New Delhi: In order to make sure that US President Barack Obama’s does not remain just a photo op, the government has set up an inter-ministerial committee to fast-track investment proposals from the United States in India.The department of industrial policy and promotion (DIPP) secretary will be the chairman of the committee. It will have representatives from various departments including environment, power, road transport and highways, railways, health, defence production, civil aviation, commerce, pharma and external affairs among others.
The committee will identify bottlenecks faced by the US investors in the implementation of their investment proposals and address them in consultation with all other agencies and state governments concerned. The committee will also look into areas of concern in sectors of interest to US companies to address them. It will closely monitor and co-ordinate the process to ensure that investment from the US are put on fast-track in various sectors and opportunities of investment and technology transfer are fully exploited.
Mr Obama will be the chief guest on the forthcoming Republic Day a first for any US President. The committee will also interact with US companies, ministries and departments of the government of India and the state governments to facilitate US investment. It will initiate action to ensure that the US companies investing in India are given handholding services. At present, Indo-US bilateral trade is around $100 billion. India has received about $12 billion in FDI from the US firms during April 2000 to March 2014.
