The government has approved six foreign direct investment (FDI) proposals amounting Rs 1,810 crore based on the recommendations of Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) in its meeting held on October 30, 2015, including that of IIFL Holdings- the largest amounting to Rs 1,810.25 crore. The approval of IIFL Holdings, a NBFC company was sought for increasing the foreign equity from 50.16% to 80% by way of issuing shares to FIIs.
Among other proposals, FIPB also cleared proposals of Agile Electric Sub Assembly from manufacturing sector, Sharekhan and SeQuent Scientific. These proposals, however, will not involve any inflow of foreign investment and have more to do with restructuring of businesses. Further, it also cleared proposals of the US-based Monsoon Capital the Alternative Investment Trust (AIF) with investment of Rs 10 crore, while the proposal of Serap India of the manufacturing sector involves investment of Rs 25 lakh.
However, FIPB rejected proposal of a NBFC Volkswagen Finance which sought approval with 100% existing foreign equity for investment in Indian government treasury bills and / or Indian government securities and / or liquid mutual funds and / or high quality corporate debt securities.
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 and the proposals worth above that are referred to CCEA.