ESIC PROPOSING TO SET UP “SOCIETY” IN EACH STATE FOR REIMBURSEMENT OF MEDICAL DUES OF ITS MEMBERS, SAYS ITS DG AT PHD CHAMBER

Employees’ State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) is working on the proposal to set up a Society in each state of the country to help its beneficiaries avail of all their legitimate reimbursement of their medical bills without chasing the state agencies as these delays and sometimes throttle their legitimate dues, according to its Director General, Mr. Raj Kumar.

In addition, the Corporation is also preparing to take its board’s approval to hire private medical practitioners and doctors to provide medical facilities to its members in ESIC’s doctors’ starved hospitals not only in big townships but also proposing to extend this facility in un-served and under-served areas to give primary health care to the ESIC members, he further pointed out.

While addressing a Seminar on Employees’ State Insurance under aegis of PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry on Wednesday, Mr. Kumar informed that the his Corporation is contemplating with an idea to open up Societies under the Society Act in all State Capitals so that the proposed Society are mandated with teeth to entertain all ESIC reimbursement issues to intended beneficiaries since the Corporation has been receiving complains that State agencies take hell lot of a time to process the reimbursements and sometimes even throttle them.

“For this purpose, the ESIC would be writing to all State Governments including the Centre to make a provisioning to this effect so that reimbursement issues relating to medical ailments of all its members are not subjected to states’ budgetary exercises and other such bureaucratic routes.  With the proposed society in place, it will be their responsibilities to transfer the reimbursement amounts to beneficiaries with due diligence and the State agencies play virtually no role in reimbursement cycle”, said Mr. Kumar.

Mr. Kumar admitted that most of the ESIC hospitals are shortages of doctors and hiring their services with due governmental approval would give the corporation a mechanism to hire competent doctors on contractual basis and provide better services to its beneficiaries in large towns where ESIC hospitals are even operational.

Gradually, this service would also extended to under-served and un-served locations in which ESIC beneficiaries are working for industry so that the avail of medical consultancy under category of primary health care, he further added.

Former President & chairman Industrial Relations & HR Committee, PHD Chamber, Mr. Ravi Wig in his remarks, urged the government to frame a separate mechanism for construction workers to avail of ESIC benefits and facilities since the sector is largely different and engages workers for shorter time.

Among others who were also spoke on the occasion comprised Insurance Commissioner, ESIC, Mr. Arun Kumar; Co-Chairman, Industrial Relations & HR Committee, PHD Chamber, Mr. Bharat Singh Mehta and Head-Industrial Relations, PHD Chamber, Mr. R K Joshi.

IP IS THE KEY FOR ANY SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT: NRDC AT PHD CHAMBER

PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry on Friday organized a National Conference on Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) Leveraging IPR ecosystem for startups and Academia in which CMD, National Research Development Corporation (NRDC), Dr. H Purushotham said that IP is the key of any social and economic development and informed that NRDC is providing licensing of technologies and innovations to startups especially for MSMEs in India and abroad in the field of bio-technology, chemical, agriculture, engineering and food.

Mr. Purushotham said that startups should make maximum use of incubation centres to minimize the risk of their innovation which give exclusive rights to startups for a certain period of time and emerge as a leading platform to trade patented knowledge for commercialization in MSMEs and other segments of industries.

According to him, the NRDC is assisting inter-ministerial board of DIPP for startup India mission and working as a facilitator for implementing startups and offer its services to them for free of cost.

President, PHD Chamber, Mr. Anil Khaitan suggested that government should support for venture capital and other types of risk financing through tax incentives and offer special financing arrangements including state guarantees for research activities particularly in the early stages of development.

He also suggested that a better co-operation and access to government-supported research centres including universities also is a useful step that could be taken to promote innovation by SMEs and a central clearinghouse a "one-stop shop", for information related to national programmes to support SMEs should also be set up.

President, National Intellectual Property Organisation, Prof. T C James said that SMEs need user-friendly patent offices with lower cost, streamlined procedures climate for R&D would be improved if regulatory and administrative burdens were reduced.  Government should come forward to support for basic education, financial assistance with SME training, and promoting greater co-operation and exchanges between business and universities.

Among other speakers who emphasized the need for technology transfer in the emerging world for MSMEs in more than a documented form consisted Dr. S K Jain, Dept. of Management Studies, IIT Delhi; Dr. Rubina Mittal, Co-Chairperson, Education Committee, PHD Chamber and its Director, Dr. Jatinder Singh.

SUMMIT ON ELECTRIC VEHICLE, SLATED FOR JAN 19/18 UNDER AEGIS OF PHD CHAMBER

PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry will be organizing a day-long first ever mega “India Electric Vehicle Summit” here on January 19, 2018 to promote and propagate as well prepare industry for a massive roll out of electric vehicles on Indian roads and highways that aims at to finding a suitable replacement for fossil fuel driven automobiles which is a major cause to fermenting the air pollution as per current estimates.

The Summit is being supported by the Ministry of Heavy Industry which under the guidance of the Prime Minister Mr. Modi is committed for converting all vehicles in India to electric mode in next 13 years in which India CSR Network will also be a co-organizer with PHD Chamber.

In a statement issued here today, President, PHD Chamber, Mr. Anil Khaitan said, “the time is now ripe for embracing new vision and technology for greener mobility for better tomorrow. The day long summit (leadership talk, panel discussion, and exhibition) will focus on sustainable mobility drive amid growing air pollution problem and fossil fuel demand and will be addressed by various regulators, technocrats and captains of Auto and ancillary industry”.

To initiate and move forward towards low-carbon transport ecosystem, the Summit is also designed as a national forum for Electric Vehicle manufacturers, visionary automotive leaders as well as policy makers, innovators, researchers and strategists from around the world to leverage their collective strengths and exchange their information, innovation and knowledge.

The Chamber is of the view that India, being one of the largest and booming economy, this is high time to exchange the ideas on how Indian automotive sector can contribute towards accomplishing India’s vision and priority of replacing conventional vehicles to electric vehicles by the year 2030.

The forum will bring key stakeholders of the emerging electric vehicle market to put their views on key challenges, concerns, and opportunities as well as their agenda on Electric Vehicles.  Forum provides comprehensive overview on the electric automobile industry in India. This would also provide useful reference for drawing up new plans, reviewing trends and also in evolving marketing tools and strategies.

Delegates will interact with like-minded firms and stakeholder and discuss important aspect of electric car and two wheelers, commercial vehicle opportunities and trends etc. The summit allows electric vehicle companies to optimize their presence among stakeholders.

The summit is also aligned to the UN Sustainable Development Goal of taking actions in providing clean energy and to the Paris Declaration on Electro-Mobility and Climate Change & Call to Action that calls for a commitment as stated, "With varying mandates, capabilities, and circumstances, we commit to advance our work individually as well as collectively wherever possible to increase electro-mobility to levels compatible with a less-than 2-degree pathway.”

INDO-HUNGARY BUSINESS INVESTMENT FORUM SET UP AT PHD CHAMBER

PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Hungarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry on Tuesday set up Indo-Hungary Business Investment Forum following signing of an MoU, which intends to enhance business and economic ties between the two.

It also aims at identifying supplementary possibilities for promotion and development of business partnership between the two countries.

The MoU was signed by Vice Presidents of the two organizations Mr. D K Aggarwal and Mr. Andras Rev in the presence of Ambassador of Hungary to India, Mr. Gyula Petho; Chairman, International Affairs Committee for Europe, PHD Chamber, Mr. Mohit Jain; Chairman, Art & Culture Committee, PHD Chamber, Mr. Sandeep Marwah and its Secretary General and Principal Director, Mr. Saurabh Sanyal and Mr. Yogesh Srivastav.

The Forum will provide an excellent opportunity to both the organizations to explore business avenues in each other country and discover better channels for trade and joint ventures in the field of IT, Pharmaceuticals, power equipment, auto-components and food processing.

After signing the MoU, Mr. Aggarwal emphasized that both India and Hungary need to recognize and promote development and diversification of economic and commercial cooperation between the two on equally mutually advantageous basis.

The Ambassador of Hungary to India Mr. Gyula Petho said this would boost the business ties between India and Hungary and give assistance to settle business disputes, arising out of commercial, economic and industrial interactions, between legal and natural persons of India and Hungary through amicable methods of arbitration.

Mr. Marwah in his address reaffirm PHD Chamber connect with Hungarian Art & Culture and assured that he would mount a delegation to Hungary to strengthen bilateral ties in the area of art and culture.

TIES inevitable in boosting India’s export competitiveness: PHD Chamber

Improvement in India’s logistics cost would be crucial to enhance its trade facilitation measures, improve its competitiveness in international markets and a significant boost to economic growth, said Mr. Anil Khaitan, President, PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Improvement in logistics hold huge significance as every 1 percentage point reduction would add USD 10 billion in the GDP of the country, said Mr. Anil Khaitan.

Indian exports lose their competitiveness due to their huge logistics costs. Logistics costs comprise of 14% of GDP in India while in EU 10% and in the USA 8%, said Mr. Anil Khaitan.

India’s score on trading across border parameter has improved from 57.6 in 2017 to 58.5 in 2018. However, the cost to export and import due to documentary compliances, excluding the insurance cost and informal payments, remained the same at USD 91.9 and USD 134.8, respectively, said Mr. Anil Khaitan.

India should work towards reducing trade costs by providing highly effective and connected transport services, port facilities, communications, energy, financial services and business legislations, added Mr. Anil Khaitan.

Robust infrastructure segment is a vital ingredient in rising export performance. Infrastructure is a major sector that propels overall development of the Indian economy. In order to maintain a high growth trajectory of exports, we require state-of- the art infrastructure, said Mr. Anil Khaitan.

Enhancing the efficiency of projects under Trade Infrastructure for Export Scheme (TIES) is crucial for up scaling export growth and competitiveness, which will push India’s export performance in a highly competitive world, he added.

I believe the TIES should de-centralise decision making to state governments to facilitate more and more investments in infrastructure and enhance exports, he added.

Going ahead, it is imperative for officials to streamline the project processing mechanism under TIES and ensure time bound completion of the same, said Mr. Anil Khaitan.

We should improve our infrastructure by encouraging more and more Public-Partnership Projects (PPP) for infrastructure, which is built rapidly and is of utmost quality, said Mr. Anil Khaitan.

The value of PPP projects have declined from INR 53,248 crore in 2011-12 to INR 12,400 crore in 2016-17 whereas number of projects declined from 52 to 9 during the same period, he added.

We should work hard to reduce trade costs with our major trading partners like we have done with the UAE. India’s total trade cost with UAE has reduced from 103% in 2005 to 56% in 2014, said Mr. Anil Khaitan.

To enable a speedy mechanism, focus should be on decentralizing the decision making to state governments and thereby, facilitating more and more investments in infrastructure and enhance exports, said Mr. Anil Khaitan.

The states should be encouraged to nominate projects encompassing development of minor ports, and regional airfields for the Trade Infrastructure for Export Scheme (TIES) scheme for enhanced regional connectivity and thereby increased reduction in costs of logistics to facilitate exports, said Mr. Anil Khaitan.

I believe that TIES is in fact just the right scheme to achieve this with the help of a collaborative and calibrative approach for creating focused export infrastructure and first mile and last mile connectivity, said Mr. Anil Khaitan.

Rise in inflation rate short lived: PHD Chamber

Rise in inflation rate of CPI and WPI is majorly because of the temporary factors stoked by the food articles primarily vegetables, said Mr. Anil Khaitan, President, PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry in a press statement issued here today.

Inflation is not a major worry at this juncture as Government is making lots of efforts for the smooth supply of food articles, said Mr. Anil Khaitan.

We have bumper kharif crops and the constraints in the perishables are temporary, added Mr. Khaitan.

CPI inflation increased to 3.6% in October 2017 from 3.3% in September 2017. Also, WPI inflation increased to 3.6% in October 2107 from 2.6% in September 2017.

We don’t expect that the rise in inflation rate is sustainable ; the average inflation should remain below 4% for the current financial year, said Mr. Khaitan.

Reconsider Ban on Industrial Activities till 14th of November, Urges PHD Chamber to NGT

PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry has urged the National Green Tribunal (NGT) to reconsider its ban on industrial activities in NCR until 14th of November, as its order has serious implications on the industrial activities in NCR which will not only amount to loss of productivity as well as employment.

The PHD Chamber has pointed out that all industrial activities in and around NCR are happening with NOCs obtained from the department concerned and all of a sudden imposing a ban on such activities is not at all justified even until 14th of this month.

The chamber is of the view that pollution is a serious menace which needs to be tackled with collective enthusiasm and holding industries responsible alone for contributing to pollution levels is somehow untenable said the President of the PHD Chamber, Mr. Anil Khaitan.

Therefore, the Chamber has appealed to all relevant authorities in the NCR to strike a balance in their approach so that industrial activities are not disrupted particularly those that operate and conform to the established norms as per the NOCs given to them and at the same time environment and ecologies are protected sufficiently and adequately.