Pressure rises on New Delhi to ease foreign investment rules after US concern

Pressure continues to rise on New Delhi to ease its foreign direct investment (FDI) regime across a range of sectors – including defence – following concern expressed by US President Barack Obama that the investment climate in India is "deteriorating".

Adi Godrej, the president of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), echoed on 17 July Obama's comments and added that FDI in defence and other areas needs to be relaxed in India in order to boost investor confidence in the country.

A statement by Godrej and published by the CII said the industry body "strongly feels that it is time to announce a few confidence-building reform measures – such as increased FDI caps in civil aviation, defence production and ... multibrand retail. This will go a long way in correcting the perception about India globally."

Godrej is also the chairman of the Godrej Group conglomerate and said that global investors' perception of India has been "affected due to recent developments in Indian policy-making".