Foreign Direct Investment: Indian firms invested a sum of $12.25 billion under both the automatic and the approval routes in the first eight months of this year, which has been in accordance with the steady outflows witnessed in the last couple of years. In the financial year 2020-21, around $13 billion was invested by the Indian companies, which was the second successive year of double-digit overseas investment since the financial year 2013-14, according to a recent research report released by CARE Ratings. In the current financial year, Singapore, USA, British Virgin Islands, Netherlands, and Mauritius were the most preferred investment destinations of the Indian companies. These five countries accounted for almost 70 per cent of the total investment.
Which Indian companies made the highest foreign investment this year?
According to the report, JSW Steel, ONGC Videsh, HCL Technologies, Haldia Petrochemicals, and Mahindra & Mahindra were the top five investors with an individual investment of more than $500 million. Furthermore, Adani Properties, Piramal Enterprises, Lupin, Cadila Healthcare, Tata Steel, and Infosys, followed the top 5=five investors. Also, 11 firms, each with an investment of over $200 million had a sum of $6.18 billion in this eight-month period, which is more than half of the total investment.
What are the four key areas that attract the most funds?
The companies mostly invested in four key areas — insurance, financial, and business services; manufacturing; agriculture and mining; and wholesale, retail trade, restaurants, and hotels, said the report. These four sectors accounted for almost 90 per cent of total overseas investments. The only other sector to register proposals of above ₹ 100 crore were agriculture and mining.
The report added that the trend towards the internationalization of Indian investment has picked up and will continue to grow in the coming years as firms seek to look for opportunities in the overseas markets. Investing in overseas markets helps to diversify business revenue and is seen to complement domestic efforts.
