Foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows surged by 111% in May this year to $4.7 billion (Rs 20,970 crore) — the second-highest monthly equity inflow in 11 years — compared to $2.2 billion (Rs 9,945 crore) in the year-ago period.
For the April-May period of the current year, FDI rose by a huge 77% to $7.8 billion from $4.4 billion in the corresponding period of last year.
During 2010-11, FDI inflows had dipped 25% amid a bumpy recovery in the global economy hit by the worst recession in eight decades.
"The recent trend of dip in FDI inflows appears to have been reversed in the current fiscal year," a commerce ministry statement on Monday said.
"Recent investments (announcements) such as $7.0 billion BP-Reliance tie-up are indicative of a positive trend," a commerce and industry ministry statement said.
Similarly, Vodafone's purchase of Essar's stake, at around $5.5 billion, is also an indicator of continuing investor confidence in India.
The approvals given to Korean steel major Posco and to the Cairn-Vedanta deal are also likely to substantially increase FDI inflows this year.
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 been carried out in the recent past, the statement said.
{{/usCountry}}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 been carried out in the recent past, the statement said.
{{/usCountry}}A number of categories of cases have been exempted from seeking prior approval of the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) and the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA).
"This has resulted in saving of considerable time and efforts for FIPB/CCEA and also in expediting foreign investment inflows," the statement said.