Indian Economy-News & Updates

[Star Wars]

Highway projects worth Rs 40,000 cr get roadmin nod - Financial Express

In a boost to the infrastructure sector, the ministry of road transport and highways has approved highway projects worth over Rs 40,000 crore.

These projects, to be implemented in the next couple of years, are in Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and the Northeastern region.

“We have approved projects worth R20,000 crore for Jammu & Kashmir. They include 2-laning and 4-laning of National Highways in the state some roads projects in Leh and Ladakh and we will co-ordinate with the PWD (public works department) of the state for these projects,” minister of road transport and highways Nitin Gadkari said.

He said these projects will be complete in the coming two-and-a-half years and will encourage tourism in the state. The road ministry has also announced projects worth R15,000 crore in the north-eastern region comprising Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland and Tripura. “Within three months, we will start work on those projects and preparation of DPRs (detailed project reports) has already started,” Gadkari said.

In Uttarakhand, which faced massive floods last year, the government has announced it would build a brand new road network. “We will set up a new highway network in the state and will invest R6,000 crore for that,” he said.

The government proposes to construct one-way roads in Himachal Pradesh.

“It is difficult to widen the existing roads, specifically between Kullu and Manali. Therefore, we have suggested that there will be one-way roads in the area,” he added.

On higher allocation for road projects in the Budget, Gadkari said: “We would seek more funds from the the finance minister.” However, he declined to share further details.

The minister, who reviewed over 250 road projects worth about R60,000 crore, said these highways are stuck, mainly due to reasons such as land acquisition and environment and forest clearance issues. These stalled projects would be up and running in the next three months. The ministry is trying to get faster clearances, Gadkari said.

Railways to power its network with 2,000-km track electrification plan | The Indian Express

Acting on the recommendations of the Rakesh Mohan panel on the transport sector, the railways is likely to carry out electrification of around 2,000 km of its tracks this fiscal. Most of this will be done on the never-tried-before annuity model. An announcement is likely to be expected in the rail Budget on July 8.

At present, the railways has almost 38% (24,800 km) of its network electrified that carries almost 67% of the freight traffic and 51% of the passenger traffic. The power bill of the railways at present is Rs 10,880 crore whereas its diesel bill is around Rs 22,000 crore. This shows how important is faster electrification in reducing the national transporter’s expenses on energy and also cutting the country’s oil import bill.

The cost of electrification is around Rs 1.5 crore per kilometer.

The Rakesh Mohan committee had suggested that the railways take up electrification on a priority basis and said it should be seen as a means of cutting use of fossil fuel energy for rail transport.

“Route electrification could be the most successful of the public-private partnership (PPP) projects being undertaken by railways. At present, running on diesel is more than two times costlier than the electric route. So, whatever the railways save on the fuel can be paid to contractors annually. We understand that such projects have good traction and returns on investments are faster which will interest foreign technology giants,” a railway board official said.

The cash-strapped railways will carry out a part of this electrification drive on the annuity-based PPP model. As a pilot project, the railways has proposed four routes to be electrified under this model. Under the annuity model, the railways will pay contractors in annual installments. In the 12th Plan, the railways has set a target of electrification of 6,500-km route and it hopes to exceed the target with the annuity-based PPP route.

Railways is expecting private companies such as Alstom, Siemens, KEC and its own PSUs such as Ircon and Rites to invest in the electrification projects.

 

[cloud_9]

https://twitter.com/x/status/481783441092911104

 

[Chronos]

are there any news of a major regulation overhaul?

what about all those infrastructure projects that were tied up.

 

[luckych]

Azim Premji's Wipro Consumer Care and Lighting, a dragon in tiger economies

Wipro Consumer generates more than 50 per cent of its revenue from international markets through a string of acquisitions boosting its foot print across south east Asia, Middle East and Africa.

Billionaire Premji's Wipro Consumer Care and Lighting (WCCLG) is now among the top three personal care companies in Malaysia and Vietnam and is gaining ground in China's southern provinces. Sixty-eight-year old Premji -- with personal wealth topping $15 billion -- took the FMCG unit private through a de-merger of non-IT businesses, which are housed under Wipro Enterprises.

Read more at:
Azim Premji's Wipro Consumer Care and Lighting, a dragon in tiger economies - The Economic Times

 

[luckych]

Bangalore team’s hand in MPC winning VFX Gold at Cannes

Works include Godzilla, Spider-Man 2, Cinderella in 2014

Moving Picture Company (MPC) was the only studio to have been awarded Gold in the VFX (visual effects) category at the recently concluded Cannes Lions 2014.

Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag, Defy, a 90-second live action film trailer screened last year in multiple markets to promote the hugely popular action-adventure video game, was awarded the top honour in the VFX Film Craft category.

Ships burn and men are mercilessly slain in this brutal film trailer, which seamlessly blends epic live action with visual effect techniques across the full range of disciplines within MPC.

The MPC Bangalore team collaborated with the global team for this project.

“Continuing our rush of awards from last year, the MPC Bangalore team is delighted to have collaborated with our global teams in working on this iconic project. We are in a celebration mode,” said Biren Ghose, Executive Director of MPC Bangalore and Country Head, Technicolor India.

Three of MPC’s VFX studios around the world were a part of this collaboration – Los Angeles, London and Bangalore. Since its inception in December 2010, the Bangalore studio, which has a 400-strong team, has delivered high quality visual effects for over 40 Hollywood movies. The team has contributed VFX for global movie releases in 2014, including X-Men: Days of Future Past, Godzilla, Guardians of the Galaxy, Cinderella and Amazing Spider-Man 2.

Over the last few years, the demand for Indian talent to deliver offshore VFX services to Hollywood studios such as Warner Bros, Fox, Disney and DreamWorks has been steadily on the rise.

Among the recent releases, Indian talent was on display in Life of Pi, Man of Steel, Prometheus, Skyfalland Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted, with significant contribution from studios in Bangalore, Hyderabad, Mumbai and Chennai.

Industry observers say India is no longer saddled with low-end work like Rotoscopy, which does not require creative inputs, but has progressed to doing high-end work in VFX like compositing, digital matte painting, MatchMove, asset development and FX (simulation).

Bangalore team’s hand in MPC winning VFX Gold at Cannes | Business Line

 

[luckych]

Cisco Investments announces $40 million fund for early-stage firms in Indi

Cisco Investments has set aside $40 million (Rs 240.9 crore) to invest in early stage Indian startups focused primarily on three verticals--connected mobility, big data and internet of things.

The fund, called "India Innovation" is carved out of Cisco's existing $250 million global fund, a first time that Cisco has made a geography-based allocation.
"Part of why we're doing this, is we're going after the India market aggressively," said Dinesh Malkani, president of sales, Cisco India and SAARC. The company had earlier invested in MobStac, a mobile ecommerce app developer.

The ticket size of the investments could broadly range from $500,000 to $12 million. For early stage startups, Cisco said it takes less than a 20% stake and takes board observer seats in the company.

The venture capital arm of Cisco said it will invest the in Indian companies over the next 18 months.

"The fund is not limited to $40 million. Our mandate is to go back and ask for more, as soon as we've finished the funds," said Alok Bardiya, country director of corporate development.

In addition to investing in startups, the company said the fund will also be used to partner with others in the ecosystem such as accelerators, incubators at top colleges, and angel groups.

Earlier this month, ET reported that Cisco invested in Covacsis, a five-year-old startup founded by IIT Bombay graduates, which sells real-time analytics platform to the manufacturing sector.

 

[cloud_9]

Foreign Institutional Investors's pour in Rs 32,000 cr in June - Financial Express

Continuing to bet big on reforms agenda of the new government, overseas investors have pumped in nearly Rs 32,000 crore in Indian equities and debt this month.
Foreign investors have infused Rs 13,764 crore (USD 2.3 billion) into equities, and Rs 18,188 crore (USD 3.1 billion) in debt markets, taking the total to Rs 31,952 crore (USD 5.4 billion), shows the latest market data. Only one trading session is left for this month.

 

[narcon]

 

[narcon]

 

[cloud_9]

Market turnover hits record high in June

A sharp rally in equity markets post the outcome of the general election has seen the total market turnover (cash and future & options or F&O) hit a new high in June.

The combined average daily turnover in the cash and future and options (F&O) segments touched Rs 325,628 crore in June, rising nearly 32% from its previous high of Rs 247,039 crore recorded in August 2013.

The BJP-led National Democratic Alliance's massive victory in the elections has rekindled investor interest in the markets, analysts say. This has led to the market turnover rising sharply; especially in the cash market that has seen the turnover hit a five-year high.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs), too, have been a reason behind this sharp rally, with their net investment in Indian equities since September 2013 totalling Rs 112,860 crore ($18.5 billion). Of this, nearly Rs 27,417 crore ($4.6 billion) was invested in the past two months after the Narendra Modi-led BJP won a decisive election mandate.

France proposes 1 bn euro credit line for India projects

France has proposed giving India a 1 billion euro ($1.4 billion) credit line to fund sustainable development projects, Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said on Tuesday.

Fabius, who is visiting New Delhi, told reporters the credit line would be available over a three-year period.

Fabius also sought India's help in preparing the 2015 Paris Climate Conference.

 

[Abhishek_]

Sterlite Tech bags Rs 2,500 cr BSNL order

Mumbai: Sterlite Technologies, a Vedanta group company, has secured orders worth Rs.2,500 crore from Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) for deployment of optical fibre cable (OFC) network.

The company has won a deal to supply OFC for BSNL’s Jammu & Kashmir region and other parts of the country.

Under the Rs. 1,950-crore order, the company will deploy and maintain a part of Network for Spectrum (NFS) project in J&K, it said in a statement.

Under this contract, to be executed by 2016, Sterlite Technologies will also build a new communication network for the Armed Forces. The network comprises a highly-resilient OFC-based nationwide optical backbone for Defence sites and access networks at Army sites, the company said.

Sterlite will design, plan and implement this country-wide secure, multi-protocol converged network. It is based on dedicated tri-services optical transport backbone.

The OFC network will be owned and operated by the Defence services under the Project Implementation Core Group (PICG), Ministry of Defence (MoD).

The Defence project gains importance as the Armed Forces will migrate all their communications to this alternate system, thereby freeing spectrum for commercial use.

Indian government had earlier decided to release 150 MHz spectrum held by Defence in the frequency 1700-2000 MHz to meet the requirements of the commercial sector.

Additionally, the Pune-based firm has won a annual maintenance contract for an OFC network in J&K. The seven-year-contract is valued at about Rs. 500 crore.

Shares in Sterlite Technologies closed up 4.97 per cent at Rs. 68.60, after the announcement, on the BSE which closed up at 25,516.40.
Sterlite Tech bags Rs 2,500 cr BSNL order

Daimler India begins exporting new Fuso trucks to Indonesia

Mumbai: Daimler India Commercial Vehicles, a 100 per cent wholly owned subsidiary of Daimler AG, Germany, along with Mitsubishi Fuso Truck and Bus Corporation, Japan (MFTBC), a Daimler Company, has started shipping its DICV-made Fuso trucks to Indonesia, the key strategic market in Asia.

With the new range of trucks, the company aims to fuel additional momentum in the market where Fuso has established itself as the leading commercial vehicle brand, the company said in a statement.

Fuso has been termed the market leader in Indonesia with a market share of 45.4 per cent, and in the light duty truck segment served by the Colt Diesel, the company continues to prove its leadership position with a market share of 53.1 per cent during January to December 2013.

The company has sold over 280,000 units in Indonesia across light medium and heavy duty segments. Rigorous testing has been assessed under the most strenuous driving conditions to ensure maximum reliability of the trucks.
Daimler India begins exporting new Fuso trucks to Indonesia

 

[Abhishek_]

Swedish auto maker Scania to roll out buses from Bangalore facility soon

Competition in the premium bus segment is all set to intensify with Swedish automobile maker Scania close to rolling out buses from its facility near Bangalore. “Chassis production and structure fabrication have started,” Scania Commercial Vehicles India Director, Sales, Sivakumar.V said, adding “in a few weeks, the buses will roll out”. The plant, with an investment of around Rs.300 crore, was inaugurated last year and manufactures trucks. Buses from the facility would help Scania build on the “positive customer response” to the made for India luxury inter-city and charter travel buses it was importing from a production facility in Malaysia. “We have an order book of 200 plus for the buses,” Mr. Sivakumar said, listing the fleet management system that provided real time performance of the vehicle and the drivers as an important feature.

Noting that the plant has a capacity to produce 2,500 trucks and 1,500 buses, he said the company was looking to close this year with a combined sale of 700 vehicles. “Our intent is to keep pace with the growth in the market… expect around 10 per cent in the next year,” he said. Scania is present in both on and off road truck segments.

Scania, with dealers in all the southern States, Maharashtra and Gujarat, would be opening a dealership in Goa soon. By this year-end, it would expand to all the States in the north and central parts of the country. Simultaneously, the company was working on buses run on ethanol and bio-gas.

It was in discussions with the Karnataka government on setting up a bio gas project that will supply fuel to city buses.

On the ethanol project, he said, the project was to run the buses on 95 per cent ethanol and 5 per cent additive.
Swedish auto maker Scania to roll out buses from Bangalore facility soon - The Hindu

Granite exports cross Rs.12,000 crore

Despite facing internal hurdles and severe competition from host of countries such as China, South Africa, Saudia Arabia and Brazil, the Indian granite exports have grown by 23 per cent in value term during 2013-14. However, it remained more or less similar volume-wise.

According to sources, the Indian industry faced hurdles due to inconsistent and contradictory leasing policies followed by the State governments and also due to absence of export-oriented policies by the Centre that prevented setting up of large number of EOUs for granites, marble, slates and sandstones near the quarries and as well as closer to the shipping ports. Besides, only a few ports in the country had the facilities to handle granite.

During 2013-14, India exported granite blocks worth Rs.12,047 crore against Rs. 9,766 crore in the previous year. Granite and products accounted for the majority of exports revenue, followed by other stones and products, marbles and slate stone. Granite was exported to China and European countries, and finished marbles to Japan.

“Though there is a growth in the industry, the growth could have been 300 per cent more if the policies were implemented speedily with a positive approach. On behalf of the industry, we are seeking a uniform leasing and renewal policy and allowing marble for re-exports without hassles,” said an industry representative.

Chemical and Allied Export Promotion Council of India, Southern Regional Chairman, R. Veeramani, said that due to the prevailing negative factors, the industry performed at 50 per cent of it capacity and it was time the Centre provided IT exemption on 100 per cent EOUs and float common brand equity fund for promoters of Indian brand in exports.

“This sector is growing by 5-10 per cent annually, though it faces severe shortcomings. We have been asking the Directorate General of Foreign Trade to provide subsidy/incentive to this sector. They have been denying it citing the progress made by us in the recent times,” said a granite exporter.
Granite exports cross Rs.12,000 crore - The Hindu

Centre keen on bringing broadband connectivity to entire rural India

In steering India’s growth in the field of Information and Communication Technology, the newly-elected government at the Centre will focus on two major milestones: broadband connectivity across the length and breadth of rural India and electronics manufacturing.

In his maiden interaction with chief executive officers and decision-makers in the software industry, Union Minister for Communications and Information Technology Ravi Shankar Prasad asked why the Indian industry has been a laggard when it comes to manufacturing.

Electronics manufacturing, he said, was “a priority” for the government and he sought feedback on what can be done to incentivise Indian industry to get into manufacturing. “I understand there is a duty structure issue, and we are trying to address it, but that cannot be the only reason the sector did not grow,” he said.

He pointed out that products with simple elementary technologies, such as set-top boxes, were also being imported.

On the semiconductor fabrication, Mr. Prasad said that he has spoken to two people who are setting up two semiconductor wafer fabrication manufacturing facilities in the country.

“I have asked them to do it on a fast-track basis. I realise that once a fabrication facility is established, India is going to expand enormously in everything from chip design to manufacturing,” he said and added that the government was looking at creating STPI-like structure to further incentivise this sector.

Mr. Prasad was speaking at a NASSCOM-organised meet that he called an “IT Panchayat”, where he heard the who’s who of the IT industry speak on issues — regulatory, trade and others — being faced by the sector.

The participants included Wipro Ltd. Chairman Azim Premji, Microsoft India Chairman Bhaskar Pramanik and Mindtree Chief Executive Officer K.K. Natarajan.

Representatives from mid-size companies and the start-ups world addressed the Minister on issues ranging from tax structures and regulatory hurdles that are perceived as hindering business to the skills gap when it comes to new technologies.

Mr. Prasad said that the Prime Minister’s roadmap for expanding the broadband network came with strict deadlines. The Prime Minister, he said, wanted 50,000 villages connected by broadband by end of this year and had set a target of adding one lakh villages each every year until all of rural India was covered.

In addition, he wanted the Indian industry to focus on developing e-education and e-healthcare products, that will help spur a demand for broadband.

Expanding IT
Mr. Prasad said that the Prime Minister was keen on taking the IT story to yet untapped areas such as the east and Northeast. “The Northeast has a large English-speaking talent pool, why not promote BPOs there? We are looking at what we can do to take IT and BPOs beyond the Bangalore-Hyderabad-Mumbai-Pune circles, and to tier-II cities,” he said.
Centre keen on bringing broadband connectivity to entire rural India - The Hindu

 

[luckych]

5 Indian cities score high in global IT talent survey

As much as half the world's top 10 cities based on the percentage of new residents with technology skills is in India, a LinkedIn study has found.

Bangalore, Pune, Hyderabad and Chennai topped the list, with Gurgaon coming in at the end. The ranking is based on an analysis of the geographic movements of the social networking site's 300 million members, looking at every new position added to their profiles between November 2012 and November 2013.

San Francisco Bay, Seattle, Austin, Melbourne and Sydney, in that order, ranked from fifth to ninth positions. "Bangalore, Pune, Hyderabad, Chennai and Gurgaon contribute to a major chunk of India's overall IT revenues and the tech jobs created in these cities are much higher than many other global locations.

The startup wave and increasing focus of tech entrepreneurship have also contributed to this," said Sangeeta Gupta, senior vice president of IT industry body Nasscom. It helps also, according to Ikya Human Capital Solutions Chairman Ajit Isaac, that India is experiencing a youth bulge.


5 Indian cities score high in global IT talent survey - The Times of India

 

[luckych]

ATM-maker NCR Corporation setting up ₹500-cr facility in Chennai

The US-based $6-billion ATM (automatic teller machine) manufacturer NCR Corporation is setting up a ₹500-crore facility at Mahindra World City, to the south of Chennai.

NCR has a presence in 180 countries and has six manufacturing facilities in the US, Europe and Asia.

In India, it manufactures ATMs in multiple locations in Puducherry. It will shut down these units and shift to the new facility in a year’s time. It employs over 3,000 people, including those at its R&D facility.

Announcing the company’s plan for the new facility at a press conference here on Thursday, Jaivinder Gill, Regional Vice-President (India and South East Asia), NCR, said it will offer the advantage of manufacturing these machines under one roof and improve efficiency. Besides, he said, the new location will give it proximity to vendors, logistics facilities and human resource.

Though he refused to share the details regarding the proposed investment in the new facility, sources in the know revealed that it might entail anywhere between $80-100 million, and will have capacity to produce at least 100,000 ATMs a year. Besides, it also proposes to manufacture POS (point of sale) machines, automatic self-checkout machines and product dispensers for the retail and hospitality industries.

Growing market

“The growing Indian financial market, and the government’s key agenda of financial inclusion hold a great promise for our business,” said Robert Visintainer, Vice-President, NCR Global Manufacturing.

ATM-maker NCR Corporation setting up ₹500-cr facility in Chennai | Business Line

With 44 per cent share of the current installed base of 1.6 lakh ATMs in the country, NCR is the market leader, followed by Diebold (around 27 per cent) and Wincor Nixdorf (23 per cent). According to a global study on ATMs, on an average, 6,000 cash withdrawals take place at each ATM every month. This is growing at 25 per cent year on year. The number of installed ATMs grew 20 per cent in the last few years. In the next four years, it is expected to grow at a compounded annual growth rate of 26 per cent to reach 4.4 lakh ATMs by 2018, says the study. Gill said each machine costs between ₹3.5 lakh and ₹ 6 lakh.

According to him, NCR also proposes to export at least 10-15 per cent of its production to South East Asia.

 

[luckych]

There’s no shortage of talent in India: Capgemini India CEO

On Capgemini India’s employee strength crossing the 50,000-mark. What does this mean and how much more do you intend to add?

Today, our India headcount is just about 40 per cent of the group. Our ambition is it should be 50 per cent of the group by early 2016. When you are 50 per cent or more, this becomes the hub in terms of delivery. I think a lot of the standard part – development work, application management, BPO and infrastructure management — will be completely done from India. We will also start to do new work and innovation. So, India will have a big role to play in everything that Capgemini does.

full article : There’s no shortage of talent in India: Capgemini India CEO | Business Line