In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires,—
(a) “agriculture” means and includes horticulture, animal husbandry, forestry, dairy and poultry farming, pisciculture, and other allied activities, whether or not undertaken jointly with agriculture and the expression “agricultural operations” shall be construed accordingly.
Explanation.— For the purposes of this clause, “pisciculture” includes the development of fisheries, both inland and marine, catching of fish and all activities connected therewith or incidental thereto;
(b) “agriculture industry” includes the industrialized processing or production of livestock, poultry, fish, dairy and crops and includes techno scientific, economic, and regional methods for industrialized agriculture;
(c) “Board” means the Goa Investment Promotion and Facilitation Board constituted under section 3;
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(d) “Clearance” means and includes grant or issue of no objection certificate, consent, enrolment, registration, permission, approval, licence, allotment, and the like by any competent authority/Government agency in connection with setting up of a business undertaking/project in the State of Goa;
(e) “Competent Authority” means and includes any Department or Government Agency, Panchayat, Municipal Corporation or Municipal Council or other local body/authority, which is entrusted with the powers and responsibilities to grant or issue any clearance;
(f) “Industrial facilitation services” means the assistance provided by the Government to the investor from the time he submits a valid project proposal to the Board till the project goes into commercial production;
(g) “Business Undertaking” means and includes an undertaking engaged in manufacturing and/or processing or for both or for providing service or for doing any other business or any other commercial activity to be notified by the Government;
(h) “Goa Investment Policy” means the Goa Investment Policy framed by the Government and as amended from time to time;
(i) “Government‖ means the Government of Goa;
(j) “Government Agency” includes any Department of the Government, EDC Limited, Goa Industrial Development Corporation, Goa State Infrastructure Development Corporation, Goa Tourism Development Corporation, all other Government Corporations, Statutory Authorities, or bodies or any other body, by whatever name called, owned or controlled by the Government;
(k) “Investment” means any or all the preliminary and pre-operative expenses until commencement of commercial production, capital expenditure, expenses on land, equipments, interest paid, if any, and administrative expenses, etc., relating to the project or expenses for the expansion of an existing project;
(l) “Investor” means any person including a company registered under the Companies Act, 1956 (1 of 1956) or the Companies Act, 2013 (Central Act 18 of 2013), Trusts registered under the Indian Trusts Act, 1882 (2 of 1882), Society registered under the Societies Registration Act, 1860 (21 of 1860), partnership firms registered under the Indian Partnership Act, 1932 (9 of 1932), Limited Liability Partnership registered under the Limited Liability Partnership Act, 2008 (Central Act 6 of 2009) and shall include any other body corporate including those from outside India qualified to invest in India under relevant laws for the time being in force or under the relevant policies of the Government of India or the Government as may be applicable at the time of such investment;
(m)“Investment promotion area” means an area notified by the Government under subsection (2) of section 7 for the purpose of investment promotion under this Act;
(n) “in principle approval” means a general approval to an investment proposal for facilitation purposes only and is subject to obtaining of specific clearance from the Competent Authority/Government agency or the Board, as the case may be;
(o) “local authority”means a Municipal Corporation, a Municipal Council and a Panchayat by whatever name called, constituted under the relevant law for the time being in force in the State of Goa;
(p) “Member”means a member of the Board and includes the Chairperson of the Board;
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(q) “Prescribed”means prescribed by rules made under this Act;
(r) “Project”means a project to be undertaken by the investor, Government or Government agency, whereunder investment is proposed to be made in the State of Goa, but does not include housing or housing projects;
(s) “Secretary”means a Secretary to the Government by whatever name called;
(t) “State”means the State of Goa;
(u) “Time limit”means a period within which an application is to be processed and disposed of mandatorily.