by admin | May 25, 2021 | Business, Large Enterprise
New Delhi, (IANS) Appropriate rules and guidelines are being framed by the government to encourage investment through Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) route in the retail market for the food processing industry.
“The Ministry of Commerce is framing the guidelines,” Union Food Processing Industries Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal said at a press conference here.
“My ministry believes entry of multinational companies will play a catalytic role in transforming rural and farm economy if they enter the retail market. A suggestion was put forward by our ministry and the cabinet has approved the suggestion. This was reflected in the budget,” said Badal, who has been pushing for allowing 100 percent FDI in multi-brand retail for the food processing sector.
She, however, sought to clarify that foreign players looking to invest in the food processing sector in India will have to mandatorily divert about 15 per cent of funds in building infrastructure at the “farm gate level for the benefit of farmers”.
“We do not want a situation where MNCs open retail outlets but procure things from the regular mandis. This will hurt farmers only. Hence my ministry has proposed for 15 percent funds to be invested for infrastructure developments,” Badal said listing out various achievements of her ministry during last two years.
The government had agreed in principle for allowing 100 percent FDI in marketing and processing of food products and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had made the announcement in the budget 2016-17 also.
But once the guidelines and related rules are framed by the Commerce Ministry, it would formally go before the Cabinet for necessary approval.
“The cabinet will collectively take a decision in due time,” Badal said.
Briefing media in presence of her colleague, Minister of State for Food Processing Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti and senior officials, Badal said sustained efforts and crucial policy decisions have helped government bring down wastage of agricultural produce by about 10 percent from a whopping loss of Rs.92,000 crore.
“Various studies earlier revealed that there was loss of about RS 92,000 crore due to wastage of food and horticulture produce from harvest to market levels. Setting up of six new mega food parks across the country has helped bring down the wastage by 10 percent,” she said.
From 2008 to 2014, the UPA government had set up only two mega food parks, she said adding the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government has raised it to eight by setting up new parks.
“There is already a net saving of Rs 3,000 crore and there is potential of saving Rs 9,000 crore once all these parks are operational,” she said.
Badal said by 2019, her ministry will create 42 mega food parks across the country.
The minister also launched a new online portal for bringing more transparency in developing and maintenance of food parks.
The new portal will allow online filing of claims for release of grant for the projects.
“The new initiatives will bring in transparency in disbursal of funds. And it will go a long way to ensure corruption-free governance in the country,” Badal said.
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Investing
New Delhi, (IANS) The government has approved seven FDI proposals worth Rs.517.57 crore, the finance ministry said on Monday.
“Based on the recommendations of the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB), the government has approved seven proposals involving FDI (foreign direct investment) of Rs.517.57 crore, which includes post-facto amount of Rs.18.46 crore,” the ministry said in a statement.
The FIPB approved these proposals at a meeting on April 8.
The proposals approved include that of Jupiter Corporate Services, OneMarket India, Elite Screens India, Prime Living, Gulf Quarry General Trading, Helix Investment Holdings and Alchymars ICM SM.
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Economy, News
New Delhi : (IANS) The CPI-M on Wednesday dubbed the government move to allow 100 percent FDI in e-commerce retail “an outright surrender to the big foreign e-commerce retail firms” and demanded its scrapping.
“This is clearly announced to appease foreign capital on the eve of (Prime Minister Narendra) Modi’s US visit,” the Communist Party of India-Marxist said in a statement.
“It is also a surrender to the pressures of the EU (European Union) keeping in mind the ongoing Free Trade Agreement talks with EU and the prime minister’s visit to Brussels.”
The CPI-M said the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had been vocal against the FDI in retail trade when it was in the opposition.
“Now it has done a somersault. Allowing of FDI in e-commerce will facilitate the backdoor entry of FDI in retail. This will affect the livelihood of lakhs of small retailers in the country.”
The CPI-M demanded that “this harmful policy be immediately rescinded”.
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Corporate, Corporate Governance
Islamabad:Pakistan’s domestic investment is in a grim state, said a daily Tuesday, noting that the country’s economy is “a long way away from recovery”.
An editorial in the News International said that “around 96 percent of bank investment is in government bonds, which contributes nothing productive to the economy”.
It said that a day after announcing that foreign direct investment (FDI) in 2014-15 had plummeted by 58 percent to $709 million, the State Bank of Pakistan in its third-quarter report ended up painting a positive picture of the country’s economic situation.
“The report reflects the contradictory picture that the current government is attempting to paint, with Finance Minister Ishaq Dar’s budget speech claiming that the country’s macroeconomic indicators were now stable still ringing in our ears. The SBP claim was also contradicted by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, which reported last week that Pakistan’s exports were at a four-year low of $23.9 billion,” said the daily.
The editorial questioned the government’s claims of economic recovery and noted that despite claims that the Chinese investment is set to change the economic outlook of Pakistan, “the FDI this year is the worst in more than a decade”.
“The actual Chinese investment in 2015 was $229 million, three times less than last year.”
It added that domestic investment is in a grim state.
The daily cited the SBP as saying that the import of LNG and low international oil prices will facilitate the economy. “Almost bizarrely, it has pointed to the growth in the construction sector and private residential projects as ‘positive’ indicators.”
“Anyone with an understanding of the global economy should know that housing price increases cause economic bubbles, unless they are accompanied by a genuine increase in the productive base of an economy.
“The SBP admits low growth in the commodity producing sectors of agriculture and industry. This means that despite what the SBP and the federal government say, the Pakistani economy is a long way away from recovery,” the daily added.
