Notifications on ease of doing biz by month-end

The government would issue notifications to reduce clearances for projects, to improve the ease of doing business, by November 30, Urban Development Minister Venkaiah Naidu said on Wednesday.

Addressing a session at the National Strategy Day on India, organised here by the World Economic Forum and the Confederation of Indian Industry, the minister acknowledged the critical role the private sector played in bridging the enormous funding gap in infrastructure. Special purpose vehicles would be set up to promote infrastructure development in urban areas. The Centre would provide seed-financing to municipal bodies through these SPVs and these funds would be used to raise commercial finance from banks, he said.
 

Founder and Managing Partner of Pacific Paradigm Advisors Punita Sinha said the system of infrastructure financing followed earlier was not tailored to the needs to the sector. Short-term debt financing was being used to finance long-term projects, which was not sustainable. Sovereign wealth funds and pension funds, which are now entering the market, have a longer term view of the market and can be tapped to raise long-term debt.

Sumit Mazumdar, present CII chief, said road projects where 90 per cent of the land has been acquired have been awarded. This was a departure from the past, when the contract-winner had to buy land and get clearances.

Addressing another session, Chief Minister of Maharashtra Devendra Fadnavis said the process of calculating minimum support prices does not take into account the differences in costs across states. Simply taking the average costs of cultivation across states was not the best way. Cost differentials across states have to be accounted for, he added.

On farmer suicides, Fadnavis said developmental initiatives undertaken by his government would ensure assured irrigation to farmers and link farmers to the post-harvest supply chains. Fadnavis said 500,000 farmers have been integrated with the supply chain through these initiatives and the state government was planning to take it to 2.5 million over five years.