Projects in road, shipping sector to cross over Rs 6 lakh crore by March
The government on Thursday exuded confidence that in value terms, projects in the road and shipping sector would cross over Rs 6 lakh crore by the end of March. The government also expressed hope that it would meet its highway construction target of 15,000 km for the current fiscal. “In the road and shipping sector, we have already allotted work of around Rs. 4,60,000 crore. By March-end, we will definitely cross Rs. 6 lakh crore. We will try to do more than this,” Minister for Road and Surface Transportation Nitin Gadkari told reporters here. “Till March this year, we would allot work (for highways construction) for 15,000 km,” the minister said. The minister further said that the government was slowly moving toward that target of building 40-41 km of highways per day. He further said that before BJP goverment came to power the condition of the infrastructure sector was very critical but in the last two-and-a-half year the Centre has accorded highest priority to the development of infrastructure. “Before our government came to power, around 403 road projects totalling 3.85 crore had almost become non-performing assets,” the minister said. At present, the condition of the infrastructure is very good and the banks which earlier not comfortable is now participating well. In a bid to decongest traffic in the country, the government has decided to increase the length of national highways from 96,000 km, at present, to two lakh km, he said. “In this 2 lakh km, we have already reached around 1.7 lakh km,” the minister added. Ethan Pocic Womens Jersey
Boeing nears $10.1 billion order from Spicejet, says report
Budget airline SpiceJet Ltd is expected to order at least 92 Boeing Co 737 jetliners, as it looks to bolster its presence in the world’s fastest growing aerospace market, Bloomberg reported on Thursday. The deal, which would more than double SpiceJet’s 40-plane fleet, may be closed within weeks Bloomberg reported, citing people with direct knowledge of the decision. The order could be worth about $10.1 billion, the publication reported. Boeing declined to comment while SpiceJet was not immediately available outside regular business hours. Dell Curry Womens Jersey
Setback for Nitin Gadkari, highway building at just 30% of target
Just 30% of the highway construction target for 2016-17 was achieved in the first nine months of the year, reports Surya Sarathi Ray in New Delhi. When it comes to award of new projects, the accomplishment during April-December was even lower at 27% of the yearly target. That means that pace of highway construction was 17 km a day, a far cry form the 41 km-per-day goal set by the ministry of road transport and highways. Clearly, with private investments (read BOT projects) not gathering steam, the government’s efforts to push activity in the sector with the use of its own funds (EPC projects) have brought only moderate results. The construction and award of highways in April-December this year was higher than a year ago by 16% and 7%, respectively, (see chart).With the end of the monsoon, the pace of construction is set to gather momentum in the remaining months, ministry sources said. Admitting that things are far behind the schedule, the sources said at best 10,000-km new highways, two-thirds of the target, could be built this year. New projects awards were unlikely to cross 15,000 km, against the targeted 25,000 km, they said. Rob Kelley Authentic Jersey
‘US challenging India’s solar policy sent message to world’
The US successfully challenged India’s local content conditions in its solar policy which sent a message to the rest of the world that it would not tolerate “new form of protectionism”, outgoing American Trade Representative Mike Froman said today. Further, this also helped the US to get India to open up its market worth $1 billion, Froman said in an exit-memo released by the White House on eight years of the outgoing Obama Administration. USTR, he said, filed as many as 24 cases against other countries before the World Trade Organization. The US has focused in particular on bringing cases which have broad, systemic benefits, he argued. “Challenging India’s local content requirements was not just about increasing solar panel exports to India, but was intended to send a message to governments all over the world that the United States would not tolerate this new form of protectionism to exclude our products from their markets, contrary to their WTO commitments,” Froman said. Similarly challenging China’s use of export restrictions on rare earth materials not only provided important relief to US manufacturers dependent on those materials as inputs, but also provided an opportunity to send a message to China’s government and other governments not to use such restraints in any sector to gain a trade-distortive advantage over US competitors, he said. Of the 24 enforcement actions, 15 have targeted China’s unfair and WTO-illegal policies, ranging from illegal barriers to auto imports, agricultural subsidies to grain producers, discriminatory taxes, barriers to services trade, and barriers to US exports of high-tech steel, Froman said. “We also brought economically significant cases against India’s illegal, non-science-based ban on US poultry, European subsidies to civil aviation, and Argentina’s import restrictions,” he said. “Our trade enforcement successes have positively affected billions of dollars of US exports,” Froman said, adding that the US’ case against China for illegally imposing anti-dumping duties opened up that market to USD 5 billion of auto and auto parts exports. “Our case against India’s local content requirements for India opened up an estimated USD 1 billion market. And our case against China’s illegal duties on US poultry is worth an estimated USD1 billion,” Froman wrote in his exit memo. Paul Molitor Authentic Jersey
IFC invests in Hero Future Energies to significantly scale up renewable capacity in India
IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, is picking up equity stake in Hero Future Energies, the renewable energy arm of the Hero Group. The investment will help the company expand its renewable energy capacity, provide jobs and facilitate private sector development in renewable energy, IFC said in a statement released on Thursday. IFC, together with IFC Global Infrastructure Fund, a private equity fund managed by IFC Asset Management Company, will invest $125 million in equity, enabling the company to set up 1 GW of greenfield solar and wind plants in the next 12 months across India. “Joining hands with IFC, will help Hero Futures achieve new goal of 2.7 GW renewable energy capacity by 2020” said Rahul Munjal, chairman & managing director at Hero Future Energies. At ptresent, Hero Future Energies has presence in 12 states in India with a capacity of over 360 megawatt having solar, wind, and rooftop installations. Sunil Jain, chief executive officer, Hero Future Energies commented, “This partnership will fuel our ambitions to tap into the incredible opportunity that lies in both domestic and overseas markets as well as new technologies namely storage, hybrid projects among others. This association is also a validation of our core strengths in timely project delivery, unwavering focus on health safety and environment standards, developmental capabilities, stringent asset quality standards and design and engineering skills. We will also aggressively focus on expanding our promising rooftop solar portfolio.” Over 40% of India’s population lacks access to reliable electricity. The country’s growing energy sector will require $250 billion in investments over the next five years, most of which will have to come from the private sector. With 80% of the country’s energy needs still being met through thermal power, renewable energy is increasingly seen as the solution for bringing universal energy access. In 2014, the Indian government announced a plan of setting up 175 GW of solar and wind energy by 2022. “With this partnership with Hero Future Energies, IFC is helping accelerate the transition of the renewable energy generation business to mainstream power sector. Through the Global Infrastructure Fund, IFC is also bringing in the support of international institutional investors,” said Mengistu Alemayehu, regional director, IFC South Asia. “Such a development will boost confidence of other large business groups and international investors to contribute to India’s ambitious renewable energy targets and make a significant difference in ramping up renewable-energy capacity in the country.” “IFC is a pioneer in renewable energy in India, investing in the sector since 2009. Portfolio companies today have set up over 3 GW of different forms of renewable-power projects in the country. IFC’s advisory team is helping the state of Madhya Pradesh set up a 750-MW solar-power project in Rewa, which will be the largest single-site solar plant in the world when completed. India is IFC’s top country exposure, globally. IFC’s committed portfolio in India is over $5 billion as of June 30, 2016. In FY16, IFC committed $1.1 billion in new investments in the country. In addition to strengthening local capital markets in India, IFC is focused on boosting financing in infrastructure and logistics, promoting financial inclusion, helping create conditions to attract increased private capital, and helping structure public-private partnerships. Brett Hundley Authentic Jersey
India’s solar capacity may double to 18 GW this year
Solar energy capacity in India could nearly double to 18 gigawatt (GW) this calendar year as large projects get commissioned, despite the short-term hurdles of power curtailment and weak tendering in some states, according to sector experts and power producers. India had a total of 9 GW of solar capacity, including rooftop projects, as of December. During 2016, the country added about 4 GW of solar capacity—the fastest pace till date. A large number of projects are expected to be completed in the current year. During 2017, the solar sector is likely to add close to 9 GW of capacity—taking its overall capacity to 18 GW and the country into the league of nations such as China, the US and Japan in terms of solar capacity, according to consultancy Mercom Capital Group Llc. A total of about 14.2 GW of solar projects are currently under development and tenders for about 6.3 GW are still to be auctioned, Mercom Capital said in a 4 January report. Bridge to India, a renewable energy-focused consultancy, expects India’s solar market to grow by 90% in 2017 and reach about 18 GW in total capacity. It expects the country to add a total of 8.8 GW of solar capacity in 2017, including about 1.1 GW of rooftop solar installations. The sector is beginning to see the actual effects of the ambitious target adopted by the government, said Vinay Rustagi, managing director, Bridge to India Energy Pvt. Ltd. “The large capacity addition this year is purely a case of how timelines work for these projects. Because the government was formed in 2014 and they announced the new target in 2015 and the bulk of the large tenders started coming out toward the end of 2015. So these are the projects which will start getting implemented and commissioned in 2017.” Rustagi, however, said the expected capacity addition is much lower than the government’s own target of 12GW for fiscal 2017 and 15GW for fiscal 2018 and also lower than what the tendering pipeline suggests. India has a target of setting up 100 GW of solar and 60 GW of wind energy capacity by 2022. The growing energy sector requires $250 billion in investments to reach this target. A cause of worry for the sector has been several instances of state power distribution utilities (discoms) unplugging their generating capacity from the grid and delaying both payments and the signing of power purchase agreements (PPAs) with renewable power producers. To add to this, project auctions have slowed over the past three months. According to industry statistics, government agencies auctioned only about 1,300 megawatt (MW) of the planned tenders for 3,700 MW during the September-December period. “There is a very clear laid-out path in terms of achieving the 100 GW of solar capacity. There were a spate of tenders, which came up in earlier part of last year until September, then there was a lull for two-three months, but tenders have picked up again and there are a lot of bids currently lined up. We are very confident that this growth will continue,” said Ravi Seth, chief financial officer, ReNew Power Ventures Pvt. Ltd, one of the largest renewable energy producers. Incomplete infrastructure at solar parks in India has been hurting the development of some large-scale solar projects. A sharp fall in solar module prices, however, has helped renewable energy producers, who have won solar projects at aggressive tariffs. Despite these hurdles, a large number of overseas investors including pension funds and infrastructure-focused funds have committed sizeable investments in the sector. On Thursday, World Bank arm International Finance Corp. said it bought an equity stake worth $125 million in Hero Future Energies, the renewable energy arm of Hero Group. “There are significant headwinds in terms of transmission and evacuation issues that could threaten the pace of growth,” said Raj Prabhu, chief executive and co-founder of Mercom Capital. Greg Van Roten Authentic Jersey
New ‘UDAY’ for 2 discoms as Telangana takes over Rs 8,923 crore debt burden
Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao announced in the assembly on Wednesday that Telangana has joined the UDAY (Ujwal Discom Assurance Yojana) scheme, a move will provide much-needed relief to the debt-ridden power discoms. The two discoms in the state are having a long-term debt of 11,897 crore (TSSPDCL – 7,392 crore and TSNPDCL – 4,505 crore) as on September, 2016, and are virtually in a debt-trap, he said. Under the scheme, the state government will take over 75 per cent of the discoms debt amounting to 8,923 crores out of the 1,1897 crore. The balance loan amount of 2,974 crore will be restructured by the discoms by issuing bonds with government guarantee. As a result of taking over the loan, there will be a relief of interest burden of 890 crore per annum to the two discoms and consumers at large. Discoms will be able to raise funds with competitive rates from the financial institutions towards capital expenditures. The chief minister pointed that the government of Telangana is already providing a subsidy of 4,584 crore to the discoms. He said appreciating the performance of the discoms, REC and PFC have reduced the interest rates to 9.95 per cent from 12 per cent resulting in a saving of 200 crore interest per annum and overall 2,000 crore during the loan period of ten years. The chief minister expressed confidence that by 2019, the state will be power surplus with a total installed capacity of 27187 mw, which will include power from Chattisgarh, NTPC, Ramagundam, Yadadri and Bhadradri power stations. Omri Casspi Jersey
Assam’s entry in UDAY club to boost its power health; Estimated benefit of Rs 1,663 cr
Assam joined the UDAY (Ujwal DISCOM Assurance Yojana) club on Wednesday, signing an MoU with the power ministry in New Delhi. The state, along with Telangana, have now taken the UDAY tally to 20. This will enable an operational and financial turnaround of the debt-ridden electricity distribution company, resulting in an estimated overall net benefit of Rs 1,663 crore. UDAY is a scheme to revive loss-making DISCOMS (power distribution companies) and make them vibrant and efficient, giving them the opportunity to break even in two to three years. This is done through four initiatives – improving operational efficiency of DISCOMS, reduction of power costs, reduction in interests costs and enforcing financial discipline on DISCOMS by aligning their operations with state finances. The state will take over Rs 928 crore of the total Rs 1,510-crore DISCOM debt, which is 75% of the debt outstanding as on September, 2015. As part of the scheme, the Centre will not include the debt taken over by the states in the calculation of fiscal deficit of respective states in the financial years of 2015-16 and 2016-17. A spokesperson also said this would amount to annual savings of Rs 37 crore in interest costs to the state. The interest cost on future borrowings is also expected to come down, leading to savings of around Rs 30-40 crore for all UDAY states. Everson Griffen Womens Jersey
IndiGo, SpiceJet raise red flag over FDI norms in aviation
IndiGo and SpiceJet have raised “security” concerns over the government’s decision to allow 100 per cent foreign ownership by non-airline players in the Indian carriers. Spicejet CMD Ajay Singh and IndiGo president Aditya Ghosh have recently raised this issue during their meeting with Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. During the meeting, the two airlines said aviation is a “sensitive sector” and the FDI policy relaxation would have “security implications”, according to sources. Spokespersons of IndiGo and SpiceJet could not be immediately reached for comments. The meeting also assumes significance as the government is considering removal of an anomaly restricting foreign direct investment (FDI) in the civil aviation sector. Jake Bischoff Womens Jersey
India To Buy Six More C295s for Coast Guard
India is likely to sign a contract with Airbus Defence and Space for 56 C295 military transports within six months, according to the country’s retiring chief of the air staff, Arup Raha. Meanwhile, the Indian Ministry of Defence has cleared the separate acquisition of six C295s for an Indian Coast Guard requirement. Both orders will be delivered by the Tata-Airbus partnership that is India’s first-ever private sector aircraft development enterprise. At his end-of-tenure press conference on December 23, Raha told AIN that the evaluation of the C295 bid for the IAF is complete and contract negotiations would start soon. “Since benchmarking and other issues [of the aircraft] are known to us, the process will not take very long, especially with a proactive defense minister where things get sorted out faster than they did in the past,” he said. He added that, given the large number of aircraft to be ordered—16 to be delivered in flyaway condition and 40 to be manufactured in India—the Coast Guard contract would be “processed subsequently to completion of this series.” He continued, “The landmark decision for manufacture of this 8- to 10-ton-capacity aircraft will empower the private sector and help us with capabilities, with assistance from OEMs.” The IAF need for a new medium airlifter has become urgent, as the service grapples with aging An-32s. In the past two decades 15 have crashed, the most recent one last year with 29 people on board. That aircraft has not yet been located, since Russian aircraft do not have underwater locator beacons. A contract will be signed within two months, Raha said, to equip helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft with emergency locator transmitters and underwater locator beacons linked to flight data recorders that are triggered by water immersion and indicate where wreckage is, in a large area of sea. Javon Hargrave Jersey