New Delhi, Even as the Government pursues a proactive agenda on building a conducive business climate and implementing structural reforms, Indian industry has been tasked with developing a greater risk appetite, working with the Government to find holistic solutions to commercial disputes problems and looking beyond cost for building a resilient ecosystem using innovation and sustainability.
Outlining industry’s commitment towards building ‘brand India’, Minister of Commerce and Industry, Textiles and Consumer Affairs Piyush Goyal laid emphasis on finding new ways of financing infrastructure and laid out his vision of 5I’s at a CII conference on ease of doing business for ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat’. Goyal highlighted intent, inclusion, innovation, infrastructure and investment as the five pillared approach which can make India self-reliant.
The Government has walked the path by putting in place the National Single Window Clearance, making available a repository of industrial land bank for businesses, eliminating burdensome compliance, encouraging self-regulation and self-certification, promoting cooperative federalism through state reform action plan and PM Gati Shakti, the Minister said. The single window system portal now hosts approvals across 18 Central Departments, another 14 and 5 states will be added by December ’21 while the Industrial Land Bank now integrated with GIS systems of 17 states has a database of more than 4,000 industrial parks mapped across an area of 5.5 lakh hectare of land.
Amidst bold reforms for sustained growth, the challenge for India, said Amitabh Kant, Chief Executive Officer, NITI Aayog, was to grow at about 8-9% per annum for the next few decades to lift the vast segment of population above the poverty line. “The reform agenda needs to shift to states and the eastern part of India needs to grow at high rates for a long time to come,” he added.
Noting that the regulatory compliance portal set up to rationalise the burden for businesses at the Central and state Government levels has helped to reduce 22,000 compliances, simplify 13,000 compliances and digitise 1,200 processes for industry, Chandrajit Banerjee, Director General, CII, suggested that states adopt similar common application forms as that of the National Single Window System platform. Industry members of CII also suggested formation of a task force to identify the hindrances in bringing investments and improving business climate which Goyal accepted earlier.
The other suggestions from CII are initiatives towards enforcing contracts, expediting resolution in commercial disputes and special Central assistance for introduction of business reforms in laggard states.