RBI widens FPIs’ investment scope in local corporate debt Mint Street late on Tuesday raised the incentive for Corporate India to tap the bond market for its working capital needs, allowing foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) to invest a fifth of their total corpus in less th an one-year residual debt papers sold by local companies. The latest directive extends last week’s concessions that effectively enhanced shortterm GSec ownership by overseas funds. Although the policy maker has not raised benchmark rates yet in Asia’s third-biggest economy, the cost of funds at the short end of the yield curve has accelerated much faster than the long end, threatening to increase working capital expenses in an economy where the weighted average cost of capital trends higher than developed countries. “In order to bring consistency across debt categories, it is stipulated that investments by an FPI in corporate bonds with residual maturity below one year shall not exceed, at any point in time