Mumbai, Jul 15 () Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX) has said it is seeking approval from market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India to re-launch potato futures contracts. "There is a need (of hedging) in sensitive commodities like pulses and sugar etc... We may soon be launching potato contracts," said Rishi Nathani, head of business development at MCX, while commenting on industry demand for robust farm futures trade in a webinar on agricultural reforms. The exchange has applied to the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) for permission to re-launch the potato contracts, he stated. MCX had a successful potato futures contract, few years ago, but it lost liquidity over a period of time due to which Forward Markets Commission, then regulator of the commodity derivatives market, asked MCX to stop trade in the contract in September 2014. In the webinar on agricultural reforms, organised jointly by MCX and Indian Merchants' Chamber (IMC), food business major ITC stressed on necessity of a robust hedging platform to hedge price risks in number of commodities as the period of lockdown saw crude falling over 70 per cent, palm oil 30 per cent, and corn, wheat and potato too saw huge volatility hurting FMCG companies. Tarkeshwar in West Bengal, Delhi and Agra in Uttar Pradesh are top potato trading centres with a robust warehousing infrastructure for the tuber crop, which is increasingly gaining importance in contract farming space among domestic and multinational food companies like Pepsi. SM ANS ANS

MCX seeks Sebi approval to re-launch potato contracts

Chandigarh, Dec 1 () The Punjab government is set to leverage the upcoming 'Progressive Punjab Investors Summit' to reach out to some of the world's leading FMCG companies for boosting the agriculture sector, an official statement said on Sunday.
 The summit, to be held on December 5-6, will serve as a platform to promote new initiatives and adoption of technologies for the betterment of the agri sector through adoption of clean agricultural practices, it added.
"Amid the growing focus on modernisation of agriculture to make it more sustainable and progressive for the farmers, Captain Amarinder Singh-led government is set to leverage the upcoming Progressive Punjab Investors Summit 2019 to reach out to some of the world's leading FMCG companies for partnering the state in boosting the sector," the state government said in a statement.
The summit comes at a time when the agriculture sector is in the limelight over air pollution caused by stubble burning, and the state government is trying to promote mechanization to get rid of the paddy straw.
"The World Economic Forum (WEF) is extending full support to the Punjab government in its efforts to build and strengthen a more sustainable agri sector," the statement said.
It will aim to enhance farmer incomes and helping them move up the value chain. It will also help garner support for the agri-focused startups that have come up in large numbers in the state over the past couple of years and have proved their merit at international platforms for their unique digital and sustainable agriculture solutions.
"Top agri players like ITC, Godrej Tyson, Hariyalee Seeds, Spain's Congelados De Navarra and IFFCO have confirmed their participation in the summit, which will highlight the potential opportunities of growth in this sector as well as the strengths of the Punjab ecosystem," the statement said.
The state government is organising the 'Progressive Punjab Investors Summit on December 5 and 6, which will see participation from the micro, small and medium enterprises from Punjab, apart from leading industrialists, new-age entrepreneurs, foreign missions and other dignitaries, Punjab Additional Chief Secretary Vini Mahajan had recently said. SUN BAL
BAL

'Punjab's investors summit to help boost agri sector'

New Delhi, Dec 21 () From policy stability to emphasis on exports of local goods, key industry players on Saturday discussed and suggested measures for making India a USD 5 trillion economy.
SAIL Chairman Anil Kumar Chaudhary, ITC Chairman and Managing Director Sanjiv Puri, Cadila Healthcare Chairman Pankaj R Patel, Bharti Enterprises Vice Chairman Rajan Bharti Mittal and JK Paper Vice Chairman and Managing Director Harsh Pati Singhania took part in the discussion during a session on 'India: Roadmap to a USD 5 trillion economy' organised by industry chamber FICCI here.
The executives stressed on the need for Indian manufacturing to become globally competitive and join global value chain as the key ingredients for becoming a USD 5 trillion economy.
"If we have to reach the level of USD 5 trillion economy by the next five years, we have to be globally competitive. India also needs to increase its exports of steel and other manufactured items," SAIL Chairman Chaudhary said.
Cadila Healthcare Chairman Patel said that policy stability is required for any business to grow. "Without policy stability it becomes impossible for industry to plan long-term goals."
"We all know that manufacturing is not something we can decide today and begin the production tomorrow. It takes time. Besides, innovation has the most important role to play for any industry to survive," he said.
Bharti Enterprises' Rajan Mittal suggested that the government should focus on strengthening the digital backbone of the country.
Industry has been disrupted, he said adding that government's intervention is needed.
J K Paper's Singhania said the country's manufacturing sector first needs to become internally competitive as several factors are still holding it back including the multiplicity of regulations from different regulators.
ITC CMD Puri said that "farming is a large employer. Lots of jobs were created in the post-harvest management". 
"Even the food processing segment has the largest employment to capital ratio. We need to plug into the global value chains in value-added agricultural products," he added. ABI MKJ

Industry captains discuss road map for USD 5 trn economy

Top 10 Indian companies by market value in 2024

ReutersU.S. President Trump visits Derco Aerospace in Milwaukee, Wisconsin<ul><li>President Donald Trump this month <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1204408551034228737?s=20">hailed</a> his signature rewrite of North American commerce rules as the "best and most important trade deal ever made."</li><li>But economists are less optimistic the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement will deliver the sweeping growth the president promised.</li><li>In a new analysis, the Peterson Institute for International Economics estimated the agreement would instead cause US growth to decline by 0.12%.</li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/?hprecirc-bullet" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories</a>.</li></ul>President Donald Trump this month <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1204408551034228737?s=20">hailed</a> his signature rewrite of North American commerce rules as the "best and most important trade deal ever made," saying it would benefit vast parts of the economy from the agricultural sector to factories. After more than a year of heightened uncertainty, businesses welcomed the announcement last week that the White House and Democrats had reached the compromises necessary to replace a 25-year-old trade pact with Mexico and Canada.But economists are less optimistic the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement will deliver the sweeping growth the president promised. In a new analysis, the Peterson Institute for International Economics estimated the agreement would instead cause US growth to decline by 0.12%."The pact modernizes trading rules, and strengthens enforcement of labor and environmental rights, but is still a net negative for all three economies," economists Mary Lovely and Jeffrey J. Schott wrote. "Its regulatory mandates, especially in autos, will restrict trade and hurt US industry." Under the new agreement, 75% of car components must be made in Canada, Mexico or the United States. While an increase from the previous requirement of 62.5% was meant to bolster the sector, it could actually raise input costs and slow activity. "The outcome will be just the opposite," Lovely and Schott wrote. "The new content requirements will raise production costs, resulting in higher auto prices, reduced US demand, lower auto exports, and more rapid substitution of machines for workers."USMCA won the endorsement of the powerful AFL-CIO last week, offering a green light for Democratic support. The agreement also toughens labor and environmental standards in North American trade. "One reason is that it defuses the argument that they do not know how to do anything in Congress except impeachment, and another is that many moderate Democrats feared rejecting something promoted by Trump at this contentious time," Lovely and Schott added. In a <a href="https://www.usitc.gov/publications/332/pub4889.pdf">congressionally mandated report</a> released in April, the US International Trade Commission reached a similar conclusion. The independent panel estimated that without reduced policy uncertainty, which it found to be a central benefit of USMCA, domestic growth could actually fall under the trade agreement. Gross domestic product would slip by 0.12% if the trade policy outlook remained the same, the ITC report predicted. Roughly 30,000 auto industry jobs would be created, but overall American consumption would fall because of higher prices."The increase in US auto parts production would draw resources away from other manufacturing sectors and the rest of the US economy, driving up production costs for other sectors," the report said.ITC <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/bill-gates-warren-buffett-billionaires-donate-money-2017-10">On Giving Tuesday, see how Bill Gates and Warren Buffett are changing the world like no other humans in history</a></h3>

Trump's signature NAFTA rewrite could actually dampen US growth, new analysis finds

●Themed ‘Innovation for All’, the event focused on amplifying impact through revolutionary technologies ●Villgro announced total funding to the tune of INR 4 crore through iPitch. Winners included BeAble Health, Kritsnam, Cultyvate, along with several other social impact startups ●30+ pertinent panel discussions around social innovations in agritech, medtech, cleantech &amp; employability were hosted by 100+ industry experts December 07, 2019: Villgro, India's oldest and foremost social enterprise incubator, successfully wrapped up its Unconvention 2019 conference on 7th December 2019. As always, the event was a high-decibel confluence of leading social entrepreneurs, CSR professionals, investors, policymakers, and academia. Aimed at understanding the crucial nature of constant innovation to power the next phase of social entrepreneurship, Uncovention’s 10th edition was indubitably a resounding success. <a name="m_-6531833679794319461_m_6042435902640344815__gjdgxs"></a>Day 1 of Unconvention started with a power-packed mentor meet – a workshop with former, current and potential Villgro mentor who discussed the importance and challenges of mentorship, specifically in the social sector. This was followed by several round-table discussions around the conference theme – Innovation for All: Amplifying impact potential for philanthropic capital. These discussions were aimed at donors looking at diversifying their impact portfolio. The opening address, describing the prolific 20-year journey of Villgro, was then presented by R. Ramaraj (Senior Advisor, Elevar Equity &amp; Board Member, Villgro); NK Chaudhary (Chairman &amp; Managing Director, Jaipur Rugs), then hosted a fireside chat covering the importance of low cost innovation to create large-scale impact. This was followed by a discussion on making innovations accessible to next billion, comprising Sharad Sharma of iSPIRT, Bindu Ananth of Dvara Trust, and others, moderated by PR Ganapathy (Regional Director India, Stanford Seed). The event then gave way to the most sought-after part of Unconvention. The winners of iPitch, Villgro’s investment discovery platform were announced. This year, backed by donors like Hindustan Unilever Foundation (HUF), and iPitch investment partners like Menterra, Upaya Social Ventures, Beyond Capital Fund, the total investments worth 4 crore were offered to early-stage start-ups such as Kritsnam Technologies, Oscillo Machines, Lal10, Flexmotiv and more. Arunabha Ghosh (CEO, Council on Energy, Environment, and Water (CEEW)) &amp; Paul Basil (CEO, Villgro) then launched the multi-million dollar 'Powering Livelihoods' initiative by Villgro &amp; CEEW. The next set of sessions included the much needed masterclass on “Data Protection Law” by Unconvention’s Legal Compliance Partner GameChanger Law Advisors. Shobini Mukerji (Executive Director, J-PAL), Shama Karkal (CEO, Swasti Health Catalyst), and Aparajita Agrawal (Former Co-founder &amp; Director, Sankalp Forum) covered diverse topics. These included access to capital for social sector start-ups, creating awareness and market access, and innovative financing models. The day wrapped up with a networking session dubbed as ‘Investor Speed Dating’ which entailed one-on-one conversations with industry-leading investors. Day 2 of Unconvention commenced with a closed door session with select medtech entrepreneurs and Dr. <keyword id="172787" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Devi-Shetty">Devi Shetty</keyword> (Chairman and Founder, Narayana Health), followed by his keynote address. He highlighted the key learnings from his 20-year journey with Narayana Health. He was introduced by Dr. Paul Salins (Managing Director and VP, Narayana Health and Mazumdar Shah Cancer Centre). This was followed by another round of investor speed dating and a masterclass on Being Compliance Ready by Unconvention’s Financial Compliance Partner SpiceRoute Business. The day was dedicated to sector-specific sessions, focusing primarily on Education, Energy, Agriculture and Health. Commenting on the state of renewable energy in India, Arunabha Ghosh, CEO, CEEW, said, India alone has more than $50bn worth market for clean energy solutions for rural livelihoods. Powering Livelihoods, a joint initiative between CEEW and Villgro, aims to trigger the transformation of India's rural economy by scaling up the deployment of clean energy-powered livelihood solutions. By marrying CEEW's deep expertise in evidence generation and sectoral engagement with Villgro's years of experience in growing businesses, the initiative provides significant capital, capacity building, and ecosystem support to enterprises to scale up these solutions. Furthermore, there was an enlightening session on Energy and Cleantech addressed by some of the eminent personalities in the industry such as Tanya Kothari of Shell Foundation, Svati Bhogle of Sustaintech India Pvt Ltd. and Col. Manish Ahuja of PREFPL. The topics that were discussed in the session included leveraging energy innovations as a growth catalyst for India’s micro enterprises, entrepreneurship in times of climate change and future of clean mobility. The discussion around the education &amp; employability sector focused on Leveraging the gig economy for impact and Collaborating for tech for good. The speakers included Avishek Gupta of Caspain, Aparna Dua of Asha Impact, Rahil Rangwala of MSDF, Kevin D'souza of <keyword id="790242" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="WhatsApp">WhatsApp</keyword> and Nataraj S. Kuntagod, Accenture, among many others. For the health sector, the chosen topics of discussion were Ayushman Bharat and Digital Health and procurement policies that can revolutionize the sector. The speakers included Varun Jhaveri of Ayushman Bharat, Kiran Anandampillai, National Health Authority, Garima Sahai, <keyword id="170241" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Medtronic">Medtronic</keyword> Labs, among many others. Dr. Devi Shetty, Chairman and Founder, Narayana Health, advised the medtech entrepreneurs to have breakfast, lunch and dinner in the hospital with clinicians. It is said often but still not enough - you need to immerse yourself into the clinical workflow. Shaping the future of water footprint in agriculture and innovations in agri-supply chains to solve for agricultural losses were the topics covered in the discussion pertaining to the agriculture domain. The speakers included Reshma Anand Shivakumar of ITC, Rasika of Soulfull, <keyword id="80658" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Anil-Kumar">Anil Kumar</keyword> of Samunnati Finance, Hemendra Mathur of Bharat Innovation Fund, among 20+ others. As the event comes to its culmination, Paul Basil, Founder and CEO, Villgro, said, “Having successfully wrapped up the 10th edition of Unconvention, we cannot help but reflect upon this gratifying journey. We have come a long way and have empowered innumerable early-stage start-ups with seed funding and best-in-class mentoring, strategy-creating, GTM support, follow-on fundraising support. I would like to express my gratitude to everyone who has joined us on this journey and all those who are present here today. Thank you for your unwavering support that has allowed us to catalyse multiple generations of social entrepreneurs and create an ecosystem of unbridled growth for all aspiring entrepreneurs. Together, we have – and will continue to – change the world!” (Business Insider India is a digital media partner in the event)

With large-scale investments, insightful discussions and all-round innovation, Villgro wraps up Unconvention 2019

The ongoing global economic crisis and the Chinese slowdown have brought everyone together. <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Prime+Minister+Narendra+Modi">Prime Minister Narendra Modi</a>, Finance Minister <keyword id="42575" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="Arun-Jaitley">Arun Jaitley</keyword> and Chief Economic Adviser (CEA) Arvind Subramanian along with <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/Raghuram-Rajan-is-doing-good-work/articleshow/48712160.cms">RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan</a> and other economists met key industrialists of <keyword id="46431" type="CITY" weightage="100" keywordseo="India-Inc">India Inc</keyword> today to discuss the future growth prospects of the Indian <keyword id="34412" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="80" keywordseo="economy">economy</keyword>. 
 
While industry leaders called for interest rate cut in the upcoming Reserve Bank of India (RBI) monetary policy review and more policy action to improve ease of doing business with India, PM Modi asked India Inc to increase risk-taking appetite and step up investments. 
 
The prime minister called bankers and industrialists to brainstorm on how India can manage global economic turbulence, including opportunities for Asia's third-largest economy in China's market and growth woes. 
 The industry leaders who attended the brain storming session with Modi on 'Recent global events: Opportunities for India' were <keyword id="6355199" type="CITY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Reliance-Industries">Reliance Industries</keyword> Chairman <keyword id="3820" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Mukesh-Ambani">Mukesh Ambani</keyword>, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Tata+Group+">Tata Group</a> head Cyrus P Mistry, <keyword id="6359480" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Aditya-Birla">Aditya Birla</keyword> Group head <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Kumar+Mangalam+Birla">Kumar Mangalam Birla</a>, Sunil Bharti Mittal of <keyword id="6354287" type="CITY" weightage="40" keywordseo="Bharti-Airtel">Bharti Airtel</keyword> and ITC chief Y C Deveshwar. 
 
Jaitley highlighted some of the key takeaways from the brainstorming session: 
 
&gt; Suggestions were made for de-stressing steel and textile sectors. 
 
&gt; Some defensive measures were suggested for countering dumping. 
 
&gt; Bankruptcy code in final stages of drafting. 
 
&gt; India will be less impacted by global turmoil as its fundamentals are reasonably strong. 
 
&gt; Global turmoil will have an impact on equity and currency markets. 
 
&gt; The agriculture sector requires attention. 
 
CEA Arvind Subramanian made a short presentation during the meeting, highlighting how India is relatively better placed amidst the global crisis. Some of the salient features of his presentation are as follow: 
 
&gt; Era of relatively cheap oil likely 
 
&gt; China turmoil a recent development. India will remain relatively attractive. 
 
&gt; China's slowdown will have less impact on India. 
 
&gt; India has untapped potential, especially in infrastructure. Cost of building infrastructure will go down because all inputs to the sector are much cheaper now. This is consistent with the government's plan to up public spending. 
 
&gt; Infrastructure is important for manufacturing and the value added chain 
 
&gt; Many corporates such as Siemens and <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Xiaomi+">Xiaomi</a> are committing investment to India. Some of them are investing as a hedge against the China slowdown 
 
(Image: Indiatimes)

You Searched For "itc agriculture" and got 7 results

MCX seeks Sebi approval to re-launch potato contracts

PTI

'Punjab's investors summit to help boost agri sector'

PTI

Industry captains discuss road map for USD 5 trn economy

PTI

Top 10 Indian companies by market value in 2024

BI India Bureau

Trump's signature NAFTA rewrite could actually dampen US growth, new analysis finds

Gina Heeb

With large-scale investments, insightful discussions and all-round innovation, Villgro wraps up Unconvention 2019

BI India Bureau

Trying to be on the same page! PM Modi brainstorms with India Inc and RBI governor

BI India Bureau