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”.