Overseas investments by Indian companies stood at $797 million in January, with Tata Group,

RELATED ARTICLES Govt may soon take decision on FDI in aviation, retail Retrospective amendment in I-T laws will not impact FDI: Govt FDI routed through Mauritius, Singapore to avoid taxes: Govt Retrospective amendment to I-T Act may impact FDI India cites FDI, market returns for higher ratings from Fitch

infrastructure major IL&FS and pharma major Lupin emerging as major investors.

As many as 418 overseas investment transactions were carried out by various companies last month.

However, outbound foreign direct investment (FDI) in the month of January was over 45 per cent less than the $1.46 billion figure during December 2011, according to the Reserve Bank data released today.

Experts attributed the month-on-month decline to the global economic slowdown and said such variations in monthly outbound FDI is normal.

Tata Communications committed $76.78 million to its Singapore based wholly-owned subsidiary 'VSNL International PTE Ltd' which is involved in transport, storage and communication services.

Three other Tata Group firms -- Tata Chemicals, Tata Motors and Tata Power -- also committed a total of $7.33 million in their respective subsidiaries and joint ventures in Singapore, Bhutan, the UK and Mauritius.

In January, IL&FS Transportation Networks committed $48.16 million to its US-based wholly-owned subsidiary (WoS) INTL PTE Ltd which is engaged in manufacturing business.

Another group company, IL&FS Technologies Ltd, committed $24.17 million to its Philippines-based WoS IL&FS Technologies Singapore which is into financial, insurance, real estate and business services.

Lupin Ltd invested $39.38 million in its Netherlands- based WoS Lupin Holsings BV.

In the first ten months of the current fiscal (April- January), the outward FDIs and FDI commitments reached almost $26.1 billion, according to the RBI data.

While Indian companies are expanding overseas footprint, the FDI inflows during the April-November period (latest data available) reached $22.83 billion. In the last fiscal (2010-11) the FDI inflows crossed $19.43 billion.