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Ragnar
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India’s start-up boom echoing in ad campaigns - Livemint
New Delhi: A young entrepreneur asks his much older, former boss to become the chief executive officer of his two-year old firm.
A gang of girls want to launch a bakery.
And a group of suited executives finds out the long-haired young man in jeans they met (and made fun of) in a coffee shop is actually the investor they were supposed to meet.
Recognize the ads?
The first is for Titan (watches), the second, Hike (messenger), and the third for HP Pavilion (laptops).
Plots revolving around start-ups appear to have become the clutter breaker of choice in Indian advertising.
“Start-ups have become one of the reference points for many of our potential clients,” said Josy Paul, chairman and chief creative officer at BBDO India, the advertising agency that created the HP Pavilion ad.
It’s easy to understand why.
Every one is obsessed with start-ups. According to software lobby group Nasscom, India is one of the first five largest start-up communities in the world, with the number of (technology) start-ups crossing 4,200 —a growth of 40%—by the end of 2015.
A start-up, many believe, is launched every day in India.
Some think that’s a conservative estimate.
So far this year, start-ups have attracted investments of $5 billion, according to Nasscom.
Several students at the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs), India’s premier educational institutions, are taking the plunge and starting something instead of joining a big-name consulting firm or tech company.
Advertisers say all this is hard to ignore.
“Titan recognizes the equations and relationship dynamics in the workplace are rapidly evolving, and this change is driven by a new breed of entrepreneurial-minded men and women,” said Suparna Mitra, chief marketing officer (watches and accessories), Titan Co. Ltd, referring to the company’s July ad that sports the tagline, Your Time Has Come, created by Ogilvy and Mather.
“This growing culture (of start-ups) is breaking the perception of a successful career in India and is setting a new precedent for the generations to come. It is encouraging young professionals to innovate and be self-reliant for their futures. We wanted to weave this in a story that would represent the values of the brand and also reflect this spirit of today’s modern Indian consumer,” said Mitra.
It is also difficult not to contrast the new with the old.
Whatever the reality may be, start-ups are perceived to be cool and fun (even though the founders, and some of their employees, might be putting in 18-hour work days).
“The new HP campaign, created by us at BBDO India, plays off this tension between the old and the new,” said Paul.
And finally, start-ups are aspirational. Everyone wants to work for one (many even fantasize about starting one of their own).
“The idea of start-up culture works well with our target group from a consumer standpoint because it brings a feeling of aspiration and confidence along with it. With most of our target group being under 35, the start-up setting was perfect for our Free Group Calls ad,” said a spokesperson for Hike. The Hike ads were created by Lowe Lintas.
Like many things in advertising, the idea of using start-ups isn’t new, even in India.
The first wave of such ads appeared in 2000, during the first dotcom boom. The most memorable of those ads was one by Park Avenue, exhorting people to “start something new”.
A decade-and-a-half later, there appear to be enough people willing to do just that.
X-------------------------------------------------X------------------------------------------------X
Narendra Modi holding monthly meetings to clear stalled projects - Livemint
Narendra Modi holding monthly meetings to clear stalled projects
Once a month, Modi holds a meeting with top state and federal bureaucrats to check why projects have not got off the ground
New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi is personally taking on India’s notorious red tape to clear tens of billions of dollars worth of stalled public projects, hoping that his hands-on intervention can bend a vast, dysfunctional bureaucracy.
Once a month, Modi holds a meeting with top state and federal bureaucrats to check why projects have not got off the ground. Since March this year, his intervention has helped revive nearly $60 billion in federal and state projects, according to government data through September seen by Reuters.
Modi has won plaudits for the initiative that has chipped away at a $150 billion backlog of planned roads, ports, railways, power stations and other projects. But equally, critics say, the fact he needs to personally intervene shows the level of government inertia in Asia’s third-biggest economy.
“It is a systemic problem that the prime minister needs to work on,” said Arun Maira, a management consultant and member of the previous Congress government.
The initiative, launched by Modi in March and publicised on his personal web site and Twitter feed, is called pro-active governance and timely implementation, or Pragati, which means “progress” in the Hindi language.
Federal and state bureaucrats are linked by video to Modi’s office for the meeting, usually held on the fourth Wednesday of each month. They are typically from the finance, law, land, environment, transport and energy ministries whose clearances are needed for many projects.
The agenda is set the previous week and usually has about a dozen stalled projects, public grievances and other governance issues.
A senior official who has attended said that when a project comes up for discussion, Modi turns to the representative of the ministry where it is being held up.
He simply asks, “Please tell me why it hasn’t happened,” the official said.
Several months into Pragati, the official said, a majority of the projects are cleared before they come up for discussion.
The chief minister of Uttar Pradesh state, Akhilesh Yadav, a political rival of Modi, wrote to the prime minister’s office requesting the inclusion of a $1 billion metro rail project in the state capital at one Pragati meeting.
It got the clearances, including a pledge of federal funding, at the September meeting.
“This is a welcome move which would go a long way in doing away with avoidable delays,” said Alok Ranjan, the state’s top bureaucrat.
Systemic problem
Still, critics say that while Modi can quickly cut through red tape, his style centralizes decision-making and will not be sustainable in a country as large as India.
The stock of stalled projects in the country has come down, but remains high.
In the July-September quarter, projects worth 7.6% of India’s GDP, or $152 billion, were stalled, down from a peak of 8.5% in the January-March 2014 quarter, according to CMIE, a think-tank. The data includes private investment plans.
“Running a country is far more challenging than managing a state,” said Maira, the consultant, referring to Modi’s reputation as an effective administrator when he was chief minister of Gujarat state from 2001 to 2014.
During those years, he used a similar initiative to get projects off the ground.
After taking over as prime minister last year, Modi vowed to fire up India’s notoriously slow bureaucracy. He has set an ambitious goal of making India one of 50 most business-friendly destinations in the world by 2017.
The World Bank ranked India 130th out of 189 economies, up from 134th last year, in its annual Doing Business report released this week.
The previous government set up a cabinet task force to clear the backlog of projects but failed to make much of an impact because state governments were not involved.
Modi’s initiative has tried to plug that loophole.
I.Y.R. Krishna Rao, the top bureaucrat in Andhra Pradesh state, said projects are usually held up by a lack of coordination between different departments and governments.
Rao said he was pushing to get clearances for a railway line in his state. After it was reviewed by Modi, the response from the railway ministry improved substantially.
“This is a very good forum,” Rao said.
Reuters
New Delhi: A young entrepreneur asks his much older, former boss to become the chief executive officer of his two-year old firm.
A gang of girls want to launch a bakery.
And a group of suited executives finds out the long-haired young man in jeans they met (and made fun of) in a coffee shop is actually the investor they were supposed to meet.
Recognize the ads?
The first is for Titan (watches), the second, Hike (messenger), and the third for HP Pavilion (laptops).
Plots revolving around start-ups appear to have become the clutter breaker of choice in Indian advertising.
“Start-ups have become one of the reference points for many of our potential clients,” said Josy Paul, chairman and chief creative officer at BBDO India, the advertising agency that created the HP Pavilion ad.
It’s easy to understand why.
Every one is obsessed with start-ups. According to software lobby group Nasscom, India is one of the first five largest start-up communities in the world, with the number of (technology) start-ups crossing 4,200 —a growth of 40%—by the end of 2015.
A start-up, many believe, is launched every day in India.
Some think that’s a conservative estimate.
So far this year, start-ups have attracted investments of $5 billion, according to Nasscom.
Several students at the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs), India’s premier educational institutions, are taking the plunge and starting something instead of joining a big-name consulting firm or tech company.
Advertisers say all this is hard to ignore.
“Titan recognizes the equations and relationship dynamics in the workplace are rapidly evolving, and this change is driven by a new breed of entrepreneurial-minded men and women,” said Suparna Mitra, chief marketing officer (watches and accessories), Titan Co. Ltd, referring to the company’s July ad that sports the tagline, Your Time Has Come, created by Ogilvy and Mather.
“This growing culture (of start-ups) is breaking the perception of a successful career in India and is setting a new precedent for the generations to come. It is encouraging young professionals to innovate and be self-reliant for their futures. We wanted to weave this in a story that would represent the values of the brand and also reflect this spirit of today’s modern Indian consumer,” said Mitra.
It is also difficult not to contrast the new with the old.
Whatever the reality may be, start-ups are perceived to be cool and fun (even though the founders, and some of their employees, might be putting in 18-hour work days).
“The new HP campaign, created by us at BBDO India, plays off this tension between the old and the new,” said Paul.
And finally, start-ups are aspirational. Everyone wants to work for one (many even fantasize about starting one of their own).
“The idea of start-up culture works well with our target group from a consumer standpoint because it brings a feeling of aspiration and confidence along with it. With most of our target group being under 35, the start-up setting was perfect for our Free Group Calls ad,” said a spokesperson for Hike. The Hike ads were created by Lowe Lintas.
Like many things in advertising, the idea of using start-ups isn’t new, even in India.
The first wave of such ads appeared in 2000, during the first dotcom boom. The most memorable of those ads was one by Park Avenue, exhorting people to “start something new”.
A decade-and-a-half later, there appear to be enough people willing to do just that.
X-------------------------------------------------X------------------------------------------------X
Narendra Modi holding monthly meetings to clear stalled projects - Livemint
Narendra Modi holding monthly meetings to clear stalled projects
Once a month, Modi holds a meeting with top state and federal bureaucrats to check why projects have not got off the ground
New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi is personally taking on India’s notorious red tape to clear tens of billions of dollars worth of stalled public projects, hoping that his hands-on intervention can bend a vast, dysfunctional bureaucracy.
Once a month, Modi holds a meeting with top state and federal bureaucrats to check why projects have not got off the ground. Since March this year, his intervention has helped revive nearly $60 billion in federal and state projects, according to government data through September seen by Reuters.
Modi has won plaudits for the initiative that has chipped away at a $150 billion backlog of planned roads, ports, railways, power stations and other projects. But equally, critics say, the fact he needs to personally intervene shows the level of government inertia in Asia’s third-biggest economy.
“It is a systemic problem that the prime minister needs to work on,” said Arun Maira, a management consultant and member of the previous Congress government.
The initiative, launched by Modi in March and publicised on his personal web site and Twitter feed, is called pro-active governance and timely implementation, or Pragati, which means “progress” in the Hindi language.
Federal and state bureaucrats are linked by video to Modi’s office for the meeting, usually held on the fourth Wednesday of each month. They are typically from the finance, law, land, environment, transport and energy ministries whose clearances are needed for many projects.
The agenda is set the previous week and usually has about a dozen stalled projects, public grievances and other governance issues.
A senior official who has attended said that when a project comes up for discussion, Modi turns to the representative of the ministry where it is being held up.
He simply asks, “Please tell me why it hasn’t happened,” the official said.
Several months into Pragati, the official said, a majority of the projects are cleared before they come up for discussion.
The chief minister of Uttar Pradesh state, Akhilesh Yadav, a political rival of Modi, wrote to the prime minister’s office requesting the inclusion of a $1 billion metro rail project in the state capital at one Pragati meeting.
It got the clearances, including a pledge of federal funding, at the September meeting.
“This is a welcome move which would go a long way in doing away with avoidable delays,” said Alok Ranjan, the state’s top bureaucrat.
Systemic problem
Still, critics say that while Modi can quickly cut through red tape, his style centralizes decision-making and will not be sustainable in a country as large as India.
The stock of stalled projects in the country has come down, but remains high.
In the July-September quarter, projects worth 7.6% of India’s GDP, or $152 billion, were stalled, down from a peak of 8.5% in the January-March 2014 quarter, according to CMIE, a think-tank. The data includes private investment plans.
“Running a country is far more challenging than managing a state,” said Maira, the consultant, referring to Modi’s reputation as an effective administrator when he was chief minister of Gujarat state from 2001 to 2014.
During those years, he used a similar initiative to get projects off the ground.
After taking over as prime minister last year, Modi vowed to fire up India’s notoriously slow bureaucracy. He has set an ambitious goal of making India one of 50 most business-friendly destinations in the world by 2017.
The World Bank ranked India 130th out of 189 economies, up from 134th last year, in its annual Doing Business report released this week.
The previous government set up a cabinet task force to clear the backlog of projects but failed to make much of an impact because state governments were not involved.
Modi’s initiative has tried to plug that loophole.
I.Y.R. Krishna Rao, the top bureaucrat in Andhra Pradesh state, said projects are usually held up by a lack of coordination between different departments and governments.
Rao said he was pushing to get clearances for a railway line in his state. After it was reviewed by Modi, the response from the railway ministry improved substantially.
“This is a very good forum,” Rao said.
Reuters
Last edited:
kadamba-warrior
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Narendra Modi holding monthly meetings to clear stalled projects - Livemint
Narendra Modi holding monthly meetings to clear stalled projects
Once a month, Modi holds a meeting with top state and federal bureaucrats to check why projects have not got off the ground
New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi is personally taking on India’s notorious red tape to clear tens of billions of dollars worth of stalled public projects, hoping that his hands-on intervention can bend a vast, dysfunctional bureaucracy.
Once a month, Modi holds a meeting with top state and federal bureaucrats to check why projects have not got off the ground. Since March this year, his intervention has helped revive nearly $60 billion in federal and state projects, according to government data through September seen by Reuters.
Modi has won plaudits for the initiative that has chipped away at a $150 billion backlog of planned roads, ports, railways, power stations and other projects. But equally, critics say, the fact he needs to personally intervene shows the level of government inertia in Asia’s third-biggest economy.
“It is a systemic problem that the prime minister needs to work on,” said Arun Maira, a management consultant and member of the previous Congress government.
The initiative, launched by Modi in March and publicised on his personal web site and Twitter feed, is called pro-active governance and timely implementation, or Pragati, which means “progress” in the Hindi language.
Federal and state bureaucrats are linked by video to Modi’s office for the meeting, usually held on the fourth Wednesday of each month. They are typically from the finance, law, land, environment, transport and energy ministries whose clearances are needed for many projects.
The agenda is set the previous week and usually has about a dozen stalled projects, public grievances and other governance issues.
A senior official who has attended said that when a project comes up for discussion, Modi turns to the representative of the ministry where it is being held up.
He simply asks, “Please tell me why it hasn’t happened,” the official said.
Several months into Pragati, the official said, a majority of the projects are cleared before they come up for discussion.
The chief minister of Uttar Pradesh state, Akhilesh Yadav, a political rival of Modi, wrote to the prime minister’s office requesting the inclusion of a $1 billion metro rail project in the state capital at one Pragati meeting.
It got the clearances, including a pledge of federal funding, at the September meeting.
“This is a welcome move which would go a long way in doing away with avoidable delays,” said Alok Ranjan, the state’s top bureaucrat.
Systemic problem
Still, critics say that while Modi can quickly cut through red tape, his style centralizes decision-making and will not be sustainable in a country as large as India.
The stock of stalled projects in the country has come down, but remains high.
In the July-September quarter, projects worth 7.6% of India’s GDP, or $152 billion, were stalled, down from a peak of 8.5% in the January-March 2014 quarter, according to CMIE, a think-tank. The data includes private investment plans.
“Running a country is far more challenging than managing a state,” said Maira, the consultant, referring to Modi’s reputation as an effective administrator when he was chief minister of Gujarat state from 2001 to 2014.
During those years, he used a similar initiative to get projects off the ground.
After taking over as prime minister last year, Modi vowed to fire up India’s notoriously slow bureaucracy. He has set an ambitious goal of making India one of 50 most business-friendly destinations in the world by 2017.
The World Bank ranked India 130th out of 189 economies, up from 134th last year, in its annual Doing Business report released this week.
The previous government set up a cabinet task force to clear the backlog of projects but failed to make much of an impact because state governments were not involved.
Modi’s initiative has tried to plug that loophole.
I.Y.R. Krishna Rao, the top bureaucrat in Andhra Pradesh state, said projects are usually held up by a lack of coordination between different departments and governments.
Rao said he was pushing to get clearances for a railway line in his state. After it was reviewed by Modi, the response from the railway ministry improved substantially.
“This is a very good forum,” Rao said.
Reuters
That's why I say this man can change India's collective destiny - provided he gets atleast 2 (hopefully 3) terms with sufficient majority at his disposal.
Dragon Ball
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Abingdonboy
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Nilgiri
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India is not outperforming China, if we were half their economic size, then we can start comparing....but we are far far behind. We will have to put our heads down and grow solidly as much as possible for one or two decades and then revisit this topic in the China context.
That said, Ms. Kochar is a very respectable, knowledgeable lady...and she has given a very good synopsis here (and she definitely has not gone into "outperform China" mode).
I remember she gave a very good presentation at Davos and G20 earlier IIRC.
That said, Ms. Kochar is a very respectable, knowledgeable lady...and she has given a very good synopsis here (and she definitely has not gone into "outperform China" mode).
I remember she gave a very good presentation at Davos and G20 earlier IIRC.
Abingdonboy
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The title of the video is stupid but the content is worth watching.
Nilgiri
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Yes indeed. Reflective of a lot of media in general.
Ragnar
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Karbonn to invest Rs200 crore in Andhra Pradesh plant - Livemint
New Delhi: In line with the government’s ‘Make in India’ initiative, domestic handset vendor Karbonn will invest Rs.200 crore to set up a manufacturing plant at Tirupati in Andhra Pradesh.
Last week, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had laid the foundation stone for a dedicated mobile handset and electronics manufacturing facility at Tirupati. Apart from Karbonn, the facility will house brands such as Micromax, Celkon and Lava.
“We are setting up an integrated facility at Tirupati. The plant, which will be operational by September next year, will have a manufacturing capacity of 500,000 units a month,” Karbonn chairman Sudhir Hasija told PTI.
He added that the company will invest Rs.200 crore in the facility and employ 2,000 people to start with. “We currently have a monthly capacity of 1.8-2 million units and we are looking at scaling this up to 2.5 million by December next year,” he said.
Over the next few years, the plan is to develop the entire manufacturing ecosystem in India along with component manufacturing, he added. “By 2017, we will have miniscule imports as we will manufacture in India rather than just assembling here,” Hasija said.
Karbonn has a unit in Noida that manufactures feature phones. It is also setting up a facility in Haryana that is about thrice the size of the Noida plant.
Global handset makers such as Samsung and domestic players such as Micromax and Spice have assembly units in India. Recently, international players such as Xiaomi, Gionee and Asus have announced assembly units in India in partnership with electronics major Foxconn in Andhra Pradesh.
Handset makers are looking to tap the multi-billion dollar opportunity in India, which is one of the fastest growing smartphone markets in the world. The Indian handset industry is poised to overtake the US as the second-largest market in next few years. According to research firm IDC, shipments in India grew 44% year-on-year to 26.5 million units in April-June 2015 quarter.
With his law background, there is no better person to work on clearing the sludge in the legal system.
Ranking should have been higher in Ease of Doing Business Index: Arun Jaitley
New Delhi: Not fully satisfied with the 12-position jump in India’s ranking on the Ease of Doing Business Index, finance minister Arun Jaitley on Sunday said the World Bank has not factored in all the steps taken by the government to improve business environment and ranking should have been “significantly higher”.
He also stated that there was a need to further cut down on the number of permissions required so that the time-lag between the decision to invest and the actual investment can be shortened significantly. “States must realise that local laws which enable availability of land, environmental permissions, sanction of building plans need a relook,” he said in a Facebook post titled “The Ease of Doing Business”. Jaitley also posed a question if individual structures require separate approval once an industrial zone or new township has been cleared for environmental sanctions.
“The World Bank has upped India’s ranking in the Ease of Doing Business by 12 positions. Last month the World Economic Forum had similarly upgraded India. Even though the push up numerically is modest, it marks the reversal of an adverse trend. Considering the number of steps taken in the last 17 months, India’s position should have moved significantly higher. I understand that all steps have not been factored in since the World Bank criteria has a cut-off date and it also waits for announcements to translate into action before they can be factored,” he said. The minister said that to adjudicate quickly upon investment related matters, a commercial division is being constituted in all high courts. This would improve the enforceability of contracts where India’s ranking is relatively poor. “The obsolete Specific Relief Act which provides for damages as the normal remedy rather than enforcement, needs to be relooked,” Jaitley said.
A World Bank report on Tuesday ranked India at 130 out of 189 country on the ease of doing business, up 12 places from 142nd rank last year. In the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Report in September, India’s ranking moved up 16 positions to 55th on a global index of the world’s most competitive economies. Jaitley attributed the jump in India’s ranking to quicker decision making, faster policy changes, eliminating corruption at the top and smoother clearances. While the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) clearances and the environmental approvals are being routinely granted, investors no longer queue up before the ministries in Delhi lobbying for policy changes or approvals, he said.
Highlighting that the present government has opened most sectors to foreign direct investment, he said, “time has come to examine whether some of the conditionalities on which FDI investment is permitted, have become anachronic”. “We need to cut down on the number of permissions required so that the timelag between the decision to invest and the actual investment can be shortened significantly,” he said. He said many countries have switched to an architect’s certificate as a substitute for building plans being sanctioned. “When you compulsorily need a completion certificate for a building, the permission required for start of construction should be replaced by a regulatory mechanism. These additional changes will further improve India’s ranking for ease of doing business,” he said.
Saying that an ease of opening business must also be accompanied by an ease in exiting, he said the framework of the Bankruptcy Law is being readied. “Dispute resolutions with regard to public projects require a quicker settlement mechanism. The same is being worked out,” he said.
Jaitley said it was encouraging that states have also altered their work culture. Investment is the starting point of all economic activity. An investment-friendly state will be a natural destination. Stating that competitive federalism can be seen among states, he said the Gujarat model of global investors meet has been replicated in Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal and in Punjab. Rajasthan, this month, would be wooing global investors. Telangana and Andhra Pradesh have been reaching out to investors globally.
He said three states with a significant tribal population—Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Odisha—figure in the top six states in the World Bank Ease of Doing Business rankings. “The work culture is changing in most states,” he said. Talking of initiatives taken, he said the government last week issued two important ordinances—The Arbitration Law has been changed to make arbitrations cheaper, faster and free from judicial intervention and to adjudicate quickly upon investment related matters, a commercial division is being constituted in all high courts. “This would improve the enforceability of contracts where India’s ranking is relatively poor,” he said.
The minister said much has been done to ensure that award of natural resources and public contracts are completely transparent. “To empower public servants to take simpler and bolder decision, many corrections are required in some obsolete provisions of Prevention of Corruption Act. The same have already been introduced in Parliament,” he said.
India, he said, aspires to grow faster at a time when the world growth is moving slowly. “To add a percentage or two in our present growth rate, the ease of doing business coupled with a simpler direct and indirect taxation system, a higher investment in infrastructure and irrigation will play a significant role. A low oil and commodity regime is helping us in this direction.”
New Delhi: In line with the government’s ‘Make in India’ initiative, domestic handset vendor Karbonn will invest Rs.200 crore to set up a manufacturing plant at Tirupati in Andhra Pradesh.
Last week, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had laid the foundation stone for a dedicated mobile handset and electronics manufacturing facility at Tirupati. Apart from Karbonn, the facility will house brands such as Micromax, Celkon and Lava.
“We are setting up an integrated facility at Tirupati. The plant, which will be operational by September next year, will have a manufacturing capacity of 500,000 units a month,” Karbonn chairman Sudhir Hasija told PTI.
He added that the company will invest Rs.200 crore in the facility and employ 2,000 people to start with. “We currently have a monthly capacity of 1.8-2 million units and we are looking at scaling this up to 2.5 million by December next year,” he said.
Over the next few years, the plan is to develop the entire manufacturing ecosystem in India along with component manufacturing, he added. “By 2017, we will have miniscule imports as we will manufacture in India rather than just assembling here,” Hasija said.
Karbonn has a unit in Noida that manufactures feature phones. It is also setting up a facility in Haryana that is about thrice the size of the Noida plant.
Global handset makers such as Samsung and domestic players such as Micromax and Spice have assembly units in India. Recently, international players such as Xiaomi, Gionee and Asus have announced assembly units in India in partnership with electronics major Foxconn in Andhra Pradesh.
Handset makers are looking to tap the multi-billion dollar opportunity in India, which is one of the fastest growing smartphone markets in the world. The Indian handset industry is poised to overtake the US as the second-largest market in next few years. According to research firm IDC, shipments in India grew 44% year-on-year to 26.5 million units in April-June 2015 quarter.
With his law background, there is no better person to work on clearing the sludge in the legal system.
Ranking should have been higher in Ease of Doing Business Index: Arun Jaitley
New Delhi: Not fully satisfied with the 12-position jump in India’s ranking on the Ease of Doing Business Index, finance minister Arun Jaitley on Sunday said the World Bank has not factored in all the steps taken by the government to improve business environment and ranking should have been “significantly higher”.
He also stated that there was a need to further cut down on the number of permissions required so that the time-lag between the decision to invest and the actual investment can be shortened significantly. “States must realise that local laws which enable availability of land, environmental permissions, sanction of building plans need a relook,” he said in a Facebook post titled “The Ease of Doing Business”. Jaitley also posed a question if individual structures require separate approval once an industrial zone or new township has been cleared for environmental sanctions.
“The World Bank has upped India’s ranking in the Ease of Doing Business by 12 positions. Last month the World Economic Forum had similarly upgraded India. Even though the push up numerically is modest, it marks the reversal of an adverse trend. Considering the number of steps taken in the last 17 months, India’s position should have moved significantly higher. I understand that all steps have not been factored in since the World Bank criteria has a cut-off date and it also waits for announcements to translate into action before they can be factored,” he said. The minister said that to adjudicate quickly upon investment related matters, a commercial division is being constituted in all high courts. This would improve the enforceability of contracts where India’s ranking is relatively poor. “The obsolete Specific Relief Act which provides for damages as the normal remedy rather than enforcement, needs to be relooked,” Jaitley said.
A World Bank report on Tuesday ranked India at 130 out of 189 country on the ease of doing business, up 12 places from 142nd rank last year. In the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Report in September, India’s ranking moved up 16 positions to 55th on a global index of the world’s most competitive economies. Jaitley attributed the jump in India’s ranking to quicker decision making, faster policy changes, eliminating corruption at the top and smoother clearances. While the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) clearances and the environmental approvals are being routinely granted, investors no longer queue up before the ministries in Delhi lobbying for policy changes or approvals, he said.
Highlighting that the present government has opened most sectors to foreign direct investment, he said, “time has come to examine whether some of the conditionalities on which FDI investment is permitted, have become anachronic”. “We need to cut down on the number of permissions required so that the timelag between the decision to invest and the actual investment can be shortened significantly,” he said. He said many countries have switched to an architect’s certificate as a substitute for building plans being sanctioned. “When you compulsorily need a completion certificate for a building, the permission required for start of construction should be replaced by a regulatory mechanism. These additional changes will further improve India’s ranking for ease of doing business,” he said.
Saying that an ease of opening business must also be accompanied by an ease in exiting, he said the framework of the Bankruptcy Law is being readied. “Dispute resolutions with regard to public projects require a quicker settlement mechanism. The same is being worked out,” he said.
Jaitley said it was encouraging that states have also altered their work culture. Investment is the starting point of all economic activity. An investment-friendly state will be a natural destination. Stating that competitive federalism can be seen among states, he said the Gujarat model of global investors meet has been replicated in Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal and in Punjab. Rajasthan, this month, would be wooing global investors. Telangana and Andhra Pradesh have been reaching out to investors globally.
He said three states with a significant tribal population—Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Odisha—figure in the top six states in the World Bank Ease of Doing Business rankings. “The work culture is changing in most states,” he said. Talking of initiatives taken, he said the government last week issued two important ordinances—The Arbitration Law has been changed to make arbitrations cheaper, faster and free from judicial intervention and to adjudicate quickly upon investment related matters, a commercial division is being constituted in all high courts. “This would improve the enforceability of contracts where India’s ranking is relatively poor,” he said.
The minister said much has been done to ensure that award of natural resources and public contracts are completely transparent. “To empower public servants to take simpler and bolder decision, many corrections are required in some obsolete provisions of Prevention of Corruption Act. The same have already been introduced in Parliament,” he said.
India, he said, aspires to grow faster at a time when the world growth is moving slowly. “To add a percentage or two in our present growth rate, the ease of doing business coupled with a simpler direct and indirect taxation system, a higher investment in infrastructure and irrigation will play a significant role. A low oil and commodity regime is helping us in this direction.”
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Why Moody's Upgraded Indian Banks' Outlook After 4 Years
Moody's on Monday raised its outlook on India's banking system to stable from negative after four years. The rating agency expects slower rise in bad loans, which are estimated at around $50 billion currently.
Here are the key takeaways from Moody's report:
1) A stable outlook reflects gradually improving operating environment in the country. India is expected to achieve a GDP growth of 7.5 per cent over the next two years as compared to the 6.2 per cent average over 2011-13. Growth will be helped by accommodative monetary policy and economic reforms.
2) Non-performing loan ratios increased significantly over FY11-FY15, rising to 10.2 per cent at end-June 2015 from 4.5 per cent at end-March 2011. The increase was especially large at PSU banks, which account for over 70 per cent of all outstanding bank loans. Over the next 12-18 months, the rise of bad loans will be at a much slower pace.
3) Bad loans will rise slowly because banks have significantly tightened their underwriting standards; corporate loan growth slowed down to 9.3 per cent over the past three years from 23.1 per cent during 2009-12. Consequently, corporate loans originated since 2013 mostly do not represent a material risk to asset quality.
4) Public sector banks have low capital levels, with tier 1 ratios between 6-10 per cent and loan-loss reserves averages of 55 per cent, which is a key credit weakness. This means they have weak buffers to absorb losses in contrast private sector banks have high capital levels.
5) However, unlike many Asian countries where loan loss reserves represent an additional buffer not reflected in capital, PSU banks' loan loss coverage is not particularly high. Also, while restructured loans at PSU banks are higher than their NPLs, the provision coverage on these restructured loans is only around 5 per cent.
6) Over the next four years, the government plans to inject Rs 70,000 crore into 21 PSU banks, but this amount is well short of the overall capital requirements. The top 11 PSU banks will need an external core equity capital infusion of Rs 1.45 lakh crore during FY16-FY19 based on the assumption of a target core tier 1 ratio of 9-9.5 per cent by March 2019.
7) PSU banks can access capital markets for additional capital, but given current low valuations, it will be a challenge for many of them to do so.
8) Banks' profitability (measured by net interest margins) should be stable as high-yielding retail loans will compensate for declining interest rates. But PSU banks will continue to lag behind their private banks in profitability because they have lower non-interest income and higher credit costs. PSU banks have high credit costs because of the need to increase provisioning levels.
9) The 11 new payment banks and 10 small finance banks have the potential to disrupt PSU banks' deposit franchises, which will impact their profitability. However, there will be little impact over the next 12-18 months, because the business model of payments banks is still at a very early stage.
10) Higher reliance on retail deposits as primary source of funding is positive for Indian banks. Loan growth over the next 12-18 months should continue at a moderate pace of 10-13 per cent due to slow growth in corporate loans, which account for 43 per cent of the banks' overall loan books. Deposit growth will be faster, which will support liquidity.
Why Moodys Upgraded Indian Banks Outlook After 4 Years - NDTVProfit.com
Moody's on Monday raised its outlook on India's banking system to stable from negative after four years. The rating agency expects slower rise in bad loans, which are estimated at around $50 billion currently.
Here are the key takeaways from Moody's report:
1) A stable outlook reflects gradually improving operating environment in the country. India is expected to achieve a GDP growth of 7.5 per cent over the next two years as compared to the 6.2 per cent average over 2011-13. Growth will be helped by accommodative monetary policy and economic reforms.
2) Non-performing loan ratios increased significantly over FY11-FY15, rising to 10.2 per cent at end-June 2015 from 4.5 per cent at end-March 2011. The increase was especially large at PSU banks, which account for over 70 per cent of all outstanding bank loans. Over the next 12-18 months, the rise of bad loans will be at a much slower pace.
3) Bad loans will rise slowly because banks have significantly tightened their underwriting standards; corporate loan growth slowed down to 9.3 per cent over the past three years from 23.1 per cent during 2009-12. Consequently, corporate loans originated since 2013 mostly do not represent a material risk to asset quality.
4) Public sector banks have low capital levels, with tier 1 ratios between 6-10 per cent and loan-loss reserves averages of 55 per cent, which is a key credit weakness. This means they have weak buffers to absorb losses in contrast private sector banks have high capital levels.
5) However, unlike many Asian countries where loan loss reserves represent an additional buffer not reflected in capital, PSU banks' loan loss coverage is not particularly high. Also, while restructured loans at PSU banks are higher than their NPLs, the provision coverage on these restructured loans is only around 5 per cent.
6) Over the next four years, the government plans to inject Rs 70,000 crore into 21 PSU banks, but this amount is well short of the overall capital requirements. The top 11 PSU banks will need an external core equity capital infusion of Rs 1.45 lakh crore during FY16-FY19 based on the assumption of a target core tier 1 ratio of 9-9.5 per cent by March 2019.
7) PSU banks can access capital markets for additional capital, but given current low valuations, it will be a challenge for many of them to do so.
8) Banks' profitability (measured by net interest margins) should be stable as high-yielding retail loans will compensate for declining interest rates. But PSU banks will continue to lag behind their private banks in profitability because they have lower non-interest income and higher credit costs. PSU banks have high credit costs because of the need to increase provisioning levels.
9) The 11 new payment banks and 10 small finance banks have the potential to disrupt PSU banks' deposit franchises, which will impact their profitability. However, there will be little impact over the next 12-18 months, because the business model of payments banks is still at a very early stage.
10) Higher reliance on retail deposits as primary source of funding is positive for Indian banks. Loan growth over the next 12-18 months should continue at a moderate pace of 10-13 per cent due to slow growth in corporate loans, which account for 43 per cent of the banks' overall loan books. Deposit growth will be faster, which will support liquidity.
Why Moodys Upgraded Indian Banks Outlook After 4 Years - NDTVProfit.com
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Ahead of Diwali, Prime Minister Narendra Modi launches three gold schemes | The Indian Express
Ahead of Diwali, Prime Minister Narendra Modi launches three gold schemes
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday launched three gold-related schemes in a bid to put some 20,000 tonnes of idle gold into productive use.
Please encourage your family to take advantage of the new gold scheme initiated by our PM Modiji.
regards;
Ahead of Diwali, Prime Minister Narendra Modi launches three gold schemes
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday launched three gold-related schemes in a bid to put some 20,000 tonnes of idle gold into productive use.
Please encourage your family to take advantage of the new gold scheme initiated by our PM Modiji.
regards;
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19 crore people brought under banking system in 17 months, claims PM Modi | The Indian Express
19 crore people brought under banking system in 17 months, claims PM Modi
PM Modi said the view of the government now was reforms should be inclusive and broad-based and not limited to a few standard notions.
19 crore people brought under banking system in 17 months, claims PM Modi
PM Modi said the view of the government now was reforms should be inclusive and broad-based and not limited to a few standard notions.
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