Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has said that Government has taken several steps in the last year to facilitate ease of doing business.<br/><br/>Speaking to media in New Delhi today on completion of two years of NDA Government, Mrs Sitharaman said,<br/><br/>Government has undertaken various training programmes for the benefit of exporters. She said, the India Trade Portal has been launched, which is proving to be of immense help to exporters.<br/><br/>She said, merchandise exports from India Scheme has also been expanded.<br/><br/>The Minister said, Government has done away with the need to produce landing certificates to facilitate ease of doing business.<br/><br/>She said, her Ministry has recommended to Finance Ministry to raise tax holiday for start-ups to 7 years from the present 3 years.<br/><br/>She also informed that FDI equity flow has grown by 53 per cent.<br/><br/>Replying to a question on Foodgrains, she said, India is in talks with Myanmar for import of pulses, to ensure sufficient stock and address speculation.<br/><br/>She said, the permanent solution for stock holding for food grains has been underlined.<br/><br/>On WTO, she said, India stood by the Bali Declaration at the talks and the Doha developmental agenda has been completely reinforced by the Government.<br/><br/>Answering a media query she said, her Ministry is in talks with the Finance Ministry on Apple's foreign direct investment proposal that seeks a waiver from the country's local sourcing rules.<br/><br/>The Finance Ministry had asked the iPhone maker to meet rules that mandate foreign retailers to sell at least 30 per cent locally-sourced goods if it wished to open stores in the country.<br/><br/>The Minister, however, said she is not in favour of relaxing rules for Apple to sell refurbished second-hand phones in India. She said, her Ministry is ready to waive local sourcing requirement in retail for high-end tech companies like Apple, if they comply with conditions.