NEW DELHI: Despite the recent exit of Ford Motor and earlier GM Motors, the investment scenario in the country is looking bright, says Deepak Bagla, managing director and CEO of Invest India, the investment promotion agency of the government of India.
Bagla says the exits of the US companies are not because the Indian investment scenario has worsened but because these companies failed to ‘read the world well’.
“They did not think things would change so fast. Those companies which did not prepare well for the electric vehicle market are bound to fail,” he said.
He, however, admitted that the auto sector is going through a transition, and that there would be a period of lull before the sector picks up again.
“A hydrocarbon fuel-based car has close to 30,000 auto parts, while an EV has just 80 parts. This transition to EVs will virtually end the existing supply chains,” Bagla adds.
Rejecting the commentary that doing business in India is becoming difficult and that is why investors are exiting the country, the MD and CEO of Invest India said that the country received $82 billion in FDI in 2020-21, registering a 10% growth in a pandemic-hit year.
“India is registered a growth in FDI while globally FDI fell by over 35% during the year. India was only among a handful of countries which registered growth in foreign investment,” he said.
He further said that the most encouraging thing about the FDI numbers last year was that all states received investment from overseas unlike in the past when only 7-10 states would get investment.