India surpassed China to emerge as the top destination for foreign direct investment (FDI) in 2015.  India attracted $63 billion worth of foreign investment last year, according to FDI Intelligence - a unit of the Financial Times group.

"India replaced China as the top destination for FDI by capital investment following a year of high-value project announcements, specifically across the coal, oil and natural gas and renewable energy sectors," the FDI report said.         

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The report claimed that number of projects in India rose by eight percent to 697, as compared to China's 789 projects, last year. However, the value of investments was much higher in India, helping Delhi to surpass Beijing in the FDI race.

Several well known foreign MNCs had announced big ticket and long term projects in India last year. This included UK based SunEdison's plan to build a solar panel factory in India and Taiwanese manufacturer's announcing that it would invest $5 billion in India in the next 5 years.

This is the first time that India has overtaken China in the FDI race. For four to five continuous years China piped India in almost all surveys and studies over foreign direct investment.    

India is currently seen as a bright spot in the global economy that has been badly battered by recession. The Indian economy clocked 7.3 percent growth in 2015, making it the fastest growing economy in the world.

On other hand, China is at present battling unprecedented economic crisis. Almost all the important economic indicators in the Chinese economy have either witnessed stagnation or lower than expected growth during one and half years.

The Chinese government's decision last month to slash 1.8 billion jobs from steel and coal industries is widely seen as a sign of just how deep current economic crisis is.

However, despite the current economic turmoil, experts believe that it would take almost a decade for India to catch up with China's economic progress.

Tagschina, India, Indian Economy, Chinese Economy, China and India