90 percent of FDI inflows in 9 months through automatic route

Over 90 percent of the total foreign direct investment (FDI) received during the first nine months (April-December) of this fiscal came through the automatic route, parliament was informed on Wednesday.

"FDI equity inflow received through automatic route and approval route during the current financial year (up to December 2015) is 90.24 percent and 9.76 percent respectively," Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha.

She said the government had put in place a liberal and transparent policy under which most sectors have been opened to FDI under the automatic route.

In reply to a separate question, Sitharaman said: "The demand for electronics in the Indian market is expected to reach $400 billion by 2020."

"Without intervention, at the current rate of growth, domestic production can cater to a demand of about $100 billion by 2020," she said.

"While the future is difficult to predict, the value of imports of electronics goods during April-December 2015 was $31.06 billion, which is less than the value of imports of petroleum products during the same period, which were $68.2 billion during the period," she added.