Budget 2020: One-stop online portal for foreign investors coming soon

The window will map land banks, provide necessary clearances

The government will soon roll out a single window system for foreign investors to scout investment opportunities and get requisite clearances at the same time. The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade’s (DPIIT’s) five-year-old plan to have a one-stop online portal for foreign investors is being vetted and in final stages of update, multiple sources confirm. 

On Saturday, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced the investment clearance cell would provide end-to-end facilitation and support, including pre-investment advisory, information related to land banks, and facilitate clearances at both the Centre and State levels.

A senior industry department official said the portal was initially being built keeping in mind foreign investors, but it would be equally helpful for domestic entrepreneurs and investors as well.

Land data finally

The portal will also provide data on all available land banks currently held by central and state governments on detailed maps. These will be categorised on the basis of potential industries that may be viable for being set up. List of manufacturing clusters, transportation outlays, and logistic facilities present nearby will also be overlaid on the maps.

Since 2016, the Centre has prodded all states to map the available land at their disposable and create clusters of well-connected land banks that can attract foreign investments. But the level of work done in this regard varies widely among states with state legislatures struggling to amend regulations regarding common lands in panchayat areas, which open them up to industrial development. Also, heavily populated states like West Bengal, Bihar, and Uttar Pradesh have struggled to create industrial land parcels while conflicts around land have risen, according to Land Conflict Watch.org, an online data research project that says 7 million people are affected by growing fight over farmland.

Easing business troubles

The new portal is being set up to provide a major boost to ease of doing business, and is being primed by the DPIIT to drastically change India's global rankings in the World Bank index. 

More than half a decade after the Narendra Modi government pushed for reducing and consolidating the clearance process, clearances still have to be secured by entrepreneurs from multiple departments.

The Economic Survey 2020-21 shows that to start manufacturing in India, a person, on an average, needs to abide by 6,796 separate compliance items mandated by 51 central and state laws. To start other businesses, the maze of laws is also equally confusing. 

Case in point, to legally sell food in Delhi, one needs a ‘Police Eating House License’ from Delhi Police that asks for 45 documents, as compared to just 19 needed to buy a gun.

The proposed portal will allow a plethora of be connected to Invest India, Startup India, industry departments of every state, and other necessary portals. The focus is to provide as much information to investors as possible, allowing them to zoom into the available investment options in specific sectors in specific geographies, an official said.