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President's Message
" One of the biggest challenges confronting India has been providing alternative employment opportunities to almost 12 million people migrating from agriculture every year in search of alternative livelihood opportunities. Studies suggest that during last decade employment in the Corporate sector has actually shrunk primarily because of its emphasis on capital intensive manufacturing. Almost all job opportunities created were in the unorganized sector. Still, policies continue to provide fiscal incentives for more investment by the Corporate sector and nothing is offered to MSMEs who are actually creating jobs. A few weeks, on the behest of the Prime Minister’s Office, Prof. Bibek Debroy, Member NITI Aayog, had an exclusive meeting with FISME delegation to seek our suggestions about incentives that could be devised for augmenting employment in the MSME sector. It is heartening that many of these suggestions propounded by FISME have found traction and an announcement can be expected soon.
"
To facilitate closer economic and industrial cooperation with certain cities of China, leading MSME federation of India, FISME had organised a seminar and B2B meeting with a delegation from Cangzhou City of China, here on Monday.
“The focus of the workshop was to make entrepreneurs of India aware of the opportunities available in this lesser known industrial city of China, both as procurement as well as an investment destination,” an official release said.
The Cangzhou city is a major seaport of China. Abutting between Beijing and Tianjin, two major cities of China, the city is the home of mega clusters of petro -chemicals; steel tubes and pipes and casing and housings for computer and tele communication industry.
For the founder of Honest Tea, inspiration came at the grocery store. Dr. Barry Nalebuff, a professor at Yale School of Management, was just looking for a good glass of tea. While there were dozens of beverage options already in the marketplace, Nalebuff found water was boring, soda to be liquid candy, and diet drinks dangerous.
(Adapted from the Editorial Section, The Economic Times)
Quick estimates of the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) for October suggest buoyant growth after several years of rather lacklustre numbers. It remains to be seen whether the figures for the month mark a turnaround growth performance.
The fate of some of the important Bills is hanging in the Parliament as the Winter Session is witnessing frequent disruptions by the political parties.
PM Modi had on Thursday had said that repeated disruption of both houses of Parliament by Opposition was a “matter of sorrow” and that besides the GST Bill, many “pro-poor steps are stuck in Parliament”.
Meanwhile, Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Development (Amendment) Bill, 2015 is one of the 10 most important Bills pending in the Parliament.
The mid-year economic analysis for 2015-16, which is being prepared by Chief Economic Advisor Arvind Subramanian and his team, will be introduced in Parliament by finance minister Arun Jaitley on Friday.
In the analysis, the government is likely to sharply cut its earlier gross domestic product (GDP) growth forecast of 8.1-8.5 per cent to 7.3-7.77 per cent, owing to laggard growth numbers in the April-June quarter, sources told Business Standard.
GDP growth for April-June was a modest seven per cent, compared to the January-March quarter of 2014-15.
With little respite in sight from burgeoning steel imports, the Centre is planning to fix the minimum import price for various steel products. The Steel and Commerce Ministries are working in close coordination, and the decision is expected to be announced in a few days, said sources close to the development.
Steel prices have fallen sharply over the past few months and international steel companies are offering deep discount to capture Indian markets.
Safeguard duty
In June, the government introduced a safeguard duty of 20 per cent on HR (hot rolled) coil imports of 600 mm and above for a period of 200 days. However, there was little relief from the surging imports.
The Union Cabinet headed by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi has approved the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Bill, 2015,as reported by the Select Committee of Rajya Sabha. The Bill will now be taken up for consideration and passing by the Parliament.
The long awaited Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Bill is an initiative to protect the interest of consumers, promote fair play in real estate transactions and to ensure timely execution of projects.
In a latest release on inflation, the daily use food articles like Onion and Pulses became costlier, as an effect of this the inflation percent has risen to (-)1.99%.
This is the 13th month in a row when the wholesale inflation remained in the negative territory. It has been in the negative zone since November last year.
The Wholesale Price Index (WPI)-based inflation has been rising for three months in a row and was (-) 3.81 per cent in October.
The Food prices have increased up to 5.20 per cent in November, as against 2.44 per cent in October.
The focus of the government is now on enabling SME sector for supply of equipment, machineries and general consumables and adding SMEs in the supply chain of high technology products and services related to defense sector, said Union MSME Minister Kalraj Mishra.
The National Small Industries Corporation (NSIC Ltd) today organized its 4th edition of the) MSME DEFEXPO 2015, to create a vibrant defence-industrial base with the private industry as its focal point.
Department of Agriculture, Cooperation and Farmers Welfare (DAC&FW) has recognised that the equipments and machines for small and marginal farmers and provide subsidy on such agricultural equipments helps in increasing agriculture production and productivity, improving utilization efficiency of costlier inputs such as seeds, fertilizers and irrigation water, besides reducing human drudgery & cost of cultivation.
The scheme of Sub-Mission on Agricultural Mechanization has been launched by the Department w.e.f. 2014-15 with the objective of increasing the reach of farm mechanization to small and marginal farmers; Promoting ‘Custom Hiring Centres’, Creating hubs for hi-tech & high value farm equipments and creating awareness among farmers through demonstration and capacity building activities, an official release said.
The informal sector including, which comprises 88 per cent of the workers and the micro units, will soon come under the ambit of Pension Scheme.
The Chairman of Pension fund and regulatory and development authority chairman Hemant G Contractor said that the Government is working towards bringing the informal sector under the ambit of a pension scheme.
He was addressing the annual conference of FICCI on ‘Pensions sector in India: Growth opportunities and challenges’.
The MSME entrepreneurs, who are already reeling under the crisis of poor credit flow, high interest rates and third party ratings, now have a new reason to worry about. The Credit Information Bureau (India) Limited (CIBIL), which maintains the credit history of the borrowers for the financial institution, keeps sending varying and “incorrect” scores to the lenders hitting the businesses of the MSMEs badly.
A bad CIBIL score takes away the chance of easy access to finance by the entrepreneurs as it is considered as the creditworthiness by most of the public as well as private sector lenders.
The SME-led development of Germany is a unique and highly successful economic phenomenon that could serve as a model to promote trade and industry for emerging India, said a report by Institute for Small Enterprises and Development (ISED).
A recent study by the International Monetary Fund (IMF,2015) has summarised India's challenges on the export front, in relation to some critical areas. Structural transformation depends not only on how much countries export, but also on what they export and with whom they trade. But, what do the SMEs, who contribute the bulk of India's exports, perceive? This is a critical issue for which a satisfactory answer is still begging.
Andhra Pradesh Irrigation Minister D Umamaheswara Rao today said Rs 295 crore has been allocated for modernisation works of Yeleswaram irrigation project in the district.
The minister said at present there is 6.4 TMC water against its 24 TMC level in the dam out of which 3 TMC will be released into 32 acres of land which is under the project limits, while remaining water will be kept for steel plant and storage purpose.
The Bari Brahmana Industries Association (BBIA) has urged the state government to look into the issues face the local industries there which includes lack of marketing avenues; high cost of transportation; and negligence of the industrial sector for cross-border trade.
An Urgent Meeting of the Members of the Bari Brahmana Industries Association was held under to discuss the current scenario of Cross-LOC Trade.
The meeting was held under the Chairmanship of Lalit Mahajan, President, BBIA.
Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) has given 'in principle approval' for the project at Kinfra Defence Park at Ottapalam in the Palakkad district of Kerala.
The major activities as envisaged in proposed park as per Detailed Feasibility Report are creation of facilities like CETP, storm water drainage, rain water harvesting, internal roads, boundary wall entry gate, water supply system, power supply distribution, dormitory, hostel facility, research and development, incubation centre, quality certification centre, warehouse training centre and environment testing facility.
Rajasthan has become the first state to submit smart city plans for three selected cities.
With December 15 (tomorrow) being the last date for submission of smart city plans, at least 15 of 98 selected cities are set to miss the deadline.
Manjit Singh, Rajasthan's princial decretary (urban development), submitted smart city Proposals of Udaipur, Kota and Ajmer to Samir Sharma, additional secretary (urban development) on Monday morning. Madhusudhan Prasad, Secretary (urban development) complimented Rajasthan Government for being the first state to submit smart city proposals.
India and Japan inked a number of pacts in important areas like Defence, Nuclear energy and Railways. In the meeting it was decided that Japan would help to build India’s first bullet train network between Mumbai- Ahmedabad costing of around Rs. 98000 crores.
Prime minister of Japan Shinzo Abe is on three days visit to India met Prime minister Narendra Modi and held delegation level meetings at Hyderabad House in New Delhi.
Malaysia will help Andhra Pradesh government in design and implementation of various government projects.
Andhra Pradesh State Development Planning Society will enter into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Performance Management and Delivery Unit (Pemandu), a department of Malaysia government on December 15, according to a release.
The agreement is part of initiatives being taken up between Pemandu and NITI Aayog singed last month to facilitate collaboration between the Centre and Malaysia.
“Andhra Pradesh is the first state government to work with Pemandu to develop, implement and monitor government programmes and strategic developmental plans,” the release said.
The Union Cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi has given its approval for signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between India and Israel in the field of water resources management and development cooperation.
“The bilateral cooperation will benefit both the countries in strengthening the techniques in efficient use of water, micro-irrigation, recycling/re-use of waste water, desalination, aquifer recharge and in-situ water conservation techniques,” an official release said on Wednesday.
A Joint Working Group will be formed to monitor the activities to be carried out in fulfilment of the MoU.
Will government be able to get key bills passed in this Parliament session?
According to the FISME Factor, about 67 percent of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) think that govt. will be able to get key bills passed in this Parliament session while 22 percent do not agree.
In a globalized world where technology has brought everyone from across geographies closer, it is easier and makes much more sense to operate on a global scale. When I started Rategain, it was a conscious decision to make it a global brand. From day one I was clear that my company would be a global brand and it was not some random decision. For anyone looking to be a global brand and viewing the world as their market, the following can prove to be helpful.
Small businesses in India have a crucial role to play because of their potential contributions towards the improvement of income circulation, employment creation, poverty reduction and the export growth and development of entrepreneurship, industry and rural economy. This sector is a key driver of our country's industrial growth as it comprises about 36 million enterprises that generate over 6,000 products and employ more than 106 million workers. Yet according to government estimates, only 4 percent of 57.7 million small business units in India have access to institutional finance, leaving many to rely on informal lenders.
With exponential growth of technology, is traditional marketing dead?
Marketing as a principle to communicate the value of a product, service or brand to customers or consumers has been around from the very start of the civilization in one form or another.
As the environmental factors evolve and technologies advance at an exponential rate, the marketing paradigm has shifted to newer more customer and content centric approaches being delivered on the digital platform.
Government sets up mechanism to support startup businesses
A mechanism known as SETU to support all aspects of startup businesses and other self- employment activities has been set up by the government, Lok Sabha was informed today.
Union Minister for Skill Development Rajiv Pratap Rudy said the National Policy for Skill Development and Entrepreneurs envisaged fostering entrepreneurship and grassroots innovation by providing support in terms of fiscal incentives, creation of grass root technology innovation hubs, legal support and market linkages.
Aye Finance raises Rs 20 crore from Accion, SAIF Partners
Small business lender Aye Finance today said it has raised Rs 20 crore in follow-on investments from Accion and SAIF Partners.
These new investments will help the financial services startup provide India's micro and small enterprises (MSMEs) with expanded access to financing, Aye Finance said in a statement.
Through use of technology, credit assessments and a new 'Industry Cluster Enablement' (ICE) model of lending, Aye Finance helps India's MSMEs meet working capital and capex requirements as they look to grow their businesses, it added.
Raviteja Dodda and Yashwant Kumar co-founded DelightCircle, an app to help customers find discounts and other offers in stores near them. When the time came to scale up their business-to-consumer (B2C) venture, the duo realised high customer churn and uninstalls were a hindrance. They spoke to other app companies to see if they were doing things differently. They felt there was a gap in the market for a solution for app companies to retain and engage users.
The Central Statistics Office (CSO), Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, has released the Quick Estimates of Index of Industrial Production (IIP) with base 2004-05 for the month of September 2015
“There are a lot of things that go into creating success. I don’t like to do just the things I like to do. I like to do things that cause the company to succeed. I don’t spend a lot of time doing my favorite activities. ”
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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This Newsletter is edited by the FISME Secretariat. We welcome contributions as well as comments and suggestions. Please write to newsletter@fisme.org.in
" One of the biggest challenges confronting India has been providing alternative employment opportunities to almost 12 million people migrating from agriculture every year in search of alternative livelihood opportunities. Studies suggest that during last decade employment in the Corporate sector has actually shrunk primarily because of its emphasis on capital intensive manufacturing. Almost all job opportunities created were in the unorganized sector. Still, policies continue to provide fiscal incentives for more investment by the Corporate sector and nothing is offered to MSMEs who are actually creating jobs. A few weeks, on the behest of the Prime Minister’s Office, Prof. Bibek Debroy, Member NITI Aayog, had an exclusive meeting with FISME delegation to seek our suggestions about incentives that could be devised for augmenting employment in the MSME sector. It is heartening that many of these suggestions propounded by FISME have found traction and an announcement can be expected soon.
"
To facilitate closer economic and industrial cooperation with certain cities of China, leading MSME federation of India, FISME had organised a seminar and B2B meeting with a delegation from Cangzhou City of China, here on Monday.
“The focus of the workshop was to make entrepreneurs of India aware of the opportunities available in this lesser known industrial city of China, both as procurement as well as an investment destination,” an official release said.
The Cangzhou city is a major seaport of China. Abutting between Beijing and Tianjin, two major cities of China, the city is the home of mega clusters of petro -chemicals; steel tubes and pipes and casing and housings for computer and tele communication industry.
For the founder of Honest Tea, inspiration came at the grocery store. Dr. Barry Nalebuff, a professor at Yale School of Management, was just looking for a good glass of tea. While there were dozens of beverage options already in the marketplace, Nalebuff found water was boring, soda to be liquid candy, and diet drinks dangerous.
The fate of some of the important Bills is hanging in the Parliament as the Winter Session is witnessing frequent disruptions by the political parties.
PM Modi had on Thursday had said that repeated disruption of both houses of Parliament by Opposition was a “matter of sorrow” and that besides the GST Bill, many “pro-poor steps are stuck in Parliament”.
Meanwhile, Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Development (Amendment) Bill, 2015 is one of the 10 most important Bills pending in the Parliament.
The mid-year economic analysis for 2015-16, which is being prepared by Chief Economic Advisor Arvind Subramanian and his team, will be introduced in Parliament by finance minister Arun Jaitley on Friday.
In the analysis, the government is likely to sharply cut its earlier gross domestic product (GDP) growth forecast of 8.1-8.5 per cent to 7.3-7.77 per cent, owing to laggard growth numbers in the April-June quarter, sources told Business Standard.
GDP growth for April-June was a modest seven per cent, compared to the January-March quarter of 2014-15.
With little respite in sight from burgeoning steel imports, the Centre is planning to fix the minimum import price for various steel products. The Steel and Commerce Ministries are working in close coordination, and the decision is expected to be announced in a few days, said sources close to the development.
Steel prices have fallen sharply over the past few months and international steel companies are offering deep discount to capture Indian markets.
Safeguard duty
In June, the government introduced a safeguard duty of 20 per cent on HR (hot rolled) coil imports of 600 mm and above for a period of 200 days. However, there was little relief from the surging imports.
The Union Cabinet headed by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi has approved the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Bill, 2015,as reported by the Select Committee of Rajya Sabha. The Bill will now be taken up for consideration and passing by the Parliament.
The long awaited Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Bill is an initiative to protect the interest of consumers, promote fair play in real estate transactions and to ensure timely execution of projects.
In a latest release on inflation, the daily use food articles like Onion and Pulses became costlier, as an effect of this the inflation percent has risen to (-)1.99%.
This is the 13th month in a row when the wholesale inflation remained in the negative territory. It has been in the negative zone since November last year.
The Wholesale Price Index (WPI)-based inflation has been rising for three months in a row and was (-) 3.81 per cent in October.
The Food prices have increased up to 5.20 per cent in November, as against 2.44 per cent in October.
The focus of the government is now on enabling SME sector for supply of equipment, machineries and general consumables and adding SMEs in the supply chain of high technology products and services related to defense sector, said Union MSME Minister Kalraj Mishra.
The National Small Industries Corporation (NSIC Ltd) today organized its 4th edition of the) MSME DEFEXPO 2015, to create a vibrant defence-industrial base with the private industry as its focal point.
Department of Agriculture, Cooperation and Farmers Welfare (DAC&FW) has recognised that the equipments and machines for small and marginal farmers and provide subsidy on such agricultural equipments helps in increasing agriculture production and productivity, improving utilization efficiency of costlier inputs such as seeds, fertilizers and irrigation water, besides reducing human drudgery & cost of cultivation.
The scheme of Sub-Mission on Agricultural Mechanization has been launched by the Department w.e.f. 2014-15 with the objective of increasing the reach of farm mechanization to small and marginal farmers; Promoting ‘Custom Hiring Centres’, Creating hubs for hi-tech & high value farm equipments and creating awareness among farmers through demonstration and capacity building activities, an official release said.
The informal sector including, which comprises 88 per cent of the workers and the micro units, will soon come under the ambit of Pension Scheme.
The Chairman of Pension fund and regulatory and development authority chairman Hemant G Contractor said that the Government is working towards bringing the informal sector under the ambit of a pension scheme.
He was addressing the annual conference of FICCI on ‘Pensions sector in India: Growth opportunities and challenges’.
The MSME entrepreneurs, who are already reeling under the crisis of poor credit flow, high interest rates and third party ratings, now have a new reason to worry about. The Credit Information Bureau (India) Limited (CIBIL), which maintains the credit history of the borrowers for the financial institution, keeps sending varying and “incorrect” scores to the lenders hitting the businesses of the MSMEs badly.
A bad CIBIL score takes away the chance of easy access to finance by the entrepreneurs as it is considered as the creditworthiness by most of the public as well as private sector lenders.
The SME-led development of Germany is a unique and highly successful economic phenomenon that could serve as a model to promote trade and industry for emerging India, said a report by Institute for Small Enterprises and Development (ISED).
A recent study by the International Monetary Fund (IMF,2015) has summarised India's challenges on the export front, in relation to some critical areas. Structural transformation depends not only on how much countries export, but also on what they export and with whom they trade. But, what do the SMEs, who contribute the bulk of India's exports, perceive? This is a critical issue for which a satisfactory answer is still begging.
The Bari Brahmana Industries Association (BBIA) has urged the state government to look into the issues face the local industries there which includes lack of marketing avenues; high cost of transportation; and negligence of the industrial sector for cross-border trade.
An Urgent Meeting of the Members of the Bari Brahmana Industries Association was held under to discuss the current scenario of Cross-LOC Trade.
The meeting was held under the Chairmanship of Lalit Mahajan, President, BBIA.
Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) has given 'in principle approval' for the project at Kinfra Defence Park at Ottapalam in the Palakkad district of Kerala.
The major activities as envisaged in proposed park as per Detailed Feasibility Report are creation of facilities like CETP, storm water drainage, rain water harvesting, internal roads, boundary wall entry gate, water supply system, power supply distribution, dormitory, hostel facility, research and development, incubation centre, quality certification centre, warehouse training centre and environment testing facility.
Rajasthan has become the first state to submit smart city plans for three selected cities.
With December 15 (tomorrow) being the last date for submission of smart city plans, at least 15 of 98 selected cities are set to miss the deadline.
Manjit Singh, Rajasthan's princial decretary (urban development), submitted smart city Proposals of Udaipur, Kota and Ajmer to Samir Sharma, additional secretary (urban development) on Monday morning. Madhusudhan Prasad, Secretary (urban development) complimented Rajasthan Government for being the first state to submit smart city proposals.
India and Japan inked a number of pacts in important areas like Defence, Nuclear energy and Railways. In the meeting it was decided that Japan would help to build India’s first bullet train network between Mumbai- Ahmedabad costing of around Rs. 98000 crores.
Prime minister of Japan Shinzo Abe is on three days visit to India met Prime minister Narendra Modi and held delegation level meetings at Hyderabad House in New Delhi.
The Union Cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi has given its approval for signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between India and Israel in the field of water resources management and development cooperation.
“The bilateral cooperation will benefit both the countries in strengthening the techniques in efficient use of water, micro-irrigation, recycling/re-use of waste water, desalination, aquifer recharge and in-situ water conservation techniques,” an official release said on Wednesday.
A Joint Working Group will be formed to monitor the activities to be carried out in fulfilment of the MoU.
According to the FISME Factor, about 67 percent of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) think that govt. will be able to get key bills passed in this Parliament session while 22 percent do not agree.
In a globalized world where technology has brought everyone from across geographies closer, it is easier and makes much more sense to operate on a global scale. When I started Rategain, it was a conscious decision to make it a global brand. From day one I was clear that my company would be a global brand and it was not some random decision. For anyone looking to be a global brand and viewing the world as their market, the following can prove to be helpful.
Small businesses in India have a crucial role to play because of their potential contributions towards the improvement of income circulation, employment creation, poverty reduction and the export growth and development of entrepreneurship, industry and rural economy. This sector is a key driver of our country's industrial growth as it comprises about 36 million enterprises that generate over 6,000 products and employ more than 106 million workers. Yet according to government estimates, only 4 percent of 57.7 million small business units in India have access to institutional finance, leaving many to rely on informal lenders.
Marketing as a principle to communicate the value of a product, service or brand to customers or consumers has been around from the very start of the civilization in one form or another.
As the environmental factors evolve and technologies advance at an exponential rate, the marketing paradigm has shifted to newer more customer and content centric approaches being delivered on the digital platform.
A mechanism known as SETU to support all aspects of startup businesses and other self- employment activities has been set up by the government, Lok Sabha was informed today.
Union Minister for Skill Development Rajiv Pratap Rudy said the National Policy for Skill Development and Entrepreneurs envisaged fostering entrepreneurship and grassroots innovation by providing support in terms of fiscal incentives, creation of grass root technology innovation hubs, legal support and market linkages.
Small business lender Aye Finance today said it has raised Rs 20 crore in follow-on investments from Accion and SAIF Partners.
These new investments will help the financial services startup provide India's micro and small enterprises (MSMEs) with expanded access to financing, Aye Finance said in a statement.
Through use of technology, credit assessments and a new 'Industry Cluster Enablement' (ICE) model of lending, Aye Finance helps India's MSMEs meet working capital and capex requirements as they look to grow their businesses, it added.
Raviteja Dodda and Yashwant Kumar co-founded DelightCircle, an app to help customers find discounts and other offers in stores near them. When the time came to scale up their business-to-consumer (B2C) venture, the duo realised high customer churn and uninstalls were a hindrance. They spoke to other app companies to see if they were doing things differently. They felt there was a gap in the market for a solution for app companies to retain and engage users.
“There are a lot of things that go into creating success. I don’t like to do just the things I like to do. I like to do things that cause the company to succeed. I don’t spend a lot of time doing my favorite activities. ”
