As of October 1998, there were 3,074 medium and large projects envisaging an investment of Rs 12,57,665 crore indicating a growth of just 1.5 per cent compared with the 3,380 projects involving a total investment of Rs 12,38,367 crore a year ago.

Further, only 39 per cent of these proposed investments were under implementation, according to the 16th investment survey by CMIE.

Fresh investment proposals declined sharply by nearly 30 per cent between November 1997 and October 1998. Barring the service sector, all other sectors registered sharp fall in fresh investment proposals, CMIE said in its November 1998 edition of ``Monthly review of Indian economy.''

The decline in proposals in the manufacturing sector was 48 per cent, in electricity sector 49 per cent and in mining sector 53 per cent.

Within the manufacturing sector the declines were steep inindustries like steel (minus 76 per cent), petroleum products (minus 68 per cent), drugs & pharmaceuticals (minus 58 per cent) and food & agro products (minus 53 per cent).

The service sector received 416 fresh investment proposals worth Rs 1,07,537 crore during the 12 months ended October 1998. This indicates a rise of 124 per cent compared to the 275 projects worth Rs 48,000 crore announced during the same period a year ago, CMIE said.

Bulk of the new investment proposals were for developing roadways, LNG/LPG terminals, jetties and ports.

The total foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows of Rs 5,200 crore during the first six months of 1998-99 was around 20 per cent lower than the Rs 6,484 crore FDI received during the corresponding period of 1997-98.

The average monthly inflow of FDI, which was around Rs 1,024 crore between April 1997 and June 1998, has dropped down considerably to Rs 552 crore between July 1998 and September 1998, CMIE added.