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

Government of India The Government of India (ISO: ; often abbreviated as GoI), known as the Union Government or Central Government but often simply as the Centre, is the national government of the Republic of India, a federal democracy located in South Asia, c ...

, with the remit to consider and recommend

foreign direct investment A foreign direct investment (FDI) is an investment in the form of a controlling ownership in a business in one country by an entity based in another country. It is thus distinguished from a foreign portfolio investment by a notion of direct co ...

(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 finance minister is an executive or cabinet position in charge of one or more of government finances, economic policy and financial regulation. A finance minister's portfolio has a large variety of names around the world, such as "treasury", " ...

. While recommendations for proposals of more than ₹3000

crore A crore (; abbreviated cr) denotes ten million (10,000,000 or 107 in scientific notation) and is equal to 100 lakh in the Indian numbering system. It is written as 1,00,00,000 with the local 2,2,3 style of digit group separators (one lakh is e ...

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 Nehru min ...

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

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 na ...

alleged that in 2006, a company controlled by then

P Chidambaram Palaniappan Chidambaram (born 16 September 1945), better known as P. Chidambaram, is an Indian politician and lawyer who currently serves as Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha. He served as the Chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee ...

's son Karti got five per cent stake in Sivasankaran's

Aircel Aircel Ltd. was an Indian mobile network operator headquartered in Mumbai that offered voice and 2G and 3G data services. Maxis Communications held a 74% stake and Sindya Securities and Investments held the remaining 26%. Aircel was founde ...

to get part of ₹40 billion that the

Maxis Communications Maxis Communications or Maxis Berhad is a communications service provider in Malaysia. It is one of the oldest and largest telecommunications companies in the country. Headquartered in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, it provides a variety of communica ...

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 (International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration, IAST: ) is the supreme legislative body of the Republic of India. It is a bicameralism, bicameral legislature composed of the president of India and two houses: the R ...

by the opposition which demanded resignation of Mr

. 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 India Limited. It is the most widely circulated magazine in India, with a readership of close to 8 million. In 2014, ''India Today'' launched a new onl ...

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

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 departments and agencies of India

Members

Process

Aircel-Maxis deal controversy

External links

See also

References