Environmental clearances for businesses to speed up; if Javadekar has his way, these many days will be needed 

With an aim to increase investments so as to soon meet the ambitious goal of $5-trillion economy, Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government intends to fasten the process of granting environmental clearances to the businesses. The processes will become even faster as the government intends to reduce the average number of days for granting permissions and approvals from 108 to 70-80 days, Prakash Javadekar, Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change, said at a conference organised by the industry body FICCI.

The government has already eased the process of granting environmental clearance to 108 days from 640 days earlier. “Unless we implement what we have decided, we can’t achieve our goals. Countries such as US and UK implement the laws ruthlessly. We have decided to give importance to the implementation aspect of the industry, and we want to see the disaster management preparedness of the industries,” the Union minister said.

Speaking on the occasion, Ratan P Watal, Member Secretary of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister & Principal Adviser, NITI Aayog, said that the risk associated with the industries also stands escalated along with the rise in the number of industries since 1984. “Though the regulations have also kept up pace, but if you’re able to achieve $5 trillion economy, we have to be aware that there can be industrial disasters that need to be controlled or mitigated”, he added.

In union budget 2019-20, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had said that the government aims to make India a $5-trillion economy by 2024. Even Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been very vocal on the subject and highlighted the same issue in his various speeches of late.