Corporatize Indian Agriculture : Dr. Ajit Kumar at PHD Chamber

Vice Chancellor, National Institute of Food Technology Entrepreneurship and Management, Dr. Ajit Kumar on Tuesday pitched for corporatization of farming sector to integrate agriculture and farmers with prosperity and well being as this could be the single Mantra to double the farmers’ income as is being intended by the government of the day under Prime Minister Mr. Modi.

He also recommended that close to a lakh of Indian traditional dishes across the country should be standardized for its quality and hygienic values to make them globally popular as the National institute of food technology entrepreneurship and management has already identified thirteen such dishes for which equipment and tools will be put in place for their wider commercial circulation.

Addressing an International Food Innovation 2016 : Doubling Farmers Income Through Science, Technology and Innovation organized by the PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry here today.  Dr. Kumar said that privatization of agriculture was not the solution for doubling farmers’ income as the experiment has hardly yielded the desired results.

“What ought to be experiment in the modern times is encouragement for corporatization of Indian agriculture as the government cannot be expected to alone explore the unexplored and un-negotiated territories and patches including landscapes of Indian agriculture with its own investments and technological tools. Therefore, corporatization could be an answer to serve this un-chartered territory to bring in prosperity among farmers and farming community by leasing out their land to corporates as with their investments, the Indian agriculture could see better days”, said Dr. Kumar.

According to him, the another strategy that could follow for betterment of farmers should be to equip all the villages with primary and secondary food storages in which their farm produce could be stored and farmers are equipped and linked with such facilities for gaining in higher returns for their produce.

Speaking on the occasion, Principal Secretary, Industries & Commerce, New & Renewable Energy & CEO, Invest Punjab, Mr. Anirudh Tewari also endorsed the views expressed by Dr. Ajit Kumar adding that Punjab is the attracting hub for industries that wish to explore its agriculture sector as the State provide for more than 14% of incentives in terms of infrastructure to such investors as compared to other parts of the country.

Among others who spoke on the occasion comprised Agricultural Counsellor-India & Sri Lanka, Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Mr. Wouter Verhey; CEO & Founder, Global Mindset, Australia, Mr. Pradeep Khanna; Chairman, Innovation Committee, PHD Chamber, Mr. Deepak Pahwa; Chairman, International Affairs Committee on Middle East, PHD Chamber, Mr. V K Mishra and Sr. Secretary, PHD Chamber, Dr. Jatinder Singh.

Open up Training Institutions for Effective Domestic Civil Aviation Operations. Also Relax Norms & Interest Rates for Aircrafts Leasing: Aero Expo India-2016

The two-day Aero Expo India-2016 under joint aegis of the PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Ministry of Civil Aviation which came to an end here today with strong recommendations for the government to open up series of training and skill institutions for growth of domestic civil aviation and its effective operations on lines of IITs and IIMs.

It also recommended that project financing for leasing out aircrafts be made competitive as it is much cheaper in economies of scale whereas lending for such purposes by domestic financial institutions and banks are at exorbitant cost particularly for business aviation as compared to commercial aircrafts.

The Aero Expo India-2016 collectively felt that training currently being imparted for perspective civil aviation human resource and personnel a substandard and needed many more improvements for their sustained employment to effectively serve the passenger and cargo services of the civil aviation sector since investments in such training institutes are meager as a result equipment and other facilities in them are not up to the mark to provide for training and skills that are required for emerging times aviation.

This gap and deficit could be effectively encountered with government investments as private sector lack resources to create training facilities for youths having aspirations to launch themselves in the avionics. “Countries like Malaysia and Morocco that have little resources to create such facilities if can generate training institutions with their investments, why can’t India emulate such a model?”, asked the Aero Expo India-2016.

The Panelists that made the aforesaid suggestions comprised CEO, GMR, Airports Ltd., Mr. P S Nair; CEO GMR, Aero Technic Ltd., Mr. Uday Naidu; Vice President, Industry Development, Strategic Partnership and Offsets at Airbus Group India, Mr. Ashish Saraf; Head of Operations, FWSTC & Cabin Crew Training, Mr. Vikas Khanna; CMD, GYROX Aviation, Col. Rampal Suhag; GM, Projects, Bhadra Group, Mr. Sumit Barat; Founder & CEO, Law Carbon Logistics (P) Ltd., Mr. Kailash Mishra and GM (HR), Airport Authority of India, Dr. Dewakar Goel.

The expo also concluded that leasing norms for commercial aircrafts in India have improved a lot, catching established global standards but need to be evolved for business civil aviation.  It was also recommended that lending costs for leasing out aircrafts should be minimize and brought on par with norms that prevail in countries like Japan and China.

All these measures it put in place would make the domestic civil aviation the most effective entities of the world in times to come as new India has evolved which needs practices that are prevalent in economies of scale to satisfy the aspirations of Indian people in general and its youth in particular.

Chairman, Civil Aviation Committee, PHD Chamber, Mr. K Narayana Rao also concluded with more such interface across industry.

Airport Expansion, Enhanced Regional Air Connectivity & Expansion in Air Traffic is top Priority of Govt.: Ashok Gajapathi Raju

Minister of Civil Aviation, Mr. Ashok Gajapathi Raju Pusapati, Minister of State, Ministry of Civil Aviation, Mr. Jayant Sinha and Secretary, Civil Aviation, Mr. Rajiv Nayan Choubey inaugurating the two-day Aero Expo India-2016 organized by the PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry under the patronage of Ministry of Civil Aviation here today, the Minister remarked that with new civil aviation policy in place and other associated reforms accompanying it, the civil aviation sector would emerge to serve the un-served at affordable pace.

Minister of Civil Aviation, Mr. Ashok Gajapathi Raju Pusapati on Friday reassured the Indian civil aviation industry, emphasizing that the government of the day is exploring all possibilities for capacity expansion of leading airports in the country as well doing its best to make sure that the regional air connectivity is accomplished as per its UDAAN initiative.

The Minister also stressed that though the domestic civil aviation industry has been growing at a rate of more than 20% in the last few years, admitting that higher passenger growth in civil aviation sector is still a challenge for the government which could be won with addition of capacities in India’s leading airports.

Mr. Ashok Gajapathi Raju Pusapati also emphasized that the cargo sector of Indian civil aviation though has developed but needed further expansion and development since the industry as such has been growing over 20% per annum and hoped that this growth rate would even exceed in times to come in view of India’s economic potential with its high appetite for higher growth.

Speaking on the occasion, Minister of State, Ministry of Civil Aviation, Mr. Jayant Sinha asked civil aviation industry to grow in such a manner so that its passenger traffic, currently estimated at about 150 million for domestic and overseas sector multiplies manifold and catches on pace with the air traffic of China which presently is calculated at 500 million per annum.

In order to achieve this objective, the ministry has been adopting three pronged strategy under its UDAAN commitment which includes expansion of airports capacities, ensure regional connectivity and equip the air passenger with better level of satisfaction and experience under its Air Sewa initiative, emphasized the minister adding that the government would do all possible to transform the civil aviation sector.

Secretary, Civil Aviation, Mr. Rajiv Nayan Choubey who also was present on the occasion, reiterated the government commitment for higher growth of civil aviation sector with all possible government’s initiatives in partnership spirit, adding that by December 2016 dozen of schedule commercial operations could begin to connect small towns in the country under its regional connectivity drive.

Minister, Government of Ireland, Mr. Pat Breen who also spoke on the occasion emphasizing that India and Ireland should have stronger partnership to expand India’s civil aviation sector as his country is one of the global leaders in this sector, particularly on leasing out operations in which Ireland has already established its hegemony.

Among others who participated in the inaugural ceremony comprised, the President of the PHD Chamber, Dr. Mahesh Gupta who said that civil aviation sector would reach the intended heights with proactive government policies whereas its Senior Vice President, Mr. Gopal Jiwarajka praised the UDAAN initiative of the NDA government.

Mr. Jayant Sinha also chaired the session on CEO Chai Par Charcha and complimented PHD Chamber for providing meaningful platform.  Ambassadors, diplomats from US, Czech, Poland alongwith also attend the session.

Chairman Civil Aviation Committee, PHD Chamber, Mr. K Narayana Rao proposed to the government to bring in civil aviation sector under priority lending scheme of the government, especially for acquiring smaller air crafts for enhanced regional air connectivity.  Co-Chairman, Civil Aviation Committee, Mr. Bhupesh Joshi along with Secretary General and Director of the Chamber Mr. Saurabh Sanyal and Mr. Yogesh Srivastav were also present on the occasion in which a knowledge report by Auctus Advisors was released and an MoU was signed between FSTC and New ATR.

SECOND SERIES OF PHD EDUCATIVE & KNOWLEDGE SERIES ON GOODS & SERVICES TAX

GST ITC/ Export & Import of Goods & Works Contract under GST

Thursday, 17 November 2016 at PHD House, New Delhi

The Indirect Taxes Committee of PHD Chamber is organizing its Second Knowledge Series on Goods & Services Tax with the objective of analyzing in detail the GST provisions vis-à-vis the present indirect tax provisions and understanding the GST Impact on different industry sectors.

The third workshop in the above series was organized on 17^th November 2016 at PHD House, New Delhi covering GST Input Tax Credit and Export & Import of Goods/ Services & Works Contract under GST.

Mr. Bimal Jain, Chairman Indirect Taxes, PHD Chamber mentioned that India is looking at dual GST Model. Both the centre and states are going to levy tax on goods and services. He accentuated that GST council have decided four tier rates 5%, 12%, 18%, 28% and 28% with cess for tobacco, luxury cars, etc. He also gave three GST mantras for utilization of credit sequentially. He opined that GST is one nation, one tax. It will create an open national unified market for all of us. He further said that GST is applicable to all over India including Jammu and Kashmir. He explained the various provisions for GST Input Tax credit and Negative List for availing GST credit under GST Model law. He also talked on matching concept under GST. He concluded by giving a brief view of GSTN network.

Shri S D Majumdar, Former Chairman, CBEC shared that that taxman and taxpayers should prepare themselves for GST.  Mr. Majumdar explained the upcoming dual structure of GST for both Centre and States. He observed that our constitution does not permit to take away fiscal autonomy of states. GST will remove the cascading effects of taxes and the compliance cost will come down. He further stated that for the first time India will have a common economic market. He emphasized that GST being a destination based consumption tax, it will help the consumption states to improve their economy and become financially sound. He highlighted that taxing small and medium enterprise is not cost effective. He concluded by saying that Rules and their proper implementation is required for effective GST regime.

Mr. N K Gupta, Co-Chairman, Indirect Taxes Committee mentioned that proper implementation of GST is a key to success. He shed light on the seamless flow of credit under GST. He felt that it will take time to iron out specific issues under GST as it has taken ten years to settle the TDS provisions. He mentioned that in GST regime stock transfer becomes taxable. He concluded by saying that huge taxation liability and tax provisions are levied in work contracts under GST.

GST, Bankruptcy Laws Will Emerge Facilitator for inbound & outbound M&A: PHD Chamber

Global Investment and Acquisitions Forum 2016 held under joint aegis of PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Corporate Catalyst India Pvt. Ltd. and M&A Worldwide, has forecast that with GST and Bankruptcy Laws in place, prospects for mergers and acquisitions both inbound and outbound would grow proportionately in India.

The Forum also felt that India is no longer experimental zone for multi nationals for their operations as it has evolved so much in the last couple of years that global giants have strategies for setting up of their operations in India because of its emerging potentials which promise higher returns on investments.

The unanimous view of the forum was that multi nationals and global giants that would earlier set up representative offices and liaison channels in India as part of their strategy to open up offices in India have moved on to a next phase as per which their strategies are to launch their corporations and begin business with their counterparts in joint venture sector. 

This change has come after the new government has come to power with Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the helm of affairs.  This view was expressed here today by mergers and acquisitions experts such as Chairman, M&A Worldwide, Bjorn Voigt; Director, Corporate Catalyst India, Mr. Ajay Sethi; Chairman, International Affairs Committee for Europe, PHD Chamber, Mr. Mohit Jain and its Secretary General, Mr. Saurabh Sanyal and Director, Mr. Yogesh Srivastav.

The Forum was presided over by the National Spokesperson of BJP Mr. Nalin Kohli who spoke about all the schemes of economic policies including demonetization and its benefits on M&A.

Demonetization to help inflation remain under control, interest rates to fall: PHD Chamber

While appreciating the Government efforts to control inflation in the economy vis-a-vis reforms in supply chain, Dr. Mahesh Gupta, President, PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry said that demonetisation of  rupees 500 and 1000 notes would also help prices to remain under control in the coming months.

Good monsoon behaviour and abundant supply of kharif crops coming in  the market in the recent  months has  checked the  rise in prices of many commodities, said Dr. Gupta.

The average WPI inflation so far in this financial year stands at around 3% during Apr-Oct 2016 and we are hopeful that inflation will fall below 3 percent in the coming months, he said.

The recent developments has created a good scope for further reduction in repo rate in the forthcoming monetary policy statement scheduled on December 7, 2016.

Repo rate at this juncture should not be more than 6% to give a big push to the economy with the new currency in circulation, said Dr. Gupta.

Reduced rate of interest with benign inflationary expectations would be a major breakthrough for the economy to enter the higher growth path, going forward, said Dr. Gupta.

Pay Advance Salaries to Govt/ Psu's/ Private Sector Employees in cash through Organisations – PHD Chamber

The PHD Chamber has suggested to the government to pay an advance as salaries in cash   to Government/ public sector and private sector employees  @ Rs 10,000 per employee with new Rs 500/- notes  as advance against salary of November 2016. This suggestion would also avoid overflowing queues and hardship being faced by most of the citizens and would also avoid loss of productivity due to employee absenteeism in organizations.

In a representation submitted to the finance minister here today, president PHD Chamber, Dr Mahesh Gupta, said that the suggested move would amount in reducing queuing outside banks and ATMs across the country.  It would immediately make new currency available in one day   without stressing banks and post offices .

Dr Gupta pointed out that PHD Chamber was one of the leading institutions that welcomed the demonetization move and applauded it for flushing out black money and stop terrorist funding in the country.