EPFO to launch Aadhar linked services for PF withdrawal and pension fixation says its Chief

The Employees’ Provident Fund Organization (EPFO) will soon launch a host of Aadhar linked services like PF withdrawals and pension fixation for its four crore subscribers to facilitate such faster transactions for their benefit, according to its Commissioner, Dr. V P Joy.

Inaugurating a Seminar on Employees’ Provident Fund Organizations’s initiatives – Simplification of EPF & MP Act and the Schemes framed there under, organized by PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry here today, the Central Provident Fund Commissioner pointed out saying that at  present, 1.5 crore subscribers of EPFO are seeded with Aadhar linked PF accounts and the challenge for the organization is to equip the remaining subscribers with this facilities for which all out efforts are being made so that it becomes effective by forthcoming March 31.

According to him, until 2011, the EPFO was largely manual driven and therefore, delay would be inevitable for both PF and pension subscribers for facilitating their transactions.

However, after 2011 onwards, with the facilitation of technology, the EPFO has begun to computerize most of its operations and now the time has almost come that this exercise is almost complete for PF and pension accounts for all its subscribers and if all goes well, the electronic Aadhar linked transactions for all EPFO subscribers would happen electronically to enable them conclude such transactions without any legwork latest by March 2017.

No Impact seen on India’s Trade and Economy, PHD Chamber

While applauding the Modi Government for taking desired action of surgical strikes against Pakistan, Dr. Mahesh Gupta, President, PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said there will be no impact on India’s trade and economy.

The volatility in the financial markets will also be short lived.

Our economy is growing from strength to strength and has become the fastest moving economy in the world economic system,  said Dr. Gupta.

Our industry and businesses will continue to function as usual, he said.

Pakistan’s presence in Indian trade and investments is minuscule and insignificant said Dr. Mahesh Gupta.

India’s flow of two way trade with Pakistan is only US $2.5 billion  of which India exports to Pakistan for 2 billion dollars and imports worth half a billion dollar which accounts for only 0.4% of India’s overall trade.

We have lot of potential to divert our trade and investment flows towards many peaceful economies in the region, said Dr. Mahesh Gupta.

We salute and wish all the very best to our brave armed forces, said Dr. Gupta.

We believe India’s significant and desired action at border will establish peace in the coming times, he said.

Strong case to cut policy rates in India, top manufacturing countries placed far better in costs of credit: PHD Chamber

Status quo maintained by US FED creates lot of scope for repo rate cut as our cost of borrowings are significantly high as compared with our manufacturing peers and other competitive economies, said Dr. Mahesh Gupta, President, PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

While welcoming the US Fed decision to keep policy rates unchanged, Dr. Mahesh Gupta said that though USA has significantly recovered from the recession, low policy rate regime should continue till the growth becomes strong and sustainable, he said.

At this juncture, India’s economy should be supported by lower interest rates to enhance the demand for durables and to boost up the manufacturing sector as domestic inflation for August has come down to 5.05 percent and IIP has dipped drastically to (-) 2.4 for the month of July 2016, said Dr. Gupta.

Cost of credit to businesses is high as compared with many competitive economies, impacting not only domestic competitiveness but also comparative advantage in the international markets, he said.

India’s repo rate at 6.5% is significantly higher as compared with the world’s 5 largest manufacturing countries including China (4.35%), United States of America (0.5%), Japan (-.1%), Germany (0) and Republic of Korea (1.25%).

Other competitive economies such as Thailand (1.5%), Hong Kong (0.75%), Malaysia (3%), Singapore (0.37%), Taiwan (1.38%) are significantly better than India in the costs of credit.

Going ahead, we expect a significant cut in repo rate to facilitate the competitiveness of the manufacturing sector to compete in the international market, said Dr. Mahesh Gupta.

Ease of Doing business among Indian states improving rapidly: PHD Chamber

At the socio economic front the states have taken effective measures towards

the implementation of reforms in healthcare, education and basic physical

and social infrastructure. The states are now on their way to rapid

industrialization through coordinated development of Small, Medium and Large

scale enterprises, according to the study conducted by PHD Research Bureau,

research arm of PHD Chamber of Commerce and industry.

The study titled as Ease of Doing Business among Indian States: Suggestive

Measures has been released by Shri Pradeep Kumar Sinha, Cabinet Secretary,

Government of India in a programme Accelerating Ease Of Doing Business to

the next orbit, on 17th September 2016.

As states play a pivotal role in the overall development of the Indian

Economy, these are now dismantling barriers in production process such as

land, labour, capital and entrepreneurship and contributing  in a massive

way towards infrastructure building and industrialisation, said the study.

The recent breakthrough in the implementation of GST is commendable which

will reduce the barriers between states and will make the country a common

market. A wider tax base and better compliance will boost overall economic

growth of the country, said Dr. Mahesh Gupta, President, PHD Chamber at the

release of the study.

According to the study, though predominantly some states are agrarian in

nature, but the industrial sector in the states has also emerged as a

significant contributor in their economic and social development. Now states

offer favorable environment for attracting industrial investments through

investor friendly policies and better infrastructural support, said Dr.

Mahesh Gupta

The states have developed good infrastructure for promoting the thriving

sectors like tourism and IT industry with various lucrative public-private

partnerships (PPP), said Dr. Gupta

The states are focusing on strengthening their infrastructure base and

making the business environment more conducive to industrial developments.

Many states are known for their efforts in the area of skill development and

good governance; also many states have shifted their focus towards disaster

management techniques, he said

Going ahead, the role of states is expected to be increasingly more critical

in sustaining the overall development of the country in coming times, said

the study

Several challenges to their growth, such as easing the supply side

constraints in the economy, upskilling the workforce and increasing

manufacturing competitiveness are still the major areas of concern, said the

study.

The state policies should be focusing on diversifying the beneficiaries of

the socio economic development programmes to ensure an all inclusive growth

in the country; the states should also focus on the comparative advantages

of their respective strengths and specializations and should also adopt best

practices of each other's strengths, suggested the study.

In a nutshell, the study said that the reforms undertaken by the state

governments are expected to bring out strong outcomes which would pave the

way for strong and sustainable economic growth of the country in the coming

times. With the continuous increase in per capita income of the states,

there exist a tremendous potential for expansion of consumer markets and

enhanced employment opportunities with expanding production possibility

frontiers

Rapid Growth key for India’s Economic Transformation, says CEO NITI Aayog

NITI Aayog on Saturday emphasized that India needs to inch towards rapid growth for its economic transformation and that States and UTs need to be partner with it for fulfilling the desired objectives, says its CEO, Mr. Amitabh Kant

In order to grow at the rapid rate of growth, the States and UTs should have a growth rate of 12 per cent per annum, only then the intended growth level will be realized, he added.

In his Key Note Session at Chief Secretaries’ Conclave, organized by PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry here today, the CEO also said that the NITI Aayog would support all those States that strive for higher growth rate with pro-active policies so that industry is activated to committing investments in them as growth and investments are key to economic transformation as well as job creation.

“A minimum of 12 States of Indian union will have to grow at 12 per cent rate to avail of NITI Aayog’s handholding and support.  With this approach, India would move on an overall growth rate of 9-10 per cent and even beyond”, said Mr. Kant.

He lamented that education and other such activities that should have been reformed objectively in the last 68 years, could have led to betterment of Indian economy as a whole, however, with new focus on such activities, India might regain a new strength to recover to attain the desired objective.

Mr. Kant also made a prognosis that with jump in reformative spirits in the list of ease of doing business, a minimum of two per cent growth rate could be added to existing rate of growth and that is why there is clamor within all states and UTs for increasing ease of doing business, India would be attractive hub for economic activities through a spirit of partnership between domestic and global industries.

Among others who participated in the Conclave consisted of Chief Secretaries of  Chhattisgarh and NCT of Delhi Mr. Vivek Kumar Dhand and Mr. K K Sharma with other representatives from States such as Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, UP, Himachal Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh including President of the PHD Chamber its Sr. Vice President, Vice President, former President and Secretary General Dr. Mahesh Gupta, Mr. Gopal Jiwarajka, Mr. Anil Khaitan, Dr. Raghupati Singhania and Mr. Saurabh Sanyal.

Silent Revolution on within govt. for path-breaking reforms, GST likely to be implemented as schedule: Cabinet Secretary at PHD Chamber

The Cabinet Secretary Mr. Pradeep Kumar Sinha on Saturday re-assured India and its trade and business including international community, emphasizing that the goods and services tax (GST) and other path breaking reforms that the government has committed to its people will be implemented as promised since it is working overtime to accomplish the targets.

Addressing a Chief Secretaries’ Conclave- Accelerate Ease of Doing Business to the Next Orbit organized by the PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry here today, Mr. Sinha also stressed “a silent revolution is underway and despite teething problems, India would move on to accomplish the objectives and targets set in by its government in all sectors of economic activities with increased participations of all stakeholders to further improve the spirit of governance”.

“The entire infrastructure sector, be it roads, civil aviation, energy, conventional and non-convention, power and petroleum including railways and host of other areas in infrastructure have improved their performance as per targets and the civil aviation sector has begun to grow at the rate of 20%, pausing a serious challenge to railways in terms of its traffic”, pointed out Mr. Sinha.

Referring to the GST implementation roadmap, the Cabinet Secretary exuded confidence that since government has been working overtime to make sure that the path breaking legislation is implemented as per intended deadline.

The stuck-up projects have already been facilitated for implementation in all segments of Indian economy and whatever remaining needed to be done would be completed as the government has turned out much more serious for its projects implementation in comparison with past practices, concluded Mr. Sinha.

In his welcome remarks, President, PHD Chamber, Dr. Mahesh Gupta demanded for enactment of laws that would lead to de-criminalization of business activities as also sought that practices be put in place so that entry into business and exit from it becomes hassel free.

While moderating  the inaugural session, Secretary General, PHD Chamber, Mr. Saurabh Sanyal complimented the government of the day on moving in right direction to smoothen ease of doing business as it would empower the entrepreneurs and make Indian economy reach double digit growth trajectory.

The government of the day is contemplating a legislation to drastically prune the existing lists of host of permissions that are required to be obtained for shooting films for both domestic and overseas film producers as well as film makers, according to Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs & Minority Affairs (IC), Mr. Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi.

The proposed legislation could be brought about either in the forthcoming winter session or else latest by the budget session of the Parliament as the government of the day is totally receptive to the needs of film industry since it connects and accelerates people-to-people contact, besides promoting tourism through films and other such modes of visual communications, added the Minister.

Inaugurating a Conference on Film Tourism-India: The Focal Hub under aegis of PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry here today, Mr. Naqvi said that the government was conscious of the fact that film producers and film makers are subjected to obtaining host of clearances from centre as well as states before these are permitted to film a particular location at a particular part of the country. 

“This delays their schedule of timely deliveries of their production as well subject them to lots of inconveniences.  Therefore, the government is going to take corrective measures to sort out this problem through a proper legislation, details of which could not be made public at this juncture because of various reasons but what is being seriously contemplating at the different quarters of the government is a legislation which would come about either in the forthcoming winter session or else latest by the budget session”, said Mr. Naqvi.

The aforesaid remarks of the Minister came immediately after the well known film producers and directors such as Mr. Prakash Jha and Mr. Madhur Bhandarkar jointly urged the government to drastically reduce the list of permissions for film shooting currently numbering close to 35 from various governmental agencies as the current regime is highly bureaucratic and de-incentivize the film makers to shoot spots domestically available and chose to go overseas for the purpose as destinations there are shot with little interactions with authorities.

CEO, Prasar Bharti, Mr. Jawhar Sircar who also spoke on the occasion emphasized and appealed the film producing fraternity to avoid shooting situations and sights that do not represent the genuine facts of the country and damage its brand value in the eyes of foreigners.

President, PHD Chamber, Dr. Mahesh Gupta in his welcome remarks also sought conditions and atmosphere that are friendly to promote  tourism through films and other visual media.

In his remarks, Secretary General, PHD Chamber, Mr. Saurabh Sanyal promised to the government that the Chamber would pro-actively play the role of catalyst to promote the government policies on all fronts including that of tourism.

INDO-BELARUS MUTUAL TRADE GROWING AT 10-15% PER ANNUM: AMBASSADOR, BELARUS

Ambassador of Belarus to India, Mr. Vitaly Prima on Thursday hoped that both India and Belarus would further cement their trade and economic ties as in the last few years the mutual trade turnover between the two countries is growing between 10-15% per year.

“With the elimination of all barriers in the bilateral trade between India and Belarus, when India recognized the latter as a full market economy country and removed anti-dumping duties on Belarusian goods, the prospects of two nations coming closer have brightened”, emphasized the Ambassador.

Addressing an Interactive Session on Doing Business with Belarus under aegis of PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry here today, Mr. Prima recalled that the visit of the Prime Minister of Republic of Belarus in November 2012 and the first in the history of the Belarus-India relations visit of President of India to Belarus in June 2015 gave strong impetus to bilateral collaboration.

The Ambassador also emphasized that Belarus and India could become a strong partners for development and welfare in programmes such as Make-in-India, Digital India, Smart Cities and Skill India as also cooperate in the field of chemicals, petro-chemicals, agriculture, mechanical engineering, light industry and food production including information and communication technologies.

The Interactive Session was presided over Chairman, International Affairs Committee for CIS, PHD Chamber, Mr. Chetan Kajaria in which a detailed presentation on Trade Opportunities between India and Belarus was made by Counsellor, Embassy of Belarus, New Delhi, Mr. Sergei Trotsyuk.  Presentation on Investment Opportunities in Belarus was also made by its First Secretary Mr. pavel Skoybeda.

PHD Chamber hails guidelines to regulate Indian Direct Selling Industry

PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry wholeheartedly welcomes the new guidelines to regulate Indian direct selling companies, issued by the Ministry of Consumer Affairs to safeguard the interests of consumers, as well as help protect ethical direct selling companies, said Dr. Mahesh Gupta, President, PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry in a press statement issued here today.

According to our projections, the annual revenue size of the Direct Selling Industry is estimated to reach upto INR 15,000 crore by 2019-20 on account of conducive policy framework and regulatory clarity by the government, he said.

The annual revenue size of the direct selling  industry in 2014-15 was estimated at around Rs.7900 crore during the annual survey conducted by the PHD Research Bureau of PHD chamber

The guidelines related to grievance redressal mechanism for consumers, remuneration system for the person engaged by direct selling firms and direct sellers mandatory compliance with some rules will safeguard the interests of consumers as well as companies alike, added Dr. Gupta.

The guidelines will help to give boost to the industry which gives employment opportunities to large number of youth and women, contributes to skill development and women empowerment, gives push to MSME sector and has contributed to Government’s ambitious ‘Make in India’ campaign by giving boost to manufacturing sector in India, he said.

PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry has been conducting the Annual Survey of the Indian Direct Selling Industry for the last 5 years to study the growth dynamics of the Industry, he said.

Going forward, we look forward to a clear set of standard central guidelines across the country in order to build an environment of confidence and to bring India’s Direct Selling industry at par with global levels, said Dr. Mahesh Gupta.

Lack of Awareness and High Incidence of frauds Impacting Indian Insurance Sector: PHD Chamber

According to a survey conducted by PHD Research Bureau, around 49% of the population is not well aware and familiar with insurance products in India
due to lack of information and awareness about insurance products.

According to the survey, life insurance has been used more for investment
and tax saving purposes in people's overall financial planning. Despite
this, 56% of the survey population has not availed any kind of insurance
policy/products due to poor advice, wrong information and lack of
understanding of the product, said the survey study.

In India, Insurance companies are most affected by misspelling due to
premeditated fabrication and fraudulent misrepresentation of material
information. Also, insurance continues to be missold with senior citizens
being the softest targets as they do not understand new products, said the
survey.

 In non-life insurance in India, the Motor insurance continues to be the
largest segment with a share of 44.14 per cent, the share of health segment
being 26.73 percent and the remaining share contributes to Fire and Marine
segments respectively.

Further, the survey has revealed that 50.50% of people consider the premium
offered by the company as an important factor while purchasing insurance
policy, 24.60% considered company's credibility, 15.26 % considered past
records and 5.86% considered consumer base of the company as an important
decision factor.

According to survey findings, 33% of the people find insurance products too
complicated and technical while 24.68% find it difficult to understand the
product. Hence, 74% respondents believe personal interaction is very
important before buying insurance products.

The survey also revealed that 34% of respondents have chosen family, friends
or word of mouth as the information sources for buying insurance products,
3% opted for direct contact with bank or company people, 20.22% opted for
newspapers and magazines, 8.07% for television, 7.30% as internet and 19%
said advice from intermediary agent as information sources for buying insurance products.

The survey revealed that 20.32% of respondents considered increase in
income, 46.02% considered better features of the product, 21.30% said
discount in appreciation for their continued business and 11.16% considered
more personal contact with their provider as the factor that would persuade
customers to stay.

Overall, roughly, 16.72 % of respondents are satisfied with the services
being provided to them, 30.66% wants to improved administrative issues,
33.42% of respondents said response time and correspondence needs to be
improved and 19.20% mentioned about delays in settlement and under payments.

India's insurance sector is the biggest in the world with about 1,442 lakh
policies and the insurance market is expected to quadruple in size over the
next 10 years from its current size of US$ 70 billion, said the PHD Chamber
survey.

In Insurance business, India is ranked 11 among the 88 countries with a
market share of around 2 percent in global life insurance market.
India stands 15th globally with respect to premium income. In terms of
insurance density in India, it increased from $11.5 in 2001 to $55 in the
recent years.

The major challenges facing Insurance sector in India today are low
insurance awareness among the masses and increased incidence of frauds in
the Insurance business. Recent trend, including heightened consumer
expectations, new market entrants and significant demographic shifts have
created an important window of opportunity for Insurance Companies to act
now, said Dr. Mahesh Gupta, President, PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Also, the insurance industry is a major component of the economy by virtue
of the amount of premiums it collects, the scale of its investment, its
contribution to employment generation, infrastructure development and, the
essential social and economic role it plays by covering personal and
business risks,  said Dr. Gupta.

Keeping into consideration India's demographic factors such as growing
middle class and young population, it is the need of the hour to propagate
awareness generation through mass media and on-ground interventions to tap
the vast potential of the Indian Insurance sector, said Dr. Mahesh Gupta.

WITH WOMEN EMPOWERMENT IN MAKE IN INDIA, ITS GDP BOUND TO INCREASE SIGNIFICANTLY: PHDFWF

2^nd Session on Women Entrepreneurs and their Role in Make in India –Developing and Transforming it, organized today here by PHD Family Welfare Foundation concluded with a happy note that with increased women participation in Make in India, would substantially enhance India’s GDP, which is estimated to inch towards 8 per cent shortly.

Prominent among those that participated in today’s event comprised Executive Director, Gayatri Sugars Ltd., Ms. T Sarita Reddy; Founder, Kilol Fabric Pvt. Ltd., Ms. Mamta Mansingka;, Managing Director, Jindal Saw Ltd., Ms. Sminu Jindal with Chairperson, Women & Child Development Committee, PHD Chamber, Ms. Anuradha Goel collectively felt that with increased opportunities for women not only India’s GDP accelerate but also its social and economic divide bridge a great deal.

Senior Vice President, PHD Chamber, Mr. Gopal S Jiwarajka, its Vice President and Secretary General, Mr. Anil Khaitan and Mr. Saurabh Sanyal also felt that besides empowerment to women entrepreneurs, these should be equip with adequate opportunities so that their collective skills are utilised for both economic and social gains of the country.

Speaking on the occasion Ms. Reddy emphasized that women entrepreneurs struggle a lot to balance their social and business life with successfully encountering the multiple challenges and therefore, their creativity need to be encouraged for securing higher gains for society in general.

Ms. Mansingka in her address stressed that handicraft and other prevailing crafts and arts of the country also need to be empowered with sufficient encouragement and incentives to realize the collective potential of women across India.

In her observations, Ms. Jindal emphasized on opportunities for women more than their empowerment in some sense and called that with this approach, the women through out the country would feel encouraged and motivated.

Negative Growth of IIP worrying: PHD Chamber

The negative growth of IIP at (-) 2.4 for the month of July 2016 is a major cause of concern as growth of Capital goods has decelerated significantly by (-) 29% which is indicative of subdued pace of investments in the economy, said Dr. Mahesh Gupta, President, PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry in a press statement issued here today.

However, the growth of consumer durables at 5.9% is encouraging in anticipation of bumper kharif crops vis-à-vis good monsoon scenario. We believe there is a need to push domestic demand particularly the rural demand in the economy, said Dr. Gupta.

We look forward to calibrated policy measures from the RBI in terms of reduction in the policy rates.

We also look forward to increase in public investments by the Government to help domestic demand to revive in the coming times, said Dr. Gupta.

The revival in the domestic demand would be crucial for the steady growth trajectory going forward as world economic environment is still in its lacklustre growth trajectory, said Dr. Mahesh Gupta.

These measures would go a long way to boost consumer demand and growth of manufacturing sector in the economy, said Dr. Gupta.

Ministry of Environment, Forests & Climate Change is open to accept all the relevant suggestions/ideas concerning with the hazardous industry, says its Joint Director, Dr. Shruti Rai Bhardwaj

PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry on Thursday organized a Workshop on Hazardous Waste Management : Challenges, Prospects and Strategies in which Joint Director, Ministry of Environment, Forests & Climate Change, Dr. Shruti Rai Bhardwaj gave the special addressee and attended by the other experts in hazardous waste management with Whole Time Director (EHS), DCM Shriram Ltd, Dr. N J Singh.

Dr. Bhardwaj said that the ministry was open to accept all the relevant suggestions and ideas, concerning with the hazardous industry for the inclusion in the legislations for the better implementation of the legislation for which ministry would come out with separate notifications time-to-time.

“Development is indeed an important factor specifically for country like India where we are emerging economy for which we have to go way ahead for taking care of our environment” she explained.

She also said “when we were formalizing the latest hazardous waste legislation 2016, initially the idea was to go amendments which we thought might help in better implementation of 2008 rules but when we started working on that we realized that taking note of international best practices where we have so many developments and on national front different challenges which our industry faces, we revised the schedules taking into consideration our domestic issues pertaining to wastate management. Also hazardous waste has been now integrated with Swachh Bharat Abhiyan.

There is a need to have the regulation with the sustainable approach so that things can move in right direction and now hazardous waste Rules 2016 has simplified the procedure and rules for which single window approach in terms of permission, various authorization that is required for hazardous waste industry as well as the form also been simplified which would definitely be useful for all the stakeholders, she said.

Also simplified the import-export procedure under the rule for recycling, reuse and utilization and in other waste made two other categories to simplify further the procedure for some kind of other waste which might not be any hazardous nature and which might be very important for some of the industries to use as a resource.  In new Rules, the Ministry has ensured that State Pollution Control Board should attach detailed inspection report with every permission granted to the industry.

She has emphasized that utilization of waste for which these waste used as resources because of paucity of land stressed the use of technology for using these hazardous as resources which would also help in recovery of energy, material and simultaneously reducing the lode on landfills.

In his welcome remarks, Secretary General, PHD Chamber, Mr. Saurabh Sanyal said that industries should also take the responsibility of their actions by proper treatment and disposal of their waste products.  He also said “it is also important for us to check our reckless consummation of products which can contribute to hazardous waste. It would be wishful thinking to rid ourselves of such products, however, controlled usage and proper disposal of such products will indeed contribute to the betterment of our society and environment”.