PM Narendra Modi's foreign visits help enhance investment climate in India: Nirmala Sitharaman

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visits abroad have helped enhance investment climate in India, the government said today.

"Prime Minister's visits to foreign countries, both for bilateral and multilateral meetings have had a positive impact on India's prestige, power and investment climate," Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha.

However, on a question as to how the government envisages to use this opportunity to set new targets of foreign direct investment (FDI), the Minister said: "FDI are made by companies based on their assessment of prevailing market conditions, future prospects and other related factors. In view of this, it would not be possible to set any target for FDI into the country".

Modi is currently on a three-nation tour to Seychelles, Mauritius and Sri Lanka. In the recent past, he has visited the US, Myanmar, Australia, Fiji and Nepal.

FDI in India has been on the rise. During the April- December period of current fiscal, FDI rose by 27 per cent to $ 21.04 billion as against $ 16.56 billion in the same period last fiscal, data by Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion showed.

Amongst the top 10 sectors, telecom received the maximum FDI of $ 2.67 billion in the nine-month period, followed by services ($ 2.29 billion), automobile ($ 1.58 billion), pharmaceuticals ($ 1.21 billion) and computer software and hardware ($ 971 million).

During the period, India received maximum FDI from Mauritius at $ 5.89 billion, followed by Singapore ($ 4.31 billion), the Netherlands ($ 2.57 billion), the US ($ 1.48 billion) and Japan ($ 1.42 billion).

In 2013-14, FDI stood at $ 24.29 billion as against $ 22.42 billion in 2012-13.