India's central government is expected to announce another round of proposed changes to boost flagging economic growth Thursday evening, including foreign investment in pension and insurance industries and changes in how companies are required to report financial results.
The Bombay Stock Exchange's Sensex index crossed 19,000 on Thursday - the first time it has hit that mark since July 2011 - prior to an afternoon cabinet meeting at which the reforms were expected to be discussed and approved.
The cabinet was expected to approve a proposal that foreign companies be allowed to invest in India's $40 billion annual premium insurance and $3 billion pension industries, at up to 49 percent and 26 percent of a company's value, respectively, according to a government official briefed on the meeting. Foreign investment in Indian insurance companies is currently capped at 26 percent, and the pension industry is closed to fore ign investors entirely.
The cabinet was also expected to discuss new rules for companies to follow in reporting earnings online, and to set up an oversight committee for that reporting, as well as to fine-tune rules established by India's Competition Commission. Finance Minister P. Chidambaram is expected to present the proposals at a news conference tonight.
Not on the agenda: discussion of a proposed retrospective tax amendment  that has spooked foreign investors, according to the government official.
Whether the changes proposed by the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance will actually be enacted is another question entirely. Each new policy would have to clear India's deeply divided Parliament, which was paralyzed during the last session after the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party repeatedly interrupted proceedings to protest the government's allocation of coal concessions. Still, government officials are optimi stic, because some of the changes were originally proposed by a committee chaired by an opposition party member.
After the last Parliament session closed, the government moved into high gear  to make progress toward some of its goals before the next session in November. It quickly proposed India's most significant economic policy changes in 20 years, including a controversial plan to allow multibrand retailers like Walmart into the country. Those changes, while they don't need to be passed in Parliament, are still being debated by allies in the governing coalition. Some allies have threatened to pull out of the alliance over the issue, which could topple the government; one, the Trinamool Congress, has already left the coalition.Â
India's pension industry is expected to grow quickly, as an increasing number of people join India's “organized sector,†or companies that pay taxes and pensions, according to a report this summer from an Indian industry tra de group.
Some analysts also see huge growth potential in India's insurance industry: the ratio of premiums to gross domestic product is about 4 percent, a McKinsey study found, well below the 6 to 9 percent ratios in developed economies.
