Decline in total amount of proposed investments: Assocham

Reeling under an economic slowdown, India Inc. Wednesday said that there has been a sharp decline of about 20 percent in total amount of proposed industrial investments received by states across India in various sectors.

According to data furnished by industry body Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM), India received 1,421 investment proposals worth Rs.362,805 crore till September 2014 which had declined significantly from 1,906 proposals worth Rs.451,643 crore in the corresponding period last year.

Interestingly, ASSOCHAM's analysis of figures from Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion (DIPP) revealed that Chhattisgarh received about 45 percent of the total amount of proposed investments.

The state received 24 investment proposals worth Rs.161,836 crore which had increased from Rs31,067 crore thereby clocking a year-on-year growth rate of over 420 percent.

Other states that registered significant growth in terms of proposed investments included - Punjab (184 percent), Karnataka (166 percent), Himachal Pradesh (108 percent) and Assam (25 percent).

These states were followed by Maharashtra (8.9 percent), Gujarat (8.8 percent), Odisha (5.9 percent), Karnataka (5.4 percent) and Andhra Pradesh (5.1 percent) in attracting investments.

However, Madhya Pradesh and Odisha registered significant decline in their share of total investment proposals, revealed the analysis carried out by ASSOCHAM's Economic Research Bureau (AERB).

Services, construction development, telecommunications, computer software and hardware, drugs and pharmaceuticals, automobiles, chemicals (other than fertilisers), power, metallurgical industries, hotel and tourism are amongst top 10 sectors attracting foreign direct investments (FDI) into India noted the ASSOCHAM analysis.

Country-wise Mauritius, Singapore, United Kingdom, Japan, Netherlands, US, Cyprus, Germany, France and Switzerland are amongst top investing countries in India.

"Considering the growing competition between emerging economies for foreign investments, FDI is highly imperative for India considering that it has completely transformed the quality, productivity and production in sectors it has been allowed and can supplement domestic efforts significantly," said D.S.Rawat, national secretary general of ASSOCHAM while releasing the findings of the chamber's analysis.

"Restrictions on sector caps and entry route to sectors other than those of national importance must be liberalised further and constant reviewing of policies must be done, besides, the government must ensure consistency of policy so as to perk up the business and investor confidence."

ASSOCHAM has also called for a time-bound, non-discretionary, simplified and less number of procedures and approvals to help uplift the overseas investor's confidence and foster more investments in India.