Addressing a Seminar on “Strengthening Indo-Bangladesh Investment & Trade” organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) here today, Dr Samad said that Bangladesh needs a new paradigm of growth, which is sustainable, balanced and inclusive. To achieve this, Bangladesh would reinforce its economic and trade relationship with India - the country which has emerged successfully when many other countries impacted due to recession, said Dr Samad.

Speaking about the economic growth, Dr Samad said that Bangladesh is growing at a steady pace of around 6% and the target is to touch a growth of 8% in the medium term by 2013.

With a labour cost, lowest amongst many developing countries. Bangladesh offers a competitive business-friendly environment for investors. Strategic location, regional connectivity and worldwide access are some of the advantages for investors, he said. Investment opportunities in Bangladesh in key sectors under PPP include; power, ports, telecom, highways and expressways, oil and gas, airports, tourism, industrial estates, property development amongst others.

HE Mr. Tariq Ahmad Karim, High Commissioner of Bangladesh to India in his address said that Bangladesh wants to be the hub of connectivity between the South East Asian countries as well as the North Eastern parts of India, which will help to enhance the trade between the two countries.

Speaking about the business delegation visit to Chennai, Mr Karim said Bangladesh sees huge opportunity for collaboration in the manufacturing and services sectors. With Chennai being a leader in both manufacturing and services, it gives tremendous opportunity for Bangladesh companies to leverage upon the strengths of Chennai and the Tamil Nadu State as a whole.

Mr. M Velmurugan, IES, Executive Vice Chairman, Tamil Nadu Industrial Guidance and Export Promotion Bureau in his address said that there are abundance opportunities in Tamil Nadu to invest as well as to find a partner to invest in Bangladesh. Tamil Nadu, being a hub for automotive, leather, IT, textile and electronics sectors provide a huge opportunity for Bangladesh companies to collaborate with Indian counterparts.

Mr Velmurugan said that the key advantage of Tamil Nadu is the availability of abundant skilled manpower at competitive wage cost, quality physical infrastructure and investor friendly policies. 35 Fortune 500 companies are having their plants in Tamil Nadu, making it a truly worldclass destination for global investments, he said.

Mr. T T Ashok, Deputy Chairman, CII Southern Region in his address said that India and Bangladesh have enjoyed a very cordial and friendly relationship. The relationship between the two countries have strengthened over the years in view of similarities in cultural, social and economic factors.

Bangladesh is a strong business partner for India in South Asia. Indian exports to Bangladesh in 2008-09 stood at US$ 2497.84 million and imports from Bangladesh touched US$ 313.11 million, said Mr Ashok. Both the countries offer natural markets for each other’s exports and have advantages of reduced transaction costs and quicker delivery due to geographical proximity and common language, he further added.

Mr. Abdul Matlub Ahmad, President, India- Bangladesh Chamber of Commerce and Industry in his address said that IBCCI was formed over three years back to promote bilateral trade and investment between India and Bangladesh. About 7 billion dollars worth of trade is happening between both the countries and we hope it increases substantially in the years to come, said Mr Ahmad. To promote a level playing field on bilateral trade, currently over 4000 categories of products imported from Bangladesh into India are duty free. Only 487 products are still dutiable and efforts would be taken to reduce it further, said Mr Ahmad.

Mr S Sen, Principal Advisor, Special Projects, CII in his concluding remarks said that Bangladesh want to grow in the field of IT and India would be the best partner as the country is doing very well in this sector. Partnership in the fields of technical training, transfer of knowledge would benefit both the countries, he said.

Source:http://www.cii.in/NewsRoom.aspx?enc=SO0wa+TYDvk3FXKFO1bn1Q==

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The arrival Michael Punke, the new US Ambassador to the WTO has given more momentum to the negotiations between major players like the US, the EU, Brazil, China and India, and rest of the membership.

According to Mr. Singh, the next big focus will come at the G-20 meeting in Seoul coming November, when world leaders are expected to put their weight behind the completion of the long drawn out Doha round of negotiations.

In the mean time, Mr. Singh expressed confidence that negotiations will continue to deal with the important aspects of the various negotiation tracks within the Doha mandate and inch closer towards a balanced and ambitious deal.

Source:http://www.cii.in/NewsRoom.aspx?enc=SO0wa+TYDvk3FXKFO1bn1Q==

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To raise public awareness about corrosion and to help engineers solve existing corrosion problems and prevent future ones, the CII LM Thapar Centre for Competitiveness organized a one day Corrosion Management Summit on 5 August 2010 which was held Concurrent to the first ever Industrial Maintenance Expo 2010 organized by CII from 4 -6 August 2010 at Delhi in partnership with the Department of Heavy Industry.

On this occasion the Minister also launched CII Corrosion Awareness posters which are designed on various themes to draw attention of people in industry and to increase awareness about corrosion & corrosion management.

Dr H P Kumar, CMD, NSIC Ltd while complimenting CII’s initiative in this area, strongly recommended that this awareness initiative should be spread all over the country and assured NSIC’s full support to reach out to more centres in India and also take this exhibition to other countries where we need to access new technologies.

The day’s deliberations saw a number of experts on the subject like Mr. C S Das, IOCL, Dr U Kamachi Mudali of Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research, Mr Dhirendra Singh of Akzo Noble Coatings, Dr GH Thanki, Mr Ron Campbell of Belzona Asia Pacific etc share experiences in combating corrosion. Over 400 delegates participated in the summit.

Source:http://www.cii.in/NewsRoom.aspx?enc=SO0wa+TYDvk3FXKFO1bn1Q==

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Mr Yadav further said that the state of Haryana has the energy savings potential of 622.4 MW. Keeping this opportunity in perspective the state Government has established the State Energy Conservation Fund for the purposes of promotion of efficient use of energy and its conservation within the State. Furthermore the government has also unveiled schemes for the industry to recognize and promote the efforts for energy efficiency by the industrial units. He said that HAREDA would bear 50% of the energy audit undertaken by industries in the state to promote the concept of energy audits.

He further listed that the State of Haryana, through its Energy Conservation Measures, promotes usage of Solar Water Heating Systems.All government buildings have been directed to use CFLs and T-5 tube lights and Use of ISI marked pump sets and accessories for new tube-well connections, incorporation of energy efficient building design and RE technologies for new Government buildings have been made mandatory. Mr Yadav urged the industry to conserve energy & follow the energy efficient practices at their shop floors.

Presenting a case of energy efficiency in Auto industries, Mr C K Sharma, Chief Executive, Consulting Engineers stated that energy efficiency is the cheapest and quickest way not just to meet the ever growing energy demands of the economy, but is also instrumental in environmental conservation as it will reduce the consumption of coal. The practice also braces an enterprise to be more competitive by just correcting the energy leakages in the system.

Mr Gaurav Kumar, Project Officer, Bureau of Energy Efficiency, Government of India said that the power sector has huge saving potential. Towards this objective, BEE is actively involved in achieving energy efficiency in SMEs clusters in various sectors like bricks, brass, chemical, rice, etc. The enterprise undertakes situational analysis of each of the identified clusters and presents a detailed project report proposing technologies that can help these clusters to become more energy efficient.

Mr Kuldeep Rastogi, AGM Utility Services, Hero Honda in his presentation said that Hero Honda has been actively involved in energy efficient techniques and has been transforming the same to its vendor companies through cluster approach. He said that just small changes at the shop floor can contribute a lot in energy cost reduction such as using reflectors along with the lights, aluminum casting in cooling towers, amongst others.

Mr Rajiv Chawla, President, Faridabad Small Industries, Association & Managing Director, Jairaj Ancillaries Pvt Ltd shared about the initiatives on the cluster on auto industry formed by them in Faridabad where they focused on energy conservation in a big way.

Mr Sanjay Namdeo, Counsellor- Energy, CII L M Thapar Centre for Competitiveness said that CII has been actively engaged in providing energy audit services to the industry across the nation. He said that energy is a major cost component in the production and energy efficiency directly implies to increase in profitability. Explaining more about the need of energy audits he said that energy efficient techniques result in tangible benefits.

Mr L K Jain, Chairman, CII Haryana State Council & Chairman & Managing Director, Lakshmi Precision Screws Ltd in his welcome address opined that energy is universally recognized as the key driver for economic growth. India’s per capita power consumption is likely to touch 1,000 units by 2012. Thus gaps in demand and supply should be filled to meet the future needs of the economy.

Mr Amit Chugh, Founder & CEO, Cosmos Ignite Innovations Pvt. Ltd stated that the scare of Climate Change brings forth an opportunity to save energy and help save the planet. In addition the corporate are at an advantageous position for adopting energy efficient practices and do away with a quantum of energy cost.

The session also included presentations from Mr. Samit Jain, Director Advit Foundation, Mr. Atul Jain, Director Gentech Toolings Pvt Ltd, and Mr Mahesh Jain, Sr Manager – Operations Abilities India Pistons & Rings Ltd. With over 50 representatives from the industries of Gurgaon, the programme was very well accepted and several questions were put to the speakers by the participants whish made the session extremely interactive.

Source:http://www.cii.in/NewsRoom.aspx?enc=SO0wa+TYDvk3FXKFO1bn1Q==

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This MoU assumes great significance as this is the first time CII has entered into an agreement with CAPART and it is also a pioneering partnership between the voluntary sector and the corporate sector.

The Director General of CAPART, Mr. Mohd. Haleem Khan said that this MoU was a landmark moment for both CII and CAPART as it marked a formal commitment to support the mandate of Corporate Social Responsibility. Ms Indrani Kar, Senior Director, CII , added that through this initiative a nation-wide impact would be created as there is an agenda to carry out the programmes in various parts of the country. The mission of every initiative would be to provide a bridge between different stakeholders in an environment that would encourage good governance, accountability, trust, and transparency so as to have sustainable engagement.

Appropriate partnership models would lead us to solutions that will help us create a more equitable society. When the corporate sector joins hands with Voluntary Organisations in putting their ideas on the ground, partnering them, and providing resources, corporations and NGOs will together create innovative solutions that will help grow new markets at the bottom of the pyramid. These models will lead to novel frameworks that can renew the corporation’s social legitimacy even as they allow for sustainable development and accelerate the eradication of poverty.

Building on the very successful CSR-CSO Bridge 2009, CII held in partnership with CAPART, Council for People’s Advancement and Rural Technology , that focused on the most compelling challenge of our times, the forging of partnerships between industry, government and NGOs to improve the lives of those at the bottom of the pyramid, this MoU seeks to accomplish the objectives of : Identifying - ways and means of forging sustainable partnerships, bringing in key policy interventions; streamlining mechanisms for individual contributions; showcasing successful models and best practices; facilitating direct linkages between industry and the voluntary sectors; assisting NGOs to connect with sustainable financing models, and developing a comprehensive database. The MOU will help in capacity building amongst NGOs for managing deliverables and increase accountability and transparency thereby facilitating the PPP mode to usher in necessary change.

Source:http://www.cii.in/NewsRoom.aspx?enc=SO0wa+TYDvk3FXKFO1bn1Q==

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Mr B S Meena, Secretary, Department of Heavy Industry, Ministry of Heavy Industries & Public Enterprises, Government of India in his address underlined the larger role of internal competitiveness and capacity utilization as a part of growth strategy. He hailed the first ever Industrial Maintenance Expo as an excellent example of Government-CII partnership which featured over 100 exhibitors. He suggested that Central Public Enterprises with over 100,000 employees and a combined turnover of over Rs 38,000 crores, could greatly benefit through TPM and prevention of corrosion. Such events should become a regular feature, once in 2/3 years, he also suggested.

Mr K N Shenoy, Chairman, CII Institute of Quality and Past President, CII addressing the Conference recounted the stellar role played by the Institute of Quality, in the last decade, in the areas of training, advisory and consultancy services in building the competency of Indian Industry. More than three lakh managers had benefitted from the implementation of TPM, TQM, Six Sigma and Lean. The CII-EXIM Bank Business Excellence Award, with over 300 trained assessors, as a true practical and non prescriptive blueprint for excellence, was available to industry for benchmarking. Maintenance losses, ranging between 5 to 10 %, was far too above global benchmarks and needed attention, he said.

Earlier, in his welcome address, Mr Rajive Kaul, Chairman, CII Trade Fair Council thanked the Ministry of Heavy Industries for the unstinted support in making the first ever Industrial Maintenance Expo a success. With the participation of over 100 exhibitors, it would improve manufacturing competitiveness of India, making it an emerging global manufacturing hub.

Mr Chandrajit Banerjee, Director General, Confederation of Indian Industry, summing up the inaugural session in his Closing Remarks and Vote of Thanks stressed that manufacturing was the key to a 20% GDP by 2025 in which such loss prevention efforts would play an important role. Thanking the Steering Committee, Indo German Chamber of Commerce, various Embassies and participants for their support to this first ever Industrial maintenance Expo, he noted with satisfaction the participation of over 100 exhibitors, both Indian and Overseas and assured that in future such events would be taken to other parts of the country as well.

The importance of the conference is underlined by the fact that currently companies are loosing 5-10 % of production time through breakdowns due to poor Maintenance practices, despite their best efforts. Besides the resultant production loss and hardships for the Maintenance personnel, increased maintenance costs affect their bottom-lines.

TPM Club India, CII, which has been doing pioneering work to support Indian Industry to achieve ZERO Breakdowns while reducing the maintenance costs, together with the Department of Heavy Industries (DHI), Government of India, organized this one day conference to spread the knowledge of the methodology to be implemented for successfully achieving ZERO Breakdowns with reduced Maintenance Costs! Total Productive Maintenance (TPM), a powerful mantra, offers a highly structured method for drastically reducing Breakdowns and maintenance costs and has been very successfully implemented in many Indian companies including the PSU’s.

The Conference, hosting 18 speakers, besides having a session on Management Solutions for Maintenance Practices, will show-case four very important aspects to achieve ZERO Breakdowns, namely, Supporting Autonomous Maintenance, Planned Maintenance Activities, Reduction of Maintenance Activities and Reliability Centered Maintenance.

Source:http://www.cii.in/NewsRoom.aspx?enc=SO0wa+TYDvk3FXKFO1bn1Q==

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ARA Executive Director Russell Zimmerman said it was encouraging for retailers that the nation’s economic management and business taxes are now ‘front and centre’ in both major parties pre-election platform.

“However, we are concerned neither party seems prepared to listen to businesses requesting ‘tweaks’ to the Fair Work Act,” Zimmerman said.

“After dealing with the some of the most dramatic changes to industrial relations legislation in 100 years, retailers do need simplicity and certainty about their employment obligations. However, there are aspects of the Fair Work Act that need some tweaking to ensure they are workplace measures focused on business productivity as well as the diverse needs of all employees including school-aged children.

While retailers strongly supported national consistency of industrial relations laws:

• 77pecent agreed or strongly agreed that greater freedom in agreement making would have a positive impact on their business.
• 67percent of retailers agreed or strongly agreed their business productivity would improve if they had the ability to put in place individual workplace agreements underpinned by a safety net of minimum entitlements.
• 85 percent of retailers agreed or strongly agreed that an increase of the superannuation guarantee from 9 to 12 percent would impact on their capacity to employ.

“The ACCI/ARA survey results also show retailers are engaged in trying to reduce their carbon footprint with 73 percent wanting to see a shift in the carbon pollution reduction debate from emissions trading schemes and carbon taxes towards a national priority to sponsor energy-efficient initiatives,” Zimmerman said.

For over 105 years, the Australian Retailers Association (ARA) has been the peak industry body in Australia’s $292 billion retail sector which employs over 1.2 million people. As an incorporated employer body under the Fair Work (Registered Organisations) Act 2009 and with a range of member services including business consulting, policy development, advocacy and education, the ARA promotes and protects over 5000 independent and national retailers throughout Australia.

Source: http://www.retail.org.au/index.php/news/5206

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ARA Executive Director Russell Zimmerman said retailers who have come off several months of dismal trade - and who now face increased wage bills from the Modern Retail Award - would hope for consumers will regain confidence and grab retail bargains.

“A rate rise amidst the uncertainty of looming Federal elections would have been disastrous. We are receiving pleas from members daily about their plight with most trading below 2009 levels.

“Retail sales across all states and categories have increased only 1.9 percent from June 2009 to June 2010. This is not real growth – it’s well below healthy levels for the sector.

“The ARA is now calling on the RBA to continue this prudent, steady approach to interest rates and give consumers some breathing space to get funds flowing through the retail sector,” Zimmerman said.

For over 105 years, the Australian Retailers Association (ARA) has been the peak industry body in Australia’s $292 billion retail sector which employs over 1.2 million people. As an incorporated employer body under the Fair Work (Registered Organisations) Act 2009 and with a range of member services including business consulting, policy development, advocacy and education, the ARA promotes and protects over 5000 independent and national retailers throughout Australia.

Source: http://www.retail.org.au/index.php/news/Commonsense_RBA_rate_hold:_hope_for_retail_recovery_

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In it’s assessment of rising inflation, the ASSOCHAM has emphasized that festival season would shortly approach and drive demand of almost every item of primary articles and essential commodities and substantially fuel inflation rates.

Releasing its assessment, ASSOCHAM Secretary General, Mr. D.S. Rawat said that projected rate of inflation would start moderating from October 2010 onwards because by then a good Kharif crop would have come to help supplies increase especially for rice and pulses and other grains.

Mr. Rawat pointed out that full impact of rise in prices of petroleum products such as petrol, diesel, compressed natural gas, LPG and kerosene would begin its reflection from next two-three weeks in the sense that cost of transportation and movements of goods would further go up and stroke inflation.

Considering a favorable monsoon season this year, jitters are already being felt in the supply chain management of food and other primary articles across the country. ASSOCHAM feels that once, the supply chain process gets disrupted, it leads to shortages of supplies and fuels inflation. Already a major part of on-going inflation rate has significant influence of shrinkages on supply side.

Crude prices are not showing any southward movement while commodities’ prices of metals like zinc, copper, aluminum go on soaring due to rising demand. All these factors would push up inflation even if state governments are able to manage movement of supplies. This is because mismatch between demand and supplies has been growing. Naturally, inflation will further inflate and start deflating as projected after October onwards when kharif crop yield has come into the market, argued Mr. Rawat.

The chamber has also pointed out that consumption patterns of some sections of society are not showing signs of stability because of availability of finance with them. Rising consumption patterns help supplies cause inequitable distribution of supplies.

Another significant factor which will prevent inflation to subside in next two months is due to the fact that festive season would have fallen by then in which even if pockets of masses are not that deep, demand grows and masses make purchases irrespective of prices going higher for essential commodities.

Source: http://www.assocham.org/prels/shownews.php?id= 2529

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According to ASSOCHAM, the proposal for issuance of new bank licences as mooted in the Finance Act, 2010-11 is timely and can well serve development objectives of government provided RBI considers the recommended suggestions since Indian owned and Indian incorporated banks would have potential to broadbase its banking network and also become a force to reckon with.

The chamber has advocated the need for giving new licences based on realistic approach and processes so that efficiency and stability of banking system is sustained by inducting more competition.

In a statement, the ASSOCHAM spokesman emphasized that experience has shown that promises made by licensee at the time of issuance of licence and subsequent compliance are often at variance and RBI has little authority to take corrective action, especially in a de-regulated environment.

It is in view of this that ASSOCHAM feels that the apex bank should observe extra precautions before it considers and rewards licences for new banking entities because cancellation of bank licence that commences business is often an impractical proposition under current legal framework. “A study of compliance with conditions imposed on bank licences issued, including promises of priority to, say, agriculture would be helpful in devising correctives, and in the way forward”, argued ASSOCHAM.

The chamber has further stressed that it would be critical to ensure that such licences will necessarily serve developmental objectives because major banks in private sector that are now operating in India are incorporated in India but are predominantly owned by foreigners.

Further, the ASSOCHAM has pointed out that there have been instances where full and reliable information on the fit and proper ownership of promoters was not brought to the notice of RBI before issuance of licence. Therefore, putting in public domain every application and its accompanying information at every stage would avoid such misleading representations.

The guidance of ownership and governance issued in 2004 have helped in improving consolidation and strengthening of private sector banking. Hence, issue of new licences could ideally be considered broadly as per guidelines already in position.

The ASSOCHAM has further cautioned that legal aspects, both in letter and spirit should not be ignored. As per current legislation governing banks, voting rights are restricted to 10 per cent, whatever be the extent of actual ownership. When the RBI stipulates a higher percentage for a promoter’s ownership, an artificial slicing of ownership often becomes an operational necessity, and RBI becomes a willing party tot artificial slicing, this in a way undermining intent of law.

The amendments to existing Act also envisage strengthening the regulatory authority of RBI consistent with global best practices. In view of recent global experience with banking industry and India’s own experience, ideally, the proposed amendments to law could be carried out first and the new bank licences issued thereafter to reduce uncertainties to all concerned.

Source: http://www.assocham.org/prels/shownews.php?id=2528

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