As India amends FDI policy, startup investments reveal why protection from China is needed

Even as India on Saturday amended its foreign direct investment policy to ensure hostile takeover of stressed firms could take place during COVID-19 lockdown, major startups in country are already heavily funded by Chinese conglomerates with investments running into billions. In India, as is nature of such things all around world, all successful start-ups worth over 1 billion US dollars (Unicorns) are in some way or or funded by foreign entities, eir directly, or via indirectly via funding of venture capital that is invested into m, and China is a major player in this market, with some very big names.

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As per data released by Gateway House, Jasper Infotech, popularly kwn as e-commerce website Snapdeal, has received over $700 million as investment from Chinese multinational conglomerate-- Alibaba Group along with ors. Popular Indian e-payment website Paytm has received over $650 million from Chinese investors mostly by Alibaba Group again. 

report also reveals that food delivery app Swiggy has received an investment of around $500 million by Meituan Dianping and or Chinese conglomerates.  Ar top food delivery app in country, Zomato, has receiveed over $200 million as investment from Alibaba Group and ors. 

India's popular ride-sharing company Ola has received over $500 million from Chinese investors such as Tencent Holdings, Steadview Capital and ors, while Indian hotel chain Oyo Rooms has garnered over $100 million from Chinese investors, as per Gateway House report. 

While virus which has infected over 2,331,892 people and claimed over 1,60,763 lives bringing global ecomies to a standstill, China, from were it originated has slowly begun to recover from pandemic and has picked up its manufacturing again. 

India's red flags were raised after People's Bank of China (PBoC) on April 12, bought a 1% stake in India's largest housing finance lenders - HDFC Ltd, an investment amounting to  1.75 crore shares in HDFC. 

According to amendment in  Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), neighboring countries - including China, Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan will require government approval for investing in Indian companies. Apart from India, EU, US, Australia have checked Chinese FDI amid COVID-19 crisis.

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