Foreign investors looking to park their dollars in India, a fast-growing economic superpower, can now breathe a bit easy. The government is likely to streamline the process for security checks on foreign inflows into the country.

A series of recent foreign direct investment proposals have been blocked due to security concerns.  The new clearing procedure is likely to be significantly different from the current mechanism.

NDTV has learnt from sources that the Foreign Investment Promotion Board could replace the home ministry as the nodal agency for security clearances.

The FIPB, the sources say,  will refer foreign investments in sensitive sectors to a committee of secretaries. The panel will have representatives from various government departments. The crucial difference will be that the committee will be time bound and will have specific parameters to weigh the risks.

The specific time frame will help several foreign companies whose proposals are stuck due to security concerns and have been neither approved nor rejected.

This includes the L&T-EADS defence manufacturing JV, a decision on which has been deferred so many times due to the defence ministry's concerns.

In fact, the FIPB chairman has asked the defence ministry to take a final decision on the proposal by the next meeting.

The government will monitor foreign investments in all sectors once they come in. Clearly, the government is trying to achieve the dual objective of speeding up clearance for foreign investment into the country while ensuring that it does not pose a threat to national security in any way.