PUNE, INDIA -  WTC Pune hosted a 22 member empowered delegation from The City of Karlsruhe at Pune on 18 January 2016. WTC Pune signed an MoU with City of Karlsruhe represented by Mr. Michael Kaiser, Director – Karlsruhe Economic Development Department; Mr. Wolfram Jäger, First Deputy Mayor City of Karlsruhe; Mr. Jochen Ehlgötz, Head of External Relationships, City of Karlsruhe - CEO Karlsruhe Technology Region.

City of Karlsruhe and industry representatives highlighted possible areas of mutual co-operation in ICT, e-Mobility and Smart City initiatives including Clean Energy and Smart buildings between Pune and Karlsruhe – a technology hub in Baden, Germany.

Recently WTC Pune also conducted a seminar with KPMG as its knowledge partner to discuss The Goods and Services Tax (‘GST’) roll-out in India. Mr Dilip Dixit-Sr. Advisor KPMG India felt that GST is a landmark change in Indian Tax regime. Dr Vaman Parkhi-Partner KPMG India explained in detail how businesses need to strategise and ensure continuity during transition. He shared how businesses should look at this change, what corporates should do and what some of them are doing to deal with GST challenges. Impact on supply chain, logistics and transportation were elucidated by Mr. Rajeev Singh-Partner KPMG. Mr. Yogesh Antad-Cummins India expressed the concerns and aspirations of industry from GST and the panel responded with great suggestions.

Mr. Aseem Agarwal highlighted the WTC Pune infrastructure created to support trade and commerce in the Pune region. Mr. Nikhil Oswal explained the concept of WTC Pune and its global trade services to further international trade.

Mr. Shekhar Dhore-Tax Head at Symantec dwelt on implications of GST on service sector- IT industry in particular. Ms. Jyotsna Sharma, CFO of Sandvik Asia and Mr. Ashwin Kelkar of KPMG spoke on financial implications and modification to ERP systems for GST implementation at corporate level. Mr. Rajesh Shukla- Indirect Tax Head of TATA Motors gave a glimpse on how businesses were preparing for GST. WTC Pune felicitated the speakers and panelists at the event attended by head honchos of corporate in Pune. Mr. Akash Arora of BFR Associates proposed the vote of thanks.

In the past few weeks WTC Pune has inked Reciprocal agreements-MoUs with global WTCs including Seoul – KITA Korea, Istanbul – Turkey, Savannah – USA, Lyon – France and Shenzhen-China to promote mutual trade and commerce of Pune with these global destinations.

For more details on the event contact sagar@panchshil.com