http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-05-0 ... ments.html
India widened efforts to lure $75 billion to its capital markets to include investors in at least 10 countries from the U.S. to Russia, signaling increased urgency among policy makers to bolster growth and stem the rupee’s drop. Government and central bank officials will embark next month on an overseas trip to woo foreign asset managers and high-net worth investors, Thomas Mathew, joint-secretary for capital markets in the finance ministry, said in an interview in New Delhi. The tour, aimed at stoking demand for equities and bonds, had initially been limited to the Middle East. Foreigners have only invested about 6.26 trillion rupees ($117 billion) in stocks and bonds since they were allowed into the country in 1993, according to data from the Securities & Exchange Board of India. This year, the total has been about $11.2 billion, the data show.
Economic Affairs Secretary R. Gopalan will lead a group of officials from the finance ministry, central bank and capital markets regulator on the trip, according to Mathew, to tout reforms such as eased limits on foreign investment in bonds, and rules that let qualified foreign investors buy shares directly. Company executives won’t be present at the proposed meetings, which will be held in the U.K., Hong Kong, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates. “It’s high time we did this,” Mathew said on May 8. “We believe that India’s strong fundamentals and opening up of capital markets in the last 18 months should be brought to the notice of investors all over the world.”