Government Initiatives for Improving Ease of Doing Business

Of late, the government’s efforts in improving ease of doing business and relaxing regulatory norms have resulted in increasing FDI (Foreign Direct Investments) into the country. The following examples demonstrate the strong linkages that FDI has in unleashing the potential, as well as propelling the growth of the services sector in India:

• Connecting Gujarat and Maharashtra, India’s first bullet train has potential similar to that of the Mumbai - Pune expressway, but on a larger scale.
• Manufacturing of Rafale jets in India.
• Building large highway systems in India (expressways and freight corridors), inland waterways (Jalmarg Vikas project), port modernization and new port development (Sagarmala project)
• Amazon India expanding its logistics footprint
• Creation of a Taiwanese tech park in Karnataka
• A dedicated fund of $ 693 million, which will be utilized to support sectoral undertakings under the Champion Services Sectors Initiative.
• These include IT and ITeS, tourism and hospitality services, medical value travel, transport and logistics services, accounting and finance services, audio visual services, legal services, communication services, construction and related engineering services, environmental services, financial services and education services.
• The Government of India has adopted a few initiatives in the recent past. Like under the Mid-Term Review of Foreign Trade Policy (2015-20), the Central Government increased incentives provided under Services Exports from India Scheme (SEIS) by two per cent.
• Government of India is working to remove many trade barriers to services and tabled a draft legal text on Trade Facilitation in Services to the WTO in 2017.
• India’s earnings from medical tourism could exceed US$ 9 billion by 2020.
• Indian healthcare companies are entering into mergers and acquisitions with domestic and foreign companies to drive growth and gain new markets.