Niti Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant said that despite the economic slowdown brought on by COVID-19 outbreak, India has attracted huge investments through FDI. India received investments worth over $ 22 billion during the pandemic alone, Kant said at Confederation of Indian Industry’s (CII) India@75 virtual event. Kant also lauded India’s FDI regime and called it among the most liberal in the world.

“Our FDI regime is the most liberal in the world. We have continued to attract a huge amount of investments. During the pandemic itself, India attracted over 22 billion worth of direct investments into India. Almost 98% of it comes through the automatic route,” said Kant.

Kant also emphasised on the openness and ease of doing business, adding, “India has jumped up about 79 positions in the World Bank’s ease of doing business. Our hope is that this year we will get into the top 50 and by next year we will get into the top 3.”

Mukesh Ambani-led Jio Platforms, the digital arm of Reliance Industries, alone raised investments over Rs 1.5 lakh crore since April, selling 32.94 per cent stakes to several global companies. Leading social media company Facebook, with an investment of Rs 43,574 crore, was the biggest investor and acquired a 9.99 per cent equity stake in Jio Platforms. Search engine company Google has invested Rs 33,737 crores in Jio Platforms for 7.7 per cent stake.

According to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), India’s economy could turn out to be most resilient in South Asia and will continue to attract investments in 2020 even though global FDI is expected to fall. India had jumped to 9th position in the list of countries with top FDI investments in 2019, up from 12th position in 2018.