Govt approves 6 FDI proposals worth over Rs 732 cr

Air Asia among the cleared proposals, other include Navayuga Road Projects, AET Laboratories and BEL

The government today approved 6 FDI proposals, including that of AirAsia Investment Ltd, Malaysia, totalling over Rs 732 crore.

The Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) headed by Economic Affairs Secretary Arvind Mayaram, also cleared the proposal of SIDBI Social Venture Trust, to allot Class A units of the Fund to bring foreign investment worth Rs 285 crore.

The Rs 80.98 crore proposal of M/s AirAsia Investment Ltd, Malaysia, to set up a Joint Venture company to undertake the business of operation of scheduled passenger airlines, was also given approval.

"Based on the recommendations of FIPB in its meeting held on March 6, 2013, the Government has approved 6 proposals of foreign direct investment (FDI) amounting to Rs 732.77 crore approximately,"the Finance Ministry said in a statement.

The biggest proposal that was cleared was that of Hyderabad -based Navayuga Road Projects Pvt Ltd plan to act as an investing company and to make downstream investments in its Special Purpose Companies worth of Rs 357.60 crore.

The board also cleared Hyderabad-based AET Laboratories Pvt Ltd's proposal for induction of additional foreign equity in a pharmaceutical company worth Rs 5.34 crore.

The proposal of Bharat Electronics Limited, Bangalore to set up a JV company worth Rs 2.5 crore to carry out the business of design, development, marketing, supply and support of civilian and select defence Radars for Indian and global markets was also approved.

The board, however, deferred seven proposals and rejected one.

The proposals which were deferred include that of ICICI Venture Funds Management Company Ltd to bring fund from a foreign limited liability company FVCI for making investment in the units of a Trust for making investments in portfolio companies in India.

Andhra Pradesh-based Prithvi Information Solutions proposal to issue warrants to carry out the business of end-to-end solutions in information technology, RF engineering and knowledge service apart from providing consulting and staff augmentation, was rejected by FIPB.

New Delhi-based Copper Beech Infrastructure was advised by FIPB to approach the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for its request for deletion of compounding condition.The company is engaged in the business of setting up of Educational Infrastructure.