At least 3,400 central and state level approvals are already available on the system, and work is on to add more on priority, two government officials said on condition of anonymity.
Once completed, the system will serve as a single interface between the government and business, an important step in India’s efforts to improve ease of doing business.
As of now, the Know Your Approval (KYA) module on the system supports information for 32 central ministries and 16 states.
“Work is in full swing to add more ministries and departments. In addition, we expect more states to be involved,” said one of the two government officials above.
NSWS will help businesses to take advantage of flagship schemes of the government such as 1.97 trillion Production Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme, 111 trillion National Infrastructure Pipeline (NIP) and 6 trillion National Monetization Pipeline (NMP).
NSWS is designed to prioritize the needs of investors and businesses, the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) said in a statement to Mint.
“DPIIT through Invest India initiates the process of developing the portal as NSWS, which will provide a single platform to help identify and obtain approvals and clearances required by investors, entrepreneurs and businesses in India . The system is envisioned to build advanced services by leveraging a common architecture, rather than building multiple platforms to enhance the user experience.”
The Union Budget 2020-21 had proposed an Investment Clearance Cell to eliminate the need for investors to visit multiple platforms and offices to collect information and obtain approvals, following which DPIIT and Invest India created the portal. started. A beta version of the system was soft-launched in September by Piyush Goyal, Minister of Commerce and Industry, Textiles and Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution.
“At present, investors can apply for approval from 21 Central Ministries/Departments and 14 States/UTs,” the DPIIT statement said.
“The portal will progressively onboard more number of approvals and licenses based on user/industry feedback. The Government is committed to reforms and other bold measures to create a conducive business and investment environment in all sectors. After making a rapid comeback from the Covid slowdown, India has now become one of the fastest growing economies of the world this year. Hence, a National Single Window is a much needed step in the right direction which will certainly enhance India’s ranking on the Ease of Doing Business Index.”
Emailed questions to a spokesperson of the Prime Minister’s Office late Tuesday remained unanswered till press time.
Economists said the move would help attract foreign direct investment (FDI), while many global companies are considering a “China plus one” strategy.
“There is going to be quite a streamlining and a lot is needed. A national single window system can boost investment. And FDI is coming in those sectors which have potential. So, even if FDI is concentrated in a few sectors, if the reform works, it is likely that it will spread to other sectors as well. “We will have to see what impact it has,” said Upasana Bhardwaj, senior economist at Kotak Mahindra Bank.
“If an investor can get approval from one place instead of going from one ministry to another, it is a step in a positive direction and will streamline the approval process. But the list of ministries on the ship should be exhaustive. For such a reform to work, the RBI must also be a part of it as many FDI investments require RBI approval,” said Devendra Pant, chief economist at India Ratings.
India received the highest FDI of $ 81.97 billion in 2020-21. Also, FDI grew by 4% to $42.86 billion in the first six months of the last fiscal. India has registered $339.55 in FDI in the last five financial years.
“Extensive consultations were held with central departments and states, especially those with an effective single window system. In addition, interactions were held with industry associations, professional bodies and law firms to understand the expectations from the envisaged Single Window System. The DPIIT statement said that each ministry undertook a comprehensive review and verification exercise to ensure all relevant approvals and registrations are within the purview of NSWS.
“Know Your Approval Module (KYA) is a dynamic, intelligent questionnaire built in NSWS that covers various variables of investors such as sector, investment size, unit type, etc. The module provides an indicative list of both Central and State approvals required on the basis of specific inputs by the investors,” the DPIIT statement said.