Ease of doing business: Maadhyam portal in works for swift nod to proposals

In what may further the ease of doing business in India, the government is working towards the launch of a digital platform 'Maadhyam'--a National Single Window System--to allow investors to identify and apply for various pre-operation clearances required for starting business in the country.

The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade’s (DPIIT’s) had planned to launch the portal on 15 August, but it is currently in a testing phase, with the one of the biggest challenges being coordination with multiple stakeholders involved. Government officials said that in the first phase of the integration, 43 government departments and 14 States Single Window Systems will be onboarded.

The Maadhyam platform will do away with the need for multiple applications across various portals. To be sure, all approval will still be needed. An investment proposal typically requires a bunch of approvals and clearances across various states and government departments.

With this, investors will not need to visit multiple offices to gather information and obtain clearances, resulting in time-bound approvals, reducing compliance burden and enabling real time status updates, thereby attracting more foreign investment.

The portal will allow investors to resolve queries, respond to clarifications raised by government departments. While the timeframe for approval will not be revised, respective government departments will know where the investor’s proposal is stuck, which will help them iron out the issues, thereafter.

“This National Single Window System will eliminate the need for investors to visit multiple platforms/offices to gather information and obtain clearances from different stakeholders and provide time-bound approvals and real-time status update to investors,” commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal had said in the past.

How the portal works

Maadhyam is a one-stop digital platform to obtain all central and state approvals required to start business in India. An investor will have to answer a set of questions to know the approvals pertinent to the business, and apply for approvals through a single interface. Thereafter, the application can be tracked on a real-time basis.

In its current shape seen by Business Standard, the portal has more than 560 approvals across more than 28 central ministries and departments such as ministry of agriculture, defence, corporate affairs and approvals across 14 states.

DPIIT plans to integrate the existing clearance system of the Centre as well as states. “Investors will be able to apply for these central government licenses/approvals by filling the common registration form. Further, Maadhyam is integrated with the State Single Window System (SWS) of all the participating states. The investor will be able to apply for the state licenses by filling in the relevant state registration form,” according to information available on the portal.

The challenges

Experts believe that the idea of a national single window system is a great idea on paper. However, it is important to watch out how it is implemented and ultimately how smooth the online system is once launched.

“Such a platform will help in reducing multiple levels of coordination with several states and ministries. However, for a project of such magnitude, smooth implementation is crucial. For this, states will also have to ramp up their infrastructure. The right mix of manpower is crucial to be able to understand the way such digital platforms function,” Atul Pandey, partner at Khaitan and Co said.