Foreign Direct Investment FDI and Global Financial Crisis

Countries around the world, particularly developing economies, are vying with each other to attract foreign capital to boost their domestic rates of investment and also to acquire new technology and managerial skills. Intense competition is taking place among the fund-starved less-developed countries to lure foreign investors by offering repatriation facilities, tax concessions, and other incentives. However, foreign investment is not an unmixed blessing. Governments in developing countries have to be very careful while deciding the magnitude, pattern, and conditions of private foreign investment. In India, foreign investment policies in the post-reforms period have emphasized greater encouragement and mobilization of non-debt creating private inflows for reducing reliance on debt flows. Progressively, liberal policies have led to increasing inflows of foreign investment in the country. Recently, the government of India cleared the most-awaited reform measure, allowing foreign direct investment (FDI) in multi-brand retail up to 51%, paving the way for international multi-brand retailers to set up business in India. Apart from this, liberalized FDI norms for aviation, broadcasting, insurance, and pension sectors have also been cleared. This book contains scholarly papers which provide an analytical account of foreign direct investment (FDI) in India in the context of the ongoing global financial crisis.