DIPP calms home min concerns on FDI hike in key sectors

The home ministry has raised concerns on raising FDI caps in many sectors namely information and broadcasting (I&B), civil aviation, telecom, aviation and defence.

However, Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion (DIPP) maintains that the licensing norms will take care of most of these security concerns, reports CNBC-TV18’s Rituparna Bhuyan. Also read: DIPP, finmin officials discuss Mayaram panel report As far as the cap in defence sector foreign direct investment (FDI) is concerned, AK Antony will write to Anand Sharma on the issue. Raising telecom FDI to 100 percent will be taken up by the telecom commission on Tuesday. The print media, TV channels and I&B ministry are consulting stakeholders. The civil aviation ministry is gunning for 74 percent FDI in the sector. As far as the timeline is concerned, all comments will be in by July 5, and DIPP secretary Saurabh Chandra will prepare a report and submit it to Anand Sharma by this weekend. Apart from brownfield FDI, FDI in multi-brand retail, power exchanges and the mining sector will be discussed on Tuesday. As far as brownfield FDI is concerned, DIPP maintains that once FDI comes in, then NELM category drug production and R&D spend has to be maintained at the highest level seen in the past five years.