Heena Sharma Blog

  Flipkart Wholesale, the digital B2B marketplace of the e-commerce firm, is launching its first festive season sale since starting operations in August The three-day sale ‘Big Festival Month’ will start from Tuesday, and will feature products in the fashion categories across more than 50 brands, over 100 sellers, and 100,000 members. “The upcoming festive season is a great opportunity for retailers and MSMEs (micro, small and medium enterprises) to boost sales and profitability,” said Adarsh Menon, senior vice president and head, Flipkart Wholesale and Walmart India. “We see this as an opportunity for the whole retail ecosystem to come together, lift consumer sentiment, and drive business growth for local MSMEs across the country.” Read More

  The upcoming Diwali festival is expected to be a dark one for the firecrackers industry at Sivakasi as nearly 30 per cent of the production is already down and new orders are being rarely placed. The recent order by the Supreme Court for a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into the use of barium nitrate in the manufacturing of firecrackers added more pressure. Sivakasi accounts for nearly 90 per cent of the country's firecracker production. Around 1,070 firecracker units, mostly medium and small scale, are located in the district. About 300,000 workers are directly employed by the industry and another 500,000 workers are in the allied sectors. "For Vinayaka Chaturthi good quantities of firecrackers would be sold in Maharashtra. But this year it did not happen due to lockdown,” said Rajendra Raja, Vice President, Indian Fireworks Manufacturers’ Association. Read More               

The total number of Covid-19 cases in India stands at 78,003, out of which 26,235 have been cured and 2,549 have died due to the pandemic, leaving behind 49,219 active cases so far, according to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. Yesterday, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman gave details of a Rs 20-trillion economic package. In her announcements she focused mainly on MSMEs, NBFCs, power discoms, real estate sector and organised sector employees. Additionally, she said the definition of MSMEs would be altered and that the government would disallow global participation in its procurement tenders for up to Rs 200 crore. Read More

Micro, Small and Medium Entreprises (MSME) players in the country have called for urgent measures by the government, such as extension of deadline for filing GST, among others, to help the industry survive. K E Raghunanthan, past president of All-India Manufacturers Organisation and an MSME owner for the past 35 years, said that the sector had expected some steps to be announced in the Prime Minister's address yesterday. Pointing out that the corporate sector had received various tax benefits in recent times, he said the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) had even extended the deadline for them to hold board meetings. "MSME and traders are hand-to-mouth fellows, and there is no revival chance for us," Raghunanthan added. "The last 10 days of the financial year are very crucial for any entrepreneur. Today is the last day for GST filing and we haven't got Form 2A uploaded by our suppliers. We have not been able to raise as many invoices as we should ha