Govt okays foreign investment bids worth Rs 85 crore

New Delhi: The government on Wednesday approved 21 foreign investment proposals amounting to Rs 84.9 crore ($17.78 million).

Prominent among the proposals approved by the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) is one by Germany's BASF, which plans to invest Rs 63 crore to manufacture specialty chemicals and trade in commoditised products.

Venture capitalist Ventureeast will invest Rs.9.61 crore in the capital markets, while two Japanese companies, Metal One Corp and Kusakabe will invest Rs 5.14 crore and Rs 5 crore respectively to set up manufacturing units.

Metal One Corp plans to set up a joint venture steel processing unit, and Kusakabe proposes to manufacture machinery for tube and pipe mills.

FIPB put on hold a decision on 14 proposals, with Unitech Wireless's plea to increase its foreign shareholding to 74 per cent being one.

Seven proposals were rejected.