In an encouraging development for telecom sector, foreign direct investment (FDI) in the sector grew manifold to $1.5 billion in the first two-months of the 2014-15 fiscal, notably more than $1.3 billion of total FDI received during 2013-14. Meanwhile, the FDI in the telecom sector, which includes radio paging, cellular mobile, basic telephone services, attracted only $9 million during first two months of the last fiscal, as per the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP). Thus, massive investment in the sector contributed substantially to the overall FDI, which grew by 34% to $5.30 billion during April-May.
This manifold growth has mainly on account of factors like payment of spectrum auction, hike in stake by Vodafone in its Indian unit and investments in network rollout among other things. The sector in 2009-10, 2010-11 and 2011-12 attracted FDI worth $2.55 billion, $1.66 billion and $1.99 billion respectively.
Meanwhile, other sectors that received large FDI inflows during the first two months of the current fiscal include services ($574 million), Pharmaceuticals ($680 million) and power ($147 million). Geographically, during the period, India received maximum FDI from Mauritius ($2.28 billion), Singapore ($982 million), the UK ($545 million) and Japan ($319 million).
