Panel set up to facilitate investment

NEWDELHI: The Union cabinet, at a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on Wednesday approved the setting up of an empowered group of secretaries headed by cabinet secretary Rajiv Gauba that would work to make India a more investorfriendly destination.

In the midst of the ongoing coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pandemic, India senses an opportunity to attract foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows, especially from large companies that seek to diversify their investments into new geographies and mitigate the risks they confront.

Ramping up manufacturing capacity across product lines will also help to serve large markets in the US, European Union China and elsewhere. The idea is to take advantage of the emerging opportunities from the global economic situation to position India among the largest entities in the global value chain, the Centre said.

“We know the world situation. Industries are looking to diversify in different world locations. So, to ensure investments are enhanced in India, an empowered group of secretaries has been formed. And simultaneously project development cells will be set up in every ministry,” Information and broadcasting minister Prakash Javadekar said at a press briefing after the cabinet meeting.

The step will help make India a more investor-friendly destination and also enable the government handhold new industries, the minister said. The step will also give a fillip to domestic industry, he added.

The empowered committee of secretaries will reinforce India’s ambition of becoming a $5 trillion economy by 2024-25, said an official statement.

The statement said the he Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) proposes strategic implementation of an integrated approach that will eventually bring about synergies between ministries/departments and among the central and state Governments in investment and related incentive policies.

Apart from Gauba, Niti Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant would be a member of the empowered group of secretaries as would be the secretaries of the departments of commerce, revenue and economic affairs. The secretary of DPIIT would be the member-convenor, and the secretary of any related department would be co-opted onto the panel, the official statement said.

Apart from facilitating top investors, the empowered group will evaluate investments put forward by the departments on the basis of project creation and actual investments that flow in.

“The decision is in line with the government’s strategy of Make in India and Make for the World, which was articulated by the Prime Minister yesterday. This is the characteristic of major economies like the United States and China...,” said Nilaya Varma, co-founder and CEO of consulting firm Primus Partners.