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New Delhi: The empowered Group of Ministers today short listed bidders for Delhi and Mumbai airports on technical grounds, ignoring protests from Left parties who said the long-delayed and controversial bidding process should be scrapped. Two select bidders — one for Delhi and the other for Mumbai — will be declared by January 31.
In another development, the Government on Tuesday Opened up the retail sector to foreign direct investment. Further, it has eased the FDI regime in certain other sectors. It was decided in the Union Cabinet on Tuesday that FDI will be allowed in retail up to 51 per cent in single brands like Reebok. Currently single brand retailers operate through the franchisee route and there is a strong view that FDI in this segment would not displace jobs or impact the local industry but help create employment.
Besides retail, the other sectors in which the FDI regime has been liberalized are power trading, processing and warehousing of rubber and coffee, diamond and coal mining, airports and petroleum infrastructure like laying of pipelines.
The idea of opening up more sectors to FDI is to attract more foreign capital by reducing the levels of control in most sectors of the economy, officials said.
The Cabinet also approved doing away with approvals for foreign investments from multiple agencies, particularly in banking and insurance.
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