Centre to introduce single-window clearance for investors by mid-April: DPIIT Secretary

As part of the ease of doing business in the country, the government is committed to introducing a single-window clearance mechanism for investors by mid-April next year.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman also spoke about it in her this year's Budget Speech and the department is developing a single-window mechanism, Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) Secretary Guruprasad Mohapatra said at a virtual event organised by FICCI here.

This technology-based platform for both domestic or global investors envisages giving all the information about the land, procedures, requirements and requirements to get that investment proposal cleared.

"It will lead to a unified single sheet of information, which other approval ministries will draw. So, he doesn't have to do multiple applications in the end," he said.

It is not going to replace any important approval because these are all important approvals, he said.

For example, he said, one cannot construct a building without a building plan and similarly, one needs to adhere to the environmental regulations for starting any manufacturing activities.

"What we're doing is bringing all these portals, all these IT systems into one, so that for investors, it is a single window. A very ambitious, difficult and complex task has been initiated.

"We have committed to the government, including the Cabinet Secretary and others that we will be completing this, releasing it and introducing it by maximum by mid of April. We still adhere to the timeline considering the progress we have made," he said.

On the foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows, Mohapatra said that over the past five years, there is tremendous excitement and even during the Covid-19 period, FDI has not slowed down.

In the defence sector, he said, it has been further been liberalised in the September FDI amendment which has generated a lot of traction on that front.

"Now, coming to the overall investment, what we are doing is we are tracking nearly 1,000 companies internationally through various embassies, through the project development cell that have been constituted in various ministries, to see where they are moving from just a public announcement in the social media or in the media," he said.

Terming the production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme a game-changer, he said that last month, the Cabinet approved the scheme for 10 key sectors including telecom, automobiles and pharmaceuticals.

"We are setting a deadline. By December, all the necessary approvals of the finance ministry, as well as the respective Cabinet approval for these 10 sectors, are expected to be complete. So, we hope to identify the new companies that will be selected under the PLIs," he said.

By April, he said, "the respective schemes will be notified, the expression of interest will be done and the selection of the companies for receiving those for being covered under PLIs should be done".