NRI investments can be strong rebuff to Mumbai attackers: Prez

CHENNAI: Urging NRIs to invest in India and benefit from its resilient economy, President Pratibha Patil today said this will be a "strong rebuff" to the perpetrators of the Mumbai attacks.

The economic meltdown has provided an opportunity to review and take corrective measures in existing global financial systems, structures and coordination mechanism, she said in her valedictory address at the seventh Pravasi Bharatiya Divas (PBD) conference here.

"Your decision to invest in India will also be a strong rebuff to the terrorists who attacked Mumbai. These attacks were perpetrated by groups inimical to a progressive, prosperous and secular India," the President said.

She said that the meltdown has opened the debate of financial management of credit and banking systems.

"It is now raising the spectre of recession in several countries. This has had its echo in our region as well. We need to learn lessons from the ongoing crisis and take measures to secure the future growth prospects of the global economy," Patil said.

She said, "our economy has both the capacity and the resilience to remain on course for economic growth. It offers an opportunity to invest in a stable, growing market. I would like to see overseas Indian's benefit from the various economic opportunities that India offers."

She said there was a need for better regulatory systems and best practices in the management of capital markets as well as in fiscal policy.

Further, in order to have a fair and orderly market, "we must enforce transparent rules, as absence of regulation can and does create hazards", Patil said.