FDI reforms will send positive signal to investors: India Inc
As the government announced a slew of measures to ease the process of foreign direct investments (FDI) in key sectors, industry leaders said the move will boost India’s business environment and bring in more funds from overseas. The government on Tuesday announced the reforms relaxing foreign investment norms in 15 major sectors including defence, civil aviation, construction and media. The development came ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the UK which is aimed at enhancing bilateral economic ties and attracting more investments in India through Make in India campaign. India Inc underlined that the decision to ease FDI norms will not only benefit business segments but also send a positive signal to investors across the globe, who are looking up to India as a preferred destination. “Liberalisation of FDI in a host of key sectors like defence, civil aviation, retail, banking and e-commerce couple of days before Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to UK will send a huge positive signal to global investors. A stable form of foreign inflows by way of FDI is also imperative for India in the wake of continuing uncertainty over the direction of US interest rates,” ASSOCHAM Secretary General D S Rawat said. The government also eased investment norms for private banking and single-brand retailing and authorised the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) to clear FDI proposals up to Rs.5,000 crore from its earlier Rs.3,000 crore. As per the revised policy, news TV and FM radio companies can now avail FDI up to 49% through the government approval route. The earlier limit was 26%. For other TV channels, 100% FDI has been allowed through automatic route. In teleports, cable networks and DTH sectors, FDI limits have been increased to 100%, with a rider of government approval in case of investments beyond 49%. Sumit Mazumder, President of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) also pointed out that the move will help simplify the foreign investment processes in India, thus making the entire procedure simple and hassle-free. “The crux of these reforms is to further ease, rationalise and simplify the process of foreign investments in the country and put more and more FDI proposals on the automatic route instead of the approval route, and that is most welcome as an approach. This will also send a positive signal that the government remains committed to improve the ease of doing business in the country,” Mazumder said. “Simplification of procedures for foreign investments, putting more sectors on the automatic route, introducing fungibility between FDI and FII and having a single reference documents for all FDI related guidelines are steps that would boost investors’ confidence,” FICCI president Jyotsna Suri said.
November 12, 2015 | 4:35pm IST
to success.