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President's Message
"April brings happiness and joy and marks celebrations of New Year in several parts of our country: Vaisakhi (North and Central India), Rongali Bihu (Assam), Vishu (Tamil Nadu, Kerala), Puthandu (Tamilnadu), Bishuva Sankranti ( Odisha), Poila Boishakh (Bengal)... Amidst these festivities, I am happy to start a new inning as President FISME. At the outset, let me begin by wishing all FISME members and our extended MSME family a very Happy New Year! I am thankful to my colleagues in the Central Executive Committee for choosing me to lead FISME. I am grateful for the faith reposed in me. I shall make my best endeavours to live up to these expectations. While I shall dive deep into the complex issues that MSMEs are confronted with in the coming weeks, one urgent issue we have to deal with right away is: how to help MSMEs take advantage of ESI and EPF amnesty schemes. With interlinking of digital identifications- aadhar/ PAN/ TAN etc and implementation of GST, the old ways of doing business would not be tenable. FISME lobbied hard at the highest levels in the Government and secured concessions for ESI and EPF. The golden opportunity should net let go waste. I am going to write to all my association colleagues to make MSMEs aware of the golden window and empower them to face future with courage and confidence.
"
The Union Ministry of Commerce and Industry is working in ‘mission mode’ to simplify processes and procedures to improve ‘ease of doing businesses in India.
Addressing an outreach programme organized by Federation of Indian Micro and Small & Medium Enterprises (FISME) in Hyderabad, on Tuesday, Damu Ravi Joint Secretary in Ministry of Commerce exhorted trade bodies to capture the problems of MSMEs and voice them to get these issues addressed through the new pan-India institutional set-up being created for trade facilitation.
Anyone can have a great idea. Anyone can have a great theoretical strategy. But if those two things don’t come with a first class execution plan, they will be trashed. Fast.
“Information without execution is useless,” says Donny Gamble, Founder of IdeaHacks. “Having access to the right information at the right time is absolutely useless unless you know how to actually execute on the information.
Acceding to the request of thousands of Micro Small & Medium Enterprises the ESI, the Scheme to Promote Registration of Employee / Employers (SPREE) has been extended by the Government till 30th June 2017.
The amnesty scheme was introduced in December last year. It offered a onetime window for employers to join ESI and absolved them of past non-compliance.
Industrial growth contracted unexpectedly in February while consumer inflation quickened to a five-month high in March, a double setback for the Indian economy as it enters the new financial year. Industrial production shrank 1.2% in February against a 3.3% rise in January, data released by the statistics office showed. Consumer inflation accelerated to 3.81% in March largely due to increased fuel prices, according to data separately released by the department.
India’s merchandise exports increased at the fastest pace in almost six years in March led by an overall rise in shipments across sectors even as a steeper rise imports due to firmer commodity prices widened the trade deficit.
Buoyed by petroleum, textiles, engineering goods and gems and jewellery, exports zoomed 27.59% in March to $29.2 billion but a 45.25% increase in imports on the back of higher gold imports led to a trade gap of $10.4 billion.
The EEPC Chiarman, TS Bhasin, has said a sharp rise in the value of rupee against dollar could neutralise the headway made by the exporters in the recent months.
“We feel the rupee is becoming highly overvalued; the Indian currency has already lost about five per cent in the recent few weeks,” he said.
Hence, the exporers would request the Reserve Bank of India and the government to keep a constant eye on the rupee movement.
up 23 times post note ban to 64 lakh
Digital transactions increased by about 23 times in March to nearly 64 lakh, with total value of Rs 2,425 crore, from last November when demonetisation took effect. “Volume of all digital transactions increased by about 23 times with 63,80,000 digital transactions for a value of Rs 2,425 crore in March 2017, compared to 2,80,000 digital transactions worth Rs 101 crore till November 2016,” Niti Aayog said in a statement. Aadhaar Enabled Payments have increased from 2.5 crore in November 2016 to over 5 crore in March 2017, it said.
Service sector is likely to attract a higher tax rate of 18 per cent from the current 15 per cent once the GST is implemented, this will result in services becoming slightly more expensive, Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia has said.
However sectors such as the healthcare, education and agriculture are likely to remain exempted. “Whatever is in the present exempt list, we will try to continue it. We wold recommend this to the Council and it will take a view on it. Our attempt is not to upset too many things in one go” he said.
Batting for the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) sector, Senior Congress Leader and Former Finance Minister P Chidambaram said the wise and correct date for GST rollout would be October 1 as millions of MSMEs have to adjust to the new regime.
Calling the Centre's bid to roll out GST by July 1 as "impractical and undesirable", Chidambaram asked the government to push the date of its introduction to October 1.
The much awaited Report of the One Man Committee on MSME Policy has recommended that the present criterion for defining the MSMEs may be continued, however, the investment limit for defining the manufacturing as well as services units may be increased.
The proposed investment limits for manufacturing units are
For Micro - Up to Rs.50 lakh; For Small - Above Rs. 50 lakh Up to Rs.7 Crore; and For Medium above Rs. 7 Crore Up to Rs.25 Crore.
The Cabinet’s approval for refund of Rs 2,700-crore claims to exporters will provide them relief and help boost shipments, FIEO today said. Hailing the approval of implementation of Supreme Court’s judgement regarding Target Plus Scheme (TPS), Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) said exporters were fighting for their legitimate benefit for a long time.
“This is an encouraging decision of the government which will provide relief to exporters in their export efforts,” FIEO President Ganesh Gupta said in a statement.
The Jammu & Kashmir MSMEs have urged the Centre and State Government to extend incentives to them under Goods & Services Tax (GST) regime keeping in view the entrepreneurs face numerous challenges in doing business in the land-locked state.
The Association of Industries, Gangyal, took a MSME delegation to meet J&K Minister for Industries & Commerce Chander Prakash Ganga.
During the meeting, the delegation led by association president Rajan Jain, apprised the Minister about the set back that the industry will face after the incentives get withdrawn under GST regime.
The West Bengal Government is planning to add the names of the job seekers who have already got the jobs through the Employment Bank set up by the government in 2013.
With this, the state government wants to keep a tab on the number of people who have got the jobs through the Employment Bank.
The West Bengal Government had set up the Employment Bank three years ago. So far, 23 lakh people have entered their names in the programme, with details of their educational and technical qualifications.
The Karnataka Small Scale Industries Association (KASSIA) has expressed disappointment and concerns that the power tariffs have again been raised by the KERC.
The tariffs have been revised in the BESCOM area from 15 ps. to 50 ps depending on the category and in other ESCOMS areas from 25 ps. to 50 ps.
“KASSIA had strongly argued against any power tariff hike as these annual hikes have made it very difficult for micro and small industries to operate in the State. The ESCOMS have, instead of tightening belts a tendency to pass on the burden to the consumers, particularly industry, which is no longer in a position to pay,” A Padmanabha, President, Kassia said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday flagged off various infrastructure projects for Santhal Pargana (A tribal region in Jharkhand).
Emphasizing on the importance of connectivity Modi laid the foundation for a bridge on Ganga . The four-lane bridge on the Ganga river will be connecting Sahibganj, some 450 km from state capital Ranchi, to Manihari in Bihar's Katihar district.
He also launched the Multi-Modal Transport Hub (MMT), under the flagship of National Waterway-1 Project. According to a media report PM Modi said "The waterways on the Ganga river will connect Jharkhand to the world. Jharkhand is a land-locked state but after developing waterways, it will get connected to the world and become part of the economic revolution”.
The Export-Import Bank of India (Exim Bank) is bullish on investing in Bangladesh’s economic development with its total support reaching $9.46 billion, consisting of credit lines as well as loans for various developmental projects.
“Our overall support to Bangladesh now stands at $9.46 billion on various developmental projects. It is in our interest to have a stable and prosperous neighbourhood. We started a little late in Bangladesh but some of the projects are nearing completion now,” David Rasquinha, Managing Director, Exim Bank, told BusinessLine.
Trade between India and Pakistan has surprisingly being strong since the beginning of the current fiscal year, despite the accelerating rate of diplomatic tension between the hostile neighbors. A State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) report has revealed that Pakistan grew its exports to India during the first eight months of 2016-17 while curtailing imports by 23 per cent, however, the trade balance remains in favour of India, reports Dawn. It comes as a pleasant surprise that the worsening political relations, which have taken another hit following the sentencing of alleged Indian spy Kulbhushan Jadhav by Pakistan, seem to have little impact on bilateral trade relations. After growing by 14pc, exports from Pakistan to India amounted to $286 million in July-Feb.
Venezuela has reached out to the UN to help it buy pharmaceutical products, offering India an opportunity to supply vital drugs to the cash-strapped nation. Indian companies have been a major supplier of medicines to the Latin American country and enjoys acceptance in the Venezuelan market due to quality and competitive prices. However, for the last one year the supplies have completely dried up as companies are facing payment issues with the outstanding amount rising sharply to over $100 million. Sources said if the UN assistance for supply of medicines to Venezuela comes through, the pharma trade could resume again with Indian companies such as Novartis and Dr Reddy’s being the biggest beneficiary.
GDP numbers show note ban worries were exaggerated. Do you agree?
According to the FISME Factor, 80 percent of Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises do not agree with the opinion that note ban worries were exaggerated while 20 percent think otherwise.
The truth about company culture and why founders have to walk the talk to define it
During initial days of a startup, it is normal for an entrepreneur to be inundated with multiple pressing concerns. From ensuring all regulatory compliances are met to simultaneously arranging cash flow for operations, entrepreneurs have a lot on their plate.
Compensation and benefits strategy for small businesses
Attracting top talent is critical to growing a business. The natural instinct of an entrepreneur is to hire top talent quickly and not let paucity of talent result in a loss of business opportunity. This leads to high salaries and benefits being offered -- especially for niche technical skills.
How much is at stake for YouTube with advertisers boycotting over offensive content?
The YouTube Brandcast was supposed to be a victory lap for the video sharing site.
And it mostly was, with YouTube getting unstinting praise, courtesy speakers from HUL and Maruti.
But souring the celebratory vibe somewhat was an issue that Rajan Anandan, vice president, Google India and South Asia, felt compelled to address.
Non-availability of continuous power supply forces Jammu MSMEs to run on DG sets
The micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in Jammu are incurring heavy losses as they have to run their units on DG sets in the wake on poor power condition in the region.
In this regard, Bari Brahmana Industries Association (BBIA) held a meeting of its members.
BankBazaar co-founder Adhil Shetty's paperless future may be here
In what began as an idea nearly a decade ago, BankBazaar today has evolved into a business that has succeeded in a finding a scalable middle ground between established financial institutions and its offshoot startups.
The Central Statistics Office (CSO), Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, has released the Consumer Price Index numbers on base 2012=100 for rural, urban and combined for the month of June 2016
FISME regularly receives monthly reports on the economies of various countries from their missions in India. These reports provide information on key economic parameters, trade related information and all news relevant for importers and exporters. In this edition you can take a look at reports on:
Write your comments on the FISME Factor. Share your views and suggestions on MSME issues. Win prize! The best mail will get a special book every fortnight.
send mail to: newsletter@fisme.org.in
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This Newsletter is edited by the FISME Secretariat. We welcome contributions as well as comments and suggestions. Please write to newsletter@fisme.org.in
"April brings happiness and joy and marks celebrations of New Year in several parts of our country: Vaisakhi (North and Central India), Rongali Bihu (Assam), Vishu (Tamil Nadu, Kerala), Puthandu (Tamilnadu), Bishuva Sankranti ( Odisha), Poila Boishakh (Bengal)... Amidst these festivities, I am happy to start a new inning as President FISME. At the outset, let me begin by wishing all FISME members and our extended MSME family a very Happy New Year! I am thankful to my colleagues in the Central Executive Committee for choosing me to lead FISME. I am grateful for the faith reposed in me. I shall make my best endeavours to live up to these expectations. While I shall dive deep into the complex issues that MSMEs are confronted with in the coming weeks, one urgent issue we have to deal with right away is: how to help MSMEs take advantage of ESI and EPF amnesty schemes. With interlinking of digital identifications- aadhar/ PAN/ TAN etc and implementation of GST, the old ways of doing business would not be tenable. FISME lobbied hard at the highest levels in the Government and secured concessions for ESI and EPF. The golden opportunity should net let go waste. I am going to write to all my association colleagues to make MSMEs aware of the golden window and empower them to face future with courage and confidence.
"
The Union Ministry of Commerce and Industry is working in ‘mission mode’ to simplify processes and procedures to improve ‘ease of doing businesses in India.
Addressing an outreach programme organized by Federation of Indian Micro and Small & Medium Enterprises (FISME) in Hyderabad, on Tuesday, Damu Ravi Joint Secretary in Ministry of Commerce exhorted trade bodies to capture the problems of MSMEs and voice them to get these issues addressed through the new pan-India institutional set-up being created for trade facilitation.
Anyone can have a great idea. Anyone can have a great theoretical strategy. But if those two things don’t come with a first class execution plan, they will be trashed. Fast.
“Information without execution is useless,” says Donny Gamble, Founder of IdeaHacks. “Having access to the right information at the right time is absolutely useless unless you know how to actually execute on the information.
Industrial growth contracted unexpectedly in February while consumer inflation quickened to a five-month high in March, a double setback for the Indian economy as it enters the new financial year. Industrial production shrank 1.2% in February against a 3.3% rise in January, data released by the statistics office showed. Consumer inflation accelerated to 3.81% in March largely due to increased fuel prices, according to data separately released by the department.
India’s merchandise exports increased at the fastest pace in almost six years in March led by an overall rise in shipments across sectors even as a steeper rise imports due to firmer commodity prices widened the trade deficit.
Buoyed by petroleum, textiles, engineering goods and gems and jewellery, exports zoomed 27.59% in March to $29.2 billion but a 45.25% increase in imports on the back of higher gold imports led to a trade gap of $10.4 billion.
The EEPC Chiarman, TS Bhasin, has said a sharp rise in the value of rupee against dollar could neutralise the headway made by the exporters in the recent months.
“We feel the rupee is becoming highly overvalued; the Indian currency has already lost about five per cent in the recent few weeks,” he said.
Hence, the exporers would request the Reserve Bank of India and the government to keep a constant eye on the rupee movement.
up 23 times post note ban to 64 lakh
Digital transactions increased by about 23 times in March to nearly 64 lakh, with total value of Rs 2,425 crore, from last November when demonetisation took effect. “Volume of all digital transactions increased by about 23 times with 63,80,000 digital transactions for a value of Rs 2,425 crore in March 2017, compared to 2,80,000 digital transactions worth Rs 101 crore till November 2016,” Niti Aayog said in a statement. Aadhaar Enabled Payments have increased from 2.5 crore in November 2016 to over 5 crore in March 2017, it said.
Service sector is likely to attract a higher tax rate of 18 per cent from the current 15 per cent once the GST is implemented, this will result in services becoming slightly more expensive, Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia has said.
However sectors such as the healthcare, education and agriculture are likely to remain exempted. “Whatever is in the present exempt list, we will try to continue it. We wold recommend this to the Council and it will take a view on it. Our attempt is not to upset too many things in one go” he said.
Batting for the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) sector, Senior Congress Leader and Former Finance Minister P Chidambaram said the wise and correct date for GST rollout would be October 1 as millions of MSMEs have to adjust to the new regime.
Calling the Centre's bid to roll out GST by July 1 as "impractical and undesirable", Chidambaram asked the government to push the date of its introduction to October 1.
The much awaited Report of the One Man Committee on MSME Policy has recommended that the present criterion for defining the MSMEs may be continued, however, the investment limit for defining the manufacturing as well as services units may be increased.
The proposed investment limits for manufacturing units are
For Micro - Up to Rs.50 lakh; For Small - Above Rs. 50 lakh Up to Rs.7 Crore; and For Medium above Rs. 7 Crore Up to Rs.25 Crore.
The Cabinet’s approval for refund of Rs 2,700-crore claims to exporters will provide them relief and help boost shipments, FIEO today said. Hailing the approval of implementation of Supreme Court’s judgement regarding Target Plus Scheme (TPS), Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) said exporters were fighting for their legitimate benefit for a long time.
“This is an encouraging decision of the government which will provide relief to exporters in their export efforts,” FIEO President Ganesh Gupta said in a statement.
The Jammu & Kashmir MSMEs have urged the Centre and State Government to extend incentives to them under Goods & Services Tax (GST) regime keeping in view the entrepreneurs face numerous challenges in doing business in the land-locked state.
The Association of Industries, Gangyal, took a MSME delegation to meet J&K Minister for Industries & Commerce Chander Prakash Ganga.
During the meeting, the delegation led by association president Rajan Jain, apprised the Minister about the set back that the industry will face after the incentives get withdrawn under GST regime.
The West Bengal Government is planning to add the names of the job seekers who have already got the jobs through the Employment Bank set up by the government in 2013.
With this, the state government wants to keep a tab on the number of people who have got the jobs through the Employment Bank.
The West Bengal Government had set up the Employment Bank three years ago. So far, 23 lakh people have entered their names in the programme, with details of their educational and technical qualifications.
The Karnataka Small Scale Industries Association (KASSIA) has expressed disappointment and concerns that the power tariffs have again been raised by the KERC.
The tariffs have been revised in the BESCOM area from 15 ps. to 50 ps depending on the category and in other ESCOMS areas from 25 ps. to 50 ps.
“KASSIA had strongly argued against any power tariff hike as these annual hikes have made it very difficult for micro and small industries to operate in the State. The ESCOMS have, instead of tightening belts a tendency to pass on the burden to the consumers, particularly industry, which is no longer in a position to pay,” A Padmanabha, President, Kassia said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday flagged off various infrastructure projects for Santhal Pargana (A tribal region in Jharkhand).
Emphasizing on the importance of connectivity Modi laid the foundation for a bridge on Ganga . The four-lane bridge on the Ganga river will be connecting Sahibganj, some 450 km from state capital Ranchi, to Manihari in Bihar's Katihar district.
He also launched the Multi-Modal Transport Hub (MMT), under the flagship of National Waterway-1 Project. According to a media report PM Modi said "The waterways on the Ganga river will connect Jharkhand to the world. Jharkhand is a land-locked state but after developing waterways, it will get connected to the world and become part of the economic revolution”.
The Export-Import Bank of India (Exim Bank) is bullish on investing in Bangladesh’s economic development with its total support reaching $9.46 billion, consisting of credit lines as well as loans for various developmental projects.
“Our overall support to Bangladesh now stands at $9.46 billion on various developmental projects. It is in our interest to have a stable and prosperous neighbourhood. We started a little late in Bangladesh but some of the projects are nearing completion now,” David Rasquinha, Managing Director, Exim Bank, told BusinessLine.
Trade between India and Pakistan has surprisingly being strong since the beginning of the current fiscal year, despite the accelerating rate of diplomatic tension between the hostile neighbors. A State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) report has revealed that Pakistan grew its exports to India during the first eight months of 2016-17 while curtailing imports by 23 per cent, however, the trade balance remains in favour of India, reports Dawn. It comes as a pleasant surprise that the worsening political relations, which have taken another hit following the sentencing of alleged Indian spy Kulbhushan Jadhav by Pakistan, seem to have little impact on bilateral trade relations. After growing by 14pc, exports from Pakistan to India amounted to $286 million in July-Feb.
Venezuela has reached out to the UN to help it buy pharmaceutical products, offering India an opportunity to supply vital drugs to the cash-strapped nation. Indian companies have been a major supplier of medicines to the Latin American country and enjoys acceptance in the Venezuelan market due to quality and competitive prices. However, for the last one year the supplies have completely dried up as companies are facing payment issues with the outstanding amount rising sharply to over $100 million. Sources said if the UN assistance for supply of medicines to Venezuela comes through, the pharma trade could resume again with Indian companies such as Novartis and Dr Reddy’s being the biggest beneficiary.
According to the FISME Factor, 80 percent of Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises do not agree with the opinion that note ban worries were exaggerated while 20 percent think otherwise. 
During initial days of a startup, it is normal for an entrepreneur to be inundated with multiple pressing concerns. From ensuring all regulatory compliances are met to simultaneously arranging cash flow for operations, entrepreneurs have a lot on their plate.
Attracting top talent is critical to growing a business. The natural instinct of an entrepreneur is to hire top talent quickly and not let paucity of talent result in a loss of business opportunity. This leads to high salaries and benefits being offered -- especially for niche technical skills.
The YouTube Brandcast was supposed to be a victory lap for the video sharing site.
And it mostly was, with YouTube getting unstinting praise, courtesy speakers from HUL and Maruti.
But souring the celebratory vibe somewhat was an issue that Rajan Anandan, vice president, Google India and South Asia, felt compelled to address.
The micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in Jammu are incurring heavy losses as they have to run their units on DG sets in the wake on poor power condition in the region.
In this regard, Bari Brahmana Industries Association (BBIA) held a meeting of its members.
Social networking platform Facebook recently announced that it now has 65 million businesses pages on Facebook, 8 million have profiles on Instagram.
In what began as an idea nearly a decade ago, BankBazaar today has evolved into a business that has succeeded in a finding a scalable middle ground between established financial institutions and its offshoot startups.
““Until you value yourself, you won’t value your time. Until you value your time, you will not do anything with it.” ”
