Single window nod for industry soon

New Delhi: The central government will soon set up a single window system for clearances and approvals for industries in the country, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said on Monday.

In an interaction with sovereign wealth funds, foreign pension funds and others on ease of doing business and investments in infrastructure sector in India, he said that this would be a genuine single window and all the State governments concerned and Central ministries are being taken on board for the system.

Besides, Goyal pointed out that the Centre is working on creating a land bank, for which six states have already given their consent.

According to a ministry statement, Goyal said that the potential investors would then be able to locate and identify the land banks from their distant offices and finalise the location of industries, without frequently visiting the offices of land-owning agencies. On the issue of further easing and speeding up the process of approvals for industry and investments, the minister referred to the recent decisions of the Cabinet to set up an 'Empowered Group of Secretaries' to take decisions on various schemes and projects.

"He also said that a nodal officer has been appointed in every Central Department and 'Project Development Cells' are being set up which will help in development of investible projects in coordination between the 'Central Government and State Governments' and thereby grow the pipeline of investible projects in India, and in turn, increase FDI inflows," the statement said.

Furthermore, Goyal said the government had initially identified 12 industrial sectors to focus upon, and the same has been expanded to 20. "This will help in scaling up investment, and leveraging the competitive edge of the country," the statement said.

"These sectors include furniture - standard as well as special furniture, air-conditioners, leather, footwear, agro-chemicals, ready to eat food, steel, aluminium, copper, textiles, electric vehicles, auto-components, TV set-top boxes, CCTVs, sports goods, ethanol manufacture and bio-fuels, and toys."

The Minister said that conducive environment will be created for foreign investment in the health and education sectors also.