Indian Economy-News & Updates

[RISING SUN]

In a first, Amul butter travels to Delhi via train
Around a fortnight after home grown dairy giant Amul approached the Indian Railways (IR) on its official Twitter handle with a business proposition to use refrigerated parcel vans to transport butter across India, the first shipment from Gujarat was on its way to national capital Delhi on Saturday.

Amul on Saturday morning flagged off the first refrigerator van with 17 metric tonne of butter from Palanpur in north Gujarat to Delhi through a milk train. While Amul tweeted about this thanking @RailMinIndia for the prompt action, union railway minister Piyush Goyal too promptly responded to it by stating - "From Gujarat to Delhi, made and transported with love".

On October 23 the Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF) - the apex marketing body of all district dairy unions in Gujarat that markets brand Amul had reached out to the railway ministry on its Twitter handle with the proposition saying: "Interested in using refrigerated parcel vans to transport Amul butter across India."

Indian Railways (IR) had promptly responded on the micro-blogging site using a popular tag line of the company.

"IR will be utterly butterly delighted to get the taste of India to every Indian," the ministry's handle @RailMinIndia had tweeted.

"Every month, we transport 10,000 metric tonnes of refrigerated products including butter, cheese, chocolate and ice-cream from Gujarat to various destinations in the country. All these products are currently transported via road. But we are exploring railway as a new mode of transport," GCMMF's managing director R S Sodhi told TOI.

Sodhi said that using railways as mode of transport will help reduce the travel time and can be cost-effective in the long run.

"For instance, a truck carrying refrigerated products reaches Guwahati on tenth day. If we use train it will reach in 36 hours," Sodhi said, adding that Amul is also in talks with IR to reduce the freight charges for transporting such products.

Currently, transporting such products via railways would cost nearly 15 to 20% more compared to road route as it has to bear the bridging cost (of loading and unloading this products).

Amul already transports a large volume of liquid milk and other dairy products like milk powder and tetrapaks to far off destinations including Agartala and Siliguri in North East, Jammu in North, Varanasi, Kanpur and Patna in Central India apart from destinations in Southern parts of the country through trains for which it pays around Rs 100 crore as annual rail freight.

For instance, around eight lakh litres per day milk is transported through a dedicated milk train with rail milk tankers (RMTs) from Palanpur to Delhi. On other routes to Kolkata and Mumbai, RMTs are attached with regular passenger/ express trains.

"But most of this is dry cargo. The refrigerated vans currently available with IR has two chambers including one that can maintain temperature between zero to four degrees celsius while another chamber where the temperature can be as low as minus 20 degree celsius," said a GCMMF official, "with this technology, we can also transport products like frozen paneer and ice-cream in future."
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com...s-to-delhi-via-train/articleshow/61611401.cms

Railways to start 9-month ‘upskilling’ exercise for employees in January
The Indian Railways will launch the country’s largest time-bound “upskilling” exercise for government employees to upgrade the skillsets of its 13 lakh-strong workforce with a single drive spanning nine months. Named Project Saksham, the exercise will start in January 2018 and go on till September, putting through training courses and specially designed skill-upgrade modules. Employees from the rank of a peon to the Railway Board Members and everyone in between will undergo the training.

Railway Board Chairman Ashwani Lohani has sent instructions to all General Managers of zones and production units to identify the training courses and formulate the plan on priority.

The launch date of the project has been tentatively scheduled to coincide with the 155th birth anniversary of Swami Vivekananda, sources said.

“… there is a need to do a concentrated capsule of training for all employees in a short period of time to boost their productivity and efficiency,” Lohani said in his letter to the zones.

The nature of the short-duration training will range from refresher courses, with an eye on evolved global practices in the respective areas, to skills in the existing lining of functioning, sources said.

Lohani’s reasoning behind the drive is that with growing services, newer benchmarks of service delivery and higher expectations of the clientele, employees need to build skills to rise to the occasion. “Employees can and do deliver only when they have the right skills, knowledge and the mindset to deliver to the new standards of excellence that we hold from them all,” he has said in the letter.

General Managers would identify training modules, divide their workforce into small groups and communicate the entire plan to the ministry by December 31.

Each will be a five-day on-the-job training, or classroom sessions in Railway Training Centres, depending on the nature of the course. According to the directive, the reporting managers of all employees need to be actively involved in the pre-training and post-training process to ensure that the newly learned skills can be easily integrated into the regular jobs.

Groups of railway officers are going to Japan to train in various processes of the Shinkansen bullet train and heavy haul technologies. The Railways also sends its officers empannelled in the additional secretary grade for a short course in the Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.
http://indianexpress.com/article/in...ng-exercise-for-employees-in-january-4933419/

 

[Hindustani78]

http://www.hindustantimes.com/india...tment-surge/story-aKtblRJ0Q018f2jGM1q5zK.html

Hundreds of locals of Chakla, Ganeshsthan and hamlets like Tuniyahi, owe their new found prosperity to the new Madhepura electric locomotive factory at Chakla, which started production on October 11 this year.

Updated: Nov 11, 2017 20:04 IST
Hindustan Times, Patna

The Madhepura electric locomotive factory at Chakla in north Bihar. (HT photo)

For years, Lal Kunj Yadav of Chakla Sripur, on the outskirts of Madhepura town, was unemployed. He could barely make a living, managing a small grocery store. But, for last one year, he has seen brisk business at his shop, which now earns him Rs 2000 per day.

“I had never dreamed, I would see such a day,” he says, dreamily.

Yadav is among hundreds of locals of Chakla, Ganeshsthan and hamlets like Tuniyahi, who owe their new found prosperity to the new Madhepura electric locomotive factory at Chakla , which started production on October 11 this year.

The project was initiated a decade ago, in 2007-08, when Lalu Prasad was the Union railway minister.

The locomotive factory, a joint venture of Alstom and Indian Railways, has generated much hope among the locals due to the huge investment being pumped into the project and land acquisitions still going on to set up ancillary units.

“We have got proposals from various companies, including a Japanese firm keen on investing Rs 100 crore for a unit. This area is going to be another Bokaro , a decade down the line,” said Mohammed Sohail, district magistrate, Madhepura.

Evidently, land prices in the area have sky rocketed. Companies keen on putting up small industrial units are offering Rs 15 lakh per kattha of land (around 1360 square feet) in the area close to the locomotive factory. A decade ago, it would have cost no more than Rs 50,000.

The total investment in the factory is estimated at Rs 26,000 crore, with Alstom getting a contract to produce 800 engines of 120 horse power each, over a period of time- a first of its kind production facility in the country.

The economic progress is discernible in this backward region, with the factory coming up. One can notice small kiosks for electrical equipment, mobile and other small shops mushrooming on the stretch from Madhepura town to Chakla, where villagers have even started renting out rooms to labourers working at the unit. A total of 304 acres of land has already been acquired.

“We earn more now. The area was long known for floods but now there is industrial progress. It is good thing,” said, Mohammed Irshad, a local resident of Chakla, who has opened an electrical equipment shop. Selling small fans and battery operated lights to hundreds of labourers and employees working in the locomotive factory, he has even managed a new home.

However, there are still some complaints from locals who claim they have not yet received the entire amount of compensation against land acquired from them owing to problems over land deeds and other technical glitches.

“The factory is okay. But we are yet to be paid for our land. Officials keep on asking for more documents,” claimed Tarni Prasad Yadav, who has got Rs 31 lakh so far against 100 decimal (1 acre) of land ‘sold’ to the factory.

Madan Das, who had given 21 katha of land, claimed he had got the money for 18 katha of land and rest amount for was still pending.

The Madhepura DM said the administration had already processed land deeds for 304 acres of land and compensation process was almost over, except in some cases wherein there was dispute on dividing the compensation money among family members.

“We have settled all formalities of land acquisition and handed over the land deeds to the railways,” he said, exuding confidence that there would be huge generation of jobs for locals when the plant goes full stream.

 

[RISING SUN]

India's aviation market to be third largest by '27
With its consistent double-digit growth in domestic passenger traffic, India set to be the third largest aviation market in the world by 2027.

In the next ten years then, the India's aviation market will generate close to 2.6 million direct, indirect and induced jobs, said a report released by Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation (CAPA) on Friday.

"The current staffing, as on FY 2017 is 1,97,309 which is expected to reach 4,32,021 by FY 27 and all of this would be direct jobs," said the CAPA report.

At the top of the rung are vacancies for the job of commercial pilots in airlines.

Currently, India has 6,772 pilots and by FY 2027 it would need 16,802, said the CAPA report.

The growth in demand for cabin crew jobs will be more than double with the current 11,000 cabin crew positions to grow to 26,325 in a decade.

As for maintenance engineers, there will be 34,972 posts, up from the current 14,220.
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In all, there will be a 142 per cent growth in jobs with a total of 1,65,533 posts for jobs of pilots, flight attendants, engineers, administration and management staff in the Indian commercial airline and general aviation industry (including charter aircraft, flying clubs, private aircraft) by 2027.

Then there will be 2,66,488 jobs in other aviation fields like airport operations and management, ground handling, cargo and warehousing, commercial, retail, fire, security, air traffic control, etc. Currently, there are 1,20,006 jobs in this category, said the CAPA report.
The need of the hour is massive investment in training and education infrastructure, the report said, adding the state of India's aviation training was significantly below par — both in infrastructure standards of training and quality of instructors. "Indian aviation system spends on training is almost negligible," it said, adding that most of the current spends are focused on training driven by regulatory compliance.

"Poor spends on training is leading to system-wide inefficiency-leading to sub-optimal productivity," it added.
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com...-third-largest-by-27/articleshow/61601986.cms

55 new airports needed by 2030 as traffic grows
Major airports such as Mumbai, Delhi and Chennai are at the highest risk of saturation with increase in number of fliers. Smaller airports like Agartala, Dehradun, Guwahati, Jaipur, Kozhikode, Lucknow, Pune, Srinagar and Trichy are already operating beyond their design capacity.

The Indian airport system is expected to exceed its maximum structural capacity by FY 2022 and this level could be breached earlier if the new airport projects are delayed. Maximum structural capacity is the maximum passengers an airport can handle if all the possible infrastructure and operational improvements are carried out. Beyond this, the only option would be to go for a new airport at a different site.
For airlines, the big challenge would be getting arrival/departure time slots and parking bays. Indian carriers are expected to induct close to 350-400 aircraft over the next five years. "These aircraft will also have to fly somewhere. As metro airports become saturated, airlines will have to deploy more capacity to Tier 2 cities over the next 3 years due to slot constraints," says the CAPA report. Then there is the parking problem—where will the airlines park their A320s and B737s for night? "Airlines are already facing challenges securing overnight parking bays. This will become increasingly difficult with so many aircraft scheduled for induction over the next 5 years," the report said.

Kapil Kaul, CEO and director of CAPA-South Asia, terms it a "near-crisis situation". "Preparing a realistic and executable plan for such massive airport infrastructure development will take a few years," he said adding that India's response to such a crisis like situ-ation continues to be ad hoc and inadequate. India will need to construct airports to handle an additional 500-600 million passengers by 2030. The 55 new airports that are estimated to be required by 2030 will need 150,000 to 200,000 acres of land to be allocated for their development. All of this will require USD36-45 billion of investment. "The $45 billion investment number assumes that the government will give land for airport development at subsidized rates," said Kaul, adding that India urgently needs a new airport development framework.

Over the last three years, domestic passenger traffic has grown at a rate of 18.9%, rising from 61 million to 103 million passengers, in 2017. India is now the third largest domestic market in the world.
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com...030-as-traffic-grows/articleshow/61611781.cms

 

[RISING SUN]

India’s effort in renewable energy led to drop in solar price: US
India’s massive effort towards renewable energy has resulted in considerable drop in solar price and the country now believes that the solar power is cheaper than coal without subsidy, US lawmakers have been told.

“I was really struck by just the transition in this single year between April and June, driven I think by decisions in India related to that dropping price,” influential Senator Jeff Merkley said during a Congressional hearing last week.

Merkley said during the hearing on Energy and International Development that because of India’s effort in renewable energy there has been a considerable drop in solar price. He referred to his conversation with Prime Minister Narendra Modi about the transition. “At one point in a conversation with the Prime Minister in India, he was relaying — this is now outdated, but he wanted to reach two-thirds of the 300 million folks in India with electricity from coal—powered plants and a third with renewable,” he said.

“And I asked what was driving the separation between those two, and said it was a very high interest rate on a renewable energy projects which I think he pegged at about 15 per cent. What kind of work are we seeing in the international community to provide affordable financing for renewable energy, electricity?” Merkley asked.

Achel Kyte, CEO and special representative United Nations Secretary-General, Sustainable Energy for All, said countries were increasingly addressing the investment climate and to make sure that there is a consistency in the way in which they both set the regulatory environment. “But also then encourage effective pricing and encourage state-owned banks in the case of India but as well as commercial banks and other lenders to be able to be part of the energy transition.

Since the quote you gave me, India has been able to auction for power, grid-connected solar power at very competitive prices and now believes that solar power is cheaper than coal without subsidy,” Kyte said.

So the question really for India is the exposure of their state-owned banks to the coal sector as well as to stimulate both commercial and state-owned banks and international investors into their renewable industry, he said. “What we see in smaller projects around the world and in particular in Africa is the lack of availability to well-priced long-term debt. And perhaps a lack of awareness within the banking sector and some of the developing countries around the future for off-grid renewable energy. “And that’s something that a number of development partners are starting to address,” Kyte said.
http://www.thehindubusinessline.com...-to-drop-in-solar-price-us/article9946126.ece

 

[Soumitra]

India's aviation market to be third largest by '27
With its consistent double-digit growth in domestic passenger traffic, India set to be the third largest aviation market in the world by 2027.

In the next ten years then, the India's aviation market will generate close to 2.6 million direct, indirect and induced jobs, said a report released by Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation (CAPA) on Friday.

"The current staffing, as on FY 2017 is 1,97,309 which is expected to reach 4,32,021 by FY 27 and all of this would be direct jobs," said the CAPA report.

At the top of the rung are vacancies for the job of commercial pilots in airlines.

Currently, India has 6,772 pilots and by FY 2027 it would need 16,802, said the CAPA report.

The growth in demand for cabin crew jobs will be more than double with the current 11,000 cabin crew positions to grow to 26,325 in a decade.

As for maintenance engineers, there will be 34,972 posts, up from the current 14,220.
Recommended By Colombia


In all, there will be a 142 per cent growth in jobs with a total of 1,65,533 posts for jobs of pilots, flight attendants, engineers, administration and management staff in the Indian commercial airline and general aviation industry (including charter aircraft, flying clubs, private aircraft) by 2027.

Then there will be 2,66,488 jobs in other aviation fields like airport operations and management, ground handling, cargo and warehousing, commercial, retail, fire, security, air traffic control, etc. Currently, there are 1,20,006 jobs in this category, said the CAPA report.
The need of the hour is massive investment in training and education infrastructure, the report said, adding the state of India's aviation training was significantly below par — both in infrastructure standards of training and quality of instructors. "Indian aviation system spends on training is almost negligible," it said, adding that most of the current spends are focused on training driven by regulatory compliance.

"Poor spends on training is leading to system-wide inefficiency-leading to sub-optimal productivity," it added.
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com...-third-largest-by-27/articleshow/61601986.cms

55 new airports needed by 2030 as traffic grows
Major airports such as Mumbai, Delhi and Chennai are at the highest risk of saturation with increase in number of fliers. Smaller airports like Agartala, Dehradun, Guwahati, Jaipur, Kozhikode, Lucknow, Pune, Srinagar and Trichy are already operating beyond their design capacity.

The Indian airport system is expected to exceed its maximum structural capacity by FY 2022 and this level could be breached earlier if the new airport projects are delayed. Maximum structural capacity is the maximum passengers an airport can handle if all the possible infrastructure and operational improvements are carried out. Beyond this, the only option would be to go for a new airport at a different site.
For airlines, the big challenge would be getting arrival/departure time slots and parking bays. Indian carriers are expected to induct close to 350-400 aircraft over the next five years. "These aircraft will also have to fly somewhere. As metro airports become saturated, airlines will have to deploy more capacity to Tier 2 cities over the next 3 years due to slot constraints," says the CAPA report. Then there is the parking problem—where will the airlines park their A320s and B737s for night? "Airlines are already facing challenges securing overnight parking bays. This will become increasingly difficult with so many aircraft scheduled for induction over the next 5 years," the report said.

Kapil Kaul, CEO and director of CAPA-South Asia, terms it a "near-crisis situation". "Preparing a realistic and executable plan for such massive airport infrastructure development will take a few years," he said adding that India's response to such a crisis like situ-ation continues to be ad hoc and inadequate. India will need to construct airports to handle an additional 500-600 million passengers by 2030. The 55 new airports that are estimated to be required by 2030 will need 150,000 to 200,000 acres of land to be allocated for their development. All of this will require USD36-45 billion of investment. "The $45 billion investment number assumes that the government will give land for airport development at subsidized rates," said Kaul, adding that India urgently needs a new airport development framework.

Over the last three years, domestic passenger traffic has grown at a rate of 18.9%, rising from 61 million to 103 million passengers, in 2017. India is now the third largest domestic market in the world.
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com...030-as-traffic-grows/articleshow/61611781.cms

India needs multiple airport per city strategy.

Delhi - Build one airport near Noida/Greater Noida. currently they have to travel 50 KM to reach the airport
Mumbai - New airport at Navi Mumbai needs to be built fast
Hyderabad and bangalore - use the old airport again for the flight operations specially for flight duration of 1 - 1.5 hours

 

[RISING SUN]

India to overtake Japan as third largest economy by 2028: BofAML
India may emerge as the third largest economy overtaking Japan over the next ten years on the back of falling dependency, financial maturity and higher income and affordability, says a report by Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

“In 2028, we estimate it will overtake Japan in nominal GDP to emerge as the world’s third-largest economy ” said Indranil Sengupta and Aastha Gudwani, India economists at Bank of America Merril Lynch.

The report says that India is likely to cross Germany and Japan in nominal GDP in USD by 2028, assuming the economy grows at 10% in US dollar terms over the next 10 years, ahead of Japan's 1.6%. India is also well on track to become as the world's fifth largest economy by 2019.

Three strong growth drivers are expected to help India grow fast. First, falling dependency ratios is expected to raise saving and investment rates. Rising saving and investment rates, driven by falling dependency ratios, should fund an estimated 7% real growth. The report assumes build in 6% inflation and 3% depreciation to arrive at 10% nominal growth in US dollar terms.

Financial maturity, due to financial liberalization and inclusion, should continue to lower lending rates structurally. The credit to GDP ratio, a proxy for financial maturity, will likely climb to 83% of GDP from 44% in 2001-17 a driven by financial inclusion and financial market development among others. This, in turn, is expected to pull down interest rates.

Finally, increasing incomes and affordability will likely underpin the emergence of mass markets, supporting an expected 7% real GDP growth. The economists forecast emergence of mass markets powered by rising incomes, on the demand side, as well as economies of scale, on the supply side. A virtuous cycle is seeing higher affordability, as incomes rise, which allows manufacturers to hold the price line on economies of scale; this, in turn, reinforces affordability, the report said.
https://m.economictimes.com/news/ec...kw.0&utm_referrer=https://googleweblight.com/

Only ‘Made in India’ equipment for BharatNet: Govt
The government on Sunday said that after the telecom revolution in India, the BharatNet project will be the biggest user of ‘Made in India’ equipment, “ruggedised” to suit the Indian rural conditions.

Both the fibre and the Gigabit-capable Passive Optical Networks (GPON) equipment are fully made in India with C-DOT (Centre for Development of Telematics technology, Aruna Sundararajan, Secretary, Department of Telecom (DoT), told newspersons here.

This is significant because the equipment is completely indigenous and has been customised so that it can work in rural environments, where there are power issues and dust is a big factor, she said.

No foreign companies will be allowed in the future as well, she said, adding that it will be all ‘Made in India’ equipment — GPON, optical line terminals, and optical network terminal — for broadband connections.

Companies working for the BharatNet project include Paramount, Sterlite and Tejas. Telcos Bharti Airtel, Reliance Jio, Vodafone India and Idea have also expressed interest in providing last-mile connectivity on BharatNet infrastructure, she said.

According to Sundararajan, the first phase of BharatNet is on track and will be completed by December, which will then connect one lakh gram panchayats (around three lakh villages). And, once the second phase is also complete (by March 2019), the project will contribute a lot to the country’s growth, she added.

Kerala, Karnataka and Haryana have already achieved BharatNet connectivity, she added. “We expect a 10 per cent increase in Internet usage in India will lead to a 3.3 per cent increase in GDP. That means around ₹4.5 lakh crore can be potentially added to GDP once this network reaches all institutions and individuals on completion of phase-II,” Sundararajan said.

“In the first phase, the project has done around 1 lakh km per year and that means in the last three years we have done 3 lakh km. This means we are adding 10 per cent fibre footprint to the country per year through BharatNet,” she said.

India is laying around 250 km of fibre per day, but to complete the BharatNet project by 2019 the government needs to lay 500 km per day, she added.

Wi-Fi hotspots
The government is also investing in setting up Wi-Fi hotspots through which it expects to cover 100 million citizens by 2020. Currently, India has around 36,000 Wi-Fi spots. “There will be two-three hotspots per gram panchayat. We expect this project to be complete by 2018. We will float a tender shortly for this," she said.

A memorandum of understanding, she said, will be signed with seven States — Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and Jharkhand — on Monday for implementation of BharatNet phase-II.
http://m.thehindubusinessline.com/i...uipment-for-bharatnet-govt/article9954895.ece

 

[Hindustani78]

Ministry of Road Transport & Highways
14-November, 2017 16:31 IST
Package one of Delhi-Meerut Expressway project to be complete by year-end Package done in record 14 months

Shri Gadkari says development and environment protection should go together

The Minister of Road Transport and Highways, Shipping and Water Resources, River Development & Ganga Rejuvenation Shri Nitin Gadkari has reiterated the Government’s commitment for speedy completion of highways projects in Delhi NCR in order to decongest the region and cut down vehicular pollution levels by nearly 50 percent. Shri Gadkari did an on the spot inspection of one such project - the Delhi – Meerut Expressway project today, and briefed media persons near Akshardham temple on NH 24.

Speaking on the occasion he said that the first package of the Delhi – Meerut Expressway project stretching from Akshardham Temple to Delhi-UP border will be ready by December this year. The 9 km, 14 lane highway is being completed in a record time of 14 months as against the earlier expected construction period of 30 months. This is also the first national highway in the country with 14 lanes, and has several features that would help reduce pollution. These include a 2.5 metre wide cycle track on either side of the highway, a vertical garden on the Yamuna Bridge, solar lighting system and watering of plants through drip irrigation only. Shri Gadkari said this highway will be developed further upto Lucknow, and will be a lifeline for the people of Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh. The highway will also reduce traffic congestion on the Delhi – Meerut route, which in turn will lower the pollution levels in the region, he said.


Shri Gadkari further said that work on the Eastern and Western Peripheral Expressways around Delhi is also going on at full speed, and the former is likely to be ready before 26th of January next year. Once the NH-24 and the two peripheral expressways are ready, vehicles destined for neighbouring states will be able to bypass Delhi and this will reduce pollution by 50 percent.


The Minister also said that projects worth Rs 40,000 crore are being undertaken to decongest Delhi. These include plans for Dhaula Kuan stretch, Dwarka Expressway and a Ring Road for Delhi the cost for which will be borne jointly by the Centre and Delhi Government.


Apart from speedy construction of highways the Ministry is also taking other steps to check pollution arising from the highways sector. These include actively promoting the use of bio fuel driven vehicles and electric vehicles, greening of highways, covering construction sites to contain dust and promoting the use of waterways. He added that tenders have been issued for dredging of river Yamuna and linking Delhi and Agra through waterways.


Emphasizing that ecology, economy and development should go side by side, Shri Gadkari said that these projects will pave the way for development, employment generation, cleaner atmosphere and hassle free travel for people.

 

[RISING SUN]

Ministry of Road Transport & Highways
14-November, 2017 16:31 IST
Package one of Delhi-Meerut Expressway project to be complete by year-end Package done in record 14 months

Shri Gadkari says development and environment protection should go together

The Minister of Road Transport and Highways, Shipping and Water Resources, River Development & Ganga Rejuvenation Shri Nitin Gadkari has reiterated the Government’s commitment for speedy completion of highways projects in Delhi NCR in order to decongest the region and cut down vehicular pollution levels by nearly 50 percent. Shri Gadkari did an on the spot inspection of one such project - the Delhi – Meerut Expressway project today, and briefed media persons near Akshardham temple on NH 24.

Speaking on the occasion he said that the first package of the Delhi – Meerut Expressway project stretching from Akshardham Temple to Delhi-UP border will be ready by December this year. The 9 km, 14 lane highway is being completed in a record time of 14 months as against the earlier expected construction period of 30 months. This is also the first national highway in the country with 14 lanes, and has several features that would help reduce pollution. These include a 2.5 metre wide cycle track on either side of the highway, a vertical garden on the Yamuna Bridge, solar lighting system and watering of plants through drip irrigation only. Shri Gadkari said this highway will be developed further upto Lucknow, and will be a lifeline for the people of Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh. The highway will also reduce traffic congestion on the Delhi – Meerut route, which in turn will lower the pollution levels in the region, he said.


Shri Gadkari further said that work on the Eastern and Western Peripheral Expressways around Delhi is also going on at full speed, and the former is likely to be ready before 26th of January next year. Once the NH-24 and the two peripheral expressways are ready, vehicles destined for neighbouring states will be able to bypass Delhi and this will reduce pollution by 50 percent.


The Minister also said that projects worth Rs 40,000 crore are being undertaken to decongest Delhi. These include plans for Dhaula Kuan stretch, Dwarka Expressway and a Ring Road for Delhi the cost for which will be borne jointly by the Centre and Delhi Government.


Apart from speedy construction of highways the Ministry is also taking other steps to check pollution arising from the highways sector. These include actively promoting the use of bio fuel driven vehicles and electric vehicles, greening of highways, covering construction sites to contain dust and promoting the use of waterways. He added that tenders have been issued for dredging of river Yamuna and linking Delhi and Agra through waterways.


Emphasizing that ecology, economy and development should go side by side, Shri Gadkari said that these projects will pave the way for development, employment generation, cleaner atmosphere and hassle free travel for people.

Kindly delete the post as it's not in proper thread.

 

[RISING SUN]

IT spending in India to touch $87.1 Billion in 2018: Gartner
spending in India is expected to rise 9.2 percent to reach USD 87.1 billion in 2018, led by spending on expensive devices such as the iPhoneX and laptop upgrades, which continue to drive the majority of overall IT spending in India, according to research firm Gartner.

Enterprise software and IT services continue to exhibit strong growth, Gartner said.

The devices segment is expected to register an increase of 23.2 percent by the end of this year, and 13 percent in 2018.

“Increased average selling prices for premium phones in mature markets, partially due to the introduction of the iPhone 8 and X, along with an underlying demand for PCs from businesses replacing their machines with Windows 10 PCs is driving the growth in this segment,” said Gartner in a statement.



related news

• IT spend by banks, security firms to cross $9 bn: Gartner
• H1-B visa issue: India needs to lobby harder to be heard by the US
• Samsung to introduce Bixby 2.0 next year to take on rivals

Software spending is expected to grow 17.9 percent in this year, and it will grow another 15.3 percent in 2018 to reach USD 5.7 billion.

IT services spending is set to grow 15.7 percent in 2017 to reach USD 12.6 billion, and increase 13.8 percent in 2018 to reach USD 14.3 billion.

“The IT buying landscape is changing. Digital business transformation is creating connected platforms and new industry revenue streams," said Ganesh Ramamoorthy, managing vice president at Gartner India.

"Organizations that are not creating new digital business models, or new ways to engage constituents or customers, are falling behind. Those vendors that do not move more quickly than their clients, will be left behind,” he added.

He stressed the need for chief information officers in enterprises to look at adopting digital transformation across industries. After massive digital transformations impacting industries like books, clothing, and it’s now set to impact other industries such as traditional grocery markets and consumer durables as well.
http://www.moneycontrol.com/news/tr...uch-87-1-billion-in-2018-gartner-2438299.html

 

[RISING SUN]

Indian Railways plans to issue 30 times larger electrification tenders
the first time, the Indian Railways is planning to give out tenders as large as 1,500 km, up from the present average of 30-40 km (or 30 times the current number), for railway electrification in order to meet its full electrification target by 2021, the Mint reported.

The tenders issued under the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) model is expected to significantly cut down electrification costs which is now Rs 1-2 crore per km.

The railways has plans to issue tender packages ranging from 400 km to 1,500 km under the EPC contracts. Along with speeding up the electrification process, this move will be a point of departure after which all contracts would be in EPC mode, a senior railway ministry official told the newspaper on condition of anonymity.



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Last month, Railway minister Piyush Goyal had said that the ministry were to issue larger electrification tender to speed up the process.

He said that instead of the railways issuing tenders for only 30-40 km, it would start giving tenders for minimum of 500 km of track, according to another report in the Mint.

Additionally, the railways has uploaded a model EPC Agreement, model request for qualification (RFQ) and model request for proposal (RFP) and opened it for public feedback till November 16. This initiative was taken for the advancement of the electrification initiatives.

As per the Mint report, the railways plans to electrify 24,400 km of railway tracks within 2021 while incurring a total cost of Rs 35,000 crore.

Several companies, including the public sector Bharat Heavy Electricals (Bhel), are eyeing the electrification contracts that are on the card.

A second railway official confirmed the development to the newspaper and said that the railways has only completed electrifying 40 percent of its existing 66,000 km till now and falling behind schedule.

He also said that big tenders are likely to attract bigger players as contractors who would be better equipped to finish the work faster and with more efficiency. He added that the EPC contracts would also be open for global companies.
http://www.moneycontrol.com/news/in...s-larger-electrification-tenders-2437741.html

 

[Hindustani78]

//economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/61665329.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst
NEW DELHI: The Rail Bhavan, which houses the railways ministry, has been brought under the security cover of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) to ensure enhanced protection for the national transporter's headquarters.

In a communication, the MHA said the Railway Protection Force troops continue to be deployed in Rail Bhavan but under the operational control of the MHA.

Access into the building will be regulated as per the MHA norms and the reception continues to be manned by the staff of the railway ministry but they will work under the operational control of the MHA, the communication said.

Besides, the system of issue of visitor passes will be as per the MHA procedure, it said.

A home ministry official said the step has been taken to ensure enhanced security for the Rail Bhavan.

 

[Hindustani78]

Cabinet
16-November, 2017 15:47 IST
Cabinet approves Resolution for adoption of the recommendations of the Railway Convention Committee (2014) as contained in their Sixth Report on "Rate of Dividend payable by the Railways to the General Revenues for the year 2016-17 and other ancillary matters"

The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has approved the proposal of Ministry of Railways to move a Resolution in both the Houses of Parliament adopting Railway Convention Committee (2014)'s recommendations that for the year 2016-17, purely as a one-time move, the Rate of Dividend payable by Railways to the General Revenues be waived off.

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[RISING SUN]

How India is paving the way for an electric future
When India’s state-owned Energy Efficiency Services Ltd (EESL) awarded a coveted Rs1,120 crore order in September to Tata Motors Ltd to supply 10,000 electric cars, it signalled the government’s intent to walk the talk on electric mobility.

The electric cars will be procured in two phases; 500 will be supplied by November end and the remaining 9,500 cars in the second phase, for which a deadline hasn’t yet been specified. Mahindra and Mahindra Ltd won part of the order and will deliver 150 of the 500 electric vehicles (EVs) to be delivered this month after it matched Tata Motors’s winning bid.

These electric vehicles will be used to replace the petrol and diesel cars used by the government and its agencies, which have around half-a-million cars, of which about one-third are leased. The government has given the EV sourcing mandate to EESL, with the next set of tenders expected to source e-rickshaws and e-autos under the faster adoption and manufacturing of electric vehicles in India (FAME) scheme.

The govt wants only electric vehicles to ply on India’s roads by 2030 as part of its climate change commitment and to reduce spending on oil imports
The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government wants only electric vehicles to ply on India’s roads by 2030 as part of its commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions under the global agreement on climate change, and to reduce spending on oil imports, which, according to one estimate, could double to an annual $300 billion by that year.

While the EESL order “sends out a strong signal with regard to government’s intent on EVs, policymakers have to think through the impact of such a rapid shift,” said Harish H.V., partner at consulting firm Grant Thornton. “It is going to create a big disruption in the ecosystem of vehicles that run on internal combustion engines (ICE) and impact several jobs.”

No option but electric

At the auto industry’s annual conference in early September, road transport minister Nitin Gadkari put auto makers on notice that they had no option but to switch to environment-friendly alternatives to petrol and diesel. They have to adapt “whether they like it or not”, he said.

Transport minister Nitin Gadkari has told auto makers that they have to move to electric vehicles, “whether they like it or not”. Photo: Bloomberg
The urgency comes against the backdrop of the fact that six Indian cities, including capital New Delhi, are among the 15 most polluted cities in the world ranked by the World Health Organization (WHO) last year.

Under the new goods and services tax (GST) regime starting 1 July, EVs are being taxed at 12%, compared with 28% that petrol and diesel vehicles are subject to. Hybrid vehicles are taxed at 43%. The government is also considering offering benefits that include zero import duties on electric vehicles as well as lower electricity costs.

To be sure, India, one of the least penetrated automobile markets in the world with only 18 out of 1,000 Indians possessing a personal vehicle, isn’t the only country to have mapped out a future of electric mobility. In the past 12 months, four other countries have come out with a definite time frame to ban the sale of ICE vehicles in favour of EVs.

The Netherlands and Norway want to do it by 2025. The UK and France want to phase out ICE vehicles by 2040. The UK has said it won’t even allow vehicles running on traditional fuel to ply on its roads from 2050.

China is yet to come out with a timetable to end sales of fossil fuel-based vehicles, but it has pulled off a coup of sorts by signing a deal with Elon Musk’s Tesla Inc. According to a Wall Street Journal report, the electric carmaker has reached an agreement with Shanghai authorities that would make it the first foreign auto maker to build its own plant in China. It will be also Tesla’s first manufacturing plant outside of the US.

China’s EV vehicle market is already the world’s largest and is expected to keep growing rapidly. The Chinese government plans to require that all auto makers’ sales include a certain percentage of EVs starting in 2019.

Auto makers scramble

In 2016, 336,000 electric vehicles were sold in China and 160,000 in the US, according to the International Energy Agency. In India, just 450 EVs, less than 1% of the total market, were sold last year. The government wants six million EVs on Indian roads by 2020.

The conversation surrounding electric vehicles in India has been around electric vehicles, so the primary issues arise on account of electricity generation and charging infrastructure. Photo: Pradeep Gaur/Mint
Indian auto makers are beginning to scramble to acquire electric technologies.

The country’s largest passenger vehicle maker, Maruti Suzuki India Ltd, has invested Rs1,200 crore to set up a new plant manufacturing lithium-ion batteries for electric and hybrid cars, in partnership with the Denso Corp. and Toshiba Corp., both of Japan. Tata Motors is running trials of its electric buses and looking to revamp the small car Nano as an EV. M&M plans to ramp up production of EVs tenfold with an investment of Rs600 crore over the next three years and enter the cab aggregator sector with EVs.

Bajaj Auto Ltd is working on another niche business codenamed ‘Urbanite’. The new franchise will make aspirational products in the electric two-wheeler space. EVs, including three-wheelers, under the new franchise, will go on sale before 2020. Hyundai Motor India Ltd also plans to introduce electric cars. JSW Energy, a unit of the Sajjan Jindal-led JSW Group, plans to launch EVs and enter the renewable energy storage sector in India by 2020, citing a lull in the power generation sector. The firm has committed about Rs4,000 crore for the next three years.

In 2016, 336,000 electric vehicles were sold in China and 160,000 in the US; in India, 450
In August, India’s largest power generation utility, state-owned National Thermal Power Corp. Ltd, said it was seeking a pan-India licence to set up charging stations. Other firms such as Exide Industries Ltd, Amaron Batteries Ltd and Microtek International Inc. are looking to supply batteries and set up repair shops.

Start-ups are not far behind. Ather Energy Ltd raised about Rs180 crore in investment from Hero MotoCorp Ltd in October 2016 to build an indigenous electric scooter, which was launched in February. ION Energy raised funds from founders of OMC Power Pvt. Ltd, Nippo Batteries Co. Ltd, and others in May. The company is working towards building a horizontal layer of infrastructure that can help vertical companies build EVs in a more affordable and efficient manner with shared expertise.

“Automobile industry whole-heartedly welcomes the prospects of electro-mobility. There is no doubt, and let me be clear, about it,” Abhay Firodia, chairman of Pune-based Force Motors Ltd and president of the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (Siam), said. “The question is the need to bring everybody on a single platform...in terms of what that transition is. No matter who says what, electro-mobility is not coming day after tomorrow. It will take years...”

Going too fast?

Some manufacturers think the government’s target is too ambitious, and it is moving too fast.

The target should be a “little more moderate...,” said Pawan Goenka, managing director of Mahindra, which makes electric cars such as the E20 and e-Verito. India should move a lot more aggressively than others, but be “more moderate than being 100% electric vehicles by 2030”, he said.

Mahindra recently signed an agreement with Detroit-based Ford Motors Co. to leverage each other’s strengths to address rapidly emerging challenges in the global automobile industry. Mahindra is in early talks with Ford to procure a vehicle platform on which the Mumbai-based firm aims to build an all-new electric sedan. In lieu of this platform, Mahindra will share its affordable EV technologies with Ford, which the American firm plans to use in its entry-level cars such as Figo and Aspire.

Automobile industry whole-heartedly welcomes the prospects of electro-mobility... No matter who says what, electro-mobility is not coming day after tomorrow. It will take years...- Abhay Firodia, chairman of Force Motors
Mercedes-Benz India Pvt. Ltd would be able to introduce EVs in India by 2020, provided it receives adequate government support, managing director and chief executive officer Roland Folger said.

Folger is critical of the move to an all-electric fleet by 2030. In January 2016, the government said manufacturers should move up to the toughest emission standards of Bharat Stage-VI (BS-VI) from the current BS-IV by 2020, skipping an intermediate level. “It took us 10 years to go from BS-III emission norms to BS-IV and now we are moving in an unheard-of time frame to BS-VI; we have only two years left. Now, everybody has only 12 years to recuperate the investments made in BS-VI. That doesn’t make a lot of sense in my book,” Folger said.

The challenges

Folger has other concerns as well.

“These new lithium-ion batteries are too poisonous and should be recycled properly. The recycling process is so demanding that even Germany has its doubts. It’s also very expensive,” he said.


Click here for enlarge
The technological requirements of EVs are complex. An electric vehicle, also called an electric drive vehicle, uses one or more electric motors for propulsion. EVs are differentiated into three types based on the source they draw power from.

The first relies on continuous electric supply from an external generation system; this includes electric buses and trains supplied by overhead wires. The second runs on stored electricity drawn from an external source; chargeable battery-EVs are the most popular example. The third relies on on-board electric generation; these are typically hybrids with a small internal combustion engine (ICE) to power an electric generator. The car is powered either by the electric generator or both the generator and the engine, depending on the make. Fuel-cell vehicles, which use oxygen (usually from the environment) and hydrogen from fuels such as natural gas to power electric generators are also part of the third kind.

The conversation surrounding electric vehicles in India has been around chargeable battery EVS, so the primary issues arise on account of electricity generation and charging infrastructure.

The government hasn’t specified how it plans to generate uninterrupted electricity in cities, where power shortages are routine, let alone provide universal access to electricity in the hinterland.

Charging infrastructure

And the present level of charging infrastructure in India isn’t encouraging. According to a Bloomberg New Energy Finance report, India currently has about 350 charging points, while China had about 215,000 installed at the end of 2016. Without adequate charging infrastructure, auto makers will not have the incentive to manufacture EVs. One of the largest disadvantages of EVs is their limited range, meaning they can run only for a fixed, limited distance on a single charge.

Consumers will not shift to EVs unless the very basic requirement of charging stations at regular intervals is met.

India currently has about 350 charging points, while China had about 215,000 installed at the end of 2016. Photo: Reuters
The government is stepping on the gas. In January, it said it would bear up to 60% of the research and development (R&D) cost of developing indigenous, low-cost electric technology. A corpus of Rs14,000 crore has been set aside under the National Electric Mobility Mission Plan (NEMMP).

Tenders for charging stations, electric three-wheelers and battery-powered buses, will also be floated within the year. The government has also reportedly held talks with over 50 Indian and global companies, seeking investment on setting up charging stations, purchasing electric cars, three wheelers and batteries.

In May, India’s first multi-modal EV project was launched, under which Indian cab aggregator Ola will run a fleet of 200 EVs meant for public transport in the western Indian city of Nagpur. These EVs would include cars, buses and rickshaws. Firms supplying vehicles include Mahindra, Tata Motors, Kinetic Engineering Ltd, American EV maker Build Your Dreams (BYD), and TVS Motor Co.

The issues that need to be considered are “job losses in the components industry, the number of upcoming oil refineries and how dependence on petrol will be reduced, the downstream and upstream sectors in the petrol business, and the investments that will possibly go bad in these sectors,” said Harish of Grant Thornton.

Factors specific to the business such as the raw material for batteries, and if they would lead to import dependence on another set of countries (apart from oil exporters), will also have to be considered, he added.

Will it go right?

For Folger of Mercedes, the future is still uncertain.

“We don’t even know whether EVs will survive till 2030. If somebody finds a way to simplify hydrogen technology for cars, it will be the technology of the future. India is betting that a lot goes right,” he said.

The chief executive officer (CEO) of Japanese auto maker Suzuki Motor Corp. recently warned of a serious downside risk to the firm’s Indian unit, Maruti Suzuki India, from the policy-induced push to EVs.

We don’t even know whether EVs will survive till 2030. If somebody finds a way to simplify hydrogen technology for cars, it will be the technology of the future. India is betting that a lot goes right- Roland Folger, MD and CEO, Mercedes-Benz India
Suzuki Motor owns 56.2% of Maruti and generates the bulk of its revenue from the Indian partnership, which has a market value of around $30 billion, higher than Suzuki’s $20.5 billion. At the moment, Maruti lags local rivals such as M&M and Tata Motors in the electric car push.

“As the industry shifts towards EVs, when it comes to India, our volumes are so large that I worry that we could be caught flat-footed if there was a sudden shift towards electrification,” Reuters quoted CEO Toshihiro Suzuki, who is also a director on the board of India’s largest carmaker, as saying in Tokyo.
http://www.livemint.com/Industry/kD...is-paving-the-way-for-an-electric-future.html

 

[RISING SUN]

Intl design contest for Nagpur, Gwalior station makeover
An international design contest will decide the new look of three railway stations in the country - Nagpur in Maharashtra, Gwalior in Madhya Pradesh and Baiyyappanahalli in Bengaluru.

The Indian Railway Stations Development Corporation Limited (IRSDC), mandated to develop and redevelop new and existing railway stations, has called an international design competition to develop the stations according to international standards.

"This is for the first time that we have moved from the normal process of hiring architects and giving them three concepts for our projects for redevelopment. Now, we will get multiple concepts and thus have a wider scope," S K Lohia, the Managing Director and Chief Executive of IRSDC told PTI.

"We will begin with Nagpur, Gwalior and Baiyyappanahalli (Bengaluru)," he said.

The competition, open to architects and students from both India and abroad will get the help of Indian embassies to facilitate entries from across the world.

While the architects will compete in two stages, the winner in the students group will be declared based on their design ideas in the first stage.

For the architects, in the second stage, detailed implementable design schemes for station areas and other facilities have to be presented.

"These should be intelligent, sensitive and highly functional designs to adequately capture land value. They have to be architecturally ambitious, intelligently frugal, financially viable and beneficial for all stakeholders and users," the competition document states.

Only after the top three entries are finalised, will they (architects) be asked to submit their price bids and a final decision will be taken based on both design and pricing, Lohia said.

"In this way, we will get a number of concepts to choose from and finally, we will get a great design at the best price," he said.
http://www.ptinews.com/news/9246886_Intl-design-contest-for-Nagpur--Gwalior-station-makeover.html

 

[RISING SUN]

Historic Trip: Railways’ Bandhan Express Resumes Service to Bangladesh With 53 Passengers
The last train to connect Kolkata and Khulna, The Barisal Express, ended its run in 1965. On the 16th of November 2017, as planned, the Bandhan Express began its first commercial run between Kolkata and Khulna, from Kolkata Railway Station, formerly known as Chitpur Station—the newest of the four intracity railway stations.

The Bandhan Express, together with the existing Kolkata-Dhaka Maitree Express, are now two trains that connect India to Bangladesh.

Indian Railways (Image for Representative Purposes Only). Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons.
After it’s successful inaugural run on 9th November, flagged off via video conference by Prime Ministers Narendra Modi and Shaikh Hasina, and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, the Bandhan Express left on Thursday with 53 passengers.
These passengers earlier would travel by bus, but now have the option of another mode of transport, which they enjoyed travelling in.
Bidhan Poddar said to the Indian Express “It is a historic moment for us… The train is making its first commercial run and we are happy to be a part of it.”
Mr Poddar was travelling with his wife to meet his elder brother.

Excitedly clicking selfies with passengers, the tourist Mohammad Russel Mahmud (38), a resident of Barisal, Bangladesh remarked “I am very excited, as the train is making its first commercial run. This is the second time I visited Kolkata. I used to travel by bus. Now, I might consider taking the train”. Another passenger travelled all the way to Kolkata just to be a part of the Bandhan Express’ first journey.
https://www.thebetterindia.com/121471/new-train-india-bangladesh/