The government has removed one layer of bureaucratic involvement for property developers by easing environmental approvals in a move that may fast-track real estate projects. All projects with a built-up area of up to 1.5 lakh square metres will be cleared by civic authorities instead of the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, according to a central government notification in June. Municipal corporations will have to set up committees to ensure developers adhere to the environmental norms. The central government's directive was notified by Maharashtra on July 11.

It will reduce one bureaucratic level and improve the turnaround time, said Rajan Bandelkar, vice president, Maharashtra, National Real Estate Development Council. Earlier, environmental permissions used to take up to two years, he said. India ranks 130 in World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business Index, and fares even worse at 185 on ‘dealing with construction permits’. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government aims to improve the rankings by reducing and fast-tracking approvals

MUMBAI: A year after the landmark concept of ease of doing business was introduced at the World Bank's instance, the Devendra Fadnavis-led government has drastically shortened the period for property and sales tax registration, electricity connection and construction permits to start a business. A battery of top bureaucrats led by the chief secretary made a PowerPoint presentation before the World Bank team in the presence of the chief minister on steps the state has taken to end procedural wrangles and red tape in key sectors.

"Last year, our performance was not up to the mark. As a result, our ranking was very low. Now, we have brought in changes and cut registration time drastically. In addition, we have submitted physical data before the World Bank team for verification. Now, we are better placed in terms of performance," a senior bureaucrat told TOI. The bureaucrat said the state submitted data on 21 power connections in Mumbai with 100 kva to 150 kva load. The average time taken for providing the connections was nine days and only two documents were required—identify and occupancy proofs. All applications were to be submitted online.

As India tries to improve its ranking in the ease of doing business report of the World Bank from low of 130, Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi asked states to accord priority for creating a conducive business climate, mixing the spirit of cooperative federalism with competition to attract investment. And, requested them to maximise the use of Aadhaar - the citizen identification system - in their programmes and plans. In the backdrop of farmer unrest, the PM also laid emphasis on agricultural reforms, including e-national agri-marketing initiatives. He was addressing a day-long conference of state chief secretaries on a theme of ‘States as Drivers for Transforming India’.

Madhya Pradesh’s chief secretary talked about the pitfalls of developing too fast on the agriculture front. The PM did not mention the impact of farm debt waivers on fiscal deficits. However, NITI Aayog officials stressed that states could not raise their borrowings beyond the limits set by the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management (FRBM) Act, unless the Union government agreed.  The PM said: “The whole world today has trust in India, has expectations from India and wants to partner with India. This is a golden opportunity for us. Ease of doing business should be accorded top priority and would greatly help states in attracting investment.”

MUMBAI: The Reserve Bank is looking at setting up a high level task force to prepare a roadmap for public credit registry (PCR) to help control loan defaults, improve credit culture and promote financial inclusion.  Making a strong case for it, RBI Deputy Governor Viral Acharya said a transparent and comprehensive PCR is the need of the hour in India.Speaking at the 11th Statistics Day Conference at RBI's Central Office here, he said such registers help enhance efficiency of the credit market, increase financial inclusion, improve ease of doing business and help control delinquencies. 

"Governor (Urjit Patel) and I hope we can set up, as a matter of priority, a high-level task force that can provide a roadmap for attaining this goal of developing and unleashing a powerful credit information system for our country," Acharya said. Statistics Day in India was celebrated earlier this week on the birth anniversary of Late P C Mahalanobis, who graduated with honours in Physics in 1912 and was subsequently attracted to the realm this field. 

NEW DELHI: The three municipal corporations have simplified the process of sanctioning building plans. Giving a push to the "ease of doing business" initiative, they have now introduced a single window clearance system for construction proposals. Earlier, the system was quite complicated and people had to get NOCs from different agencies. Now, it has been made online and there is a common application form for all approvals. Any building plan will be cleared within 30 days after submission of the application. If that doesn't happen, the proposal gets automatically sanctioned on the 31st day. The time required to get the approvals has been reduced from 213 days to 60 days and the number of procedures have been brought down to 8 from 29.

"The building plan will be cleared within two weeks. In case of objections, the department will get a month's time to clear the plans," said Puneet Goel, commissioner of the south corporation, which is the nodal agency for the civic bodies to promote the "ease of doing business" initiative. "We have added the digital signature feature and now, there is no interaction between department and the people. Everything is done online," Goel added.

The three municipal corporations have simplified the process of sanctioning building plans. Giving a push to the “ease of doing business“ initiative, they have now introduced a single window clearance system for construction proposals.Earlier, the system was quite complicated and people had to get NOCs from different agencies. Now, it has been made online and there is a common application form for all approvals. Any building plan will be cleared within 30 days after submission of the application. If that doesn't happen, the proposal gets automatically sanctioned on the 31st day. The time required to get the approvals has been reduced from 213 days to 60 days and the number of procedures have been brought down to 8 from 29.

“We have added the digital signature feature and now, there is no interaction between department and the people.Everything is done online,“ Goel added.  The portal was launched in April 2016 and since then all plans have been sanctioned online. “ A few more changes have been made and we have started using WhatsApp groups and other social media platforms to clear doubts of people,“ added a senior official. 

Lucknow, Jul 4 (PTI) The Uttar Pradesh cabinet today approved the Industrial Investment and Employment Policy, 2017 to boost investments and employment opportunities in the state. A cabinet meeting, presided by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath here, gave its assent to the new policy which aimed to "roll out a red carpet for the industries, instead of red- tapism" and facilitate the ease-of-doing-business, ministers Siddharth Nath Singh and Satish Mahana told reporters. Industrial Development Minister Mahana said the new policy was aptly named as the Industrial Investment and Employment Policy as it aimed to increase the job opportunities in the state.
Besides a single-window system for time-bound clearance of all project-related works at the chief minister's office, the policy also aimed at providing round-the-clock electricity, improving the infrastructure and ensuring a proper law-and-order situation, for which there would be dedicated police teams in big industrial clusters such as Gautam Budh Nagar, he added. The policy redefined the mega projects and linked the investments with employment generation, besides establishing a new 'Make in UP' department to derive the maximum benefits of the Centre's Make in India scheme, said the minister.
 

The government's move to relax a requirement for combinations under the competition law will remove "artificial timing pressures" and provide relief, especially for parties involved in deals requiring multi- jurisdictional filings, says a report. Following the relaxation, an individual or enterprise that is party to a combination is not required to seek fair trade regulator Competition Commission of India's (CCI) nod within 30 days of finalising a particular deal.

Legal firm Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas said elimination of a filing deadline is a recommended practice by the International Competition Network and brings India in line with the global standards. "While notifiable transactions will still require approval from the CCI prior to closing and remain subject to penalties for gun-jumping, the elimination of the filing deadline will remove artificial timing pressures on filing parties and facilitate the coordination of multi jurisdictional merger reviews," it said in a report.