Commerce & Industry Minister launches the Startup India Hub

New Delhi: The Commerce & Industry Minister Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman today launched theStartup India Virtual Hub, an online platform for all stakeholders of the entrepreneurial ecosystem in India to discover, connect and engage with each other.
Speaking about the need to bring the entire ecosystem together on one platform, Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman mentioned that Startup India Virtual Hub is an effort to create a marketplace where all the stakeholders can interact, exchange knowledge, and enable each other to grow. It will streamline the lifecycle of existing and potential startups, helping them access the right resources at the right time. She also encouraged all entrepreneurs in India to utilize this portal and all enabling stakeholders to contribute to the platform as much as possible. The Minister also announced a new initiative, wherein a Startup exchange program amongst the SAARC nations would be organized.
The portal will host startups, investors, funds, mentors, academia, incubators, accelerators, corporates, Government bodies and more. The Hub attempts to solve the problem of information asymmetry and lack of access to knowledge, tools, &experts, especially in the nascent ecosystems across Tier II and III towns.
The Virtual Hub is a dynamic & interactive platform that will facilitate learning & development, networking, mentorship, funding,etc. for startups. The basic principle behind developing this platform is to aggregate different offerings of theecosystem and enable discovery by the right audience. Startup India Hub has partnered with various organizations to on-board entrepreneurs & investors, as well as build knowledge modules. To ensure accessibility across various platforms, dedicated Apps are also available on both Android and iOS.
India is the third largest startup ecosystem around the globe, with 3-4 startups commencing every day. The Hub will act as a nodal platform and will enable users to connect with ecosystem stakeholders, access free learning resources, tools & templates on legal, HR, accounting & regulatory issues and discussion forums. The Hub has also aggregated over 50 relevant Govt schemes/programs. In the next phase, the platform will also aggregate schemes available across various state governments. To provide a better user experience, the platform has been enabled to build smart intelligence along with Chatbots to automatically collate, update information and respond to queries.
The launch event of the Hub was kick-started by a panel discussion on ‘Navigating the Startup Landscape’ with a representative from each of the startup, investor, incubator, accelerator, and mentor communities. The discussion was followed by an address by Shri Ramesh Abhishek Secretary, Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion who made a presentation on various initiatives taken up under the Startup India Initiative.
In his closing remarks, Joint Secretary Shri Rajiv Aggarwal requested all the members of the ecosystem to register on the Hub.

IT export to grow at 7-8%; 1.5L jobs to be created in FY18'

Hyderabad: Indian IT exports will grow by 7-8 per cent, unchanged from previous year's growth, despite protectionist voices in major markets like the US, industry body Nasscom said today.
The USD 156 billion Indian industry -- the biggest job creator in the organised sector -- is also projected to add 1.3-1.5 lakh new jobs during 2017-18 compared to a net hiring of 1.7 lakh in the previous fiscal.
In a first, the industry body had deferred giving the growth forecast in February and had instead postponed the same to April-June quarter.
Speaking to reporters, Nasscom president R Chandrashekhar exuded confidence that the outlook is positive despite the political and economic uncertainties in key overseas markets that may impact client spending.
"We expect export revenues to grow by 7-8 per cent, not hugely different from last year (7.5 per cent), notwithstanding the headwinds we talked about (H1-B visa curbs in the US, protectionism and Brexit)," he added.
The domestic infotech industry is expected to grow at faster pace of 10-11 per cent (in dollar terms) in 2017-18.
"We definitely see the industry to be net hirer of as many as 1.3 to 1.5 lakh people in the year ahead. This industry continues to be a substantial hirer and a substantial creator of new jobs. At the same time, there is a churn in the industry too," Chandrashekhar said.
He said as the industry is currently driven by the digital revolution, Nasscom has decided to re-skill about 1.5 to 2 million IT professionals to equip them for future requirements.
"Nasscom is working with its partners, members to establish a comprehensive digital platform. You will be hearing about this more during the months ahead. We expect 1.5 to 2 million people amongst the workforce to be re-skilled in the next 4-5 years."
The size of the Indian IT industry is pegged at USD 154 billion, including USD 11 billion incremental revenues added in the previous fiscal, according to Nasscom.
"Uncertainty impacted the businesses. Whether it is BFSI segment or healthcare, all segments confronted by the uncertainty delayed the decision-making in the quest for stability. That translated into low opportunities for IT industry," the Nasscom chief explained.
Chandrashekhar, however, was optimistic about growth of the domestic IT industry, backed by some of the Centre's initiatives such as aiming for one trillion dollar digital economy.
Replying to a query, he said the Indian IT industry is all set to move beyond the markets it is heavily dependent on and expand footprints to newer geographies such as Continental Europe, Japan, China and Africa.
The US and the UK account for almost 80 per cent of the country's IT export revenues.
Compared to Nasscom's guidance of 7-8 per cent growth, Infosys expects its revenues to rise 6.5-8.5 per cent in constant currency (and 6.1-8.1 per cent in USD terms), while Cognizant has guided for 8-10 per cent rise in topline in constant currency terms.
Keshab Panda, MD and CEO, L&T Technology Services, said he is confident of double-digit growth.

India-Australia to boost collaboration in clothing, fashion

New Delhi: India and Australia will intensify cooperation in the field of textiles, clothing, handloom and fashion, with the government approving an agreement between the two nations in this regard.
The Memorandum of Understanding between the Ministry of Textiles and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Australia will benefit weavers.
The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi approved the pact at a meeting here.
As per the agreement, the participants will jointly identify appropriate measures to connect the Australian and Indian textile and fashion sectors; promote collaboration and international engagement between those sectors.
They will also nurture the skills and talents; promote economic opportunities and encourage professional engagement, training, skill development and public exhibition of products derived from these sectors in the two countries.
However, Intellectual Property Rights of either side will stand protected.
"The MoU will facilitate cooperation in relation to matters within the textiles and fashion sectors that may be of mutual interest and benefit to the participants," an official statement said.
"The weavers including ancillary workers will be benefited from activities to be taken under MoU," it added.
The initiative also aims to increase the handloom fabric production by establishing market linkages, encourage innovation in designs and techniques for improvement in design capability, diversification of product lines and value addition and provide better access to domestic and export markets so that weavers are able to get continuous employment and improve their living standards.
According to the statement, Australian fashion designers producing garments using Indian woven and other textiles for Indian and Australian market have evinced interest to work with stakeholders in India which includes cooperation with textiles, handloom sector with a view to provide state-of- the-art designing of textiles and handloom products and market them in India as well as international market.
The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (Government of Australia) had proposed to sign an MoU with the Ministry of Textiles in this regard.

Govt banks devise three-tier plan for bad loan resolution

Mumbai: A three-tier strategy is being evolved internally, according to four bankers who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Relatively smaller stressed accounts of less than Rs1,000 crore will be sold to asset reconstruction companies (ARCs), mid-sized cases of Rs1,000-5,000 crore will be resolved through the various RBI restructuring schemes and larger cases will be tried at the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) in accordance with RBI rules, according to the plan.
The need for a 360-degree approach to resolving the stressed asset cases comes as lenders want to ensure faster recovery from the stock of Rs10 trillion of stressed assets choking the banking system.
Earlier this month, RBI identified 12 large stressed accounts with outstanding debt of more than Rs5,000 crore to be referred to the NCLT. In other cases, the central bank asked banks to finalize a resolution plan within the next six months, failing which it will be filed for bankruptcy proceedings.
On Thursday, it announced the members of its oversight committee on bad loans and said this panel will also oversee stressed loans greater than at least Rs500 crore.
While RBI has kick-started the process, industry watchers say this is going to be a long-drawn process. Meanwhile, banks are keen on continuing the resolution process by referring eligible cases to various schemes such as strategic debt restructuring and scheme for sustainable structuring of stressed assets. Bankers said the involvement of the oversight panel would ensure that they can take higher haircuts, or sacrifice of the loan amount, without the fear of investigating agencies.
For other smaller cases, lenders have intensified their resolution efforts in the current quarter by clearing the old stock of non-performing assets (NPAs), a phenomenon which is usually seen in the fourth quarter of the fiscal year. Banks including State Bank of India, Andhra Bank, Allahabad Bank, and United Bank of India have already put on the block NPAs worth at least Rs8,500 crore, a majority of which are outstanding balance of less than Rs100 crore.
The final outcome of these sales will also help gauge whether the revised norms of the RBI, in effect since 1 April, are a deterrent for using the ARC route for bad loan resolution.
From the beginning of this fiscal, if a bank invests in more than 50% of security receipts created against the sale of its own stressed assets, it has to set aside more money as provisions. From 2018-19, this threshold of 50% will be reduced to 10%.
“Over a period of time, the redemption of these security receipts falls to nil as there is very little realization from the underlying assets of the company. Until then, banks have to keep higher provisions. So it’s best to sell smaller loans to ARCs,” said the executive director of a public sector bank, who is one of the four bankers cited above.
Given their capital position, most ARCs would also prefer smaller deals as they cannot afford an upfront cash payment of 50% for the underlying asset.
“If ARCs have no capital, then banks will have to look at bifurcating the NPA cases and selling the small accounts to ARCs while addressing the larger ones through the NCLT,” said Eshwar Karra, chief executive officer, Phoenix ARC, which manages Rs6,000 crore of stressed assets primarily in the small and medium enterprises.
According to a 2016 report by EY, the capitalization of all ARCs put together adds up to around Rs3,000 crore.

UP gets 70,784 more houses for urban poor under PMAY (Urban)

Karnataka gets 56,281 more; Andaman & Nicobar Islands get 609 first time
Ministry of HUPA approves 1,27,674 more houses with an investment of Rs.6,532 cr
Central assistance of Rs.1,915 cr approved for these new sanctions
New Delhi: Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation has approved construction of 70,784 affordable houses for the benefit of urban poor in Uttar Pradesh under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Urban) with an investment of Rs.3,528 cr for which central assistance of Rs.1,062 cr has been approved.
Further to the discussion Minister of HUPA Shri M.Venkaiah Naidu held with the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh Shri Yogi Adityanath soon after assumption of office, the State Government sent affordable housing proposals for 145 cities and the same have been approved. Earlier, Uttar Pradesh has been sanctioned 41,954 houses including those approved under Rajiv Awas Yojana, which has been now subsumed under PMAY(Urban). With these latest approvals, the total number of houses sanctioned for Uttar Pradesh has increased to 1,12,738.
Of the 70,784 houses approved, 56,839 will be constructed under the Affordable Housing in Partnership component and 13,945 houses under Beneficiary Led Construction component of PMAY(Urban). Under these two components, central assistance of Rs.1.50 lakh is given to each beneficiary.
Under the latest approvals, Lucknow has got 1,525 houses, Gorakhpur-501, Ayodhya-500, Iltifatganj-903, Faizabad-769, Dudhi-765, Rudauli-713, Singahi Bhiraura-821, Chatra-783, Purdhinagar-674, Kanpur Dehat-442, Daurala-505, Sikandra-447, Akbarpur-449, Aliganj-511, Bareily-139 and Azamgarh-119.
Karnataka has been sanctioned 56,281 more affordable houses for 93 cities and towns with an investment of Rs.2,950 cr and Central assistance of Rs.844 cr.
Bengaluru has been sanctioned 8,291 houses, Bellary-1,613, Shivamogga-1,500, Chennapatna-1,450, Hubbali-1,300, Dharwar-1,292, Challakere-1,127, Kanakpur-1,163 and Sira-1,008.
For the first time, Andaman & Nicobar Islands has been sanctioned 609 houses for Port Blair with an investment of Rs.54 cr and central assistance of Rs.9.00 cr.
With these latest approvals, the total number of affordable houses approved for construction under PMAY(Urban) has increased to 20,95,718.

Govt to launch National Data Repository on June 28

New Delhi: The government will next week launch India's maiden National Data Repository (NDR) that will assimilate, preserve and upkeep country's vast sedimentary data for future use in oil and gas exploration and production.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan will on June 28 launch the NDR, which will aid India to switch over to an open acreage licensing regime where companies can choose areas they want to explore.
At present, the government selects and demarcates areas it feels can be offered for bidding in an exploration licensing round.
Under the open acreage licensing (OAL), companies can visit NDR and look at vast seismic data of currently producing fields and explored areas as also those of unexplored areas, official sources said.
From the areas that are not under any licensee, they can then carve out an area suitable to them and evince interest in doing exploration and production.
Once an area is selected, the government will put it up for bidding and any firm offering the maximum share of oil or gas produced from the area would be awarded the block.
Sources said already a vast amount of data has been populated - over 9.3 lakh line kilometres of 2D seismic, 2.8 lakh square km of 3D seismic and 1,717 well data.
The NDR will be wholly funded by the government of India and housed with the Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH).
It will have the ability to store data online, near line and offline, and provide independent web-based access.
The DGH, they said, has already begun sale of geophysical data of speculative surveys in east and west coast of India in 2005 and 2008.
The mammoth volume of data collected by E&P companies and other agencies over more than six decades of activities was hitherto lying scattered at different work centres of ONGC, Oil India and DGH or held by the operating companies.
This necessitated an establishment of a system at national level that could assimilate, preserve and upkeep the vast amount of data which could be organised and regulated for use in future exploration and development, besides use by R&D and other educational Institutes.
With this objective, the government initiated the establishment of the NDR.
The NDR is a government sponsored project with state-of- the-art facilities and infrastructure to create E&P data bank for preservation, upkeep and dissemination of data so as to enable its systematic use for future exploration and development.
The DGH being the agency of the central government will be responsible for creation, setting up and operation of the NDR.
Sources said the OAL will be beginning of a new era in oil and gas exploration and production.
Till now, the government has awarded 254 exploration blocks under nine rounds of bidding between 2000 and 2012.
Prior to that, 29 discovered fields were awarded to private and foreign companies.
Of the 254 blocks awarded under the New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP) between 2000 and 2012, 156 have already been relinquished due to poor prospectivity.

FIEO sets export target of US$ 325 bn for this fiscal

New Delhi: With exports recording continuous growth, exporters body FIEO expects that the country's merchandise shipments would reach USD 325 billion this fiscal.
Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) President Ganesh Kumar Gupta also said while India is showing a positive trend on exports since the last nine months, there is a bit of anxiety in the business with regard to the Goods and Services Tax (GST).
"Indian exports have been on an upward trend in last few months with export of USD 275 billion in last fiscal and a target of USD 325 billion to achieve in 2017-18," FIEO said in a statement.
Further, it has organised an interactive session with Commerce Secretary Rita Teaotia in Kolkata.
Quoting the secretary, FIEO said, "GST is a well needed reform and the transition will require some time, and calibrated process of foreign trade policy will be continuous".
With regard to shipping lines overcharging, she stated that the Director General Shipping has been informed and they are waiting for a response from them.

Digital commerce in India to reach Rs 2.20 lakh cr by Dec'

New Delhi: The digital commerce market in India is pegged to grow to Rs 2,20,330 crore by December 2017, an industry report said today.
According to a report by Internet and Mobile Association of India and IMRB Kantar, digital commerce in India has grown at a CAGR of 30 per cent to reach Rs 1,68,891 crore by the end of December 2016.
"It is estimated to reach Rs 2,20,330 crore by December 2017," it added. This translates into a growth of 30.4 per cent.
The online travel market, which would continue to account for over half of India's digital commerce, is expected to touch Rs 1,18,598 crore by December 2017. This is over 24 per cent higher than Rs 95,198 crore registered last year.
The e-Tailing segment is expected to reach around Rs 94,964 crore by the end of this year, growing at about 59 per cent from Rs 59,876 crore in December 2016.
The report also stated that online utility payment (for services like DTH/telephone and electricity bills) would reach Rs 7,532 crore this year from Rs 6,277 crore last year.
Other online service market that includes online bookings done for entertainment, online grocery and online food delivery, is expected to reach Rs 4,587 crore in the said period.

Bank credit grows at 6.02%, deposits at 11.19%

Mumbai: Banks' credit growth grew at 6.02 per cent to Rs 76,58,212 crore in the fortnight ended June 9 from Rs 72,22,939 crore in the same period of fiscal 2016, according to the data released by RBI.
The growth in advances in the reporting period was slightly higher than the previous fortnight ended May 26, 2017, RBI data showed.
In the fortnight ended May 26, advances had grown by 5.08 per cent with an outstanding loans at Rs 75,93,546 crore.
In the fiscal ended March 31, 2017, credit growth had plunged to a multi-year low of 5.08 per cent with an outstanding loan at Rs 78.81 trillion as against Rs 75.01 trillion on April 1, 2016.
In the reporting fortnight, bank deposits grew at 11.19 per cent to Rs 105,77,947 crore from Rs 95,13,148 crore in the fortnight ended June 10, 2016.
Deposits in the fortnight ended May 26 had grown by 10.9 per cent to Rs 105,51,182 crore from Rs 95,14,087 crore in the period ended May 27, 2016, the data showed.

Sebi eases M&A norms for distressed firms

Mumbai: The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) relaxed some rules on Wednesday to hasten the resolution of stressed assets in bank balance sheets.
The regulator has exempted buyers of shares in distressed companies from the requirement of making an open offer even if the purchase triggers such an event under the takeover code, Sebi announced after its board meeting on Wednesday.
Under Sebi’s takeover norms, one of the triggers for an open offer is when an entity acquires 25% or more in a listed company. The entity then has to make an offer to buy an additional 26% stake in the company from the public shareholders.
Sebi said it has come across cases where lenders acquired shares in a distressed company but could not sell the stake to a new investor because the takeover norms proved restrictive and reduced the funds available for investment in the stressed firm.
This has triggered the need for additional relaxation, which is at present available only to financial creditors under the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI’s) strategic debt restructuring (SDR) scheme. Indian banks are currently sitting on stressed assets of Rs10 trillion and last week, RBI identified 12 large accounts where it directed banks to initiate bankruptcy proceedings.
These exemptions, however, will need to be approved by a special resolution (at least 75% shareholders voting in favour). Secondly, the shares bought by the new investor will also be locked in for at least three years, Sebi said.
The regulator said it will grant similar exemptions for those firms which have got their resolution plans approved by the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code.
“The new insolvency law allows insolvency professionals a lot of latitude to try different permutations and combinations to unlock the maximum value of a stressed company,” said Sandeep Parekh, founder of law firm Finsec Law Advisors. These would range “from a wipeout of existing equity and issue of new equity to banks to sale of a substantial stake to a strategic investor to a listed spin-off. If each stage of a multi-stage action plan triggers open offers and other Sebi regulatory costs, the unlocking of value to banks of their already distressed assets would come down”.
Secondly, the regulator also relaxed laws which will make it easier for private equity-backed firms to raise funds through new share sales. It has exempted category II alternative investment funds (AIFs) such as private equity and real estate funds from the mandatory one-year lock-in of shares when a company they have invested in goes for an initial public offering. Currently, category I AIFs such as venture capital and infrastructure funds are granted that exemption.
“This would bring about uniformity, ease of doing business and expand the investor base available for capital raising,” the regulator said in a statement.
A third set of announcements were related to proposals that will allow foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) easier access. The regulator said it was planning to allow more regions to grant FPI registration by including countries that have a diplomatic tie-up with India, simplify so-called broad-based requirements and relax ‘fit and proper’ rules.
An FPI is considered to be broad-based if it has at least 20 investors, with none of them holding more than 49%. However, if the broad-based fund has institutional investors, it is not necessary for the fund to have 20 investors, according to existing Sebi norms.
Sebi will soon float a discussion paper to introduce the new FPI norms, said chairman Ajay Tyagi.
However, the regulator continued to be tough on investments through participatory notes (P-notes). On Wednesday, it formalized its proposal (made in a discussion paper in May) to levy a fee of $1,000 on subscribers of offshore derivative investments (which typically involve P-notes).
The regulator said it is also in the process of reviewing norms for the equity derivatives market and plans to release a discussion paper.
“Retail investors are not fully aware of the risks involved in derivatives investment,” said Tyagi.
In the ongoing case of alleged violation of algorithmic trading norms by the National Stock Exchange of India Ltd, the markets regulator said it has issued show-cause notices to 14 key managerial persons of the bourse and will do its own investigation with the help of forensic auditors.
“We have also started an investigation to look into issues of possible connivance between NSE employees and brokers and unfair gains for brokers,” said Tyagi.
EY, which was appointed as the forensic auditor to prepare a report on NSE, will submit its report to Sebi in two weeks, said Tyagi.
Separately, in a circular, Sebi said it has allowed hedge funds to trade in the commodity derivatives market, subject to certain safeguards.