Study finds cancer-causing chemicals in Delhi bread
The bread you eat every day may contain cancer-causing chemicals, a study conducted by a public interest research and advocacy organisation has indicated. Its findings, based on samples collected from Delhi, have prompted the union health minister to seek a report, even as bread manufacturers staunchly denied use of harmful ingredients in their products. As much as 84% of 38 commonly available brands of pre-packaged breads tested positive for potassium bromate and potassium iodate, according to the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE). The two ingredients have been banned by many countries, listing them as “hazardous” for public health, it said. There is no ban on these substances in India. The All India Bread Manufacturer’s Association (AIBMA) denied widespread usage of potassium bromate. “Majority of Indian bread manufacturers do not use potassium bromate. We are going to present our point of view soon,” Treasurer Sudeep Ahuja said. Ahuja said some companies use potassium bromate to increase the shelf life of breads. This ingredient is used widely in the US in breads, he claimed, suggesting that the substance isn’t harmful. The association will meet with its members to discuss further course of action and present its views to the government, he said. CSE claimed that while one of the chemicals is a category 2B carcinogen possibly carcinogenic to humans the other one could trigger thyroid disorders. The study covered only Delhi. Thirty-eight samples of commonly available branded varieties of packaged breads, including buns,ready-to-eat burger bread and ready-to-eat pizza breads of popular fast food outlets from Delhi were tested by CSE’s Pollution Monitoring Laboratory. “We found 84% samples positive with potassium bromate or iodate. We reconfirmed the presence of potassium bromate or iodate in a few samples through an external third-party laboratory. We checked labels and talked to industry and scientists,” said Chandra Bhushan, deputy director-general of CSE. “Our study confirms the widespread use of potassium bromate or iodate as well as presence of bromate or iodate residues in the final product,” he added. McDonald’s India said it doesn’t use potassium bromate or potassium iodate in flour or other ingredients that goes into its buns. “Claims by CSE in their press release and report are completely baseless,” said Vikram Ogale, the company’s director of national supply chain and quality assurance. Reacting to the CSE report, Health Minister JP Nadda said: “We are seized of the matter. I have told my officials to report to me on an urgent basis. There is no need to panic. Very soon we will come out with the report.” CSE said high levels of potassium bromate or iodate were found in sandwich bread, pav, bun and white bread of virtually all top brands. CSE has urged the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India, the food regulator, to ban the use of potassium bromate and potassium iodate with immediate effect. Brayden Point Jersey
Flipkart exchanges GMV for customer loyalty; markdowns of valuation by MFs irrelevant: CEO Binny Bansal
GMV is out, NPS is in, and valuation markdowns mean nothing. Flipkart is giving the heave-ho to gross merchandise value, a metric which is a proxy for sales, the company’s new CEO Binny Bansal said in an interview on Monday when he also dismissed as irrelevant markdowns by some mutual funds of the valuation of the Bengaluru-based company. Instead of obsessing about GMV, the online marketplace is embracing ‘net promoter score’ (NPS) which Bansal is hawking as a proxy for customer loyalty, as Flipkart repositions itself under its new leader. “We have stopped giving the (GMV) range,” said Bansal, who took over from cofounder Sachin Bansal as CEO in January. “So the focus is now on input targets about the number of customers, customer experience, NPS,” he said. The recent valuation markdowns by some mutual funds don’t mean very much, he said, likening it to beauty which is in the eye of the beholder. “It’s mostly a theoretical exercise by small investors. From our perspective, valuation is when we raise money,” he said. Mike Hull Authentic Jersey
‘Ecommerce FDI violation case still relevant’
The All India Footwear Manufacturers & Retailers Association on Monday argued in the Delhi High Court that the case it filed against ecommerce companies accusing them of violating the country’s foreign investment rules was still relevant. The association had accused ecommerce firms with foreign funding of directly selling to consumers, which local rules don’t permit. On March 29, the government issued a notification with clearer rules, which continued to bar foreign direct investment in inventory-led ecommerce and allow overseas capital in marketplaces, but restricted such firms from influencing prices on their platforms directly or indirectly. According to the regulation, ecommerce entities providing marketplace must maintain level playing field for all sellers. At a hearing on May 5, government lawyers told the court that with these regulations in place, the case had become “infructuous”. However, on Monday, lawyers for the shoemakers said several ecommerce companies were undertaking actual retailing themselves. “The government had said the new notification kills the case. We argued the writ petition is not infructuous because the new regulation confirms FDI in inventory-led ecommerce is not allowed,” said Rishi Agrawala, a lawyer representing the footwear association. The court adjourned the matter to July 26, Agrawala said. Two separate cases filed in the Delhi High Court by the associations representing the shoemakers and brick-andmortar companies had alleged that ecommerce companies were circumventing India’s foreign investment by operating marketplace models, yet indulging in retailing directly to consumers. The court cases prompted the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion to spell out the rules for foreign funded marketplaces. Mark Stone Jersey
IndiGo plane flew close to road; DGCA suspends license of 2 pilots
Putting the lives of passengers in danger, an IndiGo aircraft flew close to the road running parallel to the Jaipur Airport runway in February and aviation regulator DGCA has now suspended the flying licenses of the two pilots concerned. IndiGo Flight 6E-237 from Ahmedabad was involved in the incident that happened on February 27. Sources said the A-320 aircraft was few minutes away from touch down at Jaipur airport when a warning from Enhanced Ground Proximity Warning System (EGPWS) was noticed. The pilots seem to have mistaken the road nearby as the runway and soon after the warning, the flight made a go-around and managed to land safely at the Jaipur airport, they added. Installed in an aircraft, Ground Proximity Warning System (GPWS) provides a timely warning to the flight crew when the aeroplane is in potentially hazardous proximity to the earth’s surface. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) is investigating the matter and taking serious note of the violation, the regulator has suspended the flying licenses of two pilots, the sources said. Soon after the incident, the airline had grounded the pilots from flight duties. IndiGo operates 180-seater planes. When contacted, IndiGo said the flight 6E-237 was involved in “EGPWS Too Low Terrain” warning during visual approach at runway 27 at Jaipur airport. “The captain-in-command immediately took a precautionary measure and carried a go-around. The aircraft landed safely on subsequent ILS (Instrument Landing System) approach on runway 27,” it said in a statement. IndiGo said both the pilots have been taken off from flight duty with immediate effect. “The matter was duly reported to the DGCA by IndiGo flight safety department,” it added. Earlier this month, a New Delhi-bound IndiGo flight from Vadodara with 177 passengers on board made an emergency landing at the city airport due to a technical fault. Larry Robinson Authentic Jersey
Domestic passenger traffic to cross 100 million by year-end: DGCA
Sounding bullish, DGCA expects more than 100 million domestic passengers to fly by the year end, especially as India has outstripped passenger traffic growth in this sector across major global economies including the US and China last year. The number of passengers flown by the Indian airlines stood at 81.09 million in the January-December period last year, a jump of 20.34 per cent from 67.38 million they had flown in 2014, as per the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) data. “We have now crossed in the past four months of the current year (January-April) 30 million domestic passengers and growth is 23 per cent. At this rate, we will cross 100 million domestic passengers by the end of this year which perhaps is the highest in the entire world ,” DGCA Chief M Sathiyavathy said at an aviation event last week. “The country which is second (in passenger growth terms) is nowhere near us,” she said in an apparent reference to China, which logged 10.9 per cent growth in domestic traffic last year. Air traffic has been posting more than 20 per cent growth over the past several months with travel demand in April surging to 20.93 per cent over the same month of 2015 driven by lower fares. Earlier this year, Sydney-based aviation think-tank Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation (CAPA) had in its forecast said that India will have over 100 million fliers by March 2017. Sathiyavathy said that the domestic aviation industry has about 1,200 aircraft, leaving aside microlites and hand gliders. “With scheduled airlines, we have more than 400 aircraft and if we are going to post the growth of over 20 per cent over the next few years, which is what we expect, you can imagine the number of aircraft flying in the sky,” she said. According to the DGCA chief, scheduled Indian carriershares operate from across 80 airports in the country, adding that “of these 22 are joint user aerodromes (used both for civil and military puposes)”. More than 25 per cent of the aerodromes are joint user aerodromes, she added. According to an industry report presented at the India Aviation Conference in Hyderabad in March this year, India is set to become the third largest aviation market in the world by 2020. Seth DeValve Authentic Jersey
Air India board discuss FY15-16 financial performance
Air India’s board today discussed the national carrier’s financial performance in the last fiscal for which it has been projected to record an operational profit of Rs 8 crore. During its meeting here, the board also discussed about independent directors as some of them would be completing their respective terms soon, a senior official said. The board mainly discussed the carrier’s financial performance during the last financial year, according to the official. Battling tough market conditions and stiff competition, the airline has been registering losses for quite some time, but its performance has improved in the last few quarters. “Air India’s all-time performance has increased. This year, it is making profit, which is the first time in the last 10 years. It is making an operating profit. Air India is doing good work,” Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju had said earlier this month. The airline is expected to post an operating profit of Rs 8 crore in 2015-16. There are 11 members on the board, including CMD Ashwani Lohani. Director (Finance) V Hejmadi, Director (Personnel) N K Jain and Director (Commercial) Pankaj Srivastava. The government nominees include Gargi Kaul and B S Bhullar, both joint secretaries at the Civil Aviation Ministry. There are five independent directors — Gurcharan Das, Prem Vrat, K K Nohwar, R H Dholakia and Renuka Ramnath. In March, Minister of State for Civil Aviation Mahesh Sharma had said Air India was “expected to earn operating profit of Rs 8 crore as compared to the operating loss of Rs 2,636.18 crore in the previous year”. “This is the first time that the company is going to achieve operating profit since its merger in 2007-08,” he had said. Air India ran up losses to the tune of Rs 5,859.91 crore in 2014-15. The improvement is anticipated mainly on account of a steep fall in the jet fuel price, which accounts for 40 per cent of an airline’s operating expenses. In 2012, the government had extended a Rs 30,231-crore lifeline to the national carrier under a turnaround plan stretching over a period of nine years to keep it afloat. Under the 2012 Turn Around Plan (TAP), the government would infuse Rs 18,929 crore for repayment of government- guaranteed loans/interest till 2010-21. Reid Duke Authentic Jersey
Only 27 per cent passengers at international airport aware of customs rules: Survey
There seems to be an awareness gap among passengers about customs norms with a survey by a government agency revealing that only 27 per cent of the respondents travelling at the city international airport claim to fully know them. “There is a gap between what passengers should know and what is currently available. While only 27 per cent were fully aware of the Indian Customs rules and regulations, what is permissible and not permissible, the vast majority was either partly aware or unaware of the legal requirements,” according to a survey initiated by the Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC). CBEC, along with a management school, conducted a survey about the Passenger Satisfaction Levels (PSL) of customs clearance process at the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport (CSIA), which is one of the largest airports in India in terms of the international passenger traffic. The survey’s scope was to assess PSLs with the customs clearance process. It was conducted for a week and its sample size involved 731 passengers. While only 28 per cent of passengers felt that their experience with Mumbai customs vis-a-vis international customs was much better, 41 per cent passengers felt that the experience was somewhat better, it said. Only 4 per cent travellers felt that it was worse. The survey also found that 35 per cent of the respondents mentioned that the clearance process has drastically improved and 37 per cent said there was a marginal improvement. About 50 per cent passengers took 1 to 14 minutes for their immigration clearance while 59 per cent took the same time in baggage handling and 38 per cent in customs clearance, the survey found. Rob Gronkowski Jersey
New DGH Atanu Chakraborty promises level playing field for E&P players
With contractual disputes dampening India’s efforts to step up investment in its oil and gas hunt, the new DGH Atanu Chakraborty has promised to expeditiously resolve issues, iron out bottlenecks and make decision-making transparent. The Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH), which had been at the centre of controversies, is looking to start with a clean slate by supporting exploration and production (E&P) activities of oil and gas to cut down import dependence. The IAS officer, who took over as the head of DGH last month, in his first message on the regulator’s website said accelerated indigenous exploration efforts are required to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s target of reducing import dependence by 10 per cent to 67 per cent by 2022. “The need of the hour is to make utmost efforts to smoothen out bottlenecks with mutual cooperation and support with the highest level of transparency and procedural alignment. In line with the same approach, we intend speedy resolution of contractual and technical issues within the ambit of DGH in the near term,” he wrote. Of late, DGH has been accused of over-regulation by controlling expenditure of operators as well as insisting on its own set of technical parameters for recognising gas discoveries. It also found itself at the receiving end when it was seen approving a higher capex for KG basin gas fields when production did not match targets. According to Chakraborty, DGH’s contribution in creating a progressive and conducive atmosphere for the E&P sector would be “to adopt the role of an enabler, facilitator and ensure a level-playing field”. Reaching out to E&P companies and service providers for “all-out positive support”, he invited stakeholders to provide suggestions and ideas on upcoming projects. “At the same time, I urge my able DGH team to further expand their horizon and deliver to newer expectations to the best of their capacities,” he said. For better efficiency, he proposed that DGH and the E&P fraternity be more linked and synergistic. “Let’s us help each other in developing a transparent and effective interface that ensures implementation of government policies in order to provide the required impetus to the growth of E&P sector of the country,” Chakraborty added. The world oil and gas scenario, Chakraborty felt, is at the point of inflection. “Low oil prices coupled with technological developments have changed the oil economics all around the world. Shale gas evolution and falling LNG prices have broken all the barriers, compelling the select nations to undo prevailing cartel practices and prevent artificially jacking up of crude oil prices,” he said. Jamal Adams Jersey
As no deal with Iran yet, ONGC may lose gas field to Saudi Arabia
India’s flagship explorer ONGC is facing a repeat of KG fiasco in Iran as lengthy negotiations on terms may drive it to a point where its discovered gas reserves in Farzad-B field in the Persian Gulf may be drawn out by neighbouring Saudi Arabia. State-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) alleges that 11.12 billion cubic meters of natural gas worth Rs 11,055 crore has flowed from its idling Krishna Godavari basin blocks in Bay of Bengal blocks to neighbouring KG-D6 fields of Reliance Industries. And the same is now on the verge of repeating in the Farzad-B field, which it had discovered in 2008 but no contract to exploit the 12.5 trillion cubic feet of recoverable reserves has so far been concluded with Iran. Sources said a portion of Farzad-B field extends into territorial waters controlled by Iran’s regional arch-rival Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia has already drilled wells on the area falling in its territory, which it has named Hasbah field, and has begun production. The two fields are connected, with the area falling in Iranian territory holding larger share of 12.5 Tcf of recoverable reserves while the Saudi territory has only 3 Tcf or so. But the two fields are connected and whosoever is able to move first would extract more benefits. Sources said in the dispute with RIL, ONGC is claiming compensation for its gas flowing through under-sea connected reservoir to KG-D6 and the government has constituted a one-man committee to look into the issue and suggest compensation. But such a thing may not be possible for Farzad-B as rivalry between Saudi Arabia and Iran may prevent from arriving at any internationally recognised practice of splitting the spoils in conjoined fields. It was expected that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Tehran today and tomorrow may see finalising of a contract, giving developmental rights of Farzad-B field to ONGC Videsh Ltd, the overseas arm of the state explorer. But Iran is yet to agree to USD 4.3 billion master development plan submitted by OVL. Also, it is yet to agree on the price at which OVL can take all of the gas produced from the field, they said adding that no definitive contract for the development of the field would be signed during Modi’s visit. Previously, Iran was to pay OVL a fixed fee for its effort for discovering and producing gas from Farzad-B field. The gas ownership was to be with Iran and so Tehran was pushing for a low price of gas. But now a new modified contract is being talked about which will part ownership of the gas produced to OVL. And so naturally, Iran is now seeking a higher gas price, they said. Once investment in the field and the gas price are frozen, possibly by August-end, an agreement confirming development rights on OVL will be signed. But after that negotiations on the terms of the contracts – fixed fee or ownership of gas as well as marketing of the fuel, will begin, sources said adding the entire process may take one year time. Also, Iranian Parliament, Majlis is yet to approve new Iran Petroleum Contract (IPC) under which the Farzad-B field is to be given to the OVL-led consortium. IPC ends two-decade old buyback system that prevented foreign companies from booking reserves or taking equity stakes in Iranian companies. Under some circumstances, the new model allows reserves to be booked, but foreign companies would still not own oil fields. While previously foreign firms were paid a fixed fee for discovering and bringing to production an oil and gas field, the new model raises their profit by grading the fee based on the risk of the fields, allows contracts to last for up to 25 years and no ceiling on capital expenditure. Foreign firms are to be paid a fee per barrel and they will also be entitled to an increase in profits in the face of dramatic oil price fluctuations. Back home, ONGC believes the KT-1/D-1 gas find in its Krishna Godavari block (KG-D5) and G-4 Pliocene gas find in Godavari Block extend outside the block boundaries into KG-D6. According to ONGC, RIL’s D6-A5, D6-A9 and D6-A13 wells drilled close to the block boundary may be draining gas from the G-4 field while the D6-B8 well may be sucking out gas from DWN-D-1 field of KG-DWN-98/2 block. RIL has denied allegations saying RIL it has “scrupulously followed every aspect of the production sharing contract and has confined its petroleum operations within the (boundaries of its) KG-D6 block” in Krishna Godavari basin. Edgar Martinez Jersey
GMR to set up an LNG terminal at Andhra’s Kakinada port with a funding of Rs 471 crore
GMR Group is in the process of setting up an LNG ( liquefied natural gas ) terminal at Andhra Pradesh’s Kakinada sea port with an investment of Rs 471 crore. According to minutes of the meeting held by Expert Appraisal Committee (EAC) under the Ministry of Environment and Forests , the project envisages a start-up capacity of 1.75 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) which comprises of captive use by GMR Energy Limited to the tune of 0.85 MTPA, with the balance for domestic piped and non-piped users within a radius of 450 kms. GMR Holding Pvt Ltd has proposed for development of LNG facility with capacity of 1.75 MTPA at Kakinada Deep Water Port (KDWP) berth 7 located adjacent to survey no. 317/318, GMR barge mounted power plant located at survey no. 411, 413, tehsil Kakinada, district East Godavari, Andhra Pradesh. “The proposed LNG facility consists of the following…development of necessary facility/ equipment for ship berthing and mooring, LNG unloading arms with all safety measures, LNG storage and transportation, onshore insulated cryogenic pipeline, LNG regasification facility and pipeline for connectivity to existing gas distribution grid,” the EAC said. While recommending the term of reference for the project, the EAC asked the company to conduct a public hearing, besides laying down other conditions. “During presentation, project proponent (GMR) informed that regasification plant will also be installed at berth no. 7. Cost of project is Rs 471 crore. Power requirement will be 8 MW. Coringa Wildlife Sanctuary is located at a distance of 1.5 kms south,” it said. Meanwhile, the EAC deferred its decision on environmental and CRZ clearance in case of proposed greenfield facility for import of 5 MMTPA LNG Floating Storage Unit (FSU) and handling facility within Krishnapatnam Port Ltd, Nellore, Andhra Pradesh by LNG Bharat Pvt Ltd. The committee suggested the project proponent that it should submit all the requisite documents to Andhra Pradesh Coastal Zone Management Authority as sought by them. Pierre Pilote Authentic Jersey