India Plans Residence Permits for Big-Time Investors

BENGALURU: As a part of the Make-in-India initiative, the NDA government has come up with a new policy idea to attract foreign investors to India. The proposal, which is expected to be unveiled at the budget-session in mid-march, emphasizes on residence permits for foreigners. The idea behind the program is, if a foreign company invests $2 billion, it will get residence permits allowing long stay in India for its executives as well as cheap rates for utilities and a special package on upscale housing. 

“If a foreign company invests $2 billion, it will get residence permits allowing long stay in India for its key executives as well as cheap rates for utilities and a special package on upscale housing,” the Economic Times reports quoting unnamed senior officials.

The proposal which was brought about by the finance ministry is under review by other ministries. If all goes well with the proposal, India will join the elite list of the countries in the likes of United States, Canada, Singapore and several European Union that are offering investment-­linked residency facilities.

The Indian Government, apart from the planned proposal, is also looking at ways to smoothen the visa process for the employees of the investors. The budget though doesn’t mention if the investors would be offered citizenship or be able to buy property in the country.

For security reasons, should the planned proposal come to fruition, both the Intelligence Bureau (IB) and the Research & Analysis Wing (RAW)  would be required to run a background check on the investors and their employees who plan travel in and out of the country frequently.

The Economic Times also reported IB and RAW officials quoting, ”We would like to examine all proposals under the proposed policy on a case-by-case basis, that is, specific checks on every investor who qualifies for the scheme and is interested in availing it.”  But should the investor in question have any criminal charges or security based issues with their respective country, then the proposal will not apply to them.

 In the last couple of years, the government has cleared more than 2000 proposals of which 85 in 2015 were run by foreign agencies. The biggest foreign beneficiaries were the US (18), Hong Kong (11), France (9), China (8) and Germany (6). According to government officials, investment proposals from 26 nations were given faster security clearances. 

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