According to India’s Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion, cumulative foreign direct investment (FDI) into India reached $498.9 billion in the 17 years from April 2000 to June 2017. During the last two financial years, FDI flows into India totaled $114.4 billion says a new KPMG report; this is an incredible forty percent higher than the three years preceding.
“In the financial year 2017, the country received the highest-ever FDI flow worth $43.5 billion,” KPMG said. UAE investors such as the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, NRI-Emirati Investor’s Group announced $2.5 billion worth of investments in India last month alone.
Readers of this blog know that companies such as Coca Cola and PepsiCo have committed to investing over $5 billion in India in the next five years. In the last 12 months alone, The India Expert has reported on billion dollar investments by Dell-EMC , by Juniper Networks and by Canada’s Brookfield, while FoxConn of Taiwan has committed to $5 billion. We have also blogged about industry reports indicating $8 billion into India’s automotive business and $4.2 billion into India’s real estate.
The Government of India liberalized the country’s FDI policy in the last two years to bring several sectors under the automatic approval route as part of efforts to encourage overseas investment. “India also witnessed an increase in private equity/venture capital investments led by its growing start-up segment. Between January and September 2017, India received $17.6 billion of private equity and venture capital spread across 402 deals,” the KPMG report added.
fDi Intelligence, a division of The Financial Times Ltd., says that India retained its position as the world’s topmost greenfield destination for Foreign Direct Investment for the second consecutive year, attracting $62.3 billion in 2016. In the 2017 A.T. Kearney FDI Confidence Index, India jumped one spot to rank 8th. According to Kearney, 70 percent of the respondents planned to maintain or increase their FDI in India in the coming years. Reform efforts by the current government have improved the country’s investment environment. India’s vast domestic market is an added attraction for foreign companies.
