Lok Sabha Question No. 200 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2022-12-07
Subject: Investor-friendly Ecosystem
Ministry: COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY
Asked by: Sajda Ahmed

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF COMMERCE & INDUSTRY DEPARTMENT FOR PROMOTION OF INDUSTRY AND INTERNAL TRADE

## LOK SABHA

UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 200.

TO BE ANSWERED ON WEDNESDAY, THE 07 TH  DECEMBER, 2022.

## INVESTOR-FRIENDLY ECOSYSTEM

## 200.   SHRIMATI SAJDA AHMED:

Will the Minister of COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY वाणिज्य एवं उद्योग मंत्री

be pleased to state:

- (a) the steps taken by the Government to create investor-friendly ecosystems across the country;
- (b) whether any special initiatives have been undertaken for the States categorized as emerging States to enhance the ease of doing business, particularly for Jharkhand, Delhi and West Bengal;
- (c) if so, the details thereof;
- (d) the details of the reforms undertaken by the Banking Sector to enhance the ease of doing business; and
- (e) whether consolidation of public sector banks has impacted positively in ease of doing business and if so, the details thereof?

## ANSWER

## वाणिज्य एवं उद्योग मंत्रालय में राज्य मंत्री ( श्री सोम प्रकाश ) THE MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF COMMERCE & INDUSTRY (SHRI SOM PARKASH)

- (a): Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) is the Nodal Department for coordinating the initiatives under Ease of Doing Business which are aimed at creating an investor-friendly ecosystems across the country. In addition to ongoing schemes  of  various Departments and Ministries, Government has also undertaken various steps to boost domestic and foreign investments in India. These include the  introduction  of  Goods  and  Services  Tax,  reduction  in  Corporate taxes,  financial  market  reforms,  consolidation  of  public  sector  banks, Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) policy reforms, reduction in compliance

burden, various policy measures to boost domestic manufacturing, to name a few.

To promote FDI in the country, the Government has put in place an investor-friendly policy, wherein most sectors except certain strategically important  sectors  are  open  for  100%  FDI  under  the  automatic  route. Further, the policy on FDI is reviewed on an ongoing basis, to ensure that India remains attractive and investor friendly destination. Changes are  made  in  the  policy  after  detailed  consultations  with  stakeholders including  apex  industry  chambers,  associations,  sectoral  ministries/ departments and representatives of industries/groups and other organizations.  Government  has  recently  undertaken  a  number  of reforms  across  sectors  like  Defence,  Petroleum  and  Natural  Gas, Insurance etc. .

- (b) & (c): DPIIT,  in  coordination  with  States  and  Union  Territories  (UTs),  is spearheading  various  reforms  to  improve  the  business  regulatory environment in the country. DPIIT undertakes a dynamic reform exercise called Business Reforms Action Plan (BRAP), wherein all States and UTs are assessed on the basis of implementation of designated reform parameters.  The  focus  of  the  reforms  has  been  on  streamlining  the existing regulations and processes and eliminating unnecessary requirements and procedures. The Action Plan for the year 2022 covers 352 reform points.

All  the  States  and  UTs,  including  Jharkhand,  Delhi and West  Bengal have  also  participated  actively  in  this  exercise  over  the  years  and reforms  implemented  by  them  are  recorded  on  the  BRAP  Portal (https://eodb.dpiit.gov.in/).

The exercise boosts competitive federalism among the States/UTs and thereby helps to further facilitate investor-friendly ecosystems across the country.

- (d): Comprehensive  reforms  have  been  undertaken  by  the  Public  Sector Banks (PSBs) under Enhanced Access and Service Excellence reforms agenda to improve the ease of doing business including, inter alia , the following -
- i. Setting  up  of  Loan  Management  Systems  and  Centralised Processing Centres, resulting in retail loan disbursement turnaround time reducing from 31 days to 10 days;
- ii. Enhancement of access to mobile and Internet banking by PSBs through increase in average number of services offered, customer-friendly features, and regional languages available on the customer interface;
- iii. Introduction of end-to-end automated digital lending in most of the larger  PSBs  for  unsecured  personal  loans,  loans  to  microenterprises and renewal of loans to MSMEs;
- iv. Enablement of digital retail loan request initiation through digital channels in all large PSBs; and
- v. Thrust on customer-need-driven, analytics-based credit offers by large PSBs.
- (e): The objective of amalgamation of the banks was to facilitate consolidation  among  PSBs  to  create  strong  and  competitive  banks capable  of  achieving  economies  of  scale  and  realisation  of  synergy benefits with wider product and service offering to customers. As a result of  this  effort,  customers  of  amalgamated  banks  received  access  to increased number of branches and ATMs from which they can now avail banking  services.  Customers  have  also  received  access  to  a  larger bouquet of products and services through harmonization of the same across banks being amalgamated together and enhanced their lending capacity  for  loans  of  a  larger  size.  Further,  the  increased  scale  and customer base in the amalgamated banks has also enabled banks to opening/reorganizing controlling offices and processing centres, equipping them for better customer serving.

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