Mukherjee to reassure foreign investors on India growth story

Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee's two-day visit to Washington beginning today would be aimed at reassuring foreign investors that India continued to be an attractive investment destination , as its medium and long-term growth story remained intact.

According to an unnamed finance ministry official, who spoke to IANS and wished not to be quoted, the focus was on business. During the two-day stay, the finance minister would hold meetings with business honchos and top US economic policy makers, he said.

Mukherjee is scheduled to hold roundtable meetings with chief executives of top US and Indian companies tomorrow and would also address a luncheon meeting of the India-US CEO forum.

Chief economic advisor Kaushik Basu, economic affairs secretary R Gopalan and Reserve Bank of India governor Duvvuri Subbaro among others, would accompany the finance minister.

Mukherjee's visit comes against the backdrop of some negative developments in the last few months that could hurt India's image in the perception of foreign investors.

These relate to a series of scams and corruption scandals, and a stubbornly high inflation coupled with a decline in industrial output growth and a sharp decline in the flow of foreign direct investment.