Make in India: Most issues to be sorted out within 72 hours

Problems and queries of businesses on starting and doing business in India...

The initiative follows Modi’s Independence Day speech where he appealed to the world to ‘Make in India’. (Reuters)

Problems and queries of businesses on starting and doing business in India — barring those needing policy changes — will be sorted out within 72 hours as part of the ‘Make in India’ initiative to be launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on September 25.

The initiative follows Modi’s Independence Day speech where he appealed to the world to ‘Make in India’. He had said: “Sell in any country of the world, but manufacture here.” The aim is to take the share of manufacturing in the country’s GDP from a stagnant 16% currently to 25% by 2022, as stated in the National Manufacturing Policy, and to create 100 million jobs by 2022.

The Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP), which is the nodal body doing the back-end work for the ‘Make in India’ campaign, is setting up a dedicated team of specialists, including lawyers, consultants and tax experts under ‘Invest India’ to resolve any problems faced by investors, official sources said.

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‘Invest India’ is the country’s official agency dedicated to investment promotion and facilitation. Set up as a joint venture between FICCI (51% equity), DIPP (35% equity) and state governments (0.5% each), its mandate is to become the first reference point for the global investment community.

The ‘Make in India’ campaign, which will be done initially only through the digital medium, will have an auto-response mechanism where answers to all queries of investors will be given online within 24 hours.

The dedicated eight-member team of specialists will provide solutions within 48 hours to the difficult queries, while nodal officers (one in every government department) will ensure that the complex problems are resolved in 72 hours.

Queries such as those necessitating policy changes, which cannot be sorted out even after 72 hours, will be forwarded to the secretaries of the departments concerned to take quick action.

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State governments also will be encouraged by the Centre to hire consultants and experts to revamp their business clearance processes so that India can fare better in the global ease of doing business rankings. India had fallen to a lowly 134th rank out of 189 countries this year (three down from 2013) in the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business rankings.

Currently, it takes 12 procedures and 27 days to start a business, 35 procedures and 168 days to get construction permits and 1,420 days to enforce contracts in India.

The Centre on its part has the e-Biz project (facility for single application for multiple clearances along with an inbuilt payment gateway). The plan is to get states also to go paperless and ensure online applications and clearances soon.

fe Bureau | The Financial Express

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