Foreign Direct Investment into India touched the “highest ever” mark of $51 billion during the April-February period of last fiscal ended March 31, Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) Secretary Ramesh Abhishek said on Monday at a FICCI function.
Abhishek said that “a healthy business climate has been created in the county so that investments are promoted”.
“We have had a record inflows of FDI in this country, more than $51 billion from April to February (2015-16) and that is the highest ever,” he said at the function.
In 2011-12, India had attracted FDI worth $46.55 billion. In 2014-15, it was $44.29 billion. This FDI includes equity, re-invested earnings and other capital.
Abhishek said that ease of doing business is critical for creating a suitable business climate and the government is a making lot of efforts to improve it.
“The complex procedures and delays which were the bane of our system for last so many decades are now being gradually dismantled. Enormous efforts are being made to make sure that common citizen and business both have an easy time,” he said.
He also said that protection of creativity and innovation is important to create a suitable climate in the country for technology to be developed and for technology to come from outside.
The FDI numbers reflects that the Government has been able to create a suitable climate in which the foreign investors feel confident that interest are protected.
The Government is committed to doing away with the obstacles and improving the whole process, he said, adding that “we need growth rate of double digits for the next three decades to improve the quality of life and eliminate poverty but that requires lot of efforts in investment side, IPR side and at other fronts”.
Credit rating agency Moody’s Investors Service said earlier this month that India’s rising FDI inflows help reduce the current account deficit and also the external financing needs.
Net FDI inflows into India hit an all-time high in January 2016 at $3 billion on a 12-month moving average basis.