India is still the best bet for FDI even in downturn

New Delhi: Even in the midst of a global downturn India is attracting one billion dollar foreign direct investment in a month, which is "encouraging", Secretary in the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion Ajay Shankar said.
Though the overseas inflows have sharply dropped after September this fiscal, the trend has to be seen in the context the credit freeze in major economies of the world, he said. "We are still one billion dollar plus every month... that is when there is huge financial difficulties in the world. That is very encouraging," the DIPP Secretary told PTI. FDI inflows till September averaged between $2.5 and $3 billion a month. Shankar said India has come a long way in the last five years in terms of winning the confidence of foreign investors. "This (drop in FDI) has to be seen in the context of 2003-04," he said. The country received $3.13 billion in 2003-04 while in 2008-09, the monthly inflows averaged above $2 billion.
The government has recently changed the guidelines governing the FDI giving more leeway to overseas investors in sectors where there are ceilings. These include telecom, aviation, defence production and media.
"With this view, the government has been proposed to take up construction and road maintenance activities in urban areas during the annual labour conference," Pandhe said. "This is a good time to improve the condition of our cities and roads and I am quite positive that the government will take up this recommendation. During the conference several State governments also expressed interest in initiating such a scheme," Pillai said. Earlier, Minister of State for Labour and Employment Oscar Fernandes also said the government is considering coming up with a scheme "similar to the NREGS". Asked for a time frame by when the announcement could be expected, Fernandes had said that views are being taken from other ministries as well for checking the viability for such a scheme.
The UPA government had introduced the NREG scheme and made it a priority for reducing poverty in rural areas. The scheme is being administered by the Ministry of Rural Development. A recent sample survey by the Labour Ministry suggested that at least five lakh jobs were lost during October to December last, while trade unions estimate that more than 20 lakh job losses had occurred in the unorganised sector and mostly in the construction field. A ILO report on global trend of employment had predicted 18 million job losses and had called for suitable "labour intensive" measures to check poverty alleviation caused by these job losses.