CCI examining complaints regarding hike in cement price, cartelisation: Goyal

The Competition Commission of India (CCI) is examining complaints regarding hike in cement prices and cartelisation by companies, Parliament was informed Friday.

"Complaints have been received regarding hike in cement price and cartelisation by cement companies," Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha.

He said that according to the information provided by CCI, these complaints "are under examination with them".

The cement industry was de-licensed in 1991 under the policy of economic liberalisation and the control over price and distribution was removed.

In a separate reply, Goyal said Alternative Investment Funds (AIFs) have invested a total of Rs 1,625.73 crore in 247 start-ups.

The government has established Fund of Funds for Start-ups (FFS) with a corpus of Rs 10,000 crore to meet the funding needs of budding entrepreneurs.

The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) is the monitoring agency and Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) is the operating agency for FFS.

The total corpus is envisaged to be provided over the 14th and 15th Finance Commission cycles based on progress of the scheme and availability of funds.

"SIDBI has committed Rs 3,123.20 crore to 49 SEBI registered AIFs. The AIFs have invested a total of Rs 1,625.73 crore into 247 startups," he said.

Start-up India initiative was launched on January 16, 2016. Since its inception, 19,351 start-ups across the country have been recognised by the department as on June 24.

Further, he said that 26 states have notified and have operational start-up policies.