We will assemble and analyse a database of bilateral investments identifying the degree to which each has been facilitated by FinTech in order to establish the role of FinTech in promoting cross-border investment. Our first step in building a dataset will be to identify those investments where FinTech has a role. As there is no existing dataset that adequately covers our area of study, we will acquire investor- wise information from a range of sources include Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) publication on Overseas Direct Investment (ODI), the FDI Newsletter of Department for the Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), Government of India and FDI Markets database of Financial Times. Each of these serves different purposes. The ODI data provides the list of investors from India who have invested abroad. FDI Newsletter provides the investor-wide information on FDI coming to India. It is possible to identify investments from UK. FDI Markets data provides list of greenfield investments globally and the bilateral investments between the two countries can be identified.
Having established a dataset of bilateral investments between the two countries, we will adopt a classification system to identify those investments which might have been enabled by FinTech. We will enhance this dataset with detailed information about selected investors, collected from their annual reports, submissions to nodal agencies like Ministry of Corporate Affairs of India, Department of Trade and Industry, Parliamentary Committees etc. FDI Markets data provides detailed information about the companies listed in their database. Semi-structured interviews will also be conducted with selected investors focusing on their experiences of investment and barriers (target 8 interviews); we will conduct qualitative content analysis on interview transcripts. Through this exercise, we will establish the significance of FinTech in influencing cross-border investment decisions.
