THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN FDI AND ECONOMIC GROWTH IN INDIA. A TIME SERIES APPROACH

Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) has gained importance after the second world war. In broader sense Foreign Direct Investment incorporates the establishment of up to date and advanced facilities, mergers and acquisitions, investing the profits earned from other overseas business activities, providing loans to other companies etc. In narrow sense the Foreign Direct Investment means investment in the country other than the investors own country. FDI can be better understood by studying the real reason that why the companies have shown interest in investing abroad rather than exporting and outsourcing their products to domestic firms. In due course of time many theories and approaches were developed to explain FDI. Although several researchers have tried to explain the phenomenon of FDI, we cannot say there is a generally accepted theory, every new evidence added some new elements and criticism to the previous ones. FDI in India is playing a noticeable role in the growth and development of the country. India is one of the important countries of the world which is able to receive substantial amount of FDI. The present study has made an effort to see the relationship between the FDI and Economic growth in India. GDP has proxies for economic growth. First the Johansen cointegration test result shows the long run relationship between variables and the Granger causality test result exhibits that there is unidirectional Granger causality between FDI and GDP. Next the Multiple Regression model result presents that the estimated coefficients on FDI & exports have a positive relationship with GDP. Therefore, it is statistically revealed that FDI and Exports are instrumental in influencing the level of economic growth in India. India is having certain drawbacks like Weak infrastructure, Complicated tax structure, Restrictive labor laws, Bureaucracy and Corruption. Unless and until these challenges are met with, India will never compete with China regarding FDI inflows. KEYWORDS: Foreign Direct Investment, Gross Domestic Product, Economic Growth.