Tag: ease of doing business

Tractor testing guidelines as a step towards ease of doing business

 In a major step towards encouraging ease of doing business and promote trust-based governance, the Government has simplified the process of testing of tractors for performance evaluation on 28th August 2023. Tractor manufacturers shall now be allowed to participate in the subsidy scheme on the basis of CMVR/Conformity of Production (COP) certificates and a self-declaration to be given by the company that the tractor proposed for inclusion under subsidy conforms to the benchmark specifications given by Department of Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare.  Simultaneously, the manufacturer shall also confirm that the tractor model has been submitted for tests and the  test report on the same shall be submitted to DA&FW within 6 months. The manufacturers shall give a minimum of three years warranty on the tractor to be supplied under subsidy.

The following process will henceforth be followed for the 4 (four) mandatory tests:  

  • Drawbar Performance Test : The drawbar performance test through the use of load car may be done at Central Farm Machinery Training and Testing Institute Budni or at Mahindra Research Valley (MRV), Chennai. The manufacturers shall also have an option to get it done from any other Government authorized institute or at their own facilities provided that adequate infrastructure is available to conduct this test. In case of the test done at the manufacturers facilities, the test data as may be provided by the manufacturers shall be included in the test reports released by the CFMTTI Budni or the chosen government authorized institution, with the remarks that the tests have not been carried out by the institute and performance results are self-certified by the manufacturer.

 

  • PTO Performance and Hydraulic Performance Test : Manufacturers shall have the option to conduct this test at their facilities and the test data  may be provided to the CFMTTI, Budni  or the chosen Government authorized institution for generation of the test report with a self-certification that this test has been carried out as per applicable BIS Codes.  The test data as may be provided by the manufacturers shall be included in the test reports released by the CFMTTI Budni or the chosen government authorized institution, with the remarks that the tests have not been carried out by the institute and performance results are self-certified by the manufacturers. The manufacturers shall also have the option of getting it done either at CFMTTI, Budni or at any other Government authorized institutes/facilities having adequate infrastructure to conduct this test.

           

  • Brake Performance: This test shall be done as per the requirements under CMVR. The test already done under CMVR at the authorized institutions shall not be repeated at CFMTTI Budni or any other Government authorized institutes and the same data shall be incorporated in the test reports.

The detailed guideline also provides for the process to be followed by for testing of tractors at CFMTTI, Budni.

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25,000 compliances reduced by centre so far in its bid to promote Ease of Living and Ease of Doing Business

 The Minister of Commerce and Industry, Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution and Textiles, Shri Piyush Goyal today urged political leadership, bureaucracy and industry leadership to focus their initiatives to reduce compliance burden, on principles of simplicity and timely delivery of services.

He was addressing the valedictory session of the ‘National Workshop on the next phase of reforms to reduce Compliance Burden’ in New Delhi today. It may be noted that more than 25,000 compliances have been reduced in the previous exercise implemented by the centre to reduce compliance burden and to promote Ease of Living and Ease of Doing Business.

Touching upon the infinite possibilities of technology, Shri Goyal said that technology must aid and abet initiatives to promote the Ease of Living and Ease of doing business and should not further complicate the system of compliances. He spoke of the need to develop indigenous solutions to problems that India faced.

The Minister asked policy makers to consider the wide disparity in income, literacy level and the gaps in infrastructure, especially connectivity, while planning the delivery of services, especially if technology is involved.

Speaking of the need to make monitoring mechanisms more robust, Shri Goyal said that monitoring of policies and programs must not become more cumbersome than the underlying problem that the initiatives were seeking to solve.

Shri Goyal opined that feedback from all stakeholders, especially users, had to be taken into account while designing compliance requirements and that ground realities must always be taken into consideration. He urged policymakers to use crowdsourcing to find out details of the compliances that were proving to be cumbersome and work on rationalizing them.

He spoke of the need to combine various services like the Digi locker and National Single Window System so that repetitive processes are rationalized, gaps are bridged and redundancies are eliminated when it comes to applying for approvals and permissions. He called for the creation of a single identification number for businesses and individuals by merging the several identification numbers that exist presently, such as Adhaar, PAN, TAN etc so that delivery of services becomes smoother and faster.

Speaking of the need to decriminalize Legal Metrology, the Minister urged industry participants to keep seeking reforms and improvements in processes and procedures. He also called for promotion of self- attestation, self- certification and self- regulation. He added that it is high time that compliance systems were built on trusting the integrity of the citizens.  

Calling for big ticket reforms, the Minister said that the new structures must not shackle people. Underscoring the need to address information asymmetry among stakeholders, Shri Goyal called for, consolidation of the gains made so far in reducing compliance burden.

The day-long Workshop was divided into three parallel breakout sessions. The theme of the first was “Breaking Silos and Enhancing Synergies among Government Departments”. The second was based on the theme of “National Single Sign-on for Efficient Delivery of Citizen Services” while the third Breakout Session is themed ‘Effective Grievance Redressal’.

Speaking at the inauguration of the Workshop, Shri Anurag Jain, Secretary, Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) said that grievance redressal mechanisms must be humane and sensitive. He opined that in cases where grievances cannot be fully resolved due to rules and procedural aspects, the same must be conveyed to the complainant sensitively. Government departments could handle the genuine grievances with a human face, he added.

The Workshop witnessed wide participation from across Central Ministries and States/UTs. The ideas that took shape during the deliberations at the conference were presented to Shri Piyush Goyal and Cabinet Secretary, Shri Rajiv Gauba. 

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How Easy or Difficult it is to Start a Business in India?

India has improved drastically in the World Bank’s ‘Ease of Doing Business’ 2020 international ranking by moving up to 63 out of 190 countries in the list. India was at rank 130 in a list of 189 countries in 2016. A sudden jump in rank from 130 to 63 is definitely remarkable and shows true business potentials of new India. Although this sounds good there is a lot more to be done for India to continue rising up. Hrishikesh Datar, Founder and CEO of Vakilsearch, a technology driven company empowering Indians with access to trustworthy legal solutions for entrepreneurs, gives his insights into what more can be done to push India further up the ranking.

The World Bank has said “In the year of 2015, India eliminated the paid-in minimum capital requirement and streamlined the process for starting a business. More reforms are ongoing—in starting a business and other areas measured by Doing Business—though the full effects are yet to be felt”.

Doing business in India – a country which the economic pundits say will be the world’s second-largest economy by 2030 (with China top and the USA pushed into third place). Going back a decade or so this assertion might have seemed nothing more than a fantasy, but everybody now seems to agree that India is finally going places. With a rapidly growing population of 1.3 million which boasts a vibrant middle class and a demographic which is heavily weighted towards youth, the potential of India seems almost limitless.

In the past, many developed economies saw India as a destination for the low-cost outsourcing of back-office or R&D-type functions and, whilst this area of the economy continues to thrive, India needs to be viewed in a very different light these days. India is, quite simply, the world’s largest potential market for goods and services. Where China has already developed much of its infrastructure and service economy, India still has enormous work to do. Look around on the streets of Delhi, Bangalore or Chennai and the need for development is obvious – move into the second or third tier cities and this need becomes even more acute.

What does all of this point to? Opportunities. India is a land of endless possibility where the people are aspirational, energetic, open and eager for progress.

Research

The biggest mistake organisations make when looking at India as a market is that they fail to do adequate research. To say that India is enormous would be a massive understatement. A country with 1.3 billion people, multiple languages, ethnicities, climates and geographies cannot be approached as a homogenous unit. You can’t really have an ‘India strategy’ – you probably need multiple India strategies.

The first question has got to be is: ‘Is India the right market for your products or services at this stage of your development, taking into consideration the current needs of India?’ This is not an easy question to answer. So many factors come into play when addressing this – what is your price point, and how does that sit against the competitive landscape in India? Who are your major competitors and how are they faring? Can you afford to invest in India knowing that the returns might not accrue for a number of years? Which city or region would be a good starting point?

All of these questions need answers, but good quality information is not always easy to come by in India. You will need to engage people on the ground in India who can really get under the skin of the local market and get back to you with honest, trustworthy answers to key strategic questions. Don’t convince yourselves you can do all your research via a laptop back in your office or home– you quite simply can’t.

Finding Manpower

India is full of really great potential employees. On the whole, Indians are well-educated, ambitious, enthusiastic and motivated. Lack of local talent definitely isn’t the issue; finding and retaining good people though can be very difficult.

The Indian employment market is very fast-moving. Indians are always on the lookout for ways of improving their career prospects, job titles and income. How are you going to convince good people that you offer them a bright future? Why should they join your company when there is a myriad of opportunities for the type of people you are looking for?

Culture in India

The underlying factors which drive Indian business culture are deeply rooted in the country’s religious, societal and ethnic past. People are often fooled into thinking that because Indian’s often speak good English and because the country has a western-influenced history, that the cultural challenges they might face will be minimal. Nothing could be further from the truth.

You simply cannot hope to succeed in India unless you gain a very good understanding of the local cultural landscape.

Though with huge efforts of Indian government like launching a start-up India portal, Mudra Loan scheme for MSME (medium small & micro enterprises), there’s a lot to be done in collaborate efforts of Indian citizens and Indian government to get into top economic powers of the world.