Investors want progressive, consistent regulations in India: Naina Lal Kidwai

Davos: India needs to have a regulatory regime that is consistent and progressive in nature to find a place in the investment road map of the foreign companies, global banking giant HSBC's India chief Naina Lal Kidwai has said.

Ms Kidwai, who attended the World Economic Forum's (WEF) annual meeting, further said that a renewed wave of reforms initiated by the government have indeed indicated towards better times ahead, but there still remains a scepticism about execution and it is very important for the country's leaders to demonstrate their deliverability.

Asked about the perception about India among foreign investors present at Davos, Ms Kidwai told PTI in an interview, "The reforms have started again and in the last few months India got quite a few new policies and new bills through. These are indications that even better times are to come with regard to the India story ".

However, there is some scepticism about whether India can really deliver on some of these early promises and therefore it is going to be very important for us to really demonstrate that we can," she added.

Ms Kidwai, the country head of HSBC India and a director of HSBC Asia Pacific, last month also took over as the first woman president of apex industry chamber FICCI (Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry).

Asked about the issues coming on the way of India growth story, Ms Kidwai said: "There is a desire to see the issues with the pending projects that have got struck, particularly in power sector, getting sorted out.

"There is a desire to ensure that India gives a regulatory regime which does not appear to be stepping back or changing all the time. The concerns about regulatory changes, such as retrospective taxation, remain despite the recent reforms."

"What we need today is a consistency in the regulatory framework. These concerns are a sort of repeated refrain among the overseas investors here at Davos and we need to work on these issues," she added.

Ms Kidwai said India is clearly important for foreign investors and fortunately they cannot write it off. "The investors and the foreign companies present here, all of them want to engage with India. All acknowledge that we are a sort of tough country to do business with, but they can't ignore it either.

"It is up to us to demonstrate that we can get it right and tell them that we are not as difficult as they believe, so that the decisions that they take about investments include India as a major destination," Ms Kidwai.