Rajan cautions against dependence on FIIs

New Delhi: Cautioning against over-dependence on foreign institutional investors (FIIs), which brings in hot money, chief economic adviser Raghuram Rajan on Tuesday said the government should focus on foreign direct investment (FDI) and open more sectors to such inflows.      "We have to be careful that we are not overtly dependent on external investors … that this is an environment when the external investor is quite fickle," Rajan said in his first media interaction. Betting high on the country's reform initiatives, foreign investors have pumped in more than Rs 9,000 crore (about $1.67 billion) in the country's equity market this month.      "The safest form of financing is through FDI, without any doubt because it's long term... If you can make more financing through FDI, you are safer and so to the extent we can open up more to FDI... There will be efficiency, because there will be more competition in local economy," Rajan said.      In the last couple of days, the government has taken a number of reform initiatives, like opening the multibrand retail chain to FDI, hiking diesel prices by over Rs 5 a litre, capping the number of subsidized LPG cylinders to six per family a year, allowing foreign carriers to pick up stake in domestic airlines and liberalizing FDI rules for broadcasting sector.      Besides, talks are on to increase the FDI cap in insurance sector to 49%, from the existing 26%. "More FDI is a good thing at this point, not in every sector but in many sectors ... So in general there is scope for more FDI in many sector, like insurance," he added.      Rajan also underlined the need for aligning domestic petroleum prices with international rates with a view to reducing subsidies and containing fiscal deficit.  'QE3 to benefit India'  The chief economic adviser also said the US Federal Reserve's latest round of monetary stimulus and monetary easing by the European Central Bank will benefit India in the short term.      The Fed began buying $40 billion a month in mortgagebacked securities this month and has pledged to continue the purchases until the labour market has improved substantially. The programme is called QE3 because it is the Fed's third try at quantitative easing, or buying bonds to stimulate the economy. AGENCIES Raghuram Rajan