E-comm, tech start-ups seen creating 23% more jobs by Sept

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The e-commerce and tech start-ups domain will see 23.6 per cent growth in jobs between April and September this year, according to the Teamlease Employment Outlook Report.

This is followed by the retail sector, which is set to generate 14.4 per cent more jobs over six months.

The e-commerce sector has created a huge number of jobs in two categories: drivers, who are in demand by taxi aggregator apps/companies; and delivery personnel, hired in large numbers by online shopping websites and apps, the report says.

Blue-collar boost

Other sectors that will ramp up hiring the next six months include healthcare and pharma (14 per cent); telecom (10.13 per cent); FMCG (11.4 per cent), and IT (14.2 per cent).

Core sectors such as manufacturing and engineering, infrastructure, and financial services may, on the other hand, slow down hiring.

While lowering expectations from the Make in India campaign have bogged down the former two industries, the increased use of mobile banking apps and payment apps has had a dwindling effect on job creation in the financial services sector, suggests the report.

Functional front

On the functional front, sales, IT, and blue collar profiles will benefit substantially from the net positive sentiment.

The rush to acquire driving and delivery skills seems to be boosting the blue-collar jobs tremendously. The profile is likely to witness a 9 percentage point increase in demand.

Except Kolkata and Ahmedabad, most of the cities will experience a boost in hiring, says the TeamLease report.

With a 3 percentage point increase in outlook, Pune and Chennai top the hiring projections.

Though hiring is still largely clustered in the metros and Tier 1 cities, tier 2 and 3 cities will also contribute to consumer spending with a boost in organised retail chains and e-commerce.

Source: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/todays-paper/tp-news/ecomm-tech-startups-seen-creating-23-more-jobs-by-sept/article8597590.ece

Clean energy projects get Rs 86,000 crore investment

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Renewable energy projects have received Rs 86,000 crore investment, most of it from private sector, in the last three years with Madhya Pradesh at top garnering Rs 14,313.80 crore.

“Most of the investment in renewable energy came from private sector. Total estimated investment in renewable energy power projects during the last three years is around Rs 86,000 crore,” New and Renewable Energy Minister Piyush Goyal said in a written reply to Lok Sabha today.

According to the statement, around 15,400 million units has been generated through solar power projects during the last three years.

Madhya Pradesh remained at the top, recording maximum investment in clean energy projects at Rs 14,313.80. It was followed by Maharashtra at Rs 13,743.01 crore, Rajasthan at Rs 11,632.96 crore, Karnataka at Rs 9,586.31 crore, Andhra Pradesh at Rs 9,539.12 crore, Tamil Nadu at Rs 8,961.28 crore and Gujarat at Rs 6,646.35 crore.

The minister also stated that Pondicherry, Laskhwadeep, Dadar & Nagar Haveli, Sikkim, Manipur, Meghalaya and Goa received no investment at all for renewable energy projects in last three years.

According to a separate reply to the House, as on March 31, 2016, a cumulative capacity of 42.76 GW has been installed from various renewable energy sources, which include 26.78 GW from Wind, 6.76 GW from solar, 4.27 from small hydro power and 4.95 GW from bio power.

In another reply to the House, the Maharashtra will require the maximum solar power generation capacity of 13,270 MW by 2021-22 as per tentative renewable purchase obligation (RPO) requirement estimated by the ministry.

The ministry has estimated 1,02,021 MW solar power generation capacity to be installed in the entire country by 2021-22.

After Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh’s solar power generation capacity by 2021-22 as per RPO requirement would be the second highest at 12,124 MW followed by Gujarat at 9,796 MW, Tamil Nadu at 9,398 MW and Rajasthan 6,953 MW.

Under RPO, states are mandated by power regulators to have certain proportion of renewable energy capacity in their total power mix to promote clean and green sources like solar and wind.

The minister in another reply to the House stated that the new pithead thermal power plants have the lowest tariff of Rs 3.75 per unit in the first year of operation compared Rs 4.5 per unit for solar, Rs 4.6 for hydro, Rs 4.94 for atomic power and Rs 5.49 for non-pithed thermal plants.

However, the levellised tariff for hydro power plants is the lowest at Rs 4 per units compared Rs 4.5 for solar, Rs 5 for atomic power, Rs 4.57 for pithead based thermal power and Rs 7.57 per unit for non-pithead based thermal power plant.

Source:http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/52125394.cms

China commends India’s GDP growth; says keen to invest more

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China has complimented India for “doing a good job” in maintaining an impressive growth rate despite a global slowdown and is keen on working together to push for reforms in the international financial system to offset the inherent weaknesses.

Stating that his country was keen to ramp up investments in India, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said the two major emerging economies can contribute significantly in helping the world economy by keeping up their growth momentum.

“First of all, we both need to grow our own national economies. On this front, we want to commend India for doing a good job in promoting economic growth,” said Wang.

Wang, who was here to attend Foreign Ministers’ meeting of RIC (Russia, India, China) grouping, further said reform of global financial system is key to protect the interest of developing countries and for recovery of the world economy.

“We need to join hands in playing a positive role in improving the global economic and financial governance because that will help protect the interests of the developing countries. It will also help the world economy to embark on a path of strong recovery,” Wang said.

He said China was “optimistic” about the prospect of deeper relationship between the two countries.

“Of course, we will be happy to invest more in India. There is no doubt about it,” he added.

After witnessing nearly three decades of close to double-digit growth, China has seen a decline in its growth rate, making room for India to replace it as the fastest-growing major economy of the world.

However, Chinese economy remains much bigger than that of India in terms of the overall size.

China clocked 6.9% growth in 2015 when India is estimated to have grown by 7.3%. The IMF has projected Indian economy to grow at 7.5% in 2016 and 2017.

The Chinese Foreign Minister also said his government was “looking forward” to President Pranab Mukherjee’s upcoming visit to China.

Korn Ferry to help Indian start-ups

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Stephen Kaye, CEO of Korn Ferry Hay Group

US-based global management consultancy giant Korn Ferry Hay Group has embarked on an ambitious plan to support for free 100 start-ups from India that have potential to grow big, its CEO Stephen D Kaye said on Friday.

Talking about the group’s ambitious NextBig100 programme, Kaye said it is supporting the next big-100 start-ups in India and would help them as they go through various growth stages.

“We are working alongside those companies to help them move forward and to support the development of business in India.”

Source: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/companies/korn-ferry-to-help-indian-startups/article8451964.ece

Private sector lender Federal Bank to support startups

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Jumping on to the startup bandwagon, Kerala based private sector lender Federal BankBSE -1.38 % is opening incubation centres in Bangalore and Ernakulam exclusively for startups. These would be specialised lounges within Federal Bank branches meant for funding advisory, regulatory support and if required even for direct investment.

“We have a dedicated startup fund worth Rs 25 crore which we would like to use to fund or lend to promising startups. These lounges, named Launchpad, with fast internet connections, support staff from the financial world and advisory mechanisms would be the perfect breeding ground for future entrepreneurs,” said Shyam Srinivasan, managing director, Federal bank.

The lounge would be manned by bank officers who would be capable of dealing with the financial requirements of the startups as well as local specialists who would be able to advise on regulatory issues that entrepreneurs need to handle.

“We are talking to 3 or 4 startups daily. The challenge for a bank is to move away from a conservative credit mind set to a more entrepreneurial mind set and to accept the fact that out of 40 or 50 investments only one might take off. So even we are in the process of understanding how to engage with startups better,” he said.

The bank follows the footsteps of HDFC Bank and Bank of Baroda to integrate their platform with mobile payments application Chillr. The addition that Federal Bank brings to the Chillr app is that they would allow even non Federal Bank users to instantly open a Federal Bank account through a selfie and Aadhar identification number and allow them to receive payments through Chillr.

“This is just another offer in the suite of offerings for the customer. We are in the major discovery process slowly there would be convergence in this field,” said Srinivasan.

E-commerce sees major money inflow

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It is not only Uber, the American taxi-hailing app, that is going all guns blazing in India with massive investment plans. Its biggest competitor, Bengaluru-based Ola, as well as e-commerce entities Flipkart and Amazon, are all planning to pump in big money to stay ahead, even in a scenario when investors are not as ready as earlier in opening their purse-strings.

Uber India has readied itself for another $500 million (Rs 3,300 crore) investment in the next three months, reports suggest. The app service had only nine months earlier committed $1 billion (Rs 6,600 crore) in India. Uber could not be reached for a comment.

For foreign giants such as Amazon, Uber and Alibaba, this country is a big market they all want to capture. Experts believe this is a trend which will continue, as a global economic slowdown will push a chunk of new investments towards India.

“We can clearly see a slowdown in overseas markets, while India is still managing annual growth of seven to eight per cent. So, companies such as Uber, Amazon and Alibaba want to bet big on India. While Amazon was not able to make a dent in China and Alibaba in Europe, they do not want to lose out on India. We will see this trend through the year,” says Amarjeet Singh, partner – tax, KPMG in India.

Ola, rival of Uber in the same segment, is on track to invest a chunk of its $1.3 billion (Rs 8,650 crore) capital raised so far. The firm recently announced it would invest Rs 200 crore in the Delhi-National Capital Region area over the next six months, “towards innovative green fuel technology, leasing of CNG cars and strengthening the system to catalyse greater CNG adoption in the region”, Rahul Maroli, its vice-president for strategic supply initiatives had said.

According to sources, Ola will further make strategic investments in all metro cities, as well as in Tier-II and Tier-III towns. “The company plans to add at least another 550,000 vehicles by the end of this year,” said one. Ola has at least 350,000 cabs and 80,000 auto rickshaws on its platform across 102 cities in the country.

American e-commerce major Amazon had said in October 2014 it was investing $2 billion (Rs 13,200 crore) in India. Later, its executives said the group had an open chequebook for the market. In February, it bought Noida-based payments services provider Emvantage, its first acquisition. This is aimed to help Amazon accelerate the development of payment solutions for customers.

As for Alibaba, the Chinese e-commerce giant, it already has a foothold in Indian e-commerce through its investments. The group is majority stakeholder in One97Communications, owner of mobile payments giant Paytm. Also, online marketplace major Snapdeal raised $500 million (Rs 3,300 crore) from a group of entities last year which included Alibaba.

The Chinese company now plans to directly enter India.

“We plan to enter the e-commerce business in India in 2016,” recently said J Michael Evans, group president. “We have been exploring very carefully the opportunity in this country, which we think is very exciting against the backdrop of (the) Digital India (programme of the government).”

Indian e-commerce giant Flipkart had, in March, infused Rs 338 crore into its online fashion store, Myntra, documents filed with the registrar of companies stated. Flipkart has so far raised $3 billion (nearly Rs 20,000 crore).

Source: http://www.business-standard.com/article/companies/e-commerce-sees-major-money-inflow-116032800986_1.html

The Companies (Amendment) Bill, 2016 introduced in Loksabha

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On 16th March 2016 Lok Sabha has passed the Companies (Amendment) Bill 2016 to further amend the Companies Act, 2013

The Act introduced significant changes related to disclosures to stakeholders, accountability of directors, auditors and key managerial personnel, investor protection and corporate governance. However, Government received number of representations from industry Chambers, Professional Institutes, legal experts and Ministries/Departments regarding difficulties faced in compliance of certain provisions. Amendments of the Act were carried out through the Companies (Amendment) Act, 2015 to address the immediate difficulties arising out of the initial experience of the working of the Act, and to facilitate “ease of doing business”.

The changes introduced are broadly aimed at addressing difficulties in implementation owing to stringency of compliance requirements; facilitating ease of doing business in order to promote growth with employment; harmonization with accounting standards, the regulations of Securities and Exchange Board of India Act, 1992 and the Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934; rectifying omissions and inconsistencies in the Act, and carrying out amendments in the provisions relating to qualifications and selection of members of the National Company Law Tribunal and the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal in accordance with the directions of the Supreme Court.

The Companies (Amendment) Bill, 2016, inter alia, proposes the following, namely:—

  • Simplification of the private placements: Simplification of the private placement process by doing away with separate offer letter, by making filing of details or records of applicants to be part of return of allotment only, and reducing number of filings to Registrar;

Earlier, there was significant difficulty was created by the Companies Act, with the unduly restrictive set of provisions pertaining to private placements. This over-ambitious scheme of regulation was a direct result of some incidents in the past. One such provision requires every private placement to be routed through a separate bank account opened for this purpose, and a bar on utilization of the money until allotment. More often than not, the amount received in private placement is large, and companies cannot afford to keep the amount idle.

Now, this private placements process has been simplified with the Companies (Amendment) Bill, 2016.

(b) Allow unrestricted object clause in the Memorandum of Association dispensing with detailed listing of objects, self-declarations to replace affidavits from subscribers to memorandum and first directors;

(c) Provisions relating to forward dealing and insider trading to be omitted from the Act;

(d) Requirement of approval of the Central Government for Managerial remuneration done away with:

Requirement of approval of the Central Government for Managerial remuneration above prescribed limits is replaced by approval through special resolution by shareholders;

Central Government control on managerial remuneration is eliminated. Section 197, which places limits on managerial remuneration, will now require special resolution only, if the limits placed under the law are exceeded.

(e) Loans to entities in which directors are interested:

A company may give loans to entities in which directors are interested after passing special resolution and adhering to disclosure requirement;

 (f) Provisions easing business by overseas entities

In support of the “Make in India” policy, it is quite appropriate that the Companies (Amendment) Bill, 2016 must have enabled foreign owned businesses to form companies in India. Accordingly, there are several provisions to facilitate foreign-owned businesses:

– EGM of a wholly-owned subsidiary of a foreign company may be called anywhere in India.

– The requirement for a resident director provided in section 149 is sought to be amended to provide that in case of newly incorporated companies the condition may be satisfied subsequent to incorporation, rather than before incorporation.

– Remove restrictions on layers of subsidiaries and investment companies

(g) Allow for exempting class of foreign companies from registering and compliance regime under the Act;

(h) Align prescription for companies to have Audit Committee and Nomination and Remuneration Committee with that of Independent Directors;

(i) Test of materiality to be introduced for pecuniary interest for testing independence of Independent Directors;

(j) Disclosures in the prospectus required under the Companies Act and the Securities and Exchange Board of India Act, 1992 and the regulations made thereunder to be aligned by omitting prescriptions in the Companies Act and allowing these prescriptions to be made by the Securities and Exchange Board of India in consultation with the Central Government;

(k) Provide for maintenance of register of significant beneficial owners by a company, and filing of returns in this regard to the Registrar;

(l) Removal of requirement for annual ratification of appointment or continuance of auditor;

(m) Amend provisions relating to Corporate Social Responsibility to bring greater clarity.

http://www.prsindia.org/uploads/media/Companies,%202016/Companies%20bill,%202016.pdf