Power Booster

¨A Diwali gift for investors,¨ in the words of Amitabh Kant, Secretary, Ministry of Commerce & Industry-Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion. The Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) reforms recently announced by the Centre ¨is the biggest bang reform of the government,¨ according to Kant, as reported. The FDI reforms are expected to ease norms across 15 sectors including defence, banking, construction, single brand retail, broadcasting and civil aviation. Kant is on the edge to facilitate faster approvals on most of the proposals, and for this, the government has raised the threshold limit of approval by Foreign Investment Promotion Board from the earlier Rs 3,000 crore to Rs 5,000 crore. Happy news is that the struggling construction sector will be a major beneficiary. This is because radical changes in FDI norms have been brought in, to boost the demand for steel, cement and spur economic activity, by helping to build 50 million affordable houses for the poor. Kant is a man with a mission.