The total FDI inflows in the first two months of the current fiscal rose to $7.78 billion as compared to $4.39 billion in the corresponding period of last year, registering a growth of 77 percent.
“There has been a continuing and sustained effort to make the FDI policy more liberal and investor-friendly. Significant rationalisation and simplification of the policy has, therefore, been carried out in the recent past,” the commerce and industry ministry said in a statement.
Recent investments are an indicator of this positive trend, it said. The proposed tie-up between British Petroleum (BP) and Reliance Industries, with a likely FDI of over $7 billion, could possibly be the single largest FDI into the emerging market.
Similarly, Vodafone’s purchase of Essar’s stake, at around $5 billion, is also an indicator of continuing investor confidence in India. The approvals given to POSCO and to the Cairn-Vedanta acquisition, a deal of around $8-9 billion, are also likely to substantially increase FDI this year.