Kolhapuri Chappals turn exclusive with GI tag

Kolhapuris, the sturdy leather chappal that rose from its humble rural origins to occupy the high table of fashion globally, now has a Geographical Indication tag.

The Controller General of Patents, Designs and Trade Marks has granted the GI tag for Kolhapuris to a large area in Maharashtra and Karnataka, covering four districts in each state.

What the GI tag means is that footwear produced only in these eight districts will qualify to carry the tag of being Kolhapuris. Producers of footwear in any other part of the country will now be forbidden from using the term Kolhapuris to hawk their ware.

The GI tag will open large markets — both domestic and international — to the artisans producing Kolhapuris in Kolhapur, Solapur, Sangli and Satara districts of Maharashtra and Dharwad, Belgaum, Bagalkot and Bijapur districts of Karnataka.

Kolhapuris are already an established brand abroad.

Artisans in Kolhapur, some of them 4th generation specialists in crafting Kolhapuris, welcomed the news. Sanjay Tapase, whose family trades in Kolhapuris, said while Kolhapur has more skilled artisans, Karnataka beats Maharashtra in bulk production of the famed footwear. He, however, added that with law acting against Kolhapuri knock-offs being produced in other parts of the country, the market for genuine product will expand. “Let artisans in both states benefit. There is no quarrel there,” Tapase said.

A joint bid for GI tag was made by the Sant Rohidas Leather Industries & Charmakar Development Corporation Limited in Maharashtra and the Dr Babu Jagjeevan Ram Leather Industries Development Corporation in Karnataka in 2009 after a previous bid by Maharashtra was rejected.

According to the GI application made by the two states, Kolhapuris can be traced to the 12th century when King Bijjal ruled Bidar in Karnataka and his prime minister Vishwaguru Basavanna wanted to create a casteless society and remove the stigma associated with the chamar (cobblers) community. The community embraced Lingayat faith and used its creative skills to start producing footwear known equally for its ruggedness and royal bearing.

Brand Kolhapuri came into being only in the beginning of 20th century when the footwear began to be traded in Kolhapur. Chhatrapati Shahu Maharaj (1874-1922) of Kolhapur encouraged its production and 29 tanning centres were opened during his rule in Kolhapur, said the proposal.

Managing Director, LIDCOM, Rajesh Dhabre said the GI tag is a victory for artisans involved in producing Kolhapuris for generations. “Only authentic and genuine Kolhapuris should be available in stores the worldover,” he said.

Dhabre’s counterpart at LIDKAR, Prasad Abbayya, said the next step will be to help the craftsmen reap the benefits of GI tag. “We will open new training institutes to ramp up production. We will market Kolhapuris now aggressively around the world,” Abbayya said.

Domestic air traffic rises 3%: May 2019

The domestic air traffic witnessed a marginal rebound during the peak traffic season of May, rising nearly 3% year on year after witnessing degrowth of 4.5% in the previous month.

Domestic air traffic in May stood at 12.20 million passengers as compared to 11.85 million passengers in the same month last year, a jump of 2.96%.

According to analysts, though the situation has eased marginally in May, the improvement last month is nowhere near the scorching 20% per month average growth the industry witnessed over the past five consecutive years. Following the debacle of Jet Airways and grounding of some aircraft by other rival airlines, the capacity constraint led to a rise in airfares, thus keeping the fliers at bay. Fall in the passenger traffic in April was not all of a sudden as there were signs of a slowdown even in the preceding months. In March, passengers carried by the domestic carriers increased marginally by 0.14% and 5.62% in February.

CARE Ratings, in an earlier report on the aviation industry, said that the domestic passenger traffic growth during the year would moderate to lower double digits and higher single digits (8-12%).

Earlier this month, aviation consultancy firm CAPA said that the three Indian carriers, Spicejet, Air Vistara and AirAsia, are accelerating their fleet expansion by 51-66 aircraft, above their original expansion plan for FY20. Of the total fleet expansion plans, SpiceJet alone accounts for 30-40 aircraft.
This will help in restoring the loss of Jet Airway’s capacity by September this year. “Airlines must take advantage of improved conditions to strengthen balance sheets, raise capital and ensure not to squander benefits,” CAPA said further.

Meanwhile, IndiGo maintained its leadership position with a 49% share of the domestic passenger market in May, the DGCA data showed. Rival airline SpiceJet’s market share increased from 13.1% in April to 14.8% in May, thus being placed in the number two position. The market share of Air India, GoAir, AirAsia and Vistara were 13.5%, 11.1%, 6.3%and 4.7%, respectively.

RSS Worker Om Birla Set to Become Lok Sabha Speaker

In 2003, the BJP fielded a little-known 41-year-old, Om Birla, to take on Rajasthan’s urban development and housing minister Shanti Dhariwal. Not many expected the rookie to win, but he surprised everyone when he defeated the minister. On Tuesday, he created another surprise when the National Democratic Alliance announced him as its Speaker candidate for the Seventeenth Lok Sabha. Sixteen years later, Birla is no longer a rookie having won three assembly polls and two Lok Sabha elections.

Those familiar with the soft-spoken Speaker candidate will vouch for the organisational capabilities of the two-time MP from Kota. Known for his undeterred loyalty to RSS, Birla was handpicked by Amit Shah to lead BJP’s orgainsational revamp in Rajasthan in 2018 when the Raje government faced severe anti-incumbency. Although BJP lost the ensuing assembly polls, Birla was credited with restricting the damage to the party and it brought him closer to Shah’s scheme of things. Political analysts say his proximity to Shah has been decisive in his selection as NDA’s Speaker candidate.

Birla’s 40-year career has been devoted to social service and cadre-based politics. He has been known in BJP circles as an active parliamentarian, who asked around 670 questions in the last Lok Sabha. His bio profile on the Lok Sabha website states that he was imprisoned in UP during the Ram Mandir construction movement.

He has also served as deputy to BJP working president JP Nadda in the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha. Birla has the distinction of winning all five electoral battles he contested. As a first-timer in the Rajasthan assembly, he was made parliamentary secretary during Raje’s first tenure (2003-2008).

In 2008-13, when BJP lost power in Rajasthan, Birla played an active role in cornering the Congress government in the assembly over issues like water, employment and agrarian problems especially in his Hadoti region. In 2013, he achieved a hat trick of assembly election victories but quit his seat in 2014 to make his Parliament debut from Kota-Bundi. Birla is articulate in Hindi and has actively participated in debates in Parliament and the Rajasthan assembly.

FY19 Growth in Maharashtra Flat at 7.5%: Economic Survey

Maharashtra’s economy is expected to grow by 7.5% during 2018-19, same as the previous year, according to the Maharashtra Economic Survey report. The report shows that agriculture, industry and manufacturing services took a hit.

The biggest decline was in the agricultural sector with a decline of 2.7% expected over last year. The sector is expected to grow at just 0.4% against 3.1% in 2017-18. The industrial sector that grew by 7.6% last year is expected to fall to 6.9%. The only silver lining has been the services sector that showed a growth of 9.2% against 8.1% earlier.

The manufacturing sector is also expected to rise at just 7.1% compared with 7.7% last fiscal. Utility services are also projected to take a major hit with an expected grow of 4.3% against 6.5% last fiscal.

Manufacturing is estimated to rise at 7.15% in 2018-19 against 7.7 % in the previous fiscal, the survey said. The infrastructure/construction sector is expected to grow by 9.9% against 7.9% last year.

Maharashtra finance minister Sudhir Mungantiwar blamed the low growth of the agriculture sector on the prevailing drought. “The decline in the agri output is due to deficient rainfall. Except 2016, the state has received below average rainfall in the last few years,” said Mungantiwar. The finance minister claimed that the state was seeing investment in several other sectors and in the coming months they would see a rise. “Compared to 2017-18, we are expecting to see a rise in trade, hospitality, communication, financial and professional services, public administration, defence and other sectors,” Mungantiwar said.

His admission that growth ‘cannot be seen only through investment in select sectors’ is being seen by many as an admission that agriculture, industries and manufacturing sectors may see further fall in growth.

Similar to the trend of the Opposition questioning the Centre’s GDP figures, the Maharashtra Opposition too claimed that the figures given in the survey were ‘dressed up’. Leader of the opposition in the Maharashtra legislative council Dhananjay Munde said that the numbers needed to be checked by economists as the figures given by the government could be inflated.

The dismal figures for the state’s economy comes at a time when the state government has been aiming to become a $1 trillion economy by 2025 and is aiming for double-digit growth. However, the double-digit growth was reached only in 2016-17 when the state had reached a 10% growth. The decline in growth in the farm sector would worry the government that is expected to go for polls in another three months as an estimated 52% of the state’s population get their livelihood from agriculture.

The state’s debt is now at ₹4.14 lakh crore, up from ₹4.02 lakh crore. Yearly interest outgo has risen to ₹33,929 crore from ₹33,018 crore.

Fitch Cuts India’s Growth Outlook to 6.6% for FY20

Global ratings agency Fitch Ratings cut India’s GDP growth forecast for FY20 to 6.6% from 6.8% earlier as manufacturing and agriculture sectors showed signs of slowing down over the past year.
“We see growth for FY20 printing at 6.6%, before stepping up to 7.1% in FY21and 7% in FY22,” Fitch said in its Global Economic Outlook.

In March, the ratings agency had lowered the growth forecast to 6.8% from its previous estimate of 7% on weaker than expected momentum in the economy. However, it retained the FY21 estimate at 7.1%.

India’s economy grew at a five-year low of 6.8% in 2018-19.

Citing the declines in India's GDP growth for the fourth consecutive quarter in January-March, with the economy expanding by 5.8%, Fitch said: “This is the lowest growth outturn in five years. The slowdown over the past year has been driven by steadily cooling activity in the manufacturing sector and, to a lesser extent, agriculture”.

It added that weaker momentum has been mainly domestically driven, though export growth has also faltered more recently.

The agency expects another 25 basis points rate cut later in 2019, which will push the policy repo rate down to 5.50%. One basis point is one-hundredth of a percentage point.

Monetary and regulatory easing from the RBI, along with a recovery in portfolio inflows, should support a recovery in credit to the private sector and reverse the drag from the negative credit impulse, it said.

In its June monetary policy committee review, the central bank had cut rate by 25 bps, the third cut this year, so as to increase liquidity in the system. For the ongoing fiscal year, it was the second rate cut by the RBI.

As per the agency, there is a sharp rise in growth risks from further trade war escalation and it expects global GDP growth at 2.8% compared with 3.2% last year. This could be further lower at 2.7% in 2020.

Maharashtra CM expands cabinet ahead of polls

The optics of dropping six ministers and inducting 13 new faces months before assembly elections suggest the laying of a specific road map for the polls. For, five of the new ministers are from Vidarbha and three from Mumbai. Besides, five belong to the OBC category.

Analysing the reasons for greater representation to OBCs, a political analyst said, “They might have taken a lesson from the LS polls—one of the Vidarbha constituencies elected the only Congress MP (Bala Dhanorkar) in the state. Also, the BJP’s strongest leader in the state, Nitin Gadkari, could not win by the margin he expected in spite of working hard for his constituency.” Gadkari won Nagpur seat by a margin of 1.97 lakh votes.

Another reason for the focus on Vidarbha and OBCs could be an effort to assuage sentiments of the region’s voters amid the drought and farmer suicides. According to an expert, this may also help ensure that the old demand of separate statehood is not raised again during the assembly polls.

Amid these moves, Pune, which sent eight BJP MLAs to the assembly and had two ministers till recently, will now be deprived of any ministerial representation. For Dilip Kamble, the only ministerial representative from Pune, was dropped in the reshuffle. The other minister, Girish Bapat, who was elected as MP recently, resigned from the assembly.

An analyst recalled that when the Maratha quota was announced, there was anxiety within the OBC community that if the new reservation plan gets stalled due to to legal issues, the Maratha community might get a share from the OBC quota. The cabinet expansion seems to be partly an effort to send a message that OBCs won’t be neglected, the analyst said, pointing out that Anil Bonde, Sanjay Kute, Atul Save, Parinay Fuke (all from BJP) and Jaydutta Kshirsagar of Sena are from OBC category.

Four of the new ministers— Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil, Ashish Shelar, Tanaji Sawant and Sanjay Bhegadeare Marathas, while Suresh Khade and Avinash Mahatekar from RPI-A are from the SC category and Ashok Uike from tribal community.

To a query whether the reshuffle was part of social engineering to strengthen vote bank ahead of elections, the CM only said that a chance was long due for the new faces who are expected to take development schemes to newer regions and people. About the reshuffle, minister Vinod Tawde said, “We have tried to balance on both regional and social fronts.”

Goal Of Making India $5 Trillion Economy By 2024 Is Achievable

Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that with the elections having concluded, it is now time for everyone to work for development of the country and announced a panel, which will include some chief ministers, to review reforms and plan initiatives for the farm sector.

Speaking at the Niti Aayog meeting of CMs, the PM urged states for a collective fight against poverty, unemployment, drought, flood, pollution, corruption and violence. He announced the panel of CMs in his concluding remarks to the meeting. The panel will be formed soon and will submit its report within two to three months.

Modi also that the goal of making India a $5 trillion economy by 2024 was challenging but achievable with concerted efforts of states and urged them to focus on export promotion as it was vital to boost incomes and jobs. The PM said the committee on farm sector will take a holistic approach on farm sector reforms, including allied activities.

The focus on farm sector is significant as the issue of distress in agriculture was a major theme in the elections. Though the opposition attacks on this issue did not hurt the government, both BJP and Congress put a strong focus on measures for farmers in their campaigns and manifestos.

The PM said the country was moving towards a governance system characterised by performance, transparency and delivery.

He said empowerment, and ease of living, have to be provided to each and every Indian and the goals that have been set for the 150th anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, should be accomplished by October 2, and work should begin in earnest towards the goals for 2022, the 75th anniversary of  independence.

“On-ground implementation of schemes is vital. I urge members of the governing council to help create a government setup which works and has the people's trust,” Modi said.

“The goal to make India a $5 trillion economy by 2024, is challenging, but can surely be achieved. States should recognise their core competence and work towards raising GDP targets right from the district level,” the PM said and later added that the endeavour should be to achieve this target at the earliest. He said states should aim to increase their economy by 2 to 2.5 times and this would help raise the purchasing power of the common man. Modi said both the Centre and the states should work towards boosting growth in exports, to raise per capita incomes, adding that there was immense untapped export potential in several states, including the northeastern states.

Describing water as an important element for life, the PM said that the poor bear the brunt of insufficient water conservation efforts.

He said the newly created Jal Shakti ministry will help provide an integrated approach to water. Modi urged states to also integrate their efforts towards water conservation and management, stating that management of available water resources was a vital imperative.

The PM said the aim is to provide piped water to every rural home by 2024 and attention has to be given to water conservation, and raising the water table.