J&K joins single window clearance portal, first UT to do so

The NSWS, a 2020 budgetary announcement of the Government of India, is a digital platform that serves as a guide for investors to identify and apply for approvals as per their business requirements. The platform was soft launched in September 2021 by the Union Minister for Commerce and Industry, Textiles and Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, Shri Piyush Goyal.

Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha launched the J&K Single Window Clearance System integrated with NSWS on Monday in the presence of top UT bureaucrats. NSWS is linked with India Industrial Land Bank (IILB), which hosts 45 industrial parks of J&K. According to the MHA, this will help investors discover available land parcels in J&K.

“NSWS will eliminate the need for investors to visit multiple platforms/offices to gather information and obtain clearances from different stakeholders,” the MHA statement said.

As many as 20 ministries/departments have been integrated on NSWS, including Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate Change, Ministry of Commerce & Industry, and Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, amongst others. Currently, 142 central approvals can be applied through the NSWS portal, the MHA said.

The 14 states/UTs onboarded on NSWS include Andhra Pradesh, Goa, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh, and Uttarakhand.

“The Know Your Approval (KYA) module on NSWS guides investors to identify approvals required for their business based on a dynamic intuitive questionnaire. Currently, the module hosts more than 3,000 approvals across Centre & States,” the MHA statement said.

As on date, the portal has 16,800 visitors, of which 7,500 KYA journeys have been serviced, according to MHA.

More than 1,250 investors are registered on the portal.