India's Agriculture and Food Multinationals: A First Look

India, one of the world's largest agricultural economies and now amongst its Top 25 outward investors, is as yet an insignificant outward investor in agriculture. This is largely because of long-standing restrictions on corporate involvement in agriculture. However, with India's agricultural sector now gradually liberalising, Indian firms from this and allied sectors have begun to invest outward. Among them are Indian crop, seed, and agricultural equipment firms, all seeking to build the capacity and product portfolio to better service India's immense market and international customers. Indian food, beverage and fertiliser firms have also begun to globalise to secure raw material supplies, expand global market share, and bring the Indian consumer new offerings. This paper takes a first look at these developments through an analysis of the publicly-announced Indian outward M&As in the agriculture, food and beverages sector from January 2005 to December 2010.