FDI grows by 27% at $ 27.82 billion, main investments in telecom, automobile

The Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) has said Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in India grew by more than 27% to $27.82 billion during April-October this fiscal.

Majority of the FDI inflows were in services, telecom, trading, computer hardware and software and automobile.

India receives maximum FDI from Singapore, Mauritius, the Netherlands and Japan.

The inflows increased by 23 per cent to $55.6 billion in the last financial year.

During April-October 2015-2016, the FDI stood at $21.87 billion.

Foreign investments are considered crucial for India, which needs around $1 trillion for overhauling its infrastructure sector such as ports, airports and highways to boost growth.

A strong inflow of foreign investments will help improve the country's balance of payments situation and strengthen the rupee value against other global currencies, especially the dollar.

Further, the DIPP also said that trademarks filing has increased by around 10 per cent and its examination grew by about 250 per cent so far this fiscal till November.

"Trademark pendency has come down to 3 months and to be 1 month by March 2017," it said in a statement.