Foreign direct investment (FDI) in India declined by 16% to $2.45 billion in the month of September 2014 as compared to $2.91 billion in the same month of previous year. However, FDI during the April-September FY15 grew by 15% y-o-y to $14.47 billion from $12.59 billion recorded in the corresponding period of the previous fiscal. Healthy FDI inflows during May at $3.60 billion and July at $3.50 billion have helped in registering a positive growth during the first half of current fiscal.
The sectors that received highest inflows during the first six months of current fiscal include telecommunications ($2.46 billion), services ($1.22 billion) pharmaceuticals ($1.09 billion) and automobile ($1.03 billion). Country wise, maximum FDI during the reported period was received form Mauritius with $4.19 billion followed by Singapore ($2.41 billion), Netherlands ($1.97 billion), the US ($1.19 million), Japan ($937 million) and UK ($842 million).
During FY14, FDI increased by 8% to $24.29 from $22.42 billion recorded in the FY13. FDI is considered crucial for India, which requires 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.