India gets Rs 2.79 lakh crore FDI during April-February: RBI

Foreign direct investment in the country increased to $42 billion (Rs 2.79 lakh crore) during April-February in 2015-16, up by 27.45% from the inflows in the corresponding period of the previous fiscal, RBI said on Monday.

The inflows were $32.96 billion during April-February 2014-15.

The data further revealed that FDI in February was $3.2 billion, down from $5.14 billion in January. The foreign direct inflows were $3.48 billion in February 2015.

The net FDI (minus FDI outflow) was $34.04 billion during April-February as against $29.66 billion in the corresponding period of the last fiscal.

As per the Finance Ministry, 98% of foreign direct investment is coming into India through the automatic route and as a "positive sign" the number of applications being routed via the FIPB approval route has started declining.

The NDA Government has been liberalising the FDI regime and has brought a number of sectors under the automatic route.

Insurance, railways, defence, and e-commerce are some of the key sectors wherein the FDI norms have been liberalised.