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37. COMMERCE MINISTRY WANTS STATES TO MOVE BEYOND SIGNING
INITIAL INVESTMENT PROPOSALS
NEW DELHI: The commerce and industry min- Based on information published on the portal,
istry will reward states that are the bestper- the government will not only reward the high-
formers in attracting investments in a bid to en- performing states but also call on others to
courage them to go beyond merely signing initial improve or get their act together.
proposals and commitments.
"The involvement of states and the Centre in fast-
The Centre is finalising norms to assess the tracking investments is a must," the official said.
performance of states and they are likely to include
ease of doing business, investment conversion State governments will have to apprise the Centre
and facilitation, data and tracking the progress of on the status on investments in five stages – when
investments. investment intent is conveyed, proposals are
shared, approval of the singlewindow authority
The industry department will ask the states not to is received, project work starts and commercial
get into a rut of signing investment agreements as operations commence.
most of them have achieved little on the ground.
The government is concerned that this has led to Some states such as Haryana have built a
adverse investor sentiment, a senior official told mechanism to track investments, but the
ET. government wants to create a system to gather
such data at the national level. The industry
Pushing domestic investment in the country is ministry plans to release a quarterly India
one of the top priorities for the ministry. Suresh Investments Report once the portal is functional.
Prabhu, who took over as commerce and industry
minister earlier in September, has already flagged Prabhu will meet with representatives from
concerns over tracking investment progress and the private sector soon to understand why
sketchy data availability at a pan-India level to investments are clogged and he will urge them to
ministry officials. pump more money into the economy.
He has directed his ministry to set up a centralised The minister had said earlier that there is a need
portal to monitor all investments in collaboration for a paradigm shift in the government’s approach
with state governments. towards increasing investments and in reaching
out to companies.
Prabhu has asked for a district-wise plan to create
core competencies for states.
(Source: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/economy/
policy/commerce-ministry-wants-states-to-move-beyond-
signing-initial-investment-proposals/articleshow/60786737.
cms dated 22nd September-2017)
August-September-2017 56
