On the Fast Track to Economic Dependence

On the 'Fast Track' to Economic Dependence B M THE 'fast track' for the inflow of direct foreign investment which was opened up by the prime minister after his visit to Tokyo last year and which is no longer limited to Japanese capital and has been extended to all OECD countries was claimed, to begin with, to be a device merely to streamline cumbersome procedures and end bureaucratic delays in the processing of proposals for foreign investment. The 'fast track' has indeed given the desired results and there was a spurt in direct foreign investment last year. As against an annual average of Rs 100 crore in recent years, direct foreign investment is reported to have been well over Rs 200 crore in 1988.