Find every licence your project needs with NSWS "Know Your Approvals"
How to use India's National Single Window System to list the central and state approvals a project needs before you apply for anything.
What this guide covers
NSWS (National Single Window System) is DPIIT’s single window for approvals. Start with Know Your Approvals (KYA): answer a set of questions about your project and it lists every central and state licence or registration you will need. Use it at the planning stage to see the full picture before applying for anything.
What you need
- A description of the business (manufacturing or sales, product category, raw materials, effluents/emissions)
- Candidate states (approvals differ by state)
- Expected investment size and headcount
- An email address for registration (no Indian entity needed)
Steps
- Open NSWS and register. Foreign companies choose “Foreign Investor”.
- From the dashboard open “Know Your Approvals”.
- Answer the questions (sector, activity, state, scale). Use provisional answers if unsure and re-run later.
- The result separates Central and State approvals, each with the governing law, authority and standard processing time.
- Download the PDF and use it as the base of your internal entry task list.
- Re-run per candidate state to compare.
Pitfalls
- KYA output is a superset. Confirm with the authority or your CA, especially environmental (CTE/CTO) and labour items, which vary by state.
- Some approvals can be applied for inside NSWS; others redirect to the authority’s own portal.
- There is no Japanese UI. Invest India’s Japan Plus desk answers in Japanese.