Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said in the Lok Sabha on Monday that India continues to be the largest foreign direct investment (FDI) recipient and Indian retail investors have decided to handle the situation arising out of large amount of FPI withdrawals from the stock markets capacity has been developed.

Retail investors have proven themselves

Replying to Congress MP Shashi Tharoor’s question during Question Hour in Lok Sabha, Sitharaman said foreign investment should not be measured only by FIIs (Foreign Institutional Investors) and FPIs (Foreign Portfolio Investors). She said that the dependence of FIIs and FPIs is on the interest rates and they keep on fluctuating.

He said that FIIs and FPIs keep coming and going. But today Indian retail investors have proved that any setback can be handled. It is worth mentioning that Shashi Tharoor had questioned the trend of foreign investors’ inflow of funds, referring to the withdrawal of more than Rs 1.14 lakh crore by foreign investors from the Indian market.

Big advantage of FDI

On this, Finance Minister Sitharaman said that India was getting the maximum FDI before Kovid, which remained in a good position even during the crisis of Covid pandemic and after that it is still in a very good position. She said that retail investors have instilled a lot of confidence in the Indian markets today.

Nirmala Sitharaman further said that FDI being in a good position gives us an indication that the money that is coming in is being invested in this country and thus employment is being created and opportunities are being created for us. This is not happening with FIIs and FPIs.