Socialist Janata Democratic (SJD), a partner of the ruling Congress-led UDF in Kerala, has criticised the Centre's decision to raise the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) cap in insurance sector to 49 per cent.
"This decision would harm the country's larger interests as it is fraught with adverse consequences to the domestic insurance companies," SJD Secretary General Varughese George said in a statement today.
"The global financial crisis in the past had started with the crash of insurance companies. At the time, leading Indian insurance companies had withstood the impact because they had remained in the public sector," he said.
Opening up public sector insurance firms to FDI would lead to diversion of capital to foreign companies and it would not be in the larger interests of the country, George added.