The latest data on investment announcements in the country paint a mixed picture, with varying policy implications. New project announcements by the private sector overall rose to nearly a 15-month high in the first half of this financial year to ₹9.9 lakh crore. Such investments have historically been driven by Indian firms, but that concentration has intensified in the last few years. While Indian firms accounted for 77% of all private sector announcements in 2018-19, that share was 94% in the first half of the current financial year. Taken together, these data points underscore a diametrically opposite outlook on the Indian economy held by domestic and foreign firms. Domestic firms seem increasingly optimistic. It remains to be seen how many of these announcements fructify, but the data

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