In a bid to boost investments in general and foreign investment in particular, commerce and industry minister Anand Sharma has "strongly favoured" raising the FDI cap in telecom as well as defence sector and said he will meet global investors to address their concerns, particularly in multi-brand retail.

 

On the eve of a 10-day visit to Helsinki, St Petersburg, Belfast and London, Sharma on Sunday said he will address all the concerns of foreign retail sector investors and ensure all help in setting up stores and that his ministry will move the Cabinet seeking further liberalisation in other sectors as well which hold potential for FDI inflows.

 

Currently, a foreign company can invest up to 26 percent in the defence sector, while this is fixed at 74 percent in telecom companies. "I am strongly in favour of raising the cap in telecom sector. I have discussed this with the Telecom and Finance ministers and once we have the proposal, we will move the Cabinet for raising the cap to 100 per cent, and also for FDI in defence as we want defence manufacturing to be here," he told reporters in the Capital.

 

He said his ministry wants global majors in defence sector to partner both with the PSUs and the private sector to manufacture weapon systems in India. "Defence technologies have multiple applications including industrial applications. We want the global majors to partner with the Indian entities…so that the big outgo of foreign exchange could also be brought down and domestic manufacturing improves and jobs are created," he added.

 

On hiking FDI cap in defence sector, he said he has written to the defence minister AK Antony and would meet him on the matter. “The defence minister has written back to me suggesting that we will discuss this matter in a meeting," Sharma said, adding he will also hold deliberations with the Prime Minister on all these issues.