A ₹3,000-crore makeover for Buckingham Canal
The 1,095-km-long National Waterway 4, better known as Buckingham Canal, is in for a major makeover to bring it back to its past glory ferrying people and cargo. The waterway, which runs from Kakinada in East Godavari district to Puducherry, where it merges into the Bay of Bengal, cutting through Chennai, has the potential to play a big role in transport of cargo and developing the tourism sector, including offering House Boats as in the Kerala backwaters. The Andhra Pradesh government last week signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Inland Waterways Authority of India for the development of National Waterway 4 with an outlay of ?3,000 crore. Ajay Jain, Principal Secretary, Energy and Industries, Andhra Pradesh, told BusinessLine, “This is a move to revive the inland waterway network and will play a big role in reviving the economic activity along the waterway. Work on some segments such as dredging of the canal in AP has already commenced.” “Based on the detailed project report to be prepared by a consultant, and potential of cargo movement, Phase One of the waterway is proposed to be completed by 2018-19. The State government will help the Inland Waterways Authority with land acquisition and related issues,” Jain explained. While the NW-4 project was declared national waterway in 2008 and was to be developed by the Inland Waterways Authority of India and scheduled for completion in 2013, it received fresh impetus after the N Chandrababu Naidu government assumed office in June 2014. With about 888 km of the 1,095-km waterway in Andhra Pradesh, its development is seen to play a major role in transport of cargo from East and West Godavari, Krishna, Guntur, Prakasam and Nellore districts. The waterway is seen as having the potential to transport 11 million tonnes of cargo every year, and be especially useful to the agriculture sector in moving produce. While the waterway cost was estimated at ?1,500 crore in 2009, it has doubled now but its scope has been expanded as it seeks to link up Godavari and Krishna rivers and the Eluru Canal. In its efforts to shore up the economy along the waterway, the AP Government and Dredging Corporation of India have inked a memorandum to set up the country’s first dredging equipment repair facility port at Antarvedi near Kakinada, which will see an initial investment outlay of ?1,500 crore. It is also proposed to set up a skill development centre there. The Buckingham Canal started off as an 11-km saltwater navigation channel in 1806 in the erstwhile Madras state was gradually extended up to Vijayawada till the Krishna river. The canal, which was in service up to the late 1970s, was damage by floods and gradually its usage dwindled. Will the waterway get back to its glory days? Cordrea Tankersley Jersey
Scoot India chief: Looking at a flight network out of Chennai, not just to Singapore
Passengers from Chennai will soon be able to fly into Singapore for a one-way fare starting under ?4,500 while a one-way trip to Sydney will be available for under ?15,000. Scoot, the low-cost, medium-haul arm of the Singapore Airlines Group is to start daily services from Chennai to Singapore from May 24. On the same day it will also launch a three-times-a-week flight between Singapore and Amritsar. Bharath Mahadevan, Country Head, Scoot India, spoke to BusinessLine on the airline’s plans in India including offering drop-dead fares every Tuesday just to stimulate the market. When does Scoot start flying to India? We will fly daily into Chennai from Singapore from May 24 apart from launching a three-times-a-week flight between Singapore and Amritsar on the same day. We will go up to four-times-a-week between Amritsar and Singapore from July 1. Besides, from October 2 we will launch a three times a week Singapore-Jaipur flight which will increase to four times a week from October 28. What aircraft will you be deploying? On the Chennai route we will deploy a Dreamliner Boeing 787-800 which offers 21 premium economy seats and 314 economy seats. Jaipur will be the same aircraft while in Amritsar we will deploy the 787-900. The aircraft that we will operate to Chennai is being delivered this week while the one that we will operate to Jaipur is being delivered on September 25. Has there been an enhancement in the India-Singapore Air Services Bilateral agreement which is allowing Scoot to start operations to Chennai? There is no enhancement in the Air Services Bilaterals between India and Singapore. In Chennai we are taking over the flight from Tigerair It will cease operations from Chennai from May 24. Jaipur and Amritsar are part of the 18 points which were exchanged between India and the Association of South East Asian Nations as part of the `Open skies’ agreement in 2003. Will Tigerair withdrawing and Scoot taking over the Chennai route see an enhancement of seats on offer on the route to Singapore? A marginal increase of about 300-odd seats a week. Why the decision for Tigerair to withdraw and Scoot to come into India? Tigerair is 100 per cent owned by Singapore Airlines. To tap synergies there are certain markets where long haul aircraft like a B 787 would work economically better than a narrow body aircraft like the Airbus 320 which Tiger operates. Purely in terms of economics because cost per seat is lower. Also in terms of cargo. Chennai is a huge cargo market for Singapore Airlines. The 787 is better suited to carry cargo. A narrow body aircraft cannot carry that much cargo. How much will the cargo capacity go up out of Chennai? The published capacity of a Boeing 787 is 10 tonnes. We should be able to carry 14-15 tonnes on average per flight. Tigerair is a narrow body so it is not even comparable but the published capacity is about 2 tonnes per flight. Will Singapore Airlines continue to serve the Chennai market after Scoot begins operations? Singapore Airlines has a daily flight which will continue. So apart from Singapore Airlines, its 100 per cent low cost arm will also operate daily from Chennai? Correct. What will the difference be between Scoot and Singapore Airlines flights? In terms of aircraft, we both operate wide-body aircraft. But Singapore Airlines is a completely full service carrier with in-flight entertainment, network connections they have out of Singapore, food and wine and other things. It has a full-fledged business class out of Chennai. We do not call ourselves a low cost carrier because we operate what we call a long haul wide-body aircraft. When we operate long haul we cannot have the same seat pitch, the same traditional low cost offerings. We need to offer the same comfort that the long haul carriers offer. But what we do is unbundle the pricing so if a passenger wants alcohol or in-flight entertainment or food he buys it. In Singapore Airlines it is all included in the price. So if a person buys a base price ticket on Scoot it will not include food, inflight entertainment and liquor? That is correct. Will free baggage be part of the base ticket? We are starting off with a base fare of $64 (?4242 at ?66.29) all inclusive out of Chennai to Singapore one-way that has only cabin baggage (7 kg) and the seat. If a person adds check in baggage and meal how much more will the fare become? Baggage is $20 per sector (?1,326) and meal is $ 12 per sector (?795). How much lower will this be versus a base ticket on Singapore Airlines? Including alcohol and baggage it will be 40-50 per cent lower depending on the sector. Our focus is not Singapore Airlines but Malaysian, Jet Airways, Thai Airways and so on. What is the passenger profile from Chennai? In Chennai, we are looking at changing strategy. Tiger was mainly looking at passengers going to Singapore while we are looking at building the network. So we are looking at passengers going beyond to Australia, Taipei, Korea and Japan. We are looking at both corporate and leisure. Our fares to Australia start at $169 (?11,203) to Gold Coast one-way all inclusive and $189 (? 12,529) to Sydney. We are looking at a network out of Chennai and not just to Singapore which is what a traditional low cost airline will focus on like Tiger and IndiGo. Patrick Roy Jersey
Apple no longer immune to China’s scrutiny of US tech firms
For years, there has been a limit to the success of U.S. technology companies in China. Capture too much market share or wield too much influence, and Beijing will push back. Apple has largely been an exception to that trend. Yet the Silicon Valley company is now facing a regulatory push against its services in China that could signal its good relations in the country may be turning. Last week, Apple’s iBooks Store and iTunes Movies were shut down in China, just six months after they were started there. Initially, Apple apparently had the government’s approval to introduce the services. But then a regulator, the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television, asserted its authority and demanded the closings, according to two people who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “We hope to make books and movies available again to our customers in China as soon as possible,” an Apple spokeswoman said in a statement. The about-face is startling, given Apple’s record in China. Unlike many other U.S. tech companies, Apple has succeeded in introducing several new products like its mobile payments system Apple Pay in China recently. New resistance from the Chinese government to that expansion could potentially hurt the Cupertino, California, company. To a degree more than many tech companies, Apple relies on the smooth operation of its software including its App Store and services like iTunes, which are tightly integrated with the iPhone and iPad to keep customers coming back to its devices. Apple, which is facing a slowdown in sales of its iPhones, is also reliant on China for growth, so further moves by Beijing to curtail services could crimp sales. The company counts China as its second-largest market after the United States. Its China numbers will be dissected Tuesday, when it reports quarterly earnings. China’s pushback against Apple shows that the company may finally be vulnerable to the heightened scrutiny that other U.S. tech companies have faced in recent years. That scrutiny was spurred by revelations from the former U.S. National Security Agency contractor Edward J. Snowden in 2013 of the use of U.S. companies to conduct cyberespionage for Washington. China has sweeping goals in its move against Apple, said Daniel H. Rosen, founding partner of Rhodium Group, a New-York based advisory firm specializing in the Chinese economy. “They are interested in protecting the content that the Chinese people see, policing its national security and favoring indigenous giants such as Huawei, Alibaba and Tencent,” Rosen said. In this new era, he added, China “is strongly disinclined to accept the dominance of foreign players on the Internet, not least those from the United States.” After the shutdown of Apple’s services, President Xi Jinping of China, who has led a crackdown on Western ideology, conducted a meeting Tuesday in Beijing on China’s restrictive Internet policies. China’s top tech leaders, including Jack Ma, chairman of the e-commerce company Alibaba, and Ren Zhengfei, head of Huawei, were present at the meeting. “China must improve management of cyberspace and work to ensure high-quality content with positive voices creating a healthy, positive culture that is a force for good,” a report by the state-run news service Xinhua quoted Xi as saying. Since the Snowden leaks, China’s state media identified eight U.S. companies that it has labeled guardian warriors and that it has said were too deeply established in the country’s core industries such as energy, communications, education and military. Sales in China for those companies, including Cisco, IBM, Microsoft and Qualcomm, have slid as government oversight has increased. Some have grappled with raids, investigations and fines. Some have also been pressured to sell off holdings, hand over technology and work with local partners to expand their China businesses. Though Apple is one of the eight, it has had a much easier time. In 2013, Apple signed an agreement with China’s largest wireless carrier, China Mobile, to sell the iPhone in the country, after six years of wooing the carrier. Chinese consumers spent $59 billion on Apple’s products in the company’s last fiscal year. Timothy D. Cook, Apple’s chief executive, has made multiple visits to China. And while the company has faced occasional opposition most notably an attack by state and Communist Party media against its customer support it has largely been left alone. There have been some signs of trouble ahead. Xi has presided over a deep freeze on the Internet, increasing censorship and taking aim at online tools used to circumvent China’s system of online filters, known as the Great Firewall. He has also added new policy tools to keep tabs on electronic communications. Xi heads a committee of top leaders set up to streamline tech and Internet policy and turn the country into a “cyberpower.” In addition, the Chinese government proposed an anti-terrorism law two years ago that would require foreign companies to turn over encryption keys the codes that enable otherwise-scrambled information to be viewed for security reasons. Though the language was ultimately dropped, analysts said the government wants to have access to all communications within China. Apple’s recent battle with the FBI over unlocking an iPhone for a terrorism investigation is unlikely to help it in China. Chinese lawyers have pointed out that the country’s anti-terrorism law requires companies to help with decryption when the police or state security agents demand it for investigating or preventing terrorist acts. On Tuesday, at a congressional hearing, Apple’s general counsel, Bruce Sewell, said that the Chinese government had asked the company to share source code in the last two years, but that it had refused. The two Apple services that Chinese regulators shut down, iTunes Movies and the iBooks Store, compete directly with Chinese Internet companies’ products. Beijing has recently added initiatives to support a sputtering economy with new emphasis on industries that require higher skills and command better profit margins, like the Internet. That push may eventually trickle down to other Apple services. Apple Pay, for example, competes with mobile payments systems from some of China’s
Ability to handle millennials and being digital-savvy newest traits for new top executives
Ability to handle millennials and being digitally savvy are two of the newest traits that Indian industry is increasingly looking for in top executives, as both workforce and customers are getting younger. This is driving demand for CEOs in their 30s and 40s. Leading headhunting firms such as EMA Partners, Hunt Partners, Korn/Ferry, Global Hunt and Transearch have close to 20 mandates in their hands to recruit CEOs, where the preference is for young blood. “Many leaders fall into the trap of assuming they are ‘appreciating asset’ and start living in history and soon become one. Organisations do not want to hire them; instead they prefer leaders who are working hard to invest in themselves to stay relevant,” said Vineet Nayar, former CEO of HCL Technologies and founder of Sampark Foundation. This is attitude bias, not age bias, he said. Executive search firm EMA Partners currently has 30 mandates for CXO-level positions chief executives, chief financial officers, chief operating officers, etc. where the clients want leaders in their 30s and early 40s with a strong understanding of the digital needs of companies. One such young CEO (below 45 years) is B Gopkumar, in charge of broking and distribution business at Reliance Capital who is busy driving a change in the company by experimenting with mobility-led applications. “In our industry, this (mobility) is quite nascent. But I am taking a risk to bring in a radical change and probably we would be the first ones to do so,” he said. His main aim is to cash in on the new opportunities available with the digitalisation. “We are reaching a generation shift at leadership roles as more and more of the new generation of managers is entering the corporate world. Leaders in their 50s are slowly fading away even in traditional sectors,” said K Sudarshan, managing partner-EMA Partners India. Retaining and attracting young talent is becoming a challenge for companies as their demand has gone up, he said. “Most of our clients are willing to take a chance on a younger CEO or No. 2 executive. This was not the case about two years ago,” said Korn/Ferry India chairman Navnit Singh. Established companies like Infosys, KPMG, P&G and Hindustan Lever are all intentionally scouting for talent in their 30s and early 40s who also understand the digital world, another leading head hunter said. TV Mohandas Pai, chairman of Manipal Global Education and former director at Infosys, confirmed that the CXO talent pool is getting younger. “Massive increase in new companies and more competition is leading rise to young leaders. These young leaders are also in tune with the digital disruption and hence valuable to most of the organisations.” Board advisory and leadership search firm Hunt Partners is also seeing a rising demand for young leaders, predominantly in sectors like consumer, IT and financial technology, apart from new age sectors like ecommerce. “Companies in these sectors are looking for younger CEO’s perhaps 30-35% jump from a few years ago,” said Sunit Mehra, founder and managing partner at Hunt Partners. “The leadership age is being pushed down to now to early 40s (on an average) from 55 years about three years ago,” Singh added. Josh Archibald Womens Jersey
Government to terminate three highway projects due to poor performance of the developers
The government will terminate three highway projects – Ranchi-Jamshedpur, Rohtak-Jind and Haridwar-Dehradun due to poor performance of the developers, NHAI Chairman Raghav Chandra said today. The cost of these projects is said to be around Rs 7000 crore. The government will soon start the process of rebidding these projects. Road transport and highway minister Nitin Gadkari had said that his ministry has proposed the formation of dispute resolution mechanism to the finance ministry for projects that are stuck. “We have requested the finance ministry to form a four-member dispute resolution cell for road projects for early implementation of stuck projects,” Gadkari had said. About 15 road projects with an investment of over Rs 25,000 crore are stuck due to various reasons including cost escalation. Carolina Panthers Womens Jersey
Vistara, TCS enter into strategic partnership for IT services, airport infrastructure support
Full service airline Vistara has entered into a strategic partnership with TCS for a broad range of information technology services, including application maintenance services and airport infrastructure support. Vistara is a joint venture between Tatas and Singapore Airlines. The carrier and Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) have entered into an agreement for a “long term strategic partnership”. “TCS would provide a broad range of IT services in the area of IT management, application maintenance and application development to help Vistara achieve its goal in customer experience, operational excellence as well as cost leadership,” Vistara said in a release today. As per the agreement, TCS would manage the operational aspects of the airline’s IT including application maintenance services, network maintenance, end user computing and airport infrastructure support. Among others, both entities would develop “state-of-the art digital solutions which can be taken to other airlines, leveraging TCS’ prior track record in this area for Singapore Airlines and other leading global airline brands”, the release said. Vistara CEO Phee Teik Yeoh said TCS has been a key technology partner for the airline since its start. “Both parties will now see greater synergies as the expanded partnership will extend many benefits to Vistara from TCS’ vast airline domain capabilities as well as help us leverage its world-class technology and innovation competency,” he noted. The airline operates around 400 weekly flights. Marcus Peters Authentic Jersey
India exploring long-term gas contracts at $5/mmbtu: Piyush Goyal
India is exploring gas purchase contracts spanning 10-15 years for power projects at a fixed price of $5 per mmbtu, power, coal and renewable energy minister Piyush Goyal said. Goyal said with about 28 GW of stranded gas assets, the country is a huge and promising market as long as the prices are right. “Given the current Baltic index, I believe this is a viable proposition,” the minister said at a renewable energy investors round table co-hosted by the Confederation of Indian Industry and the US India Business Council in New York on Thursday. Goyal projected India’s growth to be in double digits by next year, the caveat being that the country needs to get a strong monsoon. The country is open to help power sector investors hedge risk by linking the debt to a basket of currencies or exploring inflation linked tariffs,” he said. During his visit to the UK and the US, the minister discussed the need for a stable and simplified policy and regulatory regime, standardised power purchase contracts and equipment standardisation with the investors.
Give-it-Up: Over 1 crore LPG users gave up their subsidies
More than 1 crore LPG consumers have given up their cooking gas subsidies in one year since Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a call to the well-heeled to give up the same. Since Modi made the appeal in March last year, 1,00,06,303 LPG consumers have stopped using subsidised cooking gas, helping the exchequer save a few thousand crores of rupees in doles, oil ministry officials said. Consumers are currently entitled to 12 cylinders of 14.2 kg each or 34 bottles of 5 kg each in a year at subsidised rates. A subsidised 14.2-kg cylinder is currently available at Rs 419.13 per bottle in Delhi while the 5-kg pack costs Rs 155. Market-priced LPG is available at Rs 509.50 per 14.2-kg cylinder. Giving up subsidised LPG will help cut the government’s subsidy bill, which was at Rs 30,000 crore on the fuel last fiscal. Those who have decided to give up their subsidies have to buy the product at the market price. The surrendered subsidy is used by the government to provide cooking gas connection to the poor in rural households free of cost, the official said. On March 27, Modi had officially launched the ‘Give-it-Up’ campaign, urging the well-off to surrender their LPG subsidy so that it can be targeted for the needy. The aim is also to bring down the country’s dependence on energy imports by 10 per cent by 2022. The country has 15.34 crore LPG connections, of which 1 crore have now given up subsidies. LPG subsidy is transferred to beneficiaries directly in their bank accounts in advance. “Gas cylinders surrendered by them would be transferred to the poor who use wood for cooking. If one crore people give up their LPG subsidy, one crore poor people will benefit as they will be given new LPG cylinders instead,” he had said. Consumers can opt out of the subsidy by submitting written request to the distributor or electronically at mylpg.in.
India agrees to ink bilateral air service agreement with Fiji
As per a Financial Chronicle report by Nirbhay Kumar, India has agreed to sign a bilateral air service agreement (ASA) with Fiji, paving the way for direct flights between the two countries. According to a Ministry of Civil Aviation official, the two sides recently agreed to ink an agreement in this regard under which designated airlines from the two countries could operate thrice a week. “Besides cities like Delhi and Hyderabad, Varanasi has also been added as a point-of-call for Fijian Airlines in India. Indian carriers can operate to anywhere in Fiji,” the official said.
Delhi HC restrains Snapdeal’s arm Unicommerce from using data derived from sellers on Paytm
The Delhi High Court has granted some relief to mobile marketplace Paytm by restraining a unit of rival Snapdeal from using any information derived from sellers transacting on the Paytm platform. Paytm, which counts Alibaba as an investor, has filed a suit alleging that confidential data relating to Paytm has been accessed by Snapdeal through its unit Unicommerce, allowing it an unfair advantage. Also read: Snapdeal co stole biz data: Paytm Unicommerce denies the allegation. The court also directed Unicommerce to pull down its YouTube advertisement and/or modify it to remove the Paytm logo. Unicommerce, which provides the software that helps operate online marketplaces, however, claimed that the “reliefs sought (by Paytm) have not been granted. We welcome the honourable court’s interim order. While the matter is sub-judice, we believe that the allegations made are clearly unfounded and speculative.” The case will be heard next on July 11. Snapdeal’s main investor is Japan’s SoftBank. It competes with Flipkart, Amazon, Shop-Clues and Paytm. It did not immediately comment. Ecommerce companies, particularly online retailers rely heavily on data and view it as a source of competitive advantage. If forms the basis of strategy, is a source of revenue, and can even make the difference between the success and failure of business. While data is guarded jealously, new-economy companies have shown that they are not shy of legal fights to secure or protect what they believe are their rights. Last month, ridehailing app Uber sued rival Ola, accusing it of a campaign of dirty tricks designed to subvert its business, allegations that Ola denies. Hotel rooms aggregator OYO went to court alleging that rival ZO was stealing its software, but the two of them later decided to merge. In blog post on its website headlined, “We discourage the use of Unicommerce!” Paytm said it has informed sellers transacting on its platform that using Unicommerce was prohibited. “If we find any of our partners using Unicommerce services, we would take strict action including but not limited to imposing penalties or blocking the concerned partner entirely,” Paytm said. It did not immediately provide comment on Thursday’s court hearing.