India's January foreign direct investment surged by 92 percent to $2 billion from the $1.04 billion last January, taking cumulative inflows to $26.19 billion for April-January period of the current fiscal.

Experts feel if reforms are pushed, there is much more potential for attracting increased foreign investment.

The sectors that received large foreign FDI inflows during the 10-month period this fiscal are services ($4.83 billion), pharmaceuticals ($3.20 billion), telecommunication ($1.99 billion), construction ($2.23 billion), power ($1.56 billion) and metallurgical industries ($1.65 billion).

Mauritius remains the top source of inflows ($ 8.91 billion), thanks to the double taxation avoidance treaty. Other sources were Singapore ($4.30 billion), Japan ($ 2.75 billion), UK ($2.75 billion), Germany ($1.46 billion), Netherlands ($ 1.16 billion) and Cyprus ($ 1.31 billion).

FDI inflows into India totaled $19.42 billion in 2010-11 financial year, down from $ 25.83 billion in 2009-10.

FICCI Secretary General Rajiv Kumar reportedly said, "There is an urgent need for strong reforms like 100 percent FDI in sectors like multi-brand retail and insurance. There is a need to boost investor confidence. $2 billion in month is not a big number,"

Recently, the Indian government has liberalized the FDI regime and allowed overseas investment in bee-keeping and share-pledging for raising external debt.

RTTNews