Is India's SEZ Story Nearing an End?

Bangalore: Nobody is sure of what to blame for the near collapse of the great SEZ dream. While many blame it on the global economic slowdown, some see policy confusion as the major culprit and for many others, its lack of comprehension in coordination. While all is said and done, the fact continues to hurt the industry’s growth expectations as the story of Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in India are dying a slow death.

The idea of SEZ just shot to glory as India was considered an ideal destination for investment a few years back. Investors across the globe lined in for investing in the Indian market and the hype around SEZ was celebrated much to its fame. But due to several factors leading from global economic slowdown to unstable policy environment created a gap that is increasing growing wider between the new SEZ  proposals getting approved and those becoming operation in the given timeline.

Going back to history, India became the first Asian country to come up with an Export Processing Zone and years down the line many more of such exporting hubs came up in the country. Country’s Special Economic Zone policy was announced in 2000 and the SEZ act came into effect in 2006 which simplified procedures drastically and allowed for a single-window clearance.