Bihar liquor ban spikes economy in UP towns
The ban on liquor consumption and the influx of tipplers from Bihar is spawning a parallel economy along the bordering districts of Uttar Pradesh that are seeing not just a boom in the sale of liquor, but also a sizeable jump in the trade of liquor accompaniments, including snacks, bottled water and soft beverages. “We are noticing an extraordinary rise in the demand for bottled water and soft drinks in plastic bottles from local distributors that supply in the Ballia, Ghazipur and Chandauli border areas. Over the past fortnight, sales have grown 20% when compared with figures for the whole month of April last year,” said Santosh Shukla, an east UP distributor of a leading cola company. Bottled water and soft beverage traders aren’t the only ones benefiting from the boom. The owners of small eateries and makeshift shops of ‘chakhna’ (food stuff consumed by tipplers along with liquor) too have reasons to feel ‘blessed’ for doing business in the vicinity of the liquor shops. Ramjatan took a break from serving up ‘tamatar chaat’ to busy guzzlers near the Naubatpur border liquor shops to speak to TOI. “Till March-end, we never returned home after clearing the total stock of food items brought on our thelas (handcart). But for the past 20 days, we have been having to arrange for extra stocks of tomatoes, potatoes and other edibles to meet growing demand,” he said. Among the other snack ‘thelas’ near the liquor shops at Naubatpur, puffed-grain sellers seemed to be the big crowd pullers, with sellers of egg-based food items doing brisk business as well. The Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL) and beer shops at Naubatpur have seen over 600% growth in business over the past three weeks, according to records with the UP excise department. Not everyone is all happy at the boom, though. Manmohan Gupta, who has been running a small shop that serves snacks, soft drinks and bottled water opposite the IMFL shop at the Bharauli border, is elated at the rise in sales at his kiosk, but says: “On the basis of the past 20 days’ experience, I feel that dhandha ab ganda ho gaya hai (the trade has now turned dirty).” “People coming in from Buxar (Bihar) are demanding chilled water bottles, but stocks have been running out fast. On expressing our inability to provide chilled bottles, they start quarrelling”, said Gupta. Shoots back Santosh from a neighbouring kiosk: “Ganda hai par dhanda hai, aur dhanda toh badha hai (though it has turned dirty, fact is that trade has grown).” According to some excise department officials, the IMFL and beer shops at the Bharauli border have posted 900% and 600% growth in business, respectively, between April 1 and 25. Traders in the area revealed that if chilled water and soft drink bottles were in demand for the dilution of liquor for immediate consumption, non-chilled bottles were being purchased to ferry liquor back across the border into Bihar-since carrying liquor bottles ran the high risk of being caught by excise department personnel or the police in Bihar. Robby Anderson Authentic Jersey
Indian executives open to working with startups: Survey
A half of Indian executives polled are open to work with start-ups as partnering with new-age companies bring in agile and innovative methods, says a survey. However, the other half is still sceptical about working with a start-up, according to annual EY-CIO Klub’s Enterprise IT trends and investment survey titled ‘the startup gene: a way forward’. The survey, which revolves around the idea of the startup gene, noted that the CIOs of the country can benefit from partnerships with start-ups and by imbibing the attitude of start-up entrepreneurs. About a half of 294 Chief Information Officers (CIOs) polled have shown faith in implementing start-up practices to get their work done. This was supplemented by the fact that 30 per cent of the respondents were aligned towards ‘Do It For Me’ approach, wherein the company would want to bring in external expertise to perform certain specific tasks, rather than doing it in-house. “Partnering with start-ups ensures that work is done in an agile and innovative manner. This can save cost, help adopt the latest in technology and become a disruptive force in the industry. However, the report claims that to be more effective, CIOs should promote these values in their own firms. The only way to adapt to change is to take the risk of adopting it,” the survey noted. The survey said, “50 per cent of the CIOs are open to working with start-ups, while the other half is still sceptical.” Besides, 81 per cent of the CIOs consider that Internet-of-Things is the most imminent technology. Other trending technologies are high speed data transfer, wearable technologies and 3D printing. Cyber threat tops the list of key issues that give a CIO sleepless nights. While half the companies have in-house analytics functions, the other half believe that there is greater value in engaging with outside, specialised talent, as per the survey. “CIOs have seldom been challenged for implementing an established Enterprise Resource Planning, but they have almost always been questioned when they recommend engaging with start-ups to acquire specialised expertise,” EY India National Leader (Risk Advisory Services) Nitin Bhatt said. “However, this is rapidly changing. We are now seeing CIOs being questioned by their executive leadership when they do not leverage the start-up ecosystem for enhancing product capability, reducing cost and furthering competitive advantage,” he added. Troy Polamalu Authentic Jersey
Top 6 VCs refuel with $2.5bn in a year despite few exits
Venture capital firms may have cooled off from the heady investing days of the past two years, but they continue to shore up capital amid a slackening funding environment. Flipkart’s early backer Accel, one of the most prolific venture investors in the country, is on course to raise a $400-500 million fifth India-focused fund, which is expected to close by the year-end, sources familiar with the matter told TOI. Accel’s new fund comes at a time when the top six VCs have amassed more than $2.5 billion in the past year to be ploughed into Indian startups, raising hopes that the sluggishness in deal activity is temporary. One of Silicon Valley’s most prominent venture funds, Accel doubled down on seed-stage investments last year, writing numerous cheques for $500,000 to $1-2 million. A majority of these startups will be in the market to raise subsequent rounds of financing at a time when entrepreneurs are being asked to batten down the hatches and spend every dollar judiciously. “Initial conversations about the new fund have already begun with limited partners, or LPs (investors in funds). The amount is yet to be finalized, but it will be larger than their previous fund size,” a person privy to the information said. Accel had officially announced its Indian Fund IV in March last year. An emailed questionnaire sent by TOI to Accel on the new fund did not elicit a response. In March, Accel US famous for its early wager on social networking site Facebook in 2005 announced it had raised around $2 billion, split between a $500-million early-stage investing corpus and $1.5 billion for later-stage, growth investments. Most of the bigger sized venture funds are able to reserve far more capital for their existing portfolio companies and are able to participate in growth-stage financing rounds. Accel began life in India in 2008 when it acquired Erasmic Venture Fund, and has since backed hundreds of companies like BookMyShow, Freshdesk and Myntra, besides its most famous bet on Flipkart where it put $1 million in 2009. It is currently deploying its $305-million India Fund IV, which has invested in startups like food-delivery venture Swiggy, local services app UrbanClap, and rental marketplace RentoMojo. Exits still few & far between While these funds have bulked up with billions of dollars in dry powder for India investments, exits remain imperceptible for most VCs here. “The lack of exits for investors in India is a symptom of the problem. The real problem so far was the lack of depth in the market. So a lot of money was invested without a deep enough market opportunity. However, looking out at the next ten years, investors in the VC asset class in India realize the market depth has arrived and exits shall follow. So one has to look forward, else it will be a rear-view mirror-based decision,” says Avnish Bajaj, MD at Matrix Venture Partners, an investor in transportation app Ola and online classifieds firm Quikr. Matrix recently topped up its $300-million India fund by $110 million and will raise its third India fund of around $300-400 million after a year. General partners who steer India-dedicated funds say LPs fundamentally believe in lndia’s internet story, buttressed by a growing smartphone penetration. As against international outfits which invest from a global corpus like Norwest Venture Partners, India-focused funds have empowerment which gives them the speed and helps them adhere to the local nuances. India funds have a better construct and hence chances of better returns and exits, says a veteran VC who did not want to be identified. Last year saw unprecedented fund-raise activity among venture funds in India as Kalaari Capital, SAIF Partners, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Nexus Venture Partners and Accel were awash with new capital to pump into the fast-growing domestic startup ecosystem. But the largest one of them all came in December last year when Sequoia Capital raised $920 million. In 2015, these investors along with Tiger Global, SoftBank, DST Global and a posse of hedge funds provided a slug of money to consumer internet firms. Together, $7 billion was scooped up by these tech-based startups, according to Tracxn, which collects data on private companies. The first quarter of this year though has been evidently slow paced, with a drop of at least 50% in deal value at $301 million. Arthur Moats Womens Jersey
How IGI Airport moved from 101 rank to world’s best
In four years, the Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport is expected to contribute 22.2% to Delhi’s GDP. Also on cards by 2020 are an expanded Terminal 1D and a brand-new swanky Terminal 4 as it looks to cement its place among the world’s best. Over the last few years, the IGI has added many feathers to its cap. Come Tuesday, it turns 10 as a private entity. Ever since it broke the shackles of government control in 2006, the airport has grown by leaps and bounds in more ways than one. Sample this: Over the last decade, the IGI has seen an increase of almost 2 lakh in air-traffic movement, catering to nearly 32.2 million more passengers. An airport that had a global ranking of 101 in 2006 made the summit in 2014 (in the 25-40 million passengers per annum category), and hasn’t relinquished the spot since then. Also, the IGI handles the highest passenger and cargo volumes in the country. It serves 120 destinations through 50 international and nine domestic passenger airlines. In addition, there are four international and two domestic freighter airlines. Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL), the GMR-led consortium that runs the IGI, cites a recent survey by the National Council of Applied Economic Research to drive home its point. At an estimated Rs 29,470 crore, the airport contributed 0.45% to the national GDP and 13.53% to the Delhi GDP in 2009-2010. DIAL expects this amount to go up even further to Rs 90,950 crore by 2020. The consortium has submitted its master plan to the aviation ministry for approval. It proposes to demolish the Haj Terminal (Terminal 2) and make Terminal 4 operational by 2020. Also, a fourth runway would double its flight operation capability. One casualty of all this would the Hotel Centaur, though. “The IGI master plan was prepared in 2006. It’s revised every 10 years,” said DIAL CEO IP Rao. Rao took TOI through the airport’s decade-long journey. In 2007, it figured among the worst airports in terms of Airport Service Quality (ASQ). “Now, it ranks as world’s No. 1, a spot that it has held for two consecutive years — 2014 and 2015,” Rao said. Rao attributed this achievement to a “dedicated and consistent” customer-focused approach. “The alignment of all stakeholders, including the airlines, CISF, customs, immigration, ground handlers, support services and others, has had an important role to play (in the success).” The task of providing a “world-class” airport in an extremely tight timeline of 37 months wasn’t an easy task, though. “When DIAL took over, there were several hurdles. Nearly 1,000 families were residing on the airport premises for over five decades,” said Rao. Another tough ask was to enhance capacity at terminals 1 and 2 with minimum interruption to existing operations. Getting rid of encroachments and acquiring the required machinery and manpower were a few other challenges. In developing the cargo facilities, IGI took all stakeholders-airlines, handling agents and freight forwarders — on board. The same goes for Aerocity, which has emerged as a preferred hospitality and commercial hub for NCR-Delhi. Technology, of course, has had a vital role to play. Rao elaborated: “Take, for example, the Airport Operations and Control Centre (AOCC), a state-of-the-art facility that allows operations from a remote and secluded facility.” The airport is also keeping pace with the need to go green. “We have put in place advanced pollution prevention infrastructure and set up rainwater harvesting plants apart from running eco-friendly vehicles to ferry passengers,” Rao said. Skal Labissiere Authentic Jersey
AAI eyes overseas markets for its in-house e-billing solution
Airports Authority of India (AAI) planning to aggressively tap overseas markets for its in-house developed ‘e-billing’ solution that can be used by air navigation and airport services providers. The fees collected through this solution, which would help entities in data gathering, e-invoicing and collection of tariff from airlines at a single place, accounts for almost 35 per cent in AAI overall revenue. As part of its efforts to expand its revenue stream, the national airports operator is scouting for opportunities overseas to sell its niche product. Developed in-house, the electronic billing solution for data, e-invoicing and collection of tariff from the airlines is being used by AAI for several years now. Considering its reliability and performance over a period of time, AAI is now looking to provide the system in overseas markets, AAI Member ( Finance) S Suresh said told PTI. AAI has already made a brief presentation to the aviation authorities of Cambodia and Indonesia. “They seem to be keen about it,” he said. Over the years, the system has been augmented to provide for a comprehensive e-billing system for data gathering, invoicing and collection in one place. “This is also the first time that AAI will be pitching its product in overseas markets,” Suresh noted. Recently, AAI had entered into a preliminary pact with the International Air Transport Association (IATA) for providing a comprehensive e-billing solution to air navigation service providers and airport service providers for data gathering, e-invoicing and collection of tariff from airlines. The airports operator expects to post an all-time high revenue of Rs 10,000 crore in the last financial year (2015- 16). During this period, the profit is anticipated to be around Rs 2,000 crore. The estimated eight per cent growth in the topline which stood at Rs 9,285 crore in 2014-15 would be on the back of surge in passenger traffic and aircraft movement. A “Miniratna’ enterprise, AAI owns 125 airports in the country and out of them, 95 are operational. Ethan Pocic Authentic Jersey
Flying from IGI Airport gets cheaper
Flying out of IGI Airport here has got cheaper from today with the discontinuation of the development fee being charged from each passenger for the past several years. Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL), the joint venture company which runs the IGI airport, was allowed to levy Rs 100 per flight as Development Fee (DF) from passengers flying on domestic routes and Rs 600 from those flying to international destinations. The airports tariff regulator Airports Economic Regulatory Authority (AERA) had in February issued an order directing DIAL to discontinue DF from May 1, after having allowed it to levy DF through a December 2012 order. Citing the average monthly collection of Rs 30 crore as DF, the AERA had in its order in February said the total sanctioned DF amount of Rs 3,415.35 crore was likely to be recovered by April 30, 2016. To cover the financial gap in developing the airport, the allowable DF was determined at Rs 3,415.35 crore. Last month, Directorate General of Civil Aviation ( DGCA) had also asked all airlines operating from Delhi to refund the development fee charged from passengers flying out of the IGI Airport on the tickets booked for journey beyond April 30. DIAL is a joint venture between GMR group, Airports Authority of India and Germany’s Fraport AG. Rigoberto Sanchez Authentic Jersey
Embassy Group buys part of Chennai SEZ unit from SNP Infrastructure
Embassy Group has partially acquired a stalled SEZ project in Chennai from SNP Infrastructure for an undisclosed amount, two people aware of the development said. The 26-acre property on Thoraipakkam-Pallavaram road is close to the airport. Land on Pallavaram road costs about Rs 20 crore per acre. “The special economic zone project was shelved in 2008 by SNP due to bad market condition.It will be partial buyout and partial joint development,” the people cited earlier said. Mike Holland, CEO of Embassy Office Parks -a joint venture between Blackstone and Embassy Group -refused to comment on the matter. “The structure is ready and Embassy will soon start construction,” said one of the persons quoted earlier. While Embassy will build office property over 4 million sq ft, the remaining will be used for integrated development comprising residential and retail components. In the recent past, Chennai has seen a spurt in land transactions, with a majority of investments coming in office assets. The biggest deal during this period involved Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) and Shapoorji Pallonji Group’s joint venture company SPREP acquiring SP Infocity IT Park in Chennai for $220 millon, or nearly Rs 1,460 crore. In addition, Brigade Properties, a joint venture between Brigade Enterprises and GIC, Singapore, jointly acquired a 15.86-acre land parcel from Kansai Nerolac Paints in Chennai in a deal valued at Rs 550 crore, and Chennai-based real estate developer VGN raised Rs 670 crore from Piramal Capital and ECL Finance. Embassy Group has 24 million sq ft of leased and under-construction property. Of this 12 million sq ft of office properties is under construction, with a total capital expenditure of Rs 4,500 crore. Tyson Alualu Authentic Jersey
Government expecting Rs 25 lakh crore investment for infra development: Nitin Gadkari
The government is expecting investments worth Rs 25 lakh crore over the next 3 years in the roads, railway and shipping infrastructure that includes setting up of 27 industrial clusters at ports at around Rs 8 lakh crore, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari said today. “We are committed to overhaul country’s infrastructure and gradually working towards achieving this. We plan to spend Rs 25 lakh crore in our highways and shipping sector which includes setting up of 27 industrial clusters near ports at an estimated cost of Rs 8 lakh crore,” Gadkari said. Apart from Rs 8 lakh crore on developing 27 industrial clusters, another about Rs 5 lakh crore would be spent on road, railway and ports connectivity projects, the Minister said on the sidelines of an event by Indo-American Chamber of Commerce. Besides, smart cities will be built at ports which will entail a huge investment, he said. Earlier addressing the Chamber event, Gadkari said, “By May this year, awards in highways projects will swell to Rs 2 lakh crore from Rs 1.6 lakh crore now and by May 2017 it will be another 5 lakh crore.” He said concerted efforts by his Ministry to expedite road projects has started bearing fruits and the road building pace, which was barely 2 km a day when the Narendra Modi government took over, has reached 20 km a day and will touch 25 km a day next month. He added that at the time of taking charge of the Ministry, 403 projects worth Rs 3.35 lakh crore were stuck but most of the issues have been addressed and barring 31 projects worth about Rs 30,000 crore all are being executed, he said. He further said that out of the six planned ports in the country, three alone at Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Maharashtra would entail an investment of Rs 60,000 crore. Massive work is also being done on waterways front and detailed project reports are being worked out for converting 111 rivers into waterways. Work on the stretch between Pala in Haryana and Wazirabad will be initiated in three months’ time, he added. Tarik Cohen Jersey
Essar to double CBM production this year
Company to ramp up wells count in Raniganj East block coal fields, seeks to triple output to 2.5 mn scmd in FY18, from current level. Essar Oil & Gas is planning to ramp up its coal-based methane (CBM) production to a minimum of 1.8 million standard cubic metres per day (scmd) by the end of the current financial year from the existing 0.85 scmd and scale it up further to 2.5 million scmd during 2017-18. In this endeavour, it will increase the number of its wells in the Raniganj East block coalfields from around 300 to 363 this year. “We’ll increase the well count by March 2017. Of the nearly 300 wells, 266 have been fracked, 247 have been completed and 175 have been on the active de-absorption cycle,” the company’s CEO for exploration and production, Manish Maheshwari, told Business Standard. Essar Oil & Gas has a revenue-sharing contract with the government for the 260-acre Raniganj CBM project, where it has been granted mining rights for 500 sq km. So far the company has made an investment of Rs 33 billion in this project. The company owns CBM mining rights in coalfields in Raniganj, West Bengal, Sohagpur in Madhya Pradesh-Chhattisgarh, Rajmahal in Jharkhand and Talcher and Ib Valley in Odisha, making it the largest private CBM producer in India. “Rajmahal will also begin production in five years. There are 20 core holes in this project and we have received the necessary approvals for land acquisition there. At present, only Raniganj is producing CBM but other projects will come up in time,” Maheshwari said. Land acquisition approval for the Sohagpur minefield is pending from the Chhattisgarh government and the Petroleum Exploration Licence for the Talcher and Ib Valley coalfields is pending from the Odisha government. All these coalfields have combined reserves of 12 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of CBM, of which Raniganj has reserves of 1.1 tcf. To extract CBM from these coal mines, Essar Oil & Gas has employed six drilling rigs of which two have been procured from Greka drilling on contract. It is also on the lookout for CBM mining projects globally but will keep off “matured markets” like the USand Australia. Besides, Essar Oil & Gas, which is expecting the global crude scenario to remain buoyant at a maximum of $ 50 per barrel of oil till mid-2017 is also planning to aggressively increase its count of petrol pumps from over 2,000 outlets to 5,000 outlets by 2018. Oscar Dansk Jersey
Congress demands SC monitored probe into KG basin scam allegedly involving PM Modi
Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) on Saturday held demonstrations and burnt effigies of prime minister Narendra Modi outside all the 33 district collectorates and eight mahanagarpalikas, demanding a Supreme Court monitored probe into what it calls Rs 200 billion scam in Krishna-Godavari basin involving Modi when he was chief minister of the state. Stating that the scam was bigger than the 2G scam, state party spokesperson Manish Doshi said that the Modi regime in the state had given Gujarat state petroleum corporation’s (GSPC) 10 per cent stake amounting to Rs 200 billion in KG basin gas field to GeoGlobal Resources, a multinational company existing on paper, for nothing. Cameron Brate Authentic Jersey