India hot investment destination for Western corporate giants: UN report

New Delhi, May 18: India has become an alternative investment destination for many Western companies, according to the latest World Economic Situation and Prospects report of the UN.

The report which has increased the forecast of India’s GDP growth by 0.7 percentage points to 6.9 per cent identifies increased foreign investments as an important factor that is propelling the country’s GDP growth.

“The better outlook for India is fuelled by lower inflation, robust exports, and increased foreign investments,” said Hamid Rashid, the chief of the UN’s Global Economic Monitoring Branch.

"India has become an alternative investment source or destination for many Western companies," he added. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said at the CII annual summit on Friday that a Capgemini report has disclosed that 65 per cent of top executives of multinational companies who want to shift their supply chains out of China, plan to invest in India.

US smartphone giant Apple and its suppliers aim to build more than 50 million iPhones in India annually within the next two to three years. Its biggest supplier, Foxconn, is already expanding manufacturing and leading the production shift for Apple by setting up more plants in India. On December 12, the Taiwan-based tech giant received approval from the Karnataka government for an additional investment of Rs 13,911 crore in its upcoming facility in Bengaluru Rural District. It had already received approval to invest Rs 8,000 crore earlier this year.