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President's Message
" The date of presentation of the Union Budget has been proposed to be advanced by a few weeks and if the election commission does not throw a spanner, it is set to be released on 1st Feb 2017. What are our expectations? Post-demonetisation, two biggest concerns are: one, a secular, widely spread steep fall in demand of range of products starting from housing to agri-produce to consumer durables to automobiles. International Monetary Fund (IMF) has already reduced GDP growth expectation by 1% from 7.6% to 6.6% ! Two, cost of recalibration of business by informal sector and MSMEs in the wake of push for digital payments. Towards the first, government is already considering a series of measures to revive demand. With regards to the second, FISME has written to the Prime Minister and my colleagues have also met the PMO and MSME Ministry to seek to support in facilitating migration of informal sector to formal. Specific policy interventions have been suggested by FISME to simplify and reduce cost of compliance of social security of workers and, amnesty for non-compliance in previous years both for the Income Tax and Labour laws. The signals so far have been positive. We do hope the Finance Minister would step in to address these two issues effectively.
"
The leading MSME federation, FISME has approached Mr. Modi’s office to restructure the social security policy for workers in the small sector.
According to FISME a pragmatic labour policy will encourage more enterprises in the unorganised sector to declare their actual number of workers and also provide them social security.
While the Government is seized to the fact that a large number of people employed in the informal sector are not covered by social security net, the bureaucracy possibly overlook the sheer unviability of the existing EPF and ESI framework for MSMEs.
The potent barriers in the way, namely, the high cost of compliance and low quality of benefits, drive away both the employers from adopting the schemes and in turn forces the MSMEs to employ less people in the formal sector.
You really need to know how to connect with people and work at it, especially if you’re an entrepreneur. After the bumble bees, my father started handing out heart pins to people he met and connected with. Once I was on a plane and saw a flight attendant with a heart pin on her lapel. I immediately knew it was from my dad. She had only met him that one time, but he made an indelible impression on her. She said he was the nicest person she had ever met. Perhaps this was his true legacy.
The first advance estimate of national income for the current year showed that the economy will grow at a slower pace compared with last year. Since the projection has not captured the impact of the currency swap on economic activity, it is likely that the gross domestic product growth estimate for the year will be revised lower from the present level of 7.1%. Although the extent of actual damage to economic activity remains unclear, the incoming news of the cash crunch easing and the government’s expectation of meeting tax collection targets suggest that the impact could perhaps be limited.
Read full Editorial from The livemint.com >> Click here >>
Growing for the fourth consecutive month, India's exports expanded by 5.72 per cent to $23.9 billion in December 2016, compared to $22.6 billion in the same month of previous year.
Country’s imports too rose by 0.46 per cent to $34.25 billion during the month.
The trade deficit was at $10.36 billion.
During April-December period, exports grew marginally by 0.75 per cent $198.8 billion. However, Imports dipped 7.42 per cent to $275.3 billion.
Has the economy dodged a bullet? It may be too early to say but initial reports of industrial and economic activity in November and December show mild-to-strong growth in some sectors, belying fears of a calamitous fall in performance due to demonetisation.
ET Intelligence Group’s analysis of various economic indicators in December reveals growth in rail freight, port tonnage, fuel consumption and power generation.
The e-platform of National Agriculture Market (eNAM), or digital market place for farmers, which was launched by PM Narendra Modi last year, has made a sluggish start with only 250 mandis in 10 states carrying out online trading within their Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC) yard rather than going for intra-state trade.
In the absence of reforms to allow inter-state trade, NAM so far achieved little in terms of multiplying the farmers’ choice of buyers. Let alone inter-state trade, the electronic market place hasn’t even allowed farmers to sell their produce to far-away mandis in their own states.
After Make in India, the government is all set to unveil a policy to promote product designing in the country.
Inaugurating the three-day International conference and exhibition on Reinforced Plastics, 2017, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar said the ambitious ‘Design in India’ policy, which will be an extension of the ongoing ‘Make in India’ programme will target to build, enhance and promote designing capabilities of Indian manufacturers and entrepreneurs so that they can design products of world-class standards to compete with global counterparts and take advantage of ‘Make in India’ programme
As many as 25,578 memorandum of understanding (MoUs) have been signed at Vibrant Gujarat Summit-2017.
It had been anticipated that over 16000 MoUs would be signed at the Summit but the it came to an end on Thursday, with 25,578 memorandums of understanding (MoUs) signed during the three-day event which saw participation of over 33,000 people from across 10 nations.
According to the Rajiv Raval, past president of Gujarat State Plastic Manufacturers Association (GSPMA) it is an all-time opportunity for the young entrepreneur and youths of the states.
Union Minister of Electronics and Information Technology Ravi Shankar Prasad said the central government has planned to set up electronics clusters in 400 towns and cities.
Prasad was speaking at a session on 'IT-ITeS and ESDM: The next era of State's Growth and Innovation' at Pravasi Haryana Diwas-2017, in Gurugram.
He has projected that India's electronics manufacturing market would be $400 billion by 2020.
A survey conducted by State Bank of India (SBI) among small businesses has revealed that more than two-thirds of them have seen a drop in business. While 30% of respondents said that business has dropped by half, another 23% said that the drop has been between 40-50%.
The main problem identified by most of the respondents was the supply of only Rs 2,000 denomination notes without intervening notes of Rs 500. This has resulted in chaos as there wasn't enough currency notes to change the Rs 2,000 denomination notes. Interestingly, the survey reveals that 63% of the respondents come out in support of demonetisation.
The Centre is planning to launch an exclusive scheme for women entrepreneurs before the end of financial year, BH Anil Kumar, Joint Secretary of the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises has said.
He was speaking at the launch ceremony of myloanassocham.com, a portal, facilitating loan to MSMSE enterprises by the Associated Chambers of Commerce industry of India (ASSOCHAM).
He said, “It will be an exclusive scheme for women entrepreneurs. We have not yet finalised the contours. We are trying to launch it before the end of the financial year. "
The Haryana government has notified the "Investment Subsidy on VAT/ State GST" for a host of industry segments including MSMEs as part of steps to bring down cost of doing business in the state.
Investment subsidy on VAT/SGST has been announced by Haryana Industries and Commerce Department for ultra-mega projects, mega projects, large units, Micro, Small and Medium and sectors (MSME) of textiles, agro and food processing, footwear and defence or aerospace or electronics or auto components or Railways.
Odisha will soon have its own Start-up Park just in the line of T-hub of Hyderabad to create an ecosystem for start-ups to grow but will also encourage them innovate.
Odisha MSME Secretary LN Gupta, while addressing Odisha Start-up Summit, said it will be a one-stop destination to facilitate young entrepreneurs in the state.
He said the startup hub will be developed in public, private partnership (PPP) mode for which the Odisha Government has initiated talks with T-Hub and is planning to replicate their model here.
With the Union Budget to be announced in less than a month’s time now, Tamil Nadu MSMEs have urged the Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley to consider raising working capital limit for the micro, small and medium enterprises sector, lowering of interest rates, more industrial areas for the units and an Exit Policy.
The sector, which has incurred huge loss due to cash crunch post demonetization, has pinned hopes on the government to give incentives to them to make up for the losses.
Recognizing the business potential of the locally made sweets in Bengal, state government is planning to launch a Mishti Hub in Burdwan in March this year.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee led All India Trinamool Congress said the decision to set up the hub was taken considering the business potential of the locally made traditional sweets and it was decided to sell the sweets in small packets in all the outlets of Biswa Bangla.
The Federation of Indian Micro and Small & Medium Enterprises (FISME), the apex body for MSME Associations in the country, is taking a 40 member delegation to Taiwan for the Taipei International Machine Tool Show (TIMTOS).
TIMTOS, being organized by Taiwan External Trade Development Council & Taiwan Association of Machinery Industry, is one of the largest exhibitions in Taiwan with close to 5000 booths.
The 26th Taipei International Machine Tool Show will be held from March 7-12, 2017. As many as 21 countries are participating at the event.
India today announced a $100-million Line of Credit to Kenya for agricultural mechanisation after talks between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta during which they also decided to deepen economic cooperation, identifying expansion of bilateral trade as a “priority”.
Asserting that challenges in the maritime domain are a shared concern, Modi said the two sides will also explore opportunities in blue economy.
India's annual oil imports from Iran surged to a record high in 2016 as some refiners resumed purchases after the lifting of sanctions against Tehran, according to ship tracking data and a report compiled by Thomson Reuters Oil Research and Forecasts.
The sharp increase propelled Iran into fourth place among India's suppliers in 2016, up from seventh position in 2015. It used to be India's second-biggest supplier before sanctions.
India's trade deficit with China mounted to a whopping $46.56 billion last year as Indian exports continued to decline while the bilateral trade marginally slowed down by 2.1 per cent to nearly $71 billion.
The total India-China bilateral trade in 2016 amounted to $70.8 billion, a decline of 2.1 per cent as per the trade figures released by General Administration of Customs (GAC). China exports totaled to $58.33 billion, registering an increase of 0.2 per cent compared to $58.25 billion in 2015, as GAC data accessed by PTI.
India will continue to be under pressure for having an “ineffectual” intellectual property rights (IPR) and patents regime even under the Donald Trump administration, which is perceived to be India-friendly.
India is likely to remain in the ‘Priority Watch List’ category in the US Trade Representative’s (USTR) annual Special 301 Report.
SIDBI-FISME national campaign on GST: Roundtables, Webinars and Guide for MSMEs 5th in the series GST: Identifying implications & facilitating adoption by MSMEs
January 2017, Ahmedabad
Are you as a SME comfortable with cashless transactions such as mobile wallets and online payments?
According to the FISME Factor, 67 percent of Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises are of the opinion that they are comfortable with cashless transactions such as mobile wallets and online payments while 33 per cent think otherwise.
Small businesses: The war for talent and how to win it
You are an entrepreneur. You are convinced that you have an idea that creates value, perhaps will shake the world. You need to create a business and an organisation to bring the idea to fruition. You do that, and are now running a small business. What differentiates a small business that survives and grows, from another that flounders and dies? What is the most important factor to determine the long-term sustainability of the business and the organization that you are creating?
Demonetisation: Uncertainty means MSMEs funding scenario hugely negative
As the shock of the demonetisation move wears off, businesses are now bracing themselves for the coming two-quarters that are forecast to see lower demand. Many business models that depended on the flow of hard cash may just have been rendered permanently unviable from a lender's perspective.
View: 7 steps to craft your digital marketing strategy, improve ROI
Since you have shown interest in reading this post, I am assuming that you are looking for answer to either or all of the following questions:
Shall we use Facebook, Google, LinkedIn or some other digital media?
How can we repeatedly produce success in leveraging digital marketing?
How can I convince my management to increase the budget for digital marketing?
How can we decide on the resources we would need for successful execution of digital marketing?
MSEs suffered 50% dip in revenue, 35% drop in revenue post demonetization: All India Manufacturers’ Organization
Post demonetization, micro and small enterprises (MSEs) have suffered 35 per cent jobs losses and 50 per cent dip in revenue, highlights a study conducted by All India Manufacturers’ Organization (AIMO).
AIMO conducted a study to check the effect of demonetization and projected a drop of 60 per cent in employment and loss of 55 per cent in revenue overall in the manufacturing sector before March 2017.
Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit: This Gujarati teen signs Rs 5-crore MoU for drones
A bespectacled boy dressed in a spiffy blue suit created a buzz at the Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit on Thursday after he signed a Rs 5 crore-worth memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the state government, bagging the deal for production of a drone designed by him. Harshwardhan Zala, 14, signed a deal with the Department of Science and Technology, Government of Gujarat, to facilitate production of the drones that help detect and defuse land mines on war fields.
How does an e-comm start-up stay healthy amid changing govt policy
The Centre’s demonetisation move in November has resulted in ups and downs for all kinds of businesses, including those in retail. But how does an e-commerce company stay healthy regardless of whatever may be unexpected in the policy or regulatory sphere?
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
“ Empower yourself and realize the importance of contributing to the world by living your talent. Work on what you love. You are responsible for the talent that has been entrusted to you.” ”
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
" The date of presentation of the Union Budget has been proposed to be advanced by a few weeks and if the election commission does not throw a spanner, it is set to be released on 1st Feb 2017. What are our expectations? Post-demonetisation, two biggest concerns are: one, a secular, widely spread steep fall in demand of range of products starting from housing to agri-produce to consumer durables to automobiles. International Monetary Fund (IMF) has already reduced GDP growth expectation by 1% from 7.6% to 6.6% ! Two, cost of recalibration of business by informal sector and MSMEs in the wake of push for digital payments. Towards the first, government is already considering a series of measures to revive demand. With regards to the second, FISME has written to the Prime Minister and my colleagues have also met the PMO and MSME Ministry to seek to support in facilitating migration of informal sector to formal. Specific policy interventions have been suggested by FISME to simplify and reduce cost of compliance of social security of workers and, amnesty for non-compliance in previous years both for the Income Tax and Labour laws. The signals so far have been positive. We do hope the Finance Minister would step in to address these two issues effectively.
"
The leading MSME federation, FISME has approached Mr. Modi’s office to restructure the social security policy for workers in the small sector.
According to FISME a pragmatic labour policy will encourage more enterprises in the unorganised sector to declare their actual number of workers and also provide them social security.
While the Government is seized to the fact that a large number of people employed in the informal sector are not covered by social security net, the bureaucracy possibly overlook the sheer unviability of the existing EPF and ESI framework for MSMEs.
The potent barriers in the way, namely, the high cost of compliance and low quality of benefits, drive away both the employers from adopting the schemes and in turn forces the MSMEs to employ less people in the formal sector.
You really need to know how to connect with people and work at it, especially if you’re an entrepreneur. After the bumble bees, my father started handing out heart pins to people he met and connected with. Once I was on a plane and saw a flight attendant with a heart pin on her lapel. I immediately knew it was from my dad. She had only met him that one time, but he made an indelible impression on her. She said he was the nicest person she had ever met. Perhaps this was his true legacy.
Growing for the fourth consecutive month, India's exports expanded by 5.72 per cent to $23.9 billion in December 2016, compared to $22.6 billion in the same month of previous year.
Country’s imports too rose by 0.46 per cent to $34.25 billion during the month.
The trade deficit was at $10.36 billion.
During April-December period, exports grew marginally by 0.75 per cent $198.8 billion. However, Imports dipped 7.42 per cent to $275.3 billion.
Has the economy dodged a bullet? It may be too early to say but initial reports of industrial and economic activity in November and December show mild-to-strong growth in some sectors, belying fears of a calamitous fall in performance due to demonetisation.
ET Intelligence Group’s analysis of various economic indicators in December reveals growth in rail freight, port tonnage, fuel consumption and power generation.
The e-platform of National Agriculture Market (eNAM), or digital market place for farmers, which was launched by PM Narendra Modi last year, has made a sluggish start with only 250 mandis in 10 states carrying out online trading within their Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC) yard rather than going for intra-state trade.
In the absence of reforms to allow inter-state trade, NAM so far achieved little in terms of multiplying the farmers’ choice of buyers. Let alone inter-state trade, the electronic market place hasn’t even allowed farmers to sell their produce to far-away mandis in their own states.
After Make in India, the government is all set to unveil a policy to promote product designing in the country.
Inaugurating the three-day International conference and exhibition on Reinforced Plastics, 2017, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar said the ambitious ‘Design in India’ policy, which will be an extension of the ongoing ‘Make in India’ programme will target to build, enhance and promote designing capabilities of Indian manufacturers and entrepreneurs so that they can design products of world-class standards to compete with global counterparts and take advantage of ‘Make in India’ programme
As many as 25,578 memorandum of understanding (MoUs) have been signed at Vibrant Gujarat Summit-2017.
It had been anticipated that over 16000 MoUs would be signed at the Summit but the it came to an end on Thursday, with 25,578 memorandums of understanding (MoUs) signed during the three-day event which saw participation of over 33,000 people from across 10 nations.
According to the Rajiv Raval, past president of Gujarat State Plastic Manufacturers Association (GSPMA) it is an all-time opportunity for the young entrepreneur and youths of the states.
Union Minister of Electronics and Information Technology Ravi Shankar Prasad said the central government has planned to set up electronics clusters in 400 towns and cities.
Prasad was speaking at a session on 'IT-ITeS and ESDM: The next era of State's Growth and Innovation' at Pravasi Haryana Diwas-2017, in Gurugram.
He has projected that India's electronics manufacturing market would be $400 billion by 2020.
A survey conducted by State Bank of India (SBI) among small businesses has revealed that more than two-thirds of them have seen a drop in business. While 30% of respondents said that business has dropped by half, another 23% said that the drop has been between 40-50%.
The main problem identified by most of the respondents was the supply of only Rs 2,000 denomination notes without intervening notes of Rs 500. This has resulted in chaos as there wasn't enough currency notes to change the Rs 2,000 denomination notes. Interestingly, the survey reveals that 63% of the respondents come out in support of demonetisation.
The Centre is planning to launch an exclusive scheme for women entrepreneurs before the end of financial year, BH Anil Kumar, Joint Secretary of the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises has said.
He was speaking at the launch ceremony of myloanassocham.com, a portal, facilitating loan to MSMSE enterprises by the Associated Chambers of Commerce industry of India (ASSOCHAM).
He said, “It will be an exclusive scheme for women entrepreneurs. We have not yet finalised the contours. We are trying to launch it before the end of the financial year. "
The Haryana government has notified the "Investment Subsidy on VAT/ State GST" for a host of industry segments including MSMEs as part of steps to bring down cost of doing business in the state.
Investment subsidy on VAT/SGST has been announced by Haryana Industries and Commerce Department for ultra-mega projects, mega projects, large units, Micro, Small and Medium and sectors (MSME) of textiles, agro and food processing, footwear and defence or aerospace or electronics or auto components or Railways.
Odisha will soon have its own Start-up Park just in the line of T-hub of Hyderabad to create an ecosystem for start-ups to grow but will also encourage them innovate.
Odisha MSME Secretary LN Gupta, while addressing Odisha Start-up Summit, said it will be a one-stop destination to facilitate young entrepreneurs in the state.
He said the startup hub will be developed in public, private partnership (PPP) mode for which the Odisha Government has initiated talks with T-Hub and is planning to replicate their model here.
With the Union Budget to be announced in less than a month’s time now, Tamil Nadu MSMEs have urged the Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley to consider raising working capital limit for the micro, small and medium enterprises sector, lowering of interest rates, more industrial areas for the units and an Exit Policy.
The sector, which has incurred huge loss due to cash crunch post demonetization, has pinned hopes on the government to give incentives to them to make up for the losses.
Recognizing the business potential of the locally made sweets in Bengal, state government is planning to launch a Mishti Hub in Burdwan in March this year.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee led All India Trinamool Congress said the decision to set up the hub was taken considering the business potential of the locally made traditional sweets and it was decided to sell the sweets in small packets in all the outlets of Biswa Bangla.
The Federation of Indian Micro and Small & Medium Enterprises (FISME), the apex body for MSME Associations in the country, is taking a 40 member delegation to Taiwan for the Taipei International Machine Tool Show (TIMTOS).
TIMTOS, being organized by Taiwan External Trade Development Council & Taiwan Association of Machinery Industry, is one of the largest exhibitions in Taiwan with close to 5000 booths.
The 26th Taipei International Machine Tool Show will be held from March 7-12, 2017. As many as 21 countries are participating at the event.
India today announced a $100-million Line of Credit to Kenya for agricultural mechanisation after talks between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta during which they also decided to deepen economic cooperation, identifying expansion of bilateral trade as a “priority”.
Asserting that challenges in the maritime domain are a shared concern, Modi said the two sides will also explore opportunities in blue economy.
India's annual oil imports from Iran surged to a record high in 2016 as some refiners resumed purchases after the lifting of sanctions against Tehran, according to ship tracking data and a report compiled by Thomson Reuters Oil Research and Forecasts.
The sharp increase propelled Iran into fourth place among India's suppliers in 2016, up from seventh position in 2015. It used to be India's second-biggest supplier before sanctions.
India's trade deficit with China mounted to a whopping $46.56 billion last year as Indian exports continued to decline while the bilateral trade marginally slowed down by 2.1 per cent to nearly $71 billion.
The total India-China bilateral trade in 2016 amounted to $70.8 billion, a decline of 2.1 per cent as per the trade figures released by General Administration of Customs (GAC). China exports totaled to $58.33 billion, registering an increase of 0.2 per cent compared to $58.25 billion in 2015, as GAC data accessed by PTI.
According to the FISME Factor, 67 percent of Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises are of the opinion that they are comfortable with cashless transactions such as mobile wallets and online payments while 33 per cent think otherwise. 
You are an entrepreneur. You are convinced that you have an idea that creates value, perhaps will shake the world. You need to create a business and an organisation to bring the idea to fruition. You do that, and are now running a small business. What differentiates a small business that survives and grows, from another that flounders and dies? What is the most important factor to determine the long-term sustainability of the business and the organization that you are creating?
As the shock of the demonetisation move wears off, businesses are now bracing themselves for the coming two-quarters that are forecast to see lower demand. Many business models that depended on the flow of hard cash may just have been rendered permanently unviable from a lender's perspective.
Since you have shown interest in reading this post, I am assuming that you are looking for answer to either or all of the following questions:
Shall we use Facebook, Google, LinkedIn or some other digital media?
How can we repeatedly produce success in leveraging digital marketing?
How can I convince my management to increase the budget for digital marketing?
How can we decide on the resources we would need for successful execution of digital marketing?
Post demonetization, micro and small enterprises (MSEs) have suffered 35 per cent jobs losses and 50 per cent dip in revenue, highlights a study conducted by All India Manufacturers’ Organization (AIMO).
AIMO conducted a study to check the effect of demonetization and projected a drop of 60 per cent in employment and loss of 55 per cent in revenue overall in the manufacturing sector before March 2017.
A bespectacled boy dressed in a spiffy blue suit created a buzz at the Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit on Thursday after he signed a Rs 5 crore-worth memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the state government, bagging the deal for production of a drone designed by him. Harshwardhan Zala, 14, signed a deal with the Department of Science and Technology, Government of Gujarat, to facilitate production of the drones that help detect and defuse land mines on war fields.
The Centre’s demonetisation move in November has resulted in ups and downs for all kinds of businesses, including those in retail. But how does an e-commerce company stay healthy regardless of whatever may be unexpected in the policy or regulatory sphere?
“ Empower yourself and realize the importance of contributing to the world by living your talent. Work on what you love. You are responsible for the talent that has been entrusted to you.” ”
