India - Following the institution of the new coalition government in the UK, the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) is organizing its annual CEOs’ mission to the UK from June 28 - 29. Mr Anand Sharma, Minister of Commerce & Industry, Government of India, will be addressing several key meets during the course of the CII CEOs’ delegation visit to the UK during June 28 - 29.

Mr Hari Bhartia, President, CII, and Co-Chairman and Managing Director, Jubilant Organosys Ltd, is leading the delegation to hold talks with key industry bodies and think tanks in CII’s continuing efforts to strengthen India-UK bilateral cooperation.

The CII CEOs’ delegation will hold meetings with academia at London School of Economics (LSE) and expert groups at Chatham House (formerly the Royal Institute of International Affairs). The delegation will also participate in a conference with the Confederation of British Industry, the voice of UK business.

The mission is expected to provide a further impetus to India-UK bilateral trade and investment ties and realise the envisaged goals of increasing bilateral trade to $40 billion and bilateral trade in services to $20 billion by year 2015. Merchandise trade crossed $12.5 billion in 2008-09, but slipped somewhat in the wake of the global financial crisis in 2009-10.

Focused discussions will take place on the factors that will help step up UK investments in India, and Indian investments in the UK. The key sectors that will be discussed include green business, renewable energy, high-technology and education, among others. The UK is India’’s third largest trading partner within the EU and twelfth largest overall. The UK is also one of the largest investment sources in India.

Source:http://www.cii.in/PressreleasesDetail.aspx?enc=11AMLYRc6KP/NkR+PcGczIt97+VXxCaDaPq6ZFR+lFwcEWnPZXvU/EnFaPjFTdG2SIz7uHazvVP+vSkFMx1aqo+g+KCCm6G/xGfZJrM7CEtxCa3b3qgbBq0iyOZJg+Rm2YTN0c1SwN3eP0EjyBpq0g==

Mr Bansal said that industry should invest in research and development and use the latest technology in order to achieve business excellence. He further opined that MSME sector is highly unorganized in India and thus a research fund should be allocated for the prosperity of this industry. Today the sector needs funds for training, research, infrastructure, IT application and the likes.

The meet apprised the MSME sector, about the standards followed by the large companies and helped them to equip themselves with the international production standards in production and engineering.

Mr. R P Vaishaya, Director, MSME Development Institute, Karnal, Ministry of MSME, Government of Haryana stated that MSMEs are playing an important role in development of the country, employment generation and exports. The government through credit linked modernization / expansion programs, cluster development, quality certifications etc. is trying to provide the best possible support to the sector.

Speaking about facilitating business environment for the sector, Mr. S K Sinha, Director – Planning & Marketing, National Small Industries Corporation Limited (NSIC) stated that India is home to 26 million MSMEs which accounts for 45% of industrial output, and 40% of exports. He mentioned that NSIC through its various programs has been promoting a facilitating business environment for MSMEs.

Mr Raj Bhatia, Vice Chairman, CII Haryana State Council, in his Welcome address highlighted the need for a strong public policy on procurement of goods and services from MSMEs which comprises 13 million units in India. It is to be noted that the US procurement targets ranges from 20% to 30%, whereas in the EU and Japan it is 5-7%. In India, the public procurement from the MSME is less than 1%. said that apart from support of the government and large industrial houses, MSME’s today have to evolve themselves to meet the challenges of the future. On the other hand, government and large organizations should find ways to foster the sector and minimize existing business gap.

Mr Ravi Kumar Pisipathy, Convenor, MSME Panel, CII Haryana & Plant Head, Hero Honda Motors Ltd stated that the advent and adaption of IT has made global business possible for enterprises. This buyer seller meet is the beginning of bringing together the two crucial sides of business in understanding the specifications and requirements of an industry. This is acting as a base program, which in times to come will become sector specific.

Representatives from large organizations while addressing the session on Fostering New Business Linkages shared the process of selection of vendors for their organizations. Delhi International Airport Pvt Ltd (DIAL), Indian Sugar & General Engineering Corporation (ISGEC), Engineering Projects (India) Pvt Ltd (EPIL), Whirlpool of India Ltd, MSME Development Institute and Engineering Export Promotion Council, Hero Honda Motors Ltd and others presented their Purchase and Procurement policies and discussed their needs and the required standards with the participants. The presentations provided first hand vendor information to the small enterprises.

One to one meetings were organized with the representatives of the large companies. The delegates found the one to one meetings very useful and said that these meetings that were organized for the MSMEs with the large companies is very crucial for them to grow and build linkages. They said it is usually difficult to get an appointment and have a meeting with the Business heads of large corporates but it has been possible to meet these senior officials through this Buyer Seller Meet. The Meet was well attended by small and medium companies from the NCR region.

Source:http://www.cii.in/PressreleasesDetail.aspx?enc=9ASL+MRIckNRRDYSyUUFMXuamxfH6gtvfXdmWvJCEvsDf9OjLRTsuJ6mOzQvfj5GWYTDbSpQbh3Md2rUmSaplH4WxDmnNk6ScrLOhSn/JZtlYzv7v5Mw+y8RFvcVuA/RDp+fzf2nZzTsvLkStBux1g==

Chennai - As Indian Industry is set to converge from the Indian Accounting Standards to International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) from April 2011, industry captains were optimistic that the convergence would help Indian corporates to compete globally at the Summit on IFRS organized by Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) here today.

Mr T N Manoharan, Chairman, CII National Committee on Accounting Standards and Past President, ICAI, in his address said that indian industry would adapt IFRS with considerabale changes, based on Indian conditions. Convergence to IFRS would provide opportunity to industries to raise funds outside India, attract foreign investment and also help in maintaining the transparency levels, he said.

Indian companies need to have a level playing along with international companies since Ind-AS, the Indian IFRS equivalent, does not allow multiple approaches of financial reporting, which is possible in IFRS, said Mr Dolphy D’Souza, IFRS Leader – India, Ernst & Young Pvt Ltd.

Mr D’Souza said that there were two chief distinctions between Ind-AS and IFRS. Companies adopting IFRS approach had three choices of reporting gains and losses as per IS-19 Standard viz., recognizing gains and losses fully in the Profit & Loss Account, recognizing gains and losses in the reserve account and the corridor approach, where gains and losses are not recognized up to a certain corridor level, but recognized beyond the limit.

The Ind-AS however adopted only one approach, of recognizing actual gains and losses fully, eliminating the benefits of multiple choices approach, he said.

There were two key issues for corporate houses that were adopting IFRS standards¸ he said. One was the issue where corporate entities wanted to represent Forex gains and losses in long term accounts deferred over a period of time, since forex rates have been volatile resulting in spikes in P&L account.

The other related to real estate accounts, where companies wanted to report based on the percentage of completion method prevalent in India now, as against completed contract method as mandated by IFRS, he further said.

Mr V Sankar, CFO, Hinduja Foundries Ltd, speaking on the industry experience in adopting IFRS said that early and steady approach to adopting IFRS was important since the effort required for transition from Indian GAAP to IFRS was often underestimated. “A late start often results in escalation of costs. Several companies are now only starting to explore benefits of IFRS implementation,” he said.

Mr K Sridharan, Chairman, Task Force on GST & DTC, CII Southern Region & CFO, Ashok Leyland Ltd and Mr S Chandramohan, Convenor, Economic Affairs & Taxation Panel, CII Tamil Nadu & CFO,Tractors & Farm Equipment Ltd participated at a panel discussion highlighting industry perspectives in adapting to IFRS.

Source:http://www.cii.in/PressreleasesDetail.aspx?enc=12/otMk+PalYZ0UWlpZeuVhyRewybeH1VR2y0ThZnV5c12sFnZmut8nmMBNFie9Aeh885L1OE1/7pC06I3h1SEZO5hTWsReIRnbPiFmispcp7TrMUBwMPkbB5SsY+hVG//bjl9+nd3QdFoOumuDelg==

CII welcomes the decision to deregulate fuel prices. While this will have some negative impact on inflation in the short-term, the long-term impact of cutting subsidies will be positive. Instead of keeping prices suppressed artificially, it is important to send the correct price signals to consumers so that there is no wastage of scarce resources. Oil companies that have been bearing this subsidy can now free up cash for investment. Most importantly, the move has shown that the government has the ability to implement policy changes even if they are politically difficult.

Source:http://www.cii.in/PressreleasesDetail.aspx?enc=uI5K6d1p0pAIBWjJIyGBJcMll/JpeR8nyx3irDlhb5hfY2/8g1vO7yWxl1IW8lOnRGrTjGq3R5wzXktngOtIgqohl+RY8kNwvQ2NV7QvKUjwWQMnhMwBXgCwSKK/yhckekiId7P/XTkTp4mrFarrsA==

The Government of Maharashtra is prepared to come up with legislation for making affordable housing facilities available to curb slum dwelling in Mumbai if required, indicated Mr Sachin Ahir, Minister of State for Activities, Housing, Environment, Industries, Mines, Repairs and Reconstruction, Slum Improvement, Social Justice and Urban Land Ceiling, Government of Maharashtra.

“The alternatives for effective affordable housing are that the private players take up opportunity or the government intermediates to boost or the government come up with legislation for creation of affordable housing,” the Minister said while addressing the National Real Estate Conclave – ‘Maximizing Opportunities 2010 and Beyond’, organized by Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).

Mr Ahir also pointed out that the government has extended incentives in terms of FSI for parking facilities and Green solutions in the residential projects. “We have created single window clearance system for SRA projects in the city. We may amend the Township Act to create more residential space through satellite townships,” he said.

A real estate sector report, ‘The Seven Stars of India,’ prepared by CII and Jones Lang LaSalle Meghraj was also released at the conclave.

The report covered trends of real estate in India providing overview of the best performing micro markets for occupiers on seven most prominent cities including, Delhi NCR, Mumbai, Pune, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Kolkata and Chennai. According to the report, the IT/ITES and BFSI sectors will lead the charge as net absorption of office space is forecasted to grow at a CAGR of 29.5% from 19.6 million sq ft in 2009 to 42.6 million sq ft in 2012.

Mr Arun Nanda, Chairman, CII Western Region and Director, Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd requested the Hon’ble Minister for a definite government policy on real estate industry. “The average project completion time is about 4-5 years. Frequent changes in the government policy on real estate and infrastructure affect the projects adversely. There is a need of definite government policy on the real estate sector. Besides, after land acquisitions, it takes at least 18 to 20 months to receive all required government clearances. A single window clearance system for the same is also required for speedy clearances,” he said.

Mr Nanda said, “With market recovery in 2010, the residential prices are shot uIndia’s Best- performing Micro Markets for Occupiers” focusing on real estate trends and forecast in seven major cities released at the CII Real Estate National Conclavep by 30-35 per cent. The industry players should not out price the market as there is strong demand and hence, tremendous opportunity for many players in real estate,” Mr Nanda said.

Mr Anuj Puri, Conference Chairman & Chairman and Country Head, Jones Lang LaSalle Meghraj said, “Based on the recently released, Global Real Estate Transparency Report by Jones Lang LaSalle, The Indian real estate industry has its own challenges and opportunities. India was ranked 41st in an international survey on transparency in real estate transactions in Tier-II cities whereas, in 2008 we were ranked 50th.

We are also ahead of China in the same manner which is due to increasing participation of international real estate companies’ participation and improvement in title recalls.”

Source:http://www.cii.in/PressreleasesDetail.aspx?enc=GZRMoqEerDYnd9srdzgkeAw9Ous9QBdA8Y/scFJP1M1dQZpz8y6lB9gpIlbGKHB/+zD2Tn5QQaZlddhf9MyR/jec1D9An4AT0ULVA7+SMfy6h2bR3N2yKpg0EJ1KQ3K+anR3i2SQ5t0JHcOD6+EG/Q==

India : India’s strength as one of the most enterprising nations with inclusive entrepreneurial drive that includes bottom of the pyramid innovations that drive social economic growth was highlighted during the multilateral discussions at the G20 Young Entrepreneur Summit in Toronto, Canada by CII”’’s Young Indians (Yi) and Bharatiya Yuva Shakti Trust (BYST). Yi and BYST are representing India at this very unique and historic summit.

Representatives of the G20 nations deliberated over two days on the key challenges facing the development and growth of entrepreneurship in their respective countries and discussed and agreed upon an appropriate coordinated response to these issues. This final communique will be used to call upon leaders of governments participating at the G20 Business Leaders Summit at Toronto to recognize the imperatives and to pledge their support for action.

The issues identified include affordable institutional access to finance, need for a collaborative platform that integrates key stakeholders and services the needs of entrepreneurs, working to build and celebrate an entrepreneurial culture, creating a supportive tax and regulatory ecosystem that promotes business growth and focus on developing a comprehensive system of education and skills training to encourage new ventures.

“Entrepreneurship at macro and micro level is essential in creating economic resurgence in today”’’s global economic scenario. More importantly the Indian entrepreneurial model is key to an inclusive approach to wealth creation that is necessary to address the income inequalities in the world today. Our discussions here at the G20 YES have paved the way for the creation of a collaborative platform of young organizations from the G20 nations who will drive the focus on entrepreneurship in their nations to create an inclusive model of wealth creation and also to support the nations beyond G20 to foster entrepreneurship,” said Ms Bhairavi Jani, President, Indian Delegation & CII National Chairman, Yi.

Source:http://www.cii.in/PressreleasesDetail.aspx?enc=RDtjkvLLUplQJvzBNcI5×5DzelhrI3QuQsrG7jSNVU/6++mJGsoFlEwRCW/c+F0yruTuWfe4oWAHfWBVwc3UQEAtPgDo9E6X01QLWJK19rP550iOn9cQM8dvUh5XDu7NmsmlldG+q/qO+E0+4Cc3qQ==

Chennai – A 1-Day Workshop organized jointly by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII); United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), Indian Venture Capital Association (IVCA) and Indian Angel Network (IAN) in Chennai today introduced alternate finance options for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs).

In his keynote address, Mr S Chandramohan, Convenor, Panel on Economic Affairs & Taxation, CII Tamil Nadu & Chief Financial Officer, TAFE Ltd, said that increase in competition together with demand for quaity at best prices prompted the SMEs to introduce new product development methods with modern technology. Hence, availability of finance is utmost importance for the survival of SME, he said. This workshop on Growth and Finance Options will create more awareness amongst the SMEs on alternative finance options for their growth, he further said.

“This workshop is expected to bridge the gap between SMEs and equity investors including private equity funds, which have recently grown in India,” says Mr Bruno Valanzuolo, Chief Technical Advisor of the Consolidated Project, UNIDO. “In addition to independent players, major financial institutions such as ICICI have also recently established equity funds for SMEs. However, very few promoters of SMEs have the appropriate information and knowledge to approach such equity investors.”

While SMEs are considered to be key players in economic development in India, access to finance continues to be a major challenge for their growth. As part of the Consolidated Project for SME Development in India (“Consolidated Project”), UNIDO, together with IVCA and IAN developed a training programme for SMEs on alternative finance options, he further said.

The training programme consists of three modules:

• Training Module I: Growth and Finance Options
• Training Module II: Private Equity Finance
• Training Module III: Mentoring and Presentations to Potential Investors

The workshop in Chennai is the first Module I training and participating SMEs are expected to become more aware of the importance of growth and alternative finance options beyond traditional bank loans. Module II will concentrate specifically on private equity funding process. Growing SMEs will be selected from Module II to participate in mentoring and presentation sessions in Module III. Mentors from investors’ community will assist SMEs to develop business plans for the presentation to potential investors.

CII and UNIDO, the MoU Partners, have been working closely for the development of SMEs in India. CII & UNIDO would provide support for SMEs under ‘FinExe’ – a Finance Excellence initiative for SMEs in identifying various funding options and also help them in preparing project proposals for large organisations said Mr Sujith Haridas, Regional Director, CII, Southern Region in his Opening Remarks.

Source:http://www.cii.in/PressreleasesDetail.aspx?enc=gUysn1z2lKX2Dh+Ie0nbGhjEP3w0aq0z65kyVC1dK+XiCQ0qWP1K3qSB+kBB9jcZobZwlO3TgPABYLmjSJf/wKDPq5G0OqO0AGHDQUEqhWX2V6xTwGZKhZfu0SJUMvt+5j6Fuu7wuBFhUN9VxC6YXQ==

India - On the Securities & Exchange Board of India’s (SEBI’s) regulations on mutual funds, the Chairman, C B Bhave said that the industry should understand what investors want, what are the gaps in meeting demands and should identify the ways of filling gaps. “We should learn lessons from the recent global recession. We have seen that those financial institutions somehow run into troubles which have high incentive structures,” Mr Bhave said while addressing the 6th edition of Mutual Fund Summit 2010, organized by Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).

Addressing to the MF industry captains at the conference, he said, “As professional fund managers, you should give better returns and reduce the costs to increase investors returns. You are manufacturers of products. Advisory part for better servicing should be left to investors. They can decide how much would they pay for the advisory service if they want.”

Mr U K Sinha, Chairman - CII Mutual Fund Summit 2010, Chairman - CII National Committee on Mutual Funds and Chairman & Managing Director, UTI Asset Management Co. Ltd., said, “With the challenges lying ahead before the MF industry, there is the need of definite government policy on mutual fund industry as by doing this, many things will fall in place.” He added that the only legislation pertaining to the mutual funds is the UTI Act 1964 which was created with the objective of mobilization of domestic and
corporate savings.

Mr Sinha, about the performance of mutual fund industry, said, “About 79% of assets under management (AUM) performed better than the benchmark index in last one year whereas for last five years, the rate is about 77%. Despite global economic turmoil, none of the mutual fund company in India defaulted despite of high redemption rate.”

A joint report by CII-PwC was also released on Indian Mutual Fund Industry - Tow ards 2015: Sustaining Inclusive Growth-Evolving Business Model at the summit. The overview of report was that the despite increasing year-on-year AUM growth rate of 47% in 2009-10, MF industry is facing several challenges like, low retail participation, lack of investor education, distributio network and cost pressure.

Mr Pravin Toshniwal, Deputy Chairman - CII Western Region and Chairman, Nivo Controls Pvt. Ltd. in his welcome remarks said, “The GDP, borrowing and saving growth rate of India looks promising.
However, the AUM of mutual funds is considerably low at 5% of GDP whereas the rate is about 70% in USA. Proactive measures in India are required to guide the investors.”

Source:http://www.cii.in/PressreleasesDetail.aspx?enc=as/VrKXOcLqAIXwKzYGYJfzaMo/ym6LWqOlNkb8ew/UdTc1YcwAhirReamg4JpaHpj2lATEqBS49bv5jgFh6dZhVWxEw3p02pHH0A6xNO7B1D5rhLtOqt1g95+kj8lHGn+TLPLEXeeAfTvpv7TnvEQ==

India : There are huge lessons for India and Indian Industry in the Bhopal Gas Tragedy, said CII President, Mr Hari Bhartia in a press release issued here today.

An industrial accident, which turns into a human tragedy, and involves compensation for the affected, clearing of the site, addressing environment issues, etc, of the scale that Bhopal represents is a call to action for everybody, said the CII President.

CII has said that in such cases it is imperative to ensure that there is action on all fronts – reaching adequate compensation to the affected, addressing issues of clearing up the site and effectively dealing with the environmental impact. Our systems need to learn to react swiftly in such cases, and it is important that compensation is commensurate with the scale of the tragedy.

At the same time it is important to ensure that there is accurate accountability and responsibility determined and the guilty are punished. The law of the land has to be conducive to facilitate this, CII said.

CII would be setting up a special Task Force which would look at the prevalent laws, regulations and compliance issues pertaining to Safety, Health and Environment in a comprehensive manner in the light of developments that led to the Bhopal tragedy and its outcome, Mr Bhartia said. Risk assessment and mitigation is one of the key responsibilities of the management of the company. Hopefully, the report of the Task Force would provide additional levers to ensure that the Boards of companies are better equipped to deal with this aspect effectively. This is the need of the hour in order to ensure that Industrial accidents are avoided in the country and the Indian Industry are better prepared to deal with accidents, should they occur in the future, the CII President said.

Reacting to the sentencing of Mr Keshub Mahindra in the Bhopal Gas tragedy case, Mr Bhartia has yet again requested the Government to treat non executive members of the Board including Non Executive Chairmen, differently when it comes to Directors’ liabilities. CII has said that it has taken note that Mr Mahindra, a former non-executive director of Union Carbide, was charged under the same sections as the officers-in-default namely the Managing Director, Executive Director, Works Manager and others directly involved in the day-to-day running of the company.

While as board members, independent and non-executive directors have the same legal duties and obligations as executive directors, however, because of their limited involvement in the day-to-day running of the company, it is undesirable for the law to expose them to personal liability, feels CII. Unfortunately, the Companies Act 1956 does not differentiate between different categories of directors in terms of liabilities - there is no distinction made within the liability of the director, whether he or she is independent, non-executive or executive —they are all commonly liable.

CII has strongly recommended that the law regarding the potential liability of non-executive and independent directors needs to undergo a change. Non-executive directors cannot be made to undergo the ordeal of a trial for offence of non-compliance with a statutory provision unless it can be established prima facie that they were liable for the failure on part of the company.

Mr Bhartia went on to say that today, large companies operate in several jurisdictions and are required to comply with various legal and regulatory requirements. It is therefore necessary to expressly exempt non-executive directors from vicarious criminal liability under the applicable statutes. Otherwise, the industry would witness a scenario, where good Independent Directors would be reluctant to join the board of companies, owing to disproportionately high liabilities.

CII strongly recommends that a non-obstante clause be incorporated in the Companies Bill 2009 to exclude non-executive directors from any vicarious criminal liability for offences committed by the company. This provision should have overriding effect on all other laws, the CII release said.

Source:http://www.cii.in/PressreleasesDetail.aspx?enc=700WVK0UNPM2iOL8ueNEaqirOx3RGbfNW5adFwL283w91Gez5mYp8IKC3jNafwSfZSx4idJWu+Xcnk0Rh52WmMGFTQlqdwAv0dNL2IWi2hGMvI1LIAVYSKmSA+PtU+RVgXNfmD1SCa8o8xfHXjUvAA==

India : British retailer Marks and Spencer has reaffirmed its commitment to double its retail presence in India through its joint venture in the emerging market. The retailer currently operates 17 stores in India in conjunction with Indian-owned Reliance Retail.

The firm said it plans to increase that number to more than 50 over the next three years. The affirmation comes on the back of the opening of a larger format store in Chennai last week.

A spokesperson for Marks and Spencer said the joint venture with Reliance Retail has allowed it to “gain better control” in India. “In India there are lots of great opportunities but a lot of it is about relying on the space becoming available, so we do want to open stores but it’s about making sure we get the right locations, and the right shopping malls.

She added: “As well as trying to expand our presence, it’s about getting the size of the store right. So where some of our franchise stores are a little bit small, the stores we are opening now, we’re trying to build them a bit bigger so that we can offer a bigger catalogue.”

Marks and Spencer announced plans to open 50 stores in India when it formed the joint venture in 2008. The retailer said the target remains. “There are some really positive things about business in India, in terms of local sourcing, which we’re trying to increase, which helps lower some of the prices,” the spokesperson said.

Source:http://www.aepcindia.com/national.asp?id=306&yr=2010