US Secretary of the Treasury Henry Paulson yesterday urged India's policymakers to avoid curbs on foreign investment into the financial markets as they could hurt efficiency and become ineffective.
"We understand that Indian officials are concerned that greater capital flows associated with a financial centre could add to inflationary pressures, destabilize domestic financial markets or add to exchange rate volatility," Paulson said at a seminar in Mumbai.
But he said "administrative restrictions tend to inhibit efficiency and lose their effectiveness over time. I encourage India to continue to liberalize such restrictions."
India's market regulator last week sought to limit a surge in overseas investment in the Indian stock market by phasing out a system that allowed some investors such as hedge funds to buy shares anonymously.
The regulator said funds now have 18 months to register with Indian authorities to continue to be able to buy shares.
Foreign investors have helped drive a stock market boom in India, pumping in about US$18 billion this year alone, pushing the benchmark Sensex up by nearly 40 percent over the same period.
"As recent experience in the region shows, administrative restrictions are blunt instruments and can have unintended consequences," Paulson told a gathering, which included Indian Minister of Finance P. Chidambaram.
Paulson was set to meet India's stock regulatory chief M. Damodaran and officials at the central bank yesterday as part of talks aimed at promoting Mumbai as an international financial center.
But the crowded city of nearly 20 million people mirrors other parts of India, which needs an estimated US$488 billion in the next five years to build infrastructure, Chidambaram said.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique