Invest India locations portal for investors offers info on nearest airport\, police station\, school

Invest India locations portal for investors offers info on nearest airport, police station, school

Learning from its past experience, the agency will share minute details such as population mix, religious places, eateries and pubs in the vicinity

Nirbhay Kumar | July 13, 2020 | Updated 21:42 IST
In a major concession to industry, the Centre had last year slashed corporate income tax rate for new companies in the manufacturing sector to 15%

KEY HIGHLIGHTS

  • Foreign investors looking for locations to set up their business units will be able to log in to Invest India's one-stop portal
  • Invest India will provide details nearest police stations, health care centres, highways, railheads, airports and schools to help investors make informed decisions
  • The agency will also share minute details such as population mix, religious places, eateries and pubs in the vicinity
  • Invest India aims to help investors turn proposals into actual investment

Foreign investors looking for an ideal location to set up businesses in India will now get a wide range of options to choose from on a single digital platform.

Invest India, the investment facilitation agency under the Commerce Ministry, will provide details about the locations including police stations, health care centres, highways, railheads, airports and schools around them to help investors make informed decisions. Learning from its past experience, the agency will share minute details such as population mix, religious places, eateries and pubs in the vicinity.

As part of a pilot project which Invest India team had done with a company, it had given them documents containing all information on various locations. It had tables on dozens of parameters on possible locations where they can set up their facility. It listed out the number of police stations and health care centres around a particular location. The details about roads, airport, port and water body were also part of it.

"Soon this will be launched on a map. So, if you are an investor sitting in Japan or somewhere in the UK, Netherlands, anywhere, and you want to invest $50 million on laptop manufacturing and ask us about possible locations, we will tell you the plug and play facilities available. For each place, you could see how far you are from a port, how far you are from a water body, the nearest trade infrastructure. We are trying to put all this information out," said Dr Preet Deep Singh, Assistant Vice-President, Invest India.

"This really helps in ensuring comfort and conversion," he added. India has been trying hard to attract foreign investment especially those planning to exit China following trade war with the US. It has taken a slew of steps including relaxation in Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) norms across various sectors.

In a major concession to industry, the Centre had last year slashed corporate income tax rate for new companies in the manufacturing sector to 15%. For existing companies, the rate has been brought down to 22%. "As a result, our corporate tax rates are now amongst the lowest in the world," Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had said while presenting Union Budget 2020.