The government today said it has cleared 25 foreign direct investment (FDI) proposals, including that of AIF III of Mauritius and Mumbai based Microqual Techno, worth Rs 2,973.40 crore.

The applications were cleared after recommendations of the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) headed by Economic Affairs Secretary R Gopalan, the Finance Ministry said.

The FIPB, during its meeting held earlier this month, had also rejected eight proposals and deferred decision on 13 applications.

As per the ministry, application of AIF III Sub Pvt Ltd to bring in FDI worth Rs 1,000 crore has been approved. The Mauritius based firm proposes to induct foreign investment in the units of a Fund constituted as a Trust.

Microqual Techno's application is to increase foreign equity to carry out business of wireless telecommunications. The proposal was worth Rs 522.90 crore.

The proposal of Mauritius based Mozart for infusion of foreign investment in an existing company in the pharmaceuticals sector (brownfield investments) has also been approved. The company has proposed to bring in investment worth Rs 300 crore.

Sun Pharma Research Company's proposal for infusion of foreign equity by way of issue of partly paid up shares to carry out the development of new proprietary drugs has been cleared, the ministry said.

Other proposals which have been approved are those of Genworth Financial Mortgage Guaranty India (Rs 124 crore, Plethico Pharmaceuticals, Mumbai (Rs 500 crore) and Kintetsu World Express (India), Karnataka (Rs 267.69 crore).

Among proposals which were rejected include, Budenheim India, New Delhi; Hey House Publishers (I) and Growing Opportunity Finance (India), Chennai.

The proposals on which decisions were deferred include that of Fabindia Overseas, Paragon Asset Reconstruction, Tara Aerospace Systems and Netmagic Solutions.

The next meeting of FIPB is scheduled to be held on Friday.

India allows FDI in most of the sectors through automatic route, but approval of FIPB is required in certain sensitive sectors, like telecom.