Disturbed over a proposed hike in power tariff in Punjab, Ludhiana-based Chamber of Industrial & Commercial Undertakings (CICU) has urged state Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal to advise Punjab State Electricity Regulatory Commission (PSERC) not to grant approval for the proposal, which has been submitted by the state electricity corporation to encourage investments from other states in Punjab and to boost existing industry.Avtar Singh, president, CICU said that the proposal of Punjab State Power Corporation Ltd (PSPCL) for a hike in power tariff by 65 paise per unit submitted to PSERC is uncalled for, as it will raise the cost of production and make industry in Punjab uncompetitive. The proposal is not in tune with the industrial investment opportunities recently offered by Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal during the meetings he recently held with the captains of Punjab's industry at Mohali and Ludhiana, Singh said. Moreover, Punjab is now a power-surplus state a

Punjab chamber assails move to hike power tariff

Business Standard

Rice milling  generates significant employment in agrarian India, and as a key sector of its agricultural and food processing industry, presents an attractive business opportunity for entrepreneurs across the country. CRISIL has analysed the performance and cost structure of 400 rated MSMEs involved in rice processing for 2011-12 (refers to financial year, April 1 to March 31).The analysis indicates that the cost of raw material, i.e., paddy, constitutes the largest portion of the MSMEs' overall cost structure (excluding depreciation and finance charges), accounting for an average of 90.68 per cent of their overall costs. This forms a significant proportion as compared to the share of processing expenses (4.89 per cent) and selling expenses (2.30 per cent). Employee and power costs also account for low shares of 1.34 per cent and 0.79 per cent respectively of the total cost.The analysis also indicates variations in the share of power costs from state to state - mills in the rice belts

Cost structure of MSMEs in rice milling

When Uttarakhand MSME minister Harish Durgapal recently reviewed the progress of the Prime Minister Employment Generation Programme (PMEGP) in the flood-hit state, he was more than satisfied.After deliberations with entrepreneurs, Durgapal is confident that the MSME sector is the only sector that can reduce growing unemployment in the state, especially in the wake of the mid-June deluge that devastated the five districts of Rudraprayag, Chamoli, Uttarkashi, Bageshwar, Tehri and Pithoragarh."The migration of the youth can only be stopped by the MSME sector in the hills," said Durgapal. During the past five years, the hills of Uttarakhand have witnessed investments worth Rs 570.95 crore through 4,873 units under the special integrated industrial promotion policy of 2008 for hilly and remote areas.Until 2008, the hills of Uttarakhand were virtually devoid of MSMEs, total investment amounting to only Rs 25.25 crore. But once the hill promotion policy was introduced, investments grew sharpl

Investment scenario in U'khand looking up despite deluge

Once a seasonal business, rice processing has now become an annual occupation

Punjab millers hit by slow pace of rice procurement

It is very clear that even other goods or articles are covered by "Courier Agency", and the same is not confined to only time-sensitive documents as contended by the appellants

'SFIS scrip can be used for regularisation of default under the EPCG scheme'

The Indian Angel Network (IAN), one of India's leading angel investor networks, which helps budding entrepreneurs convert their ideas into businesses, concluded 2013 on a high note with 18 term sheets. On average, this translates into one every three weeks.Started in 2006, IAN is India's first and Asia's largest business angel group with over 250 successful entrepreneurs and CEOs across 10 countries. IAN is a seed-cum-early-stage platform with a portfolio of more than 100 companies.According to a press release issued by IAN, sectors which attracted investors in 2013 include manufacturing, ecommerce, semiconductor, medical devices, social media, education, clean tech, and mobile/telecom. IAN investee companies have given investors returns ranging from three to 22 times the invested capital and in some cases the investors are still holding equity, the release said.Investee companies have attracted next-round VC monies - exceptional in the prevailing environment, it added.During the year

Indian Angel Network concludes 18 term sheets in 2013

BS Reporter

New industrial units in the micro, small & medium enterprises (MSME) sector may avail VAT (value added tax) reimbursement of up to 50 per cent after the finalization of the new Industrial Policy Resolution (IPR), 2013 of the state government

New MSMEs may enjoy 50% VAT reimbursement

The ministry of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) has asked bankers to ensure sanction of pending proposals and settlement of pending claims under the Prime Minister's Employment Generation Programme (PMEGP), so that targets for the year 2013-14 can be achieved.The ministry has stated that around Rs 757 crore of unspent funds meant as margin money subsidy are already with the banks under the PMEGP. It has also said that there is need for transparency and accountability, and a system of e-tracking PMEGP applications has been made mandatory from 2014-15 onward.The minister of state for MSMEs, K H Muniyappa, recently held a review meeting on the PMEGP with Chairmen and Managing directors (CMDs) of all the public sector banks. At the meeting he said that since the inception of the PMEGP in 2008-09, more than 221,000 new entrepreneurs have been assisted as of March 2013, over two million employment opportunities across the country created and Rs 5,037 crore released as margin mone

Banks told to clear proposals pending under employment generation scheme

Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Punjab, battling a shortage of skilled manpower, are likely to get a shot in the arm with corporate majors like Tata Group, L&T and Trident Group, among others, planning to set up skill development centres in the state.The state government has also conceptualised a plan to improve the skills of 100,000 youth in the next three years to meet industry's manpower requirements.SMEs in Punjab do not have the infrastructure to train youth. Industrialists say that lack of skilled labour is one of the major reasons for the state's declining share in industrial investment, since industries such as textiles, sports goods and engineering are labour-intensive. Partly as a result of this scarcity, many companies in the state have recently set up or expanded their facilities in other states.Speaking to Business Standard, Ashwani Kohli, who deals in tractor parts, said, "There is a severe shortage of skilled manpower in the state. Since SMEs do not have the r

State govt nudges corporate majors to set up skill development centres

The steel mills of Punjab, which have been demanding a reduction in taxes and duties for the past several years, now have something to cheer about, since the state government has accepted some of their demands.The state government has decided to roll back the value-added tax (VAT) from the current 4.95 per cent to 2.5 per cent by restructuring the present VAT regime. It has also decided to reduce the entry tax on steel scrap from 5 per cent to one per cent, thus meeting major demands of the steel SMEs.This will benefit the furnace, iron and steel rolling mills, re-rolling mills and pipe manufacturers located in the steel cluster of Mandi Gobindgarh and Ludhiana.A spokesperson of the Punjab industries department said that to eliminate the practice of generation of spurious ITC (Input Tax Credit), it was also decided to restrict the ITC to a maximum of two stages.By giving relief to small steel rolling mills and furnace units, implementation of VAT has been linked to the consumption of e

Value-added tax for Punjab steel mills reduced

Michel Botzung

Interview with Principal Operations Officer, IFC's India office

India's MSME sector growing faster than overall GDP: Michel Botzung

Santosh Kumar, Director, Science and Technology, Union Territory of Chandigarh

Vishav Mohan (name changed), a small entrepreneur based in Ludhiana, Punjab, was running a sewing machine company that was losing money owing to the decline in demand caused by a glut of cheaper models imported from China. He is now setting up a unit to manufacture solar panels for solar photovoltaic power generation on the same premises.Other entrepreneurs in the region have already embarked on this road.Vikram Hans, managing director of Multi Overseas India Private Limited, Chandigarh, said that owing to the increase in opportunities in solar power generation, he is manufacturing solar power inverters with high charging capacity. "There is huge demand from the telecom sector, as solar gen-sets are more cost effective than diesel gen-sets. Solar power is not an option but a strategic compulsion now. So there is a lot of scope for business expansion."Jagat Jawa, director general of the Solar Energy Society of India, said that due to a fall in the cost of solar power generation in the p

Solar power a lucrative new opportunity for Punjab SMEs

Pawan Chaudhary, CMD of Venus Glucose

Venus Remedies has 90 patents, and now plans a big push in R&DIn the late 1980s, when the Indian economy had yet to open its doors to foreign direct investment in the pharmaceuticals sector, and few indigenous drug manufacturers understood the significance of intellectual property, a young chartered accountant decided to try his luck in the industry's bulk drugs segment.It was while auditing a pharma company in 1988 that Pawan Chaudhary, a novice chartered accountant then aged 25, decided to start his own venture.A first-generation entrepreneur, Chaudhary secured funds from his family as well as from banks to set up Venus Glucose Private Limited at Panchkula, in Haryana.A five-year stint (from July 1989 to September 1994) in manufacturing intravenous solutions in large volumes under the brand Venus Glucose Private Limited prepared Chaudhary for diversification into small-volume parenteral injectables."When I started the company, in a short span I realised that the Indian pharmaceut

From chartered accountant to drug manufacturer

For redeeming our EPCG Licence, what exchange rate should be taken, when we receive the payments in Indian rupees through a freely convertible Vostro Account of a Non-Resident Bank, in accordance with Para 2.40 (b) of the foreign Trade Policy? We have approached our bankers with the payment advice copy of the Non-Resident Bank concerned, but they are unwilling to give us any certificate of equivalent foreign currency value. Please inform how to proceed. As per DGFT Policy Circular no. 8 dated 28.05.1998, export proceeds realised in any currency shall be converted into US dollars at the exchange rate prevailing on the date of issuance of the EPCG licence which has been endorsed on the reverse of the licence, with a view to ascertaining whether the export obligation has been fulfilled or not.What are "switch" bills of lading and when they are sought?"Switch" bills of lading are a second set of bills of lading issued by the carrier (or by the carrier's agent) in substitution for the bills

'Export earnings must be converted into $ at rate ruling on date of licence'

CRISIL has analysed the cash conversion cycle of 7,300 micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in the manufacturing and service sectors in FY 2011-12 (refers to the financial year, April 1 to March 31). The study was conducted to understand the nature and pace of the working capital cycle from the first stage, where an MSME procures the requisite raw material, to the last stage, where it receives payments from customers for its goods or services. The sample does not include service sectors such as banking, financial services, and insurance (BFSI), as these activities are not undertaken by MSMEs owing to the small size of their operations.The study revealed that MSMEs in the service sector have a shorter cash conversion cycle of 40 days, as compared with their manufacturing-sector counterparts, which take more than 58 days to recover cash from their working capital cycle. CRISIL's analysis indicates that the key factors responsible for the longer cycles of manufacturing enterprises

Cash flows faster in service sector MSMEs

A dedicated fund named 'India Inclusive Innovation Fund' will be set up to promote grass-root innovations that will deliver social returns and modest economic returns

Govt to launch new fund to meet small industry's capital requirements

The BSE SME Exchange, the Bombay Stock Exchange's platform for small and medium enterprises (SMEs), will see a lot more SMEs listing, which in turn could create wealth both for the companies concerned and for the country, according to a top official of BSE.A total of 42 companies have so far listed on the SME platform that BSE launched in March 2012.  Another 10 are expected to be listed in a month's time, said Ashishkumar Chauhan, BSE's managing director and CEO."Listing in BSE has helped them to collect around Rs 350-400 crore and their market capitalisation is now in the range of Rs 2,500 crore or more," he said.Listing gives SMEs equity, which can help them get more debt from banks. It can also help them enlist partners. Besides, BSE provides facilities such as free research reports and market making, to ensure that investors are safe. An entire ecosystem is created, to support entrepreneurs and investors in the SME segment."We are seeing a lot more interest today. In the next one

BSE SME bourse may see 10 more listings soon

The small and medium industries are playing a key role in development of the country's social and financial sectors, a top Reserve Bank official has said

SMEs playing key role in building social, fin sectors: RBI

Press Trust of India

MoUs worth Rs 65,000 crore were signed between the Punjab government and corporate houses during the summit

Nothing for small entrepreneurs in investment summit

The ministry has targeted the creation of over 100 new enterprises per district every year under the PMEGP in all the 650 districts of the country

MSME ministry to train 4.2 mn in 12th Plan

New industrial policy which offers incentives to IT SMEs is expected to play a pivotal role in promoting this sector

New STPI centres in Punjab will benefit small IT firms

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