Amazon may get to retail food in India soon

The government is expected to give the green light for US retail giant Amazon's proposed $500 million investment in retail of food products in India, reports quoting official sources in the commerce ministry said.

With the scrapping of the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB), the proposal, which has been pending for long, will soon get clearance from the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP), reports said.

"With the abolition of Foreign Investment Promotion Board, the DIPP would soon announce the approval of this proposal," a PTI report quoted a senior official in the commerce and industry ministry as saying..

The proposal, which had earlier been cleared by the DIPP under the commerce and industry ministry, had been awaiting FIPB nod.

The government had received investment proposals from three companies - Amazon, Grofers and Big Basket - worth $695 million for food products retailing.

Indian e-commerce players Grofers and Big Basket are already into online grocery business while the US retail giant has proposed to invest around $500 million to enter food products retailing in India.

The government last year allowed 100 per cent foreign direct investment (FDI) through approval route for trading, including through e-commerce, in respect of food products manufactured and produced in India.

The government allows FDI in food processing and the sector received foreign investment worth $663.23million in the 2016-17 financial year.

With the government's decision to do away with the FIPB, which had been vetting FDI proposals requiring government approval for the past 25 years, the process has now been expedited with the concerned ministries approving FDI proposals under standard operating procedures.