An Enterprising Initiative Towards Securing The Future Of Sustainability In Sugarcane Supply Chain Sector In India

* Acclaimed international civil society organisation, Solidaridad, organizes a multi-stakeholder discussion and deliberates on the opportunities of the sugarcane industry in India and the ways to mitigate challenges facing sustainable transformation in the sector 

India is the world’s largest consumer of sugar. The country’s sugarcane industry, second only to cotton in size, relies on more than six million smallholder farmers and countless labourers to produce its sugar. However, sugarcane farming is highly water-intensive, and recent years have witnessed significant depletion of ground water resources—threatening food security, economic growth and livelihoods of the farmers. Solidaridad, along with its consortium of partners, brought together multiple stakeholders in a policy consultation event on Friday to deliberate on the moot issues and the way forward for sustainability in sugarcane farming in India. The diverse cross-sectoral participation led to a milieu of strategic discussions on creating an enabling environment for resource-efficient supply chains in the sugarcane industry. 

The virtual advocacy event was designed to facilitate exchange of thoughts and ideas amongst sustainability practitioners, sugar companies, sugar mills, local and state governments, financial institutions and civil society organisations from India, Netherlands and across different parts of the world, working on a wide range of issues related to sustainable development, agriculture, water efficiency and business responsibility in the sugarcane sector. The event centred around influencing, advocating and exploring business and policy action strategies for sustainable and inclusive development in India’s agriculture sector. The emphasis was on taking learnings from current sustainable initiatives in India to develop recommendations on various thematic challenges, such as: 

Income and food security of farmers in the context of water and climate change  

Use of inclusive technology and artificial intelligence (AI) in agriculture 

Access to finance for farmers to adopt mechanisation and water-efficient practices 

Issues and opportunities with sustainable certification in India  

The shared experience of implementing an FDW Sugarcane programme in India with a consortium of partners over the past years has led Solidaridad to take this step forward in building a platform to share the experiences and achievements from the programme. Supported by the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO), Solidaridad launched the water-efficient sugarcane production programme during 2014-2015 in the states of Karnataka and Telangana in India. The FDW Sugarcane programme on increasing water-use efficiency in sugarcane farming in India was one of the first public-private partnership (PPP) programmes. It is currently running in its sixth year of implementation on the ground.   

Implemented by Solidaridad, the PPP programme comprises sugarcane companies, such as NSL Sugars Limited and Natems Sugar Private Limited and their respective sugar mills; knowledge partners Vasantdada Sugar Institute (VSI) and Osmania University; and technological partner eLEAF, which facilitates satellite mapping of the sugarcane plots for information on water, crop, crop-water productivity through robust monitoring systems. 

The programme aims to address over-exploitation of groundwater resources and alternatively focus on water-efficient practices. The objective of the FDW Sugarcane programme is to create a comprehensive and powerful impact at the ground level to support 35,000 farmers in sustainable agricultural practices by providing regular agriculture and financial literacy trainings, exposure visits to different sugarcane growing states, support in the uptake of latest technologies, development of local entrepreneurs and building robust infrastructures. The programme has so far been able to increase sugarcane productivity, reduce production cost and raise the farmers’ income from sugarcane production in the two states. 

Solidaridad, along with its consortium of partners, organised this multi-stakeholder sugarcane and water event by bringing together various stakeholders from the water and sugarcane industry. Sugar mills, sugar companies, agricultural universities, local and state government, financial institutions and NGOs alike were present at the virtual event today to discuss the opportunities and possibilities of building a more sustainable and resilient sugarcane sector. The diverse cross-sectoral participation created a milieu of strategic discussions on the way forward to the creation of an enabling environment for a resource-efficient supply chain in the sugarcane industry. 

The advocacy event was addressed by H.E. Marten van den Berg, Ambassador, Embassy of the Kingdom of The Netherlands; Ms Ella Lammers Senior Advisor, Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO); Dr Pandith Madhnure, Director, Ground Water Department, Government of Telengana; Dr Bakshi Ram, Director, Sugarcane Breeding Institute (SBI); Dr. Shatadru Chattopadhayay, Managing Trustee, Solidaridad; Mr Shivajirao Deshmukh, Director General, Vasantdada Sugar Institute (VSI); Mr Roshan Lal Tamak, Executive Director and CEO, DCM Sriram; Ms Ritu Baruah, India Programme Manager, Bonsucro and Mr Manish Pandey, Director & Head -Project analysis, Quality Council of India (QCI), along with other relevant stakeholders of the sugarcane and water industry. 

Embarking on this initiative, Dr. Shatadru Chattopadhayay, Managing Trustee, Solidaridad said “Sugarcane is historically called 'honey without bee'. It is the crop of the future with many potential uses from food, bagasse, fuel, fodder to even paper providing income source to around six millions of small farmers in India. However, sugarcane sector faces significant sustainability challenges relating to water use, soil health, productivity, profitability and smallholder livelihoods. The situation is exacerbated by increased rainfall variability due to climate change, which may reduce sugarcane yields by up to 30%. Solidaridad works across the sugarcane value chain from farmers, mills to sugar buying companies and financial institutions to make sugarcane sector more sustainable. Solidaridad experts also demonstrate that farmers and mills can increase profit while taking care of the environment. So far, We have achieved an increase in farmers average productivity between 20 to 40 per cent while saving billions of litres of water.” 

A Noble Step towards Sustainable Agriculture 

India's sugarcane industry relies on more than six million smallholder farmers to produce its sugar. Due to small farm size and the associated inefficiencies, Indian productivity lags far behind other parts of the world. Solidaridad has been working with all the stakeholders of the industry to improve productivity, increase water efficiency and deploy climate-smart agricultural practices throughout the country. One component, the VSI training programme, prepared by Solidaridad with funding from PepsiCo, and supported by the International Finance Corporation and Olam, enrolled 400 women from the Kolhapur and Belgaum Districts of Maharashtra and Karnataka states. Sugarcane is a labour-intensive crop and more than 60% of that work is done by women. The curriculum emphasised on water management, soil health, pest control and fertiliser optimisation and other good agricultural practices, which prepared the women to improve farm productivity. This new-found knowledge had a significant effect on their roles within their families, leading to increased confidence and greater self-esteem for many of them. The ability to improve their family’s wellbeing through greater productivity of their farms has been empowering. 

India is reported to have the highest groundwater depletion rates in the world, and, in Northern India, it is at crisis levels. With agriculture as the dominant consumer of water, it is imperative that action be taken now, at a national scale, not only to reduce consumption but also to harvest rainwater. Solidaridad is expanding its sugarcane programme to address this crisis. But this effort needs the sustained support of the companies buying sugar produced by these farmers. The six million sugarcane farmers, the majority of whom are women, must be enlisted in this effort. The programme underway in Maharashtra, Karnataka and Madya Pradesh is working with around 25,000 farmers. Other Solidaridad’s programmes in Uttar Pradesh and elsewhere involve another 300,000 sugarcane farmers.  

H.E. Marten van den Berg, Ambassador, Embassy of the Kingdom of The Netherlands “India and the Netherlands are committed to contribute towards global sustainable development thereby contributing towards the Sustainable Development Goals. We’re keen to work together with India on shared challenges and joint, innovative and cost effective solutions. Public-private partnerships between India and the Netherlands create win-win opportunities. In the field of water, several Dutch companies have been active in India for years who have reinforced several successful sustainable partnerships between India and the Netherlands.” 

About Solidaridad  

Solidaridad is an international solution-oriented civil society organization with partners all over the world. A journey spanning over five decades, Solidaridad has more often than not been the cradle of innovation in the sustainable development sector worldwide, pioneering several sustainable initiatives such as the global fair-trade movement among others. The organisation stands by its agenda of accelerating global sustainable and inclusive development through meaningful and strategic partnerships. Solidaridad’s mission is to ??bring together supply chain actors and engage them into?? creating innovative solutions towards improving production and ensuring transition to a ??sustainable and inclusive economy. Solidaridad aspires to ??transform production practices in a way that leads to fair and profitable livelihoods and ??business opportunities for the producers and guarantees them decent ??working conditions and a ??living wage, without depleting their land of its essential resources. 

India Business Success In 2021 Hinges On Delivering Exceptional Customer Experiences

* Global Annual Customer Experience Trends Report 2021 shows customers continue to be more demanding, making it harder for businesses to meet expectations in a post-pandemic world

Despite 2020 being a year of far-reaching and rapid transformation in how people live, collaborate, and connect, the global Zendesk (NYSE: ZEN) Customer Experience (CX) Trends Report 2021 shows the customer experience is increasingly crucial to business success and that the most successful companies are adopting new technology at record speed. In fact, new data released today shows that half (53%) of organisations in APAC are planning to invest in CX software more in 2021.  At the same time, two in five (44%) customers in the region say that experience is more important to them now compared to a year ago and 67% of companies say their organisation prioritises CX more than a year ago. This view  is also echoed by a majority of companies (90%) and customers (56%) surveyed in India.

The report looks at the top trends in customer experience through the Zendesk Benchmark, a unique data index on how more than 90,000 companies use their support solutions. The global report also includes survey insights from  India, as well as the US, UK, Australia, Brazil, France, Germany, Spain, Japan, Mexico, Singapore, Korea, Italy, the Nordics, and Benelux.

“We’ve seen companies in APAC embrace digitalisation at an incredible speed this year in response to the dramatic shifts in the operating landscape they’ve had to navigate. Customer experience has never been more important, and we think this accelerated adoption of technology is likely to continue in 2021. Organisations need to ensure they have the right strategies, processes and technology in place to empower customer support teams and drive business success,” said Wendy Johnstone, Chief Operating Officer, APAC, Zendesk. 

Further highlighting the acceleration of technology, a Gartner survey conducted in 2020 found that 91% of organisations said that CX was one of or the primary goal of their digital business transformation efforts.

“Even as businesses in India are looking forward to a new year of possibilities and are gradually returning to their workplace, one thing remains – the new normal is here to stay. The pandemic has accelerated the digital wave in the country within just a matter of days, raising the bar of customer expectations and demands. The CX Trends Report 2021 highlights how a seamless customer experience (CX) journey can elevate the overall experience and satisfaction that a brand offers its customers to drive longer lasting loyalty”, said KT Prasad, MD and RVP, India & SAARC, Zendesk.

From navigating changing behaviours to adopting new channels to reimagining the workforce, the Zendesk CX Trends Report 2021 gives companies a roadmap to navigate this new CX landscape so they can champion good customer service at every turn. Top findings include: 

Stay ahead of the digital curve: Companies are adopting technology at light speed, and it’s adapt or get left behind. In India, 73% of the customers are willing to spend more for a better online experience, while 40% of customers will switch to a competitor after one bad experience. On a macro level, organisations identified as ’high-performing’ in APAC based on customer service metrics such as CSAT and reply speed, are more likely to have adopted omnichannel solutions, with over half (54%) offering self-service in addition to other key channels including phone, email or messaging, compared to just 20% of low performers. 

Be part of a more conversational world: As customers adopt new behaviours, the soaring popularity of messaging apps opens the door for more streamlined, conversational experiences. Ninety-three percent of customers in India have tried a new way to get in touch with customer service in the last year - the highest in the region. For many, that includes using messaging for support requests over apps like WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger, which have spiked significantly during the pandemic with social messaging up 117% in APAC since February 2020.

Realise the power of employee experience: In an increasingly distributed world, companies must rethink how they work smarter across teams. Many employees across APAC still don’t feel like they have the right tools to succeed in this new and often distributed environment, whether it’s keeping track of their performance indicators, staying connected with their colleagues, or feeling supported by their companies. However, employees in India feel otherwise. Only 14% of managers in India say they don’t have the right analytics tools to measure success for remote teams, and 13% of agents don’t have the right tools to work successfully from home - the lowest in APAC.

Set teams up for success by emphasising agility: Facing continued volatility, service and support organisations must find ways to keep up with their customers. Customer experience leaders cited the ability to quickly adapt to the evolving needs of customers as their biggest challenge in 2020 and the highest priority going forward.

Make it easier for customers with a focus on CX: Unprecedented in speed and scale, the recent surge in online channels puts pressure on companies to meet rising expectations as customer experience takes center stage. The vast majority (72%) of customers in India say they are willing to spend more with a company that offers a good customer experience, while 62% will take their business elsewhere following bad experiences.

Additional resources

?      For more, including data and insights by region, industry and company size, go to LINK to read the full report. 

?      Check out the virtual event, “CX Trends 2021” here

Methodology

This annual look at the top trends in customer experience combines analysis of the Zendesk Benchmark, a unique data index on how more than 90,000 companies use their support solutions, with the results of surveys gauging the attitudes of more than 8,000 consumers, customer service agents and managers, and technology buyers, in 15 countries, including US, UK, Australia, Brazil, France, Germany, Spain, Japan, Mexico, India, Singapore, Korea, Italy, the Nordics, and Benelux.

About Zendesk

Zendesk is a service-first CRM company that builds support, sales, and customer engagement software designed to foster better customer relationships. From large enterprises to startups, we believe that powerful, innovative customer experiences should be within reach for every company, no matter the size, industry or ambition. Zendesk serves more than 160,000 customers across a multitude of industries in over 30 languages. Zendesk is headquartered in San Francisco, and operates offices worldwide. 

Dvara KGFS Wins “Technology For Financial Inclusion Awards 2020

 

Dvara KGFS, a leading NBFC in India, was announced as the winner in the award category – Technology for Financial Inclusion at “The Inclusive Finance India Awards 2020”. The award was presented to Dvara KGFS in recognition for the robust technology offering a suite of financial services & products for the underserved section of the society and for their operational excellence over the last year.  

The award was presented by Shri. Anurag Thakur, Honorable Minister of State for Finance and Corporate Affairs, Government of India to Mr. Joby C O, CEO, Dvara KGFS.  

Upon receiving the award, Mr. Joby. C. O., CEO, Dvara KGFS said, “We are delighted to receive this award for ‘Fintech for Financial Inclusion’. Dvara KGFS caters to more than a million customers across 6 states and provides comprehensive wealth management services to people living in remote rural areas where they have limited or no access to financial products. We believe that rural households require guidance and support for planning their income and investing in as many financial instruments such as savings, insurance, pension funds & other forms of investments to secure their financial future.  This would enable them to achieve financial freedom in the long term with adequate support of short term loans for their immediate requirements. Today, nearly 30,000 of our women customers from different geographies save around INR 500 per month through our innovative ‘Dvara Sampoorna Sampath Plan’ taking care of their savings, insurance & investments needs.” 

Dvara KGFS is one of the pioneers in financial inclusion by deploying technology to remote rural population to access financial products, enhance customer experience and strengthen internal digital capabilities. The technology has helped in diversifying the product portfolio through API integrations with Banks & other Financial Service providers. Dvara KGFS has branched into crop loans & insurance products by proving real-time banking services like AePS module, gold loan, savings products. 

About Dvara KGFS -  Dvara KGFS, a systematically important NBFC in the Dvara Group regulated by RBI, works with a mission to maximise the financial well-being of every individual and every enterprise by providing complete access to financial services in remote rural India. Dvara KGFS has a strong presence in Tamil Nadu, Uttarakhand, Karnataka, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Odisha, spread across 48 Districts with 308 branches and more than 1.1 million enrolled customers.  

Accenture, SAP To Help Organizations Transform Their Business through RISE with SAP

Accenture (NYSE: ACN) is working with SAP to help organizations accelerate business transformation through cloud-based deployments of SAP® solutions. With a goal of supporting clients at any stage of their transformation journey, Accenture is offering solutions and services that help lower the cost and risk of migrating SAP S/4HANA® to the cloud and pave the way for a reinvention of business models and processes.

New research from Accenture found that the vast majority of companies recognize that cloud provides the means to a variety of business benefits – greater cost efficiencies, improved service levels, and greater speed to market as well as enabling reimagined business models and improving business resilience. However, just 37% of companies say they are achieving the full value expected on cloud investments. Accenture and SAP are working together to help clients embark on business transformation through RISE with SAP, a new business transformation offering that uses the flexibility of public or private cloud infrastructure to provide the full intelligent enterprise experience, including the enterprise resource planning capabilities of SAP S/4HANA and integration with SAP Business Technology Platform.

Accenture’s approach to building on cloud can reduce many upfront migration costs, allowing more resources to be invested in creating new ways of working and new innovations that add business value. With a core system based on SAP S/4HANA on an agile cloud infrastructure, clients can quickly implement industry-specific processes and use joint solutions and extend functionality on SAP Business Technology Platform to simplify deployments.

“There are many options for moving SAP applications to the cloud; the path to embrace these changes is unique to every organization. The newly launched RISE with SAP clarifies options for clients in their journey to transform into intelligent enterprises,” said Caspar Borggreve, global lead for the Accenture SAP Business Group. “With our experience in SAP solutions, SAP Business Technology Platform and cloud deployments, Accenture brings an exceptional combination of industry and functional expertise and innovation at scale to power transformation across every facet of the business. We deliver 360ᵒ value through a smart approach that uses automation, existing investments and modern implementation methods to deliver solutions with greater speed and less disruption.”

Accenture is recognized as a leading partner to the world’s major cloud providers and recently launched Accenture Cloud First, a new multi-service group of 70,000 cloud professionals focused on enabling organizations to move to the cloud with greater speed and achieve greater value for all their stakeholders at this critical time. Accenture also works side-by-side with SAP to help companies improve business operations with industry-specific solutions based on SAP Business Technology Platform and integrated with SAP’s intelligent suite and SAP Business Network.

“The RISE with SAP offering helps simplify and accelerate our customers’ move to the cloud and will help deliver continuous innovation throughout their journey to become an intelligent enterprise,” said Dr. Uwe Grigoleit, senior vice president and general manager, SAP S/4HANA, SAP. “Together with our strong ecosystem, we will help customers chart a course for their business transformation.”

Accenture offers a range of services and assets to help clients move faster and gain more value from SAP S/4HANA. For designing, developing and delivering industry-specific cloud solutions, clients can look to Accenture myConcerto®, an insight-driven platform with intelligent capabilities and pre-configured solutions for industry and business functions. Clients can also use Accenture myWizard® to bolster automation across the end-to-end software engineering lifecycle and drive seamless systems transformation programs with speed, quality and predictability.

In April 2020, Accenture was named a Leader and positioned furthest in completeness of vision in Gartner’s 2020 “Magic Quadrant for SAP S/4HANA® Application Services, Worldwide”. Accenture was also named a Leader by Forrester in “The Forrester Wave™: Global SAP Services Providers”.

About Accenture 

Accenture is a global professional services company with leading capabilities in digital, cloud and security. Combining unmatched experience and specialized skills across more than 40 industries, we offer Strategy and Consulting, Interactive, Technology and Operations services — all powered by the world’s largest network of Advanced Technology and Intelligent Operations centers. Our 514,000 people deliver on the promise of technology and human ingenuity every day, serving clients in more than 120 countries. We embrace the power of change to create value and shared success for our clients, people, shareholders, partners and communities.

Indian Businesses Will Need To Tune Up Technology To Rethink, Reboot Digital Strategies

 

By Padmanabhan Iyer, MD and Global CEO, 3i Infotech

While COVID-19 continues to play out an unprecedented upheaval across the globe, businesses will need to tune up technology to bring some semblance of order to uncertainty, complexity and to rethink and reboot their digital strategies. Mr. Padmanabhan Iyer, Managing Director and Global CEO, 3i Infotech, pens some major tech predictions that will help steer through 2021. 

Artificial Intelligence 

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is undoubtedly one of the biggest tech trends at the moment and during 2021, it will become an even more valuable tool to help us interpret and understand the world around us. Customer patterns have changed drastically given the COVID-19 period and will continue well into 2021. This means that machine learning algorithms will become better informed with more data as well as increasingly sophisticated in the solutions they uncover for us. 

Digital Integration: Bridging the physical and digital 

As the digitalization trend continues to accelerate, the potential for optimizing processes, making data-driven decisions in real time, and creating new products, services, and business models will be the key that guides an organization’s efforts. Realizing the full promise of digital may require integrating systems and data across entire ecosystems. The more data one feeds into a digital ecosystem, the more detailed, dynamic, and valuable the digital initiative becomes. 

In the digitisation space, from a vertical perspective, payments & remittances will continue to have accelerated growth. Digital on-boarding has picked up pace in 2020 considering the social distancing required in view of the pandemic. This trend will continue as well. Micro, small and medium enterprises will be the focus area from digitisation perspective. 

Automation 

The urgency and need for automation technologies, such as Robotic Process Automation (RPA), AI, and machine learning, are stronger now than ever before. And the COVID-19 pandemic has made such automation solutions undeniably urgent. Democratization of automation would make these solutions easily accessible to all and when this concept becomes a reality, organizations will certainly see massive business transformation. Automation often requires extensive human participation and support. Thus, democratization will give companies sufficient access to automating mundane tasks and empower non-tech users. However, every new approach comes with a set of challenges, and the democratization of automation is no different. By developing and following a systematic framework, businesses can address such complexities with ease. 

XaaS (Everything-as-a-Service) 

As-a-Service (aaS) has already become the standard to turn into a truly digital-native enterprise. The new pattern in the aaS model is Everything-as-a-Service (XaaS) where services delivered will totally dwell on the cloud with virtual access to nearly everything. Tools, for example, the Internet of Things (IoT) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) will play a critical part in building those services or expanding existing services to go beyond the digital-native status quo. 

Open Banking 

Open banking is reported to have generated $7.29 billion in 2018 and is expected to reach $43.15 billion by 2026. Open banking will become the norm with even emerging markets rolling out regulations. This will fuel innovation in the fintech space addressing the New to Credit segment. Fintech as a service platform will emerge enabling banking as a service. This trend will be seen across the BFSI segment with multiple use cases that are evolving on a day-to-day basis. 

Augmented & Virtual Reality (AR & VR) 

AR & VR will evolve with use cases in businesses beyond the entertainment industry. The fact that they can create large simulation environments and the collaboration further with Artificial Intelligence will stimulate innovation. 5G technology will accentuate the use of AR/VR with better user experiences with shorter latencies. 

Regulatory Aspects: 

The enormous growth in the digital space puts equal focus on the regulatory aspects. Firstly, RegTech is gaining importance to ensure compliance is made simple with required analytics in place. This also helps the entities to focus on growing business where RegTech will enable required support for regulatory aspects. 

Secondly, there is a growing concern on ‘Security & Privacy concerns’ that needs to be addressed comprehensively with cybercrime increasing day by day. According to Gartner, by 2023, 65% of the world’s population will have its personal data covered under some kind of modern privacy regulations. 

Prospecta Recognised As Provider Of Master Data Management Solutions By Independent Research Firm

* Independent Research Firm highlights the importance of Master Data Management for businesses as data volume generated grows multi-fold

Prospecta Software Australia Pty Ltd (“Prospecta”), a global provider of niche services around enterprise customers for data and automation, is pleased to announce that it has been recognized as one of the providers of Master Data Management (MDM) solutions in the recent report, Now Tech: Master Data Management. Q4 2020 by Forrester, an independent market research company.

Romit Mukerji, Managing Director, India, Prospecta said, “We are honoured to be recognized by Forrester as a vendor of Master Data Management (MDM) solutions. Data is a critical asset for any enterprise today. MDM plays a pivotal role in enabling businesses to manage data accurately and efficiently to extract value and take faster insights-led business decisions that ultimately accelerate growth. We believe this acknowledgement is a testament to our continued efforts to address today’s challenges around data and automation.”

The volume of data generated is accelerating at an extraordinary pace, making MDM critical to any business function. Master Data Management acts as a catalyst in providing businesses with a single source of reliable information on products, customers, employees, suppliers, enterprise assets, and more by eliminating duplicate or erroneous data. It enables businesses to make informed decisions, improve compliance, efficiency, decrease costs, and identify value add solutions to deliver a better customer experience.

The report, Now Tech: Master Data Management Q4 2020 by Forrester, highlights these benefits of MDM and that enterprises are increasingly investing in a single source of data management which acquires, governs, protects, and distributes data for accelerating their business models. Forrester overviewed Prospecta as one of the MDM vendors based on its market presence (global) and functionality (on-premises; public cloud; multicloud; SaaS), under the small revenue category.

Prospecta’s proprietary cloud-based platform MDO (Master Data Online), is fast becoming the preferred option for companies seeking to address their data challenges, including several Indian and global companies such as Godrej, UPL, Hindustan Zinc, Bluestar, Dow Chemical, Mondelez, and Brookfield, among others. MDO is SAP certified and can be easily integrated with other leading enterprise solutions as well. Most recently, Prospecta raised AUD 20 million from Ellerston JAADE Australian Private Assets Fund to accelerate its product and operations globally including India.

FRAI Karnataka Appeals To The Prime Minister To Order Recall Of Proposed Amendments In COTPA Law

 

* Small retailers are already reeling under the aftermaths of the COVID pandemic and this fresh attack will be devastating for their families

* Around 2 lakh micro and petty retailers to lose substantial incomes and suffer harassment in the state of Karnataka

* India already has the toughest tobacco regulations in the world and an overkill in the pandemic period is very insensitive

Federation of Retailer Association of India(FRAI), a representative body of about 4 crore micro, small and medium retailersfrom across the country with membership of 34 Retail Associations from Northern, Southern, Eastern and Western part of the country, today appealed to the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi Ji, to intervene and order a recall of the proposed 2020 amendments in the COTPA law which threaten to further attack the livelihoods of petty retailers selling tobacco and related products across India.

FRAI Karnataka Chapter today staged a protest and has also appealed to Sh. B. S. Yediyurappa, Hon’ble Chief Minister of Karnataka to save the interests and livelihoods of around 2 lakh micro retailers and 10 lakhs dependants in the state who sell multiple products to earn a meagre sum to look after their families and save them from the potential harassment.  

FRAI represents the interests of the poorest of the poor in the country and raise issues which impact their employment opportunities and also render help to such people who are unable to express their views.FRAImembers sustain their livelihood by selling goods of daily needs which are demanded by general public like biscuits, soft drinks, mineral water, cigarettes, bidi, pan etc. in the neighbourhood. The profit of these micro retailers in selling these essential products works out to about Rs 15,000 per month which is barely adequate to feed two square meals a day to their family members.

The Coronavirus triggered lockdowns and economic destruction has further damaged the economic condition of small retailers and any further adverse policy which destabilizes their business activity will be devastating. FRAI and its member organizations from all over the country are disturbed by the undemocratic amendment of CoTPA bill 2020 proposed by the Ministry of Health, which disallows retail sale of loose sticks of cigarettes, prohibits sale of tobacco products persons below 21 years, put controls on in-shop advertising and promotion amongst others, as they seemed to be aimed at destroying the business for the smaller retailers without impacting large retailers. 

Speaking on the issue, ShriMurali Krishna, Member Federation of Retailers Association of India, and President, Karnataka State Small Beedi Cigarette Retailer Association, said “We humbly appeal for the Hon’ble Prime Minister’s empathy and request him to instruct the designated ministry to immediately roll back the proposed COTPA amendments as they are extremely harsh. By making age old trade practices like selling loose cigarettes a cognizable offence and an imprisonment of 7 years for small violations makes small traders look like heinous criminals. Compared to a 2-year imprisonment for extortion or for dangerous driving that can cause death, this is the extreme of the extremes. This puts paan, bidi and cigarette sellers in the same crime list category as a person voluntarily throwing acid on someone or causing death by negligence etc. How can anybody be so insensitive while drafting the amendment towards poor, marginalized people who are struggling to earn their daily living?”

“Already India has the toughest tobacco control laws in the world which has led to degrowth in legal tobacco consumption. Current laws have only helped illicit and smuggled cigarettes to grow benefiting anti-social elements. Then why these extra harsh tobacco control measures have become more important than other health issues like fighting deadly diseases such as coronavirus, diabetes, obesity, mental health, and diseases caused by rising air pollution etc. Unlike Coronavirus, policy changes like these are totally in the hands of our policy makers and should be given a serious human consideration. Today, we feel victimized and targeted as a community and plead for the mercy of Modi Ji”, he added. 

Increase of area within which tobacco products cannot be sold from 100 yards of an educational institution to 100 metres of an educational institution. Refuting the proposal, ShriMurali, said, “Our members provide various products to consumers based on the necessities. The tobacco products such as cigarettes and bidis are also included in the products offered by our members. As per law, we do not sell tobacco products to minors. In a congested and heavily populated cities, such a restriction is impractical. Petty retailers will have to vacate their place without any means to support their livelihoods. Moreover, if a new educational institution will come up within 100 metres of the retailer’s location and he will again be asked to move”.

The suggested amendment prohibits sale of tobacco products persons below 21 years (earlier this was 18 years). In India, an 18-year-old person can cast his / her vote to elect government of choice, get a driving license. But it is draconian, that same person cannot exercise their choice when it to comes to buying a tobacco product, which is sold legally. The existing law already prohibits sale of cigarettes to minors, so there is no cause for concern that persons who do not understand implications are buying tobacco products.

The petty retailers also request exemption for any such licencing requirement under the proposed amendment. A poor and uneducated small shopkeeper which barely manages two square meal a day, will have to struggle to get a license, and not only that, will also have to struggle to renew it every year. Perpetual harassment will increase under the guise of administrative control. This will not only increase the cost of doing business, but at the same time it will lead to corruption & harassment of the millions of small shopkeepers in the country.

FRAI believes that few NGOs who work for foreign companies are constantly pressurizing the government to enforce unfair and unimplementable laws against small shopkeepers. These policies are helping big foreign and ecommerce companies at the cost of business of petty retailers.

FRAI and its members requests the Government of India to be practical and equitable, especially for the lowest socio-economic strata of society who are already struggling to make two ends meet and not impose such harsh, arbitrary and unreasonable restrictions on our right to trade and livelihood.