beauraucrats
and politicians who compromise good business sense and national interest to
line their own pockets when they negotiate flawed contracts with the likes of
Enron. And now they want to get some political mileage by demonizing the
multinationals in much the same way Indira Gandhi did in the 70s. The
ineptness of MSEB or any other electricity board is underscored by the fact
that here are entities who have a monopoly of selling a scarce commodity
(electricity) and year after year they make more and more losses. Any private
entity doing business the way our public utilities do would have folded up
long time ago. State Electricity Boards are state owned businesses and not
charities and if they can't work like a business they should fold up and make
way for private players.

As far as the Swadeshi rhetoric goes  let me say beggars can't be choosers.
If it were not for investment by foreign entities in the last ten years be it
in the IT industry or any other industry, our sluggish economy would not have
raked up even modest growth rates in the 6-8 % as it has done in the last
decade. And our Central bankers would not have any more gold left to sell in
the London market to bail out Mother India.

Globalisation may have its flaws but they pale in comparison to our own
problems at home. If we have not been able to exploit the opportunities
afforded by globalisation in the way Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan and other
tiger economies of SE Asia have done then we cannot place the fault at the
door of Enron. Enron is a business, it is not the International Red Cross nor
is it the MSEB which has a blank check written for it by us, the tax payers
and savers. If our representatives do not know how to make a business deal,
let them take the blame.

As for your comment about Switzerland and Japan, well they are big players in
the world trade by virtue of their competitiveness and efficiency and not by
isolationism.

Regards


In a message dated 5/2/01 10:32:35 AM Central Daylight Time, param@lucent.com
writes:

<< NPSingh wrote :
    <<The clowns who run the MSEB and their political masters both in
 Bombay and
 > Delhi cannot wait to declare victory against the monster Enron which is
 > going
 > to be forced to pull out of the multi- billion dollar Dabohal Power Co. On
 >
 > the face of it Enron will lose on its investment so far but it can
 > probably
 > live with the loss, but the real losers will the power starved consumers
 > and
 > businesses who will not see foreign direct investment or any kind of
 > investment of this scale in the power sector for a long long time. >>
 >
 Good or bad I believe Enron exit works as an antibiotic for India.
 No more clamour for foreign direct investment. IMF says effect of slow down
 of US economy is minimal on China and India because they are least 'exposed'
 to
 Globalisation.Pl take note of it.
 Rather we should strike a balance between Global and Local.
 Some dose of Swadeshi is also urgent in many spheres.
 Bofors and Tehelka should atleast prompt our people
 for indigenous technologies.
 On which foreign direct investment  are Japan and Switzerland
 surviving ? Or for that matter entire developed world?
 I know there is a lot of difference in 'Scaleability' when it comes to such
 Foreign Direct Investment and Local.But there should be a limit for
 such clamour.They come with lot of 'strings' attached.
 Enron gone is good.Foriegn direct investment is gone is even more good.
 Sensible and Extensive Privatisation which encourages competition
 and choise (indigenous) will do lot good than FDI.

 Gas pipe line all the way from Iran sounds more stupid than any thing
 while all enroute we have terrorist states.I dont see what immunity India
 sees from an attack on the pipe line.Instead , building three or four
 highways and
 two or three railway lines across Bangla border to reach our regions like
 Tripura, giving Bangladesh the same 2000 crore aid or more (to the
 suffering neighbour - Instead of to Iran) would do more good.
 Other than posing before US and west there is nothing one can see in
 Iran policy.It would even make Tripura,Mizoram more accessible.
 People in North East also will be less aleanated when there is work
 and prosperity. Large employment generation such projects create will
 eventually reduce illegal immigration from Bangladesh also.
 Foolish leaders do not realise that illegal banglas will be returned home is

 how absurd .You create open border multi highway policy, you will see
 they them selves returning for work.Tourism engine created such , will
 be thousand times more effective than dubious Foriegn Direct Investments.

 Heard in radio that it is to sustain some industries in Mississipi that
 Taiwan is sold missiles by US , against wishes of China.
 Learning from such selfish policies is the best 'Foreign Direct Investment'.
 in terms of..intellectual input for us.


 Thanks

 Parameswar

  >>


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