Govt Says: The NSWS Portal Facilitates 44,000 Approvals Since its Launch

New Delhi: On Thursday, the government said over 44,000 approvals have been facilitated through National Single Window System (NSWS) and more than 28,000 approvals are currently under process.

According to a statement by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, the portal, nsws.gov.in, is becoming increasingly popular among the investor community and has over 3.7 lakh, unique visitors, as of date. Over 44,000 approvals have been facilitated through NSWS and currently, over 28,000 approvals are under process.

The ministry said the portal would progressively onboard a larger number of approvals and licenses, based on user/industry feedback. According to the statement, the government is committed to reforms and other bold measures to create a conducive business and investment climate across all sectors.

The National Single Window System (NSWS) currently accepts applications for 248 government-to business (G2B) clearances from 26 central ministries/departments, in addition to different state/UT level clearances in 16 states/UTs.

NSWS was soft-launched to all stakeholders and the public on September 22, 2021, by Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal. NSWS was created by the department for the advancement of industry and internal trade (DPIIT) as per the Budget announcement of the creation of an Investment Clearance Cell (ICC) to provide a single platform to enable the identification and obtaining of approvals and clearances needed by investors, entrepreneurs, and businesses in India.

The framework is envisioned to lessen duplicity of information submission to different ministries, reduce compliance burden, promote sector-specific reforms and schemes, reduce the gestation period of projects, and promote ease of starting and doing business, according to the ministry statement. NSWS enables the identification, application, and subsequent tracking of approvals for every integrated state and central Department, making it a true National Single Window System.

Know Your Approvals (KYA) service is live on NSWS with 544 approvals across 32 central ministries/ departments and 2,895 approvals across 30 states/ UTs. A total of 3,439 approvals are listed, the ministry said, adding a total of 1,32,510 investors who have used the KYA module to know about the type of approvals they need for their businesses, according to the statement.

As many as 26 ministries/departments onboarded with 248 approvals are live. Sixteen states/UTs onboarded namely Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Goa, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Nagaland, Odisha, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh, and Uttarakhand, according to the ministry.

The teams are working with five more states Haryana, Andaman and Nicobar, Tripura, Jharkhand, and Arunachal Pradesh to integrate by December 15. A total of 71,000 approvals have been applied on NSWS to date. NSWS sees visitors coming from 157 countries on NSWS with USA, UK, and UAE (United Arab Emirates) on top, according to the ministry statement.