Half Of FDI In India Over Past Five Years Went To Two States

Maharashtra and Karnataka received over 50% of the total foreign direct investment into India since October 2019, according to the data from Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade.

Maharashtra attracted direct investments worth $82,638 million, or 31%, of the total inflows in the country between October 2019 and September 2024 period, trade authority data showed. Tech hub Karnataka bagged investments worth $54,574 million, or 21%, of the total flow during the same period.

Gujarat and Delhi got 16% and 13%, respectively, while Tamil Nadu attracted 5% from global investors completing the top five spots in the country. Among the top 10 states on the list, Jharkhand, Rajasthan, West Bengal occupied the last three positions with 1% of total flows each since October 2019.

This comes into the backdrop of FDI inflows into India crossing $1,000 billion since the turn of the century. Cumulative amount of FDI, including equity, reinvested earnings and other capital, stood at $1,033.40 billion (or $1 trillion) between April 2000 and September 2024.

Services sector, and computer software and hardware industry garnered the most interest from global investors since April 2000. The services sector bagged over 16% while computer software and hardware sectors received 15% share from the over all investments since the century began.

Foreign direct investments in trading was at 7% while inflows for telecommunications and automobile sectors were 6% and 5%, respectively.

The country which contributed the most in terms of FDI in India since April 2000 is Mauritius with 25% of all FDI inflows. Mauritius was closely followed by Singapore at 24%. The US came a distant third with less than 10%.

FDI is allowed through the automatic route in most of the sectors, while in areas like telecom, media, pharmaceuticals, government approval is required for foreign investors.

Under the government approval route, a foreign investor has to get a prior nod from the ministry or department concerned. Under the automatic route, an global investor is only required to inform the Reserve Bank of India after the investment is made.