THE MINISTER OF STATE (INDEPENDENT CHARGE) OF THE MINISTRY OF COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY (SHRIMATI NIRMALA SITHARAMAN)
(a): Government has launched the ‘Make in India’ initiatives to enhance investment in the industrial sector. Under this initiative Government has under- taken a number of steps to improve Ease of Doing Business to enhance investment in the industrial sector and to increase opportunities of employ- ment. The application process for Industrial Licence and Industrial Entrepreneur’s Memorandum has been made easy by simplification of forms and making the processes online 24X7. The validity period of the Industrial Licence and security clearance from Ministry of Home Affairs has been increased. The process of registration with Emplo- yees’ Provident Fund Organization and Employees’ State Insurance Corporation have been made on line and real-time. Process of obtaining environment and forest clearances has been made online. The Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion has advised Ministries and State Governments to simplify and rationalize the regulatory environment through business process reengineering and use of information technology. 14 Government of India services have been integrated with the online single window eBiz portal.
Certain important steps taken to gear up manu- facturing include (i) creation of an investor facilitation cell (ii) dissemination of information on twenty five priority sectors on ‘Make in India’s web-portal (http://www.Makeinindia.com) along with details of FDI Policy, National Manufacturing Policy, Intellectual Property Rights, Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor and other National Industrial Corridors (iii) issuance of ordinance to make land acquisition easier for important projects (iv) a number of items taken off the licensing requirement from Defence products’ list, etc. (v) Sector wise plan of action has been prepared with time lines of one year and three years.
(b) to (e): Government is taking all possible efforts to revive sick industries. RBI in its circular issued on 1st November 2012 has directed banks to provide non-discretionary one time settlement (OTS) to non-viable sick Micro and Small Enter- prises (MSEs). Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) has also introduced “Manage- ment/Restructuring of Stressed Assets and Rehabilitation Scheme for MSMEs”. The Scheme provides for relief and concessions (in the form of re-schedulement, reduction in the rate of interest, funding of overdue/ future interest and waiver etc.) as well as need based additional financial assistance for revival of MSME sick units. State/UT-wise number of sick Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) are given in the Annexure.
