India should aim to become largest FDI recipient: Ravi Shankar Prasad

Update on the Indian Market:

On Wednesday, Indian stock markets fell sharply. Sensex declined over 500 points (-1.29%) while NIFTY fell nearly 150 points (1.28%) and breached the 11,450 mark. Nifty Midcap and Smallcap indices plunged 2 % each. All sectoral indices, except IT, traded in the red on NSE, led by Nifty Auto (-3.84%) and Nifty Realty (-3.1 per cent). Biggest Nifty losers were SBI and Tata Motors, each of which was down over 6%. Other major losers included Maruti Suzuki, M&M, HDFC and Tata Steel.

India should aim to become largest FDI recipient: Ravi Shankar Prasad

Key takeaways from the interview of Mr Ravi Shankar Prasad, Communications and IT minister

• Communications and IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad expressed that India should aim to become the largest foreign direct investment (FDI) recipient globally as the country offers a huge market and investor-friendly policies.
• With the recent announcements on tax-relief for manufacturing, India is now at par with the tax regime of countries like Vietnam and Thailand.
• He also mentioned that country offers a huge market for companies like Apple and others to make for India and export while adding that the far-reaching decisions taken by Government of India has also been heard by Apple. Apple has started production in India in a very effective way.
• He assured that he will make his team open and accessible for foreign investors as we need investments.
• The minister said India has become the 5th largest economy globally and FDI has seen a jump over the last few years and grossed USD 64 bn in FY19.
• Telecom sector attracted FDI worth USD 2.67 bn, and in electronics, computer software and hardware, the amount stood at USD 6.4 bn.
• He further said India has been leveraging technology not just for benefits to economy and commerce but also digital empowerment.