'New e-commerce industrial policies likely this fiscal'

As the draft policy includes several provisions related to data, the department is also looking at the Personal Data Protection Bill approved by the Cabinet earlier this month

The DPIIT is working actively on the e-commerce as well as new industrial policies, and both are expected to be released by the end of this fiscal, a top official has said.

"I personally feel that both these policies will be ready by this financial year end," Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) Secretary Guruprasad Mohapatra told PTI.

He said that the department has done several round of stakeholders' meetings on both the policies.

The government in February released a draft national e-commerce policy, proposing setting up a legal and technological framework for restrictions on cross-border data flow and also laid out conditions for businesses regarding collection or processing of sensitive data locally and storing it abroad.

Several foreign e-commerce firms have raised concerns over some points in the draft pertaining to data.

The department has received huge response on the draft and it is examining all the views and comments.

"We are working actively on both the policies," Mohapatra said.

The proposed new industrial policy is aimed at promoting emerging sectors, reducing regulatory hurdles and making India a manufacturing hub.

This will be the third industrial policy after the first in 1956 and the second in 1991. It will replace the industrial policy of 1991 which was prepared in the backdrop of the balance of payment crisis.

The DPIIT had initiated the process of formulation of a new industrial policy in May 2017. The new policy will subsume the National Manufacturing Policy (NMP).

It had also floated a discussion paper on the policy with an aim to create jobs in next two decades, promote foreign technology transfer and attract USD 100 billion foreign direct investment (FDI) annually.