Firmly establishing the country's credentials as a safe and key investment destination in the world, the data of the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) has showed that foreign direct investment (FDI) equity inflows into India crossed the $500 billion milestone during April 2000 to September 2020 period. The inflows during the period stood at $500.12 billion.
About 29 per cent of the FDI came through the Mauritius route. It was followed by Singapore (21 per cent), the US, the Netherlands, Japan (each 7 per cent), and the UK (6 per cent). India received $144.71 billion from Mauritius and about $106 billion from Singapore during the period under review. The other big investors have been from Germany, Cyprus, France and Cayman Islands.
Since 2015-16, FDI inflows have been recording significant growth. In that fiscal, the country received $40 billion FDI, an increase of 35 per cent over the previous year. In 2016-17, 2017-18, 2018-19 and 2019-20, the investments stood at $43.5 billion, $44.85 billion, $44.37 billion and $50 billion, respectively. The key sectors which attracted the maximum of these inflows include services segment, computer software and hardware, telecommunications, trading, construction development, automobile, chemicals, and pharmaceuticals.