No decision yet on FDI in multi-brand retail: Sitharaman

The government on Wednesday said it has not taken any decision to implement FDI in multi-brand retail. "As regards FDI policy in multi-brand retail trading, no decision has been taken by the government," Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha. Although the current foreign investment policy permits 51 percent FDI in multi-brand retail, the BJP government is not supportive of bringing any foreign investment in this sector.

To a specific query, she said the Project Monitoring Group has set up an online digital platform (e-Nivesh) through which it proposes to monitor the processing of 88 different types of clearances and approvals granted by various central government ministries and departments. "Out of the 88 clearances, 80 have been digitised, and 4 in respect of the Ministry of Defence and the Ministry of Home are not proposed to be digitised due to security reasons," she said. Digitisation of the remaining four is nearing completion, she added.