Need for regulation to check economic imbalances: Tharoor

Minister of state for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor with Dr. Manzoor Alam President Indo-Arab Economic Cooperation forum and Justice A.M. Ahmadi at a conference in New Delhi on Wednesday. Photo: Anu Pushkarna

India on Wednesday said there is an urgent need to develop a better system of surveillance and regulation to detect early signs of systemic financial and economic imbalances and address them effectively in a timely manner.

“There should be a better and more transparent regulatory mechanism for banks, financial institutions and capital markets as well as a stronger voice for developing countries,” Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor said.

These reforms would also help in a more effective and less market-driven approach to raise the economic standards of the poorer sections of the international community, he told a conference organised by Indo-Arab Economic Cooperation Forum.

Mr. Tharoor said the “comprehensive overhaul” of the international financial institutions should take place without any delay to make them more equitable, accountable, transparent and effective. He said developing countries, including emerging market economies, need to have a greater voice and vote in these IFIs to reflect contemporary economic realities.

“What has been achieved so far by way of reforms was long overdue and is in the nature of too little, too late. Much more remains to be done,” he said.

Mr. Tharoor said India would continue to work with its partners, including in the G-20, to achieve the agreed measures in the Pittsburgh G-20 Summit.

“India will pursue the urgent and effective implementation of the Summit decisions. It will also continue to press for far-reaching and comprehensive reforms of the IFIs to design a new international financial architecture and a new global economic order,” Mr. Tharoor said.

Observing that India and the Gulf region face a common threat from terrorism and Islamist radicalism, he said the two sides should cooperate and coordinate their efforts to combat such forces. He said the space for India to play and increasingly significant role in the transformation of the Gulf world is widening and it envisages jointly preparing to meet emerging domestic and regional challenges, the foremost being the “common threat from terrorism and religious extremism”. “Thus, both the Gulf region and India need to cooperate and coordinate their efforts to combat such forces to meet the challenge of terrorism and religious extremism.