The position of India has improved in “FDI inflow list of UNCTAD”. The World Investment Report (WIR) 2016 has shown 26% rise in FDI inflow. Presently, India stays on 10th position whereas according to WIR-2015 the ranking for the year 2013 was 15th position. Further, India has been ranked 3rd in the list of top prospective host economies for 2016-18.

Trends in India’s Foreign Direct Investment are an endorsement of its status as a preferred investment destination amongst global investors. During the Financial Year 2015-16, the highest ever FDI inflow of US$ 55.46 billion has been received.

Government does not fix targets for FDI inflows as FDI is largely a matter of private business decisions. Government of India has put in place a liberal and investor friendly FDI policy. FDI inflows depend on a host of factors such as availability of natural resource, market size, infrastructure, political and general investment climate as well as macro-economic stability and investment decision of foreign investors.

Review of FDI policy is an ongoing process and significant changes are made in the FDI policy regime, from time to time, to ensure that India remains an attractive investment destination. These measures are expected to increase FDI, which complements and supplements domestic investment. Domestic companies are benefited through FDI, by way of enhanced access to supplementary capital and state-of-art-technologies; exposure to global managerial practices and opportunities of integration into global markets resulting into accelerated domestic growth of the whole country.

This information was given by the Minister of State (Independent Charge) in the Ministry of Commerce & Industry Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman in a written reply in Lok Sabha today.

FDI policy remains liberal and investor-friendly, emphasising review-driven reforms to sustain inflows and domestic benefits. The Government maintains a liberal and investor-friendly FDI policy without fixed inflow targets, acknowledging that FDI is driven by private investor decisions and factors such as market size, resources, infrastructure, political and investment climate, and macro-economic stability; policy focus is on ongoing review and regulatory changes to sustain attractiveness and promote FDI as complementary to domestic investment through access to capital, technology transfer, managerial practices, and global market integration.