Why in News?

• The Government has launched an online ‘e-Sahaj’ portal for grant of Security Clearance. The portal will facilitate an applicant to submit application online and also to view the status of his application from time to time.

Significance of the portal:

• The introduction of the online portal is expected to make the process of security clearance much faster, transparent and easy to monitor.
•  The various functionaries would be able to access the application and documents online and take timely decisions.

National Security Clearance:

• MHA is the nodal Ministry for security clearances in certain sensitive sectors before issue of licence/permit, permission, contract etc, to companies/ bidders/individuals by the administrative Ministry.
• The objective of national security clearance is to evaluate potential security threats, including economic threats, and provide risk assessment before clearing investment and project proposals in key sectors.
• The aim is to strike a healthy balance between meeting the imperatives of national security and facilitating ease of doing business and promoting investment in the country.

E-Sahaj Portal:

• The portal will facilitate an applicant to submit application online and also to view the status of his application from time to time.
• The clearance has become standardized, resulting in a process which will be faster, transparent and easy to monitor.
•  Various functionaries can access the application and documents online and take timely decisions.
•  MHA has cleared about 1,100 cases of security clearance in the past one year.
• Although the given timeline is 90 days, MHA strives to decide Security Clearance cases in 60 days (average time per case in 2018 is 53 days), which is being reduced further.