May-June 2k12A by Madraschamber

Vol.26 Nos. 2 & 3 May & June 2012

Conference on Creating Carbon Neutral Chennai: Planning for Integrated Freight Movement

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ran, IAS ., Sec deliverin retary, Highwa Seated ys a g th l to r: K Saraswa e inaugural ad nd Minor Port s, GoTN dress. thi, T. S hiv S N Srik anth an araman, Dr. V Sumant d J Krish ran, nan.

IN THIS ISSUE President’s message Chamber’s activities: - Presentation on MCCI Vocational Training and Skill Development Centre - Training Programme on Factories Act, Labour Laws, Labour Welfare Laws and Allied Issues: - Video Discussion on “Attitude : A Little Thing that Makes A Big Difference” - Seminar on Service Tax – Past, Present & Future - Food for Thought on Rupee(?)

- RK Talwar Memorial Lecture - Road map for India as Super Power 2020 - Conference on Creating carbon Neutral Chennai: Planning for Integrated Freight Movement - Video Discussion on “You are not listening” - Presentation & Discussion on Energy Management System & ISO 50001 - Interactive meeting with Mr Anthony P. Iriti, Former Mayor of Findlay Township, Ohio, USA - Workshop on Finance Act 2012 - FFT on Right(way) To Information

General Committee Expert Committees SPOT LIGHT CLOUD COMPUTING Policy Watch Additions to Library Economic Review

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PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE

Dear Members

have also made a modest beginning with the Skill Development Centre and I hope, with your support, it will soon blossom into a Centre of Excellence. It is my fond hope that this will be a landmark initiative of the Chamber and emerge as a proud showpiece, when we reach our bicentennial. The Chamber launched a Sustainable Chennai Forum (SCF) on the occasion of World Habitat Day in November 2011, with the vision to be a leading advocate on sustainable development and make Chennai an inclusive, sustainable, clean and green metropolis. This too will be of enduring value to society at large.

It is said that all good things come to an end and so it is for me, as my tenure as President of this great institution comes to an end. It has been a rare honour and privilege to serve as the President of this august Chamber for two terms. I had the pleasure of reaching out to you through this column during the past two years and share my thoughts on diﬀerent subjects of common interest, which I hope were of some value to you.

The last two years have been turbulent ones for businesses, big and small, due to external and domestic factors. The Chamber, true to its long tradition, has continued to actively lobby for business and economy-friendly policies and as always, been tirelessly petitioning the Government, both at the Centre and the State - on issues ranging from taxation to port congestion. Many of our representations met with success, while some did not.

My tenure has been very fulfilling, rewarding and enjoyable and I was indeed fortunate to be a part of the Chamber’s 175th Anniversary celebrations. The Chamber Day, marking the conclusion of the 175th year celebrations, was certainly the high point. Presided over by Dr K. Rosaiah, Governor of Tamil Nadu, it was an evening of great dignity. It was as much an occasion for nostalgia, as it was to look ahead, and it also aﬀorded us the opportunity to honour our Past Presidents and Secretaries, to whom the Chamber owes so much.

One of the noteworthy developments for the Chamber is that it has regained its rightful position on the Board of Trustees of the Chennai Port Trust, after a gap of 12 years! It is documented history that the Chamber was instrumental in setting up of the Port, more than a century ago, and it is only appropriate that the Chamber is represented on the Board. I am happy that our persistent eﬀorts over the last few years have yielded results.

The Food for Thought programme, launched during 175th year, has been well received and is now part of the Chamber’s monthly agenda. We

I am sure that the Chamber will scale greater heights as our State sets out to realise the ambitious dreams of Vision 2023! I carry with me very pleasant memories of the many years I served as a member of the General Committee, culminating in my Presidency, during the last two years. I was privileged to work with some of the best and the brightest people in many fields and I am so much the richer for the things that I learned from them. I hope that I have been able to contribute, in some small measure, to enhance the prestige and standing of this great institution. I thank each one of you for the faith reposed in me and for your support and cooperation. I am confident that you will continue to do the same for my successor. Finally, I place on record my great appreciation and sincere thanks to all my colleagues on the General Committee and Expert Committees, for their unstinted support and counsel, as also the Secretary General and the entire team in the Chamber secretariat, for their sterling contribution. I look forward to staying In Touch! Best wishes to all of you.

T T Srinivasaraghavan President

The Chamber is taking several initiatives to make it more useful and relevant to members, as well as to trade and industry in general. Being an institution that is focused exclusively on Tamilnadu and given our long and distinguished record of service,

CHAMBER’S ACTIVITIES 4th May 2012

Presentation on MCCI Vocational Training and Skill Development Centre The Chamber ’s team consisting of Mrs K Saraswathi, Secretary General, M r. S . S a n ka ra n a raya n a n , S e n i o r Manager, Mr D K Pradhan, COO and Mr Thirunavukkarasu of the Centre met the oﬃce bearers of Thirumazhisai Industries Association at their SIDCO Industrial Estate oﬃce. Mrs Saraswathi made a presentation to the invited members of the Association about the Madras Chamber and its services more particularly about the skill development initiative of the Chamber. She explained that as a pilot phase, trainings were organized in the rented premises in Chembarambakkam which is closer to the Thirumazhisai Estate. She also informed them that the first batch of trainees of Fitter course have been absorbed by one of the member companies of the Thirumazhisai Industries Association. She extended an invitation to all the members of the Association to visit the MCCI’s facility and also to suggest the programmes that they may like to organize. There were lot of discussions following the presentation and the following points emerged: z

Thirumazhisai Industries Association to become a member of the Madras Chamber and the necessary forms and details were given to them Some of the units wanted the Chamber to organize in-house programmes for them specifically on topics like safety, 5S, spoken English, etc.

They also expressed that their member industries required a number of skilled workers like fitters. They said 200 fitters can be placed immediately.

There were also suggestions to train people on CAD/CAM kind of high end training and the units were ready to absorb them. There were also general discussions like organizing other programmes for member companies particularly on the Exim Procedures, statutory laws, taxation, etc. The Chamber expects to continue the relationship with the Association and sees lot of scope for a number of joint activities in the immediate future.

5th May 2012

Training Programme on Factories Act, Labour Laws, Labour Welfare Laws and Allied Issues Employers are required to comply with many rules and regulations and those who fail to do so, face consequences. It is found that quite often the executives who are responsible to implement these laws are not fully aware/conversant with the statutory requirements and thus overlook the rules causing embarrassment to the top management of the organization. It is against this background that the Chamber organized a one day training programme on Factories Act, Labour Laws, Labour Welfare Laws and Allied Issues in the Conference Room of the Chamber. Mrs K Saraswathi, Secretary General of the Chamber welcomed the participants. Since most of the participants were from the HR background, she informed them of the initiative of the Chamber in oﬀering skill development courses.

Mr M Ramakrishnan, Co-Chairman of the Chamber’s Expert Committee on HRD/ CSR highlighted the importance of the labour laws and cited a few examples of how interpretations are important. Non-compliance of the law because of mis-interpretation can land the employers in great diﬃculties. He pointed out that labour is a very important component of the business management. After the setting up of the International Labour Organisation lot of attention is being focused on the fair labour practices. Tripartite agreements between the labour unions, the employers and the Government is again a welcome move which tries to introduce a win-win situation for every one without favouring any one particular section. He hoped that the participants would make good use of the training programme and clarify all their doubts from the faculty who had vast experience in their respective fields. The faculty consisted of: -

Dr R Ramesh Kumar, Associate Professor, Tamilnadu Institute of Labour Studies, Govt. of Tamilnadu

Mr N Natarajan, Employees’ State Insurance Corporation

Mr. C.V. Gopal, Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation, Chennai

Dr Ramesh Kumar dealt with Factories Act, Labour Laws and Allied Issues. Mr Natarajan gave an overview of ESI Schemes while Mr V Gopal addressed on EPF issues. The faculty was provided by Fulcrum Enterprises Pvt.Ltd.

CHAMBER’S ACTIVITIES 10th May 2012

18th May 2012

Video Discussion on “Attitude: A Little Thing that makes a Big Diﬀerence"

Seminar on Service Tax – Past, Present & Future

The monthly video discussion jointly being organized by the Chamber and MMA was held on 10th May at the Conference Room of the Chamber. A video presentation was shown on "Attitude : A Little Thing that Makes a Big Diﬀerence”. This was an inspiring video that challenges you to improve life results by positively gaining control over one’s attitude in any environment. Why attitudes are so important? How attitude is communicated? These were the questions posed. Attitude is communicated through words, through voice and verbally. The trainer was Mr Raj Kalkaji. He said start afresh each day. Today is a new day and today is going to be a great day. Prioritise your life, visualize your future and simply enjoy the moment. Following was an interesting quote from the video: The past is history, the future is mystery; Today is a gift, that is why we call it present. The video said surround yourself with positive influences. Good relationships require open communication. Resolve the problem by mutually discussing issues and arriving at solutions. With a Q&A Session and an interesting game, the programme concluded.

The Chamber organised a Seminar on Service Tax – Past, Present and Future at Chembarambakkam on 18th May. Mrs K. Saraswathi, Secretary General in her welcome address said that the Chamber now in its 176th year proposes to organise many outreach programmes especially on taxation and financial matters which are of immediate importance to the industries now. Mr.N.S.Balachandra Datta, Senior General Manager, Hyundai Motor India Ltd. presented some of the main points of Service Tax. He pointed out that issues like point of taxation, rates, input credit and litigation arising out of non-clarity were being faced by the industries. In his inaugural address, Mr.K.Srivatsava IRS., Chief Commissioner for Central Excise & Service Tax, Chennai, appreciated the initiative of the Chamber in moving out of Chennai and conducting such useful programmes in places like Chembarambakkam, Sriperumbudur where industries are located. He said that upto 1994, there was no service tax though services contribute more than 56% of the country’s GDP. He said that service tax is relatively a recent one and hence undergoing a number of improvements over the years. The recent budget will further take it towards the path of improvement and would address some of the issues faced by the industries as pointed out here like litigation, clarity with regard to the definitions etc. He highlighted the e-governance

initiatives of the Department which should encourage people to resort to more of e-filing of returns. He also mentioned that as of now, there could be some minor diﬃculties and errors as in Chennai alone nearly 77 to 78% of the e-returns are not directly accepted by the system for many reasons. However, he said that these kind of programmes could educate people in improving the system. In conclusion he said, these year-on-year developments in service tax will only enable us to move towards Goods and Services Tax Act. He also said that the Board has come out with a guidance paper which is in the public domain which could be viewed by all the users. He welcomed further suggestions from the users through Madras Chamber and also assured all support from the Government side. He informed that single window clearance facility has been created in the Service Tax Department and through this assessees were benefited. He said that the Department is taking positive steps to improve the industry friendly approach. Major areas of concern were cenvat credit, export of services etc. and the Department will solve these issues. There was a technical session in which the points of taxation issues, e-filing, recent changes, and contemporary issues, negative list of services and GST related issues etc. were dealt with by Mr R Renugan, Superintendent, Service Tax Commissionerate, Chennai, Mr N Venkatakrishnan, Inspector, Service Tax Commissionerate, Chennai, Mr.B.Sriram, Executive Director-Tax Regulatory Services, PWC, Chennai and Mr.Hari Sudan, Senior Manager, PWC, Chennai.

CHAMBER’S ACTIVITIES 19th May 2012

FFT on “Rupee?” – The Indian Rupee has not only been depreciating rapidly but in recent years has been unusually volatile. While an orderly depreciation reflecting the macro-economic shortfalls in the Indian economy is perfectly understandable, the associated volatility was a matter of concern for the manufacturers, service providers, importers as well as exporters. There seemed to be speculative interests that were driving the value of the Rupee on a day-to-day basis. Be that as it may, there were several macro-economic issues that raise a fear whether the ghosts of 1991 would possibly return and continue to haunt us in the coming months. The burgeoning trade deficit (estimated to be approximately 10% of the GDP) is a case in point. Therefore, it is no surprise that an outflow of a few billions triggers all round panic in the stock markets, dynamites the exchange rate of the Rupee vis-a-vis the USD and strangulates the domestic liquidity in our markets. It is against this background, the MCCI organised a Food for Thought (FFT) on Rupee? on the 19th May. The Chamber had the privilege of the participation of the following speakers: Dr. S Narayan, IAS (Retd) Former Finance Secretary, Government of India

Dr. Bobby Srinivasan, Distinguished Professor, Institute for Financial Management & Research

Mr T Shivaraman, Vice-President of the Chamber while welcoming the gathering expressed that recently the Rupee has hit the lowest value and touched at 54.56 against the US Dollar which only confirms

that our decision to have this FFT now is really very timely. The dollar rupee exchange rate has been the point for discussion in these days. This has raised certain fundamental questions as to what exactly had triggered it – is it because of the mounting trade deficit with imports increasing and exports under performing or is it because of the fiscal deficit with less forward looking reforms and actions and imprudent subsidies or is it because of the conditions external to us with the adverse developments happening all around. There was no clarity and clear indications about the Rupee which is still hanging on with the question mark. Dr S Narayan, IAS., former Finance Secretary, Government of India expressed that given that India’s fundamentals are strong, the rupee will gradually correct itself despite the volatility.

According to Dr. Narayan, foreign institutional investors view India as a long term investment opportunity. He gave the example of Japanese Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s (JCCI) fervent push for setting up the proposed 330km Bangalore Chennai expressway. Dr.Narayan also called Chennai a “Touchstone for Consumption” and said that on the employment front, the city sees about 1,50,000 fresh recruitments during the months of May and June every year and that this helps in motion a steady and sustainable pattern of development. Dr Bobby Srinivasan made a presentation explaining the following factors which aﬀect the Rupee exchange rate : •

Foreign reserves

•

Balance of payment

•

Foreign direct investment

The urgent need to defend the rupee by encouraging foreign investments and reducing capital outflow were also discussed.

•

Foreign institutional investment

•

Transfer payment

•

Inflation rate

Dr Narayan observed that there is a necessity to create a more investmentfriendly atmosphere in the country by relaxing tax rules.

•

Interest rate, etc.

Discussing the fall in rupee value against the US dollar, he said the dollar has become the currency of choice. He also stated that the US economy is rebounding and that its output has increased despite large scale unemployment. To help reduce the deficit, he said that India will need to cut down on coal import and instead increase production locally. On the domestic front, easing tax rules will encourage global investors to invest here and help us raise India’s growth rate from 7% to 10%. He also emphasized the need to reduce the current account deficit and fiscal deficit.

He also said overall GDP growth rate, stability of government etc. were the factors to boost investors confidence. The value of Rupee on 3rd February 2012 was Rs.48.69 to a dollar whereas on 17th May,2012 it stood at Rs.54.50 to a dollar. There was a depreciation of 11.9 per cent in 3 months. As regards balance of payment, in a period of 5 years our deficit has doubled. Inflows have started slowing down. Going forward, our liability will increase against our reserves substantially he said. Basically our exports are growing at a much slower rate than our imports. A drop in the value of oil by 5-10% may help to reduce the deficit to 160-270 billion.

CHAMBER’S ACTIVITIES Unless our government makes efforts to increase the inflow and decrease the outflow of foreign exchange, we can face the same reality. (*Our current a/c deficit in 2007 -08 was 16 billion US dollars and in 2011-12 it was 75 billion US dollars). India’s WPI is 7% and CPI is 9.5%. For March 2012 US inflation rate was less than 2%. So from previous experience we can be rest assured that the value of rupee will fall approximately 6-7% against the dollar. Concluding, he gave details of overall GDP growth as follows:Indian growth was 6.9% for 2011–12 Government predicts 7.6% for 2012–13 Budget debt is predicted to be 5.1% Inflation rate is predicted to be 6.5% Going by history he said our Government prediction has always fallen short of reality. In conclusion he expressed that if our government does not play it straight but rather rely on sentiments and popularity, the market will teach a lesson which is hard to ignore. There was a very interesting Q&A session after which the programme concluded.

If we command our wealth, we shall be rich and free; if our wealth commands us, we are poor indeed. Edmund Burke

27th May 2012

RK Talwar Memorial Lecture The Chamber joined hands with Knowledge Xchange, Chennai in organizing the R K Talwar Memorial Lecture on 27th May at Hotel Hyatt Regency. Mr Talwar was the former Chairman of SBI and IDBI and was one of the greatest bankers of our times. The lecture was organized to commemorate his 90th birthday falling on 3rd June. Iconic banker Mr R K Talwar was remembered by colleagues and admirers as an upright and courageous man who combined leadership acumen with a deeply spiritual side and always brought a humane element to decision-making at the helms of management. As a tribute to his mentor, Mr N Vaghul, former Chairman, ICICI Bank, had authored a book titled “ R K Talwar - Values in Leadership” which was released on the occasion by Mr R Seshasayee, Executive Vice-Chairman, Ashok Leyland Ltd. Releasing the book, Mr Seshasayee said Mr. Talwar’s extraordinary sense of courage to stand up to political masters, adherence to truth and the manner in bringing the human element to every transaction were among his many enduring values that were increasingly relevant in the contemporary context of declining values. Noting that Mr Talwar was as much a stickler for truth as Mahatma Gandhi was, Mr Sashasayee recounted an instance that illustrated Mr Talwar’s ability to see an issue in black and white terms without shades of grey. Mr Vaghul, the author of the book said his book was more about the values upheld by Mr Talwar and what they meant for the

younger generation and less a biography as it lacked the rigour of research. The man’s integrity, truthfulness, courage and work ethics stemmed from a complete faith in God and the belief that he was but an instrument of the Divine. Mr Surendra Dave, former SEBI Chairman, who shared a long association with Mr Talwar described him as a “beacon we always tried to follow”. In his observation, Mr Talwar’s qualities of courage and truthfulness and his humane outlook stemmed from seeing life in a simple way. Mr T T Srinivasaraghavan, President, MCCI said Mr Talwar was a steadfast practitioner of the principles of corporate governance, employee empowerment and delegation in his everyday life long before the terms became the buzzwords of modern-day management.

30th May 2012

Presentation on Roadmap for India as Superpower 2020: The Chamber jointly with SSA Business Solutions, Mumbai, organized a presentation on “Roadmap for India as Superpower 2020” at Hotel Savera, Chennai. SSA Business Solutions is one of the leading Business Excellence solutions provider in India and partners with industry and SMEs to chart sustainable growth through quality improvement and cost reduction. It has helped companies to arrive at many strategic plans for the corporate and management growth. By adopting SSA implementation and practice, corporates have witnessed a gain in their savings and cost reduction. To have a better understanding of the

CHAMBER’S ACTIVITIES technologies and tools for improvement, this programme was scheduled. After welcome and introduction by Mr R Vittal Raj, Member of the General Committee, a presentation was made by Mr N C Narayanan, Founder & CMD., SSA Business Solutions and his team in which they covered the following aspects: • India-The Past and the Present • Present Indian Business Scenario and the current trends • Shift from ‘business of quality” to “quality of boardroom” • Sustaining growth through operational excellence and LEAN integrated manufacturing system – LIMS • Paradigm shift in Business excellence through Excellence in Design – SSA Techknowlogies’ proprietary ITMS and NPI (Lean) • Few Indian and Multinational case studies of organizational transformation After the presentation, there was a Q&A Session during which many clarifications were sought by the participants. The programme, supported by SSA Business Solutions, concluded with Dinner.

2nd June 2012:

Training Programme on Factories Act, Labour Laws, Labour Welfare Laws and Allied Issues: This programme was conducted in the Conference Room of the Chamber as a second batch, the first one having been organized during May. The faculty was – Dr R Ramesh Kumar, Tamilnadu Institute of Labour Studies, Mr R.Natarajan, ESIC and Mr C V Gopal, Employees’ Provident Fund organization.

Athena Infonomics was the Knowledge Partner while City Connect was the Associate Partner.

6th June 2012

Conference on Creating Carbon Neutral Chennai: Planning for Integrated Freight Movement Freight Transportation in urban areas has a major role in raising the economy of cities. In recent times, however, freight transportation has undergone a sea change and is facing numerous challenges. This is because freight movement by road has increased many folds but the road network has not been augmented sufficiently. This has resulted in a reduction in road space as the trucks have to share the same roads with personal vehicles as well as public transport. As a result, there is inefficiency in movement of freight resulting in high costs to the economy besides adversely affecting the environment. Against this background the Chamber organised a Conference on Creating Carbon Neutral Chennai: Planning for Integrated Freight Movement. The aim of the conference was to discuss and arrive at policies and methods for integrating freight movement into urban transport policy, in order to ensure economic and environmental gains. The goal was to foster a sustainable master freight policy that works for Chennai.

At the inaugural Mr T K Ramachandran, IAS., Secretary to Government, Highways and Minor Ports Department, Government of Tamilnadu was the Chief Guest. Welcoming the gathering Mr T Shivaraman, Vice-President, MCCI said this was an important Conference – organized at an appropriate time, immediately following the World Environment Day. Also with the State Government having issued the Vision 2023 document, this Conference is particularly important. At the heart of the Vision 2023 document is an ambitious plan to more than double the spend on infrastructure development from the current level of around 5% to 11.5%. Significant investments are planned for Roadways, highways, ports and the railway projects, covering both passenger and freight transportation. He said this Conference has been organized through the Sustainable Chennai forum of the Chamber which is an initiative to promote a business case for sustainable development and to evolve a policy framework and environment for sustainable development of the Chennai Metropolitan Region.

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CHAMBER’S ACTIVITIES Mr S N Srikanth, Senior Partner, Hauer Associates, gave the Theme Presentation. He said India should shift freight transport from road to water and rail which could reduce total cost of movement and promote sustainable development. He said there were costs associated with every mode of transport. Internal costs and external costs. Costs that are borne by users of the transport mode. External costs were unseen and hidden namely climate change, emissions, accidents, pollutants, noise that emits, etc. He said 12% of the green house gas emissions is from road transport (90%) and hence it is important to curtail carbon emission. We need to shift to rail and water transport. We use only 7% water transport and there is enormous potential to increase the use of waterways. Coming to Chennai Port he said, containers cannot enter the port during the day but only at nights. Diversion of freight from road to rail will help reduce total cost of movement and promote sustainable development. He said waterways within the city such as Cooum, Adyar river and the Buckingham Canal could be used to transport freight as they connect various parts of the city. He called for integrating optimally road, rail and water transport. Dr V Sumantran, Vice-Chairman, Ashok Leyland delivered a special address. He said Chennai is a region with good educated population and logistics because of which many companies are attracted to this location. He said to make Chennai a better place for the citizens, government and the industry should work together. He emphasised the need for better transportation to cope with the rapid urbanization. He felt there was an urgent need to put road systems and connectivity in place

while adding that planning would be critical to this. He said planning for the next 20-50 years is needed. This must be done in collaboration with the citizens, government and the industry. He added that leveraging information technology can improve freight logistics. He gave the example of shipping major Maersk which monitors containers across the globe. Delivering the Inaugural address, Mr T K Ramachandran, IAS.,Secretary to Government, Highways and Minor Ports Department said how Vision 2023 of the Tamilnadu Government is crucial for the city in terms of planning for the future and referred to the various projects enunciated by his Department. He said the State Government is developing minor ports to help decongest major ports of Chennai, Ennore and Tuticorin. The Cuddalore Port is being developed in a large scale he said. As part of the Vision 2023 exercise of the State Government, freight corridors and linkages between them are being studied. He said integration of various transportation modes was necessary. He felt that rail transport was not an alternative to road transport as one should look at technologies that make road transport as sustainable as railways. He said the State Government had comprehensive development plans of major roads in Chennai with concentration on pedestrians. Chennai has the fourth largest gross metropolitan product in the country and is an important centre for trade and commerce in the South. The growth of the city is driven by the increase in the movement of commodities facilitated by the ports and the interconnected rail and road network he said.

Chennai needs integration of transport system to help reduce carbon foot prints. Railway and roadways must collaborate to achieve the goal of carbon neutrality. The State Government has prepared several policy documents to achieve the target by 2020. It is also keen to integrate the ticketing system of Railways and Roadways he said. The vote of thanks was proposed by Mr J Krishnan, Chairman of the Logistics Committee of the Chamber. This was followed by Technical sessions as follows: Road Transportation in Chennai: Status Analysis-Transport Map of Chennai Mr Amir Hamza of Athena Infonomics made a presentation on the above. He gave an overview of transport network, goods and freight movement, motor vehicle movement and pollution in Chennai region. He called for an integrated transport master plan for Chennai to make it: -

A world class city with an efficient transportation network where goods and passenger traﬃc interact seamlessly

A carbon neutral city with significantly lower CO2 emission

A safer city for both passengers and goods movement through well designed regulatory/policy mechanism

Low carbon pathway for Indian cities – ICLEI Project: Mr Ali Adil, ICLEI Research oﬃcer in his presentation said that Chennai ranks 5th in carbon emission from the transport sector among 54 South Asian cities according to a study done by the International Council for Local Environmental Initiative.

CHAMBER’S ACTIVITIES Disclosing the findings of the study Mr Adil said the city’s emission levels in transport is much higher than Kolkata and Delhi. The study also states that Chennai has a per capita emission rate of 0.91 tonnes of carbon dioxide while its total emissions for the year is 3.82 metric tonnes. This is mostly due to the fact that use of motor vehicles for commuting and carrying goods has increased significantly in the last few years. Enabling Integrated Movement of Freight in the City: Bottlenecks and Key Challenges: Mr G Dattatri, Former Chief Urban Planner, CMDA and Former Advisor, UN Habitat, Sustainable Chennai was the coordinator for this session. The speakers were: Mr Nirmal Kumar Joshi, IPS Dy.Commissioner of Police-Traﬃc, Govt. of Tamilnadu:

Mr Joshi said there is a conflict between passenger and freight movement in the city. Chennai Port Trust does not have a good connectivity and lot of eﬀorts are made to establish better connectivity between the port and hinterland. He said 25-30 Container Freight Stations are located near the port and they need to be better managed. In view of inadequate road infrastructure, new technologies need to come in. This has happened in other developed countries. Mr V.Kalyana Rama Chief General ManagerSouthern Region, CONCOR

Mr Kalyana Rama said the aim of CONCOR which specializes in multimodal transport is to encourage multimodal transport. The logistics sector is very cost-conscious - the equipment is poorly maintained, the technology is very outmoded and the wages are low. Cargo movement is done

by trucks which are more than 15 years old. They are not road worthy. There is also overloading of trucks. Speaking about the way forward he said road infrastructure should be improved especially connecting feeder roads from port to national highways. There should be dedicated elevated express highways from Chennai to Maduravoyal and the rail infrastructure inside the port should be improved. Mr K Swaminathan, Associate Director – Climate Change & Sustainability Services, Ernst & Young, Chennai:

In his presentation Mr Swaminathan said dedicated freight corridor is the need of the hour. For carbon footprint to carbon neutral, we need to invest in solar, wind etc. Any planning has to be done at the macro level. Key issues that were required to be tackled:

He said if we really want to reduce carbon footprint, every household is important. Sustainable Integrated Freight Movement : Case Studies and Best Practices: Mr Raj Khalid, India Representative Port of Antwerp

Mr Raj Khalid made an excellent presentation on the location of the Antwerp port, the services provided, goods handled, etc. He said it is a very active and hassle free port. The Port authorities are actively involved in its dayto-day operations. He said setting up warehouses in Antwerp is very cost-eﬀective. The products can be traded locally and can be sent to other European countries as well. Mr Vatsal Bhat, Brookhaven National Laboratory, US

Mr T A Brahmendra Barathi:

Mr Bhat made a presentation giving the best practices in US. He spoke about Portland International Freight Policy 2035 and the Los Angeles experience of turning environmental solutions into economic opportunities.

Vice-President, Supply Chain, Wheels India Ltd.

Mr G Varadaraj,

Freight strategy/logistics network – at national and regional level

Integrated transportation

Mr Barathi said freight movements are happening all over India. He wondered whether we should have designated roads for lorries alone for freight movement. He said CONCOR is a highly professional body. However, its potential is not being fully tapped. In Chennai, unfortunately, multi modal transport is not being used in a big way. He also said we do not have trained and qualified drivers. Chennai Port does not work 200 days in a year. In the days to come, Tuticorin Port which is strategically located and which oﬀers better service will be the port to look for.

Traﬃc & Transport Expert, Balaji Railroad Systems Ltd. (BARSYL)

Mr Varadaraj said if congestion is reduced, automatically there will be reduction in pollution as well. Though there have been eﬀorts to reduce road traﬃc during the day, it has significantly increased during the nights in the last few years. Movement of freight by trains in larger capacities would, to some extent, give relief to movement by road. The way forward: In this session, the following were the speakers:

CHAMBER’S ACTIVITIES Ms M Geetha,

Dr.V. Tamizh Arasan,

Senior Planner, Traﬃc Transportation Unit, CMDA

Professor, Transportation Engineering Divn. Dept of Civil Engineering, IIT-Madras

In her presentation, she said that a shift from road to rail traﬃc should be considered if we are to have a carbon neutral Chennai. She also highlighted the involvement of CMDA in the various projects being done in the city.

Dr Tamizh Arasan said the road space available is less than the average. A metro freight corridor along with the peripheral road (ORR) will go a long way in easing out congestion.

Dr P Sai Prasad, Dy. Director, Entrepreneurship Development Institute

Dr Sai Prasad stressed that apart from transportation, the management of garbage is very important. The main reason for pollution is usage of outdated vehicles, adulterated petrol and poor road conditions. He also stressed for suﬃcient greenery and said without trees, our survival will be tough. Mr I G Reddy, CGM (Technical) & Regional Oﬃcer, NHAI-Chennai Region

Mr Reddy said the Central Government will soon submit a technical justification for the alignment of the Rs 1815 crore Ennore Port- Maduravoyal elevated link road project to the Tamilnadu Government. The project being implemented by NHAI has been put on hold since April this year – 9 months after work on the 30 Kms long facility began. The Water Resources Department had objected to the project’s alignment saying it was on the Cooum river bed and not on the bank as proposed. The Department had also said that flow of water was being obstructed and demanded the project be stopped. He urged the MCCI to take up the issue with the State Government since it would help decongest Poonamallee high road and thereby reduce pollution.

He called for the creation of a MCCI chair on Freight Transport in an academic institution for research oriented projects on the subject as is done in advanced countries. Valedictory Session

a diﬀerence, trust the people who are elected, then they should be left alone to do their job. Dr Abdul Kalam then addressed the gathering. He spoke about the green movement in Tamilnadu, the carbon neutral city of his dream, organizing cities as cluster of micro-cities, clean transport system, Smart buildings, Eco Zones, etc. The full text of his address is published in the following pages. Dr Kalam then took up some questions from the audience. The meeting concluded with the Secretary General proposing the Vote of Thanks.

In the evening, at the Valedictory session, Dr A P J Abdul Kalam, former President of India, was the Chief Guest. Mr T. Shivaraman, Vice-President of the Chamber welcomed the gathering and Mr J Krishnan, Chairman of the Logistics Committee gave a brief summary of the Conference proceedings for the benefit of the Chief Guest. This was followed by a special address by Mr Gopal Srinivasan, Chairman & Managing Director, TVS Capital Funds Ltd. He said Dr Abdul Kalam has been an inspiration for several millions of people across the globe. From very humble origins, he held the highest office by sheer hard work, dedication and by his character. Coming to City Connect with which he is closely associated, Mr Gopal Srinivasan said that the idea for such an organization emerged in 2007. It helps leaders of Government in making Chennai better. And there have been some small successes. He said the city has grown in 2/3 strips and has created hotspots of congestion. He said if a Mayor can run the city like a Mayor, appoint people who can make

Championing Enterprise – 175 Years of The Madras Chamber of Commerce & Industry: Mr V Sriram, noted author and historian, has chronicled the fascinating journey of MCCI through 175 eventful years. The book in reality is the history of business and enterprise in what was then the Madras Presidency. A great corporate gift. Place your order today with the Chamber. Price: Rs 1500 per copy. Email: madraschamber@ madraschamber.in The Directory of Members 2011 is also available for sale. Rs 500/- per copy plus courier charges. Contact MCCI for a copy.

CHAMBER’S ACTIVITIES Address by Dr APJ Abdul Kalam at the Valedictory Session of the Conference on Creating Carbon Neutral Chennai : Planning for Integrated Freight Movement Chennai – 6th June 2012

CREATING CARBON NEUTRAL CITIES Think the impossible and Make the possible I am delighted to address and interact with the members participating in the Conference on creating Carbon Neutral Chennai: Planning for integrated freight movement organized by The Madras Chamber of Commerce & Industry. My greetings to all of you. I am happy that the experts, researchers, academicians, students and guests present here have analysed the transport system including rail, road, waterways and freight movement in the context of climate change and will be suggesting policies and methods for integrating the various systems in order to reduce carbon footprint. Keeping this in mind, let me discuss with you a few thoughts on the topic “Creating Carbon Neutral cities”. Carbon Neutral State in Canada and Maldives Friends, I visited Canada for a week from 25th September 2010 where I went to Vancouver, in the State of British Columbia in Canada. There apart from meetings and discussions in two universities, I met Premier Gordon Campbell. He proudly announced to me that he is going to make first the city of Vancouver, carbon neutral city by 2015 and then evolve the entire State of British Columbia as a carbon neutral State. Just in February 2010, I was in Maldives, where I met the President of the Island country, who told me about

the nation’s mission of becoming carbon neutral, the first to achieve the status amongst all the countries in the world. Toyota’s Automobile Manufacturing Plant in Georgetown, Kentucky (USA) As you know, every litre of fossil fuel (petrol and diesel)burnt in the automobile generates about 2.71 kg of CO2 equivalent emission. Today, the world is letting into the atmosphere about 36 billion tonnes of CO 2 every year. During my visit to the Toyota’s Automobile Manufacturing Plant in Georgetown Kentucky (USA), which produces one car, every minute using two parallel lines in two shifts each day, I suggested to them to add a third production, completely dedicated to the manufacture of cars, using solar+ biofuel or electrical based input energy. Here also, I would like to recall that in the nation of Brazil, all automobiles have to use ethanol (biofuel) mixed fuel as input. Green movement in Tamilnadu Tomorrow we are going to celebrate in Cuddalore plantation of 1.3 million trees which is going to enhance to 10 million trees in the leadership provided by Shri Vivek. Similarly, another movement is going on at Siruthuli –Coimbatore where they had planted one lakh trees in 2011 and every year they propose to add one lakh trees which is pioneered

by Smt Vaneetha Mohan. Like these programmes, Lead Villupuram 2020 is engaged in planting large number of trees in Villupuram district. With a combination of hydro power movement, water body creation, biofuel and renewable energy combination for automobile, and integrated transport planning in the cities and whole State coupled with planting of about 100 million trees will definitely enable Tamilnadu to become a carbon neutral State by 2030. What does addition of 100 million trees in the whole of Tamilnadu mean? It means, grown up 100 million trees will absorb 2 billion kg of CO2 and give to Tamilnadu 1.4 billion kg of oxygen per year. What a beautiful environmental mission. A Carbon Neutral city of my Dream In the carbon neutral State, there may be many cities. Let me give my visualization of that carbon neutral city. How should its transport system evolve? However varied the items on this wish list, you can be certain that no one wants it to be like our present cities. What alchemy of infrastructure and emotion creates the perfect place in which to live, work and play? Is such an ideal even possible given the demands, pressures and constraints? In a 360-degree discussion, leading minds participating in this conference should lay out their own astute roadmap. I have visited hundreds of cities across the world, but not one of them comes close to my ideal. So, what is the profile of my dream city? It should have a population of not more than five million, generate its own power through green sources, be a vibrant economy where everyone has access to clean energy and clean water, use bio-fuel and insist on rainwater harvesting and is full of parks and trees.

CHAMBER’S ACTIVITIES Also, I am able to move on the roads without any traﬃc congestion. In short, it should be the flag-bearer of eco-friendly habitats which aim at complete carbon neutrality. Increasing Population and Growing Cities Between 1 AD and the start of the industrial revolution in the early 1800s, human population had grown from approximately 230 million to 1 billion i.e. 0.8 per cent every decade. However, in the next 180 years, it has multiplied to the current 7 billion-plus, which represents a decadal growth of over 11 per cent. In the past century alone, the population quadrupled. Population growth has been closely accompanied by a simultaneous rise in both wealth creation and extreme poverty. However, there has also been healthcare improvements due to the advancement of life sciences. With the network of global trade routes, fossil fuel-based technologies, industrialisation and mechanization, the world income per capita has also grown rapidly nine times in just the past 150 years. There is a specific aspect to population growth – it is largely concentrated in a few geographical locations. This has led to the emergence of large, very denselypopulated cities. For example, in the year 1800, London was the largest city in the world with a population of around 1 million. By 1960, our planet had 111 cities with over a million people. This number stands at 300 today, including Chennai and still counting. This concentration of population adds to the pressure on resources at the local level and leads to severe resource scarcities. With increasing wealth and hence increasing per capita energy consumption, the threat of climate change

looms large on humanity. So, modern cities have to address the two-pronged challenge of better living standard with reduced emissions. The 21st century city has to progressively move towards achieving carbon neutrality. Organising Cities as a Cluster of Microcities Today, our challenge is to achieve better city organization. Improper planning leads to intra-city “micro-migration” every day. In the optimal scenario, each city, even one with a population of 5 million, should be reorganized so that it comprises a city centre with a population of 1-2 million and containing administrative, government and large corporate oﬃces surrounded by satellite micro-cities with less than a million people each. Each of these micro-cities has to be developed independently and equally, furnishing them with good schools and colleges, leisure and cultural opportunities, quality hospitals, planned housing for all classes and, above all, a capacity for employment generation. Each micro-city must be well networked within itself with a ring road and high speed bus services. The micro-cities, in all directions, should then be connected to the city centre through a multi-mode, high-speed mass transit system. This would spell goodbye to today’s harrowing and wasteful commuting using large number of fossil fuel based transportation system. Clean Transport system The urban transport planning should have three clear aspects: -

Mass Transit like Metros between micro city zones and all major locations

Medium Scale Transport system like mini buses to connect the metro network to the inner parts

Provision of bicycling using exclusive bicycling lane like Netherlands and Germany for short distance travelers.

Safety of passenger across all the transport modes

Every roadway will encourage walkers in the walkway which will be a health promoter

This layered approach to transport system would help manage the urban traﬃc and people movement in a time eﬃcient, ecofriendly and passenger friendly way. Green Fuels and Eco-friendly Transport System Transport is to blame for about 13 per cent of the total emissions worldwide. Moreover, the fossil fuel being used for running our cars is largely imported. In fact, in times of soaring oil prices, the import bill for petroleum, went up to $ 80 billion. Every litre of petrol or diesel burnt in vehicles contributes about 2.7 kg of CO2 equivalent emissions. Thus, in a year, an average car would emit about 10 tonnes of CO2. The 21st century city will have to base its transport on a network of high speed, reliable mass transit systems. Bicycling is a healthy option for both individuals and the cities they live in. Apart from the creation of safe and speedy cycling lanes, bike rentals even on an hourly basis should be institutionalized. Hybrid cars, which use solar and bio-fuel, also need to be encouraged through civic policies, financial incentives and public awareness drives. We have to encourage use of emulsification technology (use of diesel or petrol mixed with 30 to 40 per cent of water by incorporating engines of water body) for reducing the carbon foot print from the transportation system.

CHAMBER’S ACTIVITIES Smart Buildings Buildings use 50 per cent of global energy and account for comparable heat-trapping emissions. Integrated design with multiple energy eﬃciency measures can reduce energy use by at least half; indeed a cut of 80 per cent has been achieved. The emerging trends of intelligent buildings and green buildings entail the use of modern technology, smart materials and eco-friendly designs. For example, hollow building material made out of fly ash is not only more environment friendly, but also a better insulator of heat and cold and so a greater energy saver. The comfort conditions of intelligent buildings could be monitored and tailored using new processing tools like neutral networks and fuzzy logic.

A combined, integrated and participative approach would make the dream of a carbon neutral city into a reality and it will be a wonderful world again. What is the message that these experiences give me, when I address all of you assembled here? Definitely this Forum can contribute for such an integrated approach for achieving carbon neutrality. This mission, “Realising carbon neutral city towards achieving carbon neutral State” will be the forerunner and example for the State, nation and even the world.

The future holds a lot of promise as new concepts in nano-technology, smart materials and design software will unleash an era of eﬃcient and sustainable buildings. Such green enterprises will give birth to the cadre of green corridor jobs – those centred on businesses, which either supply green power or green powergenerating equipment.

Another aspect which we are now witnessing is the issue of increasing rural to urban migration in the search of better income and better amenities. This is creating massively concentrated cities and pressure on the limited resources of space, clean air and clean water apart from congested traﬃc system. Can we hence think of system of sustainable development which negates the need for such distress migration from rural areas and gives better quality of amenities and income level to the rural people within empowered villages and also can promote reverse migration wherever feasible?

Eco Zones

Rural Empowerment through PURA

Our future cities will have to integrate miniforest zones wherever possible. These forests can be planted with high-growth varieties and can also act as economically feasible eco-parks attracting a diversity of flora and fauna. School children and youth need to be mobilized to populate these eco zones in their own neighbourhood with trees. Every tree is capable of absorbing 20 kg of CO2 every year directly from the atmosphere and also releases 14 kg of oxygen, besides the indirect positive impact on the environment via cooling and shade eﬀects.

Here I would like to discuss about the system for the integrated rural prosperity with sustainable development which is being pursued by government and private institutions in our country. This is called the PURA (Providing Urban Amenities in Rural Areas) Mission that may be applicable globally for sustained development of the nations and societies.

Friends, this year India will turn 65 years old as the largest democracy in the world and we witness a defining period for the nation and its people. We stand ten years away from the goal of achieving

the vision for a developed India by 2020, and there has been significant progress in all directions. Each step we take towards a developed nation also opens a fresh challenge to overcome. The need of the hour is the evolution of sustainable systems which act as “enablers” and bring inclusive growth and integrated development to the nation. One such sustainable development system is the mission of Provision of Urban Amenities in Rural Areas (PURA). It means that: 1 The villages must be connected within themselves and with main towns and metros through by good roads and wherever needed by railway lines. They must have other infrastructure like schools, colleges, hospitals and amenities for the local population and the visitors. This is physical connectivity. 2 In the emerging knowledge era, the native knowledge has to be preserved and enhanced with latest tools of technology, training and research. The villages have to have access to good education from best teachers wherever they are, must have the benefit of good medical treatment and must have latest information on their pursuits like agriculture, fishery, horticulture and food processing. That means they have to have electronic connectivity. 3 Once the Physical and electronic connectivity are enabled, the knowledge connectivity is enabled. That can facilitate the ability to increase the productivity, the utilisation of spare time, awareness of health welfare, ensuring a market for products, increasing quality conscience, interacting with partners,

CHAMBER’S ACTIVITIES getting the best equipment, increasing transparency and so in general knowledge connectivity. 4 Once the three connectivities viz., Physical, Electronic and Knowledge connectivity are ensured, they facilitate earning capacity leading to economic connectivity. When we Provide Urban Amenities to Rural Areas (PURA), we can lead to upliftment of rural areas, we can attract investors, we can introduce eﬀectively useful systems like Rural BPOs, Micro Finance and small-scale industries. The number of PURA for the whole country is estimated to be 7000 covering 600,000 villages where 700 million people live. There are a number of operational PURA in our country initiated by many educational, healthcare institutions, industry and other institutions. Government of India is already moving ahead with the implementation of PURA on the national scale across several districts of India. Conclusion: Creative Leadership: What is the most important ingredient that will enable us to realize sustainable development and an innovative out of the box urban transport management? My study indicates that the creative leadership is the most important component for attaining success in all missions. I would like to define “creative leadership”, based on my experiences: a) Leader must have a vision b) Leader must have passion to realize the vision c) Leader must be able to travel into an unexplored path d) Leader must know how to manage a success and a failure e) Leader must have courage to take decisions

f) Leader should have nobility in management g) Leader should be transparent in every action h) Leader must work with integrity and succeed with integrity For a sustainable growth of any organization, any mission, the important thrust will be on the generation of a number of creative leaders through nurturing the talent and promoting

innovation in every sector. Emergence of such leaders will facilitate creation of carbon neutral cities for the future. My greetings and best wishes to all the members present here for success in their mission of generating inputs for policy framework towards the creation of carbon neutral cities leading to carbon neutral State. May God Bless you.

New Members

The Chamber extends a warm welcome to its following new members: CEM Business Solutions Pvt.Ltd. Business: IT – ERP Implementation and Service City Union Bank Ltd. Business: Banking Haribhakti & Co. Business: Chartered Accountants HVK Systems and Marketing Pvt.Ltd. Business: Industrial Hydraulics Info Drive Software Pvt.Ltd. Business: Information Technology & Related Services Mekan O4 Middle East Prestressing India Pvt.Ltd. Business: Construction of Buildings and Bridges Scope International Pvt. Ltd. Business: IT & ITES SSA Business Solutions Pvt.Ltd. Business: Management Consultancy The Great Spirit Company Ltd. Business: Export of GR Ethanol, Scotch, IMFL, vodka & Rums The Lakshmi Vilas Bank Ltd. Business: Banking Loyola ICAM College of Engg. & Technology (Aﬃliated Member) Business: Education Kochhar & Co., Business: Advocates & Legal Consultants INXS Technologies Ltd. Business: Software Ayyan Consultant Business: Chemical project planning, equipment procurement & Commissioning Sapcle Technologies Pvt Ltd. Business: Information Technology Services, Software development, Consultancy & Support

CHAMBER’S ACTIVITIES 18th June 2012

Video Discussion on “You are not Listening” The topic for the monthly video discussion for June was “You are not Listening”. The trainer was Ms Nitasha Sharma. The video focused on the importance of listening. The trainer stressed that listening is a skill; use body language, eye contact and be attentive. Also, if one has any doubts, ask or clarify. She also said learn to observe and keep the mouth under control. Maintain silence and remove prejudices. Give a chance for others to speak. While listening, give encouraging responses; paraphrase content, reflect feelings and don’t jump at conclusions.

23rd June 2012

Presentation & Discussion on Energy Management System & ISO 50001 Energy Management System helps organisations to establish processes to improve energy performance. Implementation should reduce energy costs, Green House Gases (GHG) Emissions and other environmental impacts. Any company which positions itself for sustainable growth has to have clearly laid out Energy Strategy in terms of energy sourcing, energy consumption and eﬃciency. ISO 50001 establishes an international framework for the supply, use and consumption of energy in industrial plants, commercial organisations and other institutions. To understand and gain knowledge on the EnMS and ISO 50001, the Chamber had

scheduled the above meeting on 23rd June for the benefit of Members. This meeting covered the following: • Overview of Energy Management System based on ISO 50001 • Effective Implementation Framework • Strategy to gain maximum benefits from EnMS • Case discussion from a certified company The resource persons were Mr.M.K.Vinod Kumar, Certification Manager and Mr Vijayakumar of Bureau Veritas Certification India Ltd and Mr.Raja Chidambaram, Director, URs Productively, Chennai. Mr Raja Chidambaram made a presentation on Energy Management System (EnMS) –ISO 50001. He said energy is critical to organisational operations and is a major cost to organisations. In addition to the economic costs of energy, it can impose environmental and societal costs. Improved energy performance can provide rapid benefits reducing both energy cost and consumption. He said develop a policy for more efficient use of energy; fix targets and objectives to meet the policy; use data to better understand and make decisions concerning energy use and consumption; measure the results; review the effectiveness of the policy and continually improve energy management. Mr Velan of Ramanujan IT City in his presentation dealt with a case study i.e. of Ramanujan IT city and their experience on EnMS, how did they implement it and what has been achieved so far. The programme was held in the Conference Room of the Chamber and was attended by about 25 participants.

26th June 2012

Interactive meeting with Mr Anthony P.Iriti, Former Mayor of Findlay Township, Ohio, USA and currently Director, FindlayHancock County Economic Development Council On the occasion of his visit to Chennai, Mr Anthony P. Iriti, Director, FindlayHancock County Economic Development Council and former Mayor of Findlay Township, Ohio, USA desired to interact with corporate leaders and members of the Chamber on issues ranging from industry and management to environment and community social responsibility and also business opportunities between India and Ohio. He has been instrumental in setting up Foreign Trade Zones in Ohio, the first being the Findlay-Japan Trade Zone. He was accompanied by Dr Katherine Fell, President, The University of Findlay, USA, Dr. Scott Freehafer, Director, MBA & NonTraditional Programs, University of Findlay, Dr Nabarun Ghose, Professor of Marketing & Business, University of Findlay and Mr Dipankar Ghose, CEO, Prakruthi. Mrs K Saraswathi, Secretary General, welcomed the guests and gave a brief about the Chamber. The meeting was presided over by Mr S G Prabhakharan, Member of the Committee who briefly touched upon Tamilnadu. He said Chennai has lot more to oﬀer than IT. It is the 2nd largest State in India in IT business. More than IT, we have big manufacturing base here especially for automobiles. Chennai known as the Detroit of India can now be called the Detroit of Asia. He said Nokia has the largest factory in the world in Chennai.

CHAMBER’S ACTIVITIES Chennai has talented people. The World Bank, Standard Chartered, Barclays all have their back offices in Chennai. He also spoke about the healthcare industry in Chennai. Addressing Mr Anthony Iriti said US offers many opportunities to do business. The Findlay-Hancock County, Ohio, is a great place to live. America’s Promise Alliance rated them as one of the 100 best communities for young people. It also has many technical schools offering 3 year courses and four year University courses. It is a great place to learn he said. It is also a great place to work he said since many companies like Whirlpool, Best Buy, Dow, Lowe’s, Kohl’s, Mitec Powertain have all set up shops there. Findlay is a Logistics Marvel. In its Trade Free Zone, one can store, repackage, assemble and manufacture. Findlay Hancock County offers readily available low-cost sources for utilities such as gas, electricity, water and telecommunications. They also provide cutting edge technology for metro Ethernet connectivity and a city wide fiber optic network that services all major industrial, commercial and residential areas. It is strong in entrepreneurship. It has Business Resources Centre to help small businesses. Dr Katherine Fell, University of Findlay said the University has set very high standards. It offers on-line degree courses. It has a substantial number of students mainly from India and China. There was good interaction. Mr Anthony Iriti was requested to send a list of companies in Findlay and what they are doing so that our members can look for potential partnerships in automotive, IT, healthcare and agro based industries.

Contact Details: Mr Anthony P.Iriti, Director Findlay-Hancock County Economic Development 123 East Main Cross St., Findlay, Ohio 45840 USA Ph: 4194223313 email: airiti@FindlayHancockED.com

He said the participants could learn from the experts what changes are involved and also give us a feedback as it helps the Chamber whenever it interacts with the oﬃcials of either the State or Central Government, to represent the views of the business community.

28th June 2012

The following topics were covered by the speakers:

Workshop on Finance Act 2012

Mr K Vaitheeswaran, Chairman, Expert Committee on Indirect

During the month of June, the Finance Act 2012 was passed by the Parliament and was awaiting the assent of the President.

Taxes

Reports indicated that the taxation of negative list of services will come into eﬀect from 1st July 2012. This has many implications for the corporate. Challenging times are ahead for taxation executives as they have to deal with a number of issues and this warrants a better knowledge of the rules and procedures.

Making his presentation, Mr Vaitheeswaran

To have a deeper understanding of the issues involved and compliance methods, the Chamber organized a one day workshop on 28th June at Hotel GRT Grand Convention Centre.. Mr T Shivaraman, Vice-President of the Chamber welcomed the participants. He said the current Finance Bill has changed a lot of things. What has been complicating the issue is that GST it not coming. The Chamber has been representing to the Government that whatever it aims to do, it should be towards GST. The Chamber has made a representation to the Government to defer the implementation to a later date as the corporate need time to understand the notifications and the changes brought out therein.

Concept of Negative List based taxation of services-Key definitions and exclusions

said all services to be taxed other than services specified in the negative list. Negative list is specified through statutory provisions; some more services have been exempted through Notification No. 25/2012. Sections, 65, 66 and 66A have no application after the eﬀective date. He also spoke on services defined in Section 65B (44), service exclusions, taxable territory, negative list (trading in goods, any process amounting to manufacture or production of goods; space selling, entertainment, education, renting, betting, gambling, lottery, financial sector, transportation of passengers, declared services), etc. He said there may be possible new issues on – consideration, activity, existence of persons declared v/s deemed; exclusion from the definition of services v/s declared services, scope of education guide, etc. Mr P R Subramaniyan, Co-Chairman, Expert Committee on VAT

Service Tax exemptions Mr Subramaniyan made a detailed presentation on Service Tax Exemption –

CHAMBER’S ACTIVITIES based on the receiver of services, goods transport agency services, services by associations/trade unions, serving of food in restaurants, hiring of motor vehicles, general insurance, job worker and Special Economic Zones.

about 75 delegates. A complete set of the notifications issued by the Government were given to the participants as a backgrounder.

Mr B Sriram,

FFT on “Right (way)To Information”

Member, Expert Committee on Indirect Taxes

Valuation of Services – Bundled Services and Tax liability of service receiver Mr K Vaitheeswaran Analysis – Place of provision of Service Rules Mr Vaitheeswaran said Section 66C enables the Government through Rules to determine the place where services are provided or deemed to be provided or agreed to be provided or deemed to have been agreed to be provided. Definition of location of service provider/ location of service receiver likely to create conflict of jurisdiction issues on account of tax revenues. He dealt with Rules 3,4,5 relating to immovable property, and 6, 7, 8, 9 etc. as also rule relating to Export of Services. Mr K K Sekar, Co-Chairman, Expert Committee on Indirect Taxes

Cenvat credit – recent developments Mr Sekar made a presentation in which he covered Removal of Capital goods after use (Rule 3), Transfer of SAD from one factory to another (Rule 10A), Interest on reversal of wrong Cenvat Credit (Rule 14), removal of exempted goods/services, manner of credit distribution under ISD (Rule 7), Documents specified for Cenvat availment (Rule 9), Input Service (Rule 2 (l)), Output services , provider of taxable services, etc. The programme was well attended by

30th June 2012

The RTI Act is an Act of the Parliament of India to provide for setting out the practical regime of right to information for citizens. The Act applies to all State and Union Territories of India except the State of Jammu and Kashmir. Under the provisions of the Act, any citizen may request information from a “public authority” which is required to reply expeditiously or within thirty days. This law was passed by the Parliament on 15th June 2007 - but still there are queries like as to how this could be used what sort of information could be sought, does this help as a tool to fight corruption, does this ensure better governance and protect consumer interests, etc. To know more about this and discuss the use of RTI, the Chamber organised a FFT on Right (Way) To Information on 28th June at the Raintree Hotel, Anna Salai. The Chamber had the privilege of the participation of the following speakers: • Mr K S Sripathi, IAS (Retd), State Chief Information Commissioner • Mr N L Rajah, Advocate and Board Member, Citizen Consumer and Civic Action Group (CAG) • Mr Jeeva, Journalist and RTI Activist Mr T Shivaraman, Vice-President, MCCI presided over the event. In his welcome he said June 2012 marks 7 years of the introduction of RTI in India. The RTI Act 2005 stated :

“.. democracy requires an informed citizenry and transparency of information which are vital to its functioning and also to contain corruption and to hold Governments and their instrumentalities accountable to the governed”. He said efficiency in implementation and administration is also important. The RTI Act provides us an opportunity to get that efficiency from the Government. As citizens we need to understand what RTI is. As businessmen, our focus is that every Rupee that we spend should be effective. If you are paying salary or bonus, it is for performance. We expect output from that performance. He said we have not unleashed the power of RTI fully. We should use it effectively to push things from various Government departments to move files, to speed up matters, etc. The speakers then addressed the gathering. Mr K S Sripathi IAS (Retd) Mr Sripathi said till now, quite a lot of people, even educated people, are not fully aware of what exactly RTI Act is, what are the powers, what are the limitations, etc. He said the Act has no provision for appeal. The Central or State Commission has no higher body. The Information Commission does not have executive powers. It cannot direct the Government to take cognizance of offence. The Act provides for certain penalties if the information is not given within 30 days. If there is a delay, there is penalty. The Commission sits as a judge. When an appeal comes before it, the first and foremost principle to be adopted is the principle of natural justice.

The Commission receives a number of petitions out of which only 2% have a bearing on society. The RTI Act is meant for the betterment of society, society which is well informed – it is very essential to be properly informed in a democratic country like ours. RTI Act has created certain amount of awareness both in Government side and in society. Not every system is corrupt – the system needs to be properly fine tuned. He said a citizen should be happy with the services of the Government. We talk about transparency. In a democracy, transparency is a must. And everyone is eligible to use it as a tool. The entire Government operations can be transparent. He also said that there are certain things which cannot be revealed to the public which are meant for the benefit of the society. The lnformation Commission has overriding powers. These come into operation only when there is nothing already available. He said there is no law above the constitution and any Act is not superior to the Constitution. Mr NL Rajah Mr Rajah said right to information is not alien to our culture. It is a fundamental right. We are not an open Government. Our Ministers take the oath of secrecy. It is time we moved from secrecy to transparency. He said RTI Act is a new found joy to the citizens and everyone should be made aware of how to use it. Principally RTI is a participatory instrument and it is being used more by the Government employees.

We are a mumbling democracy; when it comes to action, how many of us act? he asked. He described the areas of concern as follows: • We need a RTI implementation division. We need greater awareness on the part of the citizenry as well as the government servants. • We need to train all the appellate officers and the PIOs. • Every Government Department should provide information about the facility of the RTI, about the person to be contacted, his designation, etc. • There should be a RTI call centre. Bihar and Haryana have done this and Tamilnadu should follow. • Government should make provision for RTI staff. PIOs and Appellate Officers need to be trained. • Since the level of training is very low, inadequate information is supplied. There should be proactive disclosure by every Department. He said studies show that only 13% of the rural population and 33% of the urban population are aware of the RTI Act. The quality and quantity of awareness is very poor and this must be improved. He concluded saying we need to be transparent and eliminate corruption, if we need to grow as a nation.

He said there is wrong and deliberate misinterpretation of the various provisions. The system is at fault and this needs to be corrected. He felt that there should be a separate Department for the implementation of the RTI. Many people think it is a grievance redressal mechanism. Wherever there is people’s movement, it will be more eﬀective. He said every police station should have a PIO and the Commission’s appointment should be transparent. He informed the audience to be very clear while filing the application as the person who reads it should be able to understand what is written; he cautioned not to file frivolous applications. He gave 2-3 examples of his success in using RTI – one such case related to the stopping of putting up a TASMAC liquor shop. He also informed the participants that one could also write an examination on RTI and obtain a certificate. During the interaction, it was informed that : -

The Act says it is the Government’s duty to educate and train people

It is the right of the citizen who is educated to educate others

The Act provides for pro-active information. The Commission keeps on writing to various Departments for updation of information.

It also gives training to Public Information Oﬃcers (PIOs)

Anna Institute of Management conducts various programmes in rural areas

In the last calendar year, the number of petitions received were 56,000 out of which 15,000 came under the category of appeal.

There are some infrastructural problems; however, Tamilnadu has the lowest number of pendency of applications.

Mr Jeeva Mr Jeeva said the RTI Act which was enacted by the Government of Tamilnadu in 1997, has changed the perception among the people. When people say “we have the right”, it only proves the success of the RTI Act.

GENERAL COMMITTEE 24th May 2012 At its meeting hall on 24th May, the Committee took up the Draft Annual Accounts 2011-12 for consideration first. Mr Mahesh Krishnan, Auditor, highlighted some of the special points in the accounts. After discussion, the Committee approved the Annual Accounts. The Committee also dwelt at length on the Study to assess the social and economic health of Tamil Nadu – preparation of a status paper. MCCI – Skill Development Centre –Present status & initiatives and Meeting with Tirumazhisai Industries Association: Members were informed that Course completion Certificate has been given to 2 candidates trained by MCCI SDC under Fitter category. These 2 candidates have been taken for employment by one of the industries located at Tirumazhisai Industrial Estate. The exam for the Basic Computer Skills course has been completed. Out of 4 candidates 3 candidates successfully passed the exam. There are requests for providing training in Tally (Accounting Software). Though for the first batch of students, MCCI SDC had not collected any fees, it is now proposed to charge a nominal fee for the subsequent programmes to ensure seriousness and commitment. Marketing process has started for the 2nd batch of the courses – like Basic Fitter practices, Basic Computer Skills, Soft skills and Spoken English. In the meantime, a presentation was made to the members of Tirumazhisai Industries Association, on 4th May 2012, as this SIDCO estate is closer to our current training facility. It was explained to them in detail about our

skill development initiatives. Members of the Industries Association have shown interest in deputing their workmen/staﬀ for our Fitter, Spoken English, Tally, and Front oﬃce management courses. They have suggested that the courses could be held at their premises. The committee admitted 11 new companies as members.

23rd June 2012 Commencing the meeting, the President said the biggest achievement of the Chamber during the year has been regaining the seat on the Board of Trustees of Chennai Port Trust. Formal gazette notification was expected any time. Discussing on Skill Development Initiative, the Secretary General said, sand filling and levelling the ground have been done for around 15000 sq ft in the MCCI land and construction can start in phases now. Process on for getting necessary clearances from the local authorities. She said the Chamber is also exploring the possibility of setting up some temporary facility in our land to start with, so that the ongoing trainings can be conducted here. She also said that some minimum fund raising needs to be done. The Committee noted the number of programmes lined up especially on the Finance Acts. 4 new companies were admitted as members. Study to assess the social and economic health of Tamilnadu – Status Paper on Tamilnadu Economy In the last two meetings, the Committee has been discussing the need for the Chamber to get involved in the implementation of

the Tamilnadu Vision document and for this purpose the Chamber should commission a study and give our recommendations to the Government. While the Chamber welcomed the initiative and the thrust of the document, there were misgivings about the implementation aspects. Hence, instead of simply criticising about it, the President said it would be prudent to give the Government some specific recommendations to make this vision document a reality. Mr V Sriram and Mr Anand Madhavan of IMACS who were closely involved in the preparation of the Vision document were present and briefed the Committee about the thinking of the Government and what the government expects from the industry and the stakeholders. Being the last meeting before the AGM, the President conveyed his sincere thanks to all the members for their excellent guidance and support. He said that he was especially happy that he was fortunate to be part of the 175th year celebrations of the Chamber and this momentous period. Members of the Committee thanked the President for his achievements during his term as President and how they enjoyed working with him and thanked him for conducting the Committee meetings in a friendly and productive manner.

The great accomplishments of man have resulted from the transmission of ideas of enthusiasm. Thomas J. Watson

EXPERT COMMITTEES 3rd May 2012

COMPANY LAW/ CORPORATE MATTERS The committee decided to hold a half-aday Seminar on Recent Issues in Corporate Financial Reporting / Experience with Recent Reforms in Corporate Financial Reporting. The aim was to highlight the past experience of professionals in dealing with Schedule VI and XBRL and relevant topics and also share their experiences. The committee decided to conduct this seminar tentatively on 9th June 2012. (This was subsequently cancelled). The committee also discussed to organize another event on CSR – Sustainability Reporting during July/August 2012. Draft manual of the functioning of Oﬃcial Liquidators The Committee was informed of the circular issued by MCA on the above subject. Members felt that Mr.Selvaraj, ROC of Hyderabad who had drafted this manual could be invited for an informal discussion. Ms.Chandra oﬀered her help in getting Mr.Selvaraj for a discussion. The Committee also suggested to the Chamber secretariat to forward the soft copy of the draft manual to the members for their views and comments. The Chairperson informed that MCA has constituted a Committee under the

Chairmanship of Mr.Adi Godrej, Chairman of Godrej Group. The focus is on providing suggestions for further improvement of Corporate Governance. TH

4 June 2012 At its meeting held on 4 th June, the Committee considered the following: Seminar on Reforms in Corporate Financial Reporting – sharing Experiences Members felt that since most of the corporates have filed Schedule VI before 31st May, this event on 9th June may not be attractive for the corporate executives. It was noted that the two professional bodies have also conducted this programme on Schedule VI and XBRL recently. It was therefore felt that instead of this seminar an alternate seminar could be planned in July with a relevant title. After discussion, the committee suggested to have a programme covering the following topics. ·

CSR

Corporate Reporting

Corporate Compliance

Corporate Governance

Investor Education and Protection Fund – New Rules

It was noted that MCA has notified the Investor Education and Protection Fund Rules 2012 under which companies are required to file information on unclaimed

amounts lying as on year-end date along with particulars within 90 days of holding the AGM. The Committee discussed the above and viewed that the Rules seem to suggest that the unclaimed amounts need to be uploaded in the Ministry’s website every year other than disclosing the information in the Ministry’s website. The whole exercise seems to suggest that the Ministry’s website may get uploaded with repeated information about dividend which remains unpaid year after year. The Committee felt that updating the list with too much information and the list being an attachment in scanned form, may be susceptible. Hence it was felt that it would be better to upload the full information after the amount becomes due for credit to the IEPF, rather than every year. It is laudable that the Rule prescribes that the companies should upload the information in the Company’s website. Improved Version 2 of MCA 21suggestions It was informed that ROC, Chennai, has requested the Chamber to give suggestions for the improvement of Version 2 of MCA 21. MCA is planning to change the MCA 21 with additional features for easy handling. Members were asked to send their suggestions to the Chamber at the earliest.

Programme on Im Impact mpact of Budgetary Changes – Taxation of Services The CBEC in associati asssociation with FICCI and local Chambers Chambers organized the above programme on 18 8th June 2012.. MCCI too was associated asssociated with this event. Mrs J M Shanti Shan nti Sundharam, IRS., Special Secretary Secretary and Member, CBEC, New Delhi addressed thee gathering after which a presentati pressentation on changes Jain, Budget chang ges on Service Tax was madee by Mr J M Kennedy, IRS., Director (TRU) and Dr Shobit Ja ain, IRS., OSD (TRU), Ministryy of Finance, New Delhi. There was an interactive session moderated moderaated by Mr R Periasami IRS., Commissioner of Service Tax, Taxx, Chennai and Mr J Chandramouli Chandraamouli FCA, Convenor – Taxati Taxation & Finance Panel of FICCI. FICCI. Srivastava, cipated. Mr K Srivastav va, IRS., Chief Commissioner of o Central Excise & Service Tax , Chennai, also participate ed. parti A number of queries queries were raised by the par rticipants. Mr K Chandra Sekhar, Sekhar, IRS., Commissioner, Chennai Cheenn n ai I Commissionerate proposed the vote of thanks. th hanks. Chamber Members of the C hamber attended this programme. programme me. From the Secretariat, Mrs K Saraswathi Saraswat ath hi and Mr S Sankaranarayanan also alsso attended.

SPOT LIGHT

CLOUD COMPUTING

What is Cloud Computing? You may have heard the term cloud computing or ‘the Cloud,’ but could you describe what it is? There are so many definitions flying around that you wouldn’t be alone if you struggled to define it. Cloud computing is simply a set of pooled computing resources and services delivered over the web. When you diagram the relationships between all the elements it resembles a cloud. Cloud computing—not to be confused with grid computing, utility computing, or autonomic computing—involves the interaction of several virtualized resources. Cloud Servers™ connect and share information based on the level of website traﬃc across the entire network. Cloud computing is often provided “as a service” over the Internet, typically in the form of infrastructure as a service (IaaS), platform as a service (PaaS), or software as a service (SaaS). Cloud computing customers don’t have to raise the capital to purchase, manage, maintain, and scale the physical infrastructure required to handle drastic traﬃc fluctuations. Instead of having to invest time and money to keep their sites afloat, cloud computing customers simply pay for the resources they use, as they use them. This particular characteristic

of cloud computing—its elasticity— means that customers no longer need to predict traﬃc, but can promote their sites aggressively and spontaneously. Engineering for peak traﬃc becomes a thing of the past. As a metaphor for the Internet, “the cloud” is a familiar cliché, but when combined with “computing,” the meaning gets bigger and fuzzier. Some analysts and vendors define cloud computing narrowly as an updated version of utility computing: basically virtual servers available over the Internet. Others go very broad, arguing anything you consume outside the firewall is “in the cloud,” including conventional outsourcing.

Cloud computing comes into focus only when you think about what IT always needs: a way to increase capacity or add capabilities on the fly without investing in new infrastructure, training new personnel, or licensing new software. Cloud computing encompasses any subscription-based or pay-per-use service that, in real time over the Internet, extends IT’s existing capabilities. Cloud computing is at an early stage, with a motley crew of providers large and small delivering a slew of cloud-based services, from full-blown applications to storage services to spam filtering. Yes, utility-style infrastructure providers are part of the

SPOT LIGHT mix, but so are SaaS (software as a service) providers such as Salesforce.com. Today, for the most part, IT must plug into cloudbased services individually, but cloud computing aggregators and integrators are already emerging. InfoWorld talked to dozens of vendors, analysts, and IT customers to tease out the various components of cloud computing. Based on those discussions, here’s a rough breakdown of what cloud computing is all about: 1. SaaS This type of cloud computing delivers a single application through the browser to thousands of customers using a multitenant architecture. On the customer side, it means no upfront investment in servers or software licensing; on the provider side, with just one app to maintain, costs are low compared to conventional hosting. Salesforce.com is by far the best-known example among enterprise applications, but SaaS is also common for HR apps and has even worked its way up the food chain to ERP, with players such as Workday. And who could have predicted the sudden rise of SaaS “desktop” applications, such as Google Apps and Zoho Office? 2. Utility computing The idea is not new, but this form of cloud computing is getting new life from Amazon.com, Sun, IBM, and others who now offer storage and virtual servers that IT can access on demand. Early enterprise adopters mainly use utility computing for supplemental, non-mission-critical needs, but one day, they may replace parts of the datacenter. Other providers offer solutions that help IT create virtual datacenters from commodity servers, such as 3Tera’s AppLogic and Cohesive Flexible Technologies’ Elastic Server on Demand. Liquid Computing’s LiquidQ offers similar capabilities, enabling IT to stitch together memory, I/O, storage, and computational

capacity as a virtualized resource pool available over the network. 3. Web services in the cloud Closely related to SaaS, Web service providers offer APIs that enable developers to exploit functionality over the Internet, rather than delivering fullblown applications. They range from providers offering discrete business services — such as Strike Iron and Xignite — to the full range of APIs oﬀered by Google Maps, ADP payroll processing, the U.S. Postal Service, Bloomberg, and even conventional credit card processing services. 4. Platform as a service Another SaaS variation, this form of cloud computing delivers development environments as a service. You build your own applications that run on the provider’s infrastructure and are delivered to your users via the Internet from the provider’s servers. Like Legos, these services are constrained by the vendor’s design and capabilities, so you don’t get complete freedom, but you do get predictability and pre-integration. Prime examples include Salesforce.com’s Force.com, Coghead the new Google App Engine. For extremely lightweight development, cloud-based mashup platforms abound, such as Yahoo Pipes or Dapper.net. 5. MSP (managed service providers) One of the oldest forms of cloud computing, a managed service is basically an application exposed to IT rather than to end-users, such as a virus scanning service for e-mail or an application monitoring service (which Mercury, among others, provides). Managed security services delivered by SecureWorks, IBM, and Verizon fall into this category, as do such cloud-based anti-spam services as Postini, recently acquired by Google. Other oﬀerings include desktop management services, such as those offered by CenterBeam or Everdream.

6. Service commerce platforms A hybrid of SaaS and MSP, this cloud computing service oﬀers a service hub that users interact with. They’re most common in trading environments, such as expense management systems that allow users to order travel or secretarial services from a common platform that then coordinates the service delivery and pricing within the specifications set by the user. Think of it as an automated service bureau. Well-known examples include Rearden Commerce and Ariba. 7. Internet integration The integration of cloud-based services is in its early days. OpSource, which mainly concerns itself with serving SaaS providers, recently introduced the OpSource Services Bus, which employs in-the-cloud integration technology from a little startup called Boomi. SaaS provider Workday recently acquired another player in this space, CapeClear, an ESB (enterprise service bus) provider that was edging toward b-to-b integration. Way ahead of its time, Grand Central — which wanted to be a universal “bus in the cloud” to connect SaaS providers and provide integrated solutions to customers — flamed out in 2005. To d a y, w i t h s u c h c l o u d - b a s e d interconnection seldom in evidence, cloud computing might be more accurately described as “sky computing,” with many isolated clouds of services which IT customers must plug into individually. On the other hand, as virtualization and SOA permeate the enterprise, the idea of loosely coupled services running on an agile, scalable infrastructure should eventually make every enterprise a node in the cloud. It’s a long-running trend with a far-out horizon. But among big metatrends, cloud computing is the hardest one to argue with in the long term.

SPOT LIGHT Cloud Computing By : Mahesh Arumugam, CEO, Alpha Cloud Labs

There is plenty of buzz around the world with a new form of computing called “cloud computing”. Technology vendors are coming out with various services branded as “cloud services”. Information Technology spend on Cloud Computing will generate close to 14 million jobs between 2011-2015. IT innovation created by cloud computing could produce $1.1 trillion a year in new business revenues. The cloud is supposed to be smarter, greener and more efficient to use. The purpose of this article is to decode the basics of cloud computing, differentiate the cloud services, help understand the benefits of the technology and help our MCCI members decide on the future of their IT strategy based around cloud computing. What is Cloud Computing? Cloud Computing is the delivery of computing hardware, software, infrastructure and the integrated platform “as a service” to the end users. End users subscribe to the offered service by picking and choosing the type of service needed for an organization. The scalability factor ensures that computing, storage and other resources can be increased and decreased on demand. One way to think of cloud computing is to consider your experience with email. Your email client, if it is Yahoo!, Gmail, Hotmail, and so on, takes care of housing all of the hardware and software necessary to support your personal email account. When you want to access your email you open your web browser, go to the email client, and log in. The most

important part of the equation is having internet access. Your email is not housed on your physical computer; you access it through an internet connection, and you can access it anywhere. If you are on a trip, at work, or down the street getting coﬀee, you can check your email as long as you have access to the internet. Now, imagine doing the same with your photos, videos, music, work documents, and not just email messages! What are the diﬀerent types of Cloud architectures? Public Cloud : A public cloud is one where the cloud service provider makes the platform, software and storage accessible to the general public over the internet. Examples include Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2), Google AppEngine and Windows Azure Services Platform. Private Cloud : A private cloud is established for a specific group or an organization and limits access to just that group. Private cloud is custom built for large institutions and accessed in a limited fashion by the authorized and ownership based institutions like Governments and Health Care organizations. Community Cloud : A community cloud is multi tenant – shared environment among two or more organizations that have similar requirements. A group of hospitals using a cloud infrastructure to share information with each other is an example of a community cloud. Hybrid Cloud : A hybrid cloud is essentially a combination of at least two clouds, where the clouds included are a mixture of public, private, or community. A bank

with a combination of a private cloud to manage the core banking operations and a public cloud to interact with customer facing applications is an example of a Hybrid Cloud. What are the Types of Cloud Computing Services? Cloud computing terminology and the variations in the services oﬀered can be confusing to even the IT savvy crowd. Cloud Computing Services can be broadly classified into one of the following: 1. Software as a Service (SaaS) : SaaS is the delivery of a software service hosted on the cloud. The consumers access the software and the associated data by connecting to a cloud service through an internet connection. With SaaS, end users software is maintained on the cloud. ERP, CRPM, Document Management and email services are some of the SaaS examples. 2. Platform as a Service (PaaS) : PasS is the delivery of computing hardware, operating system, storage and networking capacity as a server over the internet. PaaS oﬀerings facilitate the deployment of applications without the cost and complexity of buying and managing the underlying hardware and software and provisioning hosting capabilities. Google’s AppEngine, Amazon EC2 and Microsoft’s Azure are some examples of PaaS. 3. Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) : IaaS delivers computer infrastructure – typically a platform virtualization environment – as a service. This includes servers, software, datacenter space and network equipment, available in a single bundle and billed as per usage in a utility computing model. Rackspace’s Mosso, Amazon’s EC2 a GoGrid’s ServerPath.

SPOT LIGHT What should you look for in good cloud computing services? ·

Transparency: Companies that provide enterprise cloud computing platforms should explain their information handling practices and disclose the performance and reliability of their services on their public Web sites.

Breach Notification: Companies that provide enterprise cloud computing platforms should notify customers of known security breaches that aﬀect the confidentiality or integrity of their customer data promptly.

Audit: Companies that provide enterprise cloud computing platforms should use third-party auditors to ensure compliance with their security management system and with these principles.

Data Portability: Companies that provide enterprise cloud computing platforms should make available to customers their respective customer d ata i n a n i n d u st r y- sta n d a rd , downloadable format.

Use Limitation: Companies that provide enterprise cloud computing platforms should claim no ownership rights in customer data and should use customer data only as their customers instruct them, or to fulfil their contractual or legal obligations.

Disclosure: Companies that provide enterprise cloud computing platforms should disclose customer data only if required to do so by the customer or by law, and should provide aﬀected customers prior notice of any legally compelled disclosure to the extent permissible by law. Security Management System: Companies that provide enterprise cloud computing platforms should maintain a robust security management system that is based on an internationally accepted security framework (such as ISO 27002) to protect customer data. Customer Security Features: Companies that provide enterprise cloud computing platforms should provide their customers with a selection of security features to implement in their usage of the cloud computing services. Data Location: Companies that provide enterprise cloud computing platforms should make available to their customers a list of countries in which their customer data related to them is hosted.

Accountability: Companies that provide enterprise cloud computing platforms should work with their customers to designate appropriate roles for privacy and security accountability.

What are the benefits of cloud computing? ·

Low Costs, pay per use

Cap-Ex Free Computing

Faster Time to Market – Deploy projects faster, faster innovation

Scale as Needed

Lower maintenance costs

Resiliency and redundancy

Simplify IT – No hardware, no software needed

Global availability

the large enterprises. Customers can also pick and chose the specific SaaS/PaaS/ IaaS services on a needed basis. SaaS is the most prevalent cloud service opted by end users. Email Applications, Document Management and Customer Relationship Management are the most commonly leveraged SaaS services by enterprises due to the simplicity, user experience reliability of the service. SaaS services start as low as INR 500 per user per month. ERP’s, Banking Systems, Hospital Management Systems are more complex in nature and hence the adoption of cloud based oﬀerings in these areas have been conservative. To summarize, the cloud provides many options for the everyday computer user as well as large and small businesses. It opens up the world of computing to a broader range of uses and increases the ease of use by giving access through any internet connection. Every organization should look at their current IT architecture and determine the feasibility of opting for an equivalent cloud service. Every new IT initiative should go through the due diligence process to evaluate the opportunity to use a cloud service. I hope this article provides you a fairly basic overview on cloud computing. Please forward your questions related to the article or anything general to mahesh. arumugam@alphacloudlabs.com. I will be happy to revert back to you to the best of my ability.

Who should use cloud computing? Cloud Services oﬀer the same technology for a 5 person company or a 10,000 people enterprise where ever they may be geographically located. It levels the playing field between startup’s, SME’s and

POLICY WATCH Sector based approach to expand trade with Iran

Higher Excise duty on diesel cars under study:

Terming Iran as a good long term market, India is now focusing on expanding its trade portfolio with a sector specific approach in a bid to expand its trade relationship with Tehran and bring down tariﬀ barriers including granting preferred market status to it in future.

In the wake of a marked preference of personalised vehicle owners, more so after the hike in petrol prices, the Finance ministry is having a re- look at the Petroleum Ministry’s proposal to hike the excise duty on diesel cars so as to disincentivise consumption of the subsidized transportation fuel.

At present main items of India’s exports to Iran include rice, machinery, steel, rugs, chemicals, fabrics and tea.

India-Bahrain sign pact to boost ties India and Bahrain, announced the signing of a Tax Information Exchange Agreement to promote economic cooperation and

joint investment between the two countries aimed at boosting bilaterial trade that stands at $ 1.7 billion. The formation of the lndia-Bahrain Business Council with the objective of developing economic, trade and technical relations between India and Bahrain was also announced. An MoU between Bahrain and India to undertake a sustained effort to boost joint ventures and initiatives in ICT, including measures on e-commerce, e-governence and information security was also signed.

Ministry sets up Air Cargo Logistics Board To lay down policy guidelines, set & monitor performance standards The Ministry of Civil Aviation has formed an Inter-Ministerial Air Cargo Logistics Board headed by the Secretary in the Ministry. The Board will lay down the policy guidelines for setting up air cargo facilities at airports and will also set performance standards relating to the quality of service in the air cargo logistics supply chain.The Civil Aviation Minister, Mr Ajit Singh, set up the Board with the objective of resolving inter-ministerial issues that aﬀect air cargo operations in the country. The Board will review, on a continuous basis, the general and sectoral policy regime governing air cargo logistics operations and remove the bottlenecks to eﬃciency. The 17-member Board, with representatives of the level of Joint Secretary and above from various Central Ministries and Departments, will have the following broad framework of functions: ·

To resolve Inter-Ministerial issues that aﬀect air cargo logistics operations in the country and to achieve better eﬃciency.

To review, on a continuous basis, the general and sectoral policy regimes governing air cargo logistics operations with a view to remove bottlenecks to eﬃciency.

To review and monitor the functioning of the Cargo Facilitation Committee headed by Airport Directors of AAI and other private/JV airports with a view to review the eﬀectiveness of these bodies.

To lay down policy guidelines for setting up air cargo facilities at airports, air freight stations/cargo villages, including guidelines for public-private partnership model of development of these facilities.

To act as a coordinating agency to ensure expeditious clearance of proposals for setting up air cargo facilities at airports, air freight stations/cargo villages subject to fulfilment of all statutory requirements.

To lay down performance standards relating to quality of service in the air cargo logistics supply chain, to be monitored by the Airports Economic Regulatory Authority (AERA) for implementation.

To review the progress on development of major gateway airports as cargo hubs by facilitating transhipment.

To review periodically implementation of the proposals cleared by the Board.

Slew of measures to rev up exports Seven point strategy to achieve 20% rise in exports to $ 360 billion in current fiscal Faced with uncertain global environment, the Central Government announced a slew of measures including extension of two per cent interest subsidy by one year as part of seven point strategy to achieve 20 percent increase in exports to $ 360 billion in the current fiscal. Unveiling the annual supplement to the five year Foreign Trade Policy, Commerce Minister Mr Anand Sharma said the Government would soon come out with new guidelines to revamp special economic zones and export oriented unit schemes to further boost the shipments.

highlights of Annual Supplement 201213 to Foreign Trade Policy 2009-14 on 5th June 2012. Major highlights are: -

Introduction of a new Post-Export EPCG scheme-

Support for export of Green Technology Products

Support for infrastructure for agriculture sector

Incentive for promoting investment in labour intensive sectors

Forthcoming Programmes 21st July 21

Assocham –MCCI National Conference C on onference on Chennai – Bangalore Ban angalore Industrial Corridor Corrii do d r – Issues, Opportunities Opportunit i ies and an nd The Th Way Forward Forwaard at H o tee l L e Ro ya l Meridien

28th 2 8th July

Food For Thought Thou ught (FFT (FFT) T) on SMEs

4th 4 th August Augu ust

176th Annual General Meeting of the Chamber

10. 10 0. 15 am

Business Session Sesssion

11.30 11.3 . 0 am

Public Session – I TC C S h e rato n Paa r k H o t e l & To w e r s Guest: Chief M r. S . R a m a d o r a i , Vice Chairma Chairman, man, TCS

Encouragement for manufacturing sector in domestic market, etc.

For full details, please visit the Ministry’s website wwwcommerce.nic.in

As part of the seven point strategy to boost exports, the government has accepted the key demand of industry to extend the two per cent interest subsidy till March 2013.

Additions

Visa on arrival for Myanmar

•

Tamilnadu Vision 2023 - Government of Tamilnadu

•

Vision Tamilnadu - Building Sustainable Tomorrow-Frost & Sullivan / Assocham

•

A step towards measuring social responsibility and sustainability - Deloitte/ Assocham

•

Status of E-Commerce in India - A Status Paper-IMRB International/ Assocham

•

Linking Budding Entrepreneurs with Government Schemes and MarketsMinistry of Food Processing Industries/Assocham

•

Interest Payment Overburden - Assocham

•

India's Im-balance of Trade - Assocham

•

Population & Economic Growth :Role of Corporate Sector - Assocham

•

Incoterms 2010 - ICC Rules for the use of domestic and international trade terms - International Chamber of Commerce

•

Uruguay -India: Report on Trade and Investment Links- Surana & Surana International Attorneys

Effective 1st June 2012, visa on arrival will be issued to Indian nationals for the following visa categories only at Yangon International Airport. -

Business Visa

Entry Visa (Meetings/workshops/ events

Transit Visa

Visa on arrival application forms can be obtained from the airlines as well as from website: www.mip.gov.mm of the Ministry of Immigration and Population. Supplement to Foreign Trade Policy 2009-14: Mr Anand Sharma, Minister for Commerce, Industry & Textiles announced the

Library

ECONOMIC REVIEW Contents 1. 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4

Macro economy Latest Developments in India’s Balance of Payments during the Q4 2011-12 India’s External Debt, March 2012 India’s Quarterly International Investment Position Gross fiscal deficit at 27.6% of budget estimates, AprilMay 2012-13

1. Macro economy 1.1

Developments in India’s Balance of Payments during the Q4 2011-12

The trade deficit during the fourth quarter exceeded US$ 50 billion (10.6 per cent of GDP) and CAD rose to US$ 21.7 billion (4.5 per cent of GDP). The concerned highlights are as follows. Growth in merchandise exports (y-o-y) decelerated sharply to 3.4 per cent during Q4 of 2011-12. Imports registered a growth of 22.6 per cent during Q4 of 2011-12. As export growth remaining substantially lower than import growth, the trade deficit widened to US$ 51.6 billion in Q4 of 2011-12 vis-a vis US$ 30.0 billion in Q4 of 2010-11. Growth in net services exports in Q4 of 2011-12 also decelerated to 21.1 per cent (72 per cent in Q4 of 2010-11). As a result of the falling exchange rate, net secondary income (private transfers) receipts rose significantly by 24.0 per cent (y-o-y) to US$ 16.9 billion in Q4 of 2011-12 (US$ 13.6 billion in Q4 of 2010-11). The primary income account (mainly investment income) showed a net outflow of US$ 4.6 billion in Q4 of 2011-12, broadly the same as in the corresponding quarter of the previous year. Consequently, the current account deficit (CAD) widened to US$ 21.7 billion in Q4 of 2011-12 which works out to 4.5 per cent of GDP (US$ 6.3 billion in Q4 of 2010-11 i.e., 1.3 per cent of GDP). Capital and Financial account (excluding change in foreign exchange reserves), on a net basis, recorded a higher inflow of US$ 16.5 billion in Q4 of 2011-12 as compared with US$ 9.1 billion in Q4 of 2010-11. Despite significant improvement in the capital inflows in Q4 of 2011-12, there was a drawdown of foreign exchange reserves of US$ 5.7 billion (excluding valuation) as against an increase of US$ 2.0 billion in the corresponding quarter of 2010-11, mainly because of the deterioration in the current account. In 2011-12, the CAD rose to US$ 78.2 billion (4.2 per cent of GDP) from US$ 46.0 billion (2.7 per cent of GDP) in 2010-11, largely reflecting higher trade deficit on account of subdued external demand and relatively inelastic imports of POL and gold & silver. Net inflows under Capital and Financial account (excluding changes in reserve assets) were higher at US$ 67.8 billion during 2011-12 as compared with US$ 62.0 billion during 2010-11. However, there was a drawdown of reserves to the extent of US$ 12.8 billion during the year as against an accretion of US$ 13.1 billion in 2010-11.

2. 2.1 2.2 2.3

Corporate Sector Performance of Core Industries, May 2012 Liberalization of financing procedures Sectoral Deployment of Bank Credit

Primary Income In net terms, investment income remained in deficit with an outflow of US$ 16.5 billion almost same as in the previous year. However, compensation of employees witnessed a turn around and recorded a small surplus of US$ 0.5 billion during the year. Secondary Income Secondary income receipts primarily consisting of private transfers increased by 18.9 per cent to US$ 66.1 billion during 2011-12 from US$ 55.6 billion during the previous year, which, among other factors, could be attributed to depreciation of rupee. Current Account Balance During the year, CAD widened to the highest ever level both in absolute terms and as a proportion of GDP. The CAD at US$ 78.2 billion was 4.2 per cent of GDP in 2011-12 as compared with US$ 46.0 billion or 2.7 per cent of GDP during the previous year. The rise in CAD-GDP ratio was also resulted from slower GDP growth and its contraction in dollar terms due to depreciation of rupee. Capital and Financial Account FDI inflows and NRI deposits, in net terms, were higher at US$ 22.1 billion and US$ 11.9 billion, respectively, while portfolio net flows slowed down to US$ 16.6 billion in 2011-12. Net inflows under Capital and Financial account (excluding change in foreign exchange reserves) were higher at US$ 67.8 billion during the year 2011-12 as compared with US$ 62.0 billion in the previous year. During the year, there was a net drawdown of reserves (on a BoP basis) to the extent of US$ 12.8 billion as compared to a net accretion of US$ 13.1 billion recorded during the previous year. 1.2 India’s External Debt, March 2012 India’s external debt, as at end-March 2012, was placed at US $ 345.8 billion (20.0 per cent of GDP) recording an increase of US $ 39.9 billion or 13.0 per cent over the end-March 2011 level on account of significant increase in commercial borrowings, short-term trade credits, and rupee denominated Non-resident Indian deposits. Excluding the valuation eﬀects due to appreciation of US dollar primarily against Indian Rupee, the stock of external debt has increased by US$ 51.8 billion over the stock as at end-March 2011. The share of commercial borrowings stood highest at 30.2 per cent as at end-March 2012 followed by short-term debt (22.6 per cent), NRI deposits (16.9 per cent) and multilateral debt (14.6 per cent). The short-term debt increased by US$ 13.2 billion on account of rise in short-term trade credits, FII investment in T-bills and commercial banks borrowings.

The debt service ratio increased to 5.6 per cent during 2011-12 as compared to 4.2 per cent during 2010-11.

1.4 Gross fiscal deficit for the first two months of 2012-13 at 27.6% of budget estimates.

Based on residual maturity, short-term debt accounted for 42.7 per cent of the total external debt as at end-March 2012, whereas the share of short-term debt, by original maturity, was 22.6 per cent of the total external debt stock.

The Centre’s fiscal deficit stood at Rs 141,587 crore in the first two months of 2012-13, constituting 27.6 per cent of the budget estimates (BE) for the entire financial year. Continuation of the trend might make it impossible to rein in the fiscal deficit at 5.1 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP).

The ratio of short-term debt (residual maturity) to foreign exchange reserves at 50.1 per cent as at end- March 2012 was higher compared to 42.3 per cent as at end-March 2011. The US dollar denominated debt accounted for 55.0 per cent of the total external debt stock as at end-March 2012 followed by Indian rupee (21.4 per cent) and Japanese Yen (9.1 per cent). India’s foreign exchange reserves provided a cover of 85.1 per cent to the external debt stock at the end of March 2012 as compared with 99.6 per cent as at end-March 2011. With a widening current account deficit and continued uncertainty in global economic scenario and prospects for equity flows, dependence on debt flows rose considerably during 2011-12. As a result, external debt stock increased during 2011-12, and key vulnerability indicators like debt-GDP ratio and debt service ratio witnessed deterioration over the year. 1.3 India’s Quarterly International Investment Position (IIP) India’s IIP showed an increase in the net liabilities to US $ 244.8 billion at end-March 2012 from US $ 204.8 billion at end-December 2011. This rise in net liabilities by US $ 40.0 billion was mainly on account of US $ 45.5 billion increase in liabilities, partially oﬀset by an increase in assets of US $ 5.5 billion. The changes in IIP also reflect the valuation changes emanating from exchange rate movements. International financial assets stood at US$ 437.1 billion as at end-March 2012 with an increase of US$ 5.5 billion over the previous quarter. Reserve assets, which remained the major component, declined by US$ 2.3 billion to US$ 294.4 billion at end-March 2012. Among other sources, Direct Investment abroad moved up by US$ 2.8 billion during the quarter to US$ 111.7 billion as at end-March 2012. International financial liabilities widened by US$ 45.5 billion over the previous quarter to US$ 682.0 billion as at end-March 2012. Direct and portfolio investments in India increased by US$ 15.7 billion and US$ 19.2 billion, respectively. Among other investments, loans (mainly ECBs) and currency and deposits (mainly NRI deposits) increased by US$ 2.2 billion and US$ 6.2 billion, respectively. Due to rupee appreciation during end-December 2011 to end-March 2012, equity liabilities for December 2011 were revised upwards by US$ 17.7 billion when valued at end-March 2012 exchange rate (US$ 11.4 billion in direct investment, US$ 6.3 billion in Portfolio investment). Net claims of non-residents on India increased by US$ 40.0 billion over the previous quarter to US$ 244.8 billion as at end-March 2012. The declining trend in the ratio of India’s international financial assets to international financial liabilities continued during the latest quarter and the ratio stood at 64.1 per cent in March 2012 (67.8 per cent in December 2011)

The revenue deficit, too, seems fast approaching the BE, at 33.8 per cent in the first two months against 35.8 per cent a year ago. While the government expenditure for the period was at 12.8 per cent (Rs 190,895 crore) of the BE, receipts remained low at just five per cent or Rs 49,308 crore. Tax revenues remained low, at 5.3 per cent or Rs 40,925 crore. The government has a target of a fiscal deficit of Rs 513,590 crore for the year, which will mean 5.1 per cent of the GDP, assuming real economic growth rate of 7.6 per cent and 5.4 per cent inflation. For the revenue deficit, the annual target is Rs 350424 crore, which will mean 3.4 per cent of the estimated GDP. Of this, Rs 118,515 crore had been touched at the end of May. In fact, plan expenditure in the first two months of this year constituted just 8.6 per cent, against 10.2 per cent in April-May 2011-12. On the other hand, non-plan expenditure rose to account for 15.1 per cent against 14.9 per cent over the period. 2. Corporate Sector 2.1 Performance of Core Industries - May 2012 The Eight core industries combined Index was 149.8 in May 2012 with a growth rate of 3.8% compared to their 5.8% growth in May 2011. During April-May 2012-13, the cumulative growth rate of the Core industries was 3.4 % as against their growth at 5.0% during the corresponding period in 2011-12. Coal production registered a growth of 8.0% in May 2012 compared to its growth at 1.3% in May 2011. However, in cumulative terms Coal production had a growth of 5.9% during April-May 2012-13 compared to its growth at 2.0% during the same period of 2011-12. Crude Oil production registered a growth of 0.5% in May 2012 compared to its growth at 9.8% in May 2011. Cumulatively Crude Oil production registered a growth of (-) 0.4% during April-May 2012-13 compared to its growth at 10.4% during the same period of 2011-12. Natural Gas production registered a growth of (-) 10.8% in May 2012 compared to its growth at (-) 9.6% in May 2011. Cumulatively, Natural Gas production registered a growth of (-) 11.1% during April-May 2012-13 compared to its growth at (-) 9.5% during the same period of 2011-12. Petroleum refinery production had a growth of 2.9% in May 2012 compared to its growth at 4.5% in May 2011. In cumulative terms Petroleum refinery production registered a growth of 1.8% during AprilMay 2012-13 compared to its 5.5% growth during the same period of 2011-12. Fertilizer production registered a growth of (-) 15.1% in May 2012 against its growth at 7.3% in May 2011. Cumulatively Fertilizer production had a growth of (-) 12.4% during April-May 2012-13 corresponding to 3.1% growth during the same period of 2011-12. Steel production had a growth rate of 4.9% in May 2012 against its

8.0% growth in May 2011. Cumulatively Steel production had a 5.8% growth during April-May 2012-13 compared to its 5.5% growth during the same period of 2011-12.

Rationalization in the Scheme of FIIs investment in Long-term Infrastructure Bonds •

Cement production registered a growth of 11.3% in May 2012 against its (-) 1.2% growth in May 2011. The cumulative growth of Cement Production was 9.7% during April-May 2012-13 compared to its (-) 0.6% growth during the same period of 2011-12.

US$10 billion investment in IDF. US$5 billion for FII investments in long term infra bonds with a residual maturity of one year and subject to a lock-in of similar period.

Electricity generation had a 5.2% growth in May 2012 compared to its 10.3% growth in May 2011. The cumulative growth of Electricity generation was 5.3% during April-May 2012-13 compared to 8.4% growth during the same period of 2011-12.

US$3 billion available for QFI investments in mutual fund debt scheme that also invest in schemes of infrastructure companies.

2.2 Liberalization of financial Provisions

The remaining of the total ceiling (US$7 billion) is available in FII investments in long term infra bonds that have residual maturity of three years and is also subject to a lock-in period of three years.

Government Securities: Currently FIIs are allowed to invest US$5 billion in Government Securities that have residual maturity of over five years. It has now been modified to reduce the residual maturity to three years. An additional window of US$5 billion would be available for FII investment in Government Securities subject to residual maturity of three years. The above modifications would now make available to FIIs a total limit of US$10 billion subject to residual maturity of three years. With the above changes, the total FII limit would stand at US$20 billion. Further, in order to broad base the non-resident investor base for Government Securities, it has also been decided to allow long term investors like Sovereign Wealth Funds (SWFs), Multilateral Agencies, Endowment Funds, insurance funds, pension funds and foreign Central Banks to be registered with SEBI to also invest in Government securities within this enhanced limit of USD 20 billion. A new scheme under ECB: •

At present, FII investments in long term infra-bonds have a ceiling of US$25 billion. Out of the US$25 billion, the following are the sub-categorization:

•

The above scheme is being modified as under: Of the US$7 billion available in FII investments which are currently subject to a three year lock-in and three years residual maturity would now have one year lock-in and at least 15 months residual maturity at the time of first purchase by an FII. The residual maturity of the bonds under the US$5 billion ceiling would now be at least 15 months at the time of first purchase and the lock-in period would continue to be one year. The lock-in for IDF investment would be reduced to one year from the present three years subject to the condition that the residual maturity at the time of first purchase is at least 15 months. As regards the USD 3 billion limit for QFI investment in MF debt schemes, it has been decided that QFIs can invest in those MF debt schemes that hold at least 25% of their assets (either in debt or equity or in both) in the infrastructure sector.

2.3 Sectoral Deployment of Bank Credit

HLC-ECB has decided to add a new scheme for External Commercial Borrowings (ECB borrowings). Indian companies can now avail of ECBs for repayment of Rupee loan(s) availed of from the domestic banking system and/or for fresh Rupee capital expenditure, under the approval route, subject to satisfying the following conditions:

Sectoral deployment of credit collected on a monthly basis from select 47 scheduled commercial banks accounting for about 95 per cent of the total non-food credit deployed by all scheduled commercial banks for the month of May 2012.

Only companies in the manufacturing and infrastructure sector will be eligible to avail of such ECBs;

On a year-on-year (y-o-y) basis, non-food bank credit increased by 16.5 per cent in May 2012 as compared with 21.9 per cent in May 2011.

Such companies shall be a consistent foreign exchange earner during the past three financial years;

Credit to agriculture increased by 14.6 per cent in May 2012, up from 12.8 per cent in May 2011.

Such companies are not in the default list/caution list of the Reserve Bank of India; and

Credit to industry increased by 18.8 per cent in May 2012, down from 26.7 per cent in May 2011.

Such ECBs shall only be utilized for repayment of the Rupee loan(s) availed of for ‘capital expenditure‘ incurred earlier and are still outstanding in the books of the domestic banking system and/or for fresh Rupee capital expenditure.

Deceleration in credit growth to industry was mainly due to infrastructure and textiles.

The overall ceiling for such ECBs as stated above, shall be USD10 (ten) billion. The maximum permissible ECB that can be availed of by an individual company will be limited to 50 per cent of the average annual export earnings realised during the past three financial years. The ECBs will be allowed to companies based on the foreign exchange earnings and its ability to service the ECB. The companies should draw down the entire facility within a month after taking the Loan Registration Number (LRN) from the Reserve Bank.

Credit to the services sector increased by 15.7 per cent in May 2012 as compared with 21.8 per cent in May 2011. Credit to NBFCs increased by 41.0 per cent in May 2012, down from 54.4 per cent in May 2011. Credit to the commercial real estate (CRE) sector increased by 2.8 per cent during May 2012, down from 19.9 per cent in May 2011. Personal loans increased by 13.1 per cent in May 2012 as compared with 17.7 per cent in May 2011.

Training Programme on Factories Act, Labour Laws, Labour Welfare Laws and Allied Issues

K Saraswathi welcoming the participants

A session in progress

Video Discussion on “Attitude : A Little Thing that Makes A Big Difference”

Seminar on Service Tax – Past, Present & Future

Raj Kalkaji, Trainer, interacting with the participants

K Srivatsava, IRS., Chief Commissioner of Service Tax addressing. Seated l to r: K. Saraswathi and R. Sethuraman

Food for Thought on Rupee?

A view of the audience

Dr S Narayan, IAS (Retd) addressing. Seated l to r: R Raghuttama Rao, T Shivaraman and Dr Bobby Srinivasan

Road map for India as Super Power 2020

R Vittal Raj welcoming the participants. Seated l to r: K Saraswathi and N C Narayanan

A view of the audience.

Conference on Creating Carbon Neutral Chennai: Planning for Integrated Freight Movement

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l to r: K Saraswathi, T Shivaraman, T K Ramachandran, IAS., Dr V Sumantran, S N Srikanth and J Krishnan

l to r: T Shivaraman, Dr APJ Abdul Kalam and Gopal Srinivasan

T Shivaraman presenting a memento to Dr APJ Abdul Kalam

A view of the audience

Video Discussion on “You are not listening”

Presentation & Discussion on Energy Management System & ISO 50001

Nitasha Sharma interacting with the participants.

M K VInod Kumar interacting with the participants.

Interactive meeting with Mr Anthony P. Iriti, Former Mayor of Findlay Township, Ohio USA

Anthony P Iriti addressing.

RK Talwar Memorial Lecture

R Seshasayee releasing the book “R K Talwar- Values & Leadership” and handing over the first copy to Surendra Dave. l to r: V A George, T T Srinivasaraghavan, R.Seshasayee, Surendra Dave and N Vaghul.

T T Srinivasaraghavan, President, MCCI, addressing.

Workshop on Finance Act 2012

K Vaitheeswaran addressing

P R Subramaniyan addressing

B Sriram making a presentation

K K Sekar at the mike

FFT on Right(way) To Information

K Saraswathi introducing the speakers Seated l to r: N L Rajah, K S Sripathi, IAS (Retd), T Shivaraman and Jeeva.

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