Come April-May, India may have a new industrial policy . The draft of the new policy — the third major intervention after the industrial policies of 1956 and 1991 — has so far been shared only with a limited audience: select captains of industry, economists, think tanks and policymakers.If the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP), the nodal agency behind the new initiative, has its way, consultations with industry and interministerial deliberations will be completed by next month, with the final draft being sent for the cabinet’s approval tentatively in April.If the government officials in the know are to be believed, the key thrust of the new policy, to be unveiled, incidentally, in the run-up to 2019 Lok Sabha elections, will be on finding ways to gainfully employ over 1.2 crore youth who enter the workforce every year, apart from checking future job losses that may arise due to Industry 4.0, the global phenomenon of automation in manufacturing. It may eventually take away India’s advantages due to its cheap labour force. The new policy will subsume the existing national manufacturing policy of 2011.ET Magazine spoke to two officials in the Ministry of Commerce and Industry and a number of industry experts privy to the consultation process to figure out the policy’s possible salient features. First, the policy is likely to introduce self-certification and third-party certification to reduce G2B (government to business) interfaces. A single ID is proposed for all G2B services.The idea, according to the officials, is to strengthen ease of doing business and reduce compliance costs for the industry. This, in turn, will boost private investments and entrepreneurship, thereby creating more jobs.Second, the new industrial policy is expected to embed provisions that will give weightage to the quality of foreign direct investment (FDI), with a preference to investments that are expected to create local value additions and, thus, jobs. Third, the policy may have provisions for rationalisation of electricity cost for industries; the exact modalities will be finalised after interministerial consultations.Fourth, the policy may incentivise research and development with the objective of positioning India as a test bed for emerging technologies and creating an environment for ease of innovation. The policy is likely to have provisions under which the government will share risks with small and medium entrepreneurs by co-investing in research. Also, it may encourage free movement of researchers between public sector research bodies and industries, apart from relaxing restrictions on non-resident Indians (NRIs) in certain research areas.Fifth, there could be emphasis on “M” in the SME (small and medium enterprises) sector. The government may help in the branding of products, mainly produced by mid-sized firms. Finally, there may be certain provisions to empower the Export-Import (EXIM) Bank of India to raise global capital for Indian firms.But the draft industrial policy has a few provisions that may create controversies and provide ammunition to the opposition parties ahead of elections. For example, the draft policy envisages revisiting the categories of employment under the existing labour laws to create flexibility.The draft policy, as it exists now, supports extending the provisions of permitting fixed-term employment, as against permanent workforce, to all sectors. Fixed-term employment was introduced in apparel manufacturing industries under the Industrial Employment (Standing Order) Act vide notification dated October 7, 2016, of the Ministry of Labour and Employment.It is also learnt that the new policy may introduce a brand new employment category called “independent employee” which will be between a consultant and a full-time employee in the payroll. It is expected to help technology companies and a select set of SMEs.The draft industrial policy has provisions on how to implement it once it gets the approval of the cabinet. An implementation division under a joint secretary-level officer will be housed inside the DIPP, with a steering panel, comprising secretaries of the Ministry of Finance, Department of Heavy Industries, Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) and the Ministry of Food Processing Industries etc, overseeing the division.