Mcci intouch april may2k14

Volume 28 Nos. 1 & 2 – April – May 2014

Dr. M. Manuneethi Cholan, Registrar of Companies, Chennai addressing during the Valedictory function of the Two day Workshop on Companies Act 2013 and Notified Rules 2014

Felicitation of Ms. Mallika Srinivasan on being conferred the Padma Shri Award:T.Shivaraman and Srivats Ram handing over the memento to Ms. Mallika Srinivasan

Seminar on TDS – Issues & Challenges Chief Guest S.Ravi I.R.S. Principal Chief Commissioner of Income Tax delivering the inaugural address. Others in the Picture: L to R: K. Saraswathi, Rajib Kumar Hota I.R.S. & S.G.Prabhakharan

IN THIS ISSUE X President’s Message

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Felicitation Function to Ms. Mallika Srinivasan on conferment of Padma Shri Award

Interactive session with the Delegation from Korea

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Seminar on Tax Deducted at Source (TDS)

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Seminar on IT for Enhancing Compliance Management under Companies Act 2013

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MDP on PF and ESI Issues at Madurai

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Workshop on Companies Act 2013 & Notified Rules

Interaction meeting with Tamil Nadu Infrastructure Development Board

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Meeting with Netherlands Embassy & Netherlands Foreign Investment Agency

Programme on Sexual Harassment of Women(Prevention, Prohibition & Redressal) at Work Place Act 2013 @ Coimbatore

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Interactive meeting with Delegates from Moselle Development Agency

X Chamber’s Activities -

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Programme on ISO 50001 – Energy Management System with ASSIST

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Meeting with RAK Investment Authority (RAKIA), Govt. of Ras Al Khaimah

X General Committee X SPOT LIGHT

Managing e-waste X Policy Watch X Representation & Press Releases X Economic Review

President’s Message

Dear Members The need for rewriting Indian Growth Story!

We are finally back to earth after a very long and exciting election season. The results have yielded a Government majority that is much larger than even the best hopes of the NDA. This is clearly an indicator of the desperate need for a change felt by the Indian Voters.

The Indian economy has been struggling to grow beyond 5%. Over the last few years, the general feeling has been that the primary cause for the slackness of growth is internal to us and has nothing to do with global conditions. It is therefore to be hoped that with the new and stable Government, we are able to remove the internal bottlenecks that we have created which prevent industrial growth.

Over the last, the Chamber alongwith many others have strongly expressed the view that the Government needs to work hard to bring business confidence back. The current NDA Government is uniquely placed to make the necessary policy and legislative changes to return growth to double digit levels.

As a Chamber, we have certain ideas on the directions of the reform agenda.

The first suggestion is taking up a zero based review of all legislations, especially those related to business operations - taxation, environment and labour related. From our recent study on the manufacturing road map for the State, it was abundantly clear that one of the major roadblocks for growth in manufacturing is the proliferation of often

contradictory and outdated regulations that make operating an industry in India a minefield of regulatory compliance.

This automatically creates opportunities for corruption. Given the demographic position that India is in, it is absolutely essential that we hugely expand manufacturing and begin to take over from China the role of Factory of the World. A total review and a genuine simplification of laws and regulations will be a key signal and enabler for manufacturing growth.

Needless to say this review has to be with the full involvement of the Chambers of Commerce and other representatives of the industry as well as the members of the civil society. We would need to benchmark against international regulations (including examples from China and other South East and East Asian countries).

The second major suggestion is that we need to review our taxation laws.

Indian tax laws whether in the direct or indirect tax areas, are among the most complex in the world. The enforcement of these laws is also the most complex and sometimes the most irrational in the world. The huge number of appeals and more so, the large percentage of appeals that the department loses at every stage of appeal, clearly indicates that the tax administration mechanism needs a complete and total review. This review should be with a view to making things simpler and not as most reforms in India tend to do, to make things more complicated in order to catch the mythical “Tax evader”.

The third major area that we need action on is the new Companies Bill. When the Companies Bill was being redrafted, Corporates were hoping for a modernised and more streamlined act. However, the Bill in its final shape along with the associated rules has made operating a Company in India a regulatory nightmare. While the rules were posted for comments from industry, it was quite surprising to note that hardly any of the comments or suggestions was taken on board in the final rules. It is our hope that the new Government relooks at the Bill and the rules and, in the interim, postpones its implementation until the reform is complete.

The initial comments by the Prime Minister and various Ministers provide significant hope to the industry that genuine regulatory simplification could actually happen in this Government.

On the economic front, we would await the direction set by the new Budget. It is our view that given the fiscal situation, the Government may not be able to do anything dramatic in terms of tax reliefs or immediate large infrastructure spends until the fiscal situation improves. The direction will, however be interesting to see.

Regulatory simplification in our view would help in unlocking substantial GDP growth which would give the flexibility to the Government to substantially increase infrastructure investments in future budgets.

Best Wishes,

Indian tax laws have become more and more complex due to the accumulation of amendments and regulations which, while trying to close one tax loophole increase the compliance burden on honest tax payers’ manifold. The Madras Chamber had found that 100% of the companies surveyed had multiple tax litigations at various levels. I do not think that this level of tax litigation exists in any other country. This Government has the opportunity to change this situation.

T. Shivaraman President

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CHAMBER’S ACTIVITIES 3rd April 2014

Automobile Delegation from Ulsan, Korea – Interactive Session At the request of Korea Trade Promotion and Investment Agency, (KOTRA), an interaction session with a Delegation from Ulsan, Korea was organized on 3rd April 2014 at the Chambers’ office.

Mr.Kyungsoo Kim,Consul General, Office of the Consulate General, Korea visited the Chamber and addressed the delegation.

He thanked the Chamber for organizing an interaction meet and informed the delegation that Tamil Nadu and Chennai are places where there is scope for expansion of their business. He further added that the delegates should maintain contact with the Chamber Members to bring prosperity to Chennai and Ulsan.

The delegation comprised of 8 automobile companies and 3 companies from related sectors. Mr. Noh, Director of Agency (Ulsan Economic Promotion Agency) introduced the Delegation to the Chamber representatives and member companies.

Following that, a representative from the delegation addressed the Chamber members explaining the purpose of their visit, and ended his address by quoting Mahatma Gandhi’s words “The future depends on what we do in the present”.

The member companies of the Chamber who were present interacted with the Delegation.

5th April 2014

Seminar on “IT for Enhancing Compliance Management under Companies Act 2013” IPG Tech Solutions had come up with a software for monitoring compliance of the various laws to enable the top management to confirm compliance under the Companies Act 2013. At their request the Chamber had organized a half-a-day seminar on IT for Enhancing Compliance Management under Companies Act on Saturday, the 5th April 2014 at Hotel

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Quality Inn Sabari, Tirumalai Pillai Road, T.Nagar, Chennai-600017.

Mr.Goverdhan Jayaram, Director and Mr.Prasanta Kumar Sahu, Director, IPG Tech Legal Solutions, New Delhi made a presentation on the solution developed by them for compliance management taking into account the needs of people, process and technology. They had a good interaction session with the participants.

The Programme was attended by 30 persons and was followed by lunch.

10th & 11th April 2014

Workshop on Companies Act 2013 & Notified Rules To keep the Members abreast of the various Rules under the new Companies Act and its implementation, a two day workshop on Companies Act 2013 and Notified Rules was organized by the Chamber at Hotel Raintree, Anna Salai, Chennai.

18 chapters were dealt with in detail by practicing Company Secretaries, Senior Advocates and Industry Experts ,and it was well received by about 50 participants.

The speakers were Ms. B. Chandra, Practicing Company Secretary, Chennai Mr. P. Sriram,Practicing Company Secretary, Chennai Mr. P. Viswanathan, Secretary & Compliance Officer, Sundaram Finance Ltd. and Co –Chairman – MCCI Expert Committee on Company Law/Corporate matters Dr. B. Ravi,Practicing Company Secretary, Chennai Ms. Bhavani Balasubramanian Partner,Deloitte Haskins & Sells & Chairperson, MCCI Expert Committee on Company Law/Corporate Matters Mr.K. Vaitheswaran, Advocate & Tax Consultant, Chennai Mr. A. M. Sridharan, Practicing Company Secretary, Chennai

Mr. P. H. Arvindh Pandian, Senior Advocate & Additional Advocate General of Tamilnadu Dr. Manuneethi Cholan ROC Chennai was the Chief Guest for the Valediction. He addressed the delegates and expressed his appreciation to the Chamber for organizing this workshop. He went on to add that the changes in the Companies Act 2013 have been brought about with a holistic approach to satisfy the overall needs of shareholders, stakeholders and corporates. Further, he stated that this Act provides more freedom and democracy for the Corporates to function. Though, compliances of certain sections may be difficult in the beginning, it would be relevant in the years to come and participants who are all key personnel in their organizations have to view the Act in a right manner as the Act is bound to bring good results. He also distributed the certificates to the participants.

11th April 2014

Meeting with Netherlands Embassy & Netherlands Foreign Investment Agency The Chamber had arranged for a round table meeting with Netherlands Embassy & Netherlands Foreign Investment Agency and member companies on the topic “Leverage Logistics in The Netherlands to build your European Market”. It was jointly organized by the NFIA, Holland International Distribution Council, Rotterdam Partners and the Chamber on Friday 11th April ’14 at Hotel RainTree, Anna Salai, Chennai – 35.

Mrs. Gerdalies van Diggelen, Executive Director NFIA India (Netherlands Embassy, New Delhi) made a presentation on “Why the Netherlands?” She stated that there are nearly 200 Indian establishments in Netherlands which includes TCS, Mahindra, Infosys, Tech Mahindra, Wipro amongst others. She elaborated on the important reasons for Indian Companies investing in Netherlands, such as strategic location, superior logistics and technology

CHAMBER’S ACTIVITIES infrastructure, favorable fiscal climate, International business environment, highly educated multilingual and flexible workforce.

She explained the activities of NFIA, as supporting from A to Z for the Indian companies willing to set up business in Netherlands.

Mr. Mathijs Benink, Holland International Distribution Council (HIDC) gave an account of Europeon Market – effective supply chain design. He talked about the European market, its comparison with India, road map for entry in the EU market and details on the supply chain and tax effectiveness on the supply chain.

He ended his presentation with a graphic representation of how the HIDC can assist investors.

Mr. Loek Becker Hoff, Rotterdam Partners made a presentation on “Investing in Rotterdam”. He specifically gave the advantages of investing in a City like Rotterdam with a good business climate.

He gave details of the locational advantage, nautical assessability of the Port of Rotterdam, the scope for sectors like Chemical Industry, Real Estate, Medical care etc.

Further, he stated that the Rotterdam Partners is a Government Agency that has been set up to strengthen the economic structure of Rotterdam and hence would provide its complete support for those interested in doing business in Rotterdam.

The round table meeting was attended by about 20 participants and there was a good interaction session after the presentations.

28th April 2014

Interactive meeting with Delegates from Moselle Development Agency The Moselle Development Agency Director from Moselle Development Council (MDC) visited Chennai. MDC is the official government agency that

promotes investment and economic development in the Moselle region.

The Corporate Catalyst India Pvt Ltd and Moselle Development Agency wanted to promote EITS 2014: Euro India Technology Sourcing & Business Opportunities, Business convention to be held in Metz/ France on 3rd & 4th December 2014 and to highlight the opportunities.

Mr. Sivasailam’s words “Excellence is not just something that we engineer, inspect and input into our products. It is an innate desire to obtain the best that comes from within each one of us. It defines our lives at work and at home and ripples out into the world around us.” He then stated that Ms. Mallika lives up to her father’s expectations.

The Chamber arranged for an interactive meeting of the member industries with the Moselle Development council on 28th April 2014 at the Chamber’s premises.

Mr. N. Murali, Co Chairman, Kasturi & Sons Ltd, Mr. R. Seshasayee, Executive Vice Chairman, Hinduja Group India, Mr. A. Krishnamoorthy, Chairman, Amalgamations Group, Mr. Viji Santhanam, Managing Director, Brakes India Ltd. Mr. C.V.Karthik Narayanan, Chairman, Ucal Products Pvt Ltd., and Mr. N.Srinivasan, Sr. Partner (Retd) Fraser & Ross/Deloitte Haskins & Sells offered their felicitations to Ms. Mallika Srinivasan.

Mr. Thierry Petry, Director, Moselle Development Agency made a presentation on EITS 2014 and the advantages of participating in this exhibition Mr.Sateesh Kulkarni, Director, Corporate Catalyst India Pvt Ltd., also clarified a few issues like connectivity raised by the participants.

Mr. Udit Srivastava, Associate Director, Corporate Catalyst and Ms. Yogita Khatri, Deputy Manager Corporate Catalyst were also part of the team which interacted with nearly 20 participants who had come for this interactive session.

30th April 2014

Felicitation Function to Ms. Mallika Srinivasan on conferment of Padma Shri Award Ms.Mallika Srinivasan, Chairman & CEO, TAFE had been conferred the Padmashri Award for her outstanding contribution to Trade & Industry.

Both the Madras Chamber of Commerce & Industry (MCCI) and the Madras Management Association (MMA) have had the privilege of having Ms.Mallika as their Past President. Therefore it was considered fitting to jointly organize a Felicitation Function to honour Mrs Mallika Srinivasan. The function was organized on Wednesday, April 30, 2014 at the Ball Room Hall, Hotel Hyatt Regency, Teynampet, Chennai – 600 018 Mr.T.Shivaraman, President,MCCI gave the welcome address and quoted

Mr. N.Murali stated, though rooted firmly in the traditions of the business family, Ms. Srinivasan had injected modernity and led TAFE on the path of growth. He stated that the company is remarkably modern in its technology. He praised her for being a leading patron of arts and social causes also.

Mr. R.Seshasayee, in his felicitation address stated, that the Amalgamations group, with its traditional business values and ethics were also strong in modern technology and processes. He quoted Subramanya Bharathi’s Pudumai Penn and stated that he is reminded of Ms. Mallika when he reads it.

Mr. A .Krishnamoorthy offered his congratulations to Ms. Mallika. He stated that in the foundation laid by Mr.Sivasailam, Ms. Mallika has made her contribution to raise the company to global standards.

He appreciated her diversified interest in health care and arts, apart from taking TAFE to other countries. He praised the goodwill she has created by looking at the elite audience and wished her success and laurels in the years to come.

Mr. Viji Santhanam pointed out that under Ms. Mallika’s leadership, TAFE had evolved from a low key player to being one of the

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CHAMBER’S ACTIVITIES largest manufacturers of tractors globally.

In addition to business acumen, she also focused on corporate social responsibility, and supported education and health care initiatives.

Mr.Karthik Narayanan in his felicitation address spoke about the doyens of Industry who shaped the policies of the Government, one of them being Mr. Anantharamakrishnan who was ably assisted by his sons Mr. Sivasailam and Mr. Krishnamoorthy. He recalled the lessons and advice he received on the Export Gurantee credit loan by Mr.Sivasailam which no management class could give. He stated that the family’s culture, courtesy and kindness has been passed on to Ms. Mallika who is continuing to give the same values to the next generation.

Mr. N.Srinivasan spoke not only as a close friend of the family but also as a strong admirer of the family which maintained the tradition, culture and values. He showered praise on Mr. Krishnamoorthy for letting TAFE adopt Ms. Mallika when she was coping with personal loss in the family with her father and sister passing away in a span of 1 year. He admired the zeal and passion in which Ms.Mallika steered TAFE to where it stands today.

He gave a citation epitomizing her name which was presented to Ms. Mallika.

Mr. Srinivasan K Swamy introduced Ms. Mallika Srinivasan by narrating a few personal incidents, as many of the earlier speakers had already spoken about her early profile to her achievements till date.

Ms. Mallika Srinivasan while accepting the felicitations stated, that it was a very emotional moment for her to accept such an appreciation and praise from eminent personalities.

She thanked the Chamber and MMA who had always played an important role in developing the eco system to flourish in the State. She stated that she was fortunate to have been associated with

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both the organizations in her formative years.

As discussed with Mr.T.Shivaraman and Mr. Srivats Ram during their visit to her office, she spoke on the topic “My experiential journey in building a sustainable manufacturing enterprise in the face of global competition” .

She informed that when the markets opened in the 90’s, there was a sense of insecurity and apprehension about the ability to cope in the face of emerging multinational entry in our Country. It was not different in TAFE. However, after 15 years, TAFE has the necessary skill sets, strategies, and approaches in building international presence while simultaneously driving growth and sustainable profit locally.

TAFE played to its strength, rather than be in awe of technology prowess of multinationals. TAFE came up with a distinctive strategy to play to its strength, to be innovative and cost effective.

TAFE had used its local knowledge in understanding the market and introduced new products and models relevant to farmers. The company had also adapted the lessons to expand abroad.

The key to success of TAFE was its investment in technology. She added that TAFE had a technology agreement with a network of institutions. Their aim was that the transfer of knowledge should be with the company and in the internal team.

Further, Ms. Mallika stated that the Indian model had helped TAFE to penetrate new markets. She urged the Indian companies to move forward with ambition and vision institutionalizing the organization and build manufacturing enterprises.

Her advice for the Indian companies was not to rush for joint ventures to get access to technology. Rather the companies should demystify technology and invest to build capability. The Indian companies should continuously evolve to avoid being “boxed in as a local player. While entering into partnership which would

definitely open new opportunities, the Indian companies should leverage on the strengths of both the companies, just as TAFE does in its partnerships.

Ms. Mallika informed that the Amalgamations group had introduced 50 new variants into the export market which included larger tractors, narrow tractors, orchard tractors in the most sophisticated markets spanning over 75 countries in the last year.

She concluded by stating that Indian companies can move forward with an ambition, a focused approach, and a relentless pursuit to outperform global completion in a sustained way.

She thanked the Chamber, MMA, the participants and those who offered warm felicitations, good wishes and for the opportunity to be amidst all of them.

5th May 2014

Seminar on Tax Deducted at Source (TDS) A S e m i n a r o n Ta x D e d u c t e d a t Source (TDS) – Issues & Challenges was organized on 5th May, 2014 under the auspices of the Direct Taxes Committee at Hotel Raintree, Anna Salai.

Mr. S.G. Prabhakharan gave the welcome address followed by the Theme address

by Mr.Sriram Seshadri, Chairman, Expert Committee on Direct Taxes, MCCI Mr.Rajib Kumar Hota, IRS., Commissioner of Income Tax gave the special address. He spoke on the broad framework in which the Department of Income Tax functions, especially in making the compliance easy. He stated that Tamil Nadu has crossed Rs.40000/- crore in collections of tax which is a good achievement.

He elaborated on the global and local scenario wherein some of the companies face rigorous punishment for not paying taxes or understating the income. This has to be avoided.

CHAMBER’S ACTIVITIES He added that the Department has transcended to the regime of electronic supervision and especially for TDS, there are two units, one in Ghaziabad which deals with TRACES, TDS issues and one in Bangalore dealing with e filing related issues. The Department has embarked upon a Central Processing Centre for compliance management, to push towards voluntary compliance. Further, he stated that there are awareness programs and facilitation programs to make the tax payer pay the taxes without hassles.

He concluded by stating that as promised last year in his address in a similar seminar organized by the Chamber, they are just a phone call away for any issues relating to compliance on TDS. Mr S Ravi, IRS, Principal Chief Commissioner of Income Tax & gave the Inaugural address. He thanked the participants who have been instrumental in helping Tamil Nadu achieve the Rs.40000 crore in income tax collection last year, out of which 41% was from TDS. He said that the Department was taking active steps to get rid of the trust deficit between the taxpayer and the Department by enabling e-services. He added that TDS is important as it forms a major portion of the total taxes collected and it is a tax which is paid as and when there is an earnings.

He stated that the portals, TRACES, centralized processing cell are examples to show that the mindset of the Department is changing to play a support role to the tax payer to be compliant.

He offered to participate in the interaction session wherein queries were posed by the participants on TDS and also on other direct taxes.

He stated that though there are hitches in the e-services, it would be overcome in the future to provide the necessary support to taxpayers to pay tax in a simple and easy manner.

The Department Officials made presentations in the technical sessions on TRACES. The first presentation was on Taxes, TDS, its provisions etc. whereas the

second presentation was on TRACES and how it has to be operated.

information and referral to be made by the ESI dispensary to the Hospital.

An interaction session was held wherein queries were answered by the Principal Chief Commissioner of Income Tax and his team. The programme was well attended by about 40 persons and was followed by lunch.

The participants included executives from Industries in and around Madurai and totaled 32. The participants enthusiastically interacted with the officials on various issues relating to PF and ESI.

12th May 2014 7th May 2014

MDP on PF and ESI Issues – @ Madurai The Chamber organized a half-a day Management Development Programme on ‘Provident Fund & Allied Issues” on 7th May 2014 at Madurai. This is part of Chamber’s outreach program organized periodically. The objective of the programme is to update the participants about the changes in the policy, procedures and compliances requirements and to provide an opportunity for the Companies in and around Madurai to interact with the Officials and seek clarifications and suggestions on certain practical difficulties they encounter.

Mr.V.Shyam Sundar, Regional Provident Fund Commissioner-I, Madurai, Mr.K Varadan, COO of Aparajitha Corporate Services, Mr.Andrew Prabhu, Regional PF Commissioner-II and PF department officials participated in the PF session.

Interaction meeting with Tamil Nadu Infrastructure Development Board The Tamil Nadu Infrastructure Development Board (TNIDB) has been set up under the Tamil Nadu Infrastructure Development Act (TNID Act) 2012) as the nodal agency for infrastructure development in the State of Tamil Nadu.

The Chamber had organized an interaction meeting with the Tamil Nadu Infrastructure Development Board (TNIDB) on Monday, May 12, 2014 at Hotel GRT Grand Days, between 4. p.m. and 6.p.m.

Mr S.Krishnan IAS, Principal Secretary (Planning and Development)/CEO, TNIDB outlined the proposed plans for improving the infrastructure in the State.

The officials made presentations on coverage, benefits, wages and complaints, Personnel Hearing, Order under Section 15A & 85B.

Mr. Vijay Bhalaki, Director, Athena Infonomics India Pvt Ltd., TNIDB Project Consultant made a presentation which included the 3 aspects of the TNIDB, viz., Projects, Processes and Policies. The presentation also mentioned about the fast track projects and its implementation process. Madurai Thoothukudi Industrial Corridor, Ultra Mega Power Project – Uppur, Development of one Green/Brown Field Port,Cuddalore and Greenfield Airport at Sriperumbudur are a few projects which were included in the fast track/priority list of projects.

The wish list from the participants for the ESI officials included a super Specialty Hospital in Madurai, to expedite the reimbursement process under super specialist scheme, to improve the infrastructure in the existing state run hospital, to provide tie up hospitals

A vibrant and active interaction session was held after the presentation wherein questions ranging from who owns these projects, to bidding processes, were effectively answered by Mr.S.Krishnan.

Further, Mr. Krishnan informed that this is the first interaction with the

Mr.RAC Bhat, Director of ESI Corporation, Madurai, Mr.P.David Manickam, Asst.

GM of Fenner India and ESI department officials participated in the post lunch session on ESI.

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CHAMBER’S ACTIVITIES Industry members on Infrastructure and he has rightly started the same with the Madras Chamber who had played a very crucial role in the early infrastructure development in the state.

The presentation and interaction was followed by Hi tea. The program was well attended by about 40 participants.

17th May 2014

Programme on Sexual Harassment of Women(Prevention, Prohibition & Redressal) at Work Place Act 2013 @ Coimbatore – Jointly by MCCI & SIMA. The Sexual Harassment of Women at Work Place 2013 Prevention Act came into force on December 9, 2013. To create awareness about the provisions of the Act and its applicability in corporate sector, this outreach training programme was organized on 17th May 2014 at SIMA Auditorium in association with SIMA at Coimbatore.

Mr. Anand Gopalan, Partner, T.S.Gopalan’s office made the presentation on the Act. He informed that the Act provided for protection against Sexual Harassment (SH) of women at workplace, prevention of SH and redressal of complaints of SH. He elaborated on the circumstances which may amount to SH being:z Implied or explicit promise of p refe re nt i a l t re at m e nt i n h e r employment; or z Implied or explicit threat of detrimental treatment in her employment; or z Implied or explicit threat about her present or future employment status; or z Interference with her work or creating an intimidating or offensive or hostile work environment for her; or

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z Humiliating treatment likely to affect her health or safety.

Further, he gave an explanation of SH and gave the responsibilities of the Employer in constituting an Internal Complaints Committee (ICC) and Local Complaints Committee (LCC), and how they should formulate a SH policy or resolution and carry out orientation programs and skill building programmes for the ICC/LCC. He also dealt with the role of the ICC and the implementation of the Act. The contents in the complaint, filing process, action to be taken immediately on receiving the complaint, enquiry procedures, action to be taken when the respondent is absent, timeframe to complete an enquiry were dealt in his presentation. Further, the recommendations, cases like the aggrieved person’s refusal to accept the recommendations, appeal procedure, role of the standing order, penalty provisions, compensation were also explained in detail.

Mr. P.M.Jegatheesan, Sugar Spinning Mills and Dr. P.Willington Jebaraj, Management Facilitator also addressed at the meeting.

A vibrant interactive session followed the presentations. Mr. S.Sankaranarayanan proposed the vote of thanks.

The programme was attended by more than 40 persons and ended with hi-tea.

21st May 2004

Programme on ISO 50001 – Energy Management System with ASSIST The Chamber, in association with ASSIST and UL DQS India, had organized a Training programme on ISO 50001- Energy Management on 21st May 2014 at Hotel Savera, Chennai.

Ms.K.Saraswathi, Secretary General, MCCI welcomed the gathering and explained about the Chamber’s Sustainable Chennai Forum and its focus. She gave a briefing about the programs under this Forum

and about the launch of Project ENERGIE and its follow up by doing technical programs to create awareness and provide assistance for implementing the same.

She further informed that the Chamber in collaboration with ASSIST will help companies in energy conservation.

Dr. Murugan, MD & CEO of UL DQS India, gave an introduction about the program and the vision of the UL DQS in spreading awareness of Energy Management.

He stated that he can give data as to how much energy is connected with sustainability and how much it can improve the profits of any company. He also encouraged the members to take part in their pilot projects where training would be given free of cost.

The Special Address was delivered by Mr.S.Appavoo, Chief Electrical Inspector, Electrical Inspectorate,Government of Tamil Nadu. He thanked and appreciated the Chamber ’s efforts in spreading awareness about Energy Management and also the Chambers’ role in educating and promoting ECBC implementation which is one of the mandates of the Electrical Inspectorate. He also thanked ASSIST and UL DQS for spreading awareness about Energy Management which is the need of the hour. He later gave information and statistics of what the State has been doing to increase energy conservation and requested the participants to make use of this training program as it would be relevant in increasing their companies profitability.

The Training Sessions which was divided into 4 sessions about the ISO 50001 was conducted by Mr. Nagesh Kumar, Director , National Productivity Council.& Consultant in Energy Management. In the first session, he dealt with Energy Management Fundamentals and the Demand for Energy Management. He gave a broad overview of the ISO 50001 Standard with regard to Management Responsibility, the general requirements and the energy policy required by the organization going for ISO 50001.

In the second session, Mr. Nagesh discussed the key requirements of ISO 50001 and discussed at length, the Energy Review Baseline Assessment and Performance Indicators. He gave a sample of an energy profile and explained in detail as to how to do analysis of energy bills.

In the third session after lunch, Energy Management Action planning, training and communication and Design /Procurement were dealt with in detail.

K.Saraswathi, Secretary General, MCCI proposed the vote of thanks.

25the May 2014

Meeting with RAK Investment Authority (RAKIA), Govt. of Ras Al Khaimah

The fourth session was about Energy Audit procedures and the ways of obtaining the Certification.

The Chamber had arranged for an interaction meeting with a Delegation from RAK Investment Authority, Government of Ras Al Khaimah on 26th May 2014 at GRT Grand Convention Centre.

Mr. S.Sathappan, Regional Director, ASSIST gave the closing remarks and Ms.

Mr. Probir Chakraborty, Chief Executive Officer of RAKIA made a presentation

about RAKIA, its demographic profile, potential market, licenses issued by RAKIA to potential investors, single window clearance procedures, office space to be provided to investors, the existing Indian companies and the advantages of doing business in the Industrial Parks of RAKIA. The presentation was followed by an interactive session and Hi Tea. The CEO of RAKIA was accompanied by Mr. Aseeb and Mr.Suhail Yakoob who had a one to one meeting with around seven member companies at the Chamber on next day, the 27th May 2014.

GENERAL COMMITTEE The Committee held its monthly meetings in the month of April and May 2014 and considered the following items:-

Companies Act 2013 & Notified Rules effective from 1st April 2014 A two day workshop on Companies Act 2013 and Notified Rules held in the month

of April 2014 had a wonderful response from participants and the deliberations were very effective as the participants interacted well with all the speakers.

The Committee, after long deliberations re ga rd i n g re p re s e ntat i o n to t h e Government on this subject either with the other Chambers or on its own, concluded that the Chamber should

focus on 4 to 5 key provisions that would greatly affect the Corporate in terms of implementation and compliance etc. and present the same to the Government as soon as the new Government takes over after the elections. The same has been prepared and forwarded to Ministry of Corporate Affairs.

EXPERT COMMITTEES Logistics - 22nd April 2014 The Committee met under the Chairmanship of Mr. J.Krishnan on 22nd April 2014 and discussed issues relating to Logisitics Industry The Delegation to Dubai was reviewed and opinion and feedback sought from the participants. The visit was considered to be educative and informative. The unanimous feedback from the participants was that the experience was excellent

as the delegates got special opportunity among other many benefits, to visit exclusive and security intensive places which were normally not allowed for general visitors. The interactions with Dubai and Fujira Chambers were rated extremely useful.

The fact that MCCI raised objections for the Termination of Export Containers at CFS was discussed and it was stated that the exporters should join together and raise their voice.

The representation sent by the Chamber for the consultation paper on setting up of an Ombudsman by the Ministry of Civil Aviation received a positive feedback from the Ministry who had promised to consider the recommendations.

The launch of the Diploma Course in Global Trade Management is in the pipeline and all work relating to the same is being done in full swing.

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EXPERT COMMITTEES Direct Taxes – 22nd April 2014

requested for suggestions from members on DTC

to what is being done by the Chamber for Indirect Taxes.

The Committee met on 22nd April 2014.

The Chairman, Mr.Sriram Seshadri appraised the members about the Seminar on TDS – Issues & Challenges and requested members to send in their issues for discussion at the Seminar.

The Chairman further suggested that a CFO Forum could be launched by the Chamber.

Though there are some informal forums functioning in the city, the Chambers as such does not have such a forum. Hence he felt that since the Chamber has a strong reputation and expertise on taxation and finance matters a CFO forum will receive greater acceptance

Company Law/Corporate Matters – 22nd May 2014

The Chairman informed that the Standing Committee on Finance (SCF) for Direct Taxes Code (DTC) headed by Mr.Yashwant Sinha had submitted their report to the Government. With the change in the Government, the report may or may not be considered.He added that the options are still open to send representations and

Suggestion was made for conducting programmes sector wise and to involve ACMA to do a join programme for the auto sector. Another suggestion was to have an All India workshop on Direct Taxes similar

The Committee met on 22nd May 2014 to discuss about the Companies Act and Notified rules and to finalize on the points to be sent with regard to Companies Act to the new Government. The macro issues affecting the companies because of some of the provisions in the Act and Rules were discussed in detail and about 6 to 7 points were given for including in our memorandum.

OTHER ACTIVITIES Chairmanship of CCCCC

a meeting held on 29th April 2014 in Chennai.

Consultative Committee of City Chambers of Commerce (CCCCC) was formed in year 1970 and acts as a collective forum for taking up common issues of Industry and Trade with the State and Central Government.

Diploma in Global Trade Management

It comprises of 6 Chambers namely, Andhra Chamber of Commerce, Hindustan Chamber of Commerce, National Chamber of Commerce, Southern India Chamber of Commerce & Industry Tamil Chamber of Commerce and The Madras Chamber of Commerce of Commerce & Industry.

The Chairmanship of the CCCCC is given on rotation basis to the Chambers to take up activities as a collective forum as and when required.

Mr.Chola Raja Sekar Nachiyar, President of Tamil Chamber of Commerce, the outgoing Chairman of CCCCC handed over the Chairmanship of Consultative Committee of City Chambers of Commerce to Mr.T.Shivaraman, President of MCCI, at

8

A Series of discussions were held with Prof.

Yuvaraj of the University of Madras by the Chamber represented by Ms.K.Saraswathi, Secretary General and Mr.J. Krishnan.

Chairman, Expert Committee on Logistics, and a few other members of the Logistics Committee, regarding launching a Joint Diploma course in Global Trade Management. This course is expected to commence shortly.

Farewell meeting organized

by Society of Secretaries The Society of Secretaries under the guidance of Mr.Prasad David had organized a Secretaries meeting to bid farewell to Ms.Jessie Edwards, Deputy Secretary, MCCI and Ms. Vidya, Indo Italian Chamber of Commerce & Industry at the Chamber’s premises. It was well attended by Secretaries from Indo German Chamber of Commerce & Industry, Hindustan Chamber of commerce, Andhra

Chamber of Commerce, Indo Australian Chamber of Commerce & Industry & Indo American Chamber of Commerce apart from the Secretary General and Deputy Secretary of the Madras Chamber.

The services of Mrs Edwards and Mrs Vidya were greatly appreciated by everyone present and were duly placed on record.

Other Meetings attended by Secretary General ·

Ms Saraswathi participated in the SIDBI‘s Silver Jubilee Celebrations and shared her suggestions for value adding their services to help SMEs.

·

At the invitation of the State Planning Commission Ms Saraswathi participated in the Workshop on Skill Development with the Presentation by Prof. Yuvaraj Galada.

·

Mr N. Srinivasan,(Sr, Partner, (Retd.)

Fraser & Ross. Deloitte Haskins & Sells and Ms Saraswathi participated in the ASSOCHAM Managing committee Meeting held in Mumbai on 15th May 2014 .

REPRESENTATION & PRESS RELEASES Comments on Consultation paper on Ombudsman for Civil Aviation April 2014 Mr. Kannan Economic Adviser Ministry of Civil Aviation New Delhi Dear Sir, S u b : C o m m e nt s o n C o n s u l tat i o n paper on Ombudsman for Civil AviationGreetings from the Madras Chamber of Commerce Industry!

Madras Chamber of Commerce & Industry welcomes the initiative of the Ministry of Civil Aviation to bring out the consultative paper on Ombudsman for Civil Aviation.

The Chamber is one of the premier industrial promotional organisations in Southern lndia and is currently into its 178th year of service to Trade Industry.

This is the oldest Chamber of Commerce in Southern lndia and the second oldest in the country. Established in the year 1836, the Chamber has been an integral part of the growth of commerce industry in this part and almost all the major companies operating in Chennai are its members.

Over the years, the Chamber has been a responsible and credible voice of trade and industry in Tamil Nadu and continues to work closely with the State and Central Governments on various issues. The Chamber was instrumental in including the cargo within the scope of AERA. The Chamber played a key role in setting up of the Chennai Port and constantly highlights various issues on infrastructure.

With reference to the consultation paper we wish to submit the following observations:Civil Aviation even though focused on passenger transportation, also plays a vital role in the economic activity of the

nation in expeditious movement of goods within lndia and outside. With this macro activity in mind, the Chamber strongly urges that the institution of ombudsman must necessarily embrace within its scope all service deficiency complaints affecting both passenger and cargo. While, a passenger is inconvenienced by service failures at airports and air operators, in the case of cargo it has a much deeper economic impact. Hence, there has to be an effective and efficient grievance redressal forum.

The discussion paper also highlights currently such a forum for affected cargo interests does not exist and there are few avenues available to agitate the service failures. The Chamber also wishes to highlight that in the case of trade almost 65% of the cargoes originates from the SME sector who do not possess the wherewithal to agitate and vigorously pursue complaints against service failures at Airports and Air Operators. Hence permitting the commercial agency of the freight forwarder to pursue a complaint on behalf of the cargo facilities user does not in any way dilute the provisions of an efficient grievance redressal mechanism.

The Chamber observes with reference to Chapter 2 of the discussion paper the mechanisms adopted by the Airport Operators and Operators highlights a non existence of a credible grievance Redressal mechanism and this lack of credibility also inhibits the affected persons from lodging or pursuing a complaint.

With reference to Chapter 3 of the discussion paper, the Chamber is constrained to point

out bureaucratic record keeping seems to be the methodology adopted in addressing passenger complaints. It is also evident there is no genuine feedback sought from the affected users on the effectiveness of the grievance redressal. There also seems to be extreme insensitivity to act on the grievance and action is sought to be diverted to the many stakeholders who offer a comprehensive service. In fact, the multiplicity of agencies creates a convenient platform not to accept responsibility and act on a customer complaint promptly. Among the various feedbacks detailed in this chapter, it is only the response of the Bengaluru Airport Limited (BIAL) which appears somewhat sensitized to handle customer grievances.

With reference to paragraph 3.12, the confidence of an affected user, to receive an acceptable remedy in the consumer forum is extremely low as the consumer forum has now become the domain of legal practitioners rather than individual complainant. Hence the Chamber strongly recommends that in the scope of setting up of Ombudsman, it must be made a single point of reference for all civil aviation related matters, be it passenger or freight.

With reference to the Chapter 4 of the discussion paper, the Chamber notes that as per paragraph 4.6, the institution of banking ombudsman has proved to be highly cost effective in the banking sector in India.

Hence, the Chamber recommends that the institution of the Civil Aviation Ombudsman must rest on the following pillars.

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REPRESENTATION & PRESS RELEASES 1. Physical 2. Financial 3. Human Resources These fundamental enabling provisions will ensure the effectiveness of the institution of the Ombudsman. The Chamber also wishes to highlight that the funding for the institution should be a charging mechanism to the consolidated fund of lndia rather than a budgetary support.

This will ensure the independence of the institution and the insulation from bureaucratic and other influences which may affect its neutrality.

The Chamber draws the attention to the Aircraft Act, Section 5 sub paragraph 2 (ab) and (r) which provides the necessary legal support for creation of this institution expeditiously and avoid protracted delays in amending or creating new legal provisions.

The acid test for any institution is its effectiveness and the Chamber recommends that in the formative stages itself, the Ministry needs to ensure the independence both in financial and legal, the resources, physical and human, is codified and implemented.

Civil Aviation being a specialized activity, the availability of a fit person with the requisite domain knowledge to head this institution needs to be examined and the Chamber recommends that this position must not become the exclusive domain of the bureaucracy, but must also include the private and public sector. This will ensure that the grievances are handled sensitively instead of a bureaucratic approach and the remedies are effective and satisfy the complainant and also increases the confidence of the users in the effectiveness of this institution.

The lnstitution of ombudsman must be initially be able to identify the International best practices covering both passenger and freight and establish service delivery

10

levels for Airport service providers in India.

This would also act as a benchmark to refer the various complaints that needs to be addressed and ensure uniformity in grievance redressal.

In Chapter 5, International Best Practices, examples from UK, Australia and other countries have been explained. Keeping in view, that lndia falls under common law and not codified law, the Chamber suggests that the broad legal status of this institution should also be based on the common law principles adopted

by UK and India. This would enable the lnstitution to be flexible in its approach and not restricted to the letter of law and the theory of precedence would also play an important role. The Chamber also suggests that the institution of ombudsman should harness technology and deal with the various complaints across lndia through teleconferencing and mail submissions thereby greatly reducing the need for setting up regional benches and emerge as a cost effective institution providing uniformity of approach. This would also address the issue of conflicting judgments from various regional benches as is currently witnessed in other forums.

Another advantage would be reduced appeals against the decision of the ombudsman giving greater credibility to the institution of the ombudsman.

The Chamber wishes to emulate the practice followed in Competition Commission of India which has set up an institution of Board of advisors consisting of twelve eminent persons with sound knowledge of the industry vertical to advise them on technical issues. The office of ombudsman need not be restricted to a single individual, but can have a Chairman and two other members.

Currently, the Chamber highlights there are no performance benchmarks for either passenger or cargo service at Indian Airports and this has directly contributed

to indifferent level of service to the users.

It is imperative that the benchmarking is given utmost priority so that only genuine complaints would be addressed in the institution of ombudsman and vexatious and frivolous complaints are not entertained from the very beginning.

In fact, the Chamber recommends that the effectiveness of the Institution should be measured not by the complaints it receives and resolves, but by the deterrent factor it creates for improving the system efficiencies to result in less number of complaints and better user satisfaction.

For the successful and effective continuance of this institution, rests in capacity building and acquiring the requisite domain knowledge. The Chamber recommends that the institution of the ombudsman can be assisted by a group of experts constituted in an advisory body who can provide the necessary specialized information before an independent and informed decision is made by the ombudsman.

The services of Institutions like the National Skill Development Council may also be utilized to build domain expertise and train the human resources. The Chamber strongly disagrees with the concept of fixing financial ceilings on the institution of ombudsman as these monetary limits are eroded by inflation and other economic forces which are likely to threaten the credibility of the institution.

Once again, the Chamber thanks the Ministry for bringing out this consultative paper and would be happy to appear if a public hearing is held.

Thanking you Yours Sincerely

K. Saraswathi Secretary General

REPRESENTATION & PRESS RELEASES

24th March, 2014 To Traffic Manager Chennai Port Trust Chennai Dear Sir, With reference to your mail regarding the meeting to be held today, the Chamber wishes to place the following on record officially.

It is indeed extremely unfortunate that a major decision affecting the exporters’ interest is sought to be made without any participation of the actual users or their concurrence.

The Chamber has in the two meetings held by the then Deputy Chairman earlier, opposed this initiative explaining the lack of legal provisions to implement such a procedure as it severely compromises the economic interest of the Exporters with no accountability from the Port or its supporting service providers.

It might not be proper for the Port and its allied service providers alone to decide unilaterally on any procedure or system which has great legal and financial implications.

On the first hand, the Chamber wishes to be advised on the legal authority for the Port to decide and implement this proposal and we will be grateful if Port clarifies the same.

Members of the Chamber would like to seek proper explanation of the legal implication of mid way termination of their export cargoes and the Provisions under The Carriage of Goods under Sea Act or Customs Act or Bill of Lading Conditions that forms the legal basis for the proposed move.

We strongly feel that an infrastructure service provider cannot arbitrarily decide and implement processes or procedures without express legal provisions on the ground of physical deficiencies encountered by the Service Provider. The issue of congestion on approach roads is out dated as we understand the EMRIP project is almost complete and the congestion has been drastically eliminated. The opening of the Thiruvattioor seal verification facility would also address this problem significantly.

There cannot be any additional financial burden visiting the trade that patronizes the Port of Chennai.

The entire action appears to be not in conformity with the Competition Act and this can be viewed as an abuse of a dominant position by the port and by the supplementary service providers to make commercial gains at the cost of the Exporters.

The attached minutes indicate the deliberate attempt to exclude the actual user from the dialogues which the Chamber views with great concern.

We would therefore like to strongly reiterate that Chamber does not concur with this procedure and any attempt made without explaining the legal provisions and economic cost to the actual trade may have to be questioned at the appropriate forum if this unilateral decision is implemented.

Regards

K.Saraswathi Secretary General

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REPRESENTATION & PRESS RELEASES To The Traffic Manager Chennai Port Trust Chennai Dear Sir, Sub: Termination of Export Containers at the CFS – MCCI’s concerns This is further to our letter dated 24th March 2014 wherein the Chamber had clearly stated that it does not concur with the procedure to be followed for termination of export containers at the CFSs. We feel that there is no clarity on the legal authority to decide and implement the procedure to be followed. Secondly, we had raised our serious concerns about the additional financial burden on the exporters, especially at this point when we are endeavoring to bring down the transaction costs to make our exports competitive.

We wish to point out that we have not received a copy of the minutes of the meeting held on 24th March 2014 and we have been called for the meeting to be held on April 2, 2014 to decide on the cost based on FIEO’s recommendation to be made effective with effect from May 1, 2014. Request you to furnish a copy of the minutes of the meeting.

We would like to point out that the reason given for congestion is, that the factory stuffed containers halt on the roads, without necessary documentation. Even, if these boxes are to be off loaded at CFS the situation will not change as no CFS will permit unloading of Boxes without requisite documentation. The CFS/Port has to convince us as to how the congestion will reduce when they remove the boxes.

Moreover, when Customs issued Public Notice to facilitate off dock shifting of Import containers, Chennai Port had only one container terminal and was handling a volume of 0.6 Million TEU annually in the year 2006. Current volumes are 1.5Million TEU and there are now 2 terminals with a rated capacity of about 3 million TEU. The road infrastructure has vastly improved since then. Hence the argument for this move is unconvincing.

Apart from the above, CHENSAA (Chennai & Ennore Steamer Agents Associations) commitment to the cost given when off dock movement of Import containers was permitted, has been flouted and today the trade is inflicted with cost increases which has no bearing to the cost commitments originally made.

Hence, we would like to once again reiterate that Chamber does not concur with this procedure and the attempt made without explaining the legal provisions and economic cost to the actual trade and we strongly register our dissent in this matter.

Regards

K.Saraswathi Secretary General

Meeting with Chief Commissioner of Customs, Mr.S.Ramesh on 29th May 2014 MCCI team met the Chief Commissioner of Customs and Senior Officials of Customs on 29th May 2014 and impressed upon them the legal and financial and practical implications of the above move and strongly voiced the members’ concerns in this matter. The proposal which would have otherwise been implemented by now, is pending because of our strong protest to the same.

The CC appreciated the Chamber’s efforts in not only pointing out the legitimate problems but also coming out with few concrete suggestions to resolve the issue which addresses these concerns. He assured to examine the concerns and implement the proposal that is legally compliant and fair to all stake holders.

12

Interactive meeting with Delegation from Ulsan, Korea

K. Saraswathi, Secretary General giving a brief on MCCI to Kyungsoo Kim, Consul General, Office of the Consulate General, Korea and delegates from Ulsan, Korea

Interactive session with the 12 member delegation from Ulsan, Korea

Seminar on IT for enhancing Compliance Management under Companies Act

K. Saraswathi giving the welcoming address. Others in the picture are l to r : Prasanta Kumar Sahu, Sudhir Jena, Goverdhan Jayaraman

A view of the audience

Round Table on “Leverage Logistics in the Netherlands to build European Market”

S.G.Prabhakharan welcoming the gathering. Others in the picture are l to r : Gerdalies Van Diggelen, ED,NFIA India, Mathijs Benink, Holland International Distribution Council, Loek Becker Hoff, Rotterdam Partners

A view of the audience

1

Two Days workshop on Companies Act & Notified Rules Day – 1 Speakers addressing the participants in Technical Sessions 1 – IV

B Chandra

P Sriram

P Viswanathan

Dr. B. Ravi

A view of the audience

Day – II Speakers addressing participants in Technical Sessions V – VII

P.H.Arvindh Pandian

K Vaitheeswaran

A M Sridharan

Bhavani Balasubramanian

T. Shivaraman welcoming the chief guest during the Valedictory Session. Others in the picture are l to r : Bhavani Balasubramanian, Dr M Manuneethi Cholan, Registrar of Companies, P Viswanathan

2

Chairmanship handed over to MCCI at the CCCCC meeting

Chairmanship of the Consultative Committee of the City Chambers of Commerce

Chozha Naachiar Rajasekar, President, Tamil Chamber of Commerce presenting the shawl to T.Shivaraman, President, MCCI. Others in the picture are l to r : N.R.Dave, President –elect, The Hindustan Chamber of Commerce, Mr. Syed Muneer Ahmed, President, The National Chamber of Commerce.

T. Shivaraman addressing the gathering in the CCCCC meeting

Seminar on TDS – Issues & Challenges

Rajib Kumar Hota, IRS., Commissioner of Income Tax-TDS delivering the Special Address

TDS Officials interacting with Participants

Sriram Seshadri, Partner, BMR & Associates LLP & Chairman, MCCI Expert Committee on Direct Tax presenting the theme

A view of the audience

3

Felicitation to Ms Mallika Srinivasan, Chairman & CEO, TAFE Ltd.

Floral welcome to Ms Mallika Srinivasan by T Shivaraman, President, MCCI and Srivats Ram, President, MMA

Felicitations oered by

4

N.Murali, Co-Chairman, Kasturi & Sons Ltd

R Seshasayee, Exe.Vice Chairman, Hinduja Group India

A.Krishnamoorthy, Chairman, Amalgamations Group

Viji Santhanam, Managing Director, Brakes India Ltd

Felicitations oered by

C.V.Karthik Narayanan, Chairman, Ucal Products Pvt.Ltd.,

N Srinivasan, Sr.Partner (Retd.), Fraser & Ross/Deloitte Haskins & Sells

Srinivasan K Swamy giving an introduction about Ms Mallika Srinivasan

Citation presented to Ms Mallika Srinivasan by both Presidents - MCCI & MMA

A view of the audience

5

Management Development Programme on PF & ESI issues at Madurai

Meeting with Tamil Nadu Infrastructure Development Board

Mr Shyam Sundar, Regional Provident Fund Commissioner, Madurai interacting with delegates

S.G.Prabhakharan welcoming the delegates

Mr RAC Bhat, Director,Employees State Insurance Corporation, Madurai addressing the participants

S.Krishnan, IAS., Principal Secretary, Planning & Devp., Govt. of TN and CEO, TNIDB interacting with participants

A view of the audience

Vijay Balki, Director, Athena Infonomics making a presentation

Interactive meeting with delegates from moselle

Thierry Petry, Director, Moselle Development Council interacting with MCCI Members

6

Programme on “The Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition & Redressal) Act 2013

A view of the Audience.

Mr. Anand, Partner, T.S. Gopalan & Co. addressing the audience

Training Programme on ISO 50001 : Energy Management

Nagesh Kumar making his presentation on ISO 50001

S. Appavoo delivering the special Address

A section of the audience

Business Opportunities at RAS AL Khaimah

Probir Chakraborty making a presentation on the opportunities at RAS AL Khaimah

Delegation from RAKIA interacting with the participants

7

8

REPRESENTATION & PRESS RELEASES Agenda for Reform for NDA Government Presented by MCCI

zs” May 2014 The Madras Chamber of Commerce & Industry ( MCCI), second oldest in the country and with 178 years of dedicated service to the nation, would like to wish the new Government all success and assure our fullest support to the herculean task of taking the Indian economy to a higher growth trajectory.

In the recent times, the most discussed topic within the Chamber and outside is the increasing difficulty of doing business in India.

Policy logjams, untenable regulations and illogical implementations, regulatory uncertainties and retrospective rules, governance deficit have hampered the business climate and have slowed down the growth.

The Chamber believes that under your leadership India will be in a position to dramatically expand manufacturing and take over from China as the factory of the world. For this, we strongly feel that the need of the hour is to bring business confidence back.

There are a series of reforms and other measures that the NDA Government need to implement to improve the Investment climate and business sentiment in the country and we wish to submit a list of few top priorities as conceived by the Chamber. A more detailed note on the same is given in the Appendix.

Immediate actions for Policy clarity and improving businesssentiment 1. Set up a Committee with informed representation from business and civil Society to do a zero based review of the legislations especially taxation and labour related.

2. Present a credible Budget and demonstrate a resolve in Parliament to implement a fiscal consolidation roadmap over next five years 3. Substantially revamp Direct Taxes Code and rationalise tax exemptions; Review the government’s strategy for litigation for tax disputes 4. Relook at the Companies Act 2013 and the associated rules and defer its implementation to April 2015 5. Implement a Restructuring package (including re-negotiation, equity buy-out and debt restructuring) of failed/ delayed infrastructure projects + a credible plan for sustainable investment ramp-up in the sector.

6. Create apex decision making and review mechanism at PMO level for proposed industrial corridors (Chennai-Bengaluru, Delhi-Mumbai, Delhi-Kolkata)

With best wishes

T. Shivaraman President

13

REPRESENTATION & PRESS RELEASES Appendix Immediate actions for Policy clarity and improving business sentiment 1. Set up a Committee with informed representation from business and civilsociety to do a zero based review of the legislations especially taxation and labour related.

Over the last decades, there has been a mushrooming of legislations covering various aspects of business operations.

These have been laid one on top of the other with the result that a business today has to follow dozens of regulations laid down under various acts and is subject to inspection by multiple authorities. Some of the regulations are pre Independence and have not been updated or modified to take into account the current realities. As an example, the Factories Act is still designed for 1950s industry and has not been brought up to date.

Formation of a Committee to look at fundamental re-writing of legislations to bring them up to date and benchmark with the best in the world, would move India up the ladder as a business friendly country. The Committee should include significant representation from business, workers and civil society. This Committee would come up with a legislative agenda for the next 5 years during which time with the majority that your Government has, the Industrial landscape of the country can be completely transformed.

2. Present a credible Budget and demonstrate a resolve in Parliament to implement a fiscal consolidation roadmap over next five years

The extracts from the sz” report on Tax Administration released by the Ministry of Finance agrees that there is a huge pendency of appeals as the orders by the assessingofficers’ cause undue harassment to the tax payers and hence they go on appeals. Further, the enormous powers vested with the Assessingofficers with almost nil accountability leads to excessivelitigation. The report also gives the percentage of cases ranging between 33% and 38% going against the Assessing Officers at the High Court and the Supreme Court.

This results in a large amount of revenue being locked up, wastage of productive time and resources.This is not only the case with direct taxes, but almost all tax legislations including the CST& service taxes, have the same issue.

4. Relook ot the Companies Act 2013 and defer its implementation to April 2015 The corporate legislation which has come after a long wait has made things more difficult and in many areas impracticable. Directional changes required in this legislation.

The Companies Act 2013 has provided for transfer of power to the executive through the rule making mechanism from the legislature. Unfortunately the rule making process did not take on board the hundreds of suggestions made by industry.

A greater transparency is required in this process. This has resulted in : a. Bottlenecks to compliance arising out of inconsistenciesand ambiguous provisions.

a. Fiscal deficit needs to be brought down to below 3% of GDPover next two years.

b. Massive increase in cost of compliance.

b. Misdirected subsidies (POLproducts, fertilisers, freebies like MNREGA,etc.) need to be contained. Bring out White paper on subsidies including clarity on a) subsidies to be phased out, b) subsidies to be targeted (through Direct Cash Transfer) and c) subsidies to be continued I expanded.

d. Lack of clarity on conflicts with other Ministries (treatment of CSRexpenditure in Income tax, etc).

c. Serious restrictions in Resource mobilisation.

The Chamber feels that the mandatory implementation of the rules can be deferred atleast till April 2015 I before which the necessary corrections and amendments in the rules could be put in place.

c. Tax revenue enhancement measures (e.g. introduce tax on agriculture income if share is less than 50%, getting back black money from overseas account, active disinvestment of PSU entities other than a small set of core PSUs of strategic importance).

5. Implement a Restructuring package (including re-negotiation, equity buy-out and debt restructuring) of failed/delayed infrastructure prajects + a credible plan for sustainable investment ramp-up in the sector.

3. Substantially revamp Direct Taxes Code and rationalise tax exemptions; Review the government’s strategy for litigation for tax disputes

a. De-bottleneck Projects pipeline that are yet to commence by fast-tracking clearances of awarded projects in key infrastructure sectors.

A strong approach is required to reduce the harassment and unproductive litigations.

6. Create apex decision making and review mechanism at PMO level for proposed industrial corridors (ChennaiBengaluru,Delhi-Mumbai, Delhi Kolkata.

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SPOT LIGHT

Managing – e-waste & Selling the Future for few bucks

by Rathinam T / Guha Jayaram

India, the largest democracy has stunned the world with its latest election verdict.

The expectation of Growth & reduction of Corruption seems to have won the hearts & minds of the people. Growth has its own serious issues like e-Waste not just in India but also across countries.

Minerals and hazardous/toxic components contained in the end-of-life, broken, surplus and obsolete electronic and electrical gadgets present both an opportunity & threat. It does pose opportunity for “URBAN MINING” of ferrous and nonferrous metals, sustainable energy/ resource conservation as well as threat of “HAZARDS” leading to environmental degradation, societal health and safety issues.

World generates around 50 million tons of Electronic Waste while India is pegged at around 900,000 tons annually.

Unlike in developed nations, Informal/ unorganized/unauthorized sector in India handles around 90-95% of E-waste. It’s unscientific, unregulated, rudimentary practices of material handling viz., open air burning of cables, acid bath without safety methods, improper use of chemicals, unhygienic workspace maintenance, involvement of child and migrant labour have led to the release of toxic chemicals into air, water and soil endangering the environment. Leaking of the e-Waste from developed nations to the developing/ under developed nations was compounded this into a major issue for every nation. This has led to the creation

of the BASEL convention & regional e-Waste laws. India has introduced such law w.e.f. May 2012.

Extraction of valuable materials from E-Waste without adversely affecting environment has been taken up by Recyclers who are licensed by the local government.

Some of the high-end Recyclers use highly advanced technology reducing the burden of mining of virgin materials & precious elements. This also aids the process of electronic (eventually E-Waste?)

Manufactures/ Generators owning up the responsibility of effective end-of-life disposal/handling of obsolete electronic items. Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) has become an unwritten norm of the industry now & mostly followed by leading manufacturers.

15

SPOT LIGHT Dangerous global recycling practices: Pushing trash under the carpet

A Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) monitor

re c yc l i n g u s i n g a s i n g l e t y p e o f

contains around 30% lead, 40% of the

infrastructure or a single machine. In

Around 20% of discarded electronics

heavy metals including mercury, cadmium

several instances, recycling facility has

is collected globally in the name of

and lead come from electronic equipment

to reinvent newer methods to manage

recycling but around 60-80% of them

discard.

newer challenges. Handling hazardous

never really get recycled. Instead they’re exported to developing countries - a shortsighted disposal practice followed by many developed countries. In the electronic waste hubs of China, India, Pakistan, Philippines, Vietnam, Ghana

substances arising out of e-waste recycling Such toxics can affect future generations.

requires substantial pollution control

One of the hypotheses says that Greeks

infrastructure. After a few decades once

have used Leaded cups for drinking wine

we have consumed all the resources the

that has led to the genetic deterioration

only option left is to use the recycled

& make them look like sick man of Europe

items and of course world may be left with

today.

options like Mangalyan mission sent to

and Nigeria with a large informal sector

Mars, which may be upgraded to import

base, electronic components are openly

There is also a brighter side. Recovering

burned, soaked in acid baths, dumped

metals from E-Waste uses a fraction of

into rivers or stockpiled for scrap recovery.

the energy needed to mine new metals:

This has created serious environmental

Recovering 10 kilograms of Aluminium

E-Waste Challenge in India: A Time

and health impacts due to the toxic lead,

by Recycling uses no more than 10% of

Bomb!

cadmium, barium, beryllium, mercury

energy needed for primary production,

and BFRs released from the products.

preventing mining of 13 kgs of bauxite

When many of these brominated flame-

residue, 20 kgs of CO2, and 0.11 kgs of

retardants are burned, they emit deadly

Sulphur dioxide emission.

dioxins and furans, which workers and nearby residents may inhale, or which may land on crops and grass, and be absorbed via the food chain. Even breast milk of

• By using a tonne of recycled steel rather than primary iron ore, carbon emissions are reduced by 2.1 tonnes

humans & other mammals have been

• When one tonne of aluminium is

contaminated according to some of the

recycled, carbon emissions are reduced

studies in the developed countries.

by a staggering 7.9 tonnes

resources from outside our planet.

• Sixty five cities in India generate up to 60% of total e-waste • Ten major states alone generate more than 70% of total e-waste • Lack of government support for organised collection network to aid Authorised Recycers leads to local sales to scrap dealers in the informal sector

Offering hi-end recycling solution in a

• For every tonne of computers recycled,

• Lack of financial support, tax incentives

formal way, is not only an economical

carbon emissions are reduced by

to the Authorised Recyclers from

way to achieve uniform level of e-waste

approximately 4.0 tonnes

organised sector discourages them to invest beyond certain point

management for a multi-country operation but it is a good initiative for effectively

• Energy savings from Reusing major

arresting unauthorized movement

non ferrous commodities: Aluminium

• Reduced emphasis among corporates

between countries.

95%, Copper 85%, Lead -65% and Zinc

in the selection of Authorised Recycler

60%

on the basis of Techno-commercial

Toxic Materials in Electronic Products: Boon or Bane?

evaluation based on plant audit/due Apart from these base metals there is a

diligence

small % of Precious Metals primarily Gold, Chlorinated solvents, brominated flame-

Silver which is present in e-waste which

E-Waste generation is exploding at the

retardants, heavy metals and plastics are

needs to be recovered as the resources

rate of more than 100% per annum from

used to make electronic products and

are ever depleting.

2006 and it’s a wake up call that was

their components- semiconductor chips,

answered in 2012 with a law. However, law

circuit boards, display panels and disk

Complexity of the contents in e-waste

drives.

deters anyone from claiming effective

16

& its implementation has it’s own gaps.

SPOT LIGHT E-Waste Management in India: Missing

their facility seems to be the missing link,

stands for Transparency, Technology &

Links!

here.

Transformation. Transparency with the

The Ministry of Environment and Forests,

As with many other rules in the country, a

importance. Use of technology is essential

Central Pollution Control Boards and

weak enforcement directive paved way to

to minimize the hazards & improve the

major stakeholders achieved a major

the issuance of licenses to set up E-Waste

recovery. With these 3Ts, we need to

breakthrough in enacting E-Waste

facilities on paper with little or no emphasis

engage various stake-holders to transform

Management & Handling Rules, which

on scientific recycling methodologies. This

this industry from its informal set-up into

became effective in May 2012.

has led to the mushrooming up of many

a sustainable formal organization.

clients & other stake-holders is of primary

e-waste collection or dismantling centers One of the key missing links is the

across India totaling over 100+ units, while

responsibility of the Bulk Consumers. They

ONLY a handful of recyclers using some

do not come into the purview of the rules

high-end technology for a responsible

India seems to become more decisive in

effectively since their e-waste generation

recycling.

the recent past. Will the new government

is not accounted unlike Producers who

Decision: Future Versus Growth

take up this exploding issue of e-Waste

have to register & file the annual returns

Visionary organization uses the services

implementation with all the stakeholders

of the e-Waste generated & recycled. We

after thorough audit of the facility on a

with a comprehensive enforcement while

must understand that the bulk consumers

continuous basis against environment &

managing the growth agenda? Will public

especially large IT & ITES companies are

security standards like ISO 9001: 2008,

be aware of potential contamination

the biggest users of electronic items and in

EHS 14001: 2004, OHSAS 18001: 2007

of everything & compel the regional &

turn the biggest contributors of e-waste.

and recently a dedicated standard for the

central governments for effective control

recycling industry i.e., R2 (Responsible

while seeking growth? We need to wait

Recycling).

& watch.

take up e-waste management in the

Reduce, Reuse & Recycle (3Rs): How

Our future generation will weigh our

right direction, but sadly most of them

about 3Ts?

wisdom based on the current actions &

Few multinational companies who out of their own global initiative want to

inaction especially in the critical area like

want to enforce only on paper and many smaller companies get away without any

3Rs has been the mantra world-wide

e-waste / environment management, as

implementation since India still lack the

for preserving our environment from

they could seriously affect not just us but

will to uniformly implement. Many others

pollution. It has become the watchword

generations to come. In any case, they’ll

sell it to the highest bidder irrespective of

for many of the environmentalists across

inherit India whether as a super power of

licensed recycler or not. Some including

industries. When it comes to e-Waste

the region or a sick-man of Asia like that

Government offices, dispose the waste to

recycling due to it’s unique challenges

of Greece, is in our hands today.

licensed recycler whose capacity doesn’t

like leakage of e-waste, some of the

match at the volume disposed. Auditing

leaders have poised to follow 3Ts, which

TES-AMM group was formed in 2005 by waste management and engineering professionals to provide tailored recycling solutions for Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE). The company’s core activities combine state-of-the-art technology with in-depth knowledge of environment and waste management techniques to provide reuse solutions and end recovery of precious metals from electronic wastes.

Headquartered in Singapore and supported by a global network of facilities, TES-AMM accredited with ISO 9001 & 14001 and OHSAS 18001 offers recycling services on a global scale, by recognizing the complexities of environmental legislation & providing comprehensive package of services.

TES-AMM is the first in Asia to achieve certification on Responsible Recycling (R2) and have raised awareness for 10000+ people using various initiatives.

For more details - www.tes-amm.com

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SPOT LIGHT

Managing – e-waste

disposed off in a landfill, it becomes

different categories. It contains more

a conglomeration of plastic and steel

than 1000 different substances, which fall

casings, circuit boards, glass tubes, wires,

under ‘hazardous’ and ‘non-hazardous’

resistors, capacitors, fluorescent tubes,

categories. Broadly, it consists of ferrous

and other assorted parts and materials. It

and non-ferrous metals, plastics, glass,

is both valuable as a source of secondary

wood and plywood, printed circuit boards,

e-waste, as it’s popularly known, includes

raw material, and toxic if treated and

concrete and ceramics, rubber and other

the broad spectrum of electronic

discarded improperly.

items. Iron and steel constitutes about

What is e-waste?

Anything that has a wire, a plug, a battery or runs on electricity, that you probably aren’t going to use ever again comprises of Electronic waste.

appliances, products, components, and accessories that - due to malfunction, exhaustion (batteries, light bulbs and fluorescent tubes), or obsolescence have been discarded. This new form of waste is now one of the fastest growing waste streams around the world and needs imperative action today. e-waste, is the by-product of the technological revolution. When

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50% of the e-waste followed by plastics e-waste has been categorized into three

(21%), non-ferrous metals (13%) and other

main categories, i.e., Large Household

constituents. Non-ferrous metals consist

Appliances, IT and Telecom and Consumer

of metals like copper, aluminium and

Equipment. Refrigerator and washing

precious metals, e.g. silver, gold, platinum,

machine represent large household

palladium, etc. The presence of elements

appliances; PC, monitor and laptop

like lead, mercury, arsenic, cadmium,

represent IT and Telecom, while TV

selenium and hexavalent chromium

represents Consumer Equipment.

and flame retardants beyond threshold

The composition of e-waste is very

quantities in e-waste classifies them as

diverse and differs in products across

hazardous waste.

SPOT LIGHT The electronic and electrical goods are

more water. Thus land filling old electronics

its common classification as a waste,

largely classified under three major

also wastes the natural resources used to

disposed off electronics are a considerable

heads, as: ‘white goods,’ comprising of

make a product. Some of the materials

category of secondary resource due

household appliances like air conditioners,

used in electronic products are extremely

to their significant suitability for direct

dishwashers, refrigerators and washing

rare and are running out fast.

reuse (for example, many fully functional

machines; ‘brown goods,’ comprising of TVs, camcorders, cameras, etc.; ‘grey goods,’ like computers, printers, fax machines, scanners, etc. The grey goods are comparatively more complex to recycle due to their toxic composition.

Why is e- waste growing ?

The production of electrical and electronic equipment (EEE) is one of the fastest growing global manufacturing activities.

Rapid economic growth, coupled with urbanization and a growing demand for consumer goods, has increased both the consumption and the production of EEE. New electronic gadgets and appliances have infiltrated every aspect of our daily lives, providing our society with more comfort, health and security and with easy information acquisition and exchange. The knowledge society however is creating its own toxic footprints.

Being highly hazardous and toxic, e-waste could be a death wish, for all that is living, and all material that is life sustaining, such as land, water and air. E-waste is of concern largely due to the toxicity of some of the substances if processed

hazardous qualities.

substances When disposed off in landfills,

regulatory, public and commercial scrutiny.

no matter how secure these landfills might

Part of this evolution has involved a

be toxin chemicals from the e-waste

greater diversion of e-waste from energy

seep into the ground. For people living

intensive, down-cycling processes (eg.

in the vicinity of these landfills, it could

conventional recycling) where equipment

mean permanent health damage to the

is reverted to a raw material form. This

central and peripheral nervous system,

diversion is achieved through reuse and

various health hazards such as seizures,

refurbishing. In a time of growing oil prices

retardation, kidney failures and even

and climate change concerns, recyclable

effect child development.

energy sources are an adequate solution

e-waste Mining

and a compelling opportunity. All the energy saved helps reduce our CO2

Rather than allowing electronic junk to

emissions and strengthen a crumbling

simply amass in landfills, huge volumes

environment.

have resulted in a fast growing e-waste

same techniques used to process copper

crisis around the globe. Due to lower

ore, valuable materials such as copper,

environmental standards and working

iron, glass, gold and plastic could be

conditions in China and India, the huge

extracted from electronic scrap. Every

mass of e-waste is being sent to the third

year, mining produces approximately 300

world countries for processing – in most

times more waste than electronics do.

cases illegally.

E-waste is often richer in rare metals than

indirectly goes into making a product is

as a resource thus pre-empt its potentially

in the recent years following increased

abandoned open pit mines. Using the

a landfill, all the energy that directly or

materials. Reconceptualization of e-waste

mercury, cadmium and a number of other

costs and even planned obsolescence

When old electronics are thrown into

material recycling of its constituent raw

e-waste processing systems have matured

of e-waste could be deposited into

e-waste

during upgrades), refurbishing, and

improperly. The toxicity is due to lead,

Rapid technological change, low initial

Health & Environmental impact of

computers and components are discarded

virgin materials, containing 10 to 50 time’s higher copper content than copper ore.

e-waste Mining could be an alternative to small-scale regional recycling programs that are employed today, that are often hazardous for the workers and inhabitants of that area. By using mining techniques, there is no need to ship e-waste overseas.

E-waste mining can take place anywhere.

The process could be done on a large concrete pad, rather than an old pit mine.

A cell phone contains five to ten times’

e-waste mining is both economically and

higher gold content than gold ore.

environmentally sustainable. The method

e- Waste- An Opportunity

should be used only in mines that are void of groundwater problems. In its totality,

lost. This means that more energy and

Every unused electrical item contains

the idea could mark a dramatic shift from

water is needed to make new products,

valuable resources and energy that you

the traditional method of disassembling

emitting more greenhouse gases and using

are unthinkingly throwing away. Despite

electronics.

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SPOT LIGHT What can Organizations do ?

Few steps which can help e-waste not getting into landfill or unauthorized recycling sector: • Organizations should act more responsibility when approving and implementing recycling initiatives.

• It is essential to promote sustainability of technology as the culture of the organization, thereby increasing redundancy cycles of equipment and lowering your e-waste footprint.

• A mandate on how the e-waste in your organization is handled, with an auditory system to implement the same.

• Only give your e-waste to authorized recyclers who process your e-waste in Zero Dumping technologies.

• Insist on requisite documentation or certification from the vendor who manages your e-waste.

the e-waste being generated in the organization.

• Explore the potential of establishing Sustainable Organization Industry Partners.

• Develop learning materials and education programs to address sustainability and E-waste issues within the organization and develop a green office program to address the E-waste issue.

What can Individuals do ?

Reduce - What you do need Reuse

- What you can’t reduce

Recycle - What you can’t reuse Right way to tackle e-waste The average lifespan of computers in developed countries has dropped, Mobile phones have a lifecycle of less than two years in developed countries. So the best ways to tackle E-waste is:

• Have a take-back policy and close the loop with recycling.

Evolve

• Undertake e-waste accounting. If it’s not measured, it cannot be managed.

There should be a tracking system for

While the human mind evolved to technology, it did not evolve to its flip side, because of which huge tonnes of E-waste is generated globally. Ours can rightfully

be called the Waste Age and it is in great need of informed and evolved mindsets that can bring about change.

Engage It is said that the voice of the intellect is a soft one, but it does not rest until it has gained a hearing. What the world needs is a collective voice. If everybody plays their part right, we, as a united force, can save the earth from drowning under the weight of the waste it produces.

E-cycle With the evolving lifestyle on the personal and business landscape, heavily dependent on technology, E-waste only becomes corollary to the way we live.

While it might not be possible wish away this vice, it surely helps, if we, as informed and concerned citizens of the environment, ensure our used electronics only end up with authorized recycling vendors and not to the neighborhood scrap dealer.

Source : websites, Indian journal of occupational and environmental medicine.

Forthcoming Programmes 6th June 2014

4pm to 6pm

12th to 14th June

10 am to 5 pm RENERGY 2014 International Conference & EXPO on Renewable Energy, TN at Chennai Trade Centre.

13th June 2014 9 am to 1 pm

Interaction Meeting with Consul General of Iran

Trade Meet – MCCI and Kamarajar Port Ltd

21st June 2014 9 am to 11 am Proposed FFT on Balancing Environment & Economic Development 26th June 2014 9 am to 1 pm

Programme on Directors’ Liability Insurance With Zeal

26th June 2014 4 pm to 6 pm

Interaction meeting with Delegation from Pays de la loire, France

27th June 2014 4.30 pm

EXIM India 6th Edition of South East CEO Conclave & Cargo & Logistics Award 2014 – Felicitating MCCI

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Facilities The Chamber has a conference room which can accommodate 25 persons which can be used as a training hall for a nominal rent. LCD Projector with screen is available for use. For more details, contact the Chamber vide email : madraschamber@madraschamber.in or call 044 24349452/24349871.

POLICY WATCH RBI eases gold import norms

of Directors of the RBI Meet in Shimla, Himachal Pradesh.

proposed to be passed at general meetings

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) allowed Star Trading Houses (STH) and Premier Trading Houses (PTH) to import gold under the 20:80 scheme.The guidelines specifically tackle the 20:80 scheme, which were introduced to combat a huge Current Account Deficit (CAD) last year.

Ea r l i e r i n Fe b r u a r y 2 0 1 3 , U n i o n Government had informed Parliament that it will introduce one billion plastic currency notes in five cities in later half of 2014 on a pilot basis. The five selected cities for pilot testing are Shimla, Kochi, Mysore, Jaipur, and Bhubaneswar

• To get shareholders approvals for related party transactions

According to the guidelines of the scheme, importers can buy gold provided a fifth of the imported quantum is exported as finished products like jewellery. The RBI has also permitted banks to provide Gold Metal Loans (GML) to domestic jewellery manufacturers out of the eligible domestic import quota to the extent of GML outstanding on their books as on March 31,2013.

Indian companies are not permitted to raise External Commercial Borrowings

The RBI had banned import of gold through star trading houses in August 2013 but this led to a rise in the parallel market, resulting in high premiums.

Bharatiya Mahila Bank included in Second Schedule of RBI Act, 1934 Bharatiya Mahila Bank (BMB) was included in the second schedule of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Act, 1934. The inclusion of the BMB in the second schedule was announced by RBI in a notification issued in Mumbai on 21 May 2014.

With the inclusion of BMB, total number of scheduled commercial banks in India now stands at 90. As on 2 May 2014, there were 89 Scheduled commercial banks in India. The inclusion of BMB in the second schedule of the RBI Act, 1934 means that now it will be eligible for loans from RBI on bank rate and also acquired membership of clearing houses.

Plastic currency notes to be launched in 2015 Raghuram Rajan, the Governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on 15 May 2014 announced that plastic currency notes will be launched in 2015 after field trials. He said it after the Central Board

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on 9 May 2014 barred Indian companies from raising the External Commercial Borrowings (ECB) from overseas branches and subsidiaries of Indian banks for refinance or repayment of the Rupee loans raised from domestic banking system. The notification of the central bank for changes in the ECB policy comes into force with immediate effect.

As per RBIs notification, the restrictions are applicable in cases like take-out financing, infrastructure financing and spectrum allocation and other repayments. The direction of RBI was issued under sections 10(4) and 11(1) of the Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999 (42 of 1999).

SEBI issues detailed Corporate Governance Norms Capital market regulator of India, the Security and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) on 17 April 2014 issued detailed corporate governance norms for listed companies.

The norms have been launched for stricter disclosures and protection of investor rights, including equitable treatment for minority and foreign shareholders.

SEBI has amended clauses 35B and 49 of the listing agreement and the new rules will be effective from 1 October 2014. The norms requires companies to set certain things, namely • The listed companies need to provide the option of facility of e-voting to shareholders on all resolutions

• Establish whistle blower mechanism • E l a b o ra te d i s c l o s u re s o n p ay packages • Have at least a woman director on their boards

MCA notified rules on providing insurance cover for public deposits Union Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) notified rules on providing insurance cover for public deposits. The rules called Regulations for Acceptance of Deposits

by Companies was notified under section 73(2) (d) of the Companies Act 2013.

Section 73(2) (d) of the Act provides a mandatory insurance cover for public deposits garnered by companies and a penalty of up to 18% annual interest for defaulters.

The rules were notified on 26 March 2014 and become operational from 1 April 2014.

Banks should not levy penal charges for nonmaintenance of minimum Balance The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in its first bi-monthly monetary policy statement for 2014-15 directed banks not to impose financial penalty on the consumers in case of non-maintenance of minimum balance in their saving accounts.

RBI suggested that instead of financial penalty, banks can limit services available to those saving accounts who fail to maintain minimum balance. RBI further advised that these services can be restored whenever the balance in such accounts improves to the minimum balance level. z

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ECONOMIC REVIEW

Contents • • • • • • • • •

Current Account Deficit Inflation Industrial Production Public Debt GDP Annual Growth Rate Manufacturing PMI Currency Foreign Exchange Reserves Exports

The RBI said that net inflows under the capital and financial account (excluding change in foreign exchange reserves) declined to $48.80 billion in 2013-14 from $89 billion in corresponding period of 2012-13 owing to lower net FDI and portfolio flows, net repayment of loans and trade credit and advances.

On BoP basis, foreign exchange reserves increased by $15.50 billion during 2013-14 as compared with $3.80 billion in 201213.

Inflation India Consumer Inflation Up to 3-Month High

Current account deficit narrows to 1.7 % of GDP

Indian annual consumer prices accelerated for the second straight month to 8.59 percent in April of 2014, from 8.31 percent in March, driven by higher cost of fruits and vegetables.

India’s current account deficit (CAD) for the January-March period narrowed sharply to $1.2 billion (0.2 per cent of GDP) from $18.1 billion (3.6 per cent of GDP) in the same period last year, which

Provisional estimates showed food and beverages’ prices accelerated to an annual 9.66 percent in April, faster than March’s 9.1 percent increase. Fruit cost surged 21.73 percent while cost

was also lower than $4.2 billion (0.9 per cent of GDP) in the October-December quarter of 2013-14.

of vegetables rose 17.5 percent, up from 17.19 percent and 16.8 percent respectively in the previous month. Prices of milk increased 11.42 percent; cereals went up 9.67 percent and egg fish and meat rose 9.41 percent.

Current account deficit

“The lower CAD was primarily on account of a decline in the trade deficit as decline in imports was sharper than that in exports,” as per the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

As per preliminary data on India’s balance of payments (BoP), released by the RBI, merchandise exports declined by 1.3 per cent to $ 83.7 billion for the fourth quarter of 2013-14, as against an increase of 5.9 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2012-13.

In contrast, prices of fuel and light slowed to an annual 5.96 percent (6.29 percent in March) and cost of clothing and footwear eased to 8.83 percent.

The corresponding provisional inflation rates for rural and urban areas for April 2014 are 9.25 percent and 7.69 percent, respectively.

Steep drop in gold imports Industrial Production On the other hand, the declining trend in merchandise imports continued in the fourth quarter of 2013-14. Imports, at $114.30 billion, moderated by 12.3 per cent in the fourth quarter. The decline in imports was primarily led by a steep drop in gold imports, which amounted to $ 5.30 billion, lower than $15.80 billion in the fourth quarter of 2012-13, the RBI said.

As a result, the merchandise trade deficit contracted by about 33 per cent to $30.70 billion in the fourth quarter of 2013-14 from $ 45.60 billion in the corresponding quarter a year ago.

As far as BoP during 2013-14 is concerned, export recovery and moderation in imports led to a sharp drop in the trade deficit to $147.60 billion in 2013-14 from $195.70 billion in 2012-13.

Contraction in the trade deficit, coupled with a rise in net invisibles receipts, resulted in a reduction of CAD to $32.40 billion (1.7 per cent of GDP) in 2013-14 from $87.80 billion (4.7 per cent of GDP) in 2012-13.

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Industrial Production in India decreased 0.50 percent in March of 2014 over the same month in the previous year. Industrial Production in India averaged 6.73 Percent from 1994 until 2014, reaching an all time high of 20 Percent in November of 2006 and a record low of -7.20 Percent in February of 2009. Industrial Production in India is reported by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MOSPI).

The report states”However provisional information on revenues realised during March 2014 on account of higher than expected 2G auction realisation, PSE ETF sale, revenues etc suggest that RE target of 4.6 per cent would be achieved in 2013-14,” .

GDP Annual Growth Rate

Public Debt Public debt reduces marginally in Q4 to Rs 46.25 lakh crore India’s public debt decreased marginally to Rs 46,25,037 crore at end-March 2014 from Rs 46,29,689 crore at end December 2013.

The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in India expanded 4.60 percent in the first quarter of 2014 over the same quarter of the previous year. GDP Annual Growth Rate in India averaged 5.82 Percent from 1951 until 2014, reaching an all time high of 11.40 Percent in the first quarter of 2010.

In the first quarter of 2014, India’s GDP growth slowed to 4.6 percent yoy from a 4.7 percent expansion registered in the previous period. The output was mainly hurt by a contraction in the manufacturing sector.

As per Quarterly report on Public Debt Management, “This represented a quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) decline of 0.1 per cent compared with an increase of 3.1 per cent in the previous quarter (Q3 of FY13),”.

The public debt of Rs 46.25 lakh crore excludes liabilities under the ‘Public Account’. Internal debt constituted 91.1 per cent of public debt as compared to 91 per cent at the end of the previous quarter.

Marketable securities (consisting of Rupee denominated dated securities and treasury bills) accounted for 83.3 per cent of total public debt, almost same level as on end-December 2013.

The outstanding internal debt of the government at Rs 42,12,575 crore constituted 37.2 per cent of GDP as compared to 38 per cent at end-December 2013.

For fiscal 2013-14, gross and net market borrowings were higher than previous year by 1 per cent and 0.2 per cent, respectively.

The cash position of the government during the fourth quarter (January-March) 2013-14 was comfortable and remained in surplus mode during the three-month period.

The total volume of government securities transacted on an outright basis increased by of 18.32 per cent over the preceding quarter, contributed mainly by central government dated securities.

On an annual basis, finance, insurance, real estate and business activities grew 12.4 percent (down from 14.1 percent in the previous period), followed by electricity, gas and water supply (7.2 percent, compared with 5.0 percent in Q3) and agriculture, forestry and fishing (6.3 percent, up from 3.7 percent) as the fastest growing sectors.

In contrast, manufacturing contracted 1.4 percent (slightly up from -1.5 percent a quarter earlier) and mining and quarrying production fell 0.4 percent (up from -1.2 percent).

Manufacturing PMI Manufacturing PMI in India increased to 51.40 in May of 2014 from 51.30 in April of 2014. Manufacturing PMI in India averaged 52.04 from 2012 until 2014, reaching an all time high of 55 in June of 2012 and a record low of 48.50 in August of 2013.

As a result of higher expenditure and lower revenue collections, revenue deficit and fiscal deficit during April-February 2013-14 at 117.3 per cent and 114.3 per cent of revised estimate (RE) were higher than 101.2 per cent and 97.2 per cent, respectively, during the same period a year ago.

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Rupee

Exports

The Indian Rupee decreased to 59.15 in June from 59.21 in May of 2014. Indian Rupee averaged 32.76 from 1973 until 2014, reaching an all time high of 68.61 in September of 2013.

Exports in India decreased to 25634.08 USD Million in April of 2014 from 29578.43 USD Million in March of 2014. Exports in India averaged 3936.48 USD Million from 1957 until 2014, reaching an all time high of 30541.44 USD Million in March of 2013.

Foreign Exchange Reserves in India increased to 17138.30 INR Billion in May of 2014 from 16817.80 INR Billion in April of 2014.

Foreign Exchange Reserves in India averaged 5290.42 INR Billion from 1990 until 2014, reaching an all time high of 17138.30 INR Billion in May of 2014.

Congratulations…

Foreign Exchange Reserves

New Members MCCI extends a warm welcome to the following New Members:

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

New Member Indian Bank Iacharya Silicon Limited HP Valves & Fittings India Pvt Ltd Swiss Garnier Life Sciences NIST Institute Private Limited RVK & Co., Logictree Capital Advisors Pvt Ltd Nanchil Infrastructure Private Limited Shardlow India Limited Anand Automotive Limited Tirwin Management Services (P) Ltd. Economic Laws Practice T.S.Gopalan & Co Aspiration Energy Private Limited I-Foodtech Solutions India Pvt Ltd.

Nature of Business Banking Solar Power Plants Valves & Fittings Pharmaceuticals & Food Supplementary products Training & Consulting Chartered Accountants Management Consulting Construction Manufacturer of Forged & Machined crankshaft Automotive parts Air Transportation Training and Consulting Legal Services Legal Services Solar Thermal Software consulting

Published by The Madras Chamber of Commerce & Industry, Karumuttu Centre, I floor, No. 634, Anna Salai, Nandanam, Chennai 600 035 Tel 044-24349452 Fax 044-24349164 Email madraschamber@madraschamber.in URL www.madraschamber.in

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