Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) will be taking up 47 proposals of foreign investments which include pharmaceutical sectors proposals and also Bandhan Financial Services and Catholic Syrian Bank. Bandhan Financial Services, which is soon to be launched has been granted universal license by Reserve Bank of India, while Catholic Syrian Bank has received market regulator SEBI’s approval to raise Rs 400 crore through IPO.
The investment applications also include a host of proposals related to pharmaceutical sectors which include that of GlaxoSmithKline Asia, Novartis Healthcare and Mylan Laboratories. Other investment proposals on the FIPB's agenda include those of Volkswagen Finance, ADC India Communications, DEN Networks, Reliance Globalcom, Sistema Shyam Teleservices Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation and Diabu Diamond Tools India and Indian Rotocraft.
FDI is permitted in most of the sectors through automatic route, but the segments which are considered sensitive for economy need to be first cleared from FIPB. The FIPB can recommend foreign investment proposals of up to Rs 3,000 crore to the finance minister for approval. FDI in India in 2014-15 was over $30 billion, up 40 percent over $24.29 billion from the previous 2013-14 fiscal.