Foreign direct investment up 74 per cent in February to $2.21 billion

India received USD 2.21 billion in foreign direct investment in February, showing an annual growth of 74 per cent, taking cumulative inflows to USD 28.40 billion for the April-February period of the last fiscal.

In February 2011, the country received FDI worth USD 1.27 billion.

Experts say there is a much greater potential for attracting higher foreign investment provided economic reforms are pushed.

"There is an urgent need for strong reforms like 100 per cent FDI in sectors like multi-brand retail and insurance. There is a need to boost investor confidence. USD 2 billion in month is not a big number," Ficci Secretary General Rajiv Kumar said.

The sectors which received large foreign FDI inflows during the 11-month period of 2011-12 are: services (USD 5.05 billion), pharmaceuticals (USD 3.21 billion), telecom (USD 1.99 billion), construction (USD 2.52 billion), power (USD 1.61 billion) and metallurgical industries (USD 1.76 billion), an official said.

Mauritius remained the top source of inflows (USD 9.42 billion), thanks to the double taxation avoidance treaty.

Other sources were Singapore (USD 5.07 billion), Japan (USD 2.86 billion), UK (USD 2.75 billion), Germany (USD 1.54 billion), Netherlands (USD 1.21 billion) and Cyprus (USD 1.42 billion).

FDI inflows into India totalled USD 19.42 billion in 2010-11, down from USD 25.83 billion in 2009-10.

Recently, the government has streamlined the procedure to boost foreign investment into the country and also allowed FIIs to invest up to 23 per cent in commodity exchanges without seeking its prior approval.