India beats recession blues, FDI up 59% in Jan

At a time when the world economy is facing the worst credit freeze in several decades, India attracted $2.7-billion foreign direct investment (FDI) in January, up 58.8 per cent from a year ago, and remained a favourite destination for cross-border investments.

"January numbers are very good... It is an indication of the confidence that the rest of the world has in India," Secretary in the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion Ajay Shankar told PTI.

The FDI inflows for the April-January period aggregated to $23.8 billion and is expected to cross the last year's target of $25 billion this fiscal.

Though the government had set a target of $35-billion FDI for 2008-09, it looked rather ambitious in the wake of the global downturn.

Up to September this fiscal, the monthly inflows were in excess of $2 billion. However, the following three months saw a sharp dip in the overseas investments.

The January figures bring a renewed hope that India is back on the radar of global investors.