The government on Monday took credit for the record $59.64 billion foreign direct investment in the pandemic year of 2020-21, an increase of 19 per cent over the previous year. The Centre attributed the rise to the measures taken by the government in policy reforms, investment facilitation and ease of doing business.

In 2019-20, India recorded FDI inflows of $49.98 billion.

However, trade analysts said the data mask the reality. Between April and December, the Reliance Group sold equity shares in seven companies to foreign investors, worth nearly $28 billion.

“To what extent can these FDI inflows contribute to the revival of the Indian economy by creating productive capacities? Would these inflows support the government’s flagship Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan announced for the turnaround of the manufacturing sector?” trade analysts Biswajit Dhar of Jawaharlal Nehru University and K. S. Chalapati Rao, former professor at the Institute for Studies in Industrial Development, said.