Setting up mechanism to handhold investors: DPIIT secretary

The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) is in the process of setting up of a mechanism to handhold investors and help them set up their facilities in India, a senior government official said on Monday. DPIIT Secretary Guruprasad Mohapatra said that the proposal is being sent to the Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal for approval, following which it will set up an investment promotion and facilitation agency Invest India. It will be funded by the DPIIT.

"Very soon we will be announcing it. Within Invest India, another format in which we actually do hand-holding from investment query that anybody makes to operationalize it in the field...," he said here at a function. Mohapatra said the new mechanism will help in all approvals and clearances that a company requires to set up a plant in a state or district or town.

"This is the kind of new set up that is being worked out now. We have submitted the proposal to the minister; and once it will be approved, we will operationalize it from next month," he added. Talking about labor reforms, this is the top agenda of the government that the industry and the investor do not feel cramped by labor laws of the country and at the same time the laws cannot become so de-licensed that labor can be exploited.

"So the government has the commitment to look into both sides," he said. Further, he said that the government is looking at making tax compliance procedures easier.