Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: Despite the pandemic and nationwide lockdown for about six months in 2020, India’s Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) saw a significant jump: in the April-November period, the total inflow of FDI was USD 58.37 billion.
According to government data, FDI in November 2020 grew by a whopping 81 percent to USD 10.15 billion against USD 5.6 billion in November 2019. The FDI equity also jumped to USD 8.5 billion as against USD 2.8 billion in November 2019, registering a growth of 70 percent.
It demonstrated the investors’ trust in the resilience and rebound of the Indian economy, despite the prevailing pandemic and the lockdowns.
Between April and November 2020, India attracted a total FDI inflow of USD 58.37 billion, the highest-ever for the first eight months of a financial year (F.Y.) and 22 percent higher as compared to the first eight months of 2019-20 (USD 47.67 billion).
FDI equity inflow received during F.Y. 2020-21 (April to November 2020) was USD 43.85 billion, also the highest-ever for the first eight months of a financial year and 37 percent more compared to the first eight months of 2019-20 (USD 32.11 billion).
FDI is seen as a major driver of growth and an important source of non-debt finance for economic development. The government has been trying to put in place an enabling and investor-friendly FDI policy, it said, adding it wanted to make the policy more investor-friendly and remove the policy bottlenecks hindering the investment inflows.
The steps taken in this direction have borne fruit, as is evident from the ever-increasing volumes of FDI inflows being received into the country, it said.