Indian infrastructure market to overtake Japan by 2023: BMI Research
With large residential and non-residential projects in the pipeline, the Indian infrastructure market is forecast to overtake Japan’s in next five years, says a report. “India’s infrastructure market is the third-largest in Asia, and is forecast to overtake Japan’s in nominal value terms by 2023,” the report by BMI Research said. Although demonetisation had a negative impact on construction activity in 2016 as most construction workers’ wages were paid in cash, the Fitch group company said that it believes that “robust growth will return in 2017 as work resumes on the large pipeline of infrastructure, residential and non-residential projects in the country”. At the same time, the operating environment of India’s construction industry remains immensely challenging, with major infrastructure projects commonly incurring delays and cost overruns, it said. “The Modi government has made some progress in addressing underlying issues in the sector, such as streamlining the land-acquisition process in some states, though the slow pace of reform means that the market remains relatively risky,” it added. Industrialisation and urbanisation trends are making India’s infrastructure deficit more apparent and increasing demand for investment in roads, railways, ports, power transmission and water utilities, the report said. The Narendra Modi-led government at the Centre has initiated several programmes aimed at improving logistics, stimulating investment in manufacturing and building affordable housing, which will contribute to growth in the construction industry over the next 10 years, the report said. “Reforms to foreign investment laws under Make In India initiative have made it easier for international companies to invest and participate in India’s infrastructure projects. “That said, the infrastructure market remains dominated by domestic companies which have significant home market advantages owing to their experience with the complex regulatory environment in India,” it said. Sean Kuraly Authentic Jersey
NHAI forms 2 panels to speed dispute resolution
The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has come up with an alternative dispute resolution mechanism to find a way out of the nearly 280 pending claims worth Rs 43,000 crore on its hands, as well as future cases. It has set up two panels of six independent experts, including a former central vigilance commissioner (CVC) and a former Lokayukta, for conciliation and settlement of disputes. The decisions of the panels – one headed by former CVC Pradeep Kumar and the other led by former Allahabad high court judge Justice I P Vasishth – will be binding on NHAI and contractors. The panels also have experts from the corporate world, including former managing director of Maruti Suzuki (India) Jagdish Khattar. The NHAI has notified the guidelines for the new mechanism, wherein neither the contractor nor the authority would have to engage any advocate. NHAI chairman Yudhvir Singh Malik told TOI, “The intention behind the policy is quick amicable settlement of disputes, avoiding unnecessary litigation, and playing a constructive role in completion of road projects.” In an open letter to contractors, the NHAI chief has appealed to them to avail of the option. New cases will be referred to the expert panels only after both the NHAI chairman and the chief of contractor board of directors exhaust the scope of conciliation and settlement. But to enable the expert panels to take up disputes which have already reached courts or tribunals, the private player will have to explicitly submit it to the court or tribunal to put the hearing in abeyance. “Now we have to see how the industry is taking keen interest in quick resolution of disputes. We have taken the required step to minimise the number of disputes reaching courts and tribunals,” an NHAI official said. The number of disputes is likely to swell as more projects get completed. The PMO had been pushing for quick resolution, within a stipulated time frame, of disputes, which have led to blocking of funds for contractors even after completion of works. Coby Fleener Jersey
‘Stop move to privatise highway maintenance’
The State Government should abandon privatisation of maintenance of Highways in the State immediately, said Tamil Nadu State Highways Workers’ Association State president Hamsa Raj. Talking to mediapersons here on Wednesday, he said that privatisation of road maintenance was not only a costly affair but also affected survival of thousands of highway workers. The government had already offered maintenance of 378-km-long roads in Pollachi division to private parties for ? 233.93 crore, 569-km-long roads in Ramanathapuram division for ? 340 crore, 581-km -long roads in Krishnagiri division for ? 450 crore and 770-km-long roads in Thiruvallur division for ? 630 crore. On the whole, 2,304 km long roads had been given to private parties for maintenance at a cost of ? 1,654.31 crore. If road workers maintained these roads, maintenance costs would be around only ? 560 crore. The government planned to privatise maintenance of other highways also. It should abandon the move, he insisted. Announcing a series of agitation against the State government, he said that the association leaders would start public campaign from Nilgiris, Krishnagiri and Kanyakumari about the ill effects of privatisation between June 10 and 23 and tour throughout the State. The campaigners will meet in Dindigul on July 8 and take out a mega protest rally and conduct a conference. If the government failed to fulfil their demands, they would stage a demonstration in Chennai on August 4. Fozzy Whittaker Jersey
Government keen to support indigenous, affordable e-mobility solutions for intra-city transportation
The Government of India is promoting e-mobility by working towards adopting indigenous and affordable e-mobility solutions which are sustained by an economic model. Speaking at theCII- Shell Global Lecture Series on ‘Greenovation: Future Mobility’on 7 June 2017 at the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, Mr Abhay Damle, Joint Secretary (Transport), Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, Government of India, highlighted the importance of building India’s transportation and logistics infrastructure for future mobility. He stated that Indian cars produce less pollution compared to trucks and buses, which travel an average 200 km per day and while comprising 2.5% of vehicles, consume 65% of fuel and emit about 70% NOx and SOx.Therefore, the e-mobility industry should focus on converting high mileage vehicles into electrical. Prof Ashok Jhunjhunwala, Principal Advisor, Minister of Power and New & Renewable Energy, Government of India said that globally electric vehicles are promoted with huge subsidies, which is not feasible for India. He said innovative techniques should offset high battery prices, concessional GST and road-tax for three years. Battery swapping& charging, module-based battery design, developing business opportunities for battery ownership, etc. can alleviate battery costs. In the first stage, 4 wheelers, city buses and 3-wheelers may see a launch in Oct–Nov2017. Electricity from renewables will be primary source for EVs. Speaking on India’s biofuels mandate, Mr Y B Ramakrishna, Chairman – Working Group on Biofuels, Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas said that biofuels can mitigate climate change and secure India’s energy by replacing upto 30 per cent generation from fossil fuels. The Government is implementing policies to promote sustainable conversion technologies to produce blended fuels like bio-ethanol, bio-diesel and biogas, and India is already leading in technology to produce second generation ethanol. He said that issues like underutilization of production capacity and feedstock supply and cost need to be resolved. Emphasing an India-specific policy, Dr Suddhasatwa Basu, Professor, Chemical Engineering, IIT Delhi said that a clear policy roadmap is required to run over 10 billion electric cars over the next decade. Mr P K Banerjee, Deputy Executive Director (Tech.),SIAM said that four main forces will drive the mobility sector: consumer need, move from connected to autonomous mobility, infrastructure, and management of old vehicles including recycling. Ms Soma Banerjee, Principal – Energy & Infrastructure, CII, said that with growing urban population and increasing pollution, India must choose between public and private vehicles. Government policy should encourage citizens and Industry to move towards public vehicles, taking into account energy efficiency and global market conditions. Also, given India’s diversity, it would need a combination of biofuels, renewables, electricity and cleaner fossil fuelsto serve its future mobility needs. Ms Mansi Tripathy, Managing Director, Shell Lubricants India, said that India needs multivariant e-mobility solutions which are affordable and customised to the Indian market. Despite challenges to the last mile connectivity, such as charging points and urban infrastructure, industry including OEMs are fully committed to realising the national vision. Clark Harris Womens Jersey
As solar energy booms, Indian manufacturers struggle to compete with China
Some of India’s biggest solar equipment makers are facing financial collapse, priced out by Chinese competitors as Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government prioritises cheap power over local manufacturing despite his ‘Make in India’ push. Though President Donald Trump is pulling the United States out of the Paris accord on climate change, India is sticking to its huge renewable energy programme. That has created a multi-billion-dollar market for Chinese solar product makers, who are facing an overcapacity at home and steep duties in Europe. India’s solar power generation capacity has already more than tripled in three years to over 12 gigawatts (GW) as Modi targets raising energy generation from all renewable sources to 175 GW by 2022. Chinese companies have gained the most from that increase, accounting for around 85 percent of India’s solar module demand and earning around $2 billion, according to industry data. The total annual market could jump to more than $10 billion in the next few years going by the government’s capacity targets. Local companies such as Jupiter Solar, Indosolar Ltd and Moser Baer India Ltd, however, are struggling to win contracts. Orders funnelled through a domestic-content policy have all but dried up after the World Trade Organization last September upheld an earlier ruling that found the move violated global trade norms. As a result, Jupiter said it could shut shop by July after delivering their last orders this month; Indosolar auditors have raised doubts over it remaining as a “going concern”; and Moser Baer says it needs support from its lenders to revive its solar business. “Torprdoed” Indian solar power plant developers — including companies backed by Japan’s Softbank and Goldman Sachs are quoting ever-lower tariffs in auctions to win big projects, encouraged by the steep drop in Chinese solar equipment prices. That is squeezing out Indian cell and module makers, many of which have inferior technology, depend on imports of raw materials, have limited access to cheap loans and operate below capacity. Chinese modules are 10-20 percent cheaper than those made in India, company and industry executives said. “The WTO ruling has torpedoed everything. It’s not a case of one company – we have the largest cell operating capacity – everybody below us will shut down one after another,” Jupiter CEO Dhruv Sharma told Reuters by phone. Chinese companies were selling solar cells in India at 19-20 US cents, around 35 percent below his production cost, he added. There are more than 110 Indian solar cell and module makers registered with the government, out of which consultancy Bridge to India expects only a handful to survive. Santosh Vaidya, a senior official in the Ministry of New & Renewable Energy, said the government was working on several initiatives to promote the domestic solar manufacturing industry. He did not elaborate. Going The Telecom Way India’s promise, and need, as a market for solar, is obvious. It is one of the lowest per-capita consumers of electricity in the world and more than 200 million of its people are still not connected to the grid, making it crucial for the government to aggressively push for cheap power. Despite its low labour costs, it is not alone in buckling under pressure from Chinese competition. Earlier this month, Germany’s SolarWorld, once Europe’s largest solar panel maker, said it would file for insolvency. Indian companies produced an estimated 1.33 GW of modules last year out of the total capacity of 5.29 GW, according to Bridge to India. Total consumption of modules – 60 percent of a solar project’s cost – was around 4 GW. Solar project developer SB Energy, a joint venture between SoftBank, Taiwan’s Foxconn and India’s Bharti Enterprises, said it had discussed the shortage of local manufacturing with the government. “Lack of significant domestic solar manufacturing capacity is a concern, as this is a major gap,” SB Energy Executive Chairman Manoj Kohli said, drawing a parallel with India’s huge mobile phone market but negligible local production. Several company executives said a lack of scale, absence of raw material supply chains and rapidly changing technology were some of other reasons Indian firms were unable to compete with Chinese manufacturers such as Trina Solar and Yingli. “The government is busy bringing power prices down … but you can’t build castles on graves,” Gyanesh Chaudhary, CEO of module maker Vikram Solar told Reuters. “Without a domestic manufacturing ecosystem, no public policy can last for a long time.” Paulo Orlando Jersey
India looking to extend UDAN scheme to Bimstec countries
In a bid to boost its engagement with Bimstec, India is looking to expand the UDAN scheme of its aviation policy to countries of this regional bloc, Minister of State for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha said on Tuesday. “What the government of India would like to see is that we can take the policy design behind UDAN (Ude Desh ka Aam Naagrik or ‘common people of the country can fly’) and extend it across the Bimstec region,” Sinha said while speaking at an event here to mark the 20th anniversary of the establishment of the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (Bimstec). “So if we can link Pakyong (greenfield airport in Sikkim), there is no reason why we can’t link an airport in Bhutan or an airport in Myanmar in the same fashion,” he said. Bimstec comprises Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Thailand. Its main objective is technical and economic cooperation among south Asian and southeast Asian countries along the rim of the Bay of Bengal. Chris Chelios Jersey
Air India has 5 times more debt than Jet Airways, 16 times than IndiGo: A comparison in 15 charts
The disinvestment plans of national carrier Air India are back in news and the government is making all the right noises. Making a case for the sale of the airline, union finance minister, Arun Jaitley said in Dialogue@DDNews programme, “In this country, if 87 or 86 percent flying can be handled by the private sector… then they can also do 100 percent.” Jaitley further said about Rs 50,000 crore of tax-payers’ money that has been pumped into the airline so far could have been invested to improve the education sector. Indeed a valid point, especially considering India’s education budget has remained at a lowly 0.5 percent of GDP over the last few years. What Jaitley said is by and large correct. A look at the air traffic data available from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) shows that Air India’s market share has been on a declining course. From 20.2 percent in 2013-14, the airline’s market share shrank to 17.8 percent in 2015-16. according to DGCA data. Of the 10.38 crore passengers carried by Indian carriers in 2015-16, Air India accounted for 1.85 crore, Jet Airways 2.33 core and budget carrier IndiGo 3.31 crore. IndiGo has witnessed a steady increase in its market share from just 14.1 percent in 2010-11 to 32 percent in 2015-16. Firstpost did an analysis of various parameters of three leading airlines in the country–Air India, Jet Airways and Indigo–in the context of Air India’s selloff plan. Air India and Jet Airways are full service carriers while IndiGo is a budget carrier that is making profit and by far the best performer in the sector. Xavier Rhodes Jersey
‘Govt Sees 2 Conglomerates and 2 Int’l Airlines as Potential Bidders of Air India’
Finance ministry and civil aviation ministry are drawing a road map to divest either a significant part or whole of Air India, according to highly placed sources. One of the sources said four companies, including two Indian conglomerates and two international airlines are being seen as the potential bidders of Air India. Another source said the government is keen to have a clear plan for privatization of Air India by September so that there is a window of six months to carry out the necessary processes before the end of the financial year. “This decision was taken at the top level in the government. If all goes as per plan, by next financial year, Air India will be owned by a private player,” said the second source. In an interview with CNBC TV18’s Shereen Bhan on Monday, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said, “In addition to the existing players (in aviation), if private players also participate in Air India’s proposed privatization, I think it will add to the competition in terms of quality and the speed of growth of the sector too.” In his interview, Jaitley sounded bullish about aviation sector in India. “Aviation is turning into a good business in our country. Our airports are better than most countries, we have better connectivity. I do see a great future for the aviation sector. We have around 500-600 aircraft. China has 5000. We will definitely have a big number of aircraft flying in 10 years,” he said. Jerick McKinnon Womens Jersey
‘Renewables least cost option in India, Denmark, Egypt’
Renewables are becoming the least cost option in India, Denmark, Egypt, Mexico, Peru and the United Arab Emirates, a global multi-stakeholder renewable energy policy network said on Wednesday. It said record power capacity of 161 gigawatts (GW) added globally and that these countries saw renewable electricity being delivered at $0.05 per kilowatt-hour or less. The renewable cost is well below equivalent costs for fossil fuel and nuclear generating capacity in each of these countries, said REN21, the global renewable energy policy multi-stakeholder network located at the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in Paris. It released its Renewables 2017 Global Status Report, the most comprehensive annual overview of the state of renewable energy. Global additions in installed renewable power capacity set new records last year, with 161 GW installed, increasing total global capacity by almost nine per cent over the previous year, to nearly 2,017 GW. Solar PV accounted for around 47 per cent of the capacity added in 2016, followed by wind power at 34 per cent and hydropower at 15.5 per cent. Officials told IANS that solar prices in India hit a record low twice last month. India finalised a new auction at the Bhadla solar park in Rajasthan on May 10 with the award of a power tariff at a record low Rs 2.62/kWh ($0.040/kWh), 12 per cent below the previous record low Rewa solar tariff awarded only just three months ago in Madhya Pradesh. This new record only lasted two days with the latest 500MW solar auction coming in at Rs 2.44/kWh ($0.038/kWh), down yet another seven per cent. This tender was also for projects at the Bhadla Phase IV solar park. The REN21 report said Denmark and Germany last year successfully managed peaks of renewables electricity of 140 per cent and 86.3 per cent, respectively. Global energy-related CO2 emissions from fossil fuels and industry remained stable for a third year in a row despite a three percent growth in the global economy and an increased demand for energy. This can be attributed primarily to the decline of coal, but also to the growth in renewable energy capacity and to improvements in energy efficiency. But the report forewarns that the energy transition is not happening fast enough to achieve the goals of the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement that aims to limit average global warming to 2 degrees Celsius by cutting greenhouse gases from burning fossil fuels. The report says investments in renewable energy installations are down. Although global investment in new renewable power and fuel capacity was roughly double that in fossil fuels, investments in new renewable energy installations were down 23 per cent compared to 2015. Among developing and emerging market countries, renewable energy investment fell 30 per cent, to $116.6 billion, while that of developed countries fell 14 per cent to $125 billion. Investment continues to be heavily focused on wind and solar PV, however all renewable energy technologies need to be deployed in order to keep global warming well below 2 degrees Celsius, said the report. Globally, subsidies for fossil fuels and nuclear power continue to dramatically exceed those for renewable technologies, it added. Craig Stammen Womens Jersey
GMR to build, operate New Heraklion Airport in Greece
GMR Airports Limited said that it has been selected to develop, operate and manage the new international airport of Heraklion at Crete in Greece in partnership with Greek infrastructure firm Terna SA. This will be the second project to be handled by the subsidiary of GMR Infrastructure Ltd in Europe, after it developed Istanbul’s Sabiha Gokcen airport. The company said in a press release on Wednesday that it will be the designated airport operator in the consortium for this project. “The scope of the project involves design, construction, financing, operation, and maintenance and exploitation of the New Heraklion Crete International Airport. The concession period for the project will be 35 years, including phase 1 construction of five years,” it said. “This new airport will definitely boost the tourism industry and aid the growth of international tourists that Greece has been witnessing over the past couple of years,” the press release quoted GMR Airports’ business chairman Srinivas Bommidala as saying. “The airport is in line with the asset-light strategy we have adopted for overseas expansion and will see GMR participate in project management and commercial management in addition to airport operations.” GMR Airports, which has built and operates airports in Delhi and Mumbai, had last year won the competitive bid for development and operation of the Rs 3,000 crore Mopa Greenfield Airport in Goa. The concession period for the greenfield project will be 40 years, with a possible extension of another 20 years through a bid process. The airport will also be built under the build-operate-transfer or BOT model. The company has also developed the Mactan Cebu International Airport in Philippines. Corey Davis Authentic Jersey