The government is open to all suggestions for increasing investment in India. Senior government officials on Tuesday said the government’s approach would remain ‘balanced’.
“We are open to all suggestions regarding investment in India, easing the investment climate in our interest. We have to carefully take every decision so that the nation's interest is balanced with ease of doing business," said the official.
The Ministry of Commerce had a meeting with several industry representatives and other stakeholders to recalibrate India’s investment regime and also to ensure better inflow of foreign direct investment (FDI) to India, Ministry sources said. There was a three-hour closed-door meeting on Tuesday with major venture capital funds and key financial regulators.
A top official said the government is also open to suggestions on Press Note 3. Recently, there was a meeting at the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) on Friday to review Press Note 3 (PN3), a key policy governing foreign direct investment (FDI) from India’s neighbouring countries.
Brought into action in April 2020, PN3 mandated that any FDI from countries with which India has a land border — or where the beneficial owner of the investment is based in such countries — there would be a prior mandatory government approval.
The discussion, attended by senior representatives from the Reserve Bank of India, the Securities and Exchange Board of India and other financial-sector regulators, focused on streamlining approvals, speeding up regulatory clearances and addressing frictions faced by foreign funds.
There will be follow-up actions across ministries and regulatory agencies, which have been tasked with evaluating the proposals made at the meeting today. While no policy announcements have been made so far, the government is planning to take measures to revive investment sentiment.
"We do need to see policy certainty and stable currency and confidence in investors about the entire investment ecosystem,” Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal had earlier said at an event organised by industry body Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Ficci) on Tuesday. He even suggested the industries to diversify their supply chains so that the dependence on one country is minimised. “The government is focusing on building a strong domestic manufacturing base. We need to assess our supply chain for vulnerabilities, especially when trade is being weaponised and we have experienced the same," added Goyal.