India received the highest ever foreign direct investment (FDI) worth 83.57 billion U.S. dollars during the financial year 2021-22 (April 2021-March 2022), the federal Ministry of Commerce and Industry said Friday.

The ministry said India had rapidly emerged as a preferred FDI destination, and that the FDI inflows had increased 20-fold in the past 20 years.

According to the ministry, FDI equity inflows in the manufacturing sector rose by 76 percent during 2021-22.

The country's southern state of Karnataka emerged as the top FDI equity inflow recipient state. Singapore remained the top investor with 27 percent share, followed by the United States with 18 percent share in total FDI inflows.

Computer software and hardware were the top recipient sectors of FDI equity inflow, with a share of around 25 percent.

FDI inflows have been consistently rising in the country over the years. It stood at 62 billion dollars in 2018-19, rose to 74.39 billion dollars during 2019-20, and further increased to 81.97 billion dollars during 2020-21, according to data released by the ministry.

"To further liberalize and simplify FDI policy for providing ease of doing business and attracting investments, reforms have been undertaken recently across sectors such as coal mining, contract manufacturing, digital media, single-brand retail trading, civil aviation, defense, insurance and telecom," said the ministry in an official statement.