Journalism of Courage
The Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) is deliberating on relaxing the norms for FDI in multi-brand retail.
The DIPP is working on addressing the concerns of foreign retailers regarding mandatory back-end investment,mandatory sourcing from small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and the cities where the shops could be opened. They want to open stores in cities with population less than a million. We may have to approach the Cabinet on few things, a senior commerce ministry official said.
As per the extant FDI policy,foreign retailers are allowed to open stores only in cities with a million-or-over population.
The DIPP called a meeting today to discuss the report on FDI sectoral caps prepared by economic affairs secretary Arvind Mayaram. It suggested significant changes in the extant FDI policy,including raising the FDI limit to 74 per cent in multi-brand retail and allowing complete foreign ownership of telecom and aviation companies.
