FDI equity inflow registers record-high of USD 43.4Bn

The ongoing economic reform in India has resulted in an Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) equity inflow of USD 43.4 billion in the financial year 2016-17, the highest ever FDI equity inflows, noted the Economic Survey 2016-17, Volume II, released earlier on Friday.

As per the Index of Industrial Production (IIP), overall growth is five percent in 2016-17, compared to 3.4 percent last year.

The survey also highlighted a decline in the import of steel by 36.2percent in 2016-17. On the other hand, exports have risen by 102 percent, owing to the introduction of the imposition of Minimum Import Price (MIP) to counter dumping of steel into the Indian market.

On the railways front, the survey noted an increase of 4.5 percent in passenger earnings. However, it registered a negative growth of 4.5 percent over 2015-16 due to carrying larger volume of low fare freight in the year.

To counter this, the Survey suggested that the Railways should go for more non-fare sources along with station redevelopment and commercially exploiting vacant buildings at the station, monetising land along tracks by leasing out to promote horticulture and tree plantation, and through advertisement and parcel earnings.

The domestic airline sector has a very lower share in international traffic to and from India, owing to factors like foreign airlines undertaking expansion of capacity entitlements under bilateral air service agreements with foreign countries, lower utilisation of India's own capacity entitlements, the 0/20 rule and fleet constraints.

To this regard, the survey said reforms such as privatisation or disinvestment of Air India, creation of aviation hubs and reconsidering the 0/20 rule could help improve their share in the international market.