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President's Message
One of the tasks undertaken by the present NDA Government has been to halt proliferation of black-money in economy. Demonetisation, legislation on benami property, linking PAN with Aadhaar number and various curbs on use of cash all have been steps in the direction. While the jury is out as to what extent the circulation of black money in economy has been reduced, no one doubts the intention of the Government and also the need to take on the persisting menace. However, in the zeal to stifle black money sometimes the genuine business transactions are also being hit. The scope of the recent ordinance for ‘Banning unregulated deposit scheme’ is so comprehensive that they seem to cover even the normal business unsecured loans. To tide over the sudden requirement of money, it is a normal in practice among MSMEs to borrow money from friends and business associates. Though, a clarification has since been issued by Ministry of Finance, can a ‘clarification’ supersede provisions of an Ordinance, remain open question.
"
The EU Commissioner for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs, Mrs Elżbieta Bieńkowska inaugurated the 'Business Support to the EU-India Policy Dialogues’ Project in presence of Mr. Amitabh Kant, CEO NITI Aayog in New Delhi. The project is to be implemented by EBTC a body set up with collaboration of EU Chambers and Indian industry partner organizations such as FISME. While enabling access to European best practices and technologies, it will also facilitate joint development of green technologies and solutions through effective business collaborations. Secretary General FISME Anil Bhardwaj welcomed the delegates and called upon greater cooperation between SME bodies of EU and Indian SME bodies.
India has been drastically experiencing the rise of the entrepreneurship with the augmented skilled and passionate people residing in the country. Entrepreneurship is the development or the conversion of an idea into realism which includes strategizing, designing, initiation and running a new business model. Entrepreneurs are persons who conceive this notion of introducing a new business with their creative and innovative ideations.
Economic data released last week was worrisome. Gross domestic product growth in October-December quarter was 6.6%, the slowest in five quarters. In addition, the forecast for 2018-19 was marked down a bit to 7%. The loss in momentum is a surprise as many economists had forecast a faster pace of economic growth. What the data indicates is that Reserve Bank of India made the right call last month to reverse its monetary policy and begin lowering interest rates. This trend is likely to continue in subsequent policies and needs to be complemented by policy action on the part of government.
For the unprecedented sixth time, the government of India has once again extended the deadline to impose higher import duties on 29 US products including almond, walnut and pulses, till April 1, 2019.
As the discussions are going on between India and the US for a proposed trade package, the Commerce Ministry had asked its finance counterpart to again defer the implementation of a notification to impose high duties on US products. A notification said that implementation of increased customs duty on specified imports originating in USA has been postponed from March 2, 2019 to April 1, 2019.
The government has issued the Banning of Unregulated Deposit Schemes Ordinance, 2019 to prevent chit fund scams and protect small investors.
Two days after the Union Cabinet approved its promulgation, the ordinance, which prevents any individual or group of individuals from taking any deposit or loan from any person other than relatives, got President Ram Nath Kovind's assent. The ordinance will help put a check on illicit deposit taking activities that dupe poor and the financially illiterate of their hard earned savings.
Doing away with the traditional way of filing complaints manually, the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) has launched an online module to facilitate filing and tracking of quality complaints and trade disputes related to international trade.
The online facility has been made effective from February 11, 2019. DGFT said the initiative aims to resolve complaints or trade disputes relating to international trade and to create confidence in the business environment of India. It said a mechanism to address such issues has been provided in the Foreign Trade Policy.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has clarified that the eligibility for restructuring without GST-registration should be determined on the basis of exemption limit obtaining as on the date of the its circular, i.e., January 1, 2019.
In a notification to Non-Banking Financial Companies (NBFCs) and banks, RBI said, “One of the conditions for restructuring of existing loan of MSMEs without a downgrade in the asset classification is as under: the borrowing entity is GST-registered on the date of implementation of the restructuring. However, this condition will not apply to MSMEs that are exempt from GST-registration” (c.f. para 1 (iii) of the above referred circular).”
Union Minister of Commerce & Industry and Civil Aviation, Suresh Prabhu launched Swayatt, an initiative to promote MSMEs, women and young entrepreneurs through e-transactions on the Government e-Marketplace (GeM).
The aim is to bring together the key stakeholders within the Indian entrepreneurial ecosystem to GeM, the national procurement portal. On this occasion, Commerce Minister also dedicated GeM Start-up Runway-an initiative of GeM in association with Start -up India to facilitate Start-ups registered with Start -up India to access the public procurement market and sell innovative products and services to government buyers.
The Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) decided to pull up the big companies which fail to make payments to their micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) suppliers within 45 days. According to the new norms, the directors of the companies delaying payment to MSEs can face imprisonment up to six months or be slapped with a fine between Rs 25,000 to Rs 3 lakh. MCA has asked the companies to file a report in a particular format and also mandatorily cite reasons for the delay.
With this, the Ministry of MSME’s November 2 notification for the big companies to file half yearly return has got teeth now.
The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has issued instructions liberalizing import norms for prototype, sample products and test & measurement equipment in license exempt bands without the need of ‘Equipment Type Approval (ETA)’.
The devices with radio-interfaces include laptops, notebooks, smart accessories, short range devices, Cameras, Scanners, Printers and mobile handsets. In addition, the DoT also has enabled ETA through self-certification in its step forward for commercial / finished product imports under the above categories, simplifying regulatory regime while ensuring compliance as well as reducing transaction costs.
Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) has come up with a new Rule 25A under the Companies (Incorporation) Rules, 2014 under which a new e-form has been introduced called as Form INC-22A (ACTIVE).
The move aims to crackdown on the shell companies and mandate all forms to file details online. According to the notification passed by MCA, Rule 25A mandates every company incorporated on or before the 31st December, 2017 shall file the particulars of the company and its registered office, in e-form ACTIVE (INC-22A) (Active Company Tagging Identities and Verification) on or before December 31, 2019.
Eyeing to accelerate the adoption and use of Government e Marketplace (GeM), a training program on procedure of Seller Registration at GeM is being organized for MSMEs in the region.
The programme is being organized by the Directorate of MSME, Government of West Bengal in association with Federation of small and medium industries (FOSMI) The training program is scheduled for March 6, 2019 at t the Conference Hall, Shilpa Sadan, 3rd Floor, 4 No. Abanindranath Tagore Sarani (Camac Street), Kolkata.
The Tripura government presented a tax -free and zero-deficit budget of Rs 17,530.46 crore for the fiscal year 2019-20 along with several new schemes.
While tabling the budget, the state government announced a hike in social pensions and other schemes, including, subsidised sugar and formation of more self-help groups in the budget 2019-20.
Deputy Chief Minister Jishnu Dev Varma, while presenting the state budget for the fiscal 2019-20, said as many as 2,110 self-help groups will be formed and livelihood opportunities will be created for 52,030 families.
With an aim to accelerate financial inclusion of MSMEs in Telangana, the state government collaborated with GlobalLinker and launched a digital networking platform called ‘Telangana State GlobalLinker’.
The platform, besides offering a host of benefits to MSME members such as digitisation, an e-commerce store and access to business efficiency tools would enable Telangana’s MSMEs to connect to a global community of small and large businesses. In a statement, Principal Secretary, Industries & Commerce Department, Jayesh Ranjan said “Digitisation is going to be one of the game changers for MSME businesses as it helps them cater to customers beyond local boundaries, allows their profit to grow twice as fast and substantially increases their contribution to GDP.”
Potraying Karnataka as a land of opportunities with assured returns on investments, the state Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy invited ASEAN businesses to invest in the southern state in a big way.
He was speaking at the inauguration of the three-day ASEAN Chambers of Commerce & Industry Business Meet 2019 at Vidhana Soudha here.
He said "Karnataka has immense potential which is still unmapped and unexplored. Hence, this summit will help explore this potential for the development of the country as a whole which in turn will contribute to the making of 'New India' that has emerged as the world's leading investment destination."
To strengthen the bilateral ties between India and Republic of Korea, the India-Korea Startup Hub and Startup Grand Challenge was recently launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Ministry of Commerce & Industry today said in a release that the Hub is hosted on the Startup India digital platform, the world’s largest virtual incubator with over 300,000 registered startups and aspiring entrepreneurs. The Hub will enable access to resources for market entry and innovation exchange between India and the world.
India Korea Business Symposium was hosted by Invest India and Korean Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) in Seoul on February 21, 2019.
The Symposium was organized to felicitate the Korean business community on their success in India and to present more opportunities for Korean business in India, the release said.
PM Modi, addressed the business gathering on the way ahead to further strengthen bilateral ties between India and the Republic of Korea.
Indian traders will export raw sugar to Iran for March and April delivery, five trade sources said, the first Indian sugar sales to Tehran in at least five years as Iran struggles to secure food supplies under sanctions imposed by the United States.
Under the sanctions, Iran is blocked from the global financial system, including using U.S. dollars to transact its oil sales. Iran agreed to sell oil to India in exchange for rupees but it can only use those rupees to buy Indian goods, mainly items it cannot produce domestically.
Trading houses have contracted to export 150,000 tonnes of raw sugar for shipments arriving in March and April at $305 to $310 per tonne on a free-on-board basis, the trade sources told Reuters this week.
"Oil payments have piled up in UCO Bank. Iran is keen to utilize the payments to buy sugar and other food items," said one of the sources, a Mumbai-based dealer with a global agricultural trading firm, who asked not to be identified as he was not authorized to speak to media.
Urging for a paradigm shift in Indo-US trade and investment relations, Joint Secretary, Department of Commerce, Santosh Kumar Sarangi said that availability of labour in India and capital and technology in the US are the areas of potential collaboration between the two countries.
He said this during a panel discussion organized by Consumer Unity and Trust Society (CUTS) International, a leading non-profit organization, on “Advancing United States and India Relations- Mission USD 500 Billion Bilateral Trade” at India International Centre, here.
RBI cut the repo rate by 25 basis points to 6.25%. Do you think that the cost of borrowing finally come down for MSMEs?
RBI cut the repo rate by 25 basis points to 6.25%. According to FISME factor 100 percent of MSMEs think that the cost of borrowing will not come down for MSMEs.
Leaders have to sometimes drive intentional drastic change for the growth of their organisations or lead people in times of inevitable unavoidable change that stares them in their faces. How they take their people through it can range from inspiring and motivating them or on the other end, create fear and chaos.
A ‘Fundless’ ways to start a new SME India business
Starting a business with zero capital is unheard of. But for most aspiring entrepreneurs, getting hold of the much-needed capital is usually the biggest challenge.
4 Sales Trends That Will Reshape the Selling Process in 2019
It is the beginning of the year and it is the best time to take a minute to reflect on what we achieved last year, and what we want to set for 2019. Here are the top four sales trends that are set to shape and influence your sales efforts in 2019.
Tirupur Exporters’ Association demands IGST relief for two more years
The Tirupur Exporters’ Association (TEA) has sent a representation to the Union Commerce Minister Suresh Prabhu for extending IGST exemption for import of capital goods under EPCG scheme and inputs under Advance Authorisation scheme beyond March 31, 2019.
How Cosmos Green is working towards a greener environment by recycling metal scrap
Recycling is getting a much-needed boost today. While we have all heard about reusing and recycling paper and plastic, most of us don’t know that we can recycle metal as well. Recycling helps in cost reduction, efficient management of limited resources, and reduced landfill.
Farm Life: Why Gitanjali Rajamani quit everything to go back to farming
After working at Tata Consultancy Services for almost seven years, one day Gitanjali quit. It wasn’t that she was bored of her job. However, she got jaded with the rat race. She wanted to follow her passion, she wanted to farm.
The Central Statistics Office (CSO), Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation has released the Second Advance Estimates of National Income at Constant (2011-12) and Current Prices for the financial year 2018-19.
“
No success or achievement in material terms is worthwhile unless it serves the needs or interests of the country and its people and is achieved by fair and honest means.
”
– J.R.D. Tata- French-born Indian aviator, entrepreneur, chairman of Tata Group
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:
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One of the tasks undertaken by the present NDA Government has been to halt proliferation of black-money in economy. Demonetisation, legislation on benami property, linking PAN with Aadhaar number and various curbs on use of cash all have been steps in the direction. While the jury is out as to what extent the circulation of black money in economy has been reduced, no one doubts the intention of the Government and also the need to take on the persisting menace. However, in the zeal to stifle black money sometimes the genuine business transactions are also being hit. The scope of the recent ordinance for ‘Banning unregulated deposit scheme’ is so comprehensive that they seem to cover even the normal business unsecured loans. To tide over the sudden requirement of money, it is a normal in practice among MSMEs to borrow money from friends and business associates. Though, a clarification has since been issued by Ministry of Finance, can a ‘clarification’ supersede provisions of an Ordinance, remain open question.
"
The EU Commissioner for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs, Mrs Elżbieta Bieńkowska inaugurated the 'Business Support to the EU-India Policy Dialogues’ Project in presence of Mr. Amitabh Kant, CEO NITI Aayog in New Delhi. The project is to be implemented by EBTC a body set up with collaboration of EU Chambers and Indian industry partner organizations such as FISME. While enabling access to European best practices and technologies, it will also facilitate joint development of green technologies and solutions through effective business collaborations. Secretary General FISME Anil Bhardwaj welcomed the delegates and called upon greater cooperation between SME bodies of EU and Indian SME bodies.
India has been drastically experiencing the rise of the entrepreneurship with the augmented skilled and passionate people residing in the country. Entrepreneurship is the development or the conversion of an idea into realism which includes strategizing, designing, initiation and running a new business model. Entrepreneurs are persons who conceive this notion of introducing a new business with their creative and innovative ideations.
For the unprecedented sixth time, the government of India has once again extended the deadline to impose higher import duties on 29 US products including almond, walnut and pulses, till April 1, 2019.
As the discussions are going on between India and the US for a proposed trade package, the Commerce Ministry had asked its finance counterpart to again defer the implementation of a notification to impose high duties on US products. A notification said that implementation of increased customs duty on specified imports originating in USA has been postponed from March 2, 2019 to April 1, 2019.
The government has issued the Banning of Unregulated Deposit Schemes Ordinance, 2019 to prevent chit fund scams and protect small investors.
Two days after the Union Cabinet approved its promulgation, the ordinance, which prevents any individual or group of individuals from taking any deposit or loan from any person other than relatives, got President Ram Nath Kovind's assent. The ordinance will help put a check on illicit deposit taking activities that dupe poor and the financially illiterate of their hard earned savings.
Doing away with the traditional way of filing complaints manually, the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) has launched an online module to facilitate filing and tracking of quality complaints and trade disputes related to international trade.
The online facility has been made effective from February 11, 2019. DGFT said the initiative aims to resolve complaints or trade disputes relating to international trade and to create confidence in the business environment of India. It said a mechanism to address such issues has been provided in the Foreign Trade Policy.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has clarified that the eligibility for restructuring without GST-registration should be determined on the basis of exemption limit obtaining as on the date of the its circular, i.e., January 1, 2019.
In a notification to Non-Banking Financial Companies (NBFCs) and banks, RBI said, “One of the conditions for restructuring of existing loan of MSMEs without a downgrade in the asset classification is as under: the borrowing entity is GST-registered on the date of implementation of the restructuring. However, this condition will not apply to MSMEs that are exempt from GST-registration” (c.f. para 1 (iii) of the above referred circular).”
Union Minister of Commerce & Industry and Civil Aviation, Suresh Prabhu launched Swayatt, an initiative to promote MSMEs, women and young entrepreneurs through e-transactions on the Government e-Marketplace (GeM).
The aim is to bring together the key stakeholders within the Indian entrepreneurial ecosystem to GeM, the national procurement portal. On this occasion, Commerce Minister also dedicated GeM Start-up Runway-an initiative of GeM in association with Start -up India to facilitate Start-ups registered with Start -up India to access the public procurement market and sell innovative products and services to government buyers.
The Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) decided to pull up the big companies which fail to make payments to their micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) suppliers within 45 days. According to the new norms, the directors of the companies delaying payment to MSEs can face imprisonment up to six months or be slapped with a fine between Rs 25,000 to Rs 3 lakh. MCA has asked the companies to file a report in a particular format and also mandatorily cite reasons for the delay.
With this, the Ministry of MSME’s November 2 notification for the big companies to file half yearly return has got teeth now.
The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has issued instructions liberalizing import norms for prototype, sample products and test & measurement equipment in license exempt bands without the need of ‘Equipment Type Approval (ETA)’.
The devices with radio-interfaces include laptops, notebooks, smart accessories, short range devices, Cameras, Scanners, Printers and mobile handsets. In addition, the DoT also has enabled ETA through self-certification in its step forward for commercial / finished product imports under the above categories, simplifying regulatory regime while ensuring compliance as well as reducing transaction costs.
Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) has come up with a new Rule 25A under the Companies (Incorporation) Rules, 2014 under which a new e-form has been introduced called as Form INC-22A (ACTIVE).
The move aims to crackdown on the shell companies and mandate all forms to file details online. According to the notification passed by MCA, Rule 25A mandates every company incorporated on or before the 31st December, 2017 shall file the particulars of the company and its registered office, in e-form ACTIVE (INC-22A) (Active Company Tagging Identities and Verification) on or before December 31, 2019.
Eyeing to accelerate the adoption and use of Government e Marketplace (GeM), a training program on procedure of Seller Registration at GeM is being organized for MSMEs in the region.
The programme is being organized by the Directorate of MSME, Government of West Bengal in association with Federation of small and medium industries (FOSMI) The training program is scheduled for March 6, 2019 at t the Conference Hall, Shilpa Sadan, 3rd Floor, 4 No. Abanindranath Tagore Sarani (Camac Street), Kolkata.
The Tripura government presented a tax -free and zero-deficit budget of Rs 17,530.46 crore for the fiscal year 2019-20 along with several new schemes.
While tabling the budget, the state government announced a hike in social pensions and other schemes, including, subsidised sugar and formation of more self-help groups in the budget 2019-20.
Deputy Chief Minister Jishnu Dev Varma, while presenting the state budget for the fiscal 2019-20, said as many as 2,110 self-help groups will be formed and livelihood opportunities will be created for 52,030 families.
With an aim to accelerate financial inclusion of MSMEs in Telangana, the state government collaborated with GlobalLinker and launched a digital networking platform called ‘Telangana State GlobalLinker’.
The platform, besides offering a host of benefits to MSME members such as digitisation, an e-commerce store and access to business efficiency tools would enable Telangana’s MSMEs to connect to a global community of small and large businesses. In a statement, Principal Secretary, Industries & Commerce Department, Jayesh Ranjan said “Digitisation is going to be one of the game changers for MSME businesses as it helps them cater to customers beyond local boundaries, allows their profit to grow twice as fast and substantially increases their contribution to GDP.”
Potraying Karnataka as a land of opportunities with assured returns on investments, the state Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy invited ASEAN businesses to invest in the southern state in a big way.
He was speaking at the inauguration of the three-day ASEAN Chambers of Commerce & Industry Business Meet 2019 at Vidhana Soudha here.
He said "Karnataka has immense potential which is still unmapped and unexplored. Hence, this summit will help explore this potential for the development of the country as a whole which in turn will contribute to the making of 'New India' that has emerged as the world's leading investment destination."
To strengthen the bilateral ties between India and Republic of Korea, the India-Korea Startup Hub and Startup Grand Challenge was recently launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Ministry of Commerce & Industry today said in a release that the Hub is hosted on the Startup India digital platform, the world’s largest virtual incubator with over 300,000 registered startups and aspiring entrepreneurs. The Hub will enable access to resources for market entry and innovation exchange between India and the world.
India Korea Business Symposium was hosted by Invest India and Korean Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) in Seoul on February 21, 2019.
The Symposium was organized to felicitate the Korean business community on their success in India and to present more opportunities for Korean business in India, the release said.
PM Modi, addressed the business gathering on the way ahead to further strengthen bilateral ties between India and the Republic of Korea.
Indian traders will export raw sugar to Iran for March and April delivery, five trade sources said, the first Indian sugar sales to Tehran in at least five years as Iran struggles to secure food supplies under sanctions imposed by the United States.
Under the sanctions, Iran is blocked from the global financial system, including using U.S. dollars to transact its oil sales. Iran agreed to sell oil to India in exchange for rupees but it can only use those rupees to buy Indian goods, mainly items it cannot produce domestically.
Trading houses have contracted to export 150,000 tonnes of raw sugar for shipments arriving in March and April at $305 to $310 per tonne on a free-on-board basis, the trade sources told Reuters this week.
"Oil payments have piled up in UCO Bank. Iran is keen to utilize the payments to buy sugar and other food items," said one of the sources, a Mumbai-based dealer with a global agricultural trading firm, who asked not to be identified as he was not authorized to speak to media.
Urging for a paradigm shift in Indo-US trade and investment relations, Joint Secretary, Department of Commerce, Santosh Kumar Sarangi said that availability of labour in India and capital and technology in the US are the areas of potential collaboration between the two countries.
He said this during a panel discussion organized by Consumer Unity and Trust Society (CUTS) International, a leading non-profit organization, on “Advancing United States and India Relations- Mission USD 500 Billion Bilateral Trade” at India International Centre, here.
RBI cut the repo rate by 25 basis points to 6.25%. According to FISME factor 100 percent of MSMEs think that the cost of borrowing will not come down for MSMEs. 
Leaders have to sometimes drive intentional drastic change for the growth of their organisations or lead people in times of inevitable unavoidable change that stares them in their faces. How they take their people through it can range from inspiring and motivating them or on the other end, create fear and chaos.
Starting a business with zero capital is unheard of. But for most aspiring entrepreneurs, getting hold of the much-needed capital is usually the biggest challenge.
It is the beginning of the year and it is the best time to take a minute to reflect on what we achieved last year, and what we want to set for 2019. Here are the top four sales trends that are set to shape and influence your sales efforts in 2019.
The Tirupur Exporters’ Association (TEA) has sent a representation to the Union Commerce Minister Suresh Prabhu for extending IGST exemption for import of capital goods under EPCG scheme and inputs under Advance Authorisation scheme beyond March 31, 2019.
Recycling is getting a much-needed boost today. While we have all heard about reusing and recycling paper and plastic, most of us don’t know that we can recycle metal as well. Recycling helps in cost reduction, efficient management of limited resources, and reduced landfill.
1551245444254.png?fm=png&auto=format)
After working at Tata Consultancy Services for almost seven years, one day Gitanjali quit. It wasn’t that she was bored of her job. However, she got jaded with the rat race. She wanted to follow her passion, she wanted to farm.
“
No success or achievement in material terms is worthwhile unless it serves the needs or interests of the country and its people and is achieved by fair and honest means.
”
