Govt. of India has appointed Ms. Chaitali Panmei, IRS(IT:87) as CVO in Engineering Projects Indian Limited(EPlL), Delhi under the administrative control of Department of Heavy Industry at the level of Director for an initial period of 3 years which is extendable for a further period of 2 years in the same CPSE or 3 years on transfer to another CPSE after completing the initial tenure of 3 years with the prior approval of CVC.
Dr. Arvind Gupta, IFS (79), is appointed as the Deputy National Security Advisor of India and Secretary, National Security Council Secretariat for a period of three years. He is currently the Director General in the Institute of Defence Studies & Analyses (IDSA). Before joining the Indian Foreign Service in 1979 he served at the Oil & Natural Gas Commission (1976) and at the State Bank of India (1976-79), apart from being a Visiting Member at the Tata Institute for Fundamental Research (1974-76). Dr.Gupta is a Ph.D in International Relations from Jawaharlal Nehru University and M.Sc. in Physics from Delhi University.
He joined as Director General, Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (IDSA) on 5th January, 2012.
The Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has expressed concern over Kosi flood situation in Bihar and directed that all possible assistance should be made available.The Cabinet Secretary Shri Ajit Seth has chaired three emergency meetings of National Crisis Management Committee (NCMC) since yesterday afternoon. Two meetings were held yesterday. One meeting was held today morning and another meeting is scheduled in the evening today.
Cabinets Secretary is in constant and direct touch with the State Chief Secretary. Following efforts have been coordinated with the concerned authorities:-
· 44,000 persons evacuated by the Bihar State authorities so far. State Administration has been urged to speed up this process. 107 camps set up. In addition, 30 cattle camps set up.
· Small assessment team of 6 persons – 2 from CWC, 2 from NDRF and 1 each from Indian Army and GSI – have reached Nepal last night to make initial assessment.
· Central Water Commission is doing a computer simulation exercise to assess the likely impact of sudden release of water.
· Water discharge so far is not alarming. But it cannot be predicted when the flow might increase suddenly. CWC is issuing advisories
NDRF
· 8 NDRF teams already deployed.
· 7 more teams deployed, of which 4 reached and 3 are on way.
· 5 more teams on standby.
· NDRF carrying boats, including fibre boats.
Army/Airforce
· 1 Composite Column has reached Supaul and one Saharsa
· 3 more Columns mobilized from Sukna to Katihar.
· 1 Engineering Task Force (ETF) has reached Danapur; 2 more ETFs being moved.
· One AN-32 Aircraft has reached Delhi from Agra to carry persons and communication equipment to Purnia. 1 more standby at Agra.
· 2 Mi-17 helicopters each standby at Gorakhpur, Bagdogra and Barrackpore.
· 2 Chetaks and 4 MI-17 also moved to Bihta (near Patna).
· Naval diving teams in readiness.
Medical assistance
· 1 C-17 Aircraft ready to leave Palam at around 1600 hours carrying medical team comprising 25 persons (including 2 medical officers, 1 preventive medicine specialist and one medical specialist) and 30 MT load (stretchers, etc.).
· 20 civilian doctors from Government of India of different specialities from Delhi hospitals also leaving by this aircraft.
Communications
· 15 satellite phones given to the Bihar State authorities by the Government of India last night. NDRF teams also carrying satellite phones.
· Department of Spacewill also obtain relevant satellite inputs and start providing them from tomorrow onwards.
Foodgrains
· D/o Food has been asked to provide full assistance.
· FCI godowns have sufficient food grain stocks available in the areas likely to be affected.
P Barkos Oflyn Warjri P B O Warjri, IAS, AM:’78 cadre, is the new Chief Secretary and state vigilance commissioner of Meghalaya. He succeed W M S Pariat, who retired on June 30.
Born on Feb 28, 1956, Warjri did his schooling from St. Edmund’s School in 1971 and graduated from St. Edmund’s College in 1976, further he pursued International Studies at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. Warjri, held many important positions including being in-charge of Soil & Water Conservation and Forest and Environment departments, Chairman of Administrative Reforms and Commissioner UIDAI Meghalaya.
Dr. Swadhin Kshatriya, IAS, Maharashtra:80 cadre is the new Maharashtra chief secretary, he takes over from J S Saharia who retired on Thursday. 57 years old Dr Kshatriya has a long association with the city of Mumbai, in past he was the General manager BEST and BMC commissioner.
Smt Shakuntla Jakhu IAS (Haryana 1978) is the new Chief secretary of Haryana. She is the fourth women chief secretary of Haryana (Meenakshi A Chaudhary, Urvashi Gulati and Promila Issar held the same position). Ms. Jakhu is a close relative of former Union minister Kumari Selja. Shakuntla Jakhu is to retire on September 30. On her appointment, CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda said she is the senior most bureaucrat in the state.
The circular we are talking about is dated 13th September, 2013 vide Notification No. RBI/2013-14/254 A.P. (DIR Series) Circular No.43, which is effective from October 1, 2013.Yes, this circular would impact you if you have anything to do with export of software or even export of service from India irrespective of quantum of revenue you generate from export, thus you would like to read this.
What does the RBI circular say?
The Circular requires every exporter of software products or service to declare each and every invoice raised for export and get it certified by STPI (Software Technology Park of India), being the nodal designated agency irrespective of whatever value.
This is huge negative for IT Startups & SMEs especially who are not registered with STPI, since the STPI would levy certification charges on certification. This will shoot up the overall costs of doing business, apart from handling delays related to obtaining the certification from the STPI.
This new development would also affect existing STPI units, as they would also be required to get their exports of less than 25 K US$ certified by the STPI.
Thus, the erstwhile exemption for an invoice value of US $25000 is history, now even an export invoicing of 1 Dollar would be required to be declared to STPI and certified.
What was the erstwhile rule?
Earlier most of the Software exporters were registered with STPI as previously they were getting substantial tax exemptions and reliefs on their exports, popularly known as the “tax holiday schema”.
However, in the year 2011 these tax benefits were repelled, therein all the software exporters came under the same taxation norms as normal businesses. In view of the same majority of the software exporters did not pursue their membership with STPI.
Also earlier it was mandatory for software exporters to file a softex form with each export. But in the year 2004 a notification was issued wherein only if the invoice value exceeded 25000 US$ did the softex needed to be filed. This without doubt was a big time relief of Startups and SMEs software exporters.
Serious Issues arising – Impacting Startups & SMEs engaged in software export business
Issue 1: Freelancers generally bag small software assignment from websites like elance.com normally in the range of around 100 US $ to 500US$.
Infact many of startup software exporters raise invoices as low as 100 US $ and /or have over 100 transactions per month. It will be a herculean task for them to file a form for all invoices. Also, in these assignments there are no formal invoices, Infact many times; it is difficult to even trace the end paying customer.
Issue 2: Software exporters operating in “Software as a service model”, wherein the customer fills in small form and subscribes the SAAS software for as low as 5 US $. Best examples can be WebEngage.com, VisualWebsiteOptimizer.com, Freshdesk.com, and InterviewStreet.com.
There is no way practically to get the details of each customers leave alone proper invoice. We all sometime or other buy or subscribe SAAS based model, how many of us would like to give our detailed information for just 5 US$ transaction?
Issue 3: Above all the certification by the STPI would be a cost normally referred to as “certification fees”. As a startup are you ready to pay invoice certification charges for an invoice as low as 100 US $? This would escalate cost of business doing.
Issue 4: As we were hoping that startup ecosystem would improve in India, we have this circular killing the very fetus. At one hand we talk about next big software Product Company from India. Many of software startup companies operate with just 2 to 3 people and don’t have the desired infrastructure to handle such compliance.
This will also cause procedural nightmare, further is STPI have the bandwidth to handle all the paperwork and certification?
Issue 5: How would procedure work for exporters who earn out of micro payments and also use third party payment processors like 2checkout.com and even the appstores? In many cases, payments are also being received for exports through credit cards.
Issue 6: Assignment which are won online in most of cases are through email negotiations and thus do not have proper contracts, thus the need for supporting documents to be submitted to the authorised dealer will make things more complicated.
Issue 7: Bank Reconciliation Certificate (BRC) for every invoice would become a very big issue, since with smaller companies there would be larger number of invoice having smaller values. Suppose a scenario wherein a mobile application developing company raising 300 invoices. First bank reconciliation would not be possible in smaller value invoices and this will cause undue delay in credit of money.
Do our Startups companies deserve this kind of hardship?
To Conclude: This circular seems to be perfect medicine to kill IT Startups and SMEs in India. The idea behind removing the thread hold limit of $25000 seems not to be well thought one. Infact, RBI could not appreciate the negative impact this can and will have on the smaller software exporters from India.
A very thoughtful representation is required to be made in this regard to the IT Ministry and also the Reserve bank of India. We need to engage with RBI and explain the newer business models and the need to see in the new pricing, billing and payment models, the dinosaur saga of old softex times can no longer apply today in this dynamic technology environment.
Erstwhile threshold limit of 25K US$ was working fine and should be reinstated immediately for the benefit of the industry as a whole. We understand that RBI wants to regulate and track incoming foreign exchange but that is quite well done as all payments coming in India are tracked anyway through bank.
Please remember that this circular as on today stands and if you are not complying with the requirement, there is already an issue of non-compliance inviting penal actions.
Circular can be downloaded from here : RBI
Courtesy : NextBigWhat
National Small Industries Corporation Ltd. (NSIC) has launched an ecommerce platform (B2C) for MSMEs.
The portal, MSME Shopping is positioned as a low-cost marketing platform for MSMEs where MSMEs shall be able to sell Retail products as well as Industrial equipment/machineries online.
SMEs worldwide face many challenges: limited capital and lack of access to adequate and timely banking finance, non-availability of suitable technology, small production capacity etc. Apart from manufacturing hindrances, marketing of products is also a big challenge in regime of melting global boundaries, particularly when the domestic retails markets are being flooded with International brands.
The sellers will need to pay Rs. 5000/ and the best part is that the portal doesn’t charge any commission for the sales generated (fulfilment etc is handled by sellers).
The bigger challenge for the platform is to bring retail customers, who are currently being lured by several discounts and offers from Indian ecommerce players.
National Small Industries Corporation Ltd. (NSIC), is an ISO 9001-2008 certified Government of India Enterprise under Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME). NSIC has been working to fulfill its mission of promoting, aiding and fostering the growth of small industries and industry related micro, small and medium enterprises in the country. Over a period of five decades of transition, growth and development, NSIC has proved its strength within the country and abroad by promoting modernization, upgradation of technology, quality consciousness, strengthening linkages with large medium enterprises and enhancing exports – projects and products from small enterprises.
NSIC operates through countrywide network of offices and Technical Centres in the Country. To manage operations in African countries, NSIC operates from its office in Johannesburg, South Africa. In addition, NSIC has set up Training cum Incubation Centre & with a large professional manpower, NSIC provides a package of services as per the needs of MSME sector.
NSIC carries forward its mission to assist small enterprises with a set of specially tailored schemes designed to put them in a competitive and advantageous position. The schemes comprise of facilitating marketing support, credit support, technology support and other support services.
So you are freshly out of college with an engineering degree in your hand, a sprint in your feet and a twinkle in your eye? Well, welcome to the harsh reality of the corporate world.
There are thousands of unemployed, unemployable engineers out there and every year thousands being added to this number as a number of engineering colleges churn out graduates with a degree but no expertise.Merely 18 to 20 % of engineering graduates are actually employable.
The problem lies with our education system which emphasizes on quantity rather than quality, theories rather than practical applications, traditional and obsolete courses rather than updated and revised curriculum.
As a result, where there is a dearth of professionals in IT and other industries, there is a dearth of jobs for engineering graduates who have spent four years waiting for something to happen as they walk out with their degrees in hand.
What is the Solution?
The institutions and employers have to work together and make changes to the curriculum so that it meets the needs of the industries. The institutions need to focus on quality on students rather than quantity. The traditional methods of teaching have to be done away with in this era of internet, information and technology. Professionals and experienced engineers from the industry should be included in the faculty or as special instructors so that the students get a real time experience and knowledge of the industry.
Courtesy : http://www.nextbigwhat.com/make-engineers-india-employable-297/
Where these changes needs to be applied to the education system as a whole, students can work on their part to make themselves employable in this competitive and fast changing economy. Here are some guidelines which can be followed to seek jobs as engineers:
Without being preachier, I would like to say that most of the ideas listed above worked for me and my peers. It may be easy to blame the government for poor infrastructure or question the quality of teaching in the institutions. However, the real solution lies with each one of you and depends on how proactive are you are with your life. There is no dearth of jobs. All you need is to focus on your all round development as an engineer and jobs will follow you.
Given the dearth of quality faculty and curriculum gap between Industry and Academia, Rajesh Kasturirangan in his article mentioned that Technology will be an answer to building capacity. He rightly pointed out that pure online MOOCs may not be a silver bullet for Higher Education. In addition to two suggestions by him (Training as industrial scale and central campus model), I have few more suggestions:
It is time where we choose a learning-centric system rather than examination or assessment-centric system so that the learners are allowed to select subjects based on their interests and pursue it to completion. This will enhance the skills-based education delivery and drive true employability at scale.
Courtesy : NextBigWhat
Shri Nehchal Sandhu, Deputy National Security Advisor and Secretary, National Security Council Secretariat, resigned from his position with effect from 31 July 2014 for personal reasons. Prime Minister accepted his resignation with regret and expressed appreciation for Shri Sandhu’s outstanding service to the country in a career spanning over 40 years – as a police officer, Director of Intelligence Bureau and Deputy National Security Advisor.
Nehchal Sandhu was appointed Deputy National Security Adviser in the Indian Prime Minister’s Office on March 21, 2013. A career officer of the covenanted Indian Police Service, Nehchal Sandhu put in 40 years after his initial appointment in July 1973. During that extended tenure, the first five years were spent in field level policing, involving prevention of crime, investigation, detection and prosecution in specific jurisdictions in the Eastern Indian province of Bihar.
Thereafter, Nehchal Sandhu spent 34½ years in the federal Intelligence Bureau, during the last two years of which tenure he headed this Bureau as its Director. During much of this period, his duties related to the countering of terrorism, analysis of disruptive trends, security management and technological upgradation.
He has served overseas in Canada as Counsellor in the High Commission of India in Ottawa in the mid 1990s and is widely travelled.
Prof.K Vijayraghavan presently Secretary ,Department of Biotechnology has been given extension on additional charge w.e.f. from 01.08.2014 for 3 months as Secretary for two departments,namely Department of Science and Technology and Department of Scientific & Industrial Research.
VijayRaghavan graduated with a Bachelor of Technology degree in Chemical Engineering from IIT Kanpur in 1975 and Masters in 1977. He completed his doctoral research in 1983 in the field of Molecular Biology and holds a Ph.D from the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research. During his post-doctoral work, from 1984 to 1985, he was a Research Fellow and then, from 1986 to 1988, a Senior Research Fellow at the California Institute of Technology.
Some of the notable awards under his belt include Padma Shri,Fellow of the Royal Society,Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize Foreign Associate, US National Academy of Sciences.
R K Mathur (IAS MT;77)given additional charge as Secretary,Department of Defence Production till November,2014 apart from his present charge as Defence Secretary,Ministry of Defence.
Born on November 25, 1953, he has done his B.Tech in Mechanical Engineering from IIT Kanpur and M.Tech in Industrial Engineering from IIT, Delhi.
He also holds a Master in Business Administration from ICPE, Slovenia. From 2000 till August, 2008, he served in Tripura in various departments as Principal Secretary and later as Chief Secretary.
As Secretary (Defence Production), Mr Mathur has been involved in modernisation process of the defence public sector undertakings and Ordnance Factories under his department.
He was instrumental in proposing changes in the Defence Procurement Procedures for making acquisition process more transparent and enhancing indigenisation of defence production.
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