Categorically stating that India continues to be the most favoured foreign investment destination globally,Union Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma said here on Saturday that rationalisation of foreign direct investment regime (FDI) is under way. Last year,India received highest investment of $50.5 billion. I am optimistic the FDI inflow will continue, Sharma told mediapersons after inaugurating National Institute for Intellectual Property Management (NIIPM) here. He said,Only Ernst India placed India at number four in FDI choices list. Agencies like UNCTAD have rated India highly. Asked about SEZs losing their sheen in the post-MAT (minimum alternate tax) period,Sharma said,Its true that general interest in SEZs has gone down a bit of late,but SEZs are continuing to play an important role in the countrys development with an export of Rs 4.5 lakh crore happening out of SEZs annually. SEZs created till 2014 will continue to get the assured benefits and we are reworking the guidelines for the later ones. Sharma announced that Nagpur will have the third National Investment and Manufacturing Zone (NIMZ) in Maharashtra after Mumbai and Aurangabad. Sharma said,India never had the concept of industrial townships except for Jamshedpur that was the only one to come up in the country. Eight NIMZs are now being set up as part of the governments effort to create planned industrial townships to boost manufacturing sector. The industrial townships are slated to be self-governing and autonomous bodies. Single window clearance will be provided to improve the regulatory environment, Sharma said. Earlier,inaugurating NIIPM,Sharma said,India lags in innovation with percentage of those pursuing PhDs being very small compared to those in America and Europe. That is why we have set up National Innovation Council with a corpus of $1 billion. We have also requested the Prime Minister to double the investment in research and development from one to two percent of the GDP. He announced that an intellectual property rights (IPR) foundation will be set up at NIIPM together by Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion,Confederation of Indian Industry and World Intellectual Property Organization,Geneva. NIIPM will be conducting training and awareness programmes relating to IPRs,viz patents,designs,trademarks and geographical indications. TUF scheme extended to 12th Plan The Technology Upgradation Fund (TUF) Scheme,which provides subsidies to the textile industry for modernisation,has been extended to the 12th Five Year Plan (2012-2017),Commerce,Industry and Textile Minister Anand Sharma said here. There will be more allocations under the 12th Plan,so those in textiles sector must feel assured that the government is conscious about their needs, Sharma said. Introduced in 1999 for five years,the scheme was extended up to March,2007.
