Government to Create Business-Friendly Environment: Commerce Minister

New Delhi: Assuring the red carpet to investors, Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday said the government is fully committed to creating business-friendly environment to boost the manufacturing sector which will push India to a higher growth trajectory.

Highlighting the steps taken by the government in ensuring growth and creating jobs, she said that to provide flexibility in working hours, the government was also amending a number of labour laws.

"We want to chart out new path wherein business entities are extended proverbial red carpet welcome... We are fully committed to delicensing, deregulation and radical changes as we go along. We have an open mind," she said at the launch of the 'Make in India' campaign here.

(Read: PM Modi's Make-in-India pitch: 10 key takeaways)

"We are fully committed to taking India on a higher growth trajectory and we want to make India a global manufacturing destination," she added.

The campaign, aimed at exploiting untapped potential of the country in the manufacturing sector which now contributes only about 15 per cent to the GDP, is not a slogan but a mission to be accomplished with a single commitment, she said.

"While this percentage is much higher in other Asian countries which are in similar stages of development, we are determined to push it up to 25 per cent."

Government has identified 25 sectors including pharmaceuticals, automobiles, textiles, aviation, mining, chemicals and others which have potential to make India a leader in these fields.

"In these sectors, substantial work has been done to identify growth drivers, investment opportunities, FDI policy, sectoral policies and specific reason to invest," the trade minister said.

"We have created a dedicated team to invest in India which will respect to your (businesses) queries, assist you, facilitate you and hand hold investors across the world," she added.

Ms Sitharaman also said India's image had been "identified unfortunately" with red tape-ism, 'inspector raj' and cumbersome rules which hinders smooth transaction of business.

She said the government has taken a series of pro-business steps and measures to spruce up infrastructure.

Listing out the steps, she said the process of applying industrial licences had been made online and validity of licences had been extended to three years.

"Special timelines have been laid down for processing all applications and security clearances," she added.

The minister said the government has also liberalised foreign direct investment in several sectors like defence, railway infrastructure and real estate.