I&B sector received FDI worth $161 million in Apr-Sep 2020: Economic Survey

The information and broadcasting sector attracted foreign direct investment of $161 million in April-September 2020 compared to $196 million in April-September 2019, as per Economic Survey 2020-21 report on the Services sector. Information and broadcasting is classified as a sub-sector within the wider Services sector.

In FY20, the FDI inflow into the information & broadcasting sector was $823 million compared to $1.25 billion in FY19. The information & broadcasting sector's share in Gross FDI equity inflows into the Services sector in 2019-20 stood at 0.68%.

The Economic Survey noted that the year 2020 was a peculiar year marred by the COVID-19 pandemic and consequent nationwide and worldwide lockdown measures implemented since March 2020. The contact intensive services sector was severely impacted, particularly sub-sectors such as tourism, aviation, and hospitality.

It added that the first half of FY 2020-21 saw services sector contract by almost 16% YoY. This decline was led by a sharp contraction in all sub-sectors particularly trade, hotels, transport, communication & services related to broadcasting, which contracted by 31.5% in H1 FY 2020-21. As per the first advance estimates, the Gross Value Added (GVA) of the services sector is estimated to contract by 8.8% in 2020-21, whereas it grew by 5.5% in 2019-20.

It noted that sub-sectors ‘trade, hotels, transport, communication & broadcasting services’, ‘financial, real estate & professional services’, and ‘public administration, defence’ is estimated to contract by 21.41%, 3.68%, and 0.82% respectively.

It is pertinent to note that while the services sector contracted by over 20% in the first quarter (Q1) of FY 2020-21, the contraction narrowed to 11.4% in the second quarter (Q2) of FY 2020-21. This pace of recovery is broadly aligned with high-frequency indicators that point to a pick in economic momentum with the measured opening up of the economy from June 2020.