INDIAN & THAI BUSINESS EXECUTIVES HELD B2B SESSION HERE IN NEW DELHI UNDER AEGIS OF PHD CHAMBER & THAI EMBASSY

The PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry and The Royal Thai Embassy at New Delhi On Friday organised India- Thailand business networking & business match making session with high level Thai business delegation, accompanying its Prime Minister to India for attending the 1st India- Thailand Joint Business forum (IT JBF). 

In the networking and business match making session, possibilities for economic, trade and business cooperation were explored in close to 20 sectors of mutual interest between the visiting delegation of Thailand with its Indian business counterparts.

These sectors roughly comprised Commercial Banking, Textiles, Melamine & Plastic Manufacturer, Food, and beverages, Personal care and home care, Health care, Automotive parts manufacturing and Exports, Hospital and related products, Renewable Energy, Jewellery, Information Technology, Plastic Products, Auto Parts, Chemical, Exporter and Importer: Gold, jewellery, platinum, jewellery stone and diamond.

Other segments for which a close and meaningful business discussions took place in the B2B meeting of the businessmen of the two countries consisted of Hotel Supply Business, Construction business and material, tires and tubes for bicycle, motorcycle, truck, light truck and passenger car and Sugar Producer.

Secretary General, PHD Chamber, Mr. Saurabh Sanyal in his preliminary remarks before the B2B business session happened said that time now has come for India and Thailand to move closer for cementing their business ties especially in view of India’s look east policy for her economic engagements for the mutual benefits, especially with prosperous nation such as Thailand and the like.

He emphasised that the trilateral highway project between India and Thailand via Myanmar which is scheduled to be operational by 2018-19 would facilitate movement of goods and services between India and Thailand.  The 3,200 km road link from Moreh-India to Mae Sot-Thailand would also provide the much needed boost in enhancing regional connectivity.

Taiwan seeks revival of FTA talks with India, says Representative, Taipei Economic and Cultural Centre in India, Mr. Chung- Kwang Tien at Agreement Signing Ceremony between PHD Chamber & Taiwan Chamber of Commerce

Representative, Taipei Economic and Cultural Centre in India, Mr. Chung- Kwang Tien on Thursday announced that Taiwan would want to revive the possibilities of working out free trade agreement with India for which a feasibility study was conducted three years ago.

Immediately after witnessing the signing of a protocol and cooperation agreement between PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Taiwan Chamber of Commerce here on Thursday, Mr. Tien also disclosed that Indian cabinet has already approved the cooperation agreement with Taiwan in the field of agriculture and horticulture including approving widening of civil aviation activities between the two countries on Wednesday (15 June 2016).

In view of both countries wanting to broad-base their both economic and trade engagements, the idea for reworking free trade agreement between India and Taiwan would further cement their ties for manufacturing and services sector and create an ideal situation for moving towards the free trade regime between the two, pointing out that Taiwan is a late entrant into India’s economic landscape, which is so huge and wide, said Mr. Tien.

According to him, the two countries should intensify their trade and economic cooperation in electronics and IT among other things and gradually evolve for free trade agreement.

The agreement signed by the President, PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Dr. Mahesh Gupta and President, Taiwan Chamber of Commerce, Mr. G F Hao also aims at promoting trade and investment relations between the two countries as also constantly endeavour to improve co-operation with two Organisations. 

Significant among those that witnessed the agreement signing ceremony consisted of Mr. Chung- Kwang Tien, Representative, Taipei Economic and Cultural Centre in India; Dr. Guann-Jyh Lee, Executive Director, Economic Division, Taipei Economic & Cultural Centre; Mr. Anil Khaitan, Vice President, PHD Chamber; Mr. Sanjeev Ahuja, Co-Chairman, Asia & Pacific Committee, PHD Chamber; Mr. Surinder Kalra, Co-Chairman, Foreign Trade & Investment Committee, PHD Chamber and its Secretary General, Mr. Saurabh Sanyal including Secretary, Ms. Shabnam Pareek.

The other objectives of the agreement comprise to assist in the organisation of trade and market research missions, conferences, symposia and other methods of trade promotional activity in each other's country. 

With this agreement in place, the two Chambers will organize seminars, conferences, exhibitions, trade fairs and other promotional activities to further business relations between the two countries and create and maintain a continuing exchange of information about economic developments and other matters affecting the business interests of their members.

This Agreement becomes effective on the day of signing, and shall remain operative until either of the two Organisations requests its termination in writing to the other Organisation at least three months in advance. Both Organisations will have the right to propose amendments if and when they consider such amendments necessary to improve the co-operation between them.

INNOVATIVE APPROACH, PASSION, PATIENCE AND ELEMENT OF LUCK MAKE AN ENTRAPPERS: MD, HARVEST GOLD AT PHD CHAMBER

Managing Director, Harvest Gold Industries Pvt. Ltd., Mr. Adil Hassan on Wednesday suggested innovative approach coupled with passion and patience as significant milestones to turn to be entrepreneurs without inheritance of business background.

Delivering his CEO Talk, organized by PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry here today at its Young Business Leaders Forum, Mr. Hassan tendered an advice to aspiring entrepreneurs to take calculative risk, especially in choosing partners as your association with them can make and mar your business prospects.

He also emphasised that innovative approach with passion and patience should have sufficient support of the element of luck to make your business grow and expand in the absence of which, the business and even the best of entrepreneurial skills could collapse.

Entrepreneurial talent and skills make and motivate the aspiring business start-ups work for 24x7 as in modern businesses the calculative risks pay off rich dividends to those who have the capacity to work consistently without any break.

In his welcome remarks, Vice President, PHD Chamber, Mr. Anil Khaitan emphasised saying that the aspiring business lot need to be fearless to cut the mountains and face business challenges with fortitude and capacity to think differently.

Secretary General, PHD Chamber, Mr. Saurabh Sanyal praised the quality and precision with which the Harvest bread is made and attributed its success to the best quality processes that the product goes through the various value engineering and product processes.

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OBUs OF INDIAN BANKS ARE EXEMPT FROM CRR & SLR AT NOIDA SEZ, SAYS ITS DEVELOPMENT COMMISSIONER

Development Commissioner, Noida SEZ, Dr. L B Singhal on Friday disclosed that this exporting zone has permitted operation of Overseas Banking Units (OBUs) of Indian banks that are exempted from the CRR and SLR prescription of the RBI so that liquidity is not a problem for exporters operating within this zone.

Addressing members of PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry in association with Export Promotion council for EOUs and SEZs here today at an Interactive Session on SEZs, Dr. Singhal also disclosed that such OBUs are also exempt from income tax besides being free from Cash reserve ratio and statutory liquidity ratio prescription of the RBI.

The Noida Special Economic Zone has been encouraging Indian banks to set up their branches within its boundaries in the last couple of months and that many such banks have already been operation there, he pointed out.

Dr. Singhal refused to subscribe to the public view that SEZs have not been doing according to their potential, pointing out that even in circumstances of prevailing adverse external and internal factors, the overall exports from north India have scaled a growth of 26% and made more than significant contribution in creating direct employment as compared to SEZs located in other parts of the country in the fiscal 2015-16.

He also announced that very shortly, the SEZs in northern part of the country are likely to attract an investment of Rs.1000 crores from two leading industrial houses and claimed that SEZs built in this part are on par with the best built and operated upon in economies of scale.

According to him, the SEZs in the fiscal 2015-16 have been able to garner investment to the tune of 467,000 crores with employment potential, estimated more than 16 lakh people.

In his welcome remarks, President, PHD Chamber, Dr. Mahesh Gupta emphasized that the objectives of SEZs could be accomplished with facilities that can link SEZs operations with ports.  The FDIs in such SEZs will come provided sound infrastructure is built up in and around them, citing an example of Sanzan SEZs of China that catapulted its economy and exports, he stressed.

According to President PHD Chamber, “the need of the hour is to facilitate and boost SEZ model across the sectors and segments.  There are procedural bottlenecks; unavailability of vast land; lack of adequate infrastructure; rise in cost of operations; lack of skilled manpower and re-imposition of MAT and DDT”.

Among others who spoke on the occasion comprised Regional Chairman, EPCES, Mr. R M Manroa; Regional Vice Chairman & MD Replika Press Pvt. Ltd. Mr. Bhuvnesh Seth and Chief Economist and Direct Research, PHD Chamber, Dr. S P Sharma.

Gelatin Capsules have technical advantage over HPMC Capsules: PHD Chamber to DCGI

The PHD Chamber of Commerce & Industry has made a representation to the Drug Controller General of India detailing the benefits of using Gelatin capsules over HPMC capsules in medicines.

According to Mr Vivek Seigell, Director, Health Committee, PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry,  Gelatin capsules have technical advantage over HPMC capsules. Gelatin is a natural and safe product with Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS) status in pharmaceutical and food applications by USA and other regulators. It is Genetically Modified Organism (GMO) free, completely natural, sustainable and non-allergic.

The safety aspect of capsule shells is very well defined by various Food and Drug Authorities, as well as different Pharmacopoeias. Gelatin capsules manufacturers and the Pharmaceutical companies rigorously test the shells on account of compliances to these norms only after which are the shells used in formulations said Mr. Vivek Seigell, Director of the Health Committee at PHD Chamber while commenting on the proposed ban on the gelatin capsules.

Technology of gelatin capsules manufacturing is an old age technology, standardized over the period of the last century and has presence all across the globe, with standard specification, defined by all approving authorities.

As gelatin capsules have robust and approved technology, the manufacturing cost of making these shells is low. In contrast the investment cost of the HPMC technology is very high and there are many complexities involved. Further, the investments required to be made for manufacturing HPMC capsules are also substantial and will require planning and time which may also impact accessibility of medicines.

Further, the cost required for the raw material is approximately four times that of Gelatin and the manufacturing cost is approximately three times the cost of Gelatin, considering the outputs from the current available technology. As the cost for HPMC is this high, its acceptance by the Pharmaceutical industry will be challenging esp in light of the price controls being implemented by the Govt.

Gelatin capsules are being used world over for the past 100 years without any health issues being reported by the virtue of capsule shell.

In highly regulated markets like USA, UK, Japan, Australia etc, gelatin based capsules are widely accepted in oral formulations for different ailments.

Gelatin as described in the Indian Pharmacopeia (IP 2014) “is a purified protein” obtained by partial hydrolysis of animal collagen and is translucent, colorless, brittle (when dry) and flavorless. It is an easily digestible pure protein providing its consumers with eight of the nine essential amino acids needed by the human body whereas HPMC Capsules (Hydroxypropylmethylcellulose) do not contain components of animal origin and has a synthetic base.

Gelatin is a protein which is essential component for human consumption and development and also the technology required in making of this is standardized over the last century and is safe for human consumption. This has been audited & approved by Pharmaceutical Industry & the controlling authorities like FDA & WHO whereas the technology used in the manufacturing of HPMC capsules  is a very new concept to the industry and has not been thoroughly established & standardized in the industry.

In the aspect of availability of raw material , gelatin is readily available in the market to meet the demands of Pharmaceutical and Food Industries of India whereas there are only few manufacturers engaged in HPMC base material in India. The current annual installed capacity of HPMC is around 2.0 billion whereas for gelatin its is about 120 billion which is huge as compared to HPMC. Also for HPMC there is only one established manufacturer in India giving no choice to manufacturers to choose their vendor whereas for gelatin capsules there are number of established manufacturers giving a whole array of choices for pharma manufacturers to choose from.

As the gelatin capsule manufacturers are large in nos. and so is the turnover (in thousands of crores) it also plays a vital role in drug delivery to a large range of formulations, these Industries also generate large amount of employment opportunities. 

HPMC Capsules are basically of Synthetic origin and the base in Chemical. This ecosystem of capsules made from gelatin had been existing for over 100 years now and has proved its technical importance hence every possible step must be taken to nurture and fortify this ecosystem of gelatin capsules.

INNOVATION & INCUBATION CENTRE TO COME UP AT KVIS’S UNDER UTILIZED ASSETS WORTH RS.50,000 CRORES, CLAIMS ITS CEO AT PHD CHAMBER

Khadi & Village Industries Commission (KVIC) is gearing up to channelize all its energies for suitable appropriation of all its utterly underutilized assets, spread across the country with an estimated amount of Rs.50,000 crores for setting up of innovation and incubation centre for start ups and stand ups to realize  the Prime Minister ambition for enhancing innovations in multiple sectors of Indian economy for its overall growth, capital creation and additional employment generation.

Disclosing the above at an Innovation Summit-2016 Enhancing Innovative Capacities of MSMEs under aegis of PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry here today, CEO, KVIC, Mr. Arun Kumar Jha also observed that one of the key policy making institutions in India – the NITI Aayog and the leading financing institution SIDBI – are collectively on the job.

“KVIC has been grappling with the problem to seek a solution as to how the it could explore ways and means to suitably turn its dead assets located at different parts of the country in turning them into profit making centres.  However, recently the NITI Aayog as also SIDBI have come into the rescue of KVIC by proposing to it various schemes and financial assistance so that such assets could be converted into yielding centres”, said Mr. Jha.

According to him, innovation and incubation centres would be ideal to be set up in such places for necessary impartment of training to emerging entrepreneurs, largely in MSMEs segment for various sector of Indian economy so that their hidden potential is realized for growth, capital creation and additional employment generation in the country.

The CEO KVIC also admitted that his institution was toying with the idea of engaging celebrities to promote KVIC and its products but with Prime Minister agreeing to endorse the two, not only the sales of KVIC went up by 30% but also its brand image underwent a massive transformation in the recent past.

Speaking on the occasion General Manager, SIDBI, Mr. Satya Prakash Singh expressed a concern saying that not many genuine entrepreneurs including start-ups and stand-ups have been approaching SIDBI for financing and therefore, asserted that crores of rupees grant and assistance already earmarked for such entrepreneurs in the Budget would be allocated through a high level of due diligence.

According to him, entrepreneurs and start-ups should first complete their home work in a meticulous manner and subsequently approach the SIDBI to support their venture that are found to be economically viable as the institutions will entertain only such requests.

Among others who were present at the summit comprised Vice President, PHD Chamber, Mr. Anil Khaitan;  Chairman, Innovation Committee, PHD Chamber, Mr. Deepak Pahwa and its Sr. Secretary, Dr. Jatinder Singh.

PHD Chamber Congratulates Modi Government on a Major Breakthrough in the Economy

While congratulating the Modi Government on a major breakthrough in the economy, Dr. Mahesh Gupta, President, PHD Chamber, said that the dynamic policy measures undertaken by the Government during last two years have started giving fruitful results and economy is seeing a high growth trajectory.

GDP at 7.9% for Q4 of 2015-16 is inspiring and reflecting the efforts of the Government to boost the economy, said Dr. Gupta.

We appreciate the macro-economic stability with a significant decline in inflation that has come about in the last two years with the present government coming to power, he said.

The dynamic reform measures such as Make in India, Digital India, Swachh Bharat, Jan Dhan Yojana, launch of Smart Cities and eBiz platform would go a long way to put India’s growth on high road, said Dr. Mahesh Gupta.

We acclaim the versatile reforms of the Modi Government, covering all pillars of development, he said. 

The government’s focus on financial reforms, infrastructure build-up, industrial development, growth of MSMEs and agriculture reforms is highly encouraging and would go a long way to further strengthen the economy.

Reforms taken in the last two years in clean energy sources are really appreciable. Now India is going to be a power surplus country.  We appreciate and congratulate the government for this breakthrough, said Dr. Gupta.

The development of road sector holds excellent performance as the pace of building roads has gone up from 2 kilometres per day to all-time high pace of 20 kilometres per day, said Dr. Mahesh Gupta.

The Railway sector is also on the path of speedy progress. We appreciate the Governments efforts in this direction.

We look forward to India’s economic growth entering high growth trajectory in the coming times under the patronage of dynamic and fast moving reforms.

We suggest a major focus on agriculture sector reforms to diversify the crop pattern, enhanced productivity, and increase in irrigation facilities and seed technology to mitigate the food inflation, said Dr. Gupta.

Improvement in India’s ranking on World Bank’s Doing Business Index to 130th from 142nd is inspiring and we look forward to further improvement in the coming times, he said.

All this can be attributed to the strong reform measures of the government which have started giving visible outcomes, said Dr. Gupta.

The improvement in rankings will boost sentiments for production of manufacturers which will give a boost to Make in India program of the government, said Dr. Gupta.

We look forward to the further improvement in ease of doing business and expect it below 50 in the next three years by 2018, he said.

We believe GST will be implemented soon to create a common market within India to reduce the transaction costs and cascading impact of complex tax system, said Dr. Gupta.

We believe that with the implementation of GST, the growth trajectory will improve by 2 percentage points with a significant improvement in ease of doing business and enhanced employment opportunities, said Dr. Mahesh Gupta.

The high transaction costs, both in terms of time taken and the money involved, are adversely impacting manufacturing competitiveness and overall business performance, he said.

The policy environment must provide provisions for reducing transaction costs. Radical decisions are needed on the time taken for paper work and permissions on various aspects, he said.

Improvement in physical infrastructure with targeted outcomes in the areas of road development, quality of railway services, expansion of ports and civil aviation would be appreciated and would help the businesses to plan their production possibility frontiers, said Dr. Gupta.

Reforms in the energy sector are needed to stem the increasing energy import dependence and making the policy conducive to facilitate transformation and adaptation. Renewable and clean energy sources must be encouraged, he said.

We appreciate the recent measures to reform the 3 archaic labour laws by the Government, said Dr. Gupta.

Further, it is suggested to repeal the existing labour laws, which put unnecessary regulatory burden on businesses; simplify the exit rules for Indian and foreign entities and frame a single comprehensive law, he said.

Dr. Mahesh Gupta said that it is important to boost entrepreneurial growth; entrepreneurship-led economic growth will act as a catalyst not to just boost innovation but also create employment.