Page 14 - BANKING FINANCE JANUARY 2016 ONLINE
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ROUNDUP
President clears M.P. Healthcare to Swachh Bharat, how firms spent CSR
labour reforms funds
The wait of the Shivraj Singh India's top 50 companies that make up were the states that already have a
Chouhan-led Madhya Pradesh gov- the benchmark Nifty index at the Na-
tional Stock Exchange claim to have sizeable corporate presence such as
ernment to spent over Rs 4,600 crore in the finan-
usher in cial year ended March Maharashtra, Gujarat, Delhi, Tamil
labour re- 2015 on social initiatives
forms in the when forced to spend a Nadu, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh.
state is over portion of their profits on
with Presi- activities linked to Corpo- On the other hand,
dent Pranab Mukherjee approving rate Social Responsibility
amendments to 15 central labour (CSR) to meet the requirements of the North-Eastern states and
laws. Companies Act 2013. Healthcare, edu-
cation, environment and Swachh others that have low in-
Some of the key amendments in- Bharat initiative dominated the sectors
clude easing retrenchment norms, where money was spent by these com- dustrial and business ac-
three months' compensation to re- panies.
trenched workers, raising overtime tivity, such as Bihar,
hours and night shift for women. However, the biggest beneficiaries
Uttar Pradesh,
"We have obtained presidential as-
sent on our labour law amendment Jharkhand, saw little CSR spend going
Bill seeking amendments to 15 cen-
tral labour laws," said Madhya their way.
Pradesh Labour Commissioner K. C.
Gupta. There was also a change in the area
of expense. For example, the biggest
Madhya Pradesh is the second state CSR spender - Reliance Industries Lim-
after Rajasthan to be granted presi- ited - moved its spending away from
dential assent to its labour law education and towards healthcare.
amendments. Gujarat, which had
passed a slew of labour law amend- Only 2% of food in India is processed: Minister
ments earlier in 2015, is awaiting
presidential assent. Only two per cent of food produced in "The rising population pressure is be-
India is processed, with wastage coming a serious constraint for avail-
Companies employing up to 300 amounting to Rs 52,000 crore annu- ability of land all over the country.
workers will be allowed to retrench ally, Union Minister Sadhvi
workers or shut shop without gov- Niranjan Jyoti said. There is a need for realign-
ernment approval in Madhya ing the policy focus for sup-
Pradesh against the provision for up "Only 2 per cent of the food porting small scale food pro-
to 100 workers earlier. However, is processed in India, with cessing units vis-a-vis mega
employers will have to pay higher food wastage amounting to food parks, which have sub-
compensation, three months' notice Rs 52,000 crore. There is a stantial land requirement,"
and at least three months' salary, in need for greater center- she said.
the event of retrenchment. Earlier, state coordination for taking
either of the two was allowed and forward the cause of food processing Jyoti added that the food
employees were paid 15 days' industry in the country," the Minister processing sector has immense employ-
wages for every year worked. of State for Food Processing Industries ment generating potential.
said at the 5th 'Agroprotech 2015'
summit. Jyoti said that rising popula- The minister said Mudra Bank is offer-
tion posed a serious constraint for avail- ing loans of Rs 5-10 lakh for skill devel-
ability of land. opment, which is an important compo-
nent in the food processing sector.
Manufacturing PMI slumps to record 25-month low
A day after official data showed high growth in the manufacturing sector, a
record since the new gross domestic product series came out;
the widely-tracked Nikkei purchasing managers' index had
quite a different story to tell. Manufacturing activities fell to
a 25-month low in November because of a slower increase in
new work and output. It fell to 50.3 in November, from 50.7 in October.
14 | 2016 | JANUARY | BANKING FINANCE
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