MSMEs seek support for claims at post-Budget webinar — details here

During the webinar, PM Modi emphasised on the need to enhance ease of living by using technology with human touch, reiterating that benefits of digital revolution should reach all sections of the society.

The webinar, co-led by Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeiTY) and the DPIIT, also witnessed participation of industry leaders Akash Ambani, the Chairman of Reliance Jio Infocomm, Debjani Ghosh, the NASSCOM president, Pawan Goenka, the chairman of IN-SPACe; apart from several policy makers.

As part of the webinar, four parallel breakout sessions on different themes were organised — 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).

Amit Pandey, vice-president of Indian Venture and Alternate Capital Association (IVCA), highlighted the need of having a common business identifier (CBI) due to variety of identification numbers issued by different government agencies such as PAN, TIN, GSTIN, etc. He also sought a robust feedback mechanism along with streamlining of registration and compliance processes.

Piruze Khambatta, the chairman of CII National Committee on Affirmative Action and group chairman of Rasna Private Limited, urged for the need of simplification of KYC by constituting C-KYC by leveraging on blockchain technology; interlinking of C-KYC with entity digi-locker; adoption of similar KYC process by all departments and an appellate mechanism for faster resolution of cases involving penalties due to KYC-related non-compliance.

Viswanathan Ravichandran, the executive director of technology at Ernst & Young (EY), discussed the need for a Unified Filing Process to increase transparency in compliance requirements and facilitate the same through a single window. Dr Jaijit Bhattacharya, founder and president at the Centre for Digital Economy Policy Research, highlighted the reforms to drive the next phase of ease of doing business in India by undertaking cost-benefit analysis of all regulations, trade remedies via anti-dumping duties (ADD), small overseas direct investments via ODI route as well as setting up of centralised compliances portal (eBiz) with APIs for business software to use.