New Delhi, March 13 -- In April 2020, the government issued Press Note 3 which mandated that any foreign direct investment (FDI) by firms based in countries sharing India's land borders needed prior government nod on a case-by-case basis. The countries included China, Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Bhutan, Myanmar and Afghanistan. This was done to prevent any opportunistic takeovers during the pandemic era, and was mainly targeted against China. To be sure, Press Note 3, while amending the then FDI policy and subjecting investment from land border countries to more scrutiny, did not bar investment from them.

On Tuesday, the government relaxed the Press Note 3. Any investor, whose beneficial ownership by a person or entity from a land borde...