India to ease investment rules to catch up China

India’s newly re-elected government yesterday promised an easing of foreign investment rules and more infrastructure spending in an effort to boost flagging growth rates and create jobs.

India has been leap-frogged by China as the world’s fastest-growing major economy, with unemployment in Asia’s third-biggest economy at its highest since the 1970s.

In the first budget since Prime Minister Narendra Modi won a landslide in May, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said she wanted to boost foreign direct investment (FDI) in several sectors.