Investment in Oil/Petrochemical Sector
The Minister of State (I/C) for Petroleum & Natural Gas Shri Dharmendra Pradhan informed the Lok Sabha that during his visit to Iran on 9th April, 2016, It was conveyed to the Iranian side that the Indian Companies could invest up to $ 20 billion and were interested in setting up petrochemical and fertilizers plants, including in the Chahabar SEZ, either to joint venture between Indian and Iranian public sector companies or with private sector partners. In this regard, he requested Iran to allocate appropriate and adequate land in SEZ. No MoU was signed in this regard. During his visit to Iran on 9th April, 2016, Shri, Pradhan, expressed India’s interest in importing LPG from Iran and said that companies from both sides could discuss on setting up an extraction plant in Chahabar, if required. Both sides agreed to continue examining various means of evacuation of gas such as LNG, including through the proposed Iran-India-Pakistan Pipeline. He also expressed India’s interest in setting up an LNG plant and gas cracker in Chahabar port. He also requested Iranian side for favourable treatment in the pricing of gas for India and also supply of rich gas at competitive price and on long term basis for the life of the joint venture projects that Indian companies are interested in setting up. He said that competitive gas pricing was crucial in making the projects attractive for the prospective investors. Also during his visit to Iran Sh. Pradhan, conveyed that India was committed towards making payments as and when banking channels, acceptable to both sides, were available. Matters relating to oil and gas are discussed at various levels including Joint Working Group, Joint Commission as well as at the level of Ministers. There are regular exchange of delegations to pursue matters of mutual interest. Taylor Lewan Authentic Jersey
NHAI takes steps to remove Hurdles for Faster Execution of Projects
In order to ensure faster execution of projects, National Highways Authority of India has delegated powers to its Regional Officers for hiring of equipment and laborers up to Rs.10 lacs per project, to demolish structures that fall within the right-of-way of the project. As some of the contracts had no provision for demolition of such structures, there would often be protracted correspondence between the contractors, Project Directors and NHAI headquarters before these could be removed, often leading to delay in execution of projects. With this delegation of power to ROs NHAI will be able to make encumbrance free land available more speedily to the concessionaire/contractors as laid down under the concession agreement or contract. The Regional Officers have also been instructed to ensure measurement of such structures along with videography for record purpose. NHAI is keen to remove all hurdles for speedy execution of highway projects. This is just one step in a series of delegation of powers at regional level. NHAI has recently delegated powers for construction of foot over bridges under Change of Scope upto Rs. 80 lakh and for 4 and 6 laning projects upto Rs. 1 crore respectively. Similarly, Regional Officers have been delegated the power for maintenance of highways requiring urgent repair works up to Rs. 1 crore. CGM (T) jointly with Regional Officers have also been delegated power for shifting of transmission line/electric line and water pipelines/ other utilities upto Rs 10 crores and Rs 5 crores respectively. All these steps are expected to cut down delays in completion of projects. Arian Foster Womens Jersey
Jet fuel pricing: FIA to meet Dharmendra Pradhan against ‘opaque’ pricing
Domestic airlines body FIA is likely to meet Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan tomorrow over the alleged “opaque” pricing of jet fuel by oil marketing firms and seek government’s intervention in resolving the issue. The Federation of Indian Airlines (FIA) during the proposed meeting is also expected to raise other related issues, including oil companies alleged failure to bring down ATF prices in line with the reduction in crude prices since 2014, sources said. Any upward or downward revision in aviation turbine fuel prices directly impacts air fares as fuel costs account for over 40 per cent of an airline’s operating cost. FIA is a body of four established domestic private airlines — Jet Airways, IndiGo, SpiceJet and GoAir. “There is lack of transparency in deciding ATF prices by the oil companies. We have raised this issue with them in the past but as it remained unresolved, we want the government to look into the issue now,” a source said. Sources said to discuss the issue, FIA has sought a meeting with Pradhan, which is likely to take place tomorrow. Significantly, the jet fuel price was yesterday hiked by 1.5 per cent, which came on the back of a steep 8.7 per cent or Rs 3,371.55 per kl hike on April 1. Prior to that, rates were hiked by steep 12 per cent, or Rs 4,174.49 on March 1, which led the four major airlines to seek deferment of payment of increased amounts. “Because of lack of transparent pricing mechanism, airlines are made to pay much higher prices for jet fuel in India compared to countries like Singapore. FIA will be taking up this issue as well with the government,” the source said. Akeem Spence Jersey
Financial bids invited for proposed Navi Mumbai airport
City and Industrial Development Corporation (Cidco) has invited financial bids for the proposed Navi Mumbai airport, the financial stage before the much-delayed project is awarded, a person familiar with the matter said. “The Request for Proposals (RFPs) were sent out to the three shortlisted bidders on Friday. As of now, they have to respond by the first week of September but we may extend that by a month,” the person said, adding “in any case, we firmly hope the project will be awarded latest by end of October.” Three companies — GMR Infrastructure, Mumbai International Airport (MIAL) and Mia Infrastructure — are currently in the fray for the project. An alliance of Hiranandani Group and Zurich Airports had been among the shortlisted bidders, but was subsequently disqualified. The company, or alliance, which proposes the highest revenue share with City & Industrial Development Corporation (Cidco), the state-run nodal body for the project, will win the mandate to develop and operate it. MIAL is a subsidiary of GVK and currently runs the Mumbai International Airport, while Mia Infrastructure is a joint venture between Tata Realty & Infrastructure (TRIL) and French company Vinci Concessions. Cidco on April 11 received the approval for issuing RFPs for the project monitoring and implementation committee — an agency formed by the civil aviation ministry for faster implementation of projects — and the state government cabinet. Cidco holds 26% of the special purpose vehicle, and had commenced the first stage of the two-stage bidding process by issuing RFQ on February 5 last year. The Rs 14,573-crore project is seen as a crucial alternative to the congested airport in the city. The government had initially approved setting up the airport in 2007, but ran into several environmental and land acquisition problems. The airport will span an area of 2,867 acres with a terminal building of 5,23,000 square meters and two runways. DeAndre Washington Authentic Jersey
NHAI to raise ₹55,000 cr via bonds in FY17
To finance its various projects, National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) plans to raise ?55,000 crore through bonds this fiscal. The government has permitted borrowing of ?59,279 crore by NHAI during 2016-17. The borrowed funds would be utilised towards part financing of various projects being implemented by NHAI under the National Highways Development Project (NHDP) and other national highways projects with emphasis on the ongoing projects and the various special projects. Chase Daniel Womens Jersey
Cidco invites financial bids for proposed Navi Mumbai airport
City and Industrial Development Corporation (Cidco) has invited financial bids for the proposed Navi Mumbai airport, the financial stage before the much-delayed project is awarded, a person familiar with the matter said. “The Request for Proposals (RFPs) were sent out to the three shortlisted bidders on Friday. As of now, they have to respond by the first week of September but we may extend that by a month,” the person said, adding “in any case, we firmly hope the project will be awarded latest by end of October.” Three companies GMR Infrastructure, Mumbai International Airport (MIAL) and Mia Infrastructure are currently in the fray for the project. An alliance of Hiranandani Group and Zurich Airports had been among the shortlisted bidders, but was subsequently disqualified. The company, or alliance, which proposes the highest revenue share with City & Industrial Development Corporation (Cidco), the state-run nodal body for the project, will win the mandate to develop and operate it. MIAL is a subsidiary of GVK and currently runs the Mumbai International Airport, while Mia Infrastructure is a joint venture between Tata Realty & Infrastructure (TRIL) and French company Vinci Concessions. Cidco on April 11 received the approval for issuing RFPs for the project monitoring and implementation committee an agency formed by the civil aviation ministry for faster implementation of projects and the state government cabinet. Cidco holds 26% of the special purpose vehicle, and had commenced the first stage of the two-stage bidding process by issuing RFQ on February 5 last year. The Rs 14,573-crore project is seen as a crucial alternative to the congested airport in the city. The government had initially approved setting up the airport in 2007, but ran into several environmental and land acquisition problems. The airport will span an area of 2,867 acres with a terminal building of 5,23,000 square meters and two runways. Cameron Brate Authentic Jersey
Baba brand or quality? Patanjali’s USP under lens in big FMCG churn
“Patanjali will shut the ‘gate’ on Colgate. The birds in Nestle’s nest (logo) will also fly away,” Baba Ramdev claimed in a direct dig at his FMCG rivals. The maverick yoga guru has managed to script an unprecedented entrepreneurship story, successfully bringing ayurveda back into the mainstream consciousness just like he popularised yoga many years ago. Patanjali’s emergence, it seems, will be at the cost of traditional FMCG biggies such as Hindustan Unilever, Nestle, Marico and Dabur. This is evident from the way these companies have been dented in the past four months, as investors assess the impact that Ramdev’s company will have on market share and consumer preferences. The BSE FMCG index, a gauge of the FMCG stocks on BSE, has slumped 9 per cent so far this year even as consumption demand has revived and good monsoon is expected to drive up rural wages to support demand growth. On the individual stock front, the dent isn’t as pronounced as some would have you believe. Companies like Marico, Dabur have gained as much as 15 per cent in the year so far while HUL, Nestle and Emami have lost between 0.84 to 0.07 per cent. “I think the market is growing. So there is room for everyone, but there will be some give and take in market shares. Patanjali has this ayurvedic halo around it and Baba Ramdev is a great brand,” said Pradip P Shah, Chairman, IndAsia Fund Advisors. “There is a natural feeling that these products are good and the price points are lower compared with the premium products available in the market. There is a great product out there and their distribution and packaging are pretty good,” he said. Is it just Baba’s charm? Raamdeo Agrawal, Co-Founder & Joint MD of MOFSL, echoed Pradip Shah’s views, saying: “It will definitely take away market shares in some segments. They have a segment where they will thrive. So it is a marketing challenge for the rest of the pack, be it Hindustan Unilever or Colgate or Emami, whosoever is hurt by Patanjali products.” He believes traditional players “have to find their way and it will be unsettling for one or two years, when Patanjali is growing up from Rs 0 to 10,000 crore.” Patanjali has already laid a roadmap for investment worth Rs 1,150 crore for setting up new processing units, as it chases that Rs 10,000 crore revenue mark. “Patanjali will have some challenges coming in later on product superiority, because one needs to see whether product superiority or just the blind faith in Baba Ramdev’s brand equity is driving them,” Raamdeo Agrawal pointed out. Is anyone safe from Patanjali’s blietzkrieg? For many on Dalal Street, Baba Ramdev is being touted as the slayer of the Big FMCG firms. But Deepak Shenoy, Founder of Capital Mind, says companies like Dabur and Marico are being less impacted by the Baba blietzkrieg. “Marico and Dabur are probably less impacted by Patanjali than some of the mainstream FMCG players, especially in the food segment. From that perspective, looking at Dabur and Marico, Dabur is a better valuation play and has more room for price increase compared with Marico,” he said. “Both are great companies, have enormous capacity from a fundamental perspective but Dabur is better valuation wise,” he said. Raamdeo Agrawal sees traditional players underperforming in the short term due to the impact on market share and margin, but he refuses to believe that Patanjali will rewrite the rules in the FMCG space. “Yes, they will underperform because sales may grow, but profit may slow down. Obviously, there will be a challenge for one or two years. But I do not think it is something that will just rewrite the rules of a successful FMCG company in India.” Can Big FMCG chart a comeback? Ian Cook, global CEO of US multinational Colgate-Palmolive, has for the first time acknowledged the competition in the herbal segment in India and said Colgate plans to launch newer products in the ‘natural’ space, an ET report said. HUL revived its Ayush brand last September in a bid to thwart the competition from Patanjali. It is using the e-commerce platform to reach out to a new consumer base. “Clearly, Patanjali is making inroads, but that does not mean the Unilevers of the world will fade away. They are astute. They have excellent marketing. They will come out with different products. They will come out with different prices,” said Pradip P Shah of IndAsia Fund Advisors. He reminds of HUL’s comeback when Nirma took away market share from Surf excel, and it came back with Wheel to take away market share from under the Nirma nose. “These guys have the resources, they have the ability and an inclination to do it, but they are perhaps a little reluctant to cut prices. They want profitability. Their focus is on margins and so they will follow and be competitive, but in the process, the whole market is growing and that is the great opportunity that India offers to everyone,” he added. Teemu Selanne Womens Jersey
Starbucks is being sued for allegedly misleading millions of customers
We’ve all experienced the annoyance of buying an iced coffee, only to be left with nothing but a cup of ice after a few long sips. However, one woman is trying to turn that moment of annoyance into a class action lawsuit. Starbucks is facing a $5 million lawsuit over the amount of ice the chain uses in its drinks, reports NBC News. The lawsuit was filed in Northern Illinois Federal Court last week by Stacy Pincus. NBC reports that the suit claims the coffee chain is tricking customers by adding too much ice to its beverages, in an attempt to increase the drinks’ profitability. For example, while a Venti drink is advertised as containing 24 fluid ounces, customers ordering a Venti will typically receive about 14 fluid ounces of the Starbucks cold drink, whether it be iced coffee, iced tea, Refreshers or Fizzio handcrafted sodas. Ice chunks fill up the rest of the cup, something that the lawsuit argues is misleading and false advertising. The proposed class action case seeks to represent the “millions” of customers who have purchased a cold drink from Starbucks in the last 10 years. Starbucks spokesperson Jaime Riley said in a statement to Business Insider that the lawsuit is “without merit,” as “customers understand and expect that ice is an essential component of any ‘iced’ beverage.” The lawsuit comes on the heels of another case in which customers claim Starbucks is purposefully ripping off customers. A class action lawsuit filed in March alleges that the chain has been underfilling lattes by roughly 25%. Bradley Zimmer Jersey
Online user ratings not good indicators of product quality
The belief that online user ratings are good indicators of product quality is largely an illusion, yet many consumers rely on the information while making purchase decisions, a new study has found. Almost all retailers provide user ratings on their websites, the researchers said. For the study, researchers examined user ratings for 1,272 products across 120 product categories, such as car seats, bike helmets, sunblock, air filters, smoke alarms and blood pressure monitors. The analyses show a very low correspondence between average user ratings of products on an e-commerce portal and product ratings based on objective tests found in consumer reports. “The likelihood that an item with a higher user rating performs objectively better than an item with a lower user rating is only 57 per cent,” said Bart de Langhe, professor at the University of Colorado Boulder in US. “A correspondence of 50 per cent would be random, so user ratings provide very little insight about objective product performance,” de Langhe said. The study also found that the user ratings do not predict the resale value of used products. “Products with better reliability and performance retain more of their value over time,” said de Langhe. “If average user ratings reflect objective quality, they should correlate positively with resale values. The fact that they don’t casts more doubt on the validity of user ratings,” he said. Researchers also examined what information consumers rely on when judging the quality of products on the e-commerce website. They found that consumers rely very heavily on the average user rating, which is presented front and centre. They do this regardless of whether the average rating is based on a small or a large sample of consumers. “This is a mistake. Oftentimes, there are just not enough ratings for a product or there is too much disagreement among reviewers,” said de Langhe. “In this case, consumers should not trust the average very much, but they do nonetheless,” he said. The study was published in the Journal of Consumer Research. Duron Harmon Womens Jersey
FDI during April-February jumps to $37.53 billion: Nirmala Sitharaman
Foreign direct investment (FDI) in India increased to USD 37.53 billion during April-February period of the last fiscal, Parliament was informed today. It was USD 30.93 billion in 2014-15. “FDI equity inflow has increased from USD 22.42 billion in 2012-13 to USD 37.53 billion in 2015-16 (up to February),” Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said in a written reply to the Lok Sabha. Services attracted the most (USD 5.95 billion) during the first eleven months period of 2015-16. It was followed by computer software and hardware (USD 5.83 billion), trading (USD 3.67 billion) and automobile (USD 2.44 billion). Replying to a separate query, she said during the past three years, two applications for compulsory licensing (CL) under section 92 of the Patent Act 1970 have been received by the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP). Under the Indian Patents Act, a CL can be issued for a drug if the medicine is deemed unfordable by the government and grants permission to qualified generic drug makers to manufacture it. In March 2012, Hyderabad-based Natco Pharma was allowed to manufacture and sell cancer-treatment drug Nexavar at a price over 30 times lower than charged by patent-holder Bayer Corp., under CL. As per the World Trade Organization (WTO) agreement, a CL can be invoked by a national government allowing a company to produce a patented product without the consent of the patent owner in public interest. The US had raised concerns over issuance of the licence by India. New Delhi had so far issued only one such licence. Tyler Ennis Womens Jersey