Uruguay v Portugal - 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia™ - Match 49
An Edinson Cavani double was enough to see off Portugal and secure Uruguay's passage to the Quarter-Finals of the 2018 FIFA World Cup. Find out where to watch live: fifa.tv/watch2018 More match highlights: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCGIzmTE4d0hww7NG9ytmooEUZov2k-23 More from Russia 2018: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCGIzmTE4d0ia-PWE7WoysqLao-0y7jEz More World Cup stories: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCGIzmTE4d0j5nOjvXOP55xyW3aJCyeGo Follow all the action from Russia across the FIFA Platforms: 👉 http://www.youtube.com/fifa 👉 https://ift.tt/1lBiWzz 👉 http://www.twitter.com/fifaworldcup 👉 https://ift.tt/1M0OH0G 👉 http://www.fifa.com


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The CBDT today extended the deadline for the PAN-Aadhaar linking to March 31 next year. This is the fifth time the government has extended the deadline for individuals to link their Permanent Account Number (PAN) to their biometric ID (Aadhaar).The policy-making body of the tax department issued an order, under Section 119 of the Income Tax Act, late night, extending the deadline. The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) had last extended the deadline on March 27. The latest order said the deadline for the PAN-Aadhaar linking for filing I-T returns was being extended after "consideration of the matter". It is understood that the fresh CBDT order has come against the backdrop of the Supreme Court earlier this year directing extension of the March 31, 2018 deadline for linking Aadhaar card with various other services. The apex court had ordered that the deadline be extended till the five-judge constitution bench delivers its judgment on petitions challenging the validity of the biometric scheme and the enabling law. The government has now made quoting of Aadhaar mandatory for filing income tax returns (ITRs) as well as obtaining a new PAN. Section 139 AA (2) of the Income Tax Act says that every person having PAN as on July 1, 2017, and eligible to obtain Aadhaar, must intimate his Aadhaar number to the tax authorities. As per updated data till March, over 16.65 crore PANs, out of the total about 33 crore, have been linked with Aadhaar. The earlier deadlines for linking the two databases were July 31, August 31 and December 31, 2017, March 31 and June 30 this year.

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Angel DI MARIA Goal - France v Argentina - MATCH 50
Angel DI MARIA's goal from the match against France. Find out where to watch live: fifa.tv/watch2018 Match highlights: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nc9zirKrT0Q More from Russia 2018: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCGIzmTE4d0ia-PWE7WoysqLao-0y7jEz More World Cup stories: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCGIzmTE4d0j5nOjvXOP55xyW3aJCyeGo Follow all the action from Russia across the FIFA Platforms: 👉 http://www.youtube.com/fifa 👉 https://ift.tt/1lBiWzz 👉 http://www.twitter.com/fifaworldcup 👉 https://ift.tt/1M0OH0G 👉 http://www.fifa.com


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Antoine GRIEZMANN Goal - France v Argentina - MATCH 50
Antoine GRIEZMANN's goal from the match against France. Find out where to watch live: fifa.tv/watch2018 Match highlights: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nc9zirKrT0Q More from Russia 2018: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCGIzmTE4d0ia-PWE7WoysqLao-0y7jEz More World Cup stories: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCGIzmTE4d0j5nOjvXOP55xyW3aJCyeGo Follow all the action from Russia across the FIFA Platforms: 👉 http://www.youtube.com/fifa 👉 https://ift.tt/1lBiWzz 👉 http://www.twitter.com/fifaworldcup 👉 https://ift.tt/1M0OH0G 👉 http://www.fifa.com


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Benjamin PAVARD Goal - France v Argentina - MATCH 50
Benjamin PAVARD's goal from the match against France. Find out where to watch live: fifa.tv/watch2018 Match highlights: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nc9zirKrT0Q More from Russia 2018: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCGIzmTE4d0ia-PWE7WoysqLao-0y7jEz More World Cup stories: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCGIzmTE4d0j5nOjvXOP55xyW3aJCyeGo Follow all the action from Russia across the FIFA Platforms: 👉 http://www.youtube.com/fifa 👉 https://ift.tt/1lBiWzz 👉 http://www.twitter.com/fifaworldcup 👉 https://ift.tt/1M0OH0G 👉 http://www.fifa.com


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Gabriel MERCADO Goal - France v Argentina - MATCH 50
Gabriel MERCADO's goal from the match against France. Find out where to watch live: fifa.tv/watch2018 Match highlights: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nc9zirKrT0Q More from Russia 2018: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCGIzmTE4d0ia-PWE7WoysqLao-0y7jEz More World Cup stories: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCGIzmTE4d0j5nOjvXOP55xyW3aJCyeGo Follow all the action from Russia across the FIFA Platforms: 👉 http://www.youtube.com/fifa 👉 https://ift.tt/1lBiWzz 👉 http://www.twitter.com/fifaworldcup 👉 https://ift.tt/1M0OH0G 👉 http://www.fifa.com


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Kylian MBAPPE Goal 2 - France v Argentina - MATCH 50
Kylian MBAPPE's goal from the match against France. Find out where to watch live: fifa.tv/watch2018 Match highlights: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nc9zirKrT0Q More from Russia 2018: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCGIzmTE4d0ia-PWE7WoysqLao-0y7jEz More World Cup stories: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCGIzmTE4d0j5nOjvXOP55xyW3aJCyeGo Follow all the action from Russia across the FIFA Platforms: 👉 http://www.youtube.com/fifa 👉 https://ift.tt/1lBiWzz 👉 http://www.twitter.com/fifaworldcup 👉 https://ift.tt/1M0OH0G 👉 http://www.fifa.com


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Kylian MBAPPE Goal - France v Argentina - MATCH 50
Kylian MBAPPE's goal from the match against France. Find out where to watch live: fifa.tv/watch2018 Match highlights: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nc9zirKrT0Q More from Russia 2018: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCGIzmTE4d0ia-PWE7WoysqLao-0y7jEz More World Cup stories: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCGIzmTE4d0j5nOjvXOP55xyW3aJCyeGo Follow all the action from Russia across the FIFA Platforms: 👉 http://www.youtube.com/fifa 👉 https://ift.tt/1lBiWzz 👉 http://www.twitter.com/fifaworldcup 👉 https://ift.tt/1M0OH0G 👉 http://www.fifa.com


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Sergio AGUERO Goal - France v Argentina - MATCH 50
Sergio AGUERO's goal from the match against France. Find out where to watch live: fifa.tv/watch2018 Match highlights: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nc9zirKrT0Q More from Russia 2018: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCGIzmTE4d0ia-PWE7WoysqLao-0y7jEz More World Cup stories: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCGIzmTE4d0j5nOjvXOP55xyW3aJCyeGo Follow all the action from Russia across the FIFA Platforms: 👉 http://www.youtube.com/fifa 👉 https://ift.tt/1lBiWzz 👉 http://www.twitter.com/fifaworldcup 👉 https://ift.tt/1M0OH0G 👉 http://www.fifa.com


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Vikash Patil’s siesta inside his mini-cargo truck, parked outside Surat’s Vankar Textile Market, comes to an end when his colleague Anwar Khan returns from a wholesaler’s office. All the paperwork has been done and the duo will now have to transport the goods in the truck — bundles of clothes — to a bigger vehicle some distance away. From there, the clothes and others from across Surat will be taken to a factory, where these will be dyed and embroidered — all part of its journey to becoming an apparel.Patil and Khan are part of an industry that is trying to find a footing after being hit hard by the roll-out of the new indirect tax regime. The goods and services tax (GST), implemented on July 1, 2017, subsumed 17 taxes under five slabs. It was supposed to ease tax process and intra-state trade. But a year since, GST remains an unpleasant term for small trader.“You ask everyone here — from porters to a seth (merchant) — GST is the most feared word even now,” says Patil, showing the 15-digit goods and service tax identification number on the challan in Khan’s hands. This document is crucial for tax processes. 64809503 A year ago — the days before the GST was implemented — textile traders in Gujarat’s second largest city came out on to the streets, fiercely opposing the new tax. The 5% tax slab included fabric, and Surat is a hub of fabric. The traders were anguished as fabric was never taxed in independent India, though yarn — the raw material from which fabric is prepared — was covered by value-added tax. For 18 days, the city’s textile industry, with 65,000 wholesalers spread across 150 markets, stopped work. Surat was the only city to see such fierce opposition to the GST.The textile traders also received support from a section of diamond merchants, who were unhappy with the 3% GST on cut and polished diamonds. But the anger of the city’s diamond industry evaporated when the GST Council slashed the rate to 0.25%. Surat has about 4,000 diamond factories, directly and indirectly employing seven to eight lakh people.The knife of GST had cut the city’s trading community into two. On the one side is a diamond industry that remains largely unaffected by the GST. On the other side is the textile industry, which is crying for help and sending SOS messages to the Centre. 64809537 According to data with the Federation of Surat Textile Traders Association, production in the city has dropped from 4 crore metres a day to 2.5 crore metres in the past year. One lakh looms have been sold, some in the scrap markets, as business had to shut shop. The federation’s general-secretary Champalal Bothra says: “At least 5,000 textile traders wound up their business after GST. The new tax regime has impacted 60% of marginal traders, those with an annual turnover of less than Rs 5 crore. The 5,000-6,000 traders who earn Rs 10 crore or more have been insulated from the GST.”The question, however, is why should a 5% tax cause such an extreme distress to the textile industry? Traders cite various reasons — from not getting refund on duty inversion (inverted duty is one when tax on finished product is lower than that on the raw material), blockage of working capital because of purchase-sell mismatches and, the most dreaded, process of filling up a complicated form called ITC-4, mandatory for securing tax credit. Getting tax credit lowers the tax burden of a trader. 64809551 Union Finance Secretary Hasmukh Adhia has another view on why Surat traders are opposing GST. “Traders are not willing to come under the tax net mainly because of the fear that they will have to report their correct turnover, which may have consequence on the direct tax side,” says Adhia, who, as the head of the revenue department, is also the ex-officio secretary of the GST Council, the apex body that approves changes in the indirect tax regime.But a number of traders told ET Magazine they were paying income tax honestly, and added that the transition from cash to cheque transactions was taking a toll on business volume.Unlike most textile units, the diamond industry is better organised. The GST has just been an add-on procedure for this section.Imported raw diamonds land in Mumbai through the banking channels before being ferried by the angadias, the unofficial courier men, to Surat. The diamonds are processed in Surat, Saurashtra and other parts of Gujarat before being exported. Angadias charge fee in cash, giving scope for manipulation.In fact, the government’s 0.25% GST levy on rough diamonds is basically meant for tracking the transit of diamonds rather than mopping up any additional revenue for the government. 64809566 “Three percent GST on polished diamonds was a concern for us,” says Babubhai N Gujarati, president of Surat Diamond Association. “But I knew the government would understand. The GST Council reduced the rate to 0.25% in January this year.”Forget GST, this diamond industry seems unmoved by even the Nirav Modi-Mehul Choksi scam. Flamboyant diamantaire Nirav Modi and his uncle Mehul Choksi are alleged to have defrauded Punjab National Bank of over Rs 13,000 crore. Both are absconding. Will more such diamond frauds crop up in the days to come?“In 2003, we had the Chirag Diamonds case (the company declared itself bankrupt and the owner Mahendra Gandhi mysteriously disappeared from the country),” says Damjibhai G Mavan, secretary of the city’s diamond association. “Now we have Nirav Modi. But the diamond industry is resilient enough to overcome such turbulences. Surat’s diamond business is well above GST or Nirav Modis.” 64809584 “In diamond trade, a polisher can become a factory owner”Babubhai N Gujarati, who rose from being a diamond polisher to a factory owner, explains why GST has no impact on the diamond businesses in SuratI started as a polisher in late ’60s, working over 10 hours a day. It was quite a struggle till I set up a diamond factory in Surat in 1992. I named the company B Mahesh. B is Bharat, my elder son who now manages our office in the headquarters, Mumbai.And Mahesh is my younger son who looks after our factory in Surat. We have 400 employees and make an annual business of `80-90 crore. Today, GST has no impact on the diamond business here. I became the president of the Surat Diamond Association in August — a month after the implementation of the GST. I led a delegation to New Delhi and met Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.Three percent GST on polished diamond was a concern for us, as transactions in diamonds are of high value. But I knew the government would understand, and the GST Council reduced the rate to 0.25% in January. The diamond business is a job creator and it’s possibly the only business where a polisher can become a seth (merchant). 64809694

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In June this year, a relatively minor transaction emitted an important signal from the inscrutable world of Mumbai’s high finance. Investors, led by Hong Kong-based Ward Ferry and US-headquartered General Atlantic, paid $110 million to acquire a 5.1% equity stake in IIFL Wealth Management, valuing the unit of the Nirmal Jainpromoted IIFL Holdings at $2 billion.The news might have caused top executives at the world’s financial hubs in New York, London and Hong Kong to do a double take. At least four marquee banking brands — Morgan Stanley, UBS, RBS and HSBC — had sold or wound down their wealth management business in India between 2013 and 2015. How could a supposedly difficult business be suddenly looking up?The tricky business of managing the wealth of India’s rich, perhaps the most trust- and instinct-led segment in all of finance, is not just looking up, but leapfrogging in sophistication and scope, promising not just high returns, but highly personalised service, and an implicit promise to cater to every need, whim, fancy and emergency. “We might get a call at 5pm in the evening. A businessman has forgotten to pay his advance tax. He needs to pay Rs 30 crore by 6pm and he has no money in the bank,” said Jain, chairman of the IIFL Group, during a recent interview. 64809292 A quick check of the businessman’s credentials and records with the firm, a snap decision to approve a line of credit after banking hours — all this has to be done in minutes to meet the deadline. In the world of the uber wealthy, understandably, some demands will border on the ludicrous. Another wealth manager recounted to ET Magazine the tale of a client who experienced an urgent need to purchase a Rolls Royce car, on his credit card. Could a Rs 10 crore credit limit be arranged on the card, right away, please? Not all demands are impulsive or lastminute.Some mandates can bring the wealth managers close to the client’s innermost thoughts and vulnerabilities. The mandate to draw up a family constitution for a business family with 170 members, spread across the world, each owning small bits of a business that runs in India, can be “an emotionally intense experience”, one wealth manager said. The wealth managers recounted anecdotes on the condition of anonymity, due to client confidentiality. 64809339 This, then, has come to be the expectation: If I’m trusting you with my money, I’ll expect you to be no less than the best in the world in growing my money. I’ll also count on you to be my friend, investment banker, life coach, concierge, legal adviser, 3 am counsel, shrink, credit arranger, voice of sanity and immigration lawyer, all rolled into one.Indian wealth managers are addressing a market with Rs 100 lakh crore ($1.5 trillion) of investible wealth, expected to double in the next five years. It’s already almost equal to the total savings bank deposits in the country. The heft is a given. What’s emerging in this business are three distinct trends — the growing complexity of client demands, the new sectors and the cities that are birthing the wealthy, and the growing sophistication of financial instruments into which the money is being deployed. 64809420 64809423 Two homegrown players have taken a clear lead in wealth management in India — IIFL Wealth and Kotak Mahindra Bank. Indian banks such as HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank, and non-bank players such as Edelweiss and Centrum, are also extremely aggressive, as are foreign players such as Citibank, Standard Chartered, Julius Baer and Credit Suisse. But there seems to be space for all. “Demand is not the problem,” says Anshu Kapoor, the head of private wealth management at Edelweiss, while talking about how much money is out there to manage, “It is the supply that has to keep up.” Growth is a given. The industry is eyeing something in excess of $3 trillion of personal investible wealth by 2022, as the Indian economy is poised to clock high single-digit growth rates. 64809485 The real market for the wealth managers generally begins at personal net worth of Rs 20-25 crore. While boutique services are available for those with lower net worth as well, including web-based tools for those with sub-Rs 1 crore net worth, it is the needs of the ones above the Rs 20-25 crore threshold that are reshaping the industry. One key influence on the industry is the needs of the entrepreneur class — emerging as well as old money. The entrepreneurs, especially those in the small and medium scale bracket, seek help from wealth managers for capital infusion or to monetise physical assets. And they end up getting involved in the business. The relationship works the other way too, where corporate finance services lead to wealth management. It is now important for the wealth manager to be a virtual private bank with access to credit and investment banking. 64809490 Ashish Garg of Boston Consulting Group, which recently released a report on wealth management, says: “In India, for MSMEs, business wealth is fungible with personal wealth.” Then there are the professionals — occupants of the C-suites and those with ESOPs. There is also old money, and Jain of IIFL points out that many such old money clients hail from Kolkata, clients who had made their fortunes in once dominant industries such as jute, and would normally have their chartered accountant manage their wealth.“Everyone has a different relationship with their money,” says Raghav Singhal, who heads wealth management at ICICI Bank, adding that the industry is reaching out to all kinds of clients with surplus money. The needs will vary depending on a host of factors. At 65, a client will have a lower risk appetite, and will be more concerned about wealth preservation and transfer to the next generation, compared with a younger client. Kapoor of Edelweiss adds another layer of complexity here, saying clients might have different sets of assets or wealth and assign risk differently to each — take for example a portion of assets marked for business growth and another portion marked for inheritance and transfer to the next generation. 64809495 There are also cultural nuances, like aversion to debt, that wealth managers have to work with. A wealth manager recounts how a client once requested that they help him sell off some of his investments to fund the purchase of an aircraft. “I found it so funny. I said let us do it on credit, but the client was steadfast. He did not want to borrow.”Relationships are KeyWealth managers confide that often they need to do business at odd hours. A dinner meeting at one of the hotels near an airport while the client prepares for an early morning flight is commonplace. A meeting that goes on till the wee hours of the morning — especially if a deal is being discussed — are also common. If the client is a film star, the timings and the constant rescheduling can get rather demanding. And matters can also get emotional, when it comes to a life’s work or passing on a legacy.Arpita Vinay, executive director at Centrum Wealth Management, says that the process of writing a will for a client that takes six months is often akin to having known the client over 20 years. Often the wealth manager helps manage business succession and family succession, and in such cases, as Vinay puts it, there are delicate situations where, “Equal is not always fair.”Trust becomes key here, and Singhal of ICICI points out that it is important to show that the wealth manager is not trying to push products, but has the best interest of the client at heart. “Not just in our heart, but also in our processes,” Singhal adds. 64809557 This means the wealth manager sometimes have to be a coach of sorts to clients, training them on a new area of investment or new sector and prepare them for new opportunities. What hasn’t changed from the olden days is that trust remains paramount in the business. Some wealth managers even declare if they earn any commission from product vendors or mutual funds, and share the same with the client if it exceeds their fees. Iñigo Mendoza, a Spaniard who heads Credit Suisse’s wealth management business in India, has previously worked at the bank’s Swiss headquarters as well as in Singapore. He says wealth management in India is increasingly resembling its global counterparts and there is a distinct demand for greater sophistication.Jaideep Hansraj, CEO of wealth management and priority banking at Kotak Bank, adds that it is important to offer a complete platform to the client, along with the right people, processes and products. “It is not easy to get it all together. Wealth managers have to be able to offer a complete range of services. We offer services like succession planning through our trusteeship company as an add-on service, which is beneficial to clients. When clients require lending or M&A advisory, we refer them to our group companies,” Hansraj adds. There’s more: sometimes a client may want help to move a next-gen member to lead the business in a different country.All the layers of services and ancillaries rest on the foundation of the business — returns on investments in double digits — typically between 12% to 18% on the entire portfolio — depending on the risk profiles. So what is the move towards sophistication that Mendoza of Credit Suisse was referring to, and what are the instruments India’s rich are using to multiply their money? The exotic and esoteric are cast aside in favour of the smart and the sober. There is little clamour for alternative assets such as art, wine or private islands. In fact, the trend now is to eschew physical assets in favour of complex financial instruments, in a departure from the Indian norm.The average for Indian households, according to the 2017 report by the Tarun Ramadorai Committee on Household Finance, is 84% investments in physical assets like gold and real estate. For the Indian rich, too, there have been historically a lot of investments going into physical assets. That is changing.Arpita Vinay of Centrum confirms that clients across the country, including smaller cities such as Chandigarh or Coimbatore, are looking at moving their investments from the physical to the financial. With greater diversity emerging in the profile of their clients, by age, location and risk appetite, wealth managers are fashioning a special class of products.Among the most popular instruments for investing is the socalled long-short fund, which allows the investor to not only buy equities but also go short on it and hedge the risk. There are also various structured finance opportunities, where the client gets to invest in debt financing, through a complex set of instruments that cushion the risk. Also on the menu are the so-called mezzanine finance instruments, which invest in a mix of debt and equity. 64809562 Alternative investment funds, distressed assets fund, infrastructure yield funds, infrastructure investment funds and pre-IPO funds (where investment goes into a company before an IPO) are some of the other areas of interest. These also form part of the bouquet that the wealth manager puts together. Kapoor of Edelweiss says that in recent years, regulators have permitted many new financial instruments in India. Regular mutual fund houses, too, have launched funds targeting the money advised by wealth managers.Given the growing array of choices, investors welcome help in choosing and understanding. Atul Nishar, founder and chairman of Hexaware Technologies, is a client of IIFL Wealth, and had been convinced by Nirmal Jain himself to avail the services of the firm a few years back. He says: “We used to manage it at our family office. However, now we use the expertise of wealth managers as they know much more about the kinds of products available in the market and are able to match our risk profile to the instruments.” Nishar has also taken help from IIFL to invest in startups.Media entrepreneur Raghav Bahl has not only let a wealth manager manage his money but has also taken a firm’s help for tax planning, succession planning and to draw up a will. Bahl says: “As your portfolio grows you realise that your own ability to manage it is quite limited. Anything upwards of Rs 50 crore needs help.”There seems to be a consensus that the number of people in the bracket is increasing. Kapoor of Edelweiss estimates that if the bar is set at Rs 25 crore, there would be five lakh families with that kind of wealth by 2025, with only 25% of them getting help and the rest of the market open to be courted for business. In the meanwhile, with more than 20 mainstream players, the wealth management industry is also ripe for consolidation. The $110 million investment in IIFL Wealth Management could be a harbinger.

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Sujatha Rajeswaran made the kind of career shift those stuck in the corporate rat race tend to wistfully talk about, around the office water cooler. Eight years ago, she and her husband quit their IT jobs in Chennai and began farming on a three-acre plot near Puducherry, where they grow paddy, millets, pulses and sesame free of chemicals and pesticides. The switch meant losing a steady monthly income but Rajeswaran says they enjoy other luxuries, such as eating fruit plucked fresh from the garden. Some of the crops they grow, such as traditional varieties of rice, are sold directly to customers, while others are sold to a few retail outlets in Puducherry.By the time you read this, though, Rajeswaran would no longer be able to sell her produce to retail stores under the organic label. A new rule framed by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), which kicks in on July 1, bans the retail sale of food labelled as organic unless it has been certified according to one of two processes. “I don’t know what will happen,” says Rajeswaran, who chose to sell by building trust with the stores over getting her products certified. 64809718 So far, certification was compulsory only for export. Farmers who wanted to export organic produce had to opt for third-party certification by one of 28 agencies recognised under the National Programme for Organic Production (NPOP) guidelines. Those selling at home could either get NPOP certification or choose the cheaper Participatory Guarantee System-India (PGS), under which farmers form a collective and vouch for the others’ produce. But neither was compulsory for domestic sales. “It was a free-for-all situation where anyone could call anything organic and get away with it,” says FSSAI CEO Pawan Kumar Agarwal. “We are trying to create a clearer system.” The new rule will empower food safety officers to test samples from the market and prosecute transgressors. Sandeep Bhargava, CEO of certifying body OneCert, says the intervention was necessary. “It was very essential, with a lot of frauds taking place and many non-certified products in the market. This move will increase the trust of the consumer and eventually help expand the market.” 64809730 A 2016 Yes Bank White Paper on the organic market in India estimates the organised market to be Rs 250-300 crore and the “uncertified, unmonitored” one to be Rs 300-500 crore. On an average, organic produce sells at a 30% premium. At online retailer Big Basket, for example, a kilo of organic carrot costs Rs100 while local carrot is Rs80.Big Basket, which sees 5% of its sales from organic produce, says the company sells only certified goods, which includes private labels Fresh Organic and BB Royal Organic. “The FSSAI regulation will not affect our procurement. We are currently studying the draft notifications and will make necessary changes, if any, to comply with the notification,” says Seshu Kumar, national head for buying and merchandising, Big Basket. Online meat delivery startup Licious, which is gearing up to introduce organic meat, says it will sell only meat that is certified organic. “We will strictly follow such aspects of certification and rely on only accredited certification bodies,” says Rajesh Kumaramenon, vice-president, quality and food safety at Licious.But small farmers argue the two certification options are either expensive, cumbersome or both and doesn’t always guarantee quality. The samples in a 2014 study by the Indian Agricultural Research Institute had found pesticide residues above permissible levels, though the samples had been certified by third-party agencies. Erode-based Ramaswamy Selvam, who started organic farming in 1996, says certification under NPOP would cost him Rs 15,000-Rs 50,000, while the PGS system is cumbersome and time-consuming. For instance, the fee structure of Bureau Veritas, an NPOP-recognised agency, includes Rs 15,000 per man day for organic certification for one farmer, Rs 7,000 as certificate fees and Rs 2,000 for a transaction certificate, apart from expenses for lab analysis, travel and accommodation. Typically, a certification is valid for three years and renewals cost less. 64809743 64809745 Under PGS, which is supposed to be free, a farmer has to form a collective with at least four other organic farmers. “We would have to visit the others’ farms twice in one cropping season, which is not easy if the farms are not nearby. I see the new rules as a kind of punishment to me for having turned organic,” says Selvam, who has circulated an online petition demanding the rules be withdrawn. “If I apply for certification, I will also have to wait three years to get it. What happens in that period?” adds Selvam, referring to existing NPOP regulations which specify that “the whole farm…should be converted to the (organic) standards over a period of three years,” referred to as the conversion period. Vishalakshi Padmanabhan, founder of Bengaluru-based farmer collective Buffalo Back, says they are trying to help the 35% of their farmers who have not yet been certified with the procedure. “But it is not easy,” she says. Others, like NCR-based iOrganic, which sells 3,000 litres of milk a day, have been able to sidestep the rule by having organic only in the brand name. “We have not called our milk organic anywhere, we only say it is farm-fresh,” says founder Aditya Sinhal.Kavitha Kuruganti, a former member of the government task force on organic and non-chemical farming, warns that the new rules will keep a whole set of farmers out of the organic market. “It will become an elite market dominated by big brands serving wealthy customers.”FSSAI’s Agarwal argues that a clause exempts a “small original producer or producer organisation” directly selling to the consumer from certification. But Selvam asks why the exception for direct sales should be restricted to “small farmers”, a term that has not been defined. For now, the non-certified farmers and their supporters are hopeful of some leeway on deadline as well as further discussions to arrive at a solution acceptable to all. The FSSAI, on its part, says it is willing to listen. For starters, the ambiguity over the definition of who is a small farmer is likely to be removed by defining the category as those earning less than Rs12 lakh a year. “We might also give a few months beyond July 1 for farmers and others to comply. The regulations are final but in the course of implementation, if we face any difficulty, we are open to renewing them,” says Agarwal.

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Peter Betzel took charge as the CEO of Ikea India in March. In his previous role, he was the head of the Swedish multinational’s best performing market — Germany, for six years. Betzel’s appointment comes at a crucial juncture as Ikea will open its first India store in July, in Hyderabad. The company is making an initial investment of Rs 10,500 crore. Its Hyderabad store, spread over 400,000 sq ft, stocks 7,500 products and has more than 1,000 products priced under Rs 200. In his first interview after taking over the Ikea reins in India, Betzel speaks to Malini Goyal on a range of issues. Edited excerpts:On his first impression of IndiaBy nature, I am quite open to new ideas, challenges and experiences. But this assignment was not on my to-do list. What strikes you is the size, diversity and friendliness in the country, which is also the world’s youngest. We have been in Germany for over 40 years, and it is a very established operation. India is new and a very exciting and challenging market. In contrast to Germany, where people are a lot mature, in India, the openness of people to move and create a new life strikes you. The traffic, of course, is a disaster here.64809645 On Ikea’s plansWe have big plans for India. Telangana is one of our first identified priority markets, besides Delhi NCR, Maharashtra and Karnataka. We will open a store in Mumbai in 2019, with a multichannel multi-format approach, followed by Bengaluru and Gurgaon. In the next phase, we will expand to Ahmedabad, Surat, Pune, Chennai and Kolkata. We have about 1,500 co-workers (or employees) today. We will have 50 per cent women in the workforce at all levels. In the coming years, we will have close to 15,000 co-workers.On sourcing from IndiaIkea works with close to 60 suppliers and sources several products such as textiles, rugs and mattresses, lighting and metal products for our stores worldwide. Our suppliers have 45,000 direct employees. We would like to expand to new categories. We have already signed up sofa and mattress suppliers for export. We will maximise local sourcing to be more affordable and reduce carbon footprint by importing less. Our long-term goal would be to source more than 50 per cent of our products locally. FDI norms in India mandate 30 per cent value of all products to be locally sourced within five years of operations. We are on our way to around 19 per cent .64809650 On the product and supplier landscape in IndiaIndira bedspreads, made in Tamil Nadu, have been part of our range for more than 50 years. We have been making coir rugs in Kerala for many decades. Today, we have a recycled plastic supplier in west India. We now have a mattress supplier in Telangana and a sofa supplier in Karnataka. We work with 300,000 farmers producing better cotton in India. We work with two social entrepreneurs engaging 1,500 women artisans to make special collections for India. We have made a special Indian textile collection called Ursprungllig, a tribute to the Indian textiles industry.On Ikea India’s key challengesI see many opportunities. Retail deserves to have an industry status. Look at its potential — growing the economy, increasing manufacturing and sourcing from the country, creating jobs, developing skills, transferring knowledge and increasing participation of women in the workforce.On how India shaped IkeaIndia has been good for Ikea in multiple ways. Affordability (finding new solutions and new materials) and quality (meeting tough everyday environment in India) are two. Improving quality in India means improving quality for the world.64809664 On India debut and the Hyderabad storeWe did more than 1,000 home visits in Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Delhi to know more about their problems, needs, dreams and aspirations. All over the world, people do roughly the same things: eat, sleep, store, etc. But what differs is where and how they do it. For Indians, a home holds a special place in their heart. So, localisation will be visible in the solutions we showcase. For example, the 24-hour bedroom is an interesting challenge. People sleep, store, do make up, watch TV and eat in the bedroom. Every decision about the house is a collective one. Indians love colour. The most important part of every Indian home is its children. Our products will be affordable. There will be something for everyone.On smaller format stores in MumbaiWe have to get closer to customers. People have less time, they don’t want to spend a whole day going to a far-off Ikea store. When we open in Mumbai next year, we will open with an online option, a big Ikea store in Navi Mumbai, followed by other touch points in the city.On his expectations from the Hyderabad storeFor us, India is a new country. The only thing that I am sure of is that once the store opens, we will learn a lot. Learn and adapt, learn and adapt… less planning and more learning — that’s what I can foresee us doing.Sourcing, The Secret SauceWith its high-quality, sleek designs and hard-to-beat prices, Ikea is expected to consolidate and grow India’s unorganised home furnishing industry. Multiple factors help the world’s largest home furnishing retailer make compelling offer to its customers. One is its sheer size and scale — the $42 bn giant has 415 stores spread across 49 countries. Another is its sophisticated global suppler network combined with local sourcing. India is one of the last big bastions for Ikea to win. Its experience in tough markets like China should help. Expect Ikea, already working with 60 Indian suppliers & sourcing $370 mn worth of products, to put all its learnings and might to woo Indian buyers.

from The Economic Times https://ift.tt/2IEi9Ol