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President's Message
" Fear of ‘GREXIT’- exit of Greece from Eurozone, amidst already persisting recessionary trends in global economy makes it imperative for Indian industry to look for growth opportunities within the country. Exploring and identifying opportunities for MSMEs therefore in Defence sector and Public Procurement assume great importance. These two issues are to dominate FISMEs agenda during the year. In Defence, we have already taken steps. Hon’ble Defence Minister was invited in FISME’s Seminar in Delhi on 11th June 2015. A set of suggestions to address the difficulties MSMEs face in integrating to Defence supply chains was handed to him later. (A link to the note of suggestions is also carried in the FISME Factor). Now, the focus is on Public Procurement. After a brainstorming session next week, we shall strive to make high level engagement in central government to push for removal of impediments in MSMEs’ access to public procurement. I invite my MSME colleagues to share their views and suggestions on Public Procurement. "
FISME invited to Commonwealth Trade Symposium held in Johannesburg
The Commonwealth- an association of 53 independent nations, organized the first Trade Symposium on 23-24 June 2015 in Johannesburg. The officials, experts, representatives from the private sector and other stakeholders from 57 countries participated in the South African capital city. From India, FISME was invited to take part in the deliberations and share its experience of working on trade issues especially the multilateral trade negotiations. Mr. Anil Bhardwaj, Secretary General made the presentation on the experience of UNCTAD India project on ‘Strategies and Preparedness for Trade and Globalization in India’ during the symposium. FISME was the Tier-I SME partner of the project. The project was implemented under aegis of Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Government of India, funded by DFID (UK) and by UNCTAD’s team.
A five member official delegation from Hubei Province of People’s republic of China led by Mr. Yue Young, Director of Organizing Committee Office of the province visited FISME secretariat on 30th June 2015. The delegation was keen to learn the services provided by SME support organizations- Associations and Federations, and how are they organized and funded in India. The members of the delegation also raised questions about economic reforms and privatization in India. Hubei, knows as province of lakes, is situated west of Shanghai. Its capital city, Wuhan, is referred to Chicago of the East.
We become entrepreneurs because we have an appetite for risk and navigating unchartered territory. But that doesn’t mean startups can’t take the same measures the corporate world does to de-risk propositions related to growth and come to market with a greater degree of certainty. Too often, the startup world and its funders view simply putting the offering in the market and then “iterating” based on results as sufficient. Often, mistakes here don’t allow a second chance.
With RBI's Raghuram Rajan ringing alarm bells about the world economy facing the Great Depression-like problems, an IMF research paper has countered his views and says monetary policy easing alone can't be blamed for triggering a financial crisis. Rajan, who himself has been IMF's Chief Economist and is among the few to have rightly predicted the financial crisis of 2007, has triggered a debate among policymakers and economists with his warning against central banks globally being pushed into "competitive monetary policy easing".
However much a city administration is prepared to face the cyclone, it is difficult to prevent trees getting uprooted, short-duration power shutdowns and collapse of walls in neglected buildings. But it can avert a calamity. The storm emanating from Greece in the Mediterranean could cause destruction in Indian financial markets, but the damage may be limited, thanks to better macro-economic fundamentals than in 2013 when the currency was roiled. At the heart of financial markets lies the currency. The behaviour of the Indian rupee, among the best performers in emerging markets, reflects investors' faith in the currency.
The National investigation Agency that is probing the fake currency racket operating in India, has come out with some startling revelation. Interrogating a couple of people arrested by the BSF with counterfeit notes, the NIA found that approximately Rs 1500 crore of counterfeit notes pumped into the country have crossed the border through Malda border. The investigators have also found that most of the notes that have entered the country have been printed in Pakistan and was routed to India through Bangladesh.
With the view to improve ease of doing business in India, Directorate General of Foreign Trade(DGFT) has launched its mobile app through which most DGFT services can be accessed while on the go and the traders would be able to check the status of transmission of various authorizations and the shipping bills. A new look website has also been launched making it more user-friendly and easy to navigate. As part of its endeavour to provide more information in electronic format and a trade facilitation measure, DGFT has launched its mobile initiative with its Android app (“DGFT”) through which most DGFT services can be accessed while on the go, Ministry of Commerce and Industry said in a release.
India’s handicrafts exports are likely to cross Rs 17,000 crore by the end of current fiscal year of 2015-16 and is further expected to cross Rs 24,000 crore by FY 2020-21, according to a report. A study titled ‘Infusing vibrancy into Indian handicrafts sector’ by industry body Assocham noted that clocking a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of about 5.3 per cent during the 11 years period between 2001-02 and 2011-12, India’s handicrafts exports had crossed Rs 12,900 crore mark in FY 2011-12. The study said government in partnership with private sector needs to encourage integrated enterprise development by providing supporting services such as local centres for skill training, product adaptation, vocational training and entrepreneurship development.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has proposed to allow the exporters and importers to write covered options against their actual contracted export or import exposure. Under the current regulatory framework, writing of options by the users on a standalone basis is not permitted. However, end-users can enter into option strategies of simultaneous buying and selling of plain vanilla European options, provided there is no net receipt of premium. "...in order to encourage participation in the Over the Counter (OTC) currency options market and improve its liquidity, it has now been decided to permit resident exporters and importers of goods and services to write (sell) standalone plain vanilla European call or put options only against their actual contracted export or import exposures, i.e. covered call or covered put, respectively," the RBI's draft guidelines said.
The National Institute for Entrepreneurship and Small Business Development (NIESBUD) will conduct the first phase of certificate training programme on entrepreneurial motivation for trainers from July 13 to 17 at its campus in Noida. This is a flagship programme of NIESBUD that has generated tremendous interest amongst the Trainers’ fraternity for obtaining accreditation as an Achievement Motivation Training (AMT) and Entrepreneurial Motivation Trainers (EMT). The course content covers the topic like self-awareness motivation concept and experience; motivation arousal; sense of efficacy; providing skill and insight in group processing and planning and performing EMT trainer’s role.
‘Cotton year 2016’ will be an aid to spinning industry in the country as the global cotton prices are likely to remain range-bound during the 2016, according to a study report. According to a report titled ‘Outlook on Cotton Prices and Consequent Impact on Indian Spinning Industry’ by ICRA, cotton cultivation remains attractive for the Indian farmers, which will prevent any large shift towards alternate crops and hence mitigate concerns of lower production. The area under cotton cultivation in CY 2015-16 is not expected to decline significantly as even after a decline in the domestic cotton prices by 21 per cent over the last one year, the high support prices for cotton still continue to keep cotton cultivation attractive for the farmers as the profit per quintal for cotton remains high amongst the competing crops.
The Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) has set up a Rs 1000 crore ‘Make in India’ fund for the MSMEs with the view to make them world class manufacturing hub. Under the fund, concessional finance will be provided to the identified MSME sectors, SIDBI said while holding its seventeenth AGM on June 22, 2015 at its head-office in Lucknow. SIDBI has completed 25 years of services to the MSME sector in addressing various credit and developmental gaps in the MSME eco-system.
The dynamics of the Indian e-commerce universe will perhaps begin to change in 2016. While most major groups of India Inc, including the Tatas, Reliance Industries and Aditya Birla, are expected to fully roll out their online retail ventures by the end of the current year, experts believe the impact of their entry into a world now dominated by pure-play internet businesses such as Flipkart, Snapdeal and Amazon will be felt in the second half of 2016. But, any change in the e-commerce pecking order linked to market share could take anything from three to five years, according to analysts.
Capital market regulator Sebi is investigating a string of trades in stocks of small and medium enterprises (SME) and derivatives like currency options carried out to launder money and escape tax. Persons with unaccounted cash are suspected to have misused the SME trading platform of exchanges to show the money as legitimate trading income. Another set of people, on the other side of the deals, did the reverse — converting a slice of their official income into unreported cash or "black money" to book fake expense or loss that would lower earnings and tax. The trades typically happened in the run-up to the quarterly closing and a few months preceding the end of a financial year.
The Andhra Pradesh State Government has unveiled a massive credit plan for 2015-16 with an outlay of Rs. 1.25 lakh crore. Agricultural credit took the lion’s share of the credit plan with Rs. 65,272 crore followed by MSME sector at Rs. 16,960 crore and other priority sectors including education and housing at Rs. 14,688 crore. Of the total outlay, the priority sector was earmarked Rs. 96,920 crore and non-priority sector Rs. 28,828 crore. Launching the credit plan, Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu exhorted bankers to gear up for rolling out of the third phase of the debt redemption scheme. The State had linked a majority of the accounts with Aadhaar and the process should be completed at the earliest.
An 11 km long four-lane Western Corridor constructed by Tata Steel was inaugurated by chief Minister of Jharkhand Raghubar Das at Jamshedpur on Saturday. It will provide smooth connectivity to the steel township with the existing network of state and national highways. The CM also laid the foundation stone of the elevated road (HSM Flyover Project) in what indicates the company's intention to participate in more such projects in future. All heavy vehicles from the Tata Steel plant will be using this flyover.
In a bid to help the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) avail the benefits and schemes being offered by the MSME Ministry, the ministry has asked the unregistered units in Ludhiana and elsewhere to get themselves registered. The ministry, in a letter to the chief secretary of Punjab, said that MSME Development Act 2006 prescribes for filing of entrepreneur memorandum (EM) for all enterprises. The letter stated that this process has been made voluntary and entrepreneurs find difficulty in filing these in absence of proper eco system in District Industry Center (DICs).
Tehri Lake area of Uttarakhand will be developed as a mega destination under Swadesh Darshan scheme of the Ministry of Tourism. This was informed by Union Minister of Tourism Mahesh Sharma in a meeting with Tourism Minister of Uttarakhand, Dinesh Dhanai here today. The meeting was a follow up of the earlier meeting of Uttarakhand Chief Minister, Harish Rawat with Sharma to seek central assistance for development of tourism in the state.
India and Thailand today signed a number of important agreements, including the double taxation avoidance treaty, and exchanged instruments of ratification on the extradition treaty inked in 2013, which provides for the legal framework for seeking extradition of fugitive offenders. The tax treaty provides for the framework to avoid double taxation and prevention of fiscal evasion with respect to taxes so as to promote bilateral economic cooperation. On the last day of her three-day visit, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj co-chaired the 7th meeting of the India-Thailand Joint Commission for Bilateral Cooperation.
Bangladesh's leading conglomerate Summit Group and India's Infinity Infosys Parks have entered into a pact to jointly invest USD 207.59 million to build the country's biggest technology park which is expected to provide jobs to nearly 60,000 IT professionals. State-run Bangladesh Hi-Tech Park Authority (BHTPA) and Summit Technopolis Limited, a sister company of the Summit Group, signed the deal here last night to build the Kaliakoir Hi-Tech Park (KHTP) at Gazipur district, 37 kilometres north of Dhaka, reports a leading news agency.
With the view to develop business partnership between India and Taiwan, a business delegation comprising of 23 people including New Taipei City Industrial Association, New Taipei City Computer Association and reputed industry suppliers will visit India next week. The delegation would be in India from July 5 to July 11 during which it will organize joint seminar with Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation, Santacruz Electronics Export Processing Zone, Tamil Nadu Technology Development and Promotion Centre, aiming at increasing Taiwanese FDI in India in the coming future.
The Madras Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MCCI) has signed an agreement with South Korea's Busan Chamber of Commerce and Industry to foster economic development between the two regions. The agreement between the two chambers aim to strengthen the cooperation in promoting trade and investment between Tamil Nadu and Republic of Korea through holding joint trade and investment promotion events, developing business relations, seeking potential investors and business partners, a statement issued here said.
Are you satisfied with the efforts of the Modi Govt in the last one year for overall economic growth?
According to the FISME Factor, 75 percent of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) are satisfied by the efforts of the Modi Govt in the last one year for overall economic growth while 25 percent are not.
There can be no work-life balance, imbalance is reality
Reality is all about imbalance. Humans are designed to be imbalanced on all aspects, including the choices they make. Who has a work-life imbalance? Those who like one more than the other right? It finally boils down to our preferences.
This deluge has lasted several years, but no one's complaining. It has been raining startups in India for the past 3-4 years and has swept away all divides. From bubbling graduates to brainy professionals, from salaried staffers to sparkling housewives, in metros and small towns, all are hopping on to the idea bandwagon. There seems to be no venture too wacky, no business plan too flaky to succeed. In fact, India ranks fifth in the world in terms of startups, with nearly 3,100 currently in operation.
Here are the must-include essentials of content marketing for small businesses
Today it is not an easy feat to engage audiences without creating content that is personalized as well as highly relevant. The biggest challenge - creating content that people actually WANT to read, and which urges them to take an actionable step by wanting to find out more information about a brand. Content marketing is a hot favourite today, thanks to the prevalence of several social media forums where content is shared. However, without content marketing expertise, it becomes difficult to find great success that drives long-term sustainable growth from publishing new content, both online as well as offline.
The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi)'s decision to relax the listing norms for start-ups is an important step forward. While many of India's largest e-commerce companies, such as Flipkart and Snapdeal, have been making noises about their plans to eventually list in the US, iSpirit, which played a key role in articulating the requirements of start-ups, had said many others receiving early-stage financing in India will re-domicile to Singapore, partly because of regulations making it easier to accept funding from global venture groups.
On Friday, The Economic Times said in a report, ‘Dalal St has a New Portfolio: Startups’: “Entry of regular stock market investors is fuelling a new frenzy in startup funding in the country.” The report says: “In 2014-15, Mumbai Angels, a platform for angel investors, screened more than 500 business proposals — the highest it has handled in a year till now. About 10 per cent have received funding as against one or two per cent in the past.”
First generation IT entrepreneurs are at 'IT' again
They could be past their prime but the original founders of the $150-billion Indian information technology (IT) industry are far from hanging up their boots. Over a dozen first-generation entrepreneurs who were instrumental in putting India on the global technology map are busy investing and raising scores of start-ups in the country. For IT and BPO founders such as Raman Roy (Genpact and Quatrro), Ajai Chowdhry (HCL Infosystems) and Saurabh Srivastava (IIS Infotech/ Xansa), it is a rewind to the late 70s and 80s, when they founded their respective companies.
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 April 2015.
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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" Fear of ‘GREXIT’- exit of Greece from Eurozone, amidst already persisting recessionary trends in global economy makes it imperative for Indian industry to look for growth opportunities within the country. Exploring and identifying opportunities for MSMEs therefore in Defence sector and Public Procurement assume great importance. These two issues are to dominate FISMEs agenda during the year. In Defence, we have already taken steps. Hon’ble Defence Minister was invited in FISME’s Seminar in Delhi on 11th June 2015. A set of suggestions to address the difficulties MSMEs face in integrating to Defence supply chains was handed to him later. (A link to the note of suggestions is also carried in the FISME Factor). Now, the focus is on Public Procurement. After a brainstorming session next week, we shall strive to make high level engagement in central government to push for removal of impediments in MSMEs’ access to public procurement. I invite my MSME colleagues to share their views and suggestions on Public Procurement. "
The Commonwealth- an association of 53 independent nations, organized the first Trade Symposium on 23-24 June 2015 in Johannesburg. The officials, experts, representatives from the private sector and other stakeholders from 57 countries participated in the South African capital city. From India, FISME was invited to take part in the deliberations and share its experience of working on trade issues especially the multilateral trade negotiations. Mr. Anil Bhardwaj, Secretary General made the presentation on the experience of UNCTAD India project on ‘Strategies and Preparedness for Trade and Globalization in India’ during the symposium. FISME was the Tier-I SME partner of the project. The project was implemented under aegis of Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Government of India, funded by DFID (UK) and by UNCTAD’s team.
A five member official delegation from Hubei Province of People’s republic of China led by Mr. Yue Young, Director of Organizing Committee Office of the province visited FISME secretariat on 30th June 2015. The delegation was keen to learn the services provided by SME support organizations- Associations and Federations, and how are they organized and funded in India. The members of the delegation also raised questions about economic reforms and privatization in India. Hubei, knows as province of lakes, is situated west of Shanghai. Its capital city, Wuhan, is referred to Chicago of the East.
We become entrepreneurs because we have an appetite for risk and navigating unchartered territory. But that doesn’t mean startups can’t take the same measures the corporate world does to de-risk propositions related to growth and come to market with a greater degree of certainty. Too often, the startup world and its funders view simply putting the offering in the market and then “iterating” based on results as sufficient. Often, mistakes here don’t allow a second chance.
With RBI's Raghuram Rajan ringing alarm bells about the world economy facing the Great Depression-like problems, an IMF research paper has countered his views and says monetary policy easing alone can't be blamed for triggering a financial crisis. Rajan, who himself has been IMF's Chief Economist and is among the few to have rightly predicted the financial crisis of 2007, has triggered a debate among policymakers and economists with his warning against central banks globally being pushed into "competitive monetary policy easing".
However much a city administration is prepared to face the cyclone, it is difficult to prevent trees getting uprooted, short-duration power shutdowns and collapse of walls in neglected buildings. But it can avert a calamity. The storm emanating from Greece in the Mediterranean could cause destruction in Indian financial markets, but the damage may be limited, thanks to better macro-economic fundamentals than in 2013 when the currency was roiled. At the heart of financial markets lies the currency. The behaviour of the Indian rupee, among the best performers in emerging markets, reflects investors' faith in the currency.
The National investigation Agency that is probing the fake currency racket operating in India, has come out with some startling revelation. Interrogating a couple of people arrested by the BSF with counterfeit notes, the NIA found that approximately Rs 1500 crore of counterfeit notes pumped into the country have crossed the border through Malda border. The investigators have also found that most of the notes that have entered the country have been printed in Pakistan and was routed to India through Bangladesh.
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With the view to improve ease of doing business in India, Directorate General of Foreign Trade(DGFT) has launched its mobile app through which most DGFT services can be accessed while on the go and the traders would be able to check the status of transmission of various authorizations and the shipping bills. A new look website has also been launched making it more user-friendly and easy to navigate. As part of its endeavour to provide more information in electronic format and a trade facilitation measure, DGFT has launched its mobile initiative with its Android app (“DGFT”) through which most DGFT services can be accessed while on the go, Ministry of Commerce and Industry said in a release.
India’s handicrafts exports are likely to cross Rs 17,000 crore by the end of current fiscal year of 2015-16 and is further expected to cross Rs 24,000 crore by FY 2020-21, according to a report. A study titled ‘Infusing vibrancy into Indian handicrafts sector’ by industry body Assocham noted that clocking a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of about 5.3 per cent during the 11 years period between 2001-02 and 2011-12, India’s handicrafts exports had crossed Rs 12,900 crore mark in FY 2011-12. The study said government in partnership with private sector needs to encourage integrated enterprise development by providing supporting services such as local centres for skill training, product adaptation, vocational training and entrepreneurship development.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has proposed to allow the exporters and importers to write covered options against their actual contracted export or import exposure. Under the current regulatory framework, writing of options by the users on a standalone basis is not permitted. However, end-users can enter into option strategies of simultaneous buying and selling of plain vanilla European options, provided there is no net receipt of premium. "...in order to encourage participation in the Over the Counter (OTC) currency options market and improve its liquidity, it has now been decided to permit resident exporters and importers of goods and services to write (sell) standalone plain vanilla European call or put options only against their actual contracted export or import exposures, i.e. covered call or covered put, respectively," the RBI's draft guidelines said.
The National Institute for Entrepreneurship and Small Business Development (NIESBUD) will conduct the first phase of certificate training programme on entrepreneurial motivation for trainers from July 13 to 17 at its campus in Noida. This is a flagship programme of NIESBUD that has generated tremendous interest amongst the Trainers’ fraternity for obtaining accreditation as an Achievement Motivation Training (AMT) and Entrepreneurial Motivation Trainers (EMT). The course content covers the topic like self-awareness motivation concept and experience; motivation arousal; sense of efficacy; providing skill and insight in group processing and planning and performing EMT trainer’s role.
‘Cotton year 2016’ will be an aid to spinning industry in the country as the global cotton prices are likely to remain range-bound during the 2016, according to a study report. According to a report titled ‘Outlook on Cotton Prices and Consequent Impact on Indian Spinning Industry’ by ICRA, cotton cultivation remains attractive for the Indian farmers, which will prevent any large shift towards alternate crops and hence mitigate concerns of lower production. The area under cotton cultivation in CY 2015-16 is not expected to decline significantly as even after a decline in the domestic cotton prices by 21 per cent over the last one year, the high support prices for cotton still continue to keep cotton cultivation attractive for the farmers as the profit per quintal for cotton remains high amongst the competing crops.
The Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) has set up a Rs 1000 crore ‘Make in India’ fund for the MSMEs with the view to make them world class manufacturing hub. Under the fund, concessional finance will be provided to the identified MSME sectors, SIDBI said while holding its seventeenth AGM on June 22, 2015 at its head-office in Lucknow. SIDBI has completed 25 years of services to the MSME sector in addressing various credit and developmental gaps in the MSME eco-system.
The dynamics of the Indian e-commerce universe will perhaps begin to change in 2016. While most major groups of India Inc, including the Tatas, Reliance Industries and Aditya Birla, are expected to fully roll out their online retail ventures by the end of the current year, experts believe the impact of their entry into a world now dominated by pure-play internet businesses such as Flipkart, Snapdeal and Amazon will be felt in the second half of 2016. But, any change in the e-commerce pecking order linked to market share could take anything from three to five years, according to analysts.
Capital market regulator Sebi is investigating a string of trades in stocks of small and medium enterprises (SME) and derivatives like currency options carried out to launder money and escape tax. Persons with unaccounted cash are suspected to have misused the SME trading platform of exchanges to show the money as legitimate trading income. Another set of people, on the other side of the deals, did the reverse — converting a slice of their official income into unreported cash or "black money" to book fake expense or loss that would lower earnings and tax. The trades typically happened in the run-up to the quarterly closing and a few months preceding the end of a financial year.
An 11 km long four-lane Western Corridor constructed by Tata Steel was inaugurated by chief Minister of Jharkhand Raghubar Das at Jamshedpur on Saturday. It will provide smooth connectivity to the steel township with the existing network of state and national highways. The CM also laid the foundation stone of the elevated road (HSM Flyover Project) in what indicates the company's intention to participate in more such projects in future. All heavy vehicles from the Tata Steel plant will be using this flyover.
In a bid to help the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) avail the benefits and schemes being offered by the MSME Ministry, the ministry has asked the unregistered units in Ludhiana and elsewhere to get themselves registered. The ministry, in a letter to the chief secretary of Punjab, said that MSME Development Act 2006 prescribes for filing of entrepreneur memorandum (EM) for all enterprises. The letter stated that this process has been made voluntary and entrepreneurs find difficulty in filing these in absence of proper eco system in District Industry Center (DICs).
Tehri Lake area of Uttarakhand will be developed as a mega destination under Swadesh Darshan scheme of the Ministry of Tourism. This was informed by Union Minister of Tourism Mahesh Sharma in a meeting with Tourism Minister of Uttarakhand, Dinesh Dhanai here today. The meeting was a follow up of the earlier meeting of Uttarakhand Chief Minister, Harish Rawat with Sharma to seek central assistance for development of tourism in the state.
India and Thailand today signed a number of important agreements, including the double taxation avoidance treaty, and exchanged instruments of ratification on the extradition treaty inked in 2013, which provides for the legal framework for seeking extradition of fugitive offenders. The tax treaty provides for the framework to avoid double taxation and prevention of fiscal evasion with respect to taxes so as to promote bilateral economic cooperation. On the last day of her three-day visit, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj co-chaired the 7th meeting of the India-Thailand Joint Commission for Bilateral Cooperation.
Bangladesh's leading conglomerate Summit Group and India's Infinity Infosys Parks have entered into a pact to jointly invest USD 207.59 million to build the country's biggest technology park which is expected to provide jobs to nearly 60,000 IT professionals. State-run Bangladesh Hi-Tech Park Authority (BHTPA) and Summit Technopolis Limited, a sister company of the Summit Group, signed the deal here last night to build the Kaliakoir Hi-Tech Park (KHTP) at Gazipur district, 37 kilometres north of Dhaka, reports a leading news agency.
With the view to develop business partnership between India and Taiwan, a business delegation comprising of 23 people including New Taipei City Industrial Association, New Taipei City Computer Association and reputed industry suppliers will visit India next week. The delegation would be in India from July 5 to July 11 during which it will organize joint seminar with Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation, Santacruz Electronics Export Processing Zone, Tamil Nadu Technology Development and Promotion Centre, aiming at increasing Taiwanese FDI in India in the coming future.
The Madras Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MCCI) has signed an agreement with South Korea's Busan Chamber of Commerce and Industry to foster economic development between the two regions. The agreement between the two chambers aim to strengthen the cooperation in promoting trade and investment between Tamil Nadu and Republic of Korea through holding joint trade and investment promotion events, developing business relations, seeking potential investors and business partners, a statement issued here said.
According to the FISME Factor, 75 percent of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) are satisfied by the efforts of the Modi Govt in the last one year for overall economic growth while 25 percent are not.
Reality is all about imbalance. Humans are designed to be imbalanced on all aspects, including the choices they make. Who has a work-life imbalance? Those who like one more than the other right? It finally boils down to our preferences.
This deluge has lasted several years, but no one's complaining. It has been raining startups in India for the past 3-4 years and has swept away all divides. From bubbling graduates to brainy professionals, from salaried staffers to sparkling housewives, in metros and small towns, all are hopping on to the idea bandwagon. There seems to be no venture too wacky, no business plan too flaky to succeed. In fact, India ranks fifth in the world in terms of startups, with nearly 3,100 currently in operation.
Today it is not an easy feat to engage audiences without creating content that is personalized as well as highly relevant. The biggest challenge - creating content that people actually WANT to read, and which urges them to take an actionable step by wanting to find out more information about a brand. Content marketing is a hot favourite today, thanks to the prevalence of several social media forums where content is shared. However, without content marketing expertise, it becomes difficult to find great success that drives long-term sustainable growth from publishing new content, both online as well as offline.
On Friday, The Economic Times said in a report, ‘Dalal St has a New Portfolio: Startups’: “Entry of regular stock market investors is fuelling a new frenzy in startup funding in the country.” The report says: “In 2014-15, Mumbai Angels, a platform for angel investors, screened more than 500 business proposals — the highest it has handled in a year till now. About 10 per cent have received funding as against one or two per cent in the past.”
They could be past their prime but the original founders of the $150-billion Indian information technology (IT) industry are far from hanging up their boots. Over a dozen first-generation entrepreneurs who were instrumental in putting India on the global technology map are busy investing and raising scores of start-ups in the country. For IT and BPO founders such as Raman Roy (Genpact and Quatrro), Ajai Chowdhry (HCL Infosystems) and Saurabh Srivastava (IIS Infotech/ Xansa), it is a rewind to the late 70s and 80s, when they founded their respective companies.
“When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it.”
