Taking a cue from Uttar Pradesh, the Centre plans to establish a war room to help monitor investments across the country, track progress of projects and ascertain issues faced in their implementation on a real time basis.
“We are thinking of setting a war room [to] monitor all investments, including domestic and [ascertain] problems faced by investors,” Union Minister of Commerce and Industry Suresh Prabhu said here on Saturday.
The cue, he said, came from Nivesh Mitra portal in Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister’s office. An investor-friendly mechanism, the Chief Minister used it to monitor the investments personally, he added.
Speaking to the media at BioAsia 2018, the 15th in the annual series of events focused on biotechnology and lifesciences sector, he mentioned about the war room in the context of the ease of doing business (EODB) ranking for districts under consideration of the Centre. Pointing out how technology had made real time monitoring possible, he said besides promoting competition among the districts, the ranking would help prospective investors.
“To improve the situation in the districts, we would give lot of training and other support,” Mr. Prabhu said.
The Union Ministry is also unveiling a Geographical Indicator campaign to promote products unique to particular locations such as Banarasi sarees. “Once done, the local artisan gets IPR... resulting in huge benefits,” he said, adding that all the State governments were to be involved in this process.
To queries on trade deficit, Mr. Prabhu said it was a function of several factors, including oil imports. “We are sure our exports are rising... also seeing a good pipeline of foreign direct investment.” Several countries were evincing interest in India, he said, pointing out the government initiatives on simplifying FDI rules.
Earlier, participating in a discussion at BioAsia, with Telangana IT and Industries Minister K.T. Rama Rao, the Union Minister highlighted the progress made by the pharma industry and assured that he would suggest an institutionalised consultative mechanism on drug pricing to the ministry concerned. A WTO-compatible incentive package to promote R&D was also being worked out by the government, he added.
