The civil aviation ministry has set up a single-window clearance framework, in order to accelerate various investment proposals in the domestic aviation sector of the country.

The Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA), through a tweet on 18th July, 2020, said that it had set up an Investment Clearance Cell (ICC) for prompt assistance and clearance related to investment proposals in the domestic aviation field.

The Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman, had previously announced regarding the set up of such a framework in February during the announcement of the Union Budget for the year 2020-21.

The official order dated July 16th, 2020, attached to the tweet, revealed that the ICC was also set up following an order by the Department of Promotion of Industry and Trade (DPIT) on July 1st, 2020, in this regard.

The Committee, which will constitute of 10 members, will be headed by the joint secretary of the aviation ministry, Mr. Amber Dubey, the MoCA order stated.

It has been mandated to act as a single-window system. This will help attract investments. The Committee's terms of reference include expediting investments, bringing projects to the EGoS (Empowered Group of Secretaries) which require special incentives, policy interventions, accelerated clearances and systematic references, in addition to some other things, according to the MoCA order.

Further, it will also identify projects and report about the same to EGoS. It will also maintain active contacts with investors, and work with the states, and will also adopt ways of on-boarding the states. This will actively include them as a part of the institutional setup.

In addition to the above, the ICC will identify policy and regulatory issues that come up in investments, and will engage with prospective investors to bring new proposals for consideration of the EGoS.

Five of the rest nine members of the ICC are from the aviation ministry, one each from Airports Authority of India (AAI) and its business subsidiary for cargo and logistics, AIACLS. One member will be from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, and one will be co-opted by the chairman as per the Committee's requirements.

The pandemic has severely hit the aviation industry of India, and had led to its economic downturn.

According to speculations made by experts, India's GDP is set to fall by 9.5% this fiscal year on account of the various local and national lockdowns that took place in the past few months and are still being continued.