Govt to take steps to boost private investment in roads, shipping
The government will take tangible steps to boost corporate investment in roads and shipping with business-friendly strategies that balance profitability with effective project execution, Mansukh L Mandaviya, minister of state for road, transport and shipping, has said. “We are creating an investor-friendly model for private sector. Who will invest in roads if there’s no profit?” the minister told corporate leaders at the ET Roundtable on highways, ports and shipping on Thursday. He said his ministry would sympathetically consider their suggestions that the PPP model needs to focus on strengthening the element of partnership between the investor and the government. “We must modify the public-private partnership model as per the need of the day and there’s a constant need to change the mindset at all levels. We’ll be coming up with a lot of policy interventions in coming days to revive the interest of private sector,” Mandaviya said. He also said cashless payments and toll and upcoming GST law would transform the transportation and logistics sector by cutting down the cost through simplified payment and tax structure. Business leaders were concerned about the PPP model, but also said it can help infrastructure take a giant leap. “PPPs can bring the same revolution as telecom in infrastructure. The government has taken a lot of important measures but there’s still a need to walk that extra mile,” said Puneet Dalmia, managing director at Dalmia Bharat Group. Essar Ports managing director Rajiv Agarwal emphasised the need for “real partnership” between stakeholders, along with access to low-cost funds and flexibility in contracts, in the wake of uncertainties. “This will help revive confidence and investment climate enabling achievement of the national objective of national development on the back of strong infrastructure,” he said. Feedback Infra chairman Vinayak Chatterjee said some solutions were already available with the government. “The Kelkar report has called for a rational allocation of risks among various stakeholders in a project, and moving away from the onesize-fits-all approach to PPP model concession agreements,” he said. Kaushik Pal, CEO-roads business, at Reliance Infrastructure, said his company had gone all out to encourage cashless tolling. However, the company had to bear the cost of 1% that was charged on cards and wallets. Industry leaders also emphasised the need to focus on optimisation of different modes of transport — road, rail and costal shipping. Anil Radhakrishnan, chief executive officer at Adani Logistics Ltd, said the government should incentivise coastal shipping to make it attractive. Participants also raised concerns about the reluctance of banks to fund projects. Malvika Pillai, portfolio manager, infrastructure and natural resources, International Finance Corporation, Asia-Pacific, said funds were readily available for the sector but there were several obstacles such as badly structured projects and issues of land acquisition. Anand Kumar, MD, National Highways Infrastructure Development Corporation, said all projects should be made public from the stage of planning itself so prospective bidders know what is coming up in two years and they can plan their resources accordingly. Dispute resolution mechanism is another area that needs to be addressed, industry believes. “The capacity of decision makers has gone down; most disputes are caused because of this. The government must empower officers to make decisions independently,” Chatterjee of Feedback Infra said. Nomar Mazara Womens Jersey
Investment Corp. of Dubai eyes India renewable energy investments
Dubai’s sovereign wealth fund, Investment Corp. of Dubai (ICD) through its subsidiary Dubal Holding Llc is scouting for investments in an Indian renewable energy platform. The sovereign wealth fund’s interest in the Indian renewable energy space comes in the backdrop of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s pitch for investment in August last year during his visit to the United Arab Emirates (UAE), three people aware of the development said, requesting anonymity. “Dubal Holding is interested in investing in a renewable energy platform,” said one of the three people. India is the UAE’s second largest trading partner, with the two countries sharing a “comprehensive strategic partnership”. India, which requires large infrastructure investment has been trying to persuade the UAE’s $800 billion sovereign wealth fund to invest in the country. “The Indian clean energy space is where Dubal Holding’s interest is. It has been enthused by the success of Government of Singapore Investment Corp. (GIC) and Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) in the sector,” said the second person among the three people cited above. Hyderabad-based Greenko Group, backed by Singapore’s GIC and ADIA, acquired SunEdison Inc.’s Indian assets for $392 million last year. Some of the other sovereign funds and government owned investment firms investing in India include Singapore’s Temasek Holdings (Pvt.) Ltd and Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala Development Co. Experts say an investment by ICD will be a ratification of India’s strategy on renewable energy sources. “If a foreign investment fund decides to invest in a country, it is a measure of confidence in the investment. This implies that it recognizes that India has resources to make renewable sources of energy viable, credible and sustainable,” said former power secretary Anil Razdan. India, the world’s third largest energy consuming economy after the US and China, has been seeking investments from West Asian economies which are its largest energy suppliers. UAE is India’s sixth largest supplier, accounting for around 8% of India’s crude oil imports. Queries sent to the ICD last week remained unanswered. “India’s energy security is going to define our energy mix. It is in India’s interest to enhance renewable energy not just for combating climate change but also for its own energy security. Getting out of feed-in tariff and into competitive bidding has strengthened the system. This is great for investors looking for transparent systems,” Piyush Goyal, minister for power, coal, mines and new and renewable energy, said in a statement issued by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Ficci) on Tuesday. India plans to achieve 175 GW of renewable energy capacity by 2022 as part of its climate commitments. The country is the biggest greenhouse gas emitter after the US and China. Renewable energy currently accounts for 15%, or 45,917 MW, of the total installed capacity of 3,10,005 MW in India. “For new investments, the environment is a lot more exciting and attractive,” added Goyal in the Ficci statement. Goyal is leading an Indian delegation to the World Future Energy Summit in Abu Dhabi. According to a report last year by investment bank Ambit Corp. Finance and the UK’s City of London, global pension funds and sovereign wealth funds may invest up to $50 billion in India’s infrastructure sector over the next five years. Justin Pugh Womens Jersey
Global Oil, Gas Discoveries Drop to 70-year Low
Oil and gas discoveries around the world dropped last year to their lowest since the 1940s after companies sharply cut back in their search for new resources amid falling oil prices. The decline in discoveries means companies such as Exxon Mobil and Royal Dutch Shell will struggle to offset the natural depletion of existing fields, reinforcing forecasts of a supply shortage by the end of the decade. Total oil and gas resources found in 2016 reached just more than 6 billion barrels of oil equivalent (boe), said Sona Mlada, senior analyst at Oslo-based consultancy Rystad Energy. The numbers do not include North American shale resources which have been a key driver in supply growth in recent years. Offshore liquid discoveries, where most major new fields have been found in recent decades, reached 2.3 billion boe last year, 90 percent below 2010 levels. As a result, companies were able on average to replace only 10 percent of their oil and liquid gas reserves last year, compared with a reserve replacement ratio of 30 percent in 2013. “The lack of discovered volumes in 2016 will not have an immediate impact on the global oil supply in the short-term, given the lead time it takes from the discovery to start-up of a field’s production,” Mlada said. “However, these ‘missing’ discovered volumes in the current years could have an impact on the global supply some 10 years down the line – depending on the investment decisions of the exploration companies.” Several significant discoveries were announced in recent weeks including Exxon’s find of 100-150 million boe offshore Guyana and Statoil’s 80 million boe discovery off Norway. Global exploration spending dropped in 2016 to $40 billion and could drop further this year, consultancy WoodMackenzie said last month. As a result, the number of exploration wells drilled dropped last year by 40 percent from levels seen in 2014 when oil prices began the sharp decline, according to Mlada. Around 60 percent of resources discoveries made last year were gas, she added. Mirco Mueller Authentic Jersey
U.S. Shale Oil Output Set to Grow in February as Prices Rise
U.S. shale production is set to snap a three-month decline in February, the U.S. government said on Tuesday, as energy firms boost drilling activity with crude prices hovering near 18-month highs. The month-on-month increase in production would be the first since October and the third rise in a year, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s drilling productivity report. February production will edge up 40,750 barrels per day (bpd) to 4.748 million bpd, the EIA said. In January, it was expected to drop by 5,900 bpd. In the Permian Basin in West Texas and eastern New Mexico, output is set to rise by 53,000 bpd to 2.180 million bpd, the data showed. North Dakota’s Bakken oil production was set to drop by 20,000 bpd to 978,000 bpd. Eagle Ford oil output from Texas was set to drop by 3,000 bpd to 1.042 million bpd. U.S. crude futures were trading around $53 a barrel on Tuesday, not far below 18-month highs set earlier in January, as members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and non-OPEC countries followed through on plans to cut output at the start of the year in an effort to boost prices and cut the global oversupply. [O/R] Total U.S. natural gas production was forecast to increase in February for a third month in four to 48.0 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd), the EIA said. That would be up over 0.3 bcfd from January. The biggest regional decline was expected to be in the Eagle Ford, down almost 0.1 bcfd to 5.5 bcfd in February, the lowest level of output in the basin since November 2013, the EIA said. Output in the Marcellus Formation in Pennsylvania and West Virginia was set to rise by almost 0.2 bcfd to 18.6 bcfd in February, a fourth consecutive increase. EIA also said producers drilled 712 wells and completed 545 in the biggest shale basins in December, leaving total drilled but uncompleted wells (DUCs) up 167 at 5,379, the most since April. Herman Edwards Womens Jersey
Air India puts 57 ‘overweight’ crew on ground duty
Cracking the whip on its over-weight cabin staff, the government-owned Air India has temporarily taken off 57 crew members from flying and put them on ground duty. These cabin crew members, including air hostesses, have been told to “shape up” within a stipulated time frame, failing which they would be grounded permanently, Air India sources said. Air India has over 3,800 cabin crew members, of whom more than 2,500 are women. Out of the total cabin crew strength, around 2,200 members are on permanent rolls. As per norms of aviation regulator DGCA, the cabin crew has to be declared as ‘fit’, ‘temporary unfit’ and ‘permanent unfit’ by designated doctors through their periodic medical examination. “These cabin crew members were found over-weight during the periodic review and told to get fit for flying in a particular time frame. However, as they failed to do so in the stipulated time, they have been taken off from flying duties last month and given ground jobs,” a source said. This is the second time in last over a year-and-half that the national carrier has taken such an action against its bulky cabin crew members as in September 2015 also, it had taken off 125 such employees from flying duty after they failed to maintain weight as per the mandatory norms. As per the DGCA’s regulations, a Body Mass Index (BMI) of 18-25 is normal for a male cabin crew, while for a female it is 18-22. A BMI of 25-29.9 for male crew is considered overweight and 30 and above is obese, while for females BMI of 22-27 is overweight and 27 and above obese. The BMI is a measure of body fat based on height and weight that applies to adult men and women. As per the norms, a cabin crew member found overweight is deemed temporarily unfit and given three months to reduce weight. A cabin crew can continue with flying duty for up to 19 months with the temporarily unfit tag, but if he or she fails to reduce weight to meet the required BMI during this period, he or she will be deemed permanently unfit. Teemu Selanne Authentic Jersey
Ashok Gajapathi Raju urges Arunachal Pradesh government to explore possibilities for cargo flights
Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju today asked Arunachal Pradesh government to explore possibilities of bringing in more cargo flights as the state has immense potential in horticulture crops, floriculture and medicinal plants. Addressing the ‘Digi Dhan Mela’ at Indira Gandhi Park here, the Union minister also expressed optimism that the state government would settle the issue of finding sites for the Green Field Airport in the state capital. “We have gone around a ‘ding-dong’ battle for selection of the site for the proposed green field airport in the state capital,” Raju said in a lighter vein. He said a central team recently surveyed both the proposed airport sites at Karsingsa and Hollongi and his ministry is waiting for the report. Raju said the detailed report and its submissions would be then forwarded to the state government for a final call and hoped that work on the airport would begin soon. “Please exploit the forward looking policies of the state as well as central government for your own benefits,” he said. Referring to cashless transactions being promoted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Union minister said, “Dishonesty which is pulling down the country could be eliminated through digital economy.” He said it was necessary that the country moved along with the government and they should work together for a better future. Claiming that over Rs 40,000 crore was deposited in ‘Jan Dhan’ accounts across the country post-demonetisation, Raju said no rich man contributes to the nation but only the poor through their hard earned money. “Quality of life needs to be improved and for this we need to contribute as well,” he said. He said unlike the previous regime, now Indian citizens with Aadhaar card could open a bank account without any hassle. “Digital transaction has made life easy for the people. Your pocket can be picked, phones can be lost but not your thumb through which you can easily make cashless transactions,” he added. Referring to cashless transactions being promoted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Union minister said, “Dishonesty which is pulling down the country could be eliminated through digital economy.” He said it was necessary that the country moved along with the government and they should work together for a better future. Claiming that over Rs 40,000 crore was deposited in ‘Jan Dhan’ accounts across the country post-demonetisation, Raju said no rich man contributes to the nation but only the poor through their hard earned money. “Quality of life needs to be improved and for this we need to contribute as well,” he said. He said unlike the previous regime, now Indian citizens with Aadhaar card could open a bank account without any hassle. “Digital transaction has made life easy for the people. Your pocket can be picked, phones can be lost but not your thumb through which you can easily make cashless transactions,” he added. Sami Vatanen Authentic Jersey
Cashless discounts: Fuel retailers may ask govt for compensation
State-owned fuel retailers are planning to approach the government to compensate them for their losses while giving a 0.75% discount for cashless payments, two people aware of the matter said. In the wake of demonetisation, the government on 8 December announced a discount of 0.75% for purchase of auto fuel using credit and debit cards and e-wallets at fuel stations run by Indian Oil Corp. Ltd (IOCL), Bharat Petroleum Corp. Ltd (BPCL) and Hindustan Petroleum Corp. Ltd. The discount came into effect on 13 December 2016. “We may reach out to the government seeking compensation on the revenue losses arising out of the 0.75% discount we are currently providing. We plan to approach the government in a few months,” said the first of the two officials cited above, an executive from one of the oil marketing companies, on condition of anonymity. A Mint report last month quoted OMCs as saying that the discounts could dent the revenue by around Rs1,100 crore till March. If the discount period is extended by another quarter, it would double. The OMCs said they do not want the discount period extended. While marketing business (which includes fuel retailing) forms 18% of volumes for IOCL, at BPCL and HPCL, it forms 40-50%. Religare Institutional Research in a report dated 9 December said, “Assuming 70% of transactions at OMC outlets go digital, IOCL, BPCL and HPCL could see a worst-case earnings hit of 8-14% in FY18 if they are unable to pass on these costs (which is unlikely). There are additional benefits of improved transparency and efficiency.” The OMCs did not reply to an email sent on Thursday morning. “I think the discount helps our marketing strategy. It will bring more customers to us who can experience our services, if they already have not. We will have to see if the government agrees to compensate us for the losses,” said the second official, another OMC executive, on condition of anonymity. For OMCs, diesel forms 70% of sales. “Assuming 70% of all transactions at fuel outlets move to the digital medium, the net discount for petrol/diesel works out to Rs0.3/litre. This can be comfortably passed on, as OMCs have been able to raise gross marketing margins in these products from Rs1 per litre to Rs2.6 per litre over the last three years,” added Religare Institutional Research in its report. The OMCs operate (owned and co-owned with dealers) a network of 52,000 retail outlets, with annual sales of 92 billion litres of diesel and 31 billion litres of petrol (FY17E). OMCs said on Thursday that post-demonetisation, they have seen e-transactions go up by 50% in cities and around 30% in semi-rural areas. However, many rural areas are yet to start with digital payments. OMCs said many rural outlets do not have the means to accept digital payments. Once that is facilitated, the number of transactions would go up. Kotak Securities in a report dated 27 December said, “IOCL management indicated that it has not received any clarification from the government on compensation for discounts on fuel sales through digital means. However, the company will be able to recover the incidental loss through reduction in transaction costs and modestly higher marketing margins on overall sales, if not compensated adequately.” OMCs expect that once people get used to the e-transactions, the discounts would cease. Terence Newman Womens Jersey
World Bank sanctions Rs 1,376 crore for Tripura power upgradation
The World Bank has sanctioned Rs 1,376 crore for complete upgradation and improvement of the power system network in the State, Power Minister Manik Dey said today. “The total project cost sanctioned by World Bank is Rs 1,376 crore and the project is divided into five phases. SPML Infra Ltd has got contract of the first phase. In the first phase, Rs 461 crore would be spent. Large number of 132 KV and 33 KV substations will be constructed and upgraded under the project,” Dey said. The Minister added that new 132 KV substations would be constructed at Belonia, Bagafa, Sabroom and Satchand in South Tripura district, Rabindranagar, Gokulnagar in Sipahijala district, Mohanpur in West district, Amarpur in Gomati district and Manu in Dhalai district. Matt Adams Jersey
FirstEnergy to sell four Pennsylvania gas generating plants to LS Power
FirstEnergy Corp said on Thursday it would sell four gas-generating plants in Pennsylvania and portion of a Virginia hydroelectric power station to a unit of LS Power Equity Partners III LP for about $925 million. The power stations, owned by FirstEnergy’s units, have a total capacity of 1,572 megawatts (MW). Akron, Ohio-based FirstEnergy’s move comes as it shifts its focus to more regulated markets by selling or deactivating assets in highly competitive and less regulated markets. FirstEnergy will own or control a total generating capacity of about 15,380 MW upon the closing of the deal. Carmelo Anthony Jersey
Solar energy can help in poverty alleviation: Power minister Piyush Goyal
Solar energy can help in poverty alleviation programmes as it can provide income to a large number of people having land but no income from it, Power Minister Piyush Goyal has said. “Solar can add value to poverty alleviation efforts and deeply impact education for children. Several people with land rights have no economic return, solar can provide them income,” Goyal said at a session of World Future Energy Summit 2017 at Abu Dhabi. Goyal is leading a 20-member official and business delegation in the Summit. The minister is of the view that solar is an economically sound business proposition. The spread and success of the solar story will happen on its own merit. The whole world is conspiring to make this happen. According to a statement released by industry body FICCI, Goyal also said that the International Solar Alliance can play an important role as a catalyst to bring the recipients of technology and capital. “It is the fastest launch of an international organisation from concept to launch. Technology will play a crucial role. We need consumers, policymakers, private sector, and academia to come together in a partnership to make the ISA a successful platform”, he added. The minister also said, “India s energy security is going to define our energy mix. It is in India’s interest to enhance renewable energy not just for combating climate change but for its own energy security. Getting out of feed in tariff and into competitive bidding has strengthened the system. This is great for investors looking for transparent systems.” “We have looked at ameliorating counter party risk for distribution companies through a payment security mechanism. Even on a day to day basis, renewable energy will become very attractive compared to fossil based energy,” he added. Goyal further said, “For new investments, the environment is a lot more exciting and attractive. Investors present at the roundtable suggested three measures by government to provide comfort one, land acquisition; two, connectivity in transmission, and three, assurance that projects will not get delayed due to power purchase agreements.” Will Fuller V Womens Jersey