NEW DELHI: Within months of relaxing rules for investments involving Chinese beneficial ownership, India has received 29 foreign direct investment (FDI) proposals worth Rs 4,895.65 crore as of August 20 across various sectors, including information technology, artificial intelligence, manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, data centres and transport services, the government said on Friday.
Rules were relaxed in March to ease investment procedures with up to 10% beneficial ownership by Chinese investors. The change in rules aimed at providing greater certainty to foreign investors and reducing the time required to complete investment transactions.
Investments have also been proposed from various other jurisdictions, including Mauritius, the US, South Korea, Japan, Singapore, Luxembourg and Cayman Islands.
Under the revised framework, investors are required to report relevant information to the government but do not need prior approval, provided they comply with sectoral caps, entry routes and other applicable conditions.
The government said that under Press Note 2 of 2026 and the consequent amendment to the Foreign Exchange Management (Non-debt Instruments) Rules, 2019, notified on May 1, the beneficial ownership test is now applied at the level of the investor entity.
Earlier, under Press Note 3 (PN3), introduced in 2020, foreign investments involving beneficial ownership from countries sharing a land border with India, including China, required prior government approval even when such ownership was small.
Officials said about 600 investment proposals from countries sharing land borders with India are currently awaiting approval.
Expansion of list
The govt is examining whether seven sectors eligible for faster processing can be expanded. The approved sectors include capital goods, e-components, ingot wafers and rare earth permanent magnets
Further investment
Further easing of the PN3 framework could accelerate investment proposals from land-bordering countries and support India’s manufacturing and technology ambitions