Foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows into India have surged by around 25 per cent from a year ago, in the April-October period of the current fiscal year.
In the seven months to October 2014, FDI rose some 25 per cent from $13.82 billion in the period April to October 2013, commerce and industry minister, Nirmala Sitharaman said.
She said improvement in investor sentiment and macroeconomic situation due to a series of measures taken by the new government helped attract the higher FDI.
Speaking at the inaugural session of the ‘Make in India’ workshop, Nirmala Sitharaman said there still remain a number of challenges to make India a global manufacturing hub.
“These need to be identified and an action plan has to be evolved to overcome them,” she added. She acknowledged that infrastructure needs to be focused upon to ‘Make in India’ program successful.
The minister was of the opinion that a strong manufacturing sector has the potential to hike economic growth, which in turn would provide jobs to youth.
According the minister, the government has taken several steps to reduce red tape and trim down existing laws and hiked IT use to make governance effective.
Meanwhile, Ajit Seth, the cabinet secretary said the government has launched an e-Biz portal, which offers single window clearances and approvals for the industry.
According to him, various central and state government services had been integrated with the website and more government services will be integrated within a few more days.
Eighteen sessions were held as part of the workshop in which 25 ministries and all states came together to build a road map to make the ‘Make in India’ program a success.
Sessions were held on different sectors like capital goods, pharmaceuticals, oil and gas, petrochemicals, etc. (AR)
