Govt further relaxing FDI regime, says official

Over 90 percent of foreign direct investment in the country is coming through automatic route and the commerce ministry is further relaxing the FDI regime, a top government official said today.

Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) Secretary Ramesh Abhishek said huge potential exists in India to attract FDI.

The government is implementing a series of transformative actions and policies which are required to realise this potential, he said at the India Economic Summit here.

"For example our FDI policies, they were restrictive. Now we have made India one of the most open economies. Even in very sensitive sectors, we have allowed 100 percent FDI and under automatic route in most cases. 92 percent of FDI comes under automatic route now and we are further relaxing the FDI regime," he said.

In June, FDI policy in as many as nine sectors were relaxed and that include defence, aviation and food processing.

In November last year also, government had opened up 15 sectors including real estate, defence, civil aviation and news broadcasting in a bid to push up reforms.

In 2015-16, India has attracted USD 40 d billion foreign inflows.