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President Message
Public Procurement is a very important subject especially for MSMEs. That is why FISME has identified it as one of the three issues under focus. I was invited to speak on the issue recently in a seminar organized by Central Public Sector Undertakings (CPSUs) and FICCI in Ahmedabad. I highlighted many difficulties that MSMEs face, in spite of 25% set-aside for MSEs in PP, at all levels of procurement starting from pre-tendering, tendering to post tendering. There are high participation which act as a barrier such as Ernest money, Bank Guarantees etc. Then there are bigger barriers in the form of hard to comply pre-qualification criteria such as very high turnover requirement, brand specification, in house testing requirement etc. MSMEs are also seldom given advantage of purchase preference policy. But post tendering difficulties are no less: Payments are routinely delayed. MSMEs are compelled to file cases in Facilitation Councils where even if the they get the Order in their favour, their Orders are seldom executed. The exclusion of Medium enterprises from Public Procurement Policy for MSMEs also needs review. At least in cases where there are MSE bidder, Medium could be allowed to covered under the MSME policy. But it is the dispute resolution that needs greatest attention. Arbitration has become a lengthy and costly process than legal process. After having lost at Arbitration Departments file cases in higher courts which take decades to resolve. Therefore, below a threshold if the Department appointed Arbitrator has given a verdict Department must not challenge it. Similarly, below a threshold, the departments should not go to higher court unnecessarily. The Finance Minister has also suggested the same in eth Budget 2022-23. We intend to pursue these suggestions to improve public procurement.
"
When you begin a new venture, some pitfalls are expected — from a technology learning curve to the challenge of cracking the profitable customer acquisition code. However, it's often the obstacles you least expected that will sneak up and wreak havoc at your most vulnerable moments. As an entrepreneur who's experienced all of the below firsthand (sometimes with staggering consequences), I'd urge you to heed my warnings and prepare to face the unexpected, starting with these five harsh realities that may infiltrate your business at a moment's notice.
Whether it is the CAD, capital flows, inflation, credit offtake or growth, the outlook isn’t all that great The Indian economy is in facing some unprecedented challenges. A protracted war in Europe has introduced new strains even before the impact of Covid-19 has fully waned. Together, these two significantly weaken the backbone of the world economy, impacting both the advanced and emerging markets....
The merchandise export in May 2022 marked at USD 38.94 billion compared to USD 32.30 Billion in May 2021.The service export were USD 23.28 Billion, exhibiting a positive growth of 30.32 per cent vis-a-vis May 2021 (USD 17.86 Billion).
The overall exports combining Merchandise and Services estimated to be USD 62.21 billion in May 2022, exhibiting a jump of 24 per cent over the same period last year, said the Ministry of Commerce and Industry.
India’s Industrial growth, as per the Index of Industrial Production (IIP), accelerated by 7.1 per cent in April as against 1.9 per cent in March 2022.
According to the data released on Friday by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme, the growth in IIP data is led by all the sectors. At 7.1 per cent, the April industrial growth rate is the highest in eight months, although it has been aided by a favourable base effect. The sharp rise in IIP growth comes after data released last month showed India's eight core sectors grew 8.4 percent in April, up from 4.9 percent in March.
Addressing the Ground Breaking Ceremony @3.0 of the UP Investors Summit at Lucknow on Friday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said India is the fastest growing of the G20 economies and is at number two in the Global Retail Index.
During the Ground Breaking Ceremony, he laid the foundation stone of 1406 projects worth more than Rs 80,000 crores. The projects encompass diverse sectors like Agriculture and Allied, IT and Electronics, MSME, Manufacturing, Renewable Energy, Pharma, Tourism, Defence & Aerospace, Handloom & Textiles etc.
In an effort to ensure equal representation of women in the startup ecosystem, Google has launched the 'Startups India Accelerator — Indian women founder'.
The tech giant said on Tuesday that the Accelerator is an attempt to correct the balance of how only 15 per cent of Indian unicorns have one or more women founders. "As Indian startups look to reinvent more sectors of the economy through technology, equal representation of women at the helm of this wave is critical to ensure that the promised changes are universally relevant and helpful," Google said.
MSMEs are facing a challenge to move towards a low carbon transition given the dearth of roadmaps to help them decarbonize, said Ruchika Drall, Deputy Secretary, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change.
She was speaking at the roundtable conference organised by the energy and resources institute on tuesday. The theme of the conference was “Financing Low Carbon Transitions for India's MSME Sector.” “The financial needs of this sector need innovation, such as using incentive-based finance and digital means of finance” , drall added.
The industrial sector in India has increased 5.5 million employment in the last two months, as per the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE).
While agriculture sector saw a fall in employment by 5.2 million and services added 6.7 million. “Net employment, therefore, increased this time by a relatively modest 1 million,” MD and CEO Mahesh Vyas of CMIE said. “Industry and services harness labour more productively than agriculture and therefore there is reason to cheer this recent transition,” he added.
According to the data released by the Ministry of Commerce, the tyre exports from India witness a jump of 50 per cent. The exports reached an all-time high of Rs 21,178 crore in FY 2021-22.
As compared to FY21, it has increased from Rs 14,101 crore and Rs 12,844 crore as against FY20. Currently, Indian manufactured tyres are being exported to over 170 countries including markets in North America and Europe. The top 5 export markets for Indian manufactured tyres in FY22 were US (19 per cent), Germany (7 per cent), Brazil (6 per cent), UK and France (4 per cent each).
Traditionally the largest exported tyre categories from India are the farm/ agri and industrial tyres but the recent trends have shown an increase in the truck & bus radial (TBR) tyre.
The Tamil Nadu government on Wednesday launched Valar 4.0, a website featuring information technology (IT) and service providers for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME).
It is developed by the Tamil Nadu e-Governance Agency on behalf of the Department of Information Technology and Digital Services. T.M. Anbarasan, MSME Ministera and Mano Thankaraj, Minister of Information Technology formally launched the website today. Its aim is to enhance the capabilities of MSMEs in Tamil Nadu, increase productivity, use state-of-the-art technology, exchange ideas, address issues and challenges and achieve the target of USD 1 trillion economy.
For the development of MSME ecosystem in the state, the Punjab government has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) on Monday.
The pact has been signed for a period of three years to launch an umbrella programme ‘Mission Swavalamban’. Under this programme, SIDBI will set-up a project management unit (PMU) to work closely to facilitate the development of the MSME network in the state.
The new Rajasthan MSME policy proposes additional incentives of 15 per cent and 1 per cent interest subsidy for MSMEs having Zero defect, zero effect (ZED) certificate.
The policy received the green signal from the industries department and is currently waiting for a clearance from the finance division.
With the aim to achieve global competitiveness and development of MSMEs, specific industrial areas and clusters, skill development centres park development through PPP or private players have been included in the policy
To build a vibrant startup ecosystem in goa and across the country, Startup India has partnered with Goa Institute of Management’s incubator, the Atal Incubation Centre (AIC), to fund early stage startups.
A sum of Rs 5 crore will be disbursed to about 16 certified startups. AIC-GIM will disburse up to Rs 20 lakh as a one-time grant or as much as Rs 50 lakh through debt instruments to each startup. The incubator chief executive officer Rajesh Joshi said that “while aside from the Rs 5 crore that Startup India has allocated as seed funding, an additional Rs 3.2 crore is on offer through the ministry of electronics and information technology’s MeitY SAMRIDH scheme.”
Perfume traders from Uttar Pradesh’s Kannauj district discussed trade opportunities with importers of Egypt at a virtual buyer-seller meet.
The meet was jointly organised by the department of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) and export promotion of the state government and the Indian Embassy in Egypt. Speaking at the event, Navneet Sehgal, Additional Chief Secretary, MSME apprised participants of the ODOP products, including “attar” (perfume) of Kannauj.
In a bid to increase exports of produce from Uttar Pradesh to Japan, the state government organised a virtual conference with the Embassy of India in Japan on Tuesday.
The meeting was attended by Sanjay Verma Ambassador of India to Japan; Navneet Sehgal, Additional Chief Secretary, MSME, C Rajasekhar, OSD (State), Ministry of External Affairs and Arvind Kumar, Infrastructure and Industrial Development Commissioner. The discussion focused on how greater quantity of handicrafts, food, electronics, apparel, carpet, leather and ODOP products could be exported to Japan.
Despite global challenges, Indian exports rose by 24 per cent to USD 38.19 billion in April 2022. Do you think that the growth will continue in upcoming months?
Indian exports rose by 24 per cent to USD 38.19 billion in April 2022. According to the FISME factor, 100% of MSMEs think that the growth of Indian exports will continue in upcoming months.
Reskilling & upskilling will help employees navigate the new normal
The COVID-19 pandemic has had lasting implications on the future of work. The way most organisations used to operate has changed dramatically as more employees are now working remotely. One big change that most organisations have seen and will adopt in the future is the hybrid work model; which is a combination of remote work and office collaboration with a particular focus on wellness and employee experience.
Tips For Building And Growing Your Finance Team Effectively
Digitalism and evolving consumer behavior have dramatically changed the finance department's contribution toward business growth and transformation.
Once primarily viewed as the company coffers' stewards, their role's scope and complexity have broadened.
If you've yet to read 2020's, The Connector Effect by Dr. Ivan Misner, Graham Weihmiller and Robert Skrob (or the current podcast it spawned), below is a crash course on all that these networking gurus preach when it comes to corralling the ideal customer.
Unending public procurement disputes dragging MSMEs: FISME
The National Statistical Office (NSO), Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) has released all India Consumer Price Index (CPI) on Base 2012=100 and corresponding Consumer Food Price Index (CFPI) for Rural (R), Urban (U) and Combined (C) for the month of May 2022 (Provisional).
This ex-techie-turned-social entrepreneur is on a mission to save a dying handloom village
Techie-turned-entrepreneur Anjali Chandran spent the last decade building her social enterprise Impresa, a Calicut-based venture that she is now proud to call “an ode to India’s traditional handloom sector.” Back in 2012, she did not fathom treading on this journey. She had just resigned from her job as a software engineer at Wipro and was looking forward to some quieter days of raising her daughter in her hometown of Thiruvangoor village in Kerala.
Bootstrapped EV logistics startup Howdyy is helping Amazon, Bigbasket switch to green deliveries
While working in the engineering division of a diesel sales supplier, Aashirwad Deshmukkh had to send engine spare parts from one place to another. He says, “I realised that the process of booking a logistics vendor, getting driver details, loading and unloading, procuring documents like e-way bill, proof of delivery, and invoicing was a tedious and cumbersome process.”
Since April, 2018 the National Statistical Office (NSO), Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) has been bringing out the employment related statistics in the formal sector covering the period September 2017 onwards, using information on the number of subscribers who have subscribed under three major schemes, namely the EPF, ESI and NPS.
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.
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Public Procurement is a very important subject especially for MSMEs. That is why FISME has identified it as one of the three issues under focus. I was invited to speak on the issue recently in a seminar organized by Central Public Sector Undertakings (CPSUs) and FICCI in Ahmedabad. I highlighted many difficulties that MSMEs face, in spite of 25% set-aside for MSEs in PP, at all levels of procurement starting from pre-tendering, tendering to post tendering. There are high participation which act as a barrier such as Ernest money, Bank Guarantees etc. Then there are bigger barriers in the form of hard to comply pre-qualification criteria such as very high turnover requirement, brand specification, in house testing requirement etc. MSMEs are also seldom given advantage of purchase preference policy. But post tendering difficulties are no less: Payments are routinely delayed. MSMEs are compelled to file cases in Facilitation Councils where even if the they get the Order in their favour, their Orders are seldom executed. The exclusion of Medium enterprises from Public Procurement Policy for MSMEs also needs review. At least in cases where there are MSE bidder, Medium could be allowed to covered under the MSME policy. But it is the dispute resolution that needs greatest attention. Arbitration has become a lengthy and costly process than legal process. After having lost at Arbitration Departments file cases in higher courts which take decades to resolve. Therefore, below a threshold if the Department appointed Arbitrator has given a verdict Department must not challenge it. Similarly, below a threshold, the departments should not go to higher court unnecessarily. The Finance Minister has also suggested the same in eth Budget 2022-23. We intend to pursue these suggestions to improve public procurement.
"
The merchandise export in May 2022 marked at USD 38.94 billion compared to USD 32.30 Billion in May 2021.The service export were USD 23.28 Billion, exhibiting a positive growth of 30.32 per cent vis-a-vis May 2021 (USD 17.86 Billion).
The overall exports combining Merchandise and Services estimated to be USD 62.21 billion in May 2022, exhibiting a jump of 24 per cent over the same period last year, said the Ministry of Commerce and Industry.
India’s Industrial growth, as per the Index of Industrial Production (IIP), accelerated by 7.1 per cent in April as against 1.9 per cent in March 2022.
According to the data released on Friday by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme, the growth in IIP data is led by all the sectors. At 7.1 per cent, the April industrial growth rate is the highest in eight months, although it has been aided by a favourable base effect. The sharp rise in IIP growth comes after data released last month showed India's eight core sectors grew 8.4 percent in April, up from 4.9 percent in March.
Addressing the Ground Breaking Ceremony @3.0 of the UP Investors Summit at Lucknow on Friday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said India is the fastest growing of the G20 economies and is at number two in the Global Retail Index.
During the Ground Breaking Ceremony, he laid the foundation stone of 1406 projects worth more than Rs 80,000 crores. The projects encompass diverse sectors like Agriculture and Allied, IT and Electronics, MSME, Manufacturing, Renewable Energy, Pharma, Tourism, Defence & Aerospace, Handloom & Textiles etc.
In an effort to ensure equal representation of women in the startup ecosystem, Google has launched the 'Startups India Accelerator — Indian women founder'.
The tech giant said on Tuesday that the Accelerator is an attempt to correct the balance of how only 15 per cent of Indian unicorns have one or more women founders. "As Indian startups look to reinvent more sectors of the economy through technology, equal representation of women at the helm of this wave is critical to ensure that the promised changes are universally relevant and helpful," Google said.
MSMEs are facing a challenge to move towards a low carbon transition given the dearth of roadmaps to help them decarbonize, said Ruchika Drall, Deputy Secretary, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change.
She was speaking at the roundtable conference organised by the energy and resources institute on tuesday. The theme of the conference was “Financing Low Carbon Transitions for India's MSME Sector.” “The financial needs of this sector need innovation, such as using incentive-based finance and digital means of finance” , drall added.
The industrial sector in India has increased 5.5 million employment in the last two months, as per the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE).
While agriculture sector saw a fall in employment by 5.2 million and services added 6.7 million. “Net employment, therefore, increased this time by a relatively modest 1 million,” MD and CEO Mahesh Vyas of CMIE said. “Industry and services harness labour more productively than agriculture and therefore there is reason to cheer this recent transition,” he added.
According to the data released by the Ministry of Commerce, the tyre exports from India witness a jump of 50 per cent. The exports reached an all-time high of Rs 21,178 crore in FY 2021-22.
As compared to FY21, it has increased from Rs 14,101 crore and Rs 12,844 crore as against FY20. Currently, Indian manufactured tyres are being exported to over 170 countries including markets in North America and Europe. The top 5 export markets for Indian manufactured tyres in FY22 were US (19 per cent), Germany (7 per cent), Brazil (6 per cent), UK and France (4 per cent each).
Traditionally the largest exported tyre categories from India are the farm/ agri and industrial tyres but the recent trends have shown an increase in the truck & bus radial (TBR) tyre.
The Tamil Nadu government on Wednesday launched Valar 4.0, a website featuring information technology (IT) and service providers for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME).
It is developed by the Tamil Nadu e-Governance Agency on behalf of the Department of Information Technology and Digital Services. T.M. Anbarasan, MSME Ministera and Mano Thankaraj, Minister of Information Technology formally launched the website today. Its aim is to enhance the capabilities of MSMEs in Tamil Nadu, increase productivity, use state-of-the-art technology, exchange ideas, address issues and challenges and achieve the target of USD 1 trillion economy.
For the development of MSME ecosystem in the state, the Punjab government has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) on Monday.
The pact has been signed for a period of three years to launch an umbrella programme ‘Mission Swavalamban’. Under this programme, SIDBI will set-up a project management unit (PMU) to work closely to facilitate the development of the MSME network in the state.
The new Rajasthan MSME policy proposes additional incentives of 15 per cent and 1 per cent interest subsidy for MSMEs having Zero defect, zero effect (ZED) certificate.
The policy received the green signal from the industries department and is currently waiting for a clearance from the finance division.
With the aim to achieve global competitiveness and development of MSMEs, specific industrial areas and clusters, skill development centres park development through PPP or private players have been included in the policy
To build a vibrant startup ecosystem in goa and across the country, Startup India has partnered with Goa Institute of Management’s incubator, the Atal Incubation Centre (AIC), to fund early stage startups.
A sum of Rs 5 crore will be disbursed to about 16 certified startups. AIC-GIM will disburse up to Rs 20 lakh as a one-time grant or as much as Rs 50 lakh through debt instruments to each startup. The incubator chief executive officer Rajesh Joshi said that “while aside from the Rs 5 crore that Startup India has allocated as seed funding, an additional Rs 3.2 crore is on offer through the ministry of electronics and information technology’s MeitY SAMRIDH scheme.”
Perfume traders from Uttar Pradesh’s Kannauj district discussed trade opportunities with importers of Egypt at a virtual buyer-seller meet.
The meet was jointly organised by the department of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) and export promotion of the state government and the Indian Embassy in Egypt. Speaking at the event, Navneet Sehgal, Additional Chief Secretary, MSME apprised participants of the ODOP products, including “attar” (perfume) of Kannauj.
In a bid to increase exports of produce from Uttar Pradesh to Japan, the state government organised a virtual conference with the Embassy of India in Japan on Tuesday.
The meeting was attended by Sanjay Verma Ambassador of India to Japan; Navneet Sehgal, Additional Chief Secretary, MSME, C Rajasekhar, OSD (State), Ministry of External Affairs and Arvind Kumar, Infrastructure and Industrial Development Commissioner. The discussion focused on how greater quantity of handicrafts, food, electronics, apparel, carpet, leather and ODOP products could be exported to Japan.
Indian exports rose by 24 per cent to USD 38.19 billion in April 2022. According to the FISME factor, 100% of MSMEs think that the growth of Indian exports will continue in upcoming months. 
The COVID-19 pandemic has had lasting implications on the future of work. The way most organisations used to operate has changed dramatically as more employees are now working remotely. One big change that most organisations have seen and will adopt in the future is the hybrid work model; which is a combination of remote work and office collaboration with a particular focus on wellness and employee experience.
Digitalism and evolving consumer behavior have dramatically changed the finance department's contribution toward business growth and transformation.
Once primarily viewed as the company coffers' stewards, their role's scope and complexity have broadened.
The National Statistical Office (NSO), Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) has released all India Consumer Price Index (CPI) on Base 2012=100 and corresponding Consumer Food Price Index (CFPI) for Rural (R), Urban (U) and Combined (C) for the month of May 2022 (Provisional).
Techie-turned-entrepreneur Anjali Chandran spent the last decade building her social enterprise Impresa, a Calicut-based venture that she is now proud to call “an ode to India’s traditional handloom sector.” Back in 2012, she did not fathom treading on this journey. She had just resigned from her job as a software engineer at Wipro and was looking forward to some quieter days of raising her daughter in her hometown of Thiruvangoor village in Kerala. 
While working in the engineering division of a diesel sales supplier, Aashirwad Deshmukkh had to send engine spare parts from one place to another. He says, “I realised that the process of booking a logistics vendor, getting driver details, loading and unloading, procuring documents like e-way bill, proof of delivery, and invoicing was a tedious and cumbersome process.”
“ When you work, work as if everything depends on you. When you pray, pray as if everything depends on God. ”
