PM Modi addresses post-Budget webinar; 1,000 stakeholders take part

New Delhi [India], February 28 : Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday inaugurated a post-Budget webinar on 'Unleashing the Potential -- Ease of living using Technology' which saw participation from over 1,000 stakeholders which included industry associations, academia, experts, civil society and government officials.
In his address, PM Modi emphasised on the need to enhance the Ease of Living by using technology with human touch. He also reiterated that the benefits of digital revolution should reach the nooks and corners of society. India has skilled manpower, talented youth, technology adoption capacity which empower India to become Viksit Bharat by 2047.
He also urged that we must identify 10 problems being faced by our country which can be solved using technology and innovative solutions, according to a statement.
The webinar led by MeitY and co-led by DPIIT was attended by more than 1000 stakeholders on the weblink and YouTube.
As a part of the webinar, four parallel breakout sessions on different themes -- Ease of living using technology for access (led by MeitY); ease of accessing justice (led by DoJ); ease of doing business using technology, especially for small businesses (led by DPIIT); and ease of living using 5G use-cases and labs (led by DoT) were organised.
Breakout session on 'Ease of Doing Business using Technology, especially for Small Businesses' was anchored by DPIIT and moderated by Manmeet K Nanda, Joint Secretary DPIIT. Discussions were held on key areas like Common Business Identifier, Simplification of KYC, Unified Filing Process, Ease of Doing Business, Vivad se Vishwas, and Lab Grown Diamonds. About 150 participants attended the breakout session.
Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal in his address at the plenary closing session of the webinar stated that Prime Minister had institutionalised the unique idea of having Post Budget Webinars. He noted that these webinars would go a long way in disseminating information about budget and gives confidence to citizens about achieving budget objectives.
He also underlined the need to improve skills of government employees and sharpen their expertise based on recommendations by the private sector and the Mission Karamyogi will go a long way in achieving the same. Minister concluded by stating that all stakeholders should make collective efforts towards the objective of doing business easily in India and making it even easier to live in India.
Amit Pandey, Vice-President of, Indian Venture and Alternate Capital Association (IVCA), highlighted the need of having Common Business Identifier (CBI) due to the variety of identification numbers issued by different government agencies such as PAN, TIN, GSTIN, etc. To ensure that the CBI is meeting the needs of businesses, the government should establish a robust feedback mechanism, encouraging adoption, ensuring data privacy and security, streamlining registration and compliance processes etc.
Piruze Khambatta, Chairman, CII National Committee on Affirmative Action and Group Chairman, Rasna, urged for the need of simplification of KYC by constituting C-KYC by leveraging on Blockchain technology; interlinking C-KYC with entity Digi-Locker; adopting similar KYC process by all departments; risk-based approach for KYC due diligence; video KYC etc. Khambatta highlighted the need for an appellate mechanism for faster resolution of cases involving penalties due to KYC related non-compliance.
Viswanathan Ravichandran, Executive Director Technology, EY, discussed the need for Unified Filing Process to increase transparency in compliance requirements and facilitate the same through a single window.
To reach at the stage of the unified filing process, "Know your compliance status" mobile app for understanding the compliance requirements by various business; rationalisation of forms to made them available on single window; pre-population of data etc. can be considered. However, privacy and data security concerns to be kept in mind.
Jaijit Bhattacharya, Founder and President, Centre for Digital Economy Policy Research, highlighted that he is one of the key contributors to the Ease of Doing Business exercise that led to the meteoric rise in India's ranking in doing business report.
Bhattacharya, further highlighted on the reforms to drive the next phase of ease of doing business in India by undertaking a cost-benefit analysis of all regulations; trade remedies through anti-dumping duties (ADD); small overseas direct investments through ODI route; setting up of centralized compliances portal (eBiz) with APIs for business software to use etc.
Anil Bhardwaj, Secretary General, Federation of Indian Micro and Small and Medium Enterprises (FISME) discussed Vivad se Vishwas scheme for relief to MSMEs in case of failure to execute contracts during COVID period.
He highlighted that the GeM Portal should provide support for registering and lodging claims. He said that MSMEs have highlighted the concerns relating to low settlement amount long legal battles, etc. He laid emphasis on the need to conduct due diligence / review by empowered committee of government agency for merits of the case vis a vis sec-34 of IAC Act challenging verdict of arbitrator, etc.
The house was open for discussions after speakers shared their views and ideas. The audience were provided the opportunity to give suggestions and concerns for implementation of the key areas discussed during the breakout session.
DPIIT received suggestions /concerns related to funding issues in MSME; dashboards to monitor the progress of approval/registration; multiple audits under GST, Income Tax and Companies Act, etc.; rationalisation of interest rate across financial sector for MSME; import and export-related issues; trademark issue and payment of fines; single window to check all the applicable compliances; compliance score like CIBIL, etc.
Several eminent personalities namely Debjani Ghosh, President, NASSCOM, Justice A. Muhamed Mustaque, High Court of Kerala, Pawan Goenka, Chairman IN-SPACe, Department of Space and Chairman, SCALE, DPIIT, Former MD and CEO Mahindra and Mahindra, and Akash Ambani, Chairman, Reliance Jio Infocomm participated in the webinar and shared their insights in the Plenary Opening Session after the context setting by Alkesh Kumar Sharma, Secretary MeitY.