MHA security nod to nearly 3,300 investment proposals in 3yrs

Aiming to expedite the Make In India initiative, the Home Ministry has given security clearance to nearly 3,300 fresh investment proposals in last three years after conducting national risk assessment.
The annual report of the Ministry of Home Affairs for 2016-17 said it issued policy guidelines for assessment of proposals for national security clearance on July 1, 2015 with the objective of ensuring a balance between requirements of national security and the imperatives of rapid economic growth.
The Home Ministry granted security clearance to 815 investment proposals in 2014, 1,201 proposals in 2015 and 1,260 proposals in 2016.
In addition, the annual report said that 543 proposals were automatically cleared in 2015 due to implementation of the revised policy guidelines.

The objective of the national security clearance is to evaluate potential threats, visible or embedded, in proposals received by the Ministry of Home Affairs and to provide a national risk assessment, the report, released today, said.
The Home Ministry has defined security rating parameters to evaluate the proposals uniformly.

The national security clearance policy was drawn up by the Home Ministry to fast-track the security clearance process within 4-6 weeks as part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ease of business mantra under the Make In India initiative.
As per the policy, the promoters, owners and directors of the company are mandated to give self declarations regarding any criminal history on their part, which reduced the period required to give security clearance from 2-3 months earlier to to just 4-6 weeks now.

Security inputs from Intelligence Bureau, CBI, Enforcement Directorate and other agencies are sought only in serious crimes and not in case of minor offences.
A total of 14-15 parameters have been set out in eight to nine sensitive areas like telecom, ports, civil aviation, uplinking/downlinking of TV channels or FM stations.
The Home Ministry has also spelt out locations where foreign investment is not welcome such as those close to border and vital installations.