The Indian government after independence had put barriers on foreign trade investment.
Initially, Indian industries were just coming up after independence, so competition from imports wouldn’t have allowed these industries to come up.
In 1999, the government decided that the time had come for Indian producers to compete with the producers around the globe.
It was felt that competition would improve the proformance of producers within the country, since they would improve their quality.
Thus, barries on foreign trade and foreign investment were removed to a large extent.