DIPP working with Home Min to speed up security clearances

The commerce and industry ministry is discussing with the Home Affairs Ministry fast-tracking of issuance of security clearances as it seeks to improve business climate, a top official said today.

Secretary in the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) Ramesh Abhishek said approvals and all necessary clearances sought by investors should be given in a time-bound manner.

"Everything should be time-bound. We have been working with the Ministry of Home Affairs," he said while replying to a query about delay in giving security clearances.

He was speaking at the India Telecom 2016 conference.

Abhishek also said that steps like implementation of insolvency code, GST and other reforms will reflect in India's ease of doing business ranking next year.

"We are now in the process of developing the parameters for next year ranking of states. We are looking that can we have industry specific parameters," he said.

He also said that several measures are under implementation in areas like enforcement of contracts and trade across borders to further simplify the procedures.

In the World Bank's latest 'Doing Business' 2017 report, India's place remained unchanged from last year's original ranking of 130 among the 190 economies that were assessed on various parameters. But the last year's ranking has been revised to 131 from which the country has improved its place by one spot.

Talking about FDI policy, he said although 92 per cent of FDI coming through the automatic route, the DIPP is "further simplifying the procedures and many more are in the pipeline".