Telecom sector most sought among foreign investors

India attracted $891 million (Rs 4,023 crore) foreign direct investment in the telecommunications segment in the first two months of the current fiscal, the highest among all sectors.

The telecommunications sector, including radio paging, cellular mobile, basic telephone services, had attracted $612 million (Rs 3,055 crore) during April-May 2009-10.

It was followed by services sector that attracted $587 million investment, metallurgical industries ($461 million) and power ($313 million) in that order during the period.

The country managed to attract $4.42 billion foreign direct investment (FDI) during April-May 2010-11, while it was $4.43 billion in the year ago month, according to the latest official data.

The highest FDI of $1.29 billion came from Mauritius followed by Singapore ($854 million), Japan ($369 million) and the Netherlands ($298 million) in April-May 2010-11.

The government is making sustained efforts to make the FDI policy regime more attractive and investor friendly, with a view to attract investments from all major investing countries.

The government had floated discussion papers for public comments to liberalise FDI in multi-brand retail and defence sector.

The FDI for 2009-10 at $25.88 billion was lower by five per cent from $27.33 billion in the previous fiscal.