Project Development Cells (PDCs)

Project Development Cells (PDCs)

Subject – Economy

Context – Officials across ministries are working with investors to facilitate 863 projects with an investment of $121 billion across sectors, including chemicals and petrochemicals, steel and heavy industry

Concept –

• Project Development Cells will be dedicated units in select ministries whose primary task will be to develop investible industrial project proposals. The cell will be headed by a joint secretary level officer in the respective ministry.
• Project Development Cells will be set up in 22 ministries which deal with industrial sectors.
  • These include heavy industries, textiles, chemicals & fertilisers, electronics, pharmaceuticals, commerce & industry, food processing, petroleum & natural gas, defence, steel, coal, housing & urban affairs, transport & highways, shipping, civil aviation, renewable energy, power, railways, health, agriculture, animal husbandry.
• The Cell will be tasked with conceptualising, strategising, and implementing investible projects. The cell will create detailed project reports, ensure that all permissions are in place, and land is available for allotment for their respective projects for investments by companies. Once the project proposals are ready, they will be presented to the Empowered Group of Secretaries.
• In addition, these cells will also identify policy issues that need to be resolved and place them before the Empowered Group of Secretaries. Moreover, the Cells will also interact with state governments and coordinate with them while preparing project proposals.

Empowered Group Of Secretaries

• The Empowered Group Of Secretaries (EGoS) is a panel of six senior central government officials from the economic ministries.
• This group will be headed by cabinet secretary Rajiv Gauba, who is the senior most serving bureaucrat in India. Other members of this panel are Amitabh Kant, CEO of NITI Ayog, and Secretaries of Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (Guruprasad Mohapatra), Department of Commerce (Anup Wadhawan), Department of Economic Affairs (Tarun Bajaj), and Department of Revenue (Ajay Bhushan Pandey).
• Moreover, the secretary of the respective line ministry will also be co-opted when issues are discussed by this panel. The secretary of DPIIT will be the convener of EGoS.
• The primary task of the Empowered Group Of Secretaries (EGoS) is to improve investment environment in the country for foreign and domestic investors. The EGoS will also handhold investors and promote JVs with Indian companies.
• The EGoS will discuss and recommend investment policies to government departments and ensure that they get implemented. It will also identify sectors for import substitution. It will recommend FDI reforms to attract green filed foreign investments.
• The policy recommendation of the EGoS will be mandatory for central government departments.
• FDI related clearances were given by Foreign Investment Promotion Board. But it was wound down in 2017 and currently, the line ministries are tasked with approving FDI related proposals.
• Any inter-ministerial issue that comes up during promoting investments will be referred to the EGoS.
• Unlike inter-ministerial economic platforms like GST Council or the SEZ Board of Approval, states don’t have any representation in the EGoS.
• EGoS will not lead to single window clearance for investors. EGoS will have a mechanism to engage with stakeholders from the corporate world to take feedback. DPIIT has long been working on a one-stop digital platform for all state and central government clearances.