Columbia International Affairs Online: Working Papers

CIAO DATE: 02/2014

Reforming India's Financial System

Ila Patnaik, Ajay Shah

January 2014

Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

Abstract

India’s financial system has long been inadequate. With an economy worth $2 trillion, the country’s financial flaws are increasingly serious and outright dangerous. But fundamental change is under way. The government-backed Financial Sector Legislative Reforms Commission drafted the Indian Financial Code (IFC), a single unified law that replaces most existing financial law in India and is an important milestone in the development of state capacity. Now the government must work to adopt and implement the full code.