CII-SelectUSA release second edition of ‘US Business and Investment Climate Report’ at SelectUSA Investment Summit, Washington D.C.

CII-SelectUSA release second edition of ‘US Business and Investment Climate Report’ at SelectUSA Investment Summit, Washington D.C.

The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in collaboration with SelectUSA released a report today at the SelectUSA Investment Summit held in Washington D.C.  The report, entitled,Business and Investment Climate in the United States: Local Economy, State Incentives and Growth Prospects, is an update to a report jointly released by CII and SelectUSA in 2011.

CII and SelectUSA have created this report to serve as a ready reference guide to not just Indian companies but to all those looking to expand their business in the U.S. or enter the U.S. as an investment destination.

On the occasion of the release, Mr. Chandrajit Banerjee, Director General, CII, said, “Created at the request of our membership, the purpose of this report is to provide a ‘first, one-stop guide’ to companies as they evaluate the strengths of various U.S. states and territories and decide where to put their investment dollars to work.” As the India-U.S. trade and commercial relationship continues to grow by leaps and bounds with bilateral trade touching nearly $100 billion, CII is similarly engaged in facilitating inward investment flows into India.

Providing a state-by-state view of the U.S., the report highlights the ’Top 10 reasons to Invest ’ as offered by all 50 U.S. states and the U.S. territories to businesses. In addition, this report outlines the core and upcoming sectors of strength and growth in each state/territory, as well as some of the major tax and financial incentives being offered to attract and retain businesses.

A full electronic copy of the report is available for download: https://www.mycii.in/KmResourceApplication/45632.CIISelectUSAReport20152015.pdf

CII and SelectUSA share a critical and trusted relationship, both in India and the U.S. CII is proud to collaborate with SelectUSA across various spheres to proactively advance the India-U.S. trade, commercial and investment relationship.

CII’s Partnership Summit begins in Jaipur

Indian economy is transforming itself and becoming stronger:  Suresh Prabhu 

Businesses invited to partner in India and Rajasthan’s Progress

The Indian economy is witnessing a transition of sorts and is becoming stronger. This was the view of Mr. Suresh Prabhu, Minister for Railways and India’s G-20 Sherpa in Jaipur today. Mr. Prabhu was addressing the Inaugural Session of The Partnership Summit 2015, organized by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) ​in cooperation with the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Government of India and the Government of Rajasthan from January 15-17, 2015.

Elaborating further, Mr. Prabhu stated that in the past couple of days, the Reserve Bank of India has reduced interest rates, the stock markets was on the rise and so was the Rupee. These three indicators, in his view, were a sign of things to come.

Mr. Prabhu stated that the government was making a conscious effort to diversify the Indian economy and develop the manufacturing sector in the country. He stated that a stronger growth in manufacturing and the agriculture sectors would spur the further growth of the services sector.

According to the Minister, the government was taking efforts to make the states a partner in growth. It is for this reason that the government set up the NITI Aayog. He also called upon industry to partner with the government to spur growth in the country.

Mr. Prabhu stated that the true potential of India could only be realized once the country had a unified market. It is with this objective in mind that the government was pursuing the introduction of the Goods and Services tax in the country. He reassured the investors in the Summit that the government would no longer apply tax laws retrospectively.

The Minister stated that there were several opportunities that were now emerging thanks to this transformation. These include solar power and logistics among others.

Inviting business to partner in Rajasthan’s progress, Ms. Vasundhara Raje, Chief Minister of Rajasthan stated that her state was undertaking a slew of economic reforms. She specially highlighted the reforms that her state was undertaking in the labour front y amending old outdated legislation. She observed that this had become a model for the rest of the country and the Prime Minister had called on other states to follow the Rajasthan model.

The Chief Minister stated that some of the advantages that Rajasthan offered included the sheer size of the state, its natural resources, its rich heritage complete with forts, palaces, arts and culture and its strategic location among others.

She highlighted that her government was giving a special impetus to infrastructure development. She observed that with the development of the Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor, several opportunities for industrial development were expected to arise. She called on industry to take advantage of this opportunity and set up smart cities and knowledge hubs around the corridor.

In his address, Mr. Nikola Gruevski, Prime Minister of Macedonia invited Indian industry to invest in his country. Highlighting some of the advantages of investing in Macedonia, the Prime Minister stated that his country had one of the lowest tax rates in the world. The World Bank, in its Doing Business Indicators had ranked Macedonia as one of the top 30 easiest places to do business.

The Prime Minster stated that his country had set up Free Economic Zones where companies would not be charged personal or corporate income tax, duty free import of equipment would be allowed and land would provided to industry on very long lease. The Prime Minister stated that some of the sectors for investment could include auto components and food processing among others.

In her address, Ms. Nirmala Sitharaman, Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Commerce and Industry, observed that India carries the potential opportunity to position itself as the leader of the economic growth with 1.3 million enterprises, 1.2 billion people, over 535 million under 25 years of age. According to her, India’s talent pool has always been a great draw. Every year, 140,000 Indian engineers join the ranks of companies across Europe and the US alone. Its 3.13 million engineers today export information technology services to eighty per cent of the world’s Fortune 500 companies. It is amongst the six countries of the world to own and operate indigenous space technologies.

According to the Minister, the time was ripe to forge new partnerships and break out of the low growth cycle. It was in this context that the Government had formulated several path-breaking initiatives such as the Make in India campaign. She stated that the government’s objective was to make doing business in India much easier.

Highlighting some of the reforms that had been undertaken, the minister spoke highlighted the easing of FDI restrictions in railways, defense and construction, labour and land reforms among others.

According to the Minister, the idea was to project Democracy, Demography and Demand as the key strengths of India. She observed that thanks to the reforms being undertaken, business sentiment in the country had improved significantly.

In his address, Mr. Ajay Shriram, President, CII stated that the many initiatives announced and decisions taken by the government across key areas of the economy had greatly reassured businesses and enhanced investor confidence. He felt that these initiatives would help transform India in the shortest possible time.

Earlier, while welcoming the delegates, Mr. Chandrajit Banerjee, Director General, CII stated that the world would like to see an active engagement and collaboration with India and stimulate discussions among key stakeholders – political, institutional, business, media and academia – on the best strategies to foster balanced and equitable growth.

Mr. Sumit Mazumder, President – Designate, CII proposed the Vote of Thanks.

‘Make in India’, ‘Skill India’ and ‘Digital India’ to enable MSMEs attain Exponential Growth: Madhav Lal, Secretary, Ministry of MSME

CII in Partnership with the Ministry of MSME, Government of India organized the Global SME Business Summit 2014. The day one of the event focused on connecting Global SMEs for mutual business development and explore emerging markets. During the event, Mr Madhav Lal, Secretary, Ministry of MSME, discussed the intent of the Government of India and the Ministry of MSME to lead Indian MSMEs on a high growth path. After highlighting the role played by MSMEs in the economic landscape of the country, he spoke about the dual role that the Ministry of MSME plays in assisting MSMEs in terms of providing them with a supportive framework through policy advocacy and by bringing about institutional reforms in areas of policy vacuum including taxation reform, regulatory systems’ reforms, finance provisioning reforms, etc. He shed some light on the recent initiatives of the Prime Minister of India, Mr. Narendra Modi, for support to MSMEs. The most significant measures include the Make in India initiative, Skill India for skill development, Digital India for ICT interventions, etc. He also made a mention of the announcements in the Union Budget 2014-15 for the provision of a Rs 10,000 crore venture capital fund and a Rs 200 crore technology centres fund, accreditation of enterprises in this sector, virtual clusters, online filing of EM I and II, incubation centres, etc. These initiatives make it clear that the government is focused on supporting the MSMEs. He illustrated the need for identifying important verticals within this sector with differing interests with regards to government’s policy interventions and highlighted the merits of adopting a focused approach to benefit these verticals. Mr Madhav Lal inaugurated the 11^th edition of Global SME Business Summit 2014 today in New Delhi.

Mr R C Bhargava, Chairman, Maruti Suzuki India Limited in his Keynote Address, disclosed the role played by MSMEs in assisting Maruti Suzuki in its journey to become the biggest car manufacturing company. He spoke about the diversity of opportunities evolving in the auto components sector for MSMEs. He discussed the role played by Maruti in cluster development, skill formation, etc. He also added that, to make the PM’s call to grow manufacturing a reality different rules and incentives need to be devised for MSME’s working as vendors to modern manufacturing. A capital investment based criteria is inappropriate and in fact creates a disincentive to improving technology, productivity, quality and reducing costs. He said that industry will not become competitive if this persists. This applies not only to auto but aerospace, capital goods, power generating and transmission equipment, consumer durables and so on. The entire package of incentives should lead to enhancing competitiveness of manufacturing, and upgrade of all aspects of their work, commented Mr Bhargava.

The report “The New Wave Indian MSME: An Action Agenda for Growth” was released by Mr Madhav Lal at the Session.

The report “The New Wave Indian MSME: An Action Agenda for Growth” was released by Mr Madhav Lal at the Session. This report suggests an alternative framework for the definition of MSMEs. This report outlines relevant recommendations for an opportunity framework built around five growth enabling pillars comprising: infrastructure, regulatory framework, funding, performance incentives and skill India. It also contains global best practises and is in line with the government’s vision of policy incentives for the MSME sector in India.

Ms Patricia Hewitt, Chair, UK India Business Council, emphasized on building a healthy India UK SME partnership. She explained that through improvements in factors like gaining access to networks and contacts; establishing a dialogue and building a relationship with actors in the market; navigating unfamiliar business environments, including differences in language and culture; procedural barriers such as product standards and other aspects of the legal and regulatory framework; assessing the competitive environment and identifying potential opportunities and risks; etc., the small and medium enterprises of both countries can be enabled to explore and expand their businesses in each other’s domain.

Mr T T Ashok, Co-Chairman, CII National SME Council, shared about the various features of the session which include 8 sectoral sessions on emerging sectors with relevance for SME penetration and internalization, 6 country sessions to explore cross-border partnership opportunities of mutual benefit, the India SME expo showcasing 50 national as well as international SMEs, their products and services and a special National Vendor Development Program with leading CPSEs in India to enable Public Sector Enterprises to identify suitable vendors in the MSE category and to provide SMEs with an opportunity to interact with these CPSEs and cement long term partnerships. He added that looking ahead, the challenge lies in building the next generation of SMEs that will collectively function as the powerhouse of the global economy. To achieve this, governments and industry around the world would need to make many collaborative efforts to create conducive eco-systems for MSMEs within their respective geographies and across regions.

It’s Reigning Women

Family businesses in India are witnessing more and more women are taking over companies

Today women are fast taking the place of sons in running the family business empire. According to the American Family Business Survey, the number of female CEOs has doubled every five years since 1997. The survey indicates that more than 24 percent of the businesses currently have a female CEO or president, up from about 5 percent in 1997. The growth should continue as 31% of those surveyed indicated that they may have a female successor.

More and more daughters are also inheriting the family business in India. An Indian School of Business (ISB) paper on ‘Women in Family Business’ points out that currently women entrepreneurs make up about 10% of the total entrepreneurs in the country. This percentage is growing every year and is likely to reach 20% of the entrepreneurial force in India in the next few years.

In India the trend of daughters inheriting family businesses picked up steam after 2005 when the Hindu Undivided Family (HUF) succession norms were amended and girls were allowed to inherit equal shares in family businesses. The Hindu Succession (Amendment) Act of 2005 removed gender discrimination with regard to inheritance in Hindu joint families. Previously, only the male line, to great-grandson, had inheritance rights.

Perhaps the biggest change in the past couple of decades has been the increasing importance of educational qualifications. A growing emphasis on education has helped to raise the status of women in family businesses. Many have also worked abroad before returning home to take up jobs with the family business. Education and exposure have led to greater societal acceptance of women participating in family business. A few are also foreign educated waiting in the wings for winning top jobs in their groups.

Prof K Ramachandran, of Hyderabad-based Indian School of Business (ISB), was quoted in the media saying that “There is a huge change in attitude toward girls, with the number of children in any family coming down. Families sometimes have only one or two girls. I do not say that it is new found love for daughters but realization of an opportunity to share parental wealth among all children independent of gender.”

However, women today are challenging the stereotype assumption that men are the best and most qualified candidates for taking over the family business.

Speaking at the CII-FBN India Chapter XV International Convention on Family Business held in New Delhi recently, Dr Annelie Karlsson, Executive Director, FBN Sweden, said, daughters are becoming more and more influential in the family businesses. “Despite young male members to take charge of the business, many of the young female members are becoming the heads of business,” she concluded.