The Union Cabinet, in its recently held meeting under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh has approved the proposal of soft-drink maker PepsiCo in which the firm had sought injection of an additional $200 million in PepsiCo India holdings, the Indian subsidiary of group, in coming three years.

The company's global Chief Executive Officer, Ms Indira Nooyi had announced $500-million investment plan in September 2008.

Addressing the media persons after cabinet meet, the Union Minister for Human Resource and Development Mr. Kapil Sibal said that the investment plan has already been approved by the Foreign Investments Promotion Board (FIPB) in October before the decision taken by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) to push growth in the beverage industry.

PepsiCo India, present in India since 1989, would use the investment for strengthening its fruit processing, agriculture, supply chain and building manufacturing capacity across different locations in the country. The firm that invested around $1 billion in India so far, also proposes to setup new green field plants in the states which can provide investment friendly environment.

Meanwhile, the committee also accepted changes in information and communication technology scheme to be implementing in eleventh five year plan.