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President's Message
A second largest country in terms of population, third largest economy in PPP terms, a thriving democracy with rule of law and on top of it the fastest growing economy in the world, should be attracting FDI and investments in droves. It does but not even one tenth of the measure of its potential. Why? Beyond the optics of nice policies, foreign companies still find doing business in India quite challenging. The size of Indian market attracts them and they certainly want to do business. But they want to avoid and delay setting up a base for manufacturing. It has huge repercussions for the country. MNCs lead global value chains and their presence here means opportunities for MSMEs to plug in their global network. All East Asian nations especially China leveraged them to the hilt. While Government is doing what it takes, at FISME we have also decided to contribute in the direction positively. We shall be working with foreign companies/ MNCs and identify specific operational and policy obstacles they face. Being part of official Trade Facilitation set up in India, we shall leverage our presence and help foreign companies in ironing out their difficulties. We have a vested interest to do that.
"
To review the existing framework and guide and formulate the roadmap for a coherent policy on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) had constituted a ‘High Level Committee on Corporate Social Responsibility– 2018 (HLC-2018) under Chairmanship of Secretary, Corporate Affairs. FISME has been invited recently to depose before the committee to share MSME perspective and Secretary General FISME Mr. Anil Bhardwaj raised three issues. Firstly, FISME requested to enhance the threshold of CSR from companies having profit of Rs. 5 Crore to Rs. 25 crore to reduce burden from Medium Enterprises. Secondly, it requested to allow contribution made to MSME associations towards discharge of their CSR liability, keeping in view that MSME associations are largely engaged in assisting creation and sustenance of entrepreneurship at ground and that most of them are capital/ resource starved. Thirdly, on similar ground, facility could be extended to civil society organizations engaged in improving local governance also.
When you set your business goals, are they realistic ones? Are you thinking to set benchmarks that you can actually reach without any drastic measures? The thing is, each entrepreneur should not only set goals but go for some good ones.
While dreaming to double revenues and rapid expansion looks great on paper, they're quite unrealistic. Instead of setting far-fetched objectives, try to set more reasonable goals around what you'd like to achieve in your business.
It’s long been axiomatic that economic growth and energy demand are linked. As economies grow, energy demand increases; if energy is constrained, GDP growth pulls back in turn. That’s been the case since the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, if not long before. But past is not always prologue.… That’s not because the world will be less ‘energy hungry’. People will continue to use energy in their daily lives, and happily, in the decades ahead, more people will have access to more modern appliances and on-the-grid housing.
Industrial Development Bank of India (IDBI) has created Iran Trade cells in five Indian cities to facilitate business transactions for Indian exporters dealing with Iran.
According to a press release, IDBI bank has created trade cells in Mumbai, Kolkata, Delhi, Indore and Ahmedabad and is committed to offer good services and best pricing to Indian exporters. IDBI bank, which had received nod to handle import-export transactions with Iran early March, has now commenced operations by creating Iran trade cells in 5 Indian cities where it has designated trade finance officers to facilitate business transactions for Indian exporters dealing with Iran.
The Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) has laid down the procedure for import of certain varieties of pulses for the fiscal year 2019-2020.
In a notification, Commerce Ministry’s arm DGFT said “Procedure for import of 2 lakh tonne pigeon peas/toor dal, 1.5 lakh tonne urad dal, 1.5 lakh tonne moong dal and 1.5 lakh tonne peas (including yellow peas, green peas, dun peas, and kaspa peas) is laid down.”
According to DGFT, millers and refiners of these pulses need a license for imports.
The Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) has amended the proforme of End Use Certificates (EUCs) for grant of permission for export of items under SCOMET Control List.
In a notification, DGFT said “Amendment in proforme of EUCs will capture technical details of product, specific end use and complete contact details of the end user, thereby facilitating expeditious end use / end user verification by the Government agencies and grant of export authorization for SCOMET items.”
The Central Board of Indirect Taxes & Customs (CBIC) has released new business functionalities in GST IT Ecosystem focusing on various GST applications filled by the taxpayers.
As per new functionalities in CBIC-GST application, tax officers can block/unblock ITC credit in Credit ledger at GST portal; tax officers can see annual return GSTR-9/GSTR-9A return filed on GST portal; tax officers can see annual return GSTR-9/GSTR-9A return filed on GST portal; tax officer can see GSTR-2X return, claiming TDS/TCS credit, on GST portal and can see ITC-01 and ITC-03 returns filed by new registrants for ITC credit on inputs held in stock or semi-finished or finished goods.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi promised traders Rs 50 lakh loan without any collateral, credit card facility and a pension scheme for small shopkeepers as he made a strong re-election pitch to the business community.
He said this while addressing a Traders National Convention held at Talkatora Stadium here and also lauded the yeomen services rendered by business community in development of economy and the nation.
While the government is in overdrive to weed out ‘fictitious companies’, those who genuinely want to update their registered offices term the process nightmarish and seek a simplified scheme to effect change.
Verification of the registered issue has become a hot issue after notification of the Companies (Incorporation) Amendment Rules, 2019 on 21st Feb, 2019 which require ‘every company incorporated on or before 31st December, 2017 to file E-form INC – 22 A to verify their registered office’.
The e-commerce player, Flipkart, has announced the launch of its datacenter in Hyderabad and investment in Telangana to strengthen its technology infrastructure in order to bring in more sellers and Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) to the platform.
Inaugurated by Principal Secretary IT and Commerce, Jayesh Ranjan along with Flipkart Group’s Chief Corporate Affairs Officer Rajneesh Kumar, this is the Flipkart’s second datacenter in the country and the first in the state of Telangana.
Trade finance firm Drip Capital apprised the SME exporters in Delhi about the alternative working capital solutions like invoice factoring process.
They had organized a seminar on ‘Interactive sessions on Export Factoring: Easy access to unsecured finance for SME Exporters’, in association with Federation of Indian Export Organizations (FIEO).
According to Drip Capital release “SMEs account for 40% of India’s total export volumes but are some of the most underserved when it comes to working capital provisions. With Demands for collateral, long processing times, heavy paperwork burden, and other such factors contribute towards making working capital highly inaccessible for SMEs. Institutions like factoring firms and NBFCs offer alternative financing solutions.”
Principal Secretary, Industries and Commerce Department of Jammu & Kashmir Navin Kumar Choudhary visited Toll Post at Lakhanpur and asked the officials of the excise department to renovate the building and hand it over to J&K Trade Promotion Organization for exhibiting state specific products to tourists.
He visited industrial estate, Bhagthali and Ghatti of Kathua and monitored the road networks, water supply, drainage system and allied common facilities at Ghatti industrial estate.
Government of Telangana has invited applications for the third edition of the industry awards to recognize the exceptional achievements of businesses both large and small within the state.
This prestigious award is part of Telangana State's commitment to provide Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) the opportunity to be recognized for their achievements. From excellence in innovation, financial performance and best practices in CSR, the awards recognize achievements made by businesses, both large and small, within the State.
The Chandigarh Consumer Commission recently ordered Bata India Ltd to pay Rs 9,000 fine for charging Rs 3 from a customer for a paper bag to carry the shoebox.
The forum ordered that a customer cannot be compelled to pay for the bag, and that it was a clear deficiency in service. The consumer forum ruled that it was the store`s duty to provide a free bag to the customer who purchased their product. According to legal experts, the said order is legally valid across the country and stores cannot charge consumers additional charges for the bag if the product is purchased from the same store.
Trade Promotion Council of India (TPCI) has signed a partnership agreement with US Commercial Service, Embassy of the United States of America to jointly promote Indian investment in USA during their flagship global annual summit ‘SelectUSA 2019 Investment Summit’.
The Summit will be held from June 10-12, 2019, in Washington DC.
Speaking on the partnership, Chairman of TPCI, Mohit Singla said, “USA is one of our biggest trading partners. TPCI is all geared to work in alliance with the US Commercial Services, which is a great platform for the Indian business community to showcase their potential for exploration and growth.” The idea is to leverage each other complementarity for strengthening the mutual cooperation, he added.
He said that it is also an opportunity for the Indian business community to get absorbed into the US trade incentives and subsidies ecosystem which is customized/ tailor made as per the specific business need.
The SelectUSA Investment Summit is dedicated to promoting foreign direct investment (FDI) in the United States.
This signature event provides an unparalleled opportunity to bring together companies from all over the world, economic development organizations from every corner of the nation, and other parties working to facilitate business investment in the United States.
In a bid to create a pool of skilled manpower for manufacturing units in India, the Japanese Ambassador to India, Kenji Hiramastsu inaugurated the Japan-India Institute for Manufacturing (JIM), a residential skill training centre at Sri City in Andhra Pradesh.
This is the first advanced training facility to be setup in Andhra Pradesh and the very first one by multiple Japanese firms for training local youth. JIM was initiated in 2016 as a collaborative program following MoU between the governments of Japan and India to create a pool of skilled manpower for manufacturing units in India. This partnership aims at imparting training to 30,000 Indian youth in manufacturing and soft skills.
Speaking on the occasion, enji Hiramastsu said “Setting up of JIM would go a long way in fulfilling the trained personnel required for the Japanese firms and expressed confidence that students will make use of the training provided and transform themselves as skilled technicians in manufacturing.”
The Director of Kobelco Group, which is the lead company in managing JIM, briefed about the unique features of Sri City-JIM.
Has NDA government achieved the objective of creating 'ease of doing business' environment for MSMEs?
According to FISME Factor 50% of the MSMEs think that the NDA government has achieved the objective of creating 'ease of doing business' environment for MSMEs while 50% can’t say.
Customised learning is the key to unlocking your employees’ true potential
It’s a known fact that the quality of the talent pool separates the great organisations from the good. The pace of change is palpable and businesses across the globe are striving to transform themselves in order to stay relevant and profitable in this digital age.
Financial practices every SME owner should adopt at the beginning of the new fiscal year
Whether it's a listed company or a startup, running a business on your own, while bringing its own set of excitement, can also be quite exhausting, especially handling the finances and tax compliances.
5 Smart Ways to Use Social Media to Grow Your Business in 2019
According to Statistica, the number of worldwide users on social media is projected to hit a whopping 3.02 billion active users per month by 2021. That's one-third of the world’s entire population! So, it’s obvious that social media, more and more, is engaging the majority of the world's citizenry.
Along with reopening of closed tannery units in state, leather MSME units want ease of doing business
Uttar Pradesh have still not got the permission of state authorities to start their units again in the region. Once booming, the leather industry in state is now facing serious survival issues as thousands of labourers involved in the leather sector lost their livelihood due to Kumbh.
Mumbai-based Fluid Robotics uses robots to manage and maintain urban water infrastructure
In India, the current urban water distribution and wastewater treatment network inefficient, with 40-50 percent of water lost in distribution due to leaks and illegal taps (Non-Revenue Water).
How this Gurugram startup is helping police, Indian army catch bad guys using AI
Violence cost India a staggering $1.19 trillion in 2017 in terms of constant purchasing power parity (PPP) according to a report released by the Institute for Economics and Peace last year.
The Central Statistics Office (CSO), Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation has been bringing out the employment related statistics in the formal sector covering the period September 2017 onwards.
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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A second largest country in terms of population, third largest economy in PPP terms, a thriving democracy with rule of law and on top of it the fastest growing economy in the world, should be attracting FDI and investments in droves. It does but not even one tenth of the measure of its potential. Why? Beyond the optics of nice policies, foreign companies still find doing business in India quite challenging. The size of Indian market attracts them and they certainly want to do business. But they want to avoid and delay setting up a base for manufacturing. It has huge repercussions for the country. MNCs lead global value chains and their presence here means opportunities for MSMEs to plug in their global network. All East Asian nations especially China leveraged them to the hilt. While Government is doing what it takes, at FISME we have also decided to contribute in the direction positively. We shall be working with foreign companies/ MNCs and identify specific operational and policy obstacles they face. Being part of official Trade Facilitation set up in India, we shall leverage our presence and help foreign companies in ironing out their difficulties. We have a vested interest to do that.
"
When you set your business goals, are they realistic ones? Are you thinking to set benchmarks that you can actually reach without any drastic measures? The thing is, each entrepreneur should not only set goals but go for some good ones.
While dreaming to double revenues and rapid expansion looks great on paper, they're quite unrealistic. Instead of setting far-fetched objectives, try to set more reasonable goals around what you'd like to achieve in your business.
Industrial Development Bank of India (IDBI) has created Iran Trade cells in five Indian cities to facilitate business transactions for Indian exporters dealing with Iran.
According to a press release, IDBI bank has created trade cells in Mumbai, Kolkata, Delhi, Indore and Ahmedabad and is committed to offer good services and best pricing to Indian exporters. IDBI bank, which had received nod to handle import-export transactions with Iran early March, has now commenced operations by creating Iran trade cells in 5 Indian cities where it has designated trade finance officers to facilitate business transactions for Indian exporters dealing with Iran.
The Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) has laid down the procedure for import of certain varieties of pulses for the fiscal year 2019-2020.
In a notification, Commerce Ministry’s arm DGFT said “Procedure for import of 2 lakh tonne pigeon peas/toor dal, 1.5 lakh tonne urad dal, 1.5 lakh tonne moong dal and 1.5 lakh tonne peas (including yellow peas, green peas, dun peas, and kaspa peas) is laid down.”
According to DGFT, millers and refiners of these pulses need a license for imports.
The Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) has amended the proforme of End Use Certificates (EUCs) for grant of permission for export of items under SCOMET Control List.
In a notification, DGFT said “Amendment in proforme of EUCs will capture technical details of product, specific end use and complete contact details of the end user, thereby facilitating expeditious end use / end user verification by the Government agencies and grant of export authorization for SCOMET items.”
The Central Board of Indirect Taxes & Customs (CBIC) has released new business functionalities in GST IT Ecosystem focusing on various GST applications filled by the taxpayers.
As per new functionalities in CBIC-GST application, tax officers can block/unblock ITC credit in Credit ledger at GST portal; tax officers can see annual return GSTR-9/GSTR-9A return filed on GST portal; tax officers can see annual return GSTR-9/GSTR-9A return filed on GST portal; tax officer can see GSTR-2X return, claiming TDS/TCS credit, on GST portal and can see ITC-01 and ITC-03 returns filed by new registrants for ITC credit on inputs held in stock or semi-finished or finished goods.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi promised traders Rs 50 lakh loan without any collateral, credit card facility and a pension scheme for small shopkeepers as he made a strong re-election pitch to the business community.
He said this while addressing a Traders National Convention held at Talkatora Stadium here and also lauded the yeomen services rendered by business community in development of economy and the nation.
While the government is in overdrive to weed out ‘fictitious companies’, those who genuinely want to update their registered offices term the process nightmarish and seek a simplified scheme to effect change.
Verification of the registered issue has become a hot issue after notification of the Companies (Incorporation) Amendment Rules, 2019 on 21st Feb, 2019 which require ‘every company incorporated on or before 31st December, 2017 to file E-form INC – 22 A to verify their registered office’.
The e-commerce player, Flipkart, has announced the launch of its datacenter in Hyderabad and investment in Telangana to strengthen its technology infrastructure in order to bring in more sellers and Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) to the platform.
Inaugurated by Principal Secretary IT and Commerce, Jayesh Ranjan along with Flipkart Group’s Chief Corporate Affairs Officer Rajneesh Kumar, this is the Flipkart’s second datacenter in the country and the first in the state of Telangana.
Trade finance firm Drip Capital apprised the SME exporters in Delhi about the alternative working capital solutions like invoice factoring process.
They had organized a seminar on ‘Interactive sessions on Export Factoring: Easy access to unsecured finance for SME Exporters’, in association with Federation of Indian Export Organizations (FIEO).
According to Drip Capital release “SMEs account for 40% of India’s total export volumes but are some of the most underserved when it comes to working capital provisions. With Demands for collateral, long processing times, heavy paperwork burden, and other such factors contribute towards making working capital highly inaccessible for SMEs. Institutions like factoring firms and NBFCs offer alternative financing solutions.”
Principal Secretary, Industries and Commerce Department of Jammu & Kashmir Navin Kumar Choudhary visited Toll Post at Lakhanpur and asked the officials of the excise department to renovate the building and hand it over to J&K Trade Promotion Organization for exhibiting state specific products to tourists.
He visited industrial estate, Bhagthali and Ghatti of Kathua and monitored the road networks, water supply, drainage system and allied common facilities at Ghatti industrial estate.
Government of Telangana has invited applications for the third edition of the industry awards to recognize the exceptional achievements of businesses both large and small within the state.
This prestigious award is part of Telangana State's commitment to provide Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) the opportunity to be recognized for their achievements. From excellence in innovation, financial performance and best practices in CSR, the awards recognize achievements made by businesses, both large and small, within the State.
The Chandigarh Consumer Commission recently ordered Bata India Ltd to pay Rs 9,000 fine for charging Rs 3 from a customer for a paper bag to carry the shoebox.
The forum ordered that a customer cannot be compelled to pay for the bag, and that it was a clear deficiency in service. The consumer forum ruled that it was the store`s duty to provide a free bag to the customer who purchased their product. According to legal experts, the said order is legally valid across the country and stores cannot charge consumers additional charges for the bag if the product is purchased from the same store.
Trade Promotion Council of India (TPCI) has signed a partnership agreement with US Commercial Service, Embassy of the United States of America to jointly promote Indian investment in USA during their flagship global annual summit ‘SelectUSA 2019 Investment Summit’.
The Summit will be held from June 10-12, 2019, in Washington DC.
Speaking on the partnership, Chairman of TPCI, Mohit Singla said, “USA is one of our biggest trading partners. TPCI is all geared to work in alliance with the US Commercial Services, which is a great platform for the Indian business community to showcase their potential for exploration and growth.” The idea is to leverage each other complementarity for strengthening the mutual cooperation, he added.
He said that it is also an opportunity for the Indian business community to get absorbed into the US trade incentives and subsidies ecosystem which is customized/ tailor made as per the specific business need.
The SelectUSA Investment Summit is dedicated to promoting foreign direct investment (FDI) in the United States.
This signature event provides an unparalleled opportunity to bring together companies from all over the world, economic development organizations from every corner of the nation, and other parties working to facilitate business investment in the United States.
In a bid to create a pool of skilled manpower for manufacturing units in India, the Japanese Ambassador to India, Kenji Hiramastsu inaugurated the Japan-India Institute for Manufacturing (JIM), a residential skill training centre at Sri City in Andhra Pradesh.
This is the first advanced training facility to be setup in Andhra Pradesh and the very first one by multiple Japanese firms for training local youth. JIM was initiated in 2016 as a collaborative program following MoU between the governments of Japan and India to create a pool of skilled manpower for manufacturing units in India. This partnership aims at imparting training to 30,000 Indian youth in manufacturing and soft skills.
Speaking on the occasion, enji Hiramastsu said “Setting up of JIM would go a long way in fulfilling the trained personnel required for the Japanese firms and expressed confidence that students will make use of the training provided and transform themselves as skilled technicians in manufacturing.”
The Director of Kobelco Group, which is the lead company in managing JIM, briefed about the unique features of Sri City-JIM.
According to FISME Factor 50% of the MSMEs think that the NDA government has achieved the objective of creating 'ease of doing business' environment for MSMEs while 50% can’t say.
It’s a known fact that the quality of the talent pool separates the great organisations from the good. The pace of change is palpable and businesses across the globe are striving to transform themselves in order to stay relevant and profitable in this digital age.
Whether it's a listed company or a startup, running a business on your own, while bringing its own set of excitement, can also be quite exhausting, especially handling the finances and tax compliances.
According to Statistica, the number of worldwide users on social media is projected to hit a whopping 3.02 billion active users per month by 2021. That's one-third of the world’s entire population! So, it’s obvious that social media, more and more, is engaging the majority of the world's citizenry.
Uttar Pradesh have still not got the permission of state authorities to start their units again in the region. Once booming, the leather industry in state is now facing serious survival issues as thousands of labourers involved in the leather sector lost their livelihood due to Kumbh.
In India, the current urban water distribution and wastewater treatment network inefficient, with 40-50 percent of water lost in distribution due to leaks and illegal taps (Non-Revenue Water).
Violence cost India a staggering $1.19 trillion in 2017 in terms of constant purchasing power parity (PPP) according to a report released by the Institute for Economics and Peace last year.
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Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up."
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