BHUBANESWAR: The State Government has asked all 112 Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) to discontinue the manual system and adopt all 10 online e-modules under e-Municipality application for citizen centric services.The e-Municipality project is being implemented as part of an Integrated Municipal e-Governance application software system in all ULBs along with the integration of existing software applications.
All the ULBs have been instructed to undertake legacy data entry using legacy data entry screen provided in the new application developed by Tata Consultancy Services (TCS). 

So far, the new birth and death module is in use at more than 90 locations and citizen grievance module is being used at more than 70 locations while trade license module is being used at more than 85 locations followed by holding tax and accounts module each at over 46 locations. “The e-Municipality Trade Licence module will be integrated with Industry Department portal under ‘Ease of Doing Business’ initiative. TCS will work with IPICOL to complete the task,” said an official.
 

The Maharashtra Assembly today passed the Shops and Establishment (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Bill which will enable shops to remain open 24 hours a day. According to the Hindustan Times, the only requirement is that the establishments take permission, which is also available online, from the police. According to the report, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis in the Assembly said, “The permissions will be based on the areas and the locations and the police will decide on the timings based on repercussions on the law and order.”

A statement released by the Ministry of Labour & Employment said that the bill’s provision of operating shops 24X7 would boost the retail market and give the consumers flexibility and convenience to shop anytime. Labour minister Sambhaji Patil Nilangekar told HT that apart from the ease of business provided by the bill, workers’ interests will also be catered to. He said that provisions have been made for CCTV installation and ensured that women, working the night shift, will be provided night drops.

he Maharashtra Legislative Assembly Thursday cleared the Bill that allows shops and establishments to operate round the clock and remain open all seven days in a week. At present, shops have to be shut by 10 pm while restaurants can run till 12:30 am. The Devendra Fadnavis government has justified the major reform, claiming it was a step towards improving the ease of doing business in the state. “The recent advancements in information and technology has revolutionised the mode of trading, making it possible to sell goods and services online without any physical, geographical and time limitations. To allow offline businesses to compete with the online businesses, it has become necessary to permit shops and establishments for 24 hours and all days in a week,” state Labour Minister Sambhaji Patil Nilangekar has said.
Incidentally, Shiv Sena’s heir apparent Aditya Thackeray was locked in the politics of credit over the reform with Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis over the issue.

The provisions of the new bill apply to shops, residential hotels, restaurants, theatres and amusement places to which the provisions of the Factories Act do not apply. It also applies to establishments, which include businesses involved in banking, stocks, medical practice, architects, engineers, accountants, tax consultants and professional consultants. There are over 38.5 lakh such establishments in the state.

The introduction of online issuance of fire license by the state government as a part of ease of doing business has helped the industrialists in a big way, said Arnab Roy, Principal Secretary to the Department of Fire & Emergency Services & Environment. He was speaking at the 11th Safety Symposium & Exposition organised by CII here on Tuesday morning. "This will not only lower time for getting fire licenses but will also remove the associated hassles and hardships for those setting up units here," he said.

He said that the Bengal government is not only investing adequate funds in fire prevention but is also trying to devise a mechanism which will make sure that a foolproof safety mechanism is in place and it is periodically being checked. Roy also informed the audience that with more and more highrises coming up in the city of Kolkata, the Bengal government has bought four hydraulic ladders, the tallest among them being 66 metre high.
 

Mumbai: Relaxing certain norms to facilitate the ‘ease of doing business’, the state has allowed the industries, developers to go for self-declaration about not being in “funnel zone” and “CRZ”. It has also introduced randomized risk based inspection and self certification for labor and environment clearances, discontinued industrial location policy for Mumbai Metropolitan Region, increased FSI for agriculture and no development zone and online payment of all taxes.

Intending to attract more investment in Maharashtra, the state government brought in some reforms in the industries sector for ease of doing business. “The state has shown an increase in compliance to about 92 per cent, helping it secure a rank in the top ten states in 2016. The state is constantly working towards implementing reforms to ensure better performance this year. Maharashtra is one of the few states where the single window mechanism is supported by a truly effective online portal called MAITRI,” an official from the industries department said.

NEW DELHI: The government is planning to bring out the draft of the new telecom policy by the year end, a top official of the telecom department said. The department of telecom (DoT) is also setting up working groups to aid in the creation of the new policy as the government aims to get views of all stakeholders, including the public, in the contours of the new policy. "We're expecting the draft of the new telecom policy to be out by December. The working groups are being created as we speak," telecom secretary Aruna Sundararajan said on Friday on the sidelines of an industry event. 

DoT has already held its first round of discussions with operators, industry associations and research organisations on the broad contours and key areas under the new telecom policy, which the government wants to bring in by 2018. Discussions, held a week ago, were around policy and regulatory framework, spectrum framework, security requirements for telecom networks, ease of doing business, and even manufacturing and exports. 

NEW DELHI: The Lok Sabha on Thursday passed the Companies Act (Amendment) Bill, 2016 that seeks to make significant changes to the 2013 law to remove complexities and improve ease of doing business, strengthen corporate governance standards and prescribes strict action against defaulting companies. The bill was passed with a voice vote, with over 40 amendments moved by Arjun Ram Meghwal, minister of state for finance and corporate affairs. 

The bill will now go to the Rajya Sabha. The bill has been brought to improve ease of doing business, Meghwal said. He said the National Spot Exchange Ltd and PACL scams were legacy issues the government was trying to resolve. It will proceed against companies not complying with corporate social responsibility standards, he added. 

NEW DELHI: Union cabinet cleared the first of the four labour codes on wages, paving way for consolidation of more than a dozen different central labour laws dealing with wages of labourers.  The cabinet also raised the ceiling for gold deposits under the sovereign gold bonds (SGB) scheme to make it more attractive. It also gave ex-post facto approval to an order to roll out goods and services tax in Jammu and Kashmir. 

LABOUR REFORMS 
The labour bill, marking the first major initiative of this government in amalgamating labour laws thereby significantly improving the ease of doing business as well as ensuring universal minimum wage to all, will now be laid in Parliament in the ongoing monsoon session. The proposed legislation is expected to benefit over 4 crore employees. “It has been approved,” a source told ET.