New Delhi: The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) on 9 July informed that it has identified as many as 106 companies across sectors from 30 countries under its strategic investment targets initiative.
Aimed at promoting investments in India, the initiative was recently discussed during a meeting convened by the Commerce and Industry ministry with industry and exporters.
“An outreach was conducted through the ministry and meetings and video conferences are being set up with the leadership of these companies,” the news agency quoted an official as saying, who added there is also a plan to engage with people of Indian origin (PIO) under the initiative.
Measures like reducing the compliance burden, easing foreign direct investment norms, rolling out of logistics policy, the announcement of a production-linked incentive scheme for 14 sectors, and easing procedures through the national single window system to promote investments into the country are being taken by the government.
“Both the Department of Commerce and the DPIIT are working together to promote trade and investments in a concerted way,” the official said.
Apart from this, there are also plans to hold investment roadshows in countries like the US, Canada, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, the UK, Germany, Sweden, Japan, Taiwan, and South Korea.
Also, the initiative assumes significance as Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) into India declined by 22 percent to $46 billion in 2022-23.
Total FDI inflows, including equity inflows, re-invested earnings, and other capital, declined by 16 percent to $70.97 billion in the last fiscal as against $84.83 billion in 2021-22.
According to DPIIT data, Singapore emerged as the top investor with $17.2 billion FDI. It was followed by Mauritius ($6.13 billion), the US ($6 billion), the UAE ($3.35 billion), the Netherlands ($2.5 billion), Japan ($1.8 billion), the UK ($1.73 billion), Cyprus ($1.27 billion), Cayman island ($772 million), and Germany ($547 million) during April-March 2022-23.
