Foreign direct investment (FDI) in India declined by 10% to $1.27 billion in the month of August 2014 as compared to $1.40 billion in the same month of previous year. However, FDI during the April-August FY15 jumped by 42% y-o-y to $12.01 billion from $8.46 billion recorded in the corresponding period of the previous fiscal.
The sectors that received highest inflows during the first five months of current fiscal include telecommunications ($2.33 billion), services ($1.08 billion) pharmaceuticals ($903 million) and construction ($446 million). Country wise, maximum FDI during the reported period was received form Mauritius with $3.93 billion followed by Singapore ($1.89 billion), Netherlands ($1.56 billion), Japan ($897 million), UK ($827 million) and the US ($394 million).
During FY14, FDI increased by 8% to $24.29 from $22.42 billion recorded in the FY13. India would require around $1 trillion in the 12th five year plan (2012-2017) to overhaul its infrastructure sector such as ports, airports and highways to boost growth. However, to attract maximum FDI into the country, the government has been liberalizing the foreign investment policy. Recently, the government has raised the foreign investment limit to 49% in defence manufacturing and relaxed the FDI policy in railway and construction sector.