Jammu & Kashmir has become the first Union Territory (UT) to be integrated with the National Single Window System (NSWS).

NSWS is a digital platform which serves as a guide for investors to identify and apply for approvals as per their business requirements.

So far, 14 states/UT are onboard the NSWS and the process for inclusion of six more is in progress.

Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha launched the J&K single window clearance system integrated with NSWS.

NSWS is linked with India Industrial Land Bank (IILB) which hosts 45 industrial parks of the Union Territory. Integration with this system would help investors to discover available land parcels in the Union Territory. 

What is the National Single Window System?

• The National Single Window System (NSWS), launched in September 2021, is a digital platform for guidance of investors to identify and to apply for approvals as per their business requirements. 

• The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT),  along with Invest India, initiated the process of developing the portal to provide a single platform to enable investors to identify and obtain approvals and clearances needed by investors, entrepreneurs, and businesses in India.

• The system is envisioned to address information asymmetry, duplication of information submitted across platforms and authorities and inefficient tracking of approvals and registration faced by investors. 

• The platform is built to serve as an advisory tool to identify approvals based on user input and is to be used for guidance purpose only. 

• It brings together several state governments, central ministries and departments onto one platform and provides a one-stop solution to investors to apply for approvals and registrations required during the pre-establishment and pre-operation stages of setting up a business in India.

Objectives of NSWS: 

1) Establish a single-window mechanism by integrating the services provided by various central ministries, departments and state governments.

2) Provide a one-stop-shop for procuring pre-establishment and pre-operation approvals and permits required to establish a business in India.

3) Provide efficient, convenient, transparent and integrated electronic service to investors, industries, and businesses.

4) Provide a uniform and seamless experience to the business user.

The first approval through the NSWS portal has been granted on January 11, 2022 to CMR-Kataria Recycling Private Limited for the Vehicle Scrappage Facility RVSF, Kheda, Gujarat with a capacity of 67,000 vehicles. The approval has been made possible within a timeline of 63 days since the application was submitted online on November 8, 2021.

Services provided by NSWS:

• Know Your Approval (KYA): It is a user-friendly tool to help identify central and state government approvals required. This service uses an intelligent questionnaire to capture information about your proposed business activities and identifies an indicative list of relevant approvals that may be required to set up  business in India. It may be noted that the list of approvals indicated by this module is based on user input and shall be used for guidance purpose only.

The KYA service is live on the NSWS with 544 approvals across 32 central ministries/ departments. Over 3,259 approvals are listed.

• Common Registration Form: To ensure a single point of submission of information and documents across ministries and states, a unified information capturing system along with a common registration form has been introduced. Information is auto-populated on forms, eliminating the need to fill in the same information again. 

• State Registration Form: Enables investor to have seamless single click access to respective State Single Window System.

• Applicant Dashboard: Provides a single online interface to apply, track and respond to the queries pertaining to approvals and registrations across ministries and states. 

• Document Repository: An online centralised storage service for investors to enable one-time document submission and use the same across multiple approvals. This eliminates the need to submit documents at multiple portals.

• E-Communication Module: Enables online response to queries and clarification requests related to applications by ministries and states.

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