Guwahati, Jan 10 (IANS) Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz Tuesday said opening doors to foreign investment would have disastrous consequences and would lead to serious economic instability.

“Insufficiently regulated capital market and financial market liberalization can contribute to instability, and instability is bad for growth and bad for the poor,” Stiglitz, one of the worlds’s most cited economists and professor at Columbia University, told a seminar here.

Stiglitz was addressing a seminar titled ‘Asia Rising’ here organized by Youth Forum on Foreign Policy, a think-tank. The seminar was moderated by Lord Meghnad Desai, economist and author.

“These policies of opening up financial market and capital market liberalization have not brought faster economic growth in a sustained way, but led to consistent instability,” the Nobel laureate said, referring to India’s plans at encouraging foreign direct investment.

Stiglitz stressed the need for boosting primary, secondary, and tertiary education in India for comprehensive economic growth.

Commenting on the anti-dam protests in Assam, Stiglitz said he did not favour big dams but said hydro-power was required now in India and other parts of Asia.

“I don’t think big dam is the right approach, but I advocate medium and small dams. But one should also recognize the importance of hydro-power as we must keep in mind the issue of global warming,” Stiglitz said.