Govt. is proud of Indian firms investing abroad, is encouraging it: Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal

The government is proud of the high and growing amounts of investment Indian companies are making outside the country, and is actively encouraging these companies to make acquisitions and investment abroad, Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal said.

The Minister’s statement comes at a time when the latest data shows that outward direct investment by Indian companies grew nearly 46% to $20.5 billion in the April-October 2025 period.

“We are proud of it, we are encouraging it,” Mr. Goyal told The Hindu in response to a query on Friday (January 16, 2026). “No country has been successful or has become a developed country by being inward looking. You have to be bold and look at going across continents, and expand the frontiers of your own business.” 

The commerce minister said the government “strongly encourages” Indian businesses to invest abroad and has made regulatory changes to further enable this. 

“We have relaxed a lot of rules to encourage them to acquire companies world-wide and to set up manufacturing facilities world-wide, and to provide services world-wide,” Mr. Goyal said.

According to the Reserve Bank of India, the key destinations for outward FDI from India were Singapore, followed by the U.S. and the U.A.E., which together accounted for more than half of total outward FDI. 

The central bank added that around 90% of the outward FDI was in financial, insurance, and business services, followed by wholesale, retail trade, and manufacturing.