The Indian government must be their policy so that foreign direct investment up to 24 percent in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), while ensuring better credit facility financing and technology for global competitiveness, industry experts said Wednesday.

Direct benefits of FDI have not durchdrang on SMEs “, Prabir Sengupta, director of the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade, said in a Workshop on Technology Financing for SMEs.

He proposed a revision of the current political DI-including the provision of foreign equity up to 24 per cent for SMEs.

Opening a workshop, Sengupta said the SME sector was important for the economy, because about one third of total Indian exports and 7.0 percent of GDP.

Draw the challenges of the industry, which accounts for 95 per cent of industrial units and employs more than 17.8 million people, Sengupta said small businesses should be cheap loans instead of grants.

In an era of globalization techno-brands to the internationalization of technology and the globalization of the economy, Sengupta said the training system must also be the development of the industry. In his speech, Senior Adviser Confederation of Indian Industries, YS Rajan, said while it is important for SME units-specific skills, they must also think globally and work on the world market.

Rajan, co-author of “India 2020 - A vision for the new millennium” with President APJ Abdul Kalam, said that the mere invention of a technology is not enough.

Similarly, it is important to say that technology in production and provide a delivery system, so it can be used, he said.

The government at the Centre is planning to introduce 100 per cent Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the education sector. Under the General Agreement on Trade and Services (GATS), the Union government had agreed at the WTO conference to allow FDI in the education sector by 2003.

This would imply that foreign educational institutions would be allowed to establish wholly owned subsidiaries in India, leading to a foreign education and certification for students. The move is aimed at increasing the number of foreign students pursuing higher studies in India, which stood at 7,000 in 2001, as well as retaining a proportion of the 48,000 Indian students going abroad each year.

The move will make foreign education/certification more accessible to Indian students as well as substantially reduce the costs involved for the student. The government is simultaneously attempting to allay fears on excessive commercialisation of higher education by limiting the nature of foreign institutions entering the sector through a condition that allows only registered societies and non-profit organisations.

But, is the announcement a real reason to rejoice for students or education providers?

Indian students, for a long time, have had access to foreign certification and education through various tie-ups.

Certification tie-ups such as the tie-up between University of London and ITM, which allow students to gain a degree from the university while studying in India, have existed for sometime now. Educational tie-ups such as the ones between Columbia University and Indian Institute of Journalism and New Media, Bangalore, entailing the provision of course content and teaching assistance by the premier American school for journalism to the Indian counterpart is also becoming a norm in the sector.

Also, reputed universities in the UK and the USA offer courses to international students through external education programmes rather than setting up shop themselves. Hence, the entry of institutions will be limited to smaller players. For the institutes, the announcement implies increased competition in a sector already facing a bottleneck due to an unprecedented mushrooming of private institutes. The only benefit accruing to them might be the additional avenue for capital.

Member of the Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia asked today, completes the modernization of export procedures in the country, described as one of the priorities of field, the country should be.

On the occasion of the celebration of convening a symbiosis between the Institute of Foreign Trade, the former secretary of finance complained that in recent years, exports have been disappointing.

“ All this happened because we are focusing our efforts on exports of before,”he said and added that the procedures of exports was archaic and are not adapted to modern times.

He said, “ we have a great look at the whole structure of export support, if we really want to remove barriers to the export promotion seriously.”

The economist noted, arrived in full support of foreign direct investment (FDI) in the Land of saying that the opening of direct foreign investment is to facilitate direct access to foreign markets and other forms capital as a loan.

Of course, underscores the need, in the best technology in the country, he said FDIS contribute to a smooth transfer of technology of all kinds, such as technology management and software that are not imported into traditional channels.

Ahluwalia strongly supports access to new technologies say that, in addition to the acquisition of technology, it was equally important to allocate resources for just a major player in the field of technology.

“ We must help bring modern technology in the country, because it is from and help local producers to manufacture products betting with international standards,”he observed.

Talking about the globalization of financial markets, the Ahluwalia noted that in no country in the world could afford to stay away from the process of globalization.

“ In these circumstances, is the key to success lies in opening trade. Thisintiates the process of necessary changes and to concentrate national competition in international markets and that,”he said. Later, far Ahluwalia degree of success students of the Institute.

PUNE: Refuting the notion that technologies cannot coexist, former chief vigilance commissioner N. Vittal on Sunday said exploring technologies that would make telecom services viable, especially in the rural sector, was the need of the hour.

He was addressing the 6th national telecom seminar in the city, titled ‘The Wireless Conclave’, organised by the Symbiosis Institute of Telecom Management.

Vittal suggested that a combination of wireless technology and direct inward dialling could make rural telephony viable. He cited Bangladesh’s grameen (rural) phone scheme, which has not only succeeded in taking telephony to the rural areas, but worked towards the empowerment of women.

Joining the great debate over the relative superiority of the European global system for mobile communications (GSM) and the American code division multiple access (CDMA) technology, Vittal voted for CDMA.

Vittal, who has also served in the telecom commission, however, cautioned against jettisoning GSM, saying endusers were the best judges.

Vittal criticised the classification of wireless telephony into mobile and limited mobility: “Actually, there are only two types - fixed lines and wireless. Vittal strongly criticised the bureaucracy’s obsession with International Telecommunication Union (ITU) approvals that prevented the emergence of new technologies.

“By the time the ITU approves a certain technology, the market might have already jettisoned it for a better one,” he said.

Listing technology, political will, regulatory activities and market dynamics as the four critical drivers of the telecom sector, Vittal called for a closer look at national security in the light of new frequencies and bandwidths.

The only way to ensure that telecom operations, especially the cellular ones, remained profitable, was to adopt infrastructure sharing, Vittal said. He also joined many other experts on Sunday in criticising the N.K. Singh panel on foreign direct investment (FDI) for not opening the tap fully and allowing it in doses.

This reflected a lack of political will and all we have to do is to look at China, which has its priorities clear, he said.

Singapore, 1 February: Singapore is considering setting up a Special Economic Zone in India to help in augmenting FDI from the city state as the two countries Wednesday [1 February] agreed to work towards an Asian Economic Community, implement on time Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement and explore the untapped potential for cooperation in science and technology.Singapore’s senior minister Goh Chok Tong told visiting President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam here Wednesday…