The total value of Australian investments in India during the period April 2000 to September 2008 was Rs 9,983.5 million ( US$ 226.02 million). This accounts for 0.31 % of the total approved investment in India from all countries and sources.
The top sectors attracting FDI inflows (from January 2000 to December 2007) from Australia were Metallurgical industries, Services Sector (financial and insurance) , Telecommunications , Consultancy Services and Hotel & Tourism in that order.
Australia has been granted 160 technical collaborations or 2.01 % of the overall total technical collaborations since 1991.
Some of the major Australian companies which have presence in India include Telstra (telecommunications); BHP Billiton (mining); Rio Tinto (mining); MIM Holdings (mining); Snowy Mountains Engineering Corporation (infrastructure development); Argyle diamonds (technical support office for diamond sales); P & O (development of container ports); Orica Limited (joint venture with Imperial Chemical Industries); Lucent Technologies (IT); ANZ (IT); Accor (Hotel Chain); Boral Ltd; Qantas (Airlines); TNT Express (courier services); Village Roadshow (entertainment); Cookie Man (biscuits); Faber Castell (stationery products); Futuris brakes; Minter Elison (legal services); Narrowcasters (simultaneous interpretation in Museums in Mumbai, Delhi and Jodhpur); Mayne Group (pharma); Sigma (pharma); among others. Recent entrants include Macquarie Group (infrastructure); Blue scope steel; L J Hooker (realty & property development); Leighton Holding (property development); Axa Asia Pacific (joint venture agreement with Bharti Telecoms Group for Insurance); Woolworths (retail and IT opportunities with Tata Sons and TCS); among others. Some of the other prominent Australian companies such as the Westfield Group (Lowy) have also been looking at India for expansion of their operations. Other companies include Nufarm (Jv with Excel Industries – Fertliser), Flight centre (travel), SAI Global (standards and quality services) Brambles (Doc mgt subsidiary), Orbital ( Fuel Systems), Linfox (transport logistics) and IAG (insurance).
Opportunities
Potential for Indo-Australian cooperation exists in infrastructure development including roads, ports, airports and railways; power sector; mining; oil and natural gas including LNG; biotechnology; drugs and pharmaceuticals; information technology; water management, soil conservation and waste disposal; food processing and agribusiness; film and television; processing of gems and jewellery; tourism; and education.
