MNCs must benefit from ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ campaign: DPIIT Secretary

Multinational corporations (MNCs) must benefit from India’s ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ campaign as it offers the same initiatives to all products manufactured in the country irrespective of the manufacturer, G Mohapatra, Secretary, Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade, has said.

To improve connectivity and reduce transportation time and cost for businesses, the government is likely to soon announce a national master plan for providing multi-modal connectivity across the country wherever any economic activity is happening and all infrastructure-related Ministries were ready with their timelines for this, Mohapatra said at the CII National MNC Conference on Monday .

“The proposal will go to the Cabinet and once it is approved, definite timelines will be given to infrastructure ministries for the plan,” he said.

On the government’s initiative to attract more foreign investments, the Secretary said that MNCs producing in India could benefit from all initiatives of the ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ scheme.

“MNCs must benefit from the production-linked incentive of their sectors, the Export Promotion Capital Goods scheme, the bonded manufacturing and warehousing scheme, and the recently-launched national infrastructure pipeline,” Mohapatra said.

Institutionalising more investor-friendly reforms has been a key priority for the government that is working hard to extend support to foreign investors looking at India as a likely destination, he said. “Recent reforms in FDI policy and manufacturing incentives had improved India’s business attractiveness and the quick response to the pandemic and the initiative to safeguard business interests has ensured India remains a favoured country for foreign investments,” he said.

Support to foreign investors

The Secretary pointed out that in March this year, the government established various groups of secretaries to look at key sectors of the economy including how to retain foreign investments. The empowered group of secretaries provide extensive support to foreign investors, both who are already invested in India and those who are looking at making fresh investments, in the country.

“Their goal has been to boost growth in key sectors of the economy by identifying potential investors and organisations making recommendations to relevant ministries and departments to ease the investment process and facilitate handholding of the investors and examine and suggest ways to attract more investments in green field projects,” he said.

India’s FDI inflow increased 13 per cent to $35.73 billion in April-August 2020 (year-on-year), as per government data. FDI equity inflow received during the period was 16 per cent higher at $27.10 billion compared to the same period last fiscal.

As India began to recover from the initial shock of the pandemic, the government set up project development cells in Ministries and Departments to fast track investments with coordination between Union Ministries and the State governments, Mohapatra said. This has allowed growth in the pipeline for investments for projects in India.

In the recent past the government has revamped bankruptcy, labour and agrarian laws and has included 13 key sectors by way of PLI that will incentivise large scale investment in the identified areas, he added.