Overseas buys new facet of India Inc: FM

Finance Minister P Chidambaram today said that Indian companies going for overseas acquisitions is the new facet of the globalisation process.

"Indian companies are hungry to go abroad, acquire manufacturing firms as well as technology, R&D capabilities, patents and brands, and position themselves as serious players in new markets," Chidambaram said at the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs in Wellington recently.

India is now increasingly regarded as a capable and dependable centre for research and development and a source of new ideas in science and technology, he added.

"A large number of companies that feature among the world's largest corporations have established a research base in India," he said.

The outward investment by Indian companies in the last three years has been estimated at $1.5 billion, $4.5 billion and $7.5 billion, respectively.

"The numbers may still be small by world standards. In my view, this is only a beginning," Chidambaram said.