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President's Message
"
Though 100 days is a short period for judging the performance of a government, the functioning of NDA-II government so far does give a sense of direction Prime Minister Modi intends the country to take. The momentum is clearly visible in decision making process. Steps taken towards dismantling of Planning Commission, drafting amendments in Labour Laws and also developing Revival and Exit mechanism for sick MSME highlight the intentions of the Government of the day to take on - even the so called controversial issues, head on. While the Government moves with speed, we hope that the power of participatory process would be fully harnessed for the outcomes to be credible and useful.
"
A Training of Secretariat staff of Business Membership Organizations (BMOs) was organised at Hotel GRT Grand, Chennai on 18th August 2014. The programme was organized by TANSTIA and supported by GIZ, SIDBI and Ministry of MSME.
From FISME, Tarun Rastogi, Joint Secretary-Operations had an interactive session with the staff of the secretariat on - Introduction to Knowledge and News Network (KNN), ways to participate in KNN and its benefits for BMOs. The participants were from BMOs from various districts of Tamilnadu.
The Intellectual Property Facilitation Centre (IPFC) of Federation of Indian Micro and Small & Medium Enterprises (FISME) with the support of the O/o Controller General of Patents, Designs & Trade Marks, Ministry of Commerce & India, Govt. of India organised a two day Awareness Programme on “Intellectual Property Rights” for Industry and Academia in the city of Kochi on 22nd and 23rd of August 2014. The programme was organised in association with Cochin Chamber of Commerce & Industry and Kerala Chamber of Commerce & Industry.
The inaugural session was graced by the leadership of premier Industry associations from the state of Kerala along with Mr. R. Devan, Dy. Controller of Patents & Designs, Intellectual Property Office (Chennai) who gave the theme address and enlightened the audience on the importance of adoption of IPRs for the success of modern business.
An entrepreneur learns by doing, creating, failing, and eventually succeeding. Great entrepreneurs are elite athletes in their chosen field of play. They don’t need CEOs, organizational charts, or superfluous titles to score. They need a good team and a solid coach to break through their own barriers/internal challenges and innovate.
The entrepreneurial life lessons from the legendary UCLA Basketball Coach John Wooden are without equal. Coach Wooden left us in 2010 at the age of 99 and yet he continues to live on through his simple yet profound insights. His record of accomplishment in the sporting arena was remarkable. Yet even more remarkable is how he lived his life off the court and the lessons he taught his players are as relevant today as they were 20 years ago.
The after-glow of Narendra Modi's election victory nearly four months ago is expected to have helped India's lumbering economy register its fastest growth in more than two years for the quarter ending in June.
India's new prime minister has promised to make it easier to do business through speedier clearances and stable tax policies, allowing investors in Asia's third-largest economy hope of a rosier future after years of low growth and high inflation.
Economic growth is forecast to have picked up to 5.3% between April and June, according to a Reuters poll of 40 economists, sharply higher than 4.6% in the previous quarter. The GDP data is due at 1200 GMT on Friday.
If the forecast proves correct, it would mark only the second quarter of above 5% growth since early 2012.
India’s exports will touch $350 billion this fiscal if the positive trend in global trade continues and domestic manufacturing stays upbeat, exporters body Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) has said.
Export parks
“The Government should set up export growth clusters and parks focussing on specific sectors and countries to accelerate exports,” FIEO chief Rafeeque Ahmed said at a press conference on Thursday.
Long-term export targets also need to be set to keep track of export performance over the years, FIEO stated, setting an annual export target of $750 billion for 2018-19.
India’s exports in 2013-14 were valued at $312 billion, just 3.97 per cent higher than the previous year, and way short of the $325 billion target.
The 27th conference of the state finance secretaries focussed on e-banking for Government business, creation of an Implementation Task Force to bring uniformity and standardisation in procedures/data structure of e-receipts/payments in respect of state government transactions and establishment of an IT enabled integrated treasury portal.
The 27th Conference of the State Finance Secretaries was held here yesterday. Chief Secretaries of 15 states and finance secretaries of 27 states and 9 Union Territories participated in the conference which was inaugurated by RBI Governor, Raghuram G Rajan.
The conference, among other things, discussed setting up of an Advisory Committee on revision of ways and means advances to the states; projecting of market borrowings of the State Governments for 2014-15; trends and issues in State finances, valuation of State Development Loans (SDLs), increasing spread for SDLs despite their sovereign character without any default history, investment of Consolidated Sinking Fund (CSF) and Guarantee redemption Fund (GRF) corpus and power sector reforms at the states.
The empowered committee of state finance ministers has recommended a threshold of Rs 10 lakh revenue for levy of Goods and Services Tax (GST), a move that bring millions of micro, small entrepreneurs in the tax net. Earlier, the threshold limit imposing GST on entities was proposed at Rs 25 lakh.
Implementation of GST will remove barriers to movement of goods and services across state boundaries and turning the country into a single market. GST will replace service tax, excise, state value-added tax and a number of other local levies.
"It was decided that Rs 10 lakh in respect of general category of states and Rs 5 lakh for special category and north-eastern states," Jammu and Kashmir finance minister Abdul Rahim Rather, who heads the empowered committee on GST, told reporters after a meeting of the panel yesterday.
Rating agency Moody's expects the GDP to grow at 5.1 per cent in the first quarter (April-June) of current fiscal, better than 4.7 per cent clocked a year ago.
"The Indian economy likely accelerated in the second quarter of 2014. We expect GDP growth of 5.1 per cent. Most parts of the economy are improving. Capital expenditure could surprise on the upside," Moody's Analytics said in a report.
The Indian economy grew by 4.7 per cent in the April-June quarter last year and the growth rate was also 4.7 per cent for full 2013-14. After a gap of several years, the Indian economy grew by sub-5 per cent in 2012-13 and 2013-14.
To simplify the process for registration of micro, small and medium enterprises, an online system will be launched soon, according to Union Minister of MSMEs, Kalraj Mishra.
The MSME Minister was speaking at the national workshop of small and medium enterprises organised by the Council of Small and Medium Manufacturing Industry (COSMI) here yesterday, said a Times of India report.
“It has been observed that MSME units face an uphill task in procuring multiple clearances for registering their units. We want to simplify the procedure by making it an online procedure. This will not only make the process transparent but will also save a lot of time,” Mishra was quoted as saying.
Steel consumption in the country grew at a slower pace during April-July 2014 at 0.6 per cent, but a 30 per cent growth in exports helped swing the demand-supply balance in favour of demand.
Domestic consumption during the first four months of the fiscal 2014-15 stood at 25.72 million tonnes as compared to 25.57 million tonnes in the same quarter last year, data from the Joint Plant Committee, a wing of the Ministry of Steel, showed. In India, over two-thirds of the total consumption of the metal is in the construction sector.
While domestic demand grew slowly, demand for the metal produced at Indian blast furnaces was supported by the growth in exports. During April-July 2014, exports grew nearly 30 per cent to 1.84 million tonne as compared to 1.42 million tonne.
Union Minister for MSME Kalraj Mishra today said the proposed new policy governing the industrial activity in the MSME sector would be “finalised in the next 3-4 months”.
Speaking at an MSME industry workshop here, he said the details of the new policy highlighted in the recent Budget speech, aimed at “redefining” the MSME sector activity, was being chalked out by a select committee formed with officials from the Reserve Bank of India, Ministry of Finance and the MSME ministry.
“The new MSME policy would primarily seek to redefine the sector in terms of annual turnover, capital employed and the labour engaged at the factory. It would also look into tweaking the RBI guidelines for treating non-performing assets (NPAs) in the MSME sector. We are examining the state-specific policies in place in various states to come out with an effective national MSME policy,” he added.
Karnataka Small Scale Industries Association (KASSIA) has submitted a memorandum to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah highlighting issues and challenges pertaining to land, policy, licenses, tax and power among others faced by the micro, small and medium enterprises in the region.
The memorandum was submitted by President KASSIA, C M Rajamane here yesterday.
As far as trade license is concerned, KASSIA has asked the state government to issue a government order at the earliest abolishing trade license to all industries, which has been a long pending demand of the MSMEs.
Highlighting the issue of land to micro and small industries, the industry body has said that basic infrastructure requirement for an industry is land with good roads, water and sanitation and uninterrupted power supply. However, “the cabinet decision to allot on 99 years lease basis has become a retrograde step particularly to the Small Scale Industries,” it said.
There is close to 90-95 central and state laws which need to be consolidated and amended to improve ease of doing business, said an industry body adding that it expects the Central Government to support the Rajasthan model of labour reforms across different states.
“The Rajasthan government has shown a rare political courage to bring in changes in the labour related laws that will benefit both the workforce and the entrepreneurs,” ASSOCHAM said on the eve of completion of NDA’s 100-days in government.
The industry body said that the next Budget (2015-16) should not be assessed on the financial numbers but the ‘Outcome Budget’ in terms of physical achievements and mooted 16 projects for implementation to the government.
With a view to giving major boost to the MSME sector in the state, the UP government has taken some important initiatives like giving approval to the public procurement policy and setting up a toll free number for entrepreneurs to register complaints regarding the same; and approving the electronic manufacturing policy under which three clusters would be set up to encourage manufacturing of electronic products.
The Uttar Pradesh Cabinet headed by state chief minister Akhilesh Yadav made several announcements yesterday.
The UP cabinet has approved the public procurement policy, launched by the Central Government on March 23, 2012, under which all the Central Ministry/Department/PSU shall set procurement goal of minimum 20 per cent of the total annual purchases of the products or services produced or rendered by MSEs.
Jharkhand would benefit enormously by yesterday’s Cabinet decision to increase royalty rates on minerals, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said today while inaugurating a transmission line between Ranchi-Dharmjaygarh-Sipat connecting the Eastern and Western parts of the country.
Yesterday, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, chaired by Modi, had approved the hike in royalty rates on 33 minerals including bauxite, iron ore, steel, aluminium etc.
Jharkhand is rich in vast variety of minerals ranging from Iron ore, Coal, Copper ore, Mica, Bauxite, Fire clay, Graphite, Kyanite, Sillimanite, Lime stone, Uranium and others.
The total value of mineral production is worth over Rs 3000 crores from the state.
India plans to seek China's support at the World Trade Organisation to press for a permanent solution to address concerns over food security among developing countries. Commerce and industry minister Nirmala Sitharaman is likely to discuss the matter with her Chinese counterpart during the bilateral meeting in the first week of September in Beijing.
"We are working with China and other Asian economies that are a part of G-33 to get a deal on food security," a government official told ET. "It is an issue that concerns developing countries which need to procure food grains for their population and subsidise poor farmers. Even China and Indonesia have these programmes," added the official, who did not wish to be identified.
India today said it has proposed three-way talks with Myanmar and Thailand on negotiations over a Transit Transport Agreement for the Trilateral Highway to boost connectivity and trade with the strategic region.
Addressing representatives of Think Tanks from ASEAN countries and the ASEAN-India Centre, Anil Wadhwa, secretary (East) in the Ministry of External Affairs, said the relationship with the ASEAN countries continues to be the foundation of India's Look East Policy.
"We see it as a strategic partnership with implications for the ASEAN India region, its integrated economic space and its 1.8 billion people. We also agree with our ASEAN friends on its relevance as an anchor of peace and stability in East Asia and the contribution that we can bring collectively to issues on the global agenda," he said.
India has amended its duty-free market access scheme for African nations to help boost trade between the two regions, industry body CII said today.
"In order to expand trade with Africa, India had recently amended its Duty Free Tariff Preference (DFTP) scheme to cover around 98 per cent of the tariff lines," CII said, quoting Commerce Secretary Rajeev Kher.
Under the scheme, import of most products from least developed nations to India attract lower duties.
The government is in the process of disseminating this information to all the nations.
The government is also considering expanding and augmenting the Lines of Credit extended to Africa, Kher said.
Kher was addressing the representatives of Regional Economic Communities in Africa late evening yesterday.
Despite the standoff over high commissioner Abdul Basit's meeting with Hurriyat leaders and ceasefire violations which threaten to get out of hand, Pakistan is pressing India to facilitate business events meant to promote trade and investment between the two countries.
Pakistan plans to host a lifestyle exhibition in Delhi in the second week of September and also a 'Made in Pakistan' trade show in Mumbai on August 31. Government sources here said political clearance has been given to these events in the form of an approval by MEA but the issue of visas will have to be dealt with by the home ministry.
Prime Minister Modi’s maiden I-day speech: Visionary
According to the FISME Factor, 50 percent of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) think that Prime Minister Modi’s maiden I-day speech was visionary, 29% rate it as good, 14% as disappointing and 2% as routine.
4 ways your company benefits from educating employees on personal branding
Some companies perceive the concept of creating a "Personal Brand at work" to be self-serving for the employee. But the reality is there is no downside to having team members with heightened self-awareness and a willingness to improve themselves. Basically, that is the foundation for developing a respected Personal Brand at work; to get clarity on who you are and who you aspire to be, make the necessary changes, and then conduct yourself accordingly.
What you need to know while raising funds for your start-up
After that one big idea, which is the raison d'etre of your start-up, there's another big concern that you need to tackle sooner or later. And that's finding the juice that will run your venture. In plain and simple terms, I am referring to the 'F' word -- funding.
I have been an angel investor for 15 years and, over the last few years, have worked with a large number of angels. I have screened over 3,000 business plans and attended countless guru sessions on start-ups.
Apart helping you keep your finger on the pulse of the start-up ecosystem, these sessions can be very entertaining, especially when they come packed with free advice. One of my greatest learnings is that there are too many 'formulae' for start-up success, and most of them are just nonsense.
Nirmalya Kumar, professor of marketing at London Business School, is one of the eight Indians in Thinkers50, a global listing of world's best business minds. In an interview with Alokesh Bhattacharyya and Anand J, he discusses new-age marketing mantras.
On the changing framework of marketing: When I started researching marketing, I found that marketing people rarely get on to boards of companies like CFOs, COO or CTO. The research for my first book on marketing and strategy asked this question. Marketing people, then, and even today, use a framework called the 4 Ps [product, price, promotion, placement].
Creating a Centre-state combined Goods and Services Tax (GST), as we now find from the nature of negotiations, will be like sowing the seeds of a perennial political potboiler. Negotiations have reached a cul-de -sac. It is not a question of delay any more.
If the Centre concedes everything that the increasingly demanding states insist upon, GST will be so fractured that it will neither achieve a common market nor simplicity, nor revenue buoyancy. It will be a cure worse than the disease. The same issues of fiscal autonomy, compensation of losses for losing Central Sales Tax (CST), bringing in petroleum, alcohol, octroi, etc under the purview of GST are being raised again and again.
Information technology (IT) and information technology enabled services (ITeS) small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Punjab and Chandigarh are claiming skilled manpower shortage.
The industry is of the view that in majority of the engineering institutions, the course curriculum is, by and large, theoretical with students having limited exposure to practical knowledge. This leads to a failure in meeting the needs of the industry.
The industry says big companies have infrastructure to train manpower according to their needs but SMEs can't afford to do that and are dependent on colleges.
Koramangala: The birthplace of new-age startups churns out social entreprenuers of the country
When green things get going, we are happy and the world around us also looks happy. One such green thing is Green Carpet, the Garden Center based out of Koramangala. Founded by Myna Batavia, a serial entrepreneur. “It had to be. Considering the demography of Koramangala, it is known to be the birthplace of startups. Koramangala suburb has the profile that pampers startups," emphasises Myna Batvia. "It is hotspot for new-age entrepreneurs. The elite profiling of the suburb provides a tremendous boost to businesses like ours."
How Shashank Paranjape built a Rs 1,500 crore construction company
I never wanted to be part of the family-owned business, but wished to do something on my own. In 1982, while I was studying chartered accountancy the opportunity came my way.
A friend managed to convince me that industrial chemicals were in great demand and I would do well if I started a manufacturing unit. The offer was too tempting as he was into the same business and offered to help me out with the technical knowhow. He also promised to buy the entire range of products. It could not get any better, I thought.
I dropped out of the CA course and took a loan of Rs 15 lakh from a public sector bank. My father stood as the guarantor. I purchased a small plot of 1,200 sq ft at Bhayander, a western suburb in Mumbai, for Rs 3 lakh.
" Be Impeccable With Your Word. Speak with integrity. Say only what you mean. Avoid using the word to speak against yourself or to gossip about others. Use the power of your word in the direction of truth and love. "
Buy our one-of-a-kind guide to all industrial testing laboratories in India. Find the one most convenient for getting your products tested and certified. An invaluable compendium for all industrial units and exporters.
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50% discount for members.
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
"
Though 100 days is a short period for judging the performance of a government, the functioning of NDA-II government so far does give a sense of direction Prime Minister Modi intends the country to take. The momentum is clearly visible in decision making process. Steps taken towards dismantling of Planning Commission, drafting amendments in Labour Laws and also developing Revival and Exit mechanism for sick MSME highlight the intentions of the Government of the day to take on - even the so called controversial issues, head on. While the Government moves with speed, we hope that the power of participatory process would be fully harnessed for the outcomes to be credible and useful.
"
A Training of Secretariat staff of Business Membership Organizations (BMOs) was organised at Hotel GRT Grand, Chennai on 18th August 2014. The programme was organized by TANSTIA and supported by GIZ, SIDBI and Ministry of MSME.
From FISME, Tarun Rastogi, Joint Secretary-Operations had an interactive session with the staff of the secretariat on - Introduction to Knowledge and News Network (KNN), ways to participate in KNN and its benefits for BMOs. The participants were from BMOs from various districts of Tamilnadu. 
The Intellectual Property Facilitation Centre (IPFC) of Federation of Indian Micro and Small & Medium Enterprises (FISME) with the support of the O/o Controller General of Patents, Designs & Trade Marks, Ministry of Commerce & India, Govt. of India organised a two day Awareness Programme on “Intellectual Property Rights” for Industry and Academia in the city of Kochi on 22nd and 23rd of August 2014. The programme was organised in association with Cochin Chamber of Commerce & Industry and Kerala Chamber of Commerce & Industry.
The inaugural session was graced by the leadership of premier Industry associations from the state of Kerala along with Mr. R. Devan, Dy. Controller of Patents & Designs, Intellectual Property Office (Chennai) who gave the theme address and enlightened the audience on the importance of adoption of IPRs for the success of modern business.
An entrepreneur learns by doing, creating, failing, and eventually succeeding. Great entrepreneurs are elite athletes in their chosen field of play. They don’t need CEOs, organizational charts, or superfluous titles to score. They need a good team and a solid coach to break through their own barriers/internal challenges and innovate.
The entrepreneurial life lessons from the legendary UCLA Basketball Coach John Wooden are without equal. Coach Wooden left us in 2010 at the age of 99 and yet he continues to live on through his simple yet profound insights. His record of accomplishment in the sporting arena was remarkable. Yet even more remarkable is how he lived his life off the court and the lessons he taught his players are as relevant today as they were 20 years ago.
The after-glow of Narendra Modi's election victory nearly four months ago is expected to have helped India's lumbering economy register its fastest growth in more than two years for the quarter ending in June.
India's new prime minister has promised to make it easier to do business through speedier clearances and stable tax policies, allowing investors in Asia's third-largest economy hope of a rosier future after years of low growth and high inflation.
Economic growth is forecast to have picked up to 5.3% between April and June, according to a Reuters poll of 40 economists, sharply higher than 4.6% in the previous quarter. The GDP data is due at 1200 GMT on Friday.
If the forecast proves correct, it would mark only the second quarter of above 5% growth since early 2012.
India’s exports will touch $350 billion this fiscal if the positive trend in global trade continues and domestic manufacturing stays upbeat, exporters body Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) has said.
Export parks
“The Government should set up export growth clusters and parks focussing on specific sectors and countries to accelerate exports,” FIEO chief Rafeeque Ahmed said at a press conference on Thursday.
Long-term export targets also need to be set to keep track of export performance over the years, FIEO stated, setting an annual export target of $750 billion for 2018-19.
India’s exports in 2013-14 were valued at $312 billion, just 3.97 per cent higher than the previous year, and way short of the $325 billion target.
The 27th conference of the state finance secretaries focussed on e-banking for Government business, creation of an Implementation Task Force to bring uniformity and standardisation in procedures/data structure of e-receipts/payments in respect of state government transactions and establishment of an IT enabled integrated treasury portal.
The 27th Conference of the State Finance Secretaries was held here yesterday. Chief Secretaries of 15 states and finance secretaries of 27 states and 9 Union Territories participated in the conference which was inaugurated by RBI Governor, Raghuram G Rajan.
The conference, among other things, discussed setting up of an Advisory Committee on revision of ways and means advances to the states; projecting of market borrowings of the State Governments for 2014-15; trends and issues in State finances, valuation of State Development Loans (SDLs), increasing spread for SDLs despite their sovereign character without any default history, investment of Consolidated Sinking Fund (CSF) and Guarantee redemption Fund (GRF) corpus and power sector reforms at the states.
The empowered committee of state finance ministers has recommended a threshold of Rs 10 lakh revenue for levy of Goods and Services Tax (GST), a move that bring millions of micro, small entrepreneurs in the tax net. Earlier, the threshold limit imposing GST on entities was proposed at Rs 25 lakh.
Implementation of GST will remove barriers to movement of goods and services across state boundaries and turning the country into a single market. GST will replace service tax, excise, state value-added tax and a number of other local levies.
"It was decided that Rs 10 lakh in respect of general category of states and Rs 5 lakh for special category and north-eastern states," Jammu and Kashmir finance minister Abdul Rahim Rather, who heads the empowered committee on GST, told reporters after a meeting of the panel yesterday.
Rating agency Moody's expects the GDP to grow at 5.1 per cent in the first quarter (April-June) of current fiscal, better than 4.7 per cent clocked a year ago.
"The Indian economy likely accelerated in the second quarter of 2014. We expect GDP growth of 5.1 per cent. Most parts of the economy are improving. Capital expenditure could surprise on the upside," Moody's Analytics said in a report.
The Indian economy grew by 4.7 per cent in the April-June quarter last year and the growth rate was also 4.7 per cent for full 2013-14. After a gap of several years, the Indian economy grew by sub-5 per cent in 2012-13 and 2013-14.
To simplify the process for registration of micro, small and medium enterprises, an online system will be launched soon, according to Union Minister of MSMEs, Kalraj Mishra.
The MSME Minister was speaking at the national workshop of small and medium enterprises organised by the Council of Small and Medium Manufacturing Industry (COSMI) here yesterday, said a Times of India report.
“It has been observed that MSME units face an uphill task in procuring multiple clearances for registering their units. We want to simplify the procedure by making it an online procedure. This will not only make the process transparent but will also save a lot of time,” Mishra was quoted as saying.
Steel consumption in the country grew at a slower pace during April-July 2014 at 0.6 per cent, but a 30 per cent growth in exports helped swing the demand-supply balance in favour of demand.
Domestic consumption during the first four months of the fiscal 2014-15 stood at 25.72 million tonnes as compared to 25.57 million tonnes in the same quarter last year, data from the Joint Plant Committee, a wing of the Ministry of Steel, showed. In India, over two-thirds of the total consumption of the metal is in the construction sector.
While domestic demand grew slowly, demand for the metal produced at Indian blast furnaces was supported by the growth in exports. During April-July 2014, exports grew nearly 30 per cent to 1.84 million tonne as compared to 1.42 million tonne.
Union Minister for MSME Kalraj Mishra today said the proposed new policy governing the industrial activity in the MSME sector would be “finalised in the next 3-4 months”.
Speaking at an MSME industry workshop here, he said the details of the new policy highlighted in the recent Budget speech, aimed at “redefining” the MSME sector activity, was being chalked out by a select committee formed with officials from the Reserve Bank of India, Ministry of Finance and the MSME ministry.
“The new MSME policy would primarily seek to redefine the sector in terms of annual turnover, capital employed and the labour engaged at the factory. It would also look into tweaking the RBI guidelines for treating non-performing assets (NPAs) in the MSME sector. We are examining the state-specific policies in place in various states to come out with an effective national MSME policy,” he added.
Karnataka Small Scale Industries Association (KASSIA) has submitted a memorandum to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah highlighting issues and challenges pertaining to land, policy, licenses, tax and power among others faced by the micro, small and medium enterprises in the region.
The memorandum was submitted by President KASSIA, C M Rajamane here yesterday.
As far as trade license is concerned, KASSIA has asked the state government to issue a government order at the earliest abolishing trade license to all industries, which has been a long pending demand of the MSMEs.
Highlighting the issue of land to micro and small industries, the industry body has said that basic infrastructure requirement for an industry is land with good roads, water and sanitation and uninterrupted power supply. However, “the cabinet decision to allot on 99 years lease basis has become a retrograde step particularly to the Small Scale Industries,” it said.
There is close to 90-95 central and state laws which need to be consolidated and amended to improve ease of doing business, said an industry body adding that it expects the Central Government to support the Rajasthan model of labour reforms across different states.
“The Rajasthan government has shown a rare political courage to bring in changes in the labour related laws that will benefit both the workforce and the entrepreneurs,” ASSOCHAM said on the eve of completion of NDA’s 100-days in government.
The industry body said that the next Budget (2015-16) should not be assessed on the financial numbers but the ‘Outcome Budget’ in terms of physical achievements and mooted 16 projects for implementation to the government.
With a view to giving major boost to the MSME sector in the state, the UP government has taken some important initiatives like giving approval to the public procurement policy and setting up a toll free number for entrepreneurs to register complaints regarding the same; and approving the electronic manufacturing policy under which three clusters would be set up to encourage manufacturing of electronic products.
The Uttar Pradesh Cabinet headed by state chief minister Akhilesh Yadav made several announcements yesterday.
The UP cabinet has approved the public procurement policy, launched by the Central Government on March 23, 2012, under which all the Central Ministry/Department/PSU shall set procurement goal of minimum 20 per cent of the total annual purchases of the products or services produced or rendered by MSEs.
Jharkhand would benefit enormously by yesterday’s Cabinet decision to increase royalty rates on minerals, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said today while inaugurating a transmission line between Ranchi-Dharmjaygarh-Sipat connecting the Eastern and Western parts of the country.
Yesterday, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, chaired by Modi, had approved the hike in royalty rates on 33 minerals including bauxite, iron ore, steel, aluminium etc.
Jharkhand is rich in vast variety of minerals ranging from Iron ore, Coal, Copper ore, Mica, Bauxite, Fire clay, Graphite, Kyanite, Sillimanite, Lime stone, Uranium and others.
The total value of mineral production is worth over Rs 3000 crores from the state.
India plans to seek China's support at the World Trade Organisation to press for a permanent solution to address concerns over food security among developing countries. Commerce and industry minister Nirmala Sitharaman is likely to discuss the matter with her Chinese counterpart during the bilateral meeting in the first week of September in Beijing.
"We are working with China and other Asian economies that are a part of G-33 to get a deal on food security," a government official told ET. "It is an issue that concerns developing countries which need to procure food grains for their population and subsidise poor farmers. Even China and Indonesia have these programmes," added the official, who did not wish to be identified.
India today said it has proposed three-way talks with Myanmar and Thailand on negotiations over a Transit Transport Agreement for the Trilateral Highway to boost connectivity and trade with the strategic region.
Addressing representatives of Think Tanks from ASEAN countries and the ASEAN-India Centre, Anil Wadhwa, secretary (East) in the Ministry of External Affairs, said the relationship with the ASEAN countries continues to be the foundation of India's Look East Policy.
"We see it as a strategic partnership with implications for the ASEAN India region, its integrated economic space and its 1.8 billion people. We also agree with our ASEAN friends on its relevance as an anchor of peace and stability in East Asia and the contribution that we can bring collectively to issues on the global agenda," he said.
India has amended its duty-free market access scheme for African nations to help boost trade between the two regions, industry body CII said today.
"In order to expand trade with Africa, India had recently amended its Duty Free Tariff Preference (DFTP) scheme to cover around 98 per cent of the tariff lines," CII said, quoting Commerce Secretary Rajeev Kher.
Under the scheme, import of most products from least developed nations to India attract lower duties.
The government is in the process of disseminating this information to all the nations.
The government is also considering expanding and augmenting the Lines of Credit extended to Africa, Kher said.
Kher was addressing the representatives of Regional Economic Communities in Africa late evening yesterday.
Despite the standoff over high commissioner Abdul Basit's meeting with Hurriyat leaders and ceasefire violations which threaten to get out of hand, Pakistan is pressing India to facilitate business events meant to promote trade and investment between the two countries.
Pakistan plans to host a lifestyle exhibition in Delhi in the second week of September and also a 'Made in Pakistan' trade show in Mumbai on August 31. Government sources here said political clearance has been given to these events in the form of an approval by MEA but the issue of visas will have to be dealt with by the home ministry.
According to the FISME Factor, 50 percent of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) think that Prime Minister Modi’s maiden I-day speech was visionary, 29% rate it as good, 14% as disappointing and 2% as routine.
Some companies perceive the concept of creating a "Personal Brand at work" to be self-serving for the employee. But the reality is there is no downside to having team members with heightened self-awareness and a willingness to improve themselves. Basically, that is the foundation for developing a respected Personal Brand at work; to get clarity on who you are and who you aspire to be, make the necessary changes, and then conduct yourself accordingly.
After that one big idea, which is the raison d'etre of your start-up, there's another big concern that you need to tackle sooner or later. And that's finding the juice that will run your venture. In plain and simple terms, I am referring to the 'F' word -- funding.
I have been an angel investor for 15 years and, over the last few years, have worked with a large number of angels. I have screened over 3,000 business plans and attended countless guru sessions on start-ups.
Apart helping you keep your finger on the pulse of the start-up ecosystem, these sessions can be very entertaining, especially when they come packed with free advice. One of my greatest learnings is that there are too many 'formulae' for start-up success, and most of them are just nonsense.
Nirmalya Kumar, professor of marketing at London Business School, is one of the eight Indians in Thinkers50, a global listing of world's best business minds. In an interview with Alokesh Bhattacharyya and Anand J, he discusses new-age marketing mantras.
On the changing framework of marketing: When I started researching marketing, I found that marketing people rarely get on to boards of companies like CFOs, COO or CTO. The research for my first book on marketing and strategy asked this question. Marketing people, then, and even today, use a framework called the 4 Ps [product, price, promotion, placement].
Information technology (IT) and information technology enabled services (ITeS) small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Punjab and Chandigarh are claiming skilled manpower shortage.
The industry is of the view that in majority of the engineering institutions, the course curriculum is, by and large, theoretical with students having limited exposure to practical knowledge. This leads to a failure in meeting the needs of the industry.
The industry says big companies have infrastructure to train manpower according to their needs but SMEs can't afford to do that and are dependent on colleges.
When green things get going, we are happy and the world around us also looks happy. One such green thing is Green Carpet, the Garden Center based out of Koramangala. Founded by Myna Batavia, a serial entrepreneur. “It had to be. Considering the demography of Koramangala, it is known to be the birthplace of startups. Koramangala suburb has the profile that pampers startups," emphasises Myna Batvia. "It is hotspot for new-age entrepreneurs. The elite profiling of the suburb provides a tremendous boost to businesses like ours."
I never wanted to be part of the family-owned business, but wished to do something on my own. In 1982, while I was studying chartered accountancy the opportunity came my way.
A friend managed to convince me that industrial chemicals were in great demand and I would do well if I started a manufacturing unit. The offer was too tempting as he was into the same business and offered to help me out with the technical knowhow. He also promised to buy the entire range of products. It could not get any better, I thought.
I dropped out of the CA course and took a loan of Rs 15 lakh from a public sector bank. My father stood as the guarantor. I purchased a small plot of 1,200 sq ft at Bhayander, a western suburb in Mumbai, for Rs 3 lakh.
" Be Impeccable With Your Word. Speak with integrity. Say only what you mean. Avoid using the word to speak against yourself or to gossip about others. Use the power of your word in the direction of truth and love. " 
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