Government committed to ‘ease of doing business’: Commerce Minister

The Dollar Business Bureau The Union Commerce Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman, on Wednesday, informed about various measures being taken by the Government of India towards improving industrial policy and ensuring an ‘ease of doing business’ environment. A number of steps have been taken by the government to provide ‘ease of doing business’, rules and regulations have been simplified and various products are taken off from licensing requirements, informed the Minister. Further stating that the government intends to provide robust infrastructure to the business, the Union Minister said the development of industrial corridors and smart cities are to provide a conducive working environment with the state-of-the-art technology. The Minister further informed that 25 Industry related Ministries are working on sector-specific targets which have been identified in consultations with the stakeholders in the National Workshop held on December 29, 2014. Under this move, each Ministry has been identified with an action plan to be executed over the next one year and three years, she added. The Minister further expressed hope over foreign direct investments and technology inflows into the country, creation of employment opportunities, growth in manufacturing sector, as she spoke on the MoUs signed by the Indian industries with German companies recently, during Hannover Messe 2015. On the decline in growth rate of core sectors like Coal, Crude Oil, Natural Gas, Refinery Products, Fertilizers, Steel, among others, the Minister said the government is taking steps to revive the production in these core sectors through various measures relating to policy, procedures, improving infrastructure and ensuring availability of required inputs. On the progress of industrial corridors, the Minister said the Bengaluru- Mumbai Economic Corridor (BMEC), Visakhapatnam-Chennai Industrial Corridor (VCIC) and Amritsar-Kolkata Industrial Corridor (AKIC) are in the initial stages of implementation. Whereas, the master planning for all the three nodes in Chennai-Bengaluru Industrial Corridor (CBIC) and all nodes except for “Dadri Noida Ghaziabad” Investment region under Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC) have been completed, she added. Besides all these, efforts are also being made to promote the skilled man-power through the National Skill Development Programme, the Minister said, adding, ‘Innovation is encouraged through the better management of patent and trademark registration’. In a move to replace the system of prior permissions for industries, the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) has constituted an Expert Committee. Through the Committee, the DIPP intends to replace the system of multiple prior permissions with the pre-existing regulatory mechanism, the Minister informed. On the whole, the GoI’s ‘Make in India’ program represents an attitudinal shift in how India relates to investors; not as a permit-issuing authority, but as a true business partner, the Minister noted.    

May 6, 2015 | 5:10 pm IST.