14 November 2015

India, UK sign civilian nuclear deal, seek to foster financial ties

British and Indian companies will sign collaborations worth more than £9 billion ($13.7 billion) during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s three-day visit to the UK, his British counterpart David Cameron said on Thursday as the two nations signed a civil nuclear deal, pledged to collaborate in defence and cyber security and geared up to launch a railway rupee bond worth more than £1 billion.
Cameron told a news conference that London wanted to support Modi—the first Indian premier to visit the UK in nine years—in his vision of transforming India with improved infrastructure and education.
“We want to become your number one partner for supporting the finance needed for (Modi’s) ambitious plan, making London the world’s centre for offshore rupee trading with the issue of over £1 billion in bonds including the first government-backed rupee denominated bond,” he said
“During this visit British and Indian companies are announcing new collaborations together worth more than £9 billion,” Cameron said.
Modi described the conclusion of the civil nuclear pact as “a symbol of our mutual trust and our resolve to combat climate change”.
Modi highlighted plans for India to use London as a financial base for fund-raising. “We are going to use the London market for fund-raising even more and I am happy to announced that we are set to launch a railway rupee bond in London. It is appropriate as the journey of Indian Railways started in the UK,” Modi said.
After arriving in the British capital on a much-anticipated visit, Modi was given a guard of honour by the 48-member F Company Scots guard accompanied by the regimental band of Irish guards. Cameron came out from 10 Downing Street to receive Modi before the two leaders started a nearly 90-minute meeting at the office of the British Prime Minister.
Other senior ministers present include foreign secretary Philip Hammond, employment minister Priti Patel and business minister Sajid Javid. On the Indian side, the delegation included high commissioner to the UK Ranjan Mathai, foreign secretary S. Jaishankar and National Security Advisor Ajit Doval.
The UK ranks 18th in the list of India’s top 25 trading partners and two-way trade in 2014-15 stood at $14.34 billion. The UK is the third largest inward investor in India, after Mauritius and Singapore, with a cumulative investment of $22.26 billion between 2000 and 2015. Modi’s talks with Cameron were set to continue at the British Prime Minister’s country residence of Chequers in Buckinghamshire, where he was being hosted overnight.
Also on Thursday, Cameron reiterated British support for India’s candidature for permanent membership of the United Nations Security Council, while Modi spoke warmly of Britain as India’s gateway into Europe.
“We continue to see the UK as our entry point into the EU,” Modi, speaking via a translator, told reporters.
Cameron plans to hold an in-out vote on Britain’s membership of the EU by the end of 2017.
In a speech to the British parliament later on Thursday, Modi spoke of India’s “commitment to individual freedoms and rights” and hoped economic ties between the two nations would grow by leaps and bounds, with cooperation in the areas of defence equipment, science and technology, and reneweable and nuclear energy.
On terrorism and extremism, Modi told the British lawmakers that the world “must be in one voice and act in unison” to combat the challenge. He urged the world community to agree and sign and international convention on terrorism and to make “no distinction between terrorist groups”.
On climate change, another area where India is expected to play a major role, Modi pointed to the importance of the principle of common but differentiated responsibility, which acknowledges the greater responsibility of those industrial nations that have contributed more to climate change than emerging economies. “Those who have the means and knowhow”, Modi added, must help the world combat climate change.
Britain was the first Western country to end a visa ban on Modi, imposed after the 2002 riots in Gujarat, when he was chief minister of the state.
The day was also marked by several protests against Modi outside 10 Downing Street. Protesters included those who want to see punishment meted out to those responsible for the Gujarat riots, as well as Nepalis who want an end to the blockade of Nepal.
India will be looking at attracting more British investments into India in the areas of defence manufacturing, and there could be an agreement for Britain’s BAE Systems to sell 20 more Hawk trainer jets to India.
“The primary agenda of the prime minister will be to attract more British investment into India,” said Prashant Mehra, partner at Grant Thornton India Llp, an investment advisory firm with offices in Delhi and Mumbai. “India has received $30 billion in foreign direct investment in the first six months of this calendar year. At home, the Prime Minister has put in place measures to increase the ease of doing business. Abroad, he has been working on getting investments into India. Britain is a key market for India as well. Indian companies are present in numbers in Britain as the language (for business) is English, the laws are similar, Britain is strategically located (for reaching European markets). So Britain in the past few years has emerged as our top three business partners,” Mehra said.
With India seen as more stable than other emerging economies, “there is a lot of optimism about India in Britain”, he added.
Meanwhile, in New Delhi, the opposition Congress urged Modi to ask British authorities to deport former Indian Premier League chief Lalit Modi, who fled to London in 2010 after the Enforcement Directorate initiated an investigation against him for alleged foreign exchange irregularities.
“The Congress Party hopes and demands that the Prime Minister takes up the issue... with his British counterpart, and ensures his deportation to India at the earliest,” the party said in a statement.

Five charts that show how India’s dependence on fossil fuels will increase

Five charts that show how India’s dependence on fossil fuels will increase

The IEA expects India’s oil demand to rise the fastest—by 6 million barrels per day to 9.8 mb/d in 2040 

China has driven the world energy market in recent years. However, the International Energy Agency’s (IEA) World Economic Outlook (WEO) 2015 projects that India will see the fastest growth in energy demand by 2040 as China effects structural changes to its economy, such as moving towards services.
The IEA expects global energy demand to grow by a third from the current levels by 2040. India’s is expected to double even after energy efficiency gains—the overall energy intensity of India’s economy is expected to reduce from 0.11 tonnes of oil equivalent (toe) per $1,000 of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2013 to 0.05 toe per $1,000 of GDP in 2040. Then, India’s energy use will more than double to reach 1,900 million tonnes of oil equivalent (Mtoe). Led by coal, the share of fossil fuels in India’s energy mix will rise to 81% by 2040 from 72% in 2013.
India’s coal consumption will reach 1,300 million tonnes of coal equivalent (Mtce) in 2040. This will be 50% more than the combined demand of all Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries and second only to China. Power generation and industrial usage will account for most of this consumption.
The IEA expects India’s oil demand to rise the fastest—by 6.0 million barrels per day to 9.8 mb/d in 2040. It projects that oil production will fall behind demand, pushing oil import dependence above 90% by 2040.
The transport sector alone is expected to account for two-thirds of the rise in oil demand with 260 million additional passenger cars, 185 million new two- and three-wheelers and nearly 30 million new trucks and vans being added to the vehicle stock. The shift from fuelwood to LPG for cooking in households will also drive this demand.
Although India’s energy mix won’t change much, renewables and nuclear will grow very fast, albeit from a very small base. Within renewables, solar and wind will emerge as a major provider of energy.
What are the key factors that will drive this rise in energy use?
Urbanisation is one factor. The IEA expects an extra 315 million people to move to towns and cities by 2040. The agency also factors in India becoming the most populous country by 2040 and its economy growing by five times by 2040.
The construction industry will expand with the rise in urbanization: its constituent sectors such as steel and cement are particularly energy intensive. The infrastructure investment called for by programmes such as the Smart Cities programme will also hike energy usage. A shift to manufacturing, as envisaged by the Make in India programme, will also have an impact, as manufacturing industries consume more energy than services sectors.
The IEA report warns that India must prepare for the fallout of the rise in energy consumption, chiefly air pollution and water stress.
To what extent will India’s emission reduction pledges help reduce energy demand?
If there is no change from current policies, India’s total primary energy demand would rise to 2,091 Mtoe in 2040. But under the so-called New Policies scenario (which is IEA’s baseline scenario and the basis for the numbers in this story), it will be 1,908 Mtoe, mainly because of gains in energy efficiency.
As part of its emission reduction commitments, India has promised to ensure that renewables would account for 40% of electricity generated in the country by 2030. At this rate, the IEA calculations show that renewables will account for 43% of all power generated in India in 2040.
Still, under all scenarios, India’s energy-related carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions are higher in 2040 than in 2013 and the country will be the single-largest contributor to the rise in emissions over this period. By then, India’s emissions per capita will converge towards the global average of 3.2 tonnes per capita versus a global average that edges downwards to 4.1 tonnes of CO2 per capita.


1
Renewables
35
Renewables
33
Coal
25
Oil
5
Natural Gas
1
Nuclear
India

Improving climate for foreign investments

Improving climate for foreign investments

 

The silver lining for those who have been waiting for some quick progress on the economic reforms front arrived on Tuesday. The department of industrial policy and promotion (DIPP) announced a review of foreign direct investment (FDI) policy in as many as 15 sectors. These reforms were long overdue and their final realization should considerably bolster India’s attractiveness to foreign capital and technology.
With an aim “to further ease, rationalize and simplify the process of foreign investments in the country”, the announced measures involve sectors as diverse as defence, mining, construction and plantation. A whole range of FDI proposals have been, in one stroke, shifted from the route of government approval, where, as the DIPP notes, time and energy of investors is wasted, to the automatic route. For instance, in the defence sector, the proposals for FDI up to 49% will now come under the automatic route instead of the government route as under extant rules. For investments above 49%, the proposal will be considered by the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) instead of the current scrutiny by the Cabinet Committee on Security.
The liberalization of the FDI regime in the construction sector has the potential for yielding a considerable windfall as this sector has been the second highest beneficiary of foreign investment—accounting for 9.34% of the total FDI inflows from April 2000 to June 2015. In other measures, sectoral caps have been increased and new avenues have been opened up for foreign investments. The wholesale, retail and e-commerce spaces have been opened up for manufacturing industries. To cap it all, the threshold up to which FIPB can consider foreign equity proposals has been raised from Rs.3,000 crore to Rs.5,000 crore. Beyond this limit is the realm of the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs.
In order to make it easier for foreign investors, DIPP has also been advised to consolidate all FDI-related instructions from countless government notifications and press notes into a single booklet. The recovery of the Indian economy, fragile and slow though it may be, has definitely been helped by an increase in foreign investment. The foreign equity inflows for the first six months of the calendar year 2015 saw a 34% increase from the corresponding figure last year. According to a Financial Times report in September, India has emerged as the world’s most favourite destination for FDI in 2015.
It is true that India has traditionally been far more reliant on domestic investments than on foreign inflows for economic growth. According to World Bank data, at its peak in 2008, FDI in India stood at 3.5% of GDP. The level of gross capital formation as a percentage of GDP, however, has consistently hovered above 30% since 2004, achieving a peak of 39% in 2011. There are, however, three reasons why the government’s push for greater FDI inflows is not at all misplaced.
One, the FDI inflows tapered off from a peak of 3.5% of GDP in 2008 to 1.3% in 2012 before marginally reviving to 1.7% in 2014. It is clear that India has adequate capacity and need to further absorb foreign capital. Two, domestic investment has not picked up because the Indian corporate sector has been battling over-leveraged balance sheets. With large numbers of stressed and non-performing assets on their books, banks, too, have been unwilling to lend further. World Bank data reflect the same, as gross capital formation plummeted from 39% of GDP in 2011 to 31% of GDP in 2014—the lowest in over a decade. In the light of such a decline, the 2014-15 Economic Survey was unequivocal on the imperative of augmenting public investment “to recreate an environment to crowd-in private sector investment”. A spurt in FDI will undoubtedly support the increasing public investment in spurring consumer demand and create positive conditions for private domestic investments.
Three, an increase in the level of FDI is not just a transient indicator of the health of the economy or a measure of success for initiatives such as “Make in India”. FDI brings with itself world’s best practices and access to technology. It induces greater competition in the markets of the recipient country and helps the latter integrate with global supply chain. In short, more and more FDI is welcome and so are the measures to facilitate the same.

Workshop on discontinuation of Interview for recruitment to the Junior-level posts in the Government

Dr. Jitendra Singh to inaugurate Workshop on discontinuation of Interview for recruitment to the Junior-level posts in the Government
Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr. Jitendra Singh will inaugurate a one-day Workshop of the Principal Secretaries of the General Administration Department (GAD) of various States/Union Territories looking after the work of recruitment of employees, in New Delhi on Monday, November 16, 2015.

The daylong Workshop will focus upon the Central Government’s directions calling for discontinuation of Interview for recruitment to the Junior-level posts in the Government. Presentations will be made by the Staff Selection Commission (SSC), Railway Recruitment Boards (RRBs), representatives of State Government from Jharkhand, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Manipur, Punjab, Rajasthan, Sikkim and Uttarakhand besides the Department of Personnel & Training (DoPT).

Dr. Jitendra Singh had last month appealed to the Chief Ministers of all the States to take steps to abolish interview for recruitment to lower posts wherever possible. As a prompt follow up to the suggestion made by the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi during his Independence Day address to abolish interview for recruitment to such posts where it is not required, the DoPT took up the matter with the State Governments of all States on September 4, 2015 following which the matter was discussed with the Secretaries of General Administration Department (GAD)/Personnel from States during the two-day workshop held in New Delhi on September 8-9, 2015.

The government’s view is that the interviews should be discontinued for recruitment to junior-level posts where personality or skill assessment is not absolutely required. The objective behind abolition of interviews for such posts is that it will curb corruption, ensure more objective selection in a transparent manner and substantially ease the problems of the poor and resourceless aspirants. This will not only enable giving more weightage to the merit but also supplement the government’s resolve for “Maximum Governance, Minimum Government”.

In a letter addressed to the Chief Ministers last month, Dr. Jitendra Singh had informed that several Group 'B' (Non-Gazetted) and Group 'C' (Non-Technical) posts in various Ministries/Departments and other organisations under Central Government have already been identified where the selections can be made through a competitive examination without conducting the interview. The Chief Ministers of different States have been requested to involve the Public Service Commission and other recruiting agencies in their respective States where interview can be discontinued and selection can be done only through examination. This would be a major step towards achieving the goal of citizen-centric transparent governance.

The DoPT and the Department of Administrative Reforms & Public Grievances (DAR&PG) and the Department of Pensions and Pensioners Welfare have recently undertaken several path breaking decisions including abolition of attestation of certificates and instead introduced self-attestation of certificates, introduction of pension portal to abolish the requirement for a written life-certificate and decision to revisit and revise the pattern and syllabus of Civil Services Examination.

13 November 2015

Smart City Plans to be evaluated based on credibility, do-ability and citizen engagement

Smart City Plans to be evaluated based on credibility, do-ability and citizen engagement

Implementation framework given 30% weightage, Result orientation-20%, Citizen participation-16%, smartness of solutions-10%, SWOT analysis based strategic plan-10%

Weightage for Pan-city solutions increased based on suggestions from States and ULBs

UD Ministry firms up evaluation criteria for second stage of City Challenge competition
Smart City Plans to be submitted to the Ministry of Urban Development by the 98 identified mission cities for evaluation in the second stage of ‘City Challenge Competition’ will be assessed for their credibility and do-ability. The Ministry has firmed up the evaluation criteria seeking to enable formulation of workable city level Smart City Plans as suggested by the Minister of Urban Development Shri M.Venakaiah Naidu. States and Urban Local Bodies have been adequately consulted in this regard.

The Mission cities are currently engaged in preparation of Smart City Plans to be submitted to the Ministry of Urban Development by the 15th of next month for evaluation so as to pick up the first batch of mission cities for financing this year. 98 cities were earlier selected based on intra-state competition in the first stage of City Challenge Competition based on a set of criteria.

The evaluation criteria for second stage of competition accords a weightage of 30 out of a total 100 marks for Implementation framework including feasibility and cost effectiveness, 20 for Result orientation, 16 for Citizen consultation for identifying goals and objectives, 10 for Smartness of solutions, 10 for adoption of SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) analysis for preparation of strategic plan and 5 each for City vision and goals and Quality of city profiling including identification of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), Potential for improvement of city and 4% for Processes followed.

Smart City Plans will be assessed based on City-level criteria (30% weightage), Area Based Development features(50%) and Pan-city Solutions(15%) encompassing above mentioned parameters. Based on the suggestions from States and Urban Local Bodies(ULBs), weightage for Pan-City Solutions has been increased from 10% to 15%.

Citizen engagement has been made mandatory for identifying smart city objectives and evolving strategic plan under city-level criteria, deciding on area development features and identification of Pan-city Solutions with a total weightage of 16%.

City-level criteria includes measures taken during the last three years to enhance livability and administrative efficiency of cities, quality of city vision and strategic plan, identification of gaps and KPIs and potential for improvement.

Implementation framework including feasibility and cost effectiveness of Area Based Development and Pan-city Solutions of Smart City Proposals is given the highest weightage of 30% as it encompasses credibility of proposals. Under this, Mission cities should indicate realistic timelines and targets and sequencing of efforts and actions through PERT and CPM charts, a clear financing plan with details of resource requirements and their mobilization, development of bankable projects, innovative ways of financing including tapping of financial markets and land monetisation, life time costs, O&M costs and financial sustainability, details of Special Purpose Vehicle to be set up, convergence with other schemes, role of various institutions involved in implementation of plan etc.

Result orientation of Area Development and Pan-city Proposals includes extent of adoption of 24 Smart City features, do-ability of proposals, outcomes, convergence of different schemes for resource mobilization, identification of risks and their management, impact of smart city proposals on governance, Spatial impact (enhanced density of living and mixed land use), Economic impact (new commercial spaces for economic activity), Social impact (improved public spaces enhancing social cohesion) and Environmental impact.

Pan-city Solutions are mandatory component of Smart City Proposals aiming at benefitting entire city through application of Information & Communication Technologies resulting in improvement in governance and public service delivery. Mission city are required to clearly bring out the measurable impact of these solutions on governance and service delivery besides the time frame by when the benefits would be felt by the citizens.

Smart City Mission focusses on area development through retrofitting, redevelopment and green field development or a combination of these with Pan-city Solutions as a mandatory component.

Under retrofitting, an already built up area of a minimum of 500 acres identified will be taken up for addressing existing infrastructure deficits and promotion of smart city features. Under redevelopment, built up area of minimum 50 acres would be re-built with smart city features. Minimum area for green field development is 250 acres.

Navy’s Long Range Maritime Patrol Aircraft- Boeing P-8I- Dedicated to the Nation

Navy’s Long Range Maritime Patrol Aircraft- Boeing P-8I- Dedicated to the Nation
Giving a boost to the firepower and arsenal of the Indian Armed Forces, the Defence Minister Shri Manohar Parrikar dedicated the Boeing P 8 I (Poseidon Eight India) Long Range Maritime Patrol aircraft to the nation this morning, at an impressive ceremony held at INS Rajali, Arakkonam, India’s premiere Naval Air Station in southern India, about 70 Km off Chennai.

The ceremony was attended by a host of dignitaries including the Chief of Naval Staff Admiral RK Dhowan, and Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief Eastern Naval Command Vice Admiral Satish Soni.

Shri Parrikar, who flew in to INS Rajali on board a Boeing P-8I from Port Blair this morning, described the aircraft as one of the best for surveillance in the world today. During the flight, Shri Parrikar was given an exposure to various sensors and other sophisticated state-of-the-art equipment and their capabilities. He said the aircraft will provide the Indian Navy the necessary reach and flexibility to undertake extensive surveillance as also to respond swiftly and effectively to contingencies in our areas of interest.

Shri Parrikar, in particular complimented the Navy and its air arm for expeditiously inducting and operationalising this force multiplier, which would enable the nation’s Armed Forces to dominate the future battle space. Taking note of the spectacular efforts put in by INS Rajali and its personnel, Shri Parrikar praised the fact that, even in the short phase of trials and testing, the P-8I aircraft had achieved a number of operational milestones which includes participation in the search effort for Malaysian Airlines Flight MH 370, the first successful firing of air launched Harpoon Block II missile in the world, torpedo firing and active participation in major naval exercises.

The P-8I aircraft is a variant of the P-8A Poseidon aircraft that Boeing developed as a replacement for the US Navy’s ageing P-3 fleet. Indian Navy became the first international customer for the P-8 aircraft with the conclusion of the nearly US $ 2.1 billion contract on 01 Jan 2009 for a total of eight aircraft. The first aircraft arrived in India on the 15 May 2013 and as of date; all eight aircraft have been inducted into the Indian Navy and are fully integrated into its operations.

The P-8I aircraft is equipped for long range anti submarine warfare, anti -surface warfare, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance in support of broad area, maritime and littoral operations. Its communication and sensor suite includes indigenous equipment developed by defence PSUs and private manufacturers. With its high speed and high endurance of about 10 hours, the aircraft is capable of thrusting a punitive response and maintaining a watch over India’s immediate and extended areas of interest.

The aircraft are based at INS Rajali, and are operated by Indian Naval Air Squadron 312A under the command of Commander Venkateshwaran Ranganathan.

12 November 2015

Centre relaxes FDI norms in 15 sectors

Centre relaxes FDI norms in 15 sectors
The Centre on Tuesday announced 'big bang' foreign direct investment (FDI) reforms, easing conditions across 15 sectors, including defence, banking, construction, retail, broadcasting and civil aviation.
For facilitating faster approvals on most of the proposals, the government has decided that the inter-ministerial Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) can from now onwards give approvals to proposals above Rs 5000 crore, up from the earlier threshold of Rs 3,000 crore.
A senior Industry Ministry official said "by far, these (set of reforms) are the biggest path-breaking and the most radical changes in the FDI regime ever undertaken by the Centre. With the Prime Minister's approval and after several rounds of inter-ministerial consultations, we have brought out about 35 changes in the FDI policy cutting across 15 sectors. We have expedited these changes over the last couple of weeks. This exercise could have other wise taken over a year and would have needed over 16 cabinet notes."
Crux of the reforms
According to an official release, the crux of these reforms is to further ease, rationalise and simplify the process of foreign investments in the country and to put more and more FDI proposals on automatic route instead of government route where time and energy of the investors is wasted.
Significantly, undeterred by the debacle in Bihar polls, the BJP-led NDA government stated that: "With this round of reforms, the government has demonstrated that India is unstoppable on the path of economic development... It is also clear that India is a country, which is more than ready to integrate with the global economy."
For the sake of ease of doing business, the Industry Ministry will soon consolidate all FDI-related instructions contained in various notifications and press notes and prepare a booklet so that the investors do not have to refer to several documents of different time-frames.
The release said refining of foreign investment norms in construction is to facilitate the construction of 50 million houses for poor. It added that opening up of the manufacturing sector for wholesale, retail and e-commerce is aimed at motivating industries to ‘Make in India’ and sell it to the customers here instead of importing from other countries.
Higher FDI
According to Industry Ministry data, India received FDI of $19.39 billion during January-June 2015, an increase of 30% over the same period last year. The Modi government in the last few months has introduced many FDI policy reforms in sectors such as defence, rail infrastructure, construction development, insurance, pension, medical devices, white label ATM operations, investments by NRIs on non-repatriation basis and has introduced composite cap for foreign investment.
Main sectoral changes in the FDI regime
Construction sector: Conditions of area restriction of floor area of 20,000 sq. metres in construction development projects and minimum capitalisation of US$ 5 million to be brought in within the period of six months of the commencement of business have been removed.
Defence: Foreign investment up to 49% will be under automatic route. Proposals for foreign investment in excess of 49% will be considered by FIPB. Earlier, foreign investment up to 49% is permitted under government approval route. Foreign investment above 49% was also permitted, subject to approval of Cabinet Committee on Security on case-to-case basis, wherever the investment is likely to result in access to ‘state-of-art’ technology in the country.
Also, portfolio investment and investment by foreign venture capital investors (FVCIs) will be allowed up to permitted automatic route level of 49%. (So far, portfolio investment and investment by FVCIs was restricted to 24% only).
However, government approval will be required in case of infusion of fresh foreign investment within the permitted automatic route level, resulting in change in the ownership pattern or transfer of stake by existing investor to new foreign investor.
Broadcasting: In terrestrial broadcasting FM (FM Radio), and in up-linking of ‘news & government route current affairs TV channels FDI upto 49% is allowed through the FIPB route, while 100% FDI is allowed through the automatic route in up-linking of non-‘news & current affairs TV channels.
Banking: In private sector banking, the government has allowed full fungibility of foreign investment in private sector banking. Accordingly, FIIs/FPIs/QFIs, following due procedure, can now invest up to sectoral limit of 74%, provided that there is no change of control and management of the investee company.
Plantation: The government also decided to plantation activities namely; coffee, rubber, cardamom, palm oil tree and olive oil tree plantations also for 100% foreign investment under automatic route. As of now, only tea plantation was open to foreign investment.
NRIs: Investment by companies/trusts/partnerships owned and controlled by NRIs on non-repatriation basis will now be treated as domestic investment.
E-Commerce: Manufacturers have been allowed to sell their product through wholesale and/or retail, including through e-commerce without government approval.
Retail: The government has eased FDI policy conditionalities for single-brand retail trading, besides permitting 100% FDI in duty-free shops.
Also, a single entity will be permitted to undertake both the activities of single-brand retail trading (SBRT) and wholesale with the condition that conditions of FDI policy on wholesale/ cash and carry and SBRT have to be complied by both the business arms separately. Currently, wholesale/cash and carry trader cannot open retail shops to sell to the consumer directly.
LLP: 100% FDI in limited liability partnerships (LLPs) has been permitted under automatic route.
Aviation: Regional air transport service will be eligible for foreign investment up to 49% under automatic route. Under the present FDI policy, foreign investment up to 49% is allowed only in scheduled air transport service/ domestic scheduled passenger airline.
Foreign equity caps of certain sectors - non-scheduled air transport service, ground handling services, satellites establishment and operation and credit information companies have now been increased from 74% to 100%. Further, sectors other than satellites establishment and operation have been placed under the automatic route.

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