NEW DELHI: The Government is taking necessary steps to simplify procedures and rules as well as ensure coordination within the government departments o facilitate NRI investment in India.

The Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs has set up an Overseas Indian Facilitation Centre (OIFC) as a not-for-profit-trust, in partnership with Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) to promote investment amongst the overseas Indians. The center is a ‘One Stop- Shop’ for serving the interests of the overseas Indian Community and has mandate to cover two broad areas viz. investment facilitation and Knowledge Networking. 

 OIFC also assists the States in India to project investment opportunities to Overseas Indians. It has reached out to various state governments to become its partners. The State Governments of Kerala, Karnataka, Gujarat, Orissa and Punjab have taken up membership of OIFC as State Partners.  These States are being encouraged to actively promote their investment projects / opportunities through OIFC. It also conducts the investment meet overseas to promote investment.

 

The actual investments made are monitored by the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP). However, as per the DIPP data the amount invested by the NRIs during the last three years are:

 

Year

Amount of NRI FDI Inflows

% age to total FDI Inflows

 

(In Rs. Million)

(In US Million)

 

2009-10

16919.58

354.75

1.37

2008-09

73,141.81

1,603.82

5.95

2007-08

67,628.48

1,695.49

6.86

 Over the years, the problems faced by the diaspora with respect to investment facilitation have been mitigated to a large extent. 

This information was given by the Minister of Overseas Indian Affairs, Vayalar Ravi in a written reply in the Lok Sabha