FDI in India reaches record $51 billion in 11 months of FY16: DIPP

New Delhi: Foreign Direct Investment into India touched the "highest ever" mark of USD 51 billion during the April-February period of last fiscal ended March 31, DIPP Secretary Ramesh Abhishek said on April 25. The Secretary the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) said that healthy business climate has been created in the county so that investments are promoted.

"We have had a record inflows of FDI in this country, more than USD 51 billion from April to February (2015-16) and that is the highest ever," he said here at a Ficci function. In 2011-12, India had attracted FDI worth USD 46.55 billion. In 2014-15, it was USD 44.29 billion. This FDI includes equity, re-invested earnings and other capital.

Abhishek said that ease of doing business is critical for creating a suitable business climate and the government is a making lot of efforts to improve it. "The complex procedures and delays which were the bane of our system for last so many decades are now being gradually dismantled. Enormous efforts are being made to make sure that common citizen and business both have an easy time," he said.

He also said that protection of creativity and innovation is important to create a suitable climate in the country for technology to be developed and for technology to come from outside. The FDI numbers reflects that the government has been able to create a suitable climate in which the foreign investors feel confident that interest are protected.

The government is committed to doing away with the obstacles and improve the whole process, he said, adding that "we need growth rate of double digits for the next three decades to improve the quality of life and eliminate poverty but that requires lot of efforts in investment side, IPR side and at other fronts".