Gujarat "leads" in FDI investment, India replaces China as top destination due to privatization, labour reforms

By A Representative
Gujarat has “topped” the list of 10 most sought-after destination states for foreign direct investment (FDI) in 2015 in a comparison drawn between India and China by a new report by the Financial Times Group's thinktank FDI Intelligence. The report says, Gujarat "attracted $12.4bn and claimed 10% of all capital investment into both countries."
"In 2011, Gujarat was ranked the 14th most popular state for FDI within the two countries", the report says, adding, "Maharashtra in western India has been one of the strongest performers across the years and it has continued to close the gap on the top Chinese destination, Shanghai Municipality, with the locations attracting $8.3bn and $10.6bn, respectively, in 2015."
However, the report, titled "The FDI Report 2016: Global greenfield investment trends" does not say how much of the "committed" investment has actually fructified. In fact, a separate FDI Insight analysis does not mention Ahmedabad, Gujarat's business capital, or any other city of the state, among top ten FDI job creating cities in the Asia-Pacific region.
It says, with 15,000 jobs, Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh City was "the regional leader in job creation over July 1 to December 31, 2015", adding, "Not far behind was the southern Indian city of Bangalore, which came second as a destination for FDI jobs, with 14,223 created over the same period."

"Singapore came third as a FDI destination for jobs, with 11,042. Noida, in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, came in fourth with 9,922 and Shanghai took fifth place with 8674", says the report.
The "sensational" revelation on Gujarat comes admidst "The FDI Report 2016" claiming that “India replaced China as leading recipient of capital investment in Asia-Pacific with announced FDI of $63bn". It adds, "China suffered a 16% drop in FDI projects." India, on the other hand, experienced an “8% increase in project numbers.”
Praising Prime Minister Narendra Modi for making India and Gujarat No 1 destination, the report says, the factors which led to this included pushing into the backdrop such factors like "lack of progressive FDI reforms, retrospective taxation, excessive permit requisites, centre-state political stalemates, inflexible labour markets, land acquisition issues and inadequate infrastructure hindered large-scale FDI into India prior to 2013."
Praising Modi his "campaign" for attracting FDI, the report underlines, it "garnered global attention as he has encouraged foreign investors to privatise key sectors such as the railways, defence manufacturing and insurance, as well as the liberalisation of medical devices." It adds, all this has helped in "ease of creating business."
The report says, "FDI flows into India increased from $24bn in 2013 to $59bn in 2015. The floodgates had been opened. India’s dramatic ascension in the global FDI rankings has largely been due to a dynamic Modi-led government focusing on ‘big bang’ FDI and labour law reforms."

It adds, "Relative stability within the government coupled with an effort to reduce the stagnating effects of bureaucracy has given foreign investors, across many industries, confidence in India as a remunerative investment opportunity. India announced itself as a global force in the FDI sector as it broke into the top 10 economies in terms of incoming FDI flows in 2014."
It praises what it calls "Modi’s marquee visit to New York in late 2015 saw a plethora of US-based CEOs of Fortune 500 companies such as Google, Ford, Cisco, IBM, Lockheed, Marriott, Starwood, MasterCard, Merck, Pepsi, DuPont, Dow and EY hosting the prime minister and citing plans to expand in India. This event turned out to be a causative indicator for 2015 as India moved up to number six in the world for FDI flows in 2015."

Comments

NYT: RSS 'infiltrates' institutions, 'drives' religious divide under Modi's leadership

By Jag Jivan A comprehensive New York Times investigation published on December 26, 2025, chronicles the rise of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) — characterized as a far-right Hindu nationalist organization — from a shadowy group founded in 1925 to the world's largest right-wing force, marking its centenary in 2025 with unprecedented influence and mainstream acceptance. Prime Minister Narendra Modi , who joined the RSS as a young boy and later became a full-time campaigner before being deputized to its political wing in the 1980s, delivered his strongest public tribute to the group in his August 2025 Independence Day address. Speaking from the Red Fort , he called the RSS a "giant river" with dozens of streams touching every aspect of Indian life, praising its "service, dedication, organization, and unmatched discipline." The report describes how the RSS has deeply infiltrated India's institutions — government, courts, police, media, and academia — ...

Domestic vote-bank politics 'behind official solidarity' with Bangladeshi Hindus

By Sandeep Pandey, Faisal Khan The Indian government has registered a protest with Bangladesh over the mob lynching of two Hindus—Deepu Chandra Das in Mymensingh and Amrit Mandal in Rajbari. In its communication, the government cited a report by the Association of Hindus, Buddhists and Christian Unity Council, which claims that more than 2,900 incidents of killings, arson, and land encroachments targeting minorities have taken place since the interim government assumed power in Bangladesh.

Dalit woman student’s death sparks allegations of institutional neglect in Himachal college

By A Representative A Dalit rights organisation has alleged severe caste- and gender-based institutional violence leading to the death of a 19-year-old Dalit woman student at Government Degree College, Dharamshala, Himachal Pradesh, and has demanded arrests, resignations, and an independent inquiry into the case.

From colonial mercantilism to Hindutva: New book on the making of power in Gujarat

By Rajiv Shah Professor Ghanshyam Shah ’s latest book, “ Caste-Class Hegemony and State Power: A Study of Gujarat Politics ”, published by Routledge , is penned by one of Gujarat ’s most respected chroniclers, drawing on decades of fieldwork in the state. It seeks to dissect how caste and class factors overlap to perpetuate the hegemony of upper strata in an ostensibly democratic polity. The book probes the dominance of two main political parties in Gujarat—the Indian National Congress and the BJP—arguing that both have sustained capitalist growth while reinforcing Brahmanic hierarchies.

Gig workers’ strike halts platforms, union submits demands to Labour Ministry

By A Representative India’s gig economy witnessed an partial disruption on December 31, 2025, as a large number of delivery workers, app-based service providers, and freelancers across the country participated in a nationwide strike called by the Gig & Platform Service Workers Union (GIPSWU). The strike, which followed days of coordinated protests, shut down major platforms including Zomato , Swiggy , Blinkit , Zepto , Flipkart , and BigBasket in several areas.

Epic war against caste system is constitutional responsibility of elected government

Edited by well-known Gujarat Dalit rights leader Martin Macwan, the book, “Bhed-Bharat: An Account of Injustice and Atrocities on Dalits and Adivasis (2014-18)” (available in English and Gujarati*) is a selection of news articles on Dalits and Adivasis (2014-2018) published by Dalit Shakti Prakashan, Ahmedabad. Preface to the book, in which Macwan seeks to answer key questions on why the book is needed today: *** The thought of compiling a book on atrocities on Dalits and thus present an overall Indian picture had occurred to me a long time ago. Absence of such a comprehensive picture is a major reason for a weak social and political consciousness among Dalits as well as non-Dalits. But gradually the idea took a different form. I found that lay readers don’t understand numbers and don’t like to read well-researched articles. The best way to reach out to them was storytelling. As I started writing in Gujarati and sharing the idea of the book with my friends, it occurred to me that while...

Celebrating 125 yr old legacy of healthcare work of missionaries

Vilas Shende, director, Mure Memorial Hospital By Moin Qazi* Central India has been one of the most fertile belts for several unique experiments undertaken by missionaries in the field of education and healthcare. The result is a network of several well-known schools, colleges and hospitals that have woven themselves into the social landscape of the region. They have also become a byword for quality and affordable services delivered to all sections of the society. These institutions are characterised by committed and compassionate staff driven by the selfless pursuit of improving the well-being of society. This is the reason why the region has nursed and nurtured so many eminent people who occupy high positions in varied fields across the country as well as beyond. One of the fruits of this legacy is a more than century old iconic hospital that nestles in the heart of Nagpur city. Named as Mure Memorial Hospital after a British warrior who lost his life in a war while defending his cou...

2025 was not just a bad year—it was a moral failure, it normalised crisis

By Atanu Roy* The clock has struck midnight. 2025 has passed, and 2026 has arrived. Firecrackers were already bursting in celebration. If this is merely a ritual, like Deepavali, there is little to comment on. Otherwise, I find 2025 to have been a dismal year, weighed down by relentless odds—perhaps the worst year I have personally witnessed.

Urgent need to study cause of large number of natural deaths in Gulf countries

By Venkatesh Nayak* According to data tabled in Parliament in April 2018, there are 87.76 lakh (8.77 million) Indians in six Gulf countries, namely Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). While replying to an Unstarred Question (#6091) raised in the Lok Sabha, the Union Minister of State for External Affairs said, during the first half of this financial year alone (between April-September 2018), blue-collared Indian workers in these countries had remitted USD 33.47 Billion back home. Not much is known about the human cost of such earnings which swell up the country’s forex reserves quietly. My recent RTI intervention and research of proceedings in Parliament has revealed that between 2012 and mid-2018 more than 24,570 Indian Workers died in these Gulf countries. This works out to an average of more than 10 deaths per day. For every US$ 1 Billion they remitted to India during the same period there were at least 117 deaths of Indian Workers in Gulf ...

Search This Blog