The government on Wednesday launched the much-awaited national single-window system for investors and businesses. The portal will integrate the prevailing clearance systems of the Centre and states.

Commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal said the single-window portal will become a “one-stop-shop” for approvals and clearances. it’ll enable obtaining approvals also as clearances needed by investors, entrepreneurs, and businesses in India. “The portal, as of today (Wednesday), hosts approvals across 18 central departments and nine states. Another 14 central departments and five states are going to be added by December 2021,” Goyal said. “This is freedom from bureaucracy and from windows within windows. this is often an enormous step towards simple doing business. Nobody wants to be a detriment to doing business. this may not only enable simple doing business, but also simple living. this is often a results of the necessity for one window of contact between businesses and therefore the government,” Goyal said at the soft launch of the portal.

The department for promotion of industry and internal trade (DPIIT) had planned to launch the portal in April, but it got delayed thanks to the second wave A soft launch was planned for Assumption , but it remained during a testing phase, with one among the most important challenges being coordination with multiple stakeholders involved. “This was a voluntary exercise and nobody was pressured. we’d like not wait till December and keep onboarding. this is often a soft launch, a test phase. We didn’t rush into the finalisation of modules,” he said.

The platform will do away with the necessity for multiple applications across various portals. An investment proposal typically requires a bunch of approvals and clearances across various states and government departments. However, all approvals will still be needed. The minister further said all solutions are going to be there at the press of a mouse through end-to-end facilitation. “This would bring transparency, accountability and responsiveness within the ecosystem and every one information are going to be available on one dashboard. An applicant dashboard would be there to use , track and answer queries. Services include know your approval (KYA), common registration form, state registration form, document repository and e-communication,” a politician statement said.