The Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) was a national agency of

Government of India The Government of India (ISO 15919, ISO: Bhārata Sarakāra, legally the Union Government or Union of India or the Central Government) is the national authority of the Republic of India, located in South Asia, consisting of States and union t ...

, with the remit to consider and recommend

foreign direct investment A foreign direct investment (FDI) is an ownership stake in a company, made by a foreign investor, company, or government from another country. More specifically, it describes a controlling ownership an asset in one country by an entity based i ...

(FDI) which does not come under the automatic route. India attract net inward foreign direct investment amounting to USD 30.76 billion during the fiscal year ended March 2014, a 14.13% increase compared to the previous fiscal year. acted as a single window clearance for proposals on

(FDI) in India. The Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) was housed in the Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance. FIPB was abolished on 24 May 2017, as announced by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley during 2017-2018 budget speech in Lok Sabha.

Members

*Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs - Chairman *Secretary, Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion - Member *Secretary, Department of Commerce - Member *Secretary, (Economic Relation), Ministry of External Affairs - Member The Board is empowered to co-opt Secretaries to the

and other top officials of financial institutions, banks and professional experts of industry and commerce, as required.

Process

In a significant move aimed at expediting flow of foreign investment into the country, the Union Cabinet liberalised the FDI policy further by allowing the FIPB to clear proposals from overseas entities worth up to ₹30 billion, against the existing limit of ₹12 billion. Recommendations of FIPB for proposals up to ₹30 billion are approved by

Minister of Finance A ministry of finance is a ministry or other government agency in charge of government finance, fiscal policy, and financial regulation. It is headed by a finance minister, an executive or cabinet position . A ministry of finance's portfolio ...

. While recommendations for proposals of more than ₹3000

crore Crore (; abbreviated cr) denotes the quantity ten million (107) and is equal to 100 lakh in the Indian numbering system. In many international contexts, the decimal quantity is formatted as 10,000,000, but when used in the context of the India ...

need to be approved by Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA).

Aircel-Maxis deal controversy

Former

Minister of Law and Justice The minister of law and justice is the head of the Ministry of Law and Justice and one of the cabinet ministers of the Government of India. The first law and justice minister of independent India was B. R. Ambedkar, who served in first Neh ...

2G spectrum case The 2G spectrum case was a political controversy in which politicians and private officials of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) coalition government India were allegedly involved in selling or allotting 122 2G spectrum licenses on conditi ...

petitioner Dr

Subramanian Swamy Subramanian Swamy (born 15 September 1939) is an Indian politician, economist and statistician. Before joining politics, he was a professor of Mathematical Economics at the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi. He is known for his Hindu ...

alleged that in 2006, a company controlled by then

P Chidambaram's son Karti got five per cent stake in Sivasankaran's Aircel to get part of ₹40 billion that the Maxis Communications paid for 74 per cent stake in Aircel. He alleged that Mr Chidambaram withheld the FIPB clearance to the deal till his son got the five per cent shares in Siva's company. Subsequently the issue was raised on multiple times in

Parliament of India The Parliament of India (ISO 15919, ISO: ) is the supreme legislative body of the Government of India, Government of the Republic of India. It is a bicameralism, bicameral legislature composed of the Rajya Sabha (Council of States) and the Lok ...

by the opposition which demanded resignation of Mr P Chidambaram. He and the government denied all the allegations. According to The Pioneer and

India Today ''India Today'' is a weekly Indian English-language news magazine published by Living Media, Living Media India Limited. It is the most widely circulated magazine in India, with a readership of close to 8 million. In 2014, ''India Today'' laun ...

reports, documents show that approval to the FDI proposal was indeed delayed about 7 months by P Chidambaram.

External links

Finance Ministry of India

References

{{reflist Executive branch of the government of India Investment promotion agencies Foreign relations of India Ministry of Finance (India) Investment in India Defunct government agencies of India

Members

Process

Aircel-Maxis deal controversy

External links

See also

References