India today said it would next month initiate discussion on liberalising Foreign Direct Investment in sectors ranging from defence to agriculture and even retail — a source of political woes for the government in the past. The Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP), the nodal agency for framing FDI policies, will come out with six discussion papers in mid-May on overseas investment norms.
“All the issues, which are troubling you will be covered (in the discussion papers),” DIPP Secretary R P Singh told reporters at a FICCI event here when asked if multi-brand retail would also figure in the discussion papers.
In its first term, the UPA government had shelved plans to open FDI in multi-brand retail owing to fierce opposition from its then allies — Left parties — and petty traders.
