To give impetus to the ‘Make in India’ initiative, the home ministry gave security clearance to more than twice the number of fresh investment proposals in 2015 compared to the previous year, after conducting national risk assessment.
As many as 1,744 industrial projects were given security clearance in 2015. In comparison, 815 investment proposals were cleared in 2014 and 712 proposals in 2013, a home ministry official said.
The huge jump in investment proposals getting the nod came after the ministry issued policy guidelines for assessment of proposals for national security clearance on July 1, 2015.
“The aim is to ensure an objective balance between the requirements of national security and the imperatives of rapid economic growth,” the official said.
The objective of the national security clearance is to evaluate potential threats, visible or embedded in proposals received by the home ministry and to provide a national risk assessment from the point of view of threats falling within national security concerns. The ministry has defined security rating parameters to evaluate the proposals uniformly.
The national security clearance policy was drawn up by the ministry to fast-track the security clearance process within four-six weeks as part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ease of business mantra under the Make In India initiative.
According to 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 two-three months earlier to only four-six 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 8-9 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 locations close to border and vital installations.
