Investors expect too much from India, says Kamal Nath

Emphasising that India has seen large number of reforms in recent years, Urban Development minister Kamal Nath today said that even a lull in activities is taken as paralysis since expectations from investors are too high.

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Nath, who is leading the Indian delegation at the annual World Economic Forum (WEF) meeting here, also said that even the US or Europe would not have seen as many reforms that happened in India. "India has had a large number of reforms in recent years and it would be largest for any country. No country has had as much liberalisation as India, be it the US or Europe.

"The stress in Europe did have some impact and therefore there was a lull which was taken as a paralysis because people think that India cannot see even a lull. This signal was wrong that needs to be corrected," Nath said.

He was speaking at a session hosted by CII and Boston Consulting group on the sidelines of the WEF meet. In response to a query on why not much foreign investments are coming into India's infrastructure and other sectors, Nath opined that "investors expect too much from India".

"There is a psyche that has developed that either there is bloom or doom. There is no middle path on expectations from India and therefore just a lull has been taken as doom. Because of this, even a small dip in growth rate in profits is perceived to be very bad as there has been very high growth in the past," Nath, also in charge of Parliamentary Affairs, said. India expects to see about USD 1 trillion investments in infrastructure in the next five years to boost economic growth.

Nath, a key player in pushing FDI reforms in Parliament, noted that government needs to play a role in regulations. "There has to be government intervention, although the best growth will be that is despite the govt and not because of government," he added.