The Centre is working on an industrial policy for backward areas of the northeast as well as the Himalayan States to subsidise the cost of capital, a senior official said.
“It is a challenge to access funds in India,” said Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) Secretary Ramesh Abhishek.
“Cost of funds is high, and the government is working to bring this down and make funds easily accessible. We have interest subsidy schemes specifically for more difficult areas like the northeast. We are trying to come out with an industrial policy for backward areas of northeast and the Himalayan States and we are going to see how we can subsidise the cost of capital in these areas,” he said at an interactive session on Make In India initiative online.
Online regulations
Mr. Abhishek said norms were yet to be announced by the regulators concerned, including the RBI and the SEBI, regarding regulations for online lending platforms.
“Those platforms are doing a good job. So we are hoping that regulators will come out soon with good and positive regulations so online platforms are able to do their business,” the DIPP Secretary said.
On state-wise start-up policy, he said as of now there are 16 states that have their respective start-up policies and the Centre has asked the remaining states to soon join the initiative.
Noting that start-up policy is important, he said start-ups are the biggest job creators. “We have to turn our youth into job givers not job seekers. Creating a start-up ecosystem [is] also important,” he said.
The development of agriculture sector is a key priority area for the Centre, he said. The government is encouraging organic farming across the country and he has sought suggestions in this regard from the public.
Mr. Abhishek said Invest India — the national investment promotion agency — in the last one and a half years had promoted foreign investments to the tune of $70 billion, of which already $3.1 billion worth of investments had come into the country. “This kind of hand holding was never done by the Centre earlier,” Mr. Abhishek added.
On the matter of “troubles” relating to conversion of agricultural land to non-agricultural land for its commercial use, the official said it was a “tricky issue” and sought suggestions from stakeholders so that the Centre can form a view on it and then forward them to the state governments as land issues fall under the jurisdiction of states.
