National Single Window System (NSWS)

Context:

Recently, Jammu & Kashmir became the first Union Territory to be onboarded the National Single Window System (NSWS). This marks a major leap in Ease of Doing Business (EoDB) in the UT.

What is the National Single Window System (NSWS)?

• It is a one-stop digital platform that aims at allowing investors to apply for various pre-operations approvals required for commencing a business in the country. 
•  It makes the business registration process easier, allowing the beneficiary to get significant approvals online, without having to run to the government offices for approvals and can avail themselves of services with just a click. 
• Currently, the platform hosts approvals across 18 Central Departments & 9 States. Another 14 Central depts & 5 states will be added by December 2021.
• Background
  •  The Finance Minister had earlier announced an Investment Clearance Cell (ICC) in the Union Budget 2020 that will provide “end to end” facilitation & support to investors, pre-investment advisory, information related to land banks and facilitate clearances at Centre & State level.
  • The cell was proposed to operate by means of an online digital portal.
  •  Subsequently, DPIIT(Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade) in association with Invest India started developing the portal as a National Single Window System (NSWS).

Significance of the Portal

• It will have solutions for all at one click of the mouse through ‘End to End’ facilitation .
• It will bring Transparency, Accountability & Responsiveness in the ecosystem
• all information will be available on a single dashboard.
• Foreign & Indian Investors, Businesses and Start ups will benefit from the initiative.
• It also provides strength to other schemes like Make in India, Startup India, PLI scheme etc.
• It will also bring in Ease of doing business & Ease of living.
• The National Single Window System is therefore a perfect example towards making India Atma Nirbhar.

Services under NSWS-

• Know Your Approval (KYA) Service: an intelligent information wizard that generates a list of approvals required by any business to commence operations. 
• Common Registration Form: To ensure a single point of submission of information and documents across Ministries and States, a unified information capturing system along with a common registration form has been introduced. Information is auto-populated on forms, eliminating the need to fill in the same information again. 
• State registration form: Enables investors to have seamless single click access to the respective State Single Window System.
• Applicant dashboard: Provides a single online interface to apply, track and respond to the queries pertaining to approvals and registrations across ministries and States. 
• Document repository: An online centralized storage service for investors to enable one-time document submission and use the same across multiple approvals. This eliminates the need to submit documents at multiple portals.
• E-Communication module: Enables online response to queries and clarification requests related to applications by Ministries and States.

Single Window System – A Brief Background

In India, there are several IT platforms which have been allocated the duty for clearances, and investors need to visit multiple stakeholders to each approval. Foreign Investment Facilitation Portal (FIFP) and state single-window clearances are few such platforms.

Foreign Investment Facilitation Portal (FIFP) is administered by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), which comes under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry. To facilitate Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), it is the only online interface between Government and investors.

About Foreign Direct Investment (FDI)

• Foreign direct investment (FDI) is an investment made by a company or an individual in one country into business interests located in another country
• In India, a decent part of the economy is generated through these foreign investments
• FDI allows new innovations, policies, ideas, etc. into a country and ultimately results in the economic growth 
• There are two major routes through which India gets FDI:
  • Government Route – Prior approval from the Government of India is mandatory for the foreign entity
  • Automatic Route – The prior approval of RBI or the Government is not required

Source: Indian Express

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