Ministry of Commerce & Industry
23-March, 2018 16:38 IST
Roundtable of Invest India Held Today
The Minister of Commerce & Industry and Civil Aviation, Suresh Prabhu, speaking at the Invest India Roundtable
Minister of Commerce & Industry and Civil Aviation, Suresh Prabhu chaired a roundtable of Invest India in New Delhi today. Various regulatory issues faced by Startups in the sectors of e-pharmacy, NBFCs, unmanned aerial vehicle and retail delivery of petroleum from door to door were discussed with the concerned Ministries and departments of the Government of India in the presence of the Minister. Following issues like presence of pharmacist at e-pharmacy platforms, stream lining of the application process for NBFCs by RBI, reforms in current guidelines for UAV sector, which doesn’t allow for manufacturing of drones, and vehicle specifications for door to door retail delivery of petroleum, were discussed at length.
Secretary, DIPP Ramesh Abhishek, Deepak Bagala MD and CEO of Invest India and officers from RBI, SEBI, Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Drugs Controller General OF India (DGCI), Ministry of Finance, Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Civil Aviation and DGCA were present at the roundtable.
The Minister said that the roundtable is a self-evaluation exercise to encourage the talent pool in India who are doing phenomenal work through their Startups for the growth of the economy and the country.
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Ministry of New and Renewable Energy
23-March, 2018 18:16 IST
Shri R.K. Singh chairs meeting with battery manufacturers, exhorts them to set up battery manufacturing units in India; assures of all possible efforts for this
Shri R K Singh, Union Minister of State (IC) Power and New & Renewable Energy held a meeting with battery manufacturers here, today to discuss the creation of an ecosystem for incentivising battery manufacturing in India.
In the meeting, Shri Singh exhorted the industry to set up battery manufacturing units in India as the future demand was going to be very high with the Government promoting e-vehicles in a big way. “Tenders for procuring e- vehicles have already been issued and we have started procuring the vehicles. This is going to increase”, he said. Asserting that the future bids will be for solar/wind hybrid coupled with storage, the Minster said that the Government will soon come out with a policy in this regard, and the focus will be on ‘Make in India’ in this field.
On the issue of adequate supply of raw materials for manufacturing of batteries, the Minster said that the Government has already initiated interaction with resource rich countries such as Bolivia.
The industry representatives raised the issue of high GST rates on batteries. They demanded that to promote Make in India, preference should be given to Indian made batteries in Government procurement. They also stressed upon the need for creating Indian standards for batteries and setting up of field testing facilities for both stationary and mobile sectors.
Emphasising the need for creating a manufacturing base for batteries in the country, the Minister asked the Department of Space and ISRO to share relevant technologies with the Industry. Stressing the need to start manufacturing of cells in India, the Industry representatives requested for a favourable fiscal regime. They also expressed the need to create an enabling environment for recycling of batteries in India.
Shri R.K. Singh assured the battery manufacturers that the Government would take all possible measures to incentivise battery manufacturing in India.
Shri Anand Kumar Secretary, MNRE was among the dignitaries present at the meeting which saw participation from major battery & electric vehicles manufacturers, ISRO, MEITY, Niti Aayog and MNRE.
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