MNRE Announces new FDI Cell to Process Proposals

The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) announced a new Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) cell that is formed to process FDI proposals in India.

Foreign direct investment is a type of investment where an investor (individual or firm) invests in a business that is based in another country. As per the FDI policy, a a non-resident entity can invest in India, subject to the FDI policy except in those sectors or activities which are prohibited like defence, space, atomic energy.

Recently, the government of India amended the foreign direct investment policy in a bid to put a stop n “opportunistic” takeover of Indian assets by Chinese companies. According to the the reformed policy, any investment by an entity of a country that shares a land border with India or where the beneficial owner of investment is a citizen of any of those countries will require a prior government approval. Meaning, the automatic route for investment is the country will be closed off to these nations.

Earlier, only Bangladesh and Pakistan were subject to this policy, but now the rule has been expanded to all neighbouring countries sharing the border with India. India shares land borders with seven neighbouring countries of Pakistan, Bangladesh, China, Nepal, Myanmar, Bhutan, and Afghanistan.

The FDI cell formed by the MNRE will be including Amitesh Kumar Sinha, joint secretary (solar), and Ruchin Gupta, MNRE’s Director.

Earlier, Mercom reported that the foreign direct investments in India’s renewable sector stood at USD 1.27 billion for the first nine months of the financial year (FY) 2019-20. The sector received USD 1.45 billion in the entire FY 2018-19.