Editorial with Sujit Nair | India's Gross FDI Hits Record, Net FDI Remains Low. Why? | FM Sitharaman

[00:00:00] A lot of people at Tiles feel that it's as if the government is doing some favour on these investors by letting them to invest in India. That's the feeling a lot of people get. Onus of changing that feeling is ours, not theirs. So Davos is good, going to Davos and presenting all that is good. But the people who are with you, the people who are invested in your country, why don't you take care of them?

[00:00:23] The only thing I read in newspapers is ED rated him, ED rated that, that is all I read. Now all that is good, you are cleaning up and all that, you have been cleaning up and what kind of cleaning up also one understands. But all that is good. But where is it, where we are celebrating our wealth creators? Except for one or two of course. It is our responsibility to ensure that this leakage is stopped. They remain in India, their money is reinvested in India.

[00:00:58] Namaskar. Welcome to another episode of Editorial. You see, today I am going to talk about a subject which is possibly the most important, most important topic that today India should talk about. A topic that every Indian should have a clue about, should have an opinion on. That's the topic that we are going to talk about.

[00:01:25] You see, when you talk about growth, when we call ourselves the fastest growing economy, when we call ourselves the sixth largest economy, all of this, what is the premises, what are the basis of us calling ourselves the fastest growing economy or the sixth largest economy?

[00:01:43] A lot of you all will say, it's GDP. Of course, GDP is all about GDP. Our GDP figures are supposed to be the best, at least sixth best in the world. So our GDP growth, so we are, yeah, yeah, that's right. Now what makes GDP? What is the fundamental, what is the basis of our economy? You see, the basis of our economy is investment. The basis.

[00:02:11] And unfortunately, a lot of us do not talk about investments. We talk about everything else, but we do not talk about investments. And even if we talk about investment, the clarity that we get about investment is very varied. It depends on the way a person wants to present it to you. I'll tell you what I mean by this. You see, for any growth in this country, like I said, we require investments. Investments are of two types.

[00:02:39] Broadly. One is FDI foreign direct investment and second is domestic investments. Now with the combination of these two, we as a country, we grow. This builds GDP. GDP builds economy. economy. Or at least measurable economy. That's how economy is measured. I don't think GDP builds economy and all that, but that's how economy is measured. From a layman's point of view, this is what I will tell you.

[00:03:04] So let us understand this concept of investment. Foreign direct investment, we'll start with that. Foreign direct investment is something that every chief minister, every minister, every, I mean, even the prime minister, everybody talks about foreign direct investment and how they are going to go and try and get foreign direct investment. And every trip, every tour they make abroad, they call it venture to go and get foreign direct investments.

[00:03:34] Now being aggressive about foreign direct investments is very good. But what I feel is somewhere down the line, I think we also need to be focused and strategic about it. What do I mean by that? What do I mean by that? You see, let's take for example, financial year 2026. Financial 2026, we have done exceedingly well as far as gross foreign direct investment is concerned.

[00:04:00] We did exceedingly well. Our foreign direct investment is almost $95 billion. $95 billion. But you know what? Our net foreign direct investment is nowhere close to that.

[00:04:14] It is hardly around $7.7 billion. $7.7 billion. So now, where exactly are we going wrong? $95 billion means that the world is interested in investing in India. $95 billion means Indian market is worth investing and the world is excited about it. Then where are we going wrong? Have we thought about it? 11. Now let's see. 10. See you see, what's wrong? I mean, that's why our market is so cool. The last market for Direktivari. A big picture is $95 billion. 1.

[00:04:43] And after the old subject, they will have to see change. investment and go the official explanation given is that they take profits that take and they go

[00:05:13] is that okay and what is the country what are we doing about it i'll give you a marketing example in the mid 90s late 90s this concept of crm customer retention management came about customer retention management so it was not only about getting the customer to your to your door step to your counter it is also about ensuring that this customer is retained it is also about

[00:05:41] about this customer coming and repurchasing with you it is also about ensuring this customer comes and repeats their purchase with you that is what crm meant now juxtapose that to what is happening in our current economy you have 95 billion dollars 95 billion dollars invested in this year alone this financial year alone which is not bad which means the customers are coming to your counter but then

[00:06:10] where is our problem our problem is that we are not able to retain that customer 88 out of that 95 billion dollars have been taken away roughly and only 7.7 billion dollars is what is your net fdi 88 billion dollars taken away out of that 95 billion dollars so end of the day end of the day except for a lot of efforts and a lot of foreign tour and all of that india the money is not with us the

[00:06:39] money is gone are you getting the picture this will not get us growth this will not get us growth because unfortunately we are still hunting for that 95 billion dollars we are not bothered about that 88 billion dollars which has been taken away from us which has which has gone out of us what does that mean which means that these foreigners who have come and invested in us it is their money it is

[00:07:03] their will it is their right to take it back whenever they want then the point is we do not make enough efforts to ensure that these foreigners stay invested in our country like i spoke to you about consumers that they repurchase from you they they they they repeat their purchases from you that we do not we do not ensure we have no crm programs with these investors who have already invested in india

[00:07:31] in fact they find when they come to india they find the compliances too too too stringent they find there is corruption they find that they were you know the ease of doing business and all are all in paper in reality there is no ease of doing business they find that you know taxes are very high they find that they are not heard they are not heard you see they

[00:07:56] it the day at times and i tell you this a lot of people at times feel that you know it's as if the government is doing some favor on these investors by letting them to invest in india that's the feeling a lot of people get right wrong otherwise that you can debate till the cows come home but that's the feeling that these investors get whether right wrong otherwise the onus of changing that feeling is ours not theirs

[00:08:23] it is not about they are thinking wrong it is about how we are going to change the way they are thinking and that's the effort we need to take so davos is good going to davos and presenting all that is good but the people who are with you the people who are invested in our country why don't you take care of them why don't you ensure that you sit across the table and tell them listen this is the paper tell us what you want us to do because we want your money we want an investment we want your business

[00:08:50] how can we help you grow your business end of the day why would a german company come and invest in india to make india big german company will come and invest in india to make more money for themselves help them make more money for themselves in the process we will grow we will also make a lot of money are you getting it so it is it is a very mutual symbiotic process but in this symbiosis we have to give

[00:09:15] more importance to the customer who is the investor in this case like somebody said customer is the king that skin has to be taken care of that is the best way to have more customers that's the best way to have more investors in your country and the entire point that i want to make here is good we are aggressively focusing on investments coming into india good but in the same way we need to ensure that we focus on

[00:09:43] investment being retained in india people reinvest their their their profits in india you see let me tell you when you talk about big conglomerates big companies i mean they don't take money and put into their pocket to buy a new car that is not what they take profits for they take profits to ensure that their valuation of their company grows so if india is a very conducive market india is a good market

[00:10:10] we are a huge market by the way our consumption is huge our consumerism is good if you keep them happy they will go on investing in your country because they don't need to take the money back home and and buy a two bedroom flat for themselves that is not what they what investors do they will reinvest in your country what we don't understand is why are they taking money out of your country our explanation is oh they are taking the profits away they are taking are they but why are they taking the profits away

[00:10:39] like i said it is not to buy two bedroom flat no they're taking profits away because they don't believe in reinvesting the profit in your country and that's the question we need to ask ourselves why they don't believe in us why they don't find us stable and what will make them reinvest their money in our country this is my first point that i wanted to make let me get to my point number two let's talk about domestic investors see we heard about adani now investing a huge amount of money in united states

[00:11:08] 15 000 jobs he's promised to provide and all that those were the the reports that were floating around but whatever reason that is you heard about a money investing going to invest in your united states and so on and so forth that too the reasons could be whatever but the investment is going there you see according to a report in in bbc india's sun pharmaceutical company agreed to pay 11.75 billion

[00:11:32] dollars to acquire a new york listed women health company called organon and company so 11.75 billion dollars sun pharma you see tata motors have spent 4.4 billion dollars to acquire a vehicle manufacturing company an it company of india called coforge has spent 2.35 billion dollars in silicon valley

[00:11:56] to buy an it company data from consultancy grant thornton shows that 162 indian companies spend close to 18 billion on outbound acquisition in 2025 35 percent increase from last year this is the status our companies investing abroad now let us not get here and talk about are a an anti-national

[00:12:22] a nationalist all this jingoism first let us keep it outside it is their money it is their growth and like you expect google to come into india and invest in india we can we should also be open when our companies are going abroad and investing in other companies where other countries where they see greener pastures it is absolutely fair the question is not whether it is fair or not the question is what are we doing to go down to a sun pharma and say listen mr sun pharma what do you want from india what

[00:12:50] you want from us let's pitch let's pitch let's come to you with our proposal let tell us what you require from us we are willing to deliver that to you as much as it fits into our law and our our policies we will deliver that to you why are we not doing that the only thing i read in newspaper is ed rated him ed rated that jetl he rated this that is all i read now all that is good you are cleaning up and all that they have been cleaning up and what kind of cleaning up also one understands but all that is

[00:13:18] good but where is it where we are celebrating our our wealth creators except for one or two of course why don't we celebrate our wealth creators why don't we ensure that at home they are given every policy every backing that that can help them why is it limited to a very few wealth creators in india why don't we open our doors to everybody and then these people go abroad and invest abroad

[00:13:48] they are not wrong they are seeking profits that's what they do that's their job it is our responsibility to ensure that this leakage is stopped they remain in india their money is reinvested in india so i spoke to you about foreign direct investments and i spoke to you briefly in india so that this is the thought that i wanted to actually share with you today and write down your comments in the comment box below and i'll be waiting to read them till i see you next time

[00:14:17] that's tomorrow at 10 namaskar