Before the Indian central bank's statement on Friday, Indian entities were not allowed to invest in Pakistan.
Recently, India allowed Pakistani citizens and companies incorporated in the country to make investments in India in all sectors other than defence, space and atomic energy in the beginning of August. This announcement was followed by the reduction of items in the sensitive trade list by almost one-third besides the grant of permission to Pakistanis to buy shares in Indian companies.
The Reserve Bank of India had decided on August 22, 2012 that a Pakistani citizen may, with the prior approval of the Foreign Investment Promotion Board of India, purchase shares and convertible debentures of an Indian company, under Foreign Direct Investment Scheme.
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@andleeb (Ottawa,Canada) : Yes by sitting in Canada
I am not in favour for any trade links with India. It is better to starve and live in darkness than to have any links with India.
@Reader: "Maybe now Muslim-run businesses in India might invest in Pakistan. Like for example, Wipro, one of the large software companies in India. Its owner (Azim Premjy) has relatives in Pakistan as well I believe"
Investing in Pakistan if there is an appropriate opportunity is fine when done by any Indian Hindu/Muslim/Sikh/Parsi since it is permissible by law. Your implication that Azim Premji's loyalties lie with Pakistan and this rule was all that prevented him from investing in Pakistan. Nothingcould be further from the truth. I would like to tell you that Azim Premji is a patriot. He donated $2 billion i.e 9500 crore Pakistani rupees to Wipro foundation which is charged with improving the standard of education in municiapl schools in India. He could have gven money to a madrassah ut he did ot do that.
He was invited on a groundbreaking Amir Khan show called Satyamev Jayate which put spotlight on key sociopolitical issues in the country. Amir greeted him with Salaam Aleikum. Premji replied with Namaskaar. Of course if he had greeted back with a Muslim greeting his patriotism would not have been in question but by saying Namaskaar, he showed respect for majority of the viewers who are Hindu.
Maybe now Muslim-run businesses in India might invest in Pakistan. Like for example, Wipro, one of the large software companies in India. Its owner (Azim Premjy) has relatives in Pakistan as well I believe. Of course, with current political and law & order climate in Pakistan, not even resident Pakistanis are investing in the country, so obviously that would have to change before any serious investment from India came. Over all a good development I believe for Pakistan, it was a long time coming. During partition, all the major centers of finance and commerce in British India fell into independent India and none in Pakistan, so inadvertently Pakistan actually got disadvantaged by getting cut off from them. We can have independent governance of Muslims in Pakistan but still have trade and investments with Hindu India, there is no harm in that of course.
A move that should have happened much earlier.
Why would they invest here, their own economy is shambles now that their growth has dropped.
Another gimmick from a country that displays the world's largest charade of democracy.