Talk about the reasons behind the lack of domestic private sector investment, notwithstanding the government’s various efforts to promote investment in India. (Answer in 150 words)
Answer: Non-debt finance is important for India's economic development because unlike debt finance, there is no direct repayment obligation for the residents as well as the government. In this context, Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) can play a significant role as an important source of non-debt finRead more
Answer: Non-debt finance is important for India’s economic development because unlike debt finance, there is no direct repayment obligation for the residents as well as the government. In this context, Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) can play a significant role as an important source of non-debt finance, which can be discerned by the following:
- FDI in India has seen a consistent rise in the last decade, with FY 2021-22 receiving FDI inflows of around USD 84.8 billion, despite the impact of the pandemic and geopolitical developments.
- 71% of multi-national companies (MNCs) working in India consider the country as an important destination for their global expansion owing to confidence in the Indian economy’s performance and the country’s overall potential, as per a survey.
Despite consistent increase, India has further room to attract FDI and finance India’s development path:
- India expects to attract US$120 billion to US$160 billion of FDI annually by 2025 if it manages to increase the FDI to GDP ratio between the 3% to 4% range by 2025.
- Four Indian states- Maharashtra (28%), Karnataka (19%), Delhi (16%) and Gujarat (10%) attracted around 3/4th of the FDI inflows in the country (from October 2019 to June 2020), highlighting areas of opportunity going forward for the rest of the states.
- Only 11% of total FDI in the last 19 years was in low-skill manufacturing, highlighting the potential for India to attract large FDI in low-skill manufacturing.
FDI brings industrial growth, development projects, technical and managerial expertise along with finance. In this context, the government has taken the following measures over the years to provide an enabling and investor friendly FDI policy:
- As per the OECD FDI Restrictiveness Index, India’s overall FDI restriction levels have come down from 0.42 to 0.21 in the last 16 years. The country has made considerable progress in opening up different sectors of the economy including mining, manufacturing, construction, electricity and services.
- The business environment has improved in the last few years owing to the impact of GST, the government’s digital push in various spheres, lowering of corporate tax rates, streamlining the labour codes, transparency in taxation, etc.
- Other reforms such as abolition of the dividend distribution tax (DDT) on companies, production-linked incentives for 13 sectors, increase in FDI limit for defence production under automatic route from 49% to 74%, implementing a GIS system to provide information on industrial land including plot-level information etc. have also played a role in attracting FDI.
- India’s economic growth rate of 8.7% in 2021, a rising middle class driving consumption along with market potential, skilled workforce, and political stability makes the country a favored FDI destination.
Against the backdrop of growth challenges being faced by major economies of the world and new geo-political issues, the continuing reform momentum by the government will attract increasing volume of investment from MNCs and facilitate their larger integration in the domestic supply chain. Further measures such as enhanced effectiveness of the national single window for approval/clearances, greater tax certainty, incentivizing R&D and innovation, and stronger contract enforcement mechanisms are needed.
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India's investment rate, though among the highest in the world, has declined to about 31% of GDP as an average of 2015-16 to 2019-2020 from its peak of 39% in FY2012 (CEIC data). Corporate sector accounts for only about half of total investments, amounting to about 15% of GDP. Considering the infrasRead more
India’s investment rate, though among the highest in the world, has declined to about 31% of GDP as an average of 2015-16 to 2019-2020 from its peak of 39% in FY2012 (CEIC data). Corporate sector accounts for only about half of total investments, amounting to about 15% of GDP. Considering the infrastructure deficit, the government of India has taken several steps to revive private investment e.g., National Asset Reconstruction Company Limited (NARCL), and India Debt Resolution Company Limited (IDRCL) for aggregation and resolution of Non-Performing Assets (NPAs) in the banking industry, Insolvency and Bankruptcy (Amendment) Code 2021, reduction in corporate tax, and the Production Linked Incentive Scheme (PLI), etc. The share of private sector in gross fixed capital formation in India remains muted due to following reasons:
If India has to achieve 8% plus real GDP growth on a sustained basis, it must revive private investment to over 25% of GDP from the current level of 15%. In budget 2022-23, the capital expenditure has been raised to 35.4% of GDP to continue the public investment-led recovery of the pandemic-battered economy. This, along with the global geo-political situation in Europe, tightening of monetary policy in the USA and relatively stable macroeconomic conditions in India, is expected to create a scenario where India can attract more private investments in the near future.
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