Government Unveils Single Window System To Help Investors

Aiming to facilitate “end to end” support to investors like fast tracking clearances at the Centre and state levels and providing them all preliminary information about the investment scenario in the country, the Government on Wednesday unveiled the National Single Window System (NSWS).

Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal while inaugurating the system, said that as on today, the portal hosts approvals related to 18 central government departments and nine states, while by December this year another 14 central departments and five more states will be included on it.

It has services like “Know Your Approval”, “Common Registration and State Registration Form”, “Document Repository” and “E-Communication” among others, to guide investors.

An applicant dashboard is also available to help an interested investor apply as well as track his or her application.

The system is expected to bring greater transparency, accountability and responsiveness and all information will be available on a single dashboard, official sources said.

Among various measures announced by the Centre to make India an investor friendly destination, the setting up of an investment clearance cell was one of them.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in her Union Budget speech in 2020 had announced that an investment clearance cell would be set up, which will provide “end to end” facilitation and support to investors.

Soon after this, the Commerce Ministry had begun the process of developing the NSWS, which has now been unveiled.

The Commerce Minister said on the occasion that India has been rising as an economic power as the economy has grown at over 20 per cent in the first quarter of the current fiscal, exports have risen by 45 per cent in August 2021 as against the corresponding period of last year and there has been a record foreign direct investment of $81.7 billion in 2020.

Such a system therefore would help boost India's image among investors across the globe.

The NSWS will also help in doing away with duplication of information submitted across various plaforms and will also check inefficient tracking of approvals and the resultant delays in their clearances.