Finance Conference "Samriddhi '07" Held at Goa Institute of Management

Finance Conference "Samriddhi '07" Held at Goa Institute of Management

"India has a trillion dollar GDP, investment is 30%, we have never faced these figures before. Finance is called upon to integrate these gigantic sums of money." These words of Mr. Ajay Shah, ex-Consultant, DEA, Ministry of Finance, at Samriddhi '07 summed up the objective of the conference conducted by Goa Institute of Management, in association with

CII - Confederation of Indian Industry. The conference was organized at the Majorda Beach Resort on the 8th and 9th of September. Samriddhi '07 invited eminent personalities from leading companies to discuss various issues playing a vital role in financing India's development.

Top finance luminaries such as Dr. Ajay Shah, Senior Fellow, National Institute for Public Finance & Policy, Mr. Rajnikanth Patel, MD & CEO, Bombay Stock Exchange Ltd., Mr. N. V. Ramana, CEO, Basix India, and Ms. Lalita Gupte, Chairman, ICICI Ventures, were invited to discuss the challenges faced by the country and the role of finance in resolving them.

"Per capita income has increased from $ 250 in the 90s to around $ 500 these days. But still it is pretty low. Urban population is growing and 80% of people do not have access to money even if they want," added Mr. Vishwanath Krishna, Director, Cognizant Technology Solutions. He also emphasized on IT and Telecom as important tools to unleash the power of finance.

"We always look at America or some Western economy, but there is also some learning at our backyard, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, South and East Asian countries," said Mr. Ramesh Negi, Finance Secretary, Goa, referring to the innovative ways in which microfinance was being used in our neighbouring countries to solve the problem of poverty. He spoke of the great disparities that exist in the country and the need to ensure that the poor people do not get left out while India grows. He added that "more people have cellphones than bank accounts in India as the minimum deposit required to open a bank account is about Rs. 5,000, whereas a cellphone costs about Rs. 1,000." In such a scenario, microfinance can be used effectively to ensure inclusive growth in the country.

India gets more FIIs and China more FDIs. FDIs indicate development in infrastructure. FIIs reflect good governance, safety and integrity of the nation's stock market. FIIs come because the investors have faith in the government policies, plus they know that they can withdraw the money whenever they want.

Speaking on the global integration of stock markets, Mr. Rajnikant Patel spoke of the immense success of the Indian Markets over the last few years. He said, "160 IPOs were raised in the last year, this was the highest in the last 6 years. From January 2006 to December 2006, the Sensex gave investors 46% returns. No other stock exchange in the world has given this kind of rate of returns in a single calendar year."

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Contributed by -
Student Public Relations Cell,
Goa Institute of Management, Goa.

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