‘Tech-driven single window for clearances by April 2021'

The government is working on measures to reduce the compliance burden for investors, simplify cumbersome procedures and enable ease of doing business, department for promotion of industry and internal trade (DPIIT) secretary Guruprasad Mohapatra said on Friday.

DPIIT is developing a technology-driven single window for clearances to do away with the need for multiple applications across different portals. However, all the approvals will still be needed, it said. An investment proposal typically requires several approvals such as environment clearances and clearances related to taxation.

“Single window is a much maligned word. Single window has been attempted in many places and it ultimately leads to multiple windows. We are developing a technology-based single window for an investor, domestic or global. If a person has an investment proposal, apart from all the information to take the proposal ahead, this (single portal) will lead to a unified single sheet of information. Multiple applications will not be needed,” Mohapatra said at the annual general meeting of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry.

The portal will be introduced by the middle of April 2021.

The recently announced production-linked incentive (PLI) schemes will be game changers and will be notified by April next year, he said.

The government’s strategic divestment policy will bring about a paradigm shift in the way the government thinks, economic affairs secretary Tarun Bajaj said at the meeting.