What Modi's Brand India Rought Home

PM Modi has visited 53 countries so far, hawking Brand India to the world at large. What perceptible difference has this thrust on diplomacy made to trade and investment?

- Manish Kumar Jha

PRIME MINISTER NARENDRA MODI’S whirlwind tour of 53 countries across six continents in the course of four years was primarily aimed at repositioning India on the investment map of the world. It came in the wake of a long spell of indecisive diplomacy during the second term of the United Progressive Alliance government. Emerging India perhaps lost the watershed moment because of its sluggish approach to international relations.

Modi’s National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government went about repositioning India as a hot and viable investment destination. It wooed global investors to India in a bid to kickstart the next phase of industrialisation. The mission resulted in a marathon tour of foreign climes, like the United States, United Kingdom, Japan, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Singapore, Russia, United Arab Emerites (UAE), China and Mauritius, among other nations.

The US, UK, Japan, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Singapore, Russia, UAE and China are the top ten investors in India in terms of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) as of December 2017. With Mauritius, India enjoys the Avoidance of Double Taxation Treaty, which no doubt facilitated the massive inflow of $40.56 billion worth of FDI during the 2015 and 2016 calendar years, which is an all-time high.

The BW Research Bureau crunched some numbers to examine the tangible gains from the Prime Minister’s tour of the top ten nations in terms of FDI inflows. In a graphical display on Page 32, we have compared FDI inflows from these top ten nations in 2013 and 2014 (the last two years of UPA II tenure) with those in 2015, 2016 and 2017. We also talk of the bilateral agreements that fructified during the period and their significance.

Brand India