After registering a huge decline in the recent past, foreign direct investment in the telecom sectorgrew manifold to USD 2.33 billion in the first four months of 2014-15.During the entire 2013-14 fiscal, the sector hadreceived a total FDI of USD 1.3 billion.
FDI in the telecom sector, which includes radio paging, cellular mobile, basic telephone services, attracted only USD 12 million during April-July period of the last fiscal, as per the Department ofIndustrial Policy and Promotion.According to an industry expert, payment of spectrum auction and investments in network rollout are some of the factors that have helped attract more FDI in the sector.
In 2011-12, 2010-11 and 2009-10,the sector attracted FDI worth USD 1.99 billion, USD 1.66 billion and USD 2.55 billion respectively.Increase in the foreigninvestment inflows in the sector helped the overall FDI, which increased by 52 per cent to USD 10.73 billion during April-July this fiscal.
Other sectors that received large FDI inflows during the first four-months of the current fiscal include services (USD 1.03billion), Pharmaceuticals (USD 886 million) and construction (USD 430 million).
During the period, India received maximum FDI from Mauritius (USD 3.38 billion), Singapore (USD 1.66 billion), the UK (USD824 million) and Japan (USD 834 million).
