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Proposal rejected

Proposal rejected The proposal of the Holland-based company, Royal Van der Have, to set up a 100 per cent foreign-owned firm to conduct research in Indian seeds and develop new varieties has been rejected by India's Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) on grounds that the proposal was against the guidelines of the National Seeds Policy of the ministry of agriculture. Indian officials were of the view that "in a wholly foreign-owned venture we would have no control over the kind of information that would be generated and passed on to companies abroad".

The Dutch firm already has a collaboration with the Madras-based Indian company Harrison Malayam in the plantation sector and FIPB felt that the Dutch company could work through this firm rather than set up a separate company.

Despite welcoming foreign investments in various sectors of the economy, the Indian government has been weeding out proposals where there were no Indian collaborators. Also rejected were proposals in which the companies did not plan to export at least 70 per cent of their output.

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