| "We have lost about 7-10 days because of the tsunami. Add another 7-10 days, you will have the roadmap," Chidamabaram told reporters on the sidelines of a seminar on second-generation financial sector reforms. The government was expected to announce the roadmap by the end of December. |
| The roadmap is expected to provide greater clarity on foreign direct investment in private sector banks and ease the cap on voting rights for foreign investors in banks. |
| The matter has been debated at length and the finance ministry and the Reserve Bank of India appear to have ironed out their differences. |
| The minister sought the opinion of financial sector intermediaries on ways to improve the architecture of the financial sector, strengthen regulations and foster competition. "If I have a choice of answers, may be I will answer them on February 28 (in the Budget)," he said. |
| Chidambaram also said the government would shortly set up a regulator for the pension sector. |
| "We can have 8 per cent growth. The question is how to create a financial sector that can foster such growth," he said at the conference. |
| Stressing better risk management, he said: "With insurance and derivatives, risks are controlled, which increases the viability of projects and foster a higher rate of investment. This in turn leads to higher GDP growth." |
| Referring to the common minimum programme, he said there was a need to strengthen the financial sector regulators and run it professionally to foster competition. |
| Chidambaram said most of the earlier reforms had been carried out on a "trial and error" basis and he proposed to ask the regulatory agencies to adopt the best practices. |
| Commenting on the suggestion that the country could have a super regulator like Financial Services Authority of the UK, the minister said India was perhaps too vast a country to have a single regulator but it was necessary to strengthen the existing regulators and ensure that they work together. |
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