Revisiting India’s Foreign Direct Investment Numbers

Abstract

India has become increasingly important over the last decade as both a source and a host for Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) (Figure 23.1). However, trying to make sense of the numbers regarding FDI inflows and outflows can be quite challenging. The data on bilateral FDI outflows is rather sketchy; the Ministry of Finance reports the value of aggregate FDI outflows from India and the value of approvals of FDI outflows at a bilateral level, but a consistent time series of the actual value of outflows with a breakdown by country does not seem to be available in the public domain. While data on actual FDI inflows is reported by the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) at a disaggregated country level, there are serious concerns about the usefulness of the bilateral FDI inflows data that is available in the public domain.KeywordsForeign Direct InvestmentIndian CompanyForeign Direct Investment InflowOutward Foreign Direct InvestmentTata MotorThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.