Key to urbanisation is monetising land value: NITI Aayog CEO
The key to urbanisation is the ability to monetise land value, NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant said on Friday. “If you look at the two bordering cities across Delhi – Gurgaon and Noida – they have not been able to monetise land value and plough it back to develop the cities,” Kant said at a session on ‘Cities as engines of growth’ at the India Economic Summit here. Gurgaon was urbanised without basic infrastructure, the land value shot up but the gains were captured by developers, Kant said, adding that in Noida as well, the monetisation wasn’t ploughed back in the city and was captured by the political parties. As India urbanises, it must learn from the Singapore and Yokohama models to create dense compact and liveable cities, he said. “We can’t copy the American model. When America urbanised, land, gas and water were cheaply available and hence the country created the most polluting cities. India, which has just embarked on the urbanisation process, cannot make the same mistake,” Kant stated. Moreover, India needs determined political will to drive urbanisation, he added. Dave Robinson Jersey
Air India wants to rejoin lobby group
Two years after government-owned Air India (AI) walked out of the Federation of Indian Airlines (FIA), citing differences in opinion, it has approached the lobby group to return, said three sources. They say chairman Ashwini Lohani feels it will give more muscle to AI’s demands when it approaches the government as part of a group. FIA is now a lobby group of the country’s private airlines, which presses for change in public policy and regulations. At present, IndiGo, SpiceJet, Jet Airways and GoAir are members, together almost 80 per cent market share. AI’s joining will give a shot in the arm to the group, which has been strongly opposing the move for relaxing the 5/20 rule for plying abroad. The rule, described by aviation minister Ashok Gajapathy Raju as anti-business, made it mandatory for an airline to have plied for at least five years and having 20 aircraft before being allowed to fly abroad. It was partially diluted in June, with the norm of five years being removed. According to a senior AI executive, Lohani has written to the group, “expressing interest to join the group”. “Air India is facing similar issues as the FIA members are, such as high airport charges or oil companies increasing the price of air turbine fuel arbitrarily,” the official said. However, the official added, AI would be cautious against becoming a party to any case which the lobby group files against the government. FIA is currently engaged in a legal tussle with the government against the decision on reducing charges for extra baggage allowance. A senior executive of a private airline which belongs to FIA confirmed the AI development. “The FIA board will decide on the request in a special meeting this month,” he said. AI left FIA in November 2014, citing discomfort on taking a stance against the government and differences among member carriers on policy issues. Rohit Nandan, then chairman of AI, felt they were unnecessarily being dragged to court against the government. Blaine Gabbert Jersey
GoAir-IndiGo legal battle: Bombay HC judge questions use of generic word during hearing
The Bombay High Court has questioned the claim to right over using generic terms after domestic carrier GoAir and IndiGo have been involved in a legal dispute. GoAir had alleged ‘similarity’ in domain names used by rival carrier IndiGo airlines. In 2014, GoAir had filed a lawsuit against InterGlobe Aviation Ltd (which manages IndiGo airlines). It had asked the Bombay High Court to direct the rival carrier to remove “Go” from its web address “GoIndigo.in”. The Wadia-group airlines claimed that the similarity in the portal domain of both the carriers was causing confusion in passengers, who wanted to book air tickets online. It also claimed that passengers were getting diverted to Indigo’s website, which led to revenue loss to GoAir. Dion Jordan Womens Jersey
Centre mulls aviation emission offsets
India is examining possible mechanisms to offset higher emissions from rising civil aviation traffic, even as it has firmly opposed a global pact for curbing aviation emissions proposed by the United Nations’ International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) that is currently being negotiated in Montreal. “India’s aviation sector is growing at 22 per cent to 23 per cent over the last year and we expect it to continue to grow very rapidly over the next decade and a half, so emissions would rise,” said Jayant Sinha, Minister of State for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha said at the World Sustainable Development Summit on Wednesday. “We have begun consultations in the ministry to see what we can do to offset the emissions,” he said. India has ratified the COP21 accord on climate change this Sunday, but while approving its ratification, the Union Cabinet had last week empowered the civil aviation ministry to flag India’s concerns about the proposed aviation emissions pact, including the move to cap aviation emissions at 2020 levels. Human Resources Development Minister Prakash Javadekar had pointed out, while briefing about the cabinet’s decisions, that capping emissions from aviation would be unfair for developing countries where the civil aviation market is not mature and the number of airlines is limited compared to the developed world. Bobby Wagner Authentic Jersey
Air Costa in stake sale talks
Air Costa is in advanced stages of discussions with foreign carriers, including those from the Gulf, for a possible stake sale, as the Vijayawada-based airline seeks to spread its wings after securing a flying permit for pan-India operations. The carrier is also in the process of sealing a deal for the leasing of six aircraft from GE Capital Aviation Services of Singapore, which is expected to be in place by this month, CEO Vivek Choudhary said. The airline operates from eight airports, mainly in southern India, as a regional carrier with a fleet of three Embraer 190 aircraft. Air Costa plans to induct a fourth Embraer this month. On Monday, the airline secured a pan-India operator permit from aviation regulator DGCA, putting it in the league of budget carriers such as SpiceJet, IndiGo, GoAir and AirAsia India. “We are in talks for (stake sale), which are in advanced stages, with carriers from the Gulf and an airline from Southeast Asia,” Choudhary said, adding the quantum of stake to be diluted has not been decided yet. The top Air Costa official said securing a national flying permit would boost the airline’s prospects of taking a foreign partner on board. Chris Wormley Womens Jersey
Rajasthan and Haryana will outshine other states as far UDAY is concerned: Piyush Goyal, Power Minister
n a conversation with ET Now, Piyush Goyal, Power Minister, says he is very satisfied with progress of UDAY. Edited excerpts ET Now: Are you satisfied with how the UDAY bonds are doing? Piyush Goyal: This is now about six months of implementation of UDAY bonds in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and there were truly the ones which are making the highest losses. Personally, I am very, very satisfied with the progress of UDAY. In UDAY. we are not giving out money or doles or subsidies. We have looked at a self regulation mechanism to permanently solve this problem and that can only happen when you ensure that people are not incentivised to go truant again. I am glad that the states have cooperated. The trajectory of losses this year will certainly be significantly lower than last year while it may not have resulted in game changing increase in power demand it was never intended to because at the outset we first want them to become stronger and then power demand or their ability to purchase power will be a natural outcome of improved deficiency. ET Now: If I may ask you something which you also mentioned in your address earlier, the financial aspects by and large of UDAY have been taken care of. They have gone as planned but operational parameters are something which you flagged off personally as well. Perhaps there is something you are not very satisfied with. Who do you see are the best performers in UDAY so far on operational parameters and which states are remained behind. Piyush Goyal: No by and large I would not like to get into the specific states because I am getting everybody on board in voluntary scheme and obviously each state has its own compulsions and local issues. It takes certain time for different states to come up to expectation. But frankly if you ask me, by and large all the states have performed well. It is just that different states came on board at different time and then there are a number of states which are already performing very well. Look at Gujarat. I remember one day I had got very angry at my officers. Why is Gujarat not joining the financial parameters and they tell me sir but there are no loans to join financial parameter. Total borrowing of Guajarat was some Rs 1800 crore. Andhra Pradesh has equally done a phenomenal job. Rajasthan and Haryana are two loss making states. They deserve special mention for the fastest ramp up to come out of losses. They are very aggressive admissions and to my mind, these two states that will outshine all other states. ET Now: The central assistance under the IPDS is also something which is an important part of making progress in UDAY. If I may ask you, you have got some states, you have got Uttar Pradesh, for example which has joined UDAY, they were the first issuers of the bonds as well, what sort of progress do these states like UP need to make? Piyush Goyal: The government utilisation of funds and its proper reporting and recording is the integral part of any success of any programme. Under Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana, I have been urging all the states to ensure their systems are well in place. There have been certain glitches in the initial period because over so many years they were so used to incomplete work and still getting paid that it is taking a little time for people to get used to strict adherence to the system but other than that I think things are alright. Varanasi the IPDS has taken off extremely well. ET Now: Let us talk about something which is very close to you; the renewable space. If I may cite, you know, recently the WTO hearing on our domestic content requirements has gone against us how do you read this in terms of impact on our domestic content requirement program and how do you see that going forward? Piyush Goyal: Right now, we have many cases on the United States for their domestic content requirement that they have been… ET Now: So you are going ahead and filing them? Piyush Goyal: We have already filed. We have filed, I think, six or eight cases against states in the United States which have been following almost similar domestic content requirement rules. That is a process that is underway, we have already filed the cases. As far as Indian interests are concerned, we may have lost this case which as I have said earlier reflects very poorly on the global effort to address the impact of climate change and mitigate this problem but be that as it may, we will continue to support Indian manufacturers, we will ensure that everybody who manufactures in India will be competitive and will be able to get good business. There are always ways to support them and we are exploring and examining jointly with Ministry of Commerce. We will shortly come out with our new proposals. Miami Dolphins Jersey
Power company brings in mobile app for meter reading
The Kolhapur zone of the Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Limited (MSEDCL) has started using a mobile app developed by the power company to bring in transparency in meter-reading. The application, equipped with meter tampering system and Global Positioning System (GPS), aims to remove lacunas like human errors in the billing process. Kolhapur zone comprises Kolhapur and Sangli districts and has around 18 lakh customers. Public relation officer of Kolhapur zone Vikas Puri said the earlier system had some flaws. “Manual errors used to creep in while uploading data into the system, resulting in complaints regarding billing. The new app aims to remove such errors. The photo taken by the company employee will automatically be uploaded to the server. If internet is not available, the data will get automatically uploaded as and when the internet is available. This is important for remote areas in Kolhapur and Sangli districts where internet network is hardly available,” Puri added. The app is available on Google store, window store, and apple store. “The app is equipped with meter tampering system which will help our employees identify tampered meters. Once a meter is tagged as tampered, legal enquiry against the customer will be initiated under the Electricity Act 2003. This system will be implemented in the entire state soon,” he said. Chief engineer of company’s Kolhapur zone Shankar Shinde said, “The app was launched after carrying out primary trials, which were successful. Also, we have developed another application for consumers which they can use to register their grievances,” Shinde said. MSEDCL has 16 distributions zones in the state. Bhadup, Kalyan, Pune, Nagpur zones were selected in the first phase for introducing this application. Kolhapur, Aurangabad, Baramati, Nashik zones have been selected for second phase of the programme. Sam Darnold Jersey
Maharashtra becomes 17th state to join UDAY
Maharashtra has become the 17th state in the country to join power distribution reform scheme Ujjwal Discom Assurance Yojana (UDAY). The state government and Maharashtra State Distribution Company Ltd (MSEDCL) signed a pact with the centre under the scheme at the two-day state power ministers’ conference today. Under UDAY, 16 states and Union Territories had already signed the pact so far. The combined discom debt, including Central PSU dues, that would be restructured in respect of these states is around Rs 2.57 lakh crore, around 68 per cent of the total outstanding discom debt at the end of 30 September. “An overall net benefit of approximately Rs 9,725 crore would accrue to Maharashtra by opting to participate in UDAY, by way of cheaper funds, reduction in Aggregate Technical & Commercial (AT&C) losses, interventions in energy efficiency, coal reforms etc. during the period of turnaround,” the power ministry said in a statement. As part of the scheme, the state government has committed to take over 75 per cent of the discom’s non-capex debt of around Rs 6,600 crore during the current year. The balance 25 per cent of such debt remaining with the discom would be converted into Bonds or repriced at cheaper rates. This would reduce the interest burden of the state and the discom by Rs 595 crore. The state would bring down the AT&C losses through compulsory distribution transformer metering, consumer indexing and GIS mapping of losses and feeder audit. Also, it will eliminate the gap between cost of supply of power and realisation. “The reduction in AT&C losses of MSEDCL to 14.39 per cent and the decline in transmission losses of the state to 3.75 per cent is likely to bring additional revenue of around Rs 2,200 crore during the period of turnaround,” the ministry said. As part of the scheme, the centre would also provide incentives to the discom and the state government for improving power infrastructure in the State and for further lowering the cost of power. “The central schemes such as Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana (DDUGJY), Integrated Power Development Scheme (IPDS), Power Sector Development Fund are already providing funds for improving power infrastructure in the state and additional funding would be considered under these schemes if the state meets the operational milestones,” the ministry said. The state government will also be supported through additional coal at notified prices and in case of availability, through higher capacity utilization, low cost power from NTPC and other central PSUs. Other benefits such as coal swapping, coal rationalization, correction in coal grade slippage, availability of 100 per cent washed coal would help the state to further reduce the cost of power. The state would gain around Rs 4,500 crore due to these coal reforms. Saquon Barkley Womens Jersey
Centre offers soft loan to discoms to provide power connections for Rs 100/month
The Centre has offered long-term soft loans to states to provide electricity connections in easy monthly installments to households to meet its power-for-all commitment, Power Minister Piyush Goyal said here on Friday. State-run Rural Electrification Corp will offer 10-15 year loans at low interest rates to power distribution companies to finance capital expenditure incurred by states in offering electricity connections to households at installments of Rs 100 per month, said Goyal, who is also the minister for coal, renewable energy and mines. Currently, consumers have to pay Rs 4,000-5,000 to get an electricity connection. The NDA government has committed to provide electricity to all by March 2019. Adarius Glanton Womens Jersey
IOC launches start-up scheme with Rs 30 crore corpus
Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), the country’s largest fuel retailer, today announced it has launched a start-up scheme with a corpus of Rs 30 crore to promote promising start-ups and “nurture an eco-system conducive for innovations” in the domestic hydrocarbons sector. Driven by IOC’s Research & Development Centre at Faridabad, the scheme will support projects which involve innovative technology and business process re-engineering ideas with significant business potential, social relevance and focus on environment-protection. “The start-up scheme will be administered through a dedicated online portal and will facilitate the community of innovators, entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs. It will help them pursue their promising ideas right up to validated proof of concept (PoC) stage by funding the incubation ecosystem and through intellectual mentoring,” the company said in a statement. IndianOil will also help in commercialisation of select validated PoCs through equity participation. Citizens of Indian origin willing to work in India besides individuals affiliated to academic institutions having incubation centres approved by the central government, or intrapreneurs from IndianOil can apply under the scheme. To begin with, IndianOil will float the first round of open Innovation Challenge by way of an Expression of Interest (EoI) to select 9 proposals in the domain of Technology Process Re-engineering (TPRE) and 6 proposals in the domain of Business Process Re-engineering (BPRE). The proposals received will be subjected to screening and the short-listed one will be incubated with the required physical and intellectual support till they reach PoC stage. The project owners will be supported with grants of up to Rs 2 crore per project during this period. The areas identified by the start-up scheme under Technical Process Re-engineering (TPRE) include low-cost efficient vapour recovery system at fuel stations, low-cost production of Hydrogen, low-cost process for desalination of sea water, innovative schemes for ensuring zero effluents from oil refineries, molecular modelling and design of the inter-phase molecule for dispersion of nano-material in HC media. The scheme will also cover environment-friendly disposal of insulation material like ceramic blankets and glass wool, LPG cylinder safety aspects and waste-to-energy projects. The company said it is hopeful the start-up scheme will promote collaborative research, develop an innovative ecosystem, nurture entrepreneurship, boost start-ups with rural orientation and open up avenues for young employees of IOC to launch start-up projects. IOC will soon launch a dedicated online portal for the scheme. Matt Read Womens Jersey