Consequence of Modi’s foreign visit: it’s raining investments

It’s been a week when the media has bashed the Prime Minister Modi for spending crore of rupees in his foreign visits. Now there’s some good vibes coming from the same quarters on the same topic.

Ever since Modi started his foreign trips, India has become a hot destination for Foreign Direct Investments (FDI). India has received $19.78 billion (Rs 1.3 lakh crore) in FDI in 2014-15 from a dozen major FDI source countries that Modi has visited since taking over in May last year, says a news report by The Economic Times. This accounts for nearly two-thirds of the $30.93 billion FDI the country received in the fiscal year, which was 27 % more than the year before.

After the Make in India programme was launched in September last year, it’s raining FDI. Data from Department of Industrial Policy and Planning shows the inflows have jumped 48% between October 2014 and April 2015 over the year-earlier period.

"There has been some questions about the Modi government's performance when it comes to pace of reforms and ease of doing business," a foreign diplomat in Delhi said. But a government official from Japan, one of the countries that Modi visited and from where he got a huge investment commitment, told the ET there was no major reason to be upset about since Modi became the PM.

Modi has visited 27 countries since last year. Japan has committed to invest about $35 billion in five years and South Korea plans to invest $10 billion. China has assured $20 billion in the next five years, while France has announced $2 billion euros ($2.26 billion). The UAE, which the PM visited last month, has assured to pump in money for India's $75-billion infrastructure fund. The UK has launched a programme for investments here ahead of Modi's planned trip in November and Germany is expected to make some announcements related to the Make in India initiative during Chancellor Angela Merkel's visit to New Delhi in the first week of October.


(image: Reuters)