Davos Dairy: "India cautious on convertibility"

India has said it would exercise caution in embracing fuller rupee float since the gradual approach towards liberalising the foreign exchange regime has paid in the past.

"We have not been taking risky steps but still the gradual liberalisation in convertibility has been happening," Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia said at the annual WEF meeting here yesterday. The gradual process of reforms has worked quite well in India, he added.

The Reserve Bank of India-appointed Tarapore Committee had, last year, submitted its report on the issue, and, among other things, recommended a five-year time frame (2006-2011) to move toward fuller rupee float in three phases.

Addressing the session on the prospects for the world economy in 2007, Ahluwalia said the developed world has not been debating enough to see how technology has made the world flat with the result that developing countries are getting increased opportunities.

For India, the concerns relate to making economic growth all-inclusive besides improving physical infrastructure. "We are trying to get investments in infrastructure," he said.