by admin | May 25, 2021 | Economy, News, Politics
Venkaiah Naidu
Visakhapatnam : Vice-President M. Venkaiah Naidu on Saturday said that the demonetisation and Goods and Services Tax (GST) have led to improvement in India’s fiscal prudence and expanded the formal economy and the tax base.
Terming them the boldest and revolutionary moves by the government, he said despite their short-term hiccups, they were yielding results and would give further boost to the economy in the long-term
Addressing the CII Partnership Summit, which began in this coastal city of Andhra Pradesh on Saturday, he told the delegates that the Indian economy was now back on track and is on course to achieve higher growth in the coming years.
He said the demonetisation brought the money, hitherto lying idle, into the banking system and resulted in bringing down the interest rates. “The banks have reduced lending rates from 9.5 to 10 per cent to 8.25 per cent. People have learnt fiscal prudence,” he said.
“Any tough reform will face teething problems in the initial stages and the same was the case with both demonetization and GST. However, the long-term advantages will definitely outweigh the short-term hiccups which caused a bit of economic slowdown. That period is over now and the economy is on the track to achieve a higher growth,” the Vice President said.
Naidu also claimed that the demonetisation streamlined the tax system and brought down tax evasion. “In a span of one year, more than 1.81 crore people were brought into the tax net additionally, taking the overall number of tax payers into 8.27 crore. The revenue flows into the government kitty are increasing sharply and you can see by next February, the exchequer would be flooded with tax revenues and there will be increase in the share of the states,” he said.
Outlining the major reforms initiated by the government in the last few years, he said that harmonization of indirect taxes through GST, easing the regulatory environment, facilitating foreign direct investment across all sectors, massive recapitalization of the public sector banks at Rs 2.11 lakh crore to improve credit growth and investment and the implementation of Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code had given a major push to the economy.
The FDI inflows had increased steadily from $45 billion in 2014-15 to touch $60 billion in 2016-17 while exports had been recovering steadily over the last several months and grew at over 12 per cent in the first three quarters of 2017-18, he pointed out.
Naidu said with simple taxation system, ideal investment climate, huge natural resources, hassle-free administration and abundant human resources, India is an ideal destination for global investments. “We have been following the concept of reform, perform and transform and it will provide the platform for the investors to put in their money in India and reap rich profits,” he said.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Business, Commodities, Commodities News, Economy, Large Enterprise, Markets, News
Chennai : Expanding its fruit based beverage offerings, frozen fruit dessert, getting into dairy based value added products and also exporting those products developed in India, are some of the plans of Coca-Cola India Pvt Ltd, said a top company official.
He said the company’s focus will be on ‘fruit circular economy’– enabling farmers to increase their yield, source pulp and launch fruit based products.
The company is also planning to launch vegetable based beverage like carrot juice.
“We are in the process of developing different fruit beverages including based on regional fruits and would soon be launching them.
“Similarly we will also expand our portfolio of fruit flavoured sparkling drinks like Fanta.
“After successful piloting of our frozen fruit dessert in Bengaluru, we will launch the product in major cities this April,” T.Krishnamukar, President, Coca Cola India and Southwest Asia told select media here late on Thursday.
He said the company plans to launch fruit juices based on the regional preferences. For instance, the company would launch mango juices based on mango varieties that are available and popular in a particular region so that there is also a local connect.
“We are also working on a product based on gooseberries,” he added.
According to him, the company has tied up with Jain Irrigation that operates fruit pulping plants in different regions.
“We have tied up with Jain Irrigation for sourcing and pulping mango fruit. Similarly we have a tie up with that company for oranges in Maharashtra.
“We expect Jain Irrigation may start setting up an orange pulping plant and the first commercial orange pulp may be available sometime in 2020,” Krishnakumar added.
He said the company’s focus on fruit beverages is in line with its philosophy of ‘beverage for life’ meaning to have a product for people in different age groups.
“The philosophy now is to make the company bigger than the Coca-Cola brand. Presently the Coca-Cola group is a $21 billion brand,” he said.
According to Krishnakumar, Coca-Cola India with its focus on the ‘fruit circular economy’ will enable the growth in demand for fruits which in turn would improve the farm practices and increase the farmer income.
“We felt we should be more relevant to the local community. Tastes, views vary based on regions. So we have to move global to local and local to global,” he said.
The company will launch the local fruit beverages-including the mango beverage- under the Minute Maid brand.
“The fruit pulp content will be between 10 per cent to 25 per cent in such drinks,” Krishnakumar added.
He said the research and development (R&D) work for new products is being done in India and also in Shanghai in China.
Speaking of exports, he said the company has started exporting Indian brands like the carbonated drink ThumsUp and masala soda RimZim to Bangladesh and later to Sri Lanka, Bhutan and other markets.
“We want to build on Indian brand as a billion dollar beverage brand. We are not shipping the end product but the formula, brand and related matters,” he said.
Speaking of the sugar content in the company’s beverages, Krishnakumar said work in on to reduce the sugar content in its drinks and in five years time the beverages sold by the company will have far less sugar content than what it currently has.
On foray into the dairy products segment Krishnakumar said during the second half of the current year the company would launch value added dairy product.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Business Summit, Corporate, Corporate Buzz, Corporate Governance, Economy, Events, Investing, News, Politics
Lucknow : Industry captains heaped wholesome praise on the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath for bringing a turn around in the state’s environment within a year as they committed to investments of over Rs 4.35 lakh crore over the next three years on the first day of the Investors Summit here on Wednesday.
A visibly-elated Adityanath announced at the inaugural session of the two-day summit that more than 1,200 MoUs had been signed with a total amount which was almost equal to the state’s budget for 2018-19.
In his address, he said that he was happy that the investors had taken note of the transformational changes in the state and were willing to partner the growth story that had been set rolling by the BJP government in the last 11 months. He also assured the investors that his government had taken their safety and security on top priority and had done a lot to turn around the law and order situation.
Adityanath assured that all the MoUs that have been signed would be followed up seriously and it would be ensured that the facilities offered to them were adhered to in full and that they have no problems in setting up industries in the state. He also said that a a cell has set up to follow up on the investment promises and that he would personally monitor them on a case to case basis.
In his address, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that his government will establish a Rs 20,000-crore defence industrial production corridor in Bundelkhand — a region divided between Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh — that will generate 250,000 jobs and bring development to one of the most impoverished regions of the country.
Stressing that Uttar Pradesh had a vast potential for development but needed policy, planning, and performance, he lauded the efforts of Adityanath for setting the state on the path to give a “super hit” performance.
Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani too praised the Chief Minister whom he called him a “karma yogi” while many others like Adani Group chief Gautam Adani, Tata Sons chairman N Chandrashekharan, Apollo Hospitals Vice Chairperson Shobana Kamineni, Essel Group Chairman Subhash Chandra, Mahindra and Mahindra Chairman Anand Mahindra also complimented him for “setting things right enough” to set pace for more investment in the state.
Adani announced that his company would invest more than Rs 35,000 crore for projects including a 1,000 MW solar plant, developing a storage capacity of 6 lakh tonnes, multi-model logistics parks, 5,000 MW solar parks, world class food and agri-complexes and a world class multi-disciplinary university and skill development center in Noida.
Kumarmangalam Birla of the Aditya Birla Group said UP was set for its front ranking place in the nation with the “hallmark leadership style of Yogi”. “I am impressed by the inexhaustible energy of the Chief Minister… am very bullish about the prospects of UP under him” he said while committing Rs 25,000 crore for the state in the next five years.
Mahindra reminisced about his mother’s early life in Allahabad and then as a history teacher at IT College in Lucknow, saying his visit was like a “home coming”.
He also thanked the Chief Minister for his promising ideas and announced that if the spirit went on course in future too he would be setting up an electric vehicle manufacturing unit in the state.
Mahindra also announced that its flagship Club Mahindra would set up a 200 bed time share unit in Varanasi circuit while Subhash Chandra also assured all help and support in Adityanath’s initiative to make UP a front-ranking state of the country.
Chandrashekharan also announced that TCS would now on not wrap up its Lucknow operations, as was the case earlier but would now also set up a 30,000 people new campus of the TCS in the state.
“TCS will continue to be in Lucknow and also strengthen its presence elsewhere in the state,” he said, also saying an IT centre would be set up in Varanasi, Modi’s parliamentary constituency.
Kamineni, who is also industry lobby CII’s President, said that she had not long ago brought with her a delegation of 60 top CEOs and announced that the Apollo Hospital was working with Cisco on an important project in Varanasi.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Interviews
M.M. Pallam Raju
By Mohd Asim Khan,
New Delhi : The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government has “twisted” some of the things in the digital revolution, such as “forcing digital transactions” on people and insisting on linking Aadhaar with everything, says M.M. Pallam Raju, a minister in the earlier Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government.
He contends that the genesis of India’s electronics and information technology (IT) revolution can be traced back to Congress governments in the previous century, adding that the momentum has been lost now.
Raju, an electronics engineer and a former Minister for Human Resources Development, trashed the idea of a totally cashless or even “less cash” Indian economy, saying digital transactions should be “an option and convenience” and not forced upon people.
“Cashless economy has to be integral to the overall economy. It is essential where large transactions are involved, but not on a day-to-day basis. It can be an option and convenience if somebody wants to pay digitally, but cash has been the comfort factor, especially for the rural population that is comfortable transacting in cash rather than digitally,” Raju said.
“Also, see how much fraud is happening in cyberspace, in terms of accounts getting hacked, money getting diverted, etc. And the chances of such frauds are higher with rural and uneducated people,” he said, adding that a “suitable ecosystem” has to be created before anything is “imposed on people”, which “unfortunately has not happened”.
As a former Union Minister, how does he see the current government’s insistence on linking everything from SIM cards to bank accounts and insurance covers with Aadhaar? After all, Aadhaar was conceived and rolled out during the UPA’s time.
“Aadhaar was envisioned to link welfare schemes. The whole idea was to streamline government benefits and to curtail losses/pilferage. That is being twisted and made into big monster without adequate preparation.
“If databases are to be secure — which I don’t think they are right now — there have to be more security features built in, and then if you utilise linking of Aadhaar for putting some checks and balances in place in the system, that’s all right. But don’t insist on linking everything with Aadhaar.
“That is not what founding fathers desired when they gave us the Constitution. We have a right to live our life, but that is being encroached upon,” Raju said.
Raju recently wrote “A Contribution in Time: India’s Electronics Revolution”, based on the life of his father, Dr M.S. Sanjeevi Rao, who served as Deputy Minister for Electronics in Prime Minister Indira Gandhi ‘s cabinet. It was unveiled by former President Pranab Mukherjee and former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
He said that while the book is a personal tribute to his father, it also tells the larger story of the genesis of India’s electronics revolution.
“As Electronics Minister and Chairman of the Electronics Commission, Dr Sanjeevi Rao ushered in dynamic and far-reaching policies that enabled exponential growth of the electronics, telecom and IT sectors in India. He was part of the team, along with Sam Pitroda, which led the country into the era of telecom, computers and IT (during Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi’s tenure),” Raju said.
“As millennials are so familiar with technology and its utilisation, it would be quite insightful for them to understand the genesis of this revolution — when electronics was happening and becoming a phenomenon worldwide,” he added.
Raju said that the vision of the leaders in India then was to make electronics-based technology accessible to the common people at an affordable price.
“It all started with consumer electronics and then became all pervasive with information technology, telecom and its role has increased exponentially,” he said, speaking of the book that captures the life of Sanjeevi Rao and the contemporary milieu in text and pictures.
It also contains a report that throws light on the coming into being of the Electronics Commission and the Department of Electronics in 1971.
“The good work that was started back then (in the 1970s-80s) for creating an ecosystem for manufacturing of electronics, which are the building blocks for applications anywhere, that momentum has not been sustained,” Raju said.
Of the modern internet and mobile phone connectivity revolution, Raju said that the “building blocks and the foundation of all this” was laid under the Manmohan Singh-led UPA government.
“We realised there was a need for bigger bandwidth, higher speeds as the digital communication was growing and becoming all pervasive. And so we envisioned this high-speed network — which the current government has named as Digital India.
Striking a personal note on how he conceived of the book, Raju recalled: “When our father passed away in 2014, it was an emotional moment for us. After suffering a stroke in 1998, he was paralysed, lost his speech. He was like a child (to me). It was a reversal of roles. He became the child and I became the father. When he passed away, it was like losing a child. I had to get that pain out. So the idea of writing a book occurred.”
(Asim Khan can be contacted on mohd.a@ians.in )
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Opinions
By Amit Kapoor,
For most part of human history, change was glacial in pace. It was quite safe to assume that the world at the time of your death would look pretty much similar to the one at the time of your birth. That is no longer the case, and the pace of change seems to be growing exponentially. Futurist Ray Kurzweil put it succinctly when he wrote in 2001: “We wont experience 100 years of progress in the 21st century – it will be more like 20,000 years of progress (at todays rate).” Since the time of his writing a lot has changed, especially with the advent of the internet.
India has done well to stay ahead of the curve in the technological revolution. The country’s hyper-competitive telecom sector has led the revolution from the front. In fact, according to Reserve Bank of India data, the sectoral change in productivity has been the highest in the telecommunications sector since the reforms of 1991, growing by over 10 percent. On the other hand, no other sector has had a productivity growth of above five percent during the same period. It is no wonder that it has also been one of the fastest-growing sectors of the Indian economy, growing at over seven percent in the last decade itself.
Such an unprecedented pace of growth has been brought about the precise levels of change that Kurzweil was so enthusiastic about. Today’s smartphones have the power of computers that took an entire room in the 1990s, and the telecom sector has had to keep up with provision of commensurate internet speeds and services. Meanwhile, India has managed to provide the cheapest telephony services around the world, which has hit rock bottom after the entry of Reliance Jio. This has ensured access to those even at the bottom of the pyramid.
Even though consumers have come to be accustomed to fast-paced changes within the telecom sector, the entry of Jio altered the face of the industry like never before by changing the very basis of competition. Data became the focal point of competition for an industry that derived over 75 percent of its revenue from voice. It was quite obvious that there would be immediate economic effects due to it. Now that we’re nearing a year of Jio’s paid operations, during which time it has even become profitable, we saw it fit to quantify its socio-economic impact on the country.Three broad takeaways need to be highlighted.
First, the most evident effect has been the rise in affordability of calling and data services. Voice services have become practically costless while data prices have dropped from an average of Rs 152 per GB to lower than Rs 10 per GB. Such a drastic reduction in data prices has not only brought the internet within the reach of larger proportion of the Indian population but has also allowed newer segments of society to use and experience it for the first time. Since the monthly saving of an average internet user came out to be Rs 142 per month (taking a conservative estimate that the consumer is still using 1 GB of data each month) and there are about 350 million mobile internet users in the country (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India data), the yearly financial savings for the entire country comes out to be Rs 60,000 crore.
To put things in perspective, this amount is more than four times the entire GDP of Bhutan. Therefore, mere savings by the consumer on data has been at astonishing proportions. Now, this data has been used for services that have brought to life a thriving app economy within the country. So, the second level of impact has been in the redressal of a variety of consumer needs — ranging from education, health and entertainment to banking. For instance, students in remote areas can now access online courseware and small businesses can access newer markets. Information asymmetry has been considerably reduced.
Third, a rise in internet penetration has distinct positive effects on economic growth of a country. These effects arise not merely from the creation of an internet economy, but also due to the synergy effects it generates. Information becomes more accessible and communication a lot easier. Businesses find it easier to operate and access consumers. Labour working in cities has to make less frequent trips home and becomes more productive as a result. Education and health services become available in inaccessible locations. Multiple avenues open up for knowledge and skill enhancement.
An econometric analysis for the Indian economy showed that the 15 percent increase in internet penetration due to Jio and the spill-over effects it creates will raise the per capita levels of the country’s GDP by 5.85 percent, provided all else remains constant.
Thus, India’s telecom sector will continue to drive the economy forward, at least in the short run, and hopefully catapult India into 20,000 years of progress within this century, as Kurzweil postulated. The best approach for the state would be to ensure the environment of unfettered competition within the industry. Maybe other sectors of the economy ought to take a leaf out of the telecom growth story. The Indian banking sector comes to mind. However, that is a topic for another day.
(Amit Kapoor is Chair, Institute for Competitiveness, India. He can be contacted at Amit.Kapoor@competitiveness.in and tweets @kautiliya. Chirag Yadav, senior researcher at the institute, has contributed to the article.)
—IANS
