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India needs greater transparency to attract more investment, says USAID head

J Brian Atwood, head of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), on Monday stressed the need for greater transparency and improved functioning of the Indian stocks and securities exchanges to sustain the interest of foreign investors who are expected to invest US $300 billion in the country during the next 10 years.

Atwood said while the measures taken by Indian government towards liberalisation and globalisation were were laudable, still a lot needed to be done in the field of improving and bringing transparency in the functioning of the bourses to create an improved atmosphere to attract the direct foreign investments.

Earlier in the day, he signed the letter of intent with the Bombay Suburban Electricity Supply company for utility partnership grant of US $1.2 million as per the USAID commitment to expand energy partnership programme in India.

He said during his current visit he met a large number of representatives of US companies working in the energy sector in India who, he said, spoke about their frustrating experiences about the prevailing bureaucratic red-tapism. He said India needed investment in the energy sector and said a greater transparency in the functioning of state electricity boards, many of which were presently not autonomous, would help attract the required investment to fill the gap that would arise in the demand and supply over the next 20 years.

Atwood said the USAID grant to the United States Energy Association under the India Energy Partnership Programme would further strengthen the cooperation between the US and the Indian utilities and regulatory bodies for improved energy production, transmission, distribution and regulation.

He said USEA was currently partnering with five Indian utilities and one regulatory commission and the new grant would allow the establishment of five new partnerships. Besides BSES, the other Indian companies currently involved in the partnership programme were Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh State Electricity Boards, the Calcutta Electricity Supply Corporation, Karnataka Electricity Board and Power Corporation, and the Orissa Regulatory Commission.

The new grant would be shared by these five new members of the programme. The US counterparts included Gulf Power, Duquesne Power and Light, the District of Columbia and Colorado Utility Commissions, Pennsylvania Power and Light, and Niagara Mohawk.

Under the partnership programme, each Indian organisation enters into a cooperative agreement for a two-year partnership with its respective organisation, he added.