The Indian government on Wednesday said the foreign direct investment (FDI) has shown a continuous increase over the past five years in the South Asian country.

"FDI has shown a continuous increase from 45.15 billion U.S. dollars in 2014-15 to 81.97 billion U.S. dollars in 2020-21," Indian federal junior minister for commerce and industry Som Parkash said at the lower house of the Indian parliament.

"During the last five financial years, FDI inflows worth 339.55 billion U.S. dollars have been reported into India."

To increase the FDI, the Indian government has put in place an investor-friendly policy, enabling most sectors to be open for 100 percent FDI under the automatic route.

Parkash said FDI inflows serve to augment domestic investments, promote industrial development and employment generation across sectors and ancillary industries.

"Further, such investments bring international best practices and latest technologies which facilitate in skill development, export promotion and improvement of overall competitiveness of economy leading to overall economic growth and development in the country," the official said.