Foreign direct investment (FDI) during the previous fiscal grew 18 percent to over $540 billion, data from India’s central bank, the Reserve Bank of India , evidenced. FDI increased by over $60 billion including revaluation of past investments, during 2017-18 to reach $540 billion in March 2018 at market value, according to the central bank’s data on ‘Census on Foreign Liabilities and Assets of Indian Direct Investment Companies, 2017-18’.
The census showed that at 19.7 percent, Mauritius continued to be the largest source of FDI in India followed by the U.S., the U.K., Singapore and Japan. (Historically, global investments into India were often routed via the tiny island nation of Mauritius due to a favorable tax treaty; this advantage has now largely faded.)
India’s manufacturing sector received the lion’s share in total FDI, while ‘information and communication services’ and ‘financial and insurance activities’ were the other major recipients. The RBI stated that the data released are the provisional results of 2017-18.
Last updated: December 26th, 2025
