HOTELS, ADVT., FRANCHISEE MAY NOT NEED NOC

The Government is planning to further liberalise the Foreign direct Investment (FDI) regime by exempting several sectors from the mandatory requirements under Press Note 1 (PN 1). Advertising, hospitality, franchisee operations and several other services could be kept out of the purview of PN 1, which bars multinationals in existing joint ventures (JV) from setting up another venture in a similar line of business without a non objection from the Indian JV partner. The move is expected to remove a major irritant in sectors such as advertising, hotel, agro processing and franchising. The department of industrial policy and promotion has circulated a note on this as a part of an overall review of FDI regulations. At present, mining and IT are exempted from PN 1.