India attracted USD 891 million (Rs 4,023 crore) foreign direct investment in the telecommunications segment in the first two months of the current fiscal, the highest among all sectors.

The telecommunications sector, including radio paging, cellular mobile, basic telephone services, had attracted USD 612 million (Rs 3,055 crore) during April-May 2009-10.

It was followed by services sector that attracted USD 587 million investment, metallurgical industries (USD 461 million) and power (USD 313 million) in that order during the period.

The country managed to attract USD 4.42 billion foreign direct investment (FDI) during April-May 2010-11, while it was USD 4.43 billion in the year ago month, according to the latest official data.

The highest FDI of USD 1.29 billion came from Mauritius followed by Singapore (USD 854 million), Japan (USD 369 million) and the Netherlands (USD 298 million) in April-May 2010-11.

The government is making sustained efforts to make the FDI policy regime more attractive and investor friendly, with a view to attract investments from all major investing countries.

The government had floated discussion papers for public comments to liberalise FDI in multi-brand retail and defence sector.

The FDI for 2009-10 at USD 25.88 billion was lower by five per cent from USD 27.33 billion in the previous fiscal.