Foreign investments in the services sector increased 77.6 per cent to $7.55 billion in the first nine months of the current fiscal, helped by Government steps to improve ease of doing business. The sector, which includes banking, insurance, R&D, outsourcing, courier and technology testing, had received foreign direct investment (FDI) worth $4.25 billion during the April-December period of last fiscal, 2015-16, according to the DIPP.
The sector contributes over 60 per cent to India's GDP and accounts for 17 per cent of total foreign investment inflows. The other sectors where inflows have recorded growth during the nine month period of 2016-17 are: telecom ($5.54 billion), trading ($2 billion), computer software and hardware ($1.81 billion) and automobile ($1.45 billion). In step FDI growth in important sectors like services, overall foreign inflows in the country increased 22 per cent to $35.84 billion during April-December 2016-17.