“The decline is temporary. Some major FDI proposals are in the pipeline. I am sure it will increase in the coming months,” Sharma told reporters on the sidelines of a business event organised here by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).
He said the revelations of scams and corporate frauds would not deter foreign firms and institutions from investing in India as it was just a short-term phenomenon.
In the first 11 months of fiscal 2010-11, foreign direct investment fell 25.67 percent to $18.3 billion as compared to $24.62 billion during the corresponding period of the previous year.
Sharma is hopeful that big ticket deals like that of British Petroleum-Reliance would reverse the trend in the coming months.
“India is a functional constitutional democracy and has the ability to fix the problems,” the minister said, adding that the government was committed to creating a corruption-free environment and would deal with culprits sternly.
“India is not the only country where scams and frauds have taken place. But we have identified and fixed the problems more quickly and efficiently than even many of the developed countries,” he said.
