Overview
Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman served as India’s Commerce and Industry Minister from 2014 to 2017, driving major reforms to improve ease of doing business, promote exports, and enhance transparency in public procurement. Over 7,000 big and small steps were implemented to simplify procedures, including fixed timelines for application clearances, de-licensing of several defence products, online single-window clearance through the e-Biz project, reduced documentation for imports and exports, and mandatory online filing of returns.
She launched the Foreign Trade Policy (2015–20), the Interest Equalization Scheme to provide cheaper credit to exporters, and the Trade Infrastructure for Export Scheme (TIES) to address logistics gaps, while establishing a dedicated logistics division that improved India’s global logistics ranking. She also oversaw the creation of the Government e-Marketplace (GeM), a transformative e-procurement platform that brought transparency and efficiency to public procurement across central and state governments.
