NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi today held a comprehensive meeting to discuss the way forward to promoting more foreign and local investment to boost economy against the backdrop of Covid pandemic.
He sought to revive the proposal for a “plug and play” approach that was first tried out with five ultra mega power plants around five years ago, none of which has come up.
The PM held deliberations on a day it was announced that industrial output of eight core infrastructure industries shrank by 6.5 per cent in March. The trend portends negative implications for April that witnessed a complete lockdown throughout, as against March that witnessed a similar situation for just over a week.
Figures released by the government said the fall was precipitated by poor performance of crude oil, natural gas, refinery products, fertiliser, steel, cement and electricity sectors.
A press note from the PMO said Modi discussed the development of a scheme promoting “plug and play” infrastructure in existing industrial lands, along with necessary financial support.
The Modi government had first aired the “plug and play” scheme when Arun Jaitley presented the Budget in 2015. The PM’s renewed call today for developing a new scheme suggests it has not made much headway over the past five years. Under this concept, all regulatory clearances will be put in place before the project is awarded to private developers through an auction.
The PM also wanted a more proactive approach to handhold investors, to look into their problems and help them in getting all necessary clearances in a time-bound manner.
He indicated the disruption caused by Covid should not derail or delay any of the reform initiatives being undertaken by the ministries. He also pressed for time-bound action to remove obstacles. The meeting was attended by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Home Minister Amit Shah, Commerce and Industries Minister Piyush Goel, MoS (Finance) Anurag Thakur and senior government officials.