India must present a “welcoming and comforting” environment to foreign investors who are keen to set up companies and create jobs here, Corporate Affairs Minister Sachin Pilot has said.
Stressing the need to have a growth model that creates jobs, Pilot on Friday said that the Government alone cannot provide jobs for the burgeoning youth and that entrepreneurial activity has to be encouraged for this purpose.
He also said that close cooperation and good working relationship between the Union and State Governments were necessary for providing a good investment climate to foreign investors.
India needs to create 50 million jobs every year to sustain the current growth momentum and provide opportunity for those entering the job market.
The Companies Bill – when enacted into law – will remove impediments and encourage job creation in India, Pilot said at the second international conference of Corporate Secretaries International Association (CSIA) here.
“We want to make the path easier (for investing). We recognise that there are impediments to investing here in terms of clearances etc.
“One of the complaints that is often heard in India is it is very difficult to start a company or perhaps impossible to wind it up.
“If the Companies Bill gets enacted into law, we will be able to reduce the time taken to wind up a company. There are a lot of regulations that we are following now which may not be there when new law gets enacted,” Pilot said.
He was hopeful that the Upper House of Parliament would soon pass the Companies Bill, which will replace the nearly six-decade old Companies Act.
DAMODARAN PANEL:
The Damodaran Committee, tasked to make suggestions to improve the business climate and procedures for setting up businesses in India, will submit its report in the next few days, Pilot said.
“I have asked Damodaran committee to come up with precise recommendations. Once we get the report, we will expedite its implementation,” Pilot told reporters on the sidelines of this event.
India clearly does not deserve to be ranked so low (132nd out of 185) in the World Bank’s ranking of ease of doing business.
The Corporate Affairs Ministry had set up a committee headed by former SEBI Chairman M. Damodaran in October 2012 to suggest a framework that will make doing business in India easy.
The committee included representatives from Government, public sector and industrialists including Y.C. Deveshwar, Anand Mahindra and Kumar Mangalam Birla.