Foreign direct investment in India doubles during 2006 Economic Times, Bangalore, December 26, 2006: New Delhi (dpa) - India received record foreign direct investment (FDI) in 2006, with equity inflows expected to top 11 billion dollars, more than double the 5.5 billion dollars of inflows last year. Commerce and Industry Union Minister Kamal Nath revealed the data Wednesday while giving an overview of India's industrial policy and trade promotion during the year. "Once the reinvested earnings of foreign companies already present in India is also taken into account in FDI inflows, which is the world-wide practice, the total FDI inflows in 2006-07 could be as high as 14 billion dollars, compared to 7.7 billion dollars last year," the news agency PTI quoted the minister saying. "There have been huge investments coming in the software industry, financial services and manufacturing. The manufacturing investments are the 'first-mile investments' in as far as these are likely to be followed up by further investments to complete the projects and also for their further expansions," Nath said. Nath said India's manufacturing sector recorded a growth rate of 22.6 per cent in 2003-04, 29.7 per cent in 2004-05 and 23.4 per cent in 2005-06. Industrial production grew by over 10 per cent during April-October 2006, due to growth recorded by the manufacturing sector. Back