Led by Chinese, nearly 600 companies line up $85 billion investments in India

NEW DELHI: Sany Heavy Industry heads up a list of close to 600 companies planning to invest a total of about $85 billion in India in projects that will create an estimated 700,000 jobs in the country in next five years.

Invest India, the government’s foreign investment promotion agency, is planning to actively promote the country as an investment destination and has drawn up a list of 200 companies not present in India that it wants to target.

“We want to achieve a $100 billion target of foreign investment in the next two years — both greenfield and brownfield,” said Invest India managing director Deepak Bagla. India recorded its highest FDI (foreign direct investment) in FY17 at $43 billion, up 9 per cent over the previous year.


One of the world’s leading engineering machinery manufacturers, China’s Sany Heavy Industry plans an investment of $9.8 billion. Amazon, along with several other Chinese companies — Pacific Construction, China Fortune Land Development and Dalian Wanda — are each planning investments of more than $5 billion during this period.

Of the total indicated investment, $7.43 billion has already materialised and 100,000 jobs have been created, according to Invest India.

Rolls-Royce plans to invest $3.7 billion and Australia’s Perdaman Industries $3 billion.

Invest India is handholding the investors through the process, starting with identifying opportunities to scouting for locations and guiding them on policy.

Most of the investment proposals are from China at 42 per cent , followed by the US at 24 per cent and the UK at 11 per cent .

Energy and waste management have received the highest investment interest followed by construction and ecommerce.

The Invest India team recently met Prime Minister Narendra Modi to update him on the status of the big foreign investments coming into India. “In essence we are the voice of investor in the system and solely dedicated to FDI,” said Bagla.

“The idea is, as PM Modi said, to transform red tape into a red carpet for investors.” Commerce and industry minister Suresh Prabhu has said there is a need for a paradigm shift in the government’s approach to increase investments and it will reach out proactively to prospective investors.

The agency said it has received more than 100,000 investor queries from 114 countries in the past two years. Invest India says it can help companies meet the most stringent criteria.

A top Fortune 500 company stipulated 136 parameters while scouting for land to set up its facility in India recently.

“We researched for over 70 days, gathered data across the country and came up with options in four states meeting each of their criteria for them to choose from,” Bagla said.