• Investment World
• eWorld
• Brand Line
• Mentor
• Life
• Brand Quest
• The New Manager
• BL Club
• Smartbuy

Stocks

• Quotes
• SE Diary
• Scoreboard
• Open-End Mutual Fund

Cross Currency

• Rates
  
  

Shipping

• Ports
  
  

Archives

• Yesterday
• Datewise
• Resources
• In Focus
• In Depth
• Events 2007

Group Sites

• The Hindu
• The Hindu ePaper
• Business Line
• Business Line ePaper
• Sportstar
• Frontline
• The Hindu eBooks
• The Hindu Images

Our Bureau

Mumbai, Nov. 10 Due to current liquidity crunch in the global financial system, ‘dirty money’ from arms and drugs suppliers could enter into the Indian financial system. An indicator to this trend has been major increase in ‘Hawala’ traffic over the last few months, said Mr Narendra Modi, Chief Minister of Gujarat.

He was addressing investors at an interactive session for the forthcoming Vibrant Gujarat Global Investors Summit, which is to be held in January 2009.

Mr Modi said that the tainted money could make ingress into the systems by buying into financial institutions. Liquidity crunch can be countered but getting rid of such money could prove to be very difficult, he said.

“I have raised the issue with the Prime Minister and also asked for a round table with other chief ministers for deliberating on the issue of liquidity crunch. Taking help of the NRI population to tide over the current crisis has also been suggested to the Centre,” Mr Modi said. Mr Modi, criticising the Union Government’s inability to proactively counter the liquidity crunch, said that the government, keeping an eye on the forthcoming parliamentary elections, has only asked the State governments not to undertake retrenchment of workers, he said.

The Union government has no plans to convert the current economic crisis into an opportunity for the industry. Gujarat government, in spite the crisis, is going ahead with the infrastructure investments it would be able to undertake projects at reduce cost as prices of raw material have come down sharply, Mr Modi said.

He said that the forthcoming Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor would open new horizons of development for Gujarat as 38 per cent of the industrial corridor would be routed through the State.

An investment of about $100 billion is being planed in Gujarat due to the corridor. It is expected to provide employment to eight lakh people in the State, Mr Modi said.

More Stories on : Financial Markets | Economic Offences | Maharashtra

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

Copyright © 2008, The Hindu Business Line. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu Business Line