Foreign Direct Investment

Baalu took up a unique initiative to attract foreign investment in oil exploration in India. He led a high level delegation to organize Road Shows in Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore in June/July 1997 to woo foreign investors. A number of global oil industry captains participated in these road shows and expressed their keen interest in the joint venture development of exploration industry in India. This followed awarding licenses of a number of exploration blocks to private entrepreneurs. The process of economic reforms continued with the same vigour by Baalu’s successors and has been paying rich dividends today with the discovery of huge oil and gas fields, particularly on the Krishna-Godavari basin on the east-coast as well as Cauveri off-shore.