March 12, 2015: Government of India has launched the ‘Make in India’ Programme to promote manufacturing in India and develop it as a hub for manufacturing, design and innovation. Certain important steps taken to gear up manufacturing include (i) creation of an investor facilitation cell (ii) dissemination of information on twenty five priority sectors on ‘Make in India’s web-portal (http://www.makeinindia.com) along with details of FDI Policy, National Manufacturing Policy, Intellectual Property Rights, Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor and other National Industrial Corridors (iii) issuance of Ordinance to make land acquisition easier for important projects (iv) a number of items taken off the licensing requirement from Defence products’ list, etc. and (v) Sector wise plan of action has been prepared with time lines of one year and three years.
Government has undertaken a number of steps to improve ease of doing business in India. A large number of components of Defence Products’ list have been excluded from the purview of Industrial Licensing. The application process for Industrial Licence and Industrial Entrepreneur’s Memorandum has been made easy by simplification of forms and making the process online 24×7. The validity period of the Industrial Licence and security clearance from Ministry of Home Affairs has been increased. The process of registration with Employees’ Provident Fund Organization and Employees’ State Insurance Corporation has been made on line and real-time. Process of obtaining environment and forest clearances has been made online. The Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion has advised Ministries and State Governments to simplify and rationalize the regulatory environment through business process reengineering and use of information technology. Fourteen Government of India services have been integrated with the eBiz portal.
As an outcome of the recently concluded visit of the Prime Minister of India to Japan, a special management team has been set up to facilitate and fast track investment proposals from Japan. Government has also constituted a Core Group under the chairmanship of Cabinet Secretary on India-Japan Investment Promotion Partnership. Some Japanese companies have shown their interest to invest in India.
In the Budget for 2015-16, measures have been announced to set right the inverted duty structure on a range of items, reduce tax on labour intensive leather sector and provide impetus to start – ups, venture funds and entrepreneurship.
