Ministry of Home Affairs

Posted On: 12 FEB 2019 1:35PM by PIB Delhi

Ministry of Home Affairs has given security clearance to more than 1600 proposals in the past two years in critical sectors like defence, arms & ammunition, explosives, telecommunications, information and broadcasting, civil aviation, currency, shipping, etc.

As per information provided by Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion and Reserve Bank of India, FDI through automatic route is under general permission and can be received without any approval, in compliance with the Foreign Exchange Management (Transfer or issue of security by a person resident outside India) Regulation, 2017. No information is available about the number of proposals received for FDI under automatic route. Therefore, information related to percentage in terms of number of FDI proposals coming through the automatic route is not available.

Ministry of Home Affairs has disposed of more than 4,600 security clearance proposals including 134 proposals of foreign direct investment in Government approval route requiring security clearance of the Ministry of Home Affairs.

Average processing time for such clearance was about 71 days in 2018.

This was stated by the Minister of State for Home Affairs, Shri Hansraj Gangaram Ahir in a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha today.

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BB/NK/PK/SS/1425

Security clearance: ministry processed proposals across critical sectors, while FDI automatic route data remain unavailable. Security clearance by the Ministry of Home Affairs has been granted for numerous proposals in critical infrastructure sectors, with the Ministry disposing of over 4,600 security clearance proposals and reporting an average processing time of about 71 days in 2018. FDI is subject to either an automatic route, which requires no separate administrative approval under foreign exchange regulations, or a government approval route that requires Ministry security clearance; data on the share of FDI entering via the automatic route are not available.