The Government has put in place a liberal and transparent policy for attracting Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), wherein most of the sectors are open to FDI under the automatic route. The intent is to make the FDI policy more investor friendly and remove the policy bottlenecks that have been hindering the investment inflows into the country. 100% FDI is permitted under the automatic route in the food-processing sector.
The reforms and policy measures initiated by the Government had a positive impacton FDI inflows into the country. As per the World Investment Report 2020 of United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), India’s position among top economies attracting FDI inflows has improved to 9th position in 2019 from 12th in 2018. India registered its highest ever FDI inflows of USD 74.39 billion (provisional) during 2019-20. Even during the Covid pandemic between April and November, 2020, total FDI inflows of USD 58.37 billion has been received. The FDI inflows in the food processing sector also increased from USD 628.24 Million in 2018-19 to USD 904.7 Million in 2019-20.
Ministry of Food Processing Industries has also set up a dedicated Investment Facilitation Cell with Invest India to facilitate all investment interests received in the food processing sector. The Cell handholds investors throughout the investment phases in a structured manner by providing relevant sectoral & sub-sectoral information, assisting with regulatory requirements, location assessment, applicable policies and schemes etc.