Timebound security nod for foreign projects

Intelligence agencies may have to submit reports within 45 days.

To expedite approvals of foreign investment proposals, the government is planning to set a time frame for security clearances by intelligence agencies.

Foreign investment proposals in telecom, civil aviation, aerospace, drugs and pharmaceuticals, and explosives, have been identified for time-bound security clearances, officials said on Monday.

They indicated that intelligence agencies like Research & Analysis Wing and the Intelligence Bureau would be required to submit their reports within 45 days of receiving a proposal. If they failed to meet the deadline, clearances would have been deemed to have been received, the officials said.

The ministry of external affairs is preparing a note for the Cabinet Committee on Security on the issue. The move comes close on the heels of the government imposing a time frame of 45 days for clearing investment proposals in the power and coal sectors.

At present, proposals requiring security clearances are re-routed by the Foreign Investment Promotion Board to nodal ministries. These ministries then seek security clearance from the intelligence agencies. "At times, obtaining such clearances takes months or years. We are trying to work out a mechanism to avoid such delays," an official said.

The move has been prompted by some proposals received from Chinese companies, pending for months because security clearances are yet to be given to these proposals. The issue has been deliberated at length by a committee of secretaries headed by the Cabinet secretary, but without any solution.

Officials cited the instance of China's Huawei Technologies which had repeatedly faced clearance hurdles.