Japanese retail giant Uniqlo ready to set up 1000 stores in India

New Delhi: Japanese retail giant Uniqlo on Wednesday suggested that it will open up to 1,000 stores in India in the coming years to tap into the growing consumption story and announced a strategy to source garments from the country.
Two sources familiar with the development told TOI that Uniqlo chairman and CEO Tadashi Yanai, who met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other ministers, disclosed the plan to open stores during these interactions. "We are looking to invest in the retail business in India... We will look to open 1,000 stores but it will take more than ten years as it is not easy to open so many stores," said a source, who did not wish to be identified. When contacted, a company executive said Yanai was not available for comment.
Uniqlo, which started as a chain of suburban roadside stores in Japan, is targeting close to 1,500 stores across the globe by the end of August. Currently, it has 632 stores outside Japan and moved into malls a decade ago, the company website said. Now, its strategy involves opening flagship stores in the plush shopping districts of New York, London and Shanghai.
The Japanese chain has been looking at entering India for the past few years but had deferred its plans. It is not clear if it will rope in a partner for its single-brand retail foray or operate through a wholly-owned subsidiary in the country.
Several foreign retailers have set up shop in India through the single-brand window, which includes the likes of Marks and Spencer, IKEA and Hennes & Mauritz (H&M). But, most are moving ahead with their plans at a measured pace. For instance, IKEA is yet to open its first store despite getting government approval a year ago. H&M had said it plans to open 50 outlets in 2014.
Before Uniqlo enters the retail business, it wants to have a pool of vendors to source garments. The company is in talks with the Apparel Export Promotion Council (AEPC) to identify 10 garment exporters, which have scale and comply with international specifications and standards. Sources said that the Japanese firm may invest in some of the Indian companies, if required.

Government approves Rs 12,500 crore transmission projects

New Delhi: In a bid to fast track building of high capacity inter-state transmission lines, the Ministry of Power has approved 9 new projects with an aggregate cost of over Rs.12,500 crore.
These transmission projects will benefit several states such as Haryana, Chhattisgarh, UP, MP, Maharashtra etc, by enabling high capacity 765kv lines carrying up to 2100MW each apart from construction of new 765/400kv substations. The projects will help evacuate power from central generating stations such as 660MW Sipat of NTPC, 1600MW Gadarwara, private sector generating stations such as Sassan UMPP (1320 MW). Congestion will also be reduced in Haryana Region by the strengthening of the Northern Transmission system. Projects which will be developed through tariff based competitive bidding process inviting participation from all Bidders including private sector.
These projects were mainly stuck in the approval process in the government since last several months. The approval to go ahead with implementation was granted immediately.
In the country as a whole, the total inter-regional transmission capacity of about 28,000 MW will be added in the next 3 years so that the total capacity is enhanced to more than 66000 MW by 2017.
List of Transmission Schemes approved by Government for high capacity Inter-State /Inter Region Transmission is as follows:
S.No
Scheme Name
Estimated Cost
(Rs.In Crore)
1
Northern Region system Strengthening Scheme–XXXV
88
2
Additional System Strengthening for Sipat STPS
2473
3
System Strengthening for IPPs in Chhattisgarh and other generation projects in Western Region
823
4
Additional System Strengthening Scheme for Chhattisgarh IPPs
2191
5
Transmission system associated with Gadarwara STPS (2x800 MW) of NTPC (Part-A)
2525
6
Transmission system associated with Gadarwara STPS (2x800 MW) of NTPC (Part-B)
2360
7
Connectivity lines for Maheshwaram (Hyderabad) 765/400 kV Pooling S/s
396
8
Transmission system for LTA of 400 MW for 2x500 MW Neyveli Lignite Corporation Ltd. TS-I (Replacement) (NNTPS) in Neyveli
612
9
Transmission System Strengthening associated with Vindhyachal-V
1050

Total
12518

Engineering exports set to cross $70 b this fiscal

New Delhi: Engineering exports are set to cross $70 billion in the current fiscal, growing by 15 per cent over the previous year, as demand in key markets such as the US and the UAE is on a rise.
“The flow of orders from the US and the UAE has increased substantially in the recent months. We are hopeful that this would continue the rest of the year,” Engineering Export Promotion Council (EEPC) Chairman Anupam Shah told Business Line.
Engineering exports, which account for a fifth of the country’s total exports, had taken a big hit in 2012-13 with shipments dropping 3 per cent to $57 billion as demand in the recession-hit Western countries dried up.
With the global situation improving, exports picked up in 2013-14 and increased 9 per cent to $62 billion.
Apart from traditional markets in the US and the EU, markets in Eastern and Central European countries such as Poland also hold huge promise.
“The non-EU countries in Europe are virgin markets that we have successfully started tapping,” Shah said.
On the prospects for the on-going fiscal, Shah said that things looked bright if the export growth of 24 per cent in the April-May 2014 period was anything to go by. “We will go by a conservative growth target of 15 per cent, while we certainly hope we will have higher growth,” he said.
While export sops given by the Government helps exporters to stay competitive in the foreign market, what is also required is more clarity in existing policy so that exporters spend less time in handling litigation.
“For instance, while we have been told that there is no need to pay TDS (tax deducted at source) on foreign commission, there is no formal notification which leads to trouble,” Shah pointed out.
Engineering exporters also want States to speed up VAT refunds as payments are pending in some cases for as long as three-four years.

India proposes to set up pharma, info-tech industrial parks in China

Gandhinagar: India has proposed to set up industrial parks in China, mainly in pharmaceutical and information technology (IT) sectors.
The Union Government, which gave an in-principle approval to the signing of an MoU at its meeting in New Delhi on Wednesday, with regard to the setting up of Chinese industrial parks in India, has made this proposal to Beijing, Jagat Shah, Interim Secretary-General, China India Trade and Investment Centre (CITIC), told BusinessLine here on Thursday.
Earlier, the two sides had identified five States where Chinese industrial parks would be set up in India: Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Karnataka.
Earlier this month, a 20-member Chinese business-cum-investor delegation had shortlisted three locations near Sanand in Ahmedabad district to set up their units in an industrial park with an initial investment of $1 billion. Shah said Wei Wei, China’s Ambassador to India, who arrived here on Thursday, is set to meet Gujarat Chief Minister Anandiben Patel later in the day.
China is interested in investing in India especially in automotive, electronics, agro-processing, tourism and manufacturing and will participate in the setting up of the industrial parks in the country. It has emerged as India’s biggest trading partner in the current fiscal, replacing the UAE. Sino India trade has touched $49.5 billion with 8.7 per cent share in India’s total trade between September 2013 and May 2014.
The NDA Government believes the move will help address India’s widening trade deficit with China, which has led to the government pushing China to source more products from here, Shah said.
“This was a long pending demand to strengthen India-China trade and investment ties which has now been fulfilled by the new government. In return, the Chinese Government may agree to allow India to set up industrial parks there in China.”

Crompton Greaves combo bags Netherlands wind project

Mumbai: Avantha Group Company CG (Crompton Greaves), along with the other consortium partners Fabricom and Iemants, has been selected by Van Oord, for the offshore wind project `Gemini' in the Netherlands.
As part of the scope, CG would design, deliver and install two high voltage (HV) offshore substations and 1 HV onshore substation. The volume of the order for the consortium is in excess of €150 million. CG’s scope covers around 30 per cent of the overall contract. The project is expected to start in the second quarter of 2014, and to be completed in 2016.
The Gemini project consists of two offshore wind farms i.e. Buitengaats (300 MW) and Zee Energie (300 MW) and is located 85 kms north of the island of Schiermonnikoog in the Dutch North Sea. The total 600 MW of installed capacity would produce electricity for over 785,000 households which equal a reduction in emissions of 1,250,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide.
CG would design and engineer the overall electrical HV system, manufacture and supply all key equipment and connect the onshore substation to the 400 kv tennet high voltage grid.

Telenor selects TCS for fixed-line upgrade in Norway

New Delhi: Norwegian telecom giant Telenor has selected Tata Consultancy Services Ltd to modernise its fixed-line network operations. The infrastructure services contract, which was signed on 24 June, is for four years.
"This is one of the largest change programmes in recent history for Telenor Norway. Our aim is to provide customers with better experiences, with improved quality and faster deliveries, while reducing costs," Berit Svendsen, chief executive of Telenor Norway said.
Telenor invests more than 4 billion Norwegian krones in infrastructure and services in Norway.
"As much as India emerges as a promising mass market opportunity for the Telenor Group, it is our endeavour to ensure that our international markets also open up for our Indian business partners. Our partnership with India should bring affordable services to subscribers in the country, global opportunities with us to Indian businesses and the benefits of the top-class competence and capabilities of these partners to the Telenor Group," said Sigve Brekke, Head of Telenor Asia operations.

NFSM General Council approves Rs 2,100 crore for the scheme in 2014-15

New Delhi: The General Council of the National Food Security Mission (NFSM), which met here today under the Chairmanship of Agriculture Minister, Shri Radha Mohan Singh, approved action plans of different States for Rs. 2100 crore for 2014-15.
The Council also approved taking up pulses under NFSM programme in Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir and Uttarakhand. The Council also approved taking up demonstrations of inter-cropping of food grains with oilseeds which was not part of the Mission activities till now. This has been done to put focus on increasing production of oilseeds.
The General Council reviewed the performance of NFSM in 2013-14. Four States i.e. Maharashtra, UP, Bihar and Tamil Nadu made presentation on their performance in NFSM.
Director CRRI made a presentation on the prospects of cultivation of hybrid rice in India and its role in increasing rice production. The Agriculture Minister directed that the feasibility of taking up production of seeds of hybrid varieties in different rice growing States may be explored. The Minister also emphasized upon taking up more demonstrations of improved technologies in pulses production in rainfed areas in different parts of the country.
The Minister stressed upon the need to take up soil testing and providing soil health cards to individual farmers, especially small and marginal farmers. This will help farmers in making informed decisions on inputs to be applied, resulting in better productivity and cost effectiveness.

India is 15th in world in premium volume

Mumbai: Global re-insurer Swiss Re’s sigma study on world insurance in 2013 said India stood at 15th position in the world in terms of premium volume. In 2012, it was at 14th position. The study showed insurance penetration in India fell to 3.9 per cent in 2013 compared to four per cent in 2012.
India’s life insurance penetration was 3.1 per cent, while in non-life insurance it was 0.8 per cent. Insurance density stood at $52 (about Rs 3,120) compared to $53 (about Rs 3,180) in 2012. In the world average too, both insurance penetration and density saw a fall.
Globally, premiums written in the global insurance industry grew by 1.4 per cent in real terms to $4,641 billion in 2013 after a 2.5 per cent increase in 2012, said its latest sigma study.
Insurance penetration refers to premiums as a percentage of GDP, whereas insurance density (measured in $) refers to per capita premium or premium per person.
The slowdown was primarily due to weakness in the life sector in advanced markets. Global life premiums were up only 0.7 per cent in 2013, with weak sales in North America and the advanced Asian markets offsetting a strong performance in Western Europe, Oceania and most emerging markets. Non-life premiums grew by 2.3 per cent, also less than the previous year, as growth slowed in the advanced and emerging markets.
Overall profitability in the life and non-life sectors improved, despite the impact of still low interest rates on investment returns.
India saw a 0.5 per cent growth in life premiums for the period, whereas non-life premiums saw a 4.1 per cent growth. Total premiums for India stood at $66 billion (Rs 3.9 lakh crore approximately), up by 1.2 per cent. World premiums were up by 1.4 per cent at $4641 billion (Rs 278.46 trillion approximately).
Premium growth in the advanced Asian markets was flat relative to the previous year, further offsetting the sector's strong performance in other regions.
At global level, life premiums grew by just 0.7 per cent in 2013 to $2,608 billion -- down from 2.3 per cent growth in 2012. Premiums in the US contracted sharply by 7.7 per cent due to the non-recurrence of large corporate deals which had boosted group annuity business in 2012.
The study said life premium growth was expected to resume in the advanced and improve in the emerging markets. The firming economy and labour markets in the advanced markets will support the life and non-life sector, and growth in the emerging markets should hold up also. “In the life sector, China and India in particular should see a return to higher growth rates,” said the Swiss re sigma study.
Overall profitability has improved in the life and non-life sectors. However, the study said investment returns, an important component of insurers' earnings, remain low given the very low level of interest rates since the 2008 financial crisis.

IT hardware market will touch $17-b mark this fiscal: MAIT

New Delhi: The growth in information technology hardware market is expected to dip this year owing to flat PC sales. The growth is expected to be around 30 per cent this fiscal year compared with 37 per cent last year.
Overall sales are projected to touch $17 billion against $12.43 billion, the Manufacturers’ Association of Information Technology (MAIT) said on Wednesday.
Desktop & laptop
In the desktop PC and laptop segment, MAIT expects a flattish growth of around 3 per cent. It expects the PC market to sell around 12.21 million units in 2014-15 compared with 11.85 million units last year. “Last year was not great for the market because of lot of challenges such as foreign exchange fluctuations. A quick change in exchange rates matters a lot for the industry. But, having said that, we are optimistic about next two years in the hope of better economy with the new Government,” Amar Babu, President, MAIT, told reporters here.
According to its latest study done along with IMRB International, while most of the products are expected to be in positive numbers, the desktop sales are expected to decline by 16 per cent because of the low demand from consumers.
MAIT expects the desktop PC sales to come down to 4.21 million units against 5.01 million units in 2013-14. The most positive outlook is for smartphones, which is expected to grow by 91 per cent this year to 100 million units compared with 52.43 million units last year. On the printers’ side, MAIT expects the overall sales to grow by 22 per cent to 3.47 million units in the current year compared with 3.10 million units last year.
Tablet sales
Similarly, tablet computers are expected to grow at 4.26 million units, up 27 per cent from 3.35 million units in 2013-14, and laptops by 17 per cent to eight million units from 6.84 million units last year.
However, tablet sales growth was comparatively low as against previous year (424 per cent up) due to low base and also because of the norms set by the Government with Bureau of Indian Standards’ safety and quality tags on such products.
“Lot of low-cost tablet makers could not release their products in the market due to new norms, which affected the sales,” Babu said. As per the new norms (Compulsory Registration Order, 2012), set by the Government, there is a mandatory testing and labelling from BIS for 15 electronic products, including video games, laptops, dot matrix printers and microwave ovens to ensure safety standards.
Budget expectations
On the expectations from the Union Budget, Babu said that as per their demand earlier, the Government should address issues such as inverted duty structure on IT hardware, concession rate of duty for personal computers and tablets, dual taxation on sale of packaged or canned software and early implementation of goods and service tax.

Oil India, Gazprom signs MoU for co-operation in exploration and production

New Delhi: Oil India Limited announced on Thursday that the company has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Russia’s Gazprom International for evaluating and pursuing exploration and production opportunities across the world.
The MoU also provides an option to the companies for technological association and any area or project of common interest would also be covered. The MoU was signed in Moscow by Oil India’s Chairman and Managing Director S K Srivastava and Valery Goulev, Managing Director of Gazprom International.
Gazprom is one of the largest oil and gas companies in the world and the largest producer of natural gas with the largest natural gas reserves in the world. It is also the only producer and exporter of natural gas in Russia.
“This is a very strong association and we should take advantage of leveraging each other’s strengths,” said Srivastava of Oil India in a statement. “Our countries have a history of close co-operation and very good relations and I sincerely hope that our partnership will grow from strength to strength and yield results in the shortest time possible.”

Domestic air traffic rises 5.3% in May

Mumbai: Budget carrier IndiGo retained its leadership position in domestic skies with a 31.7 per cent market share in May. However, its loads have been showing a declining trend in the first five months of the year, compared to the same period last year. In comparison, Air India is showing an uptick in its occupancy on a year-on-year basis.
Domestic air traffic was up 5.3 per cent in May, compared to the same month in 2013 with airlines carrying about six million passengers, up from 5.7 million passengers in May 2013. Domestic airline capacity was up 7.5 per cent on a year-on-year basis and demand showed growth.
May is the peak season for travel as it coincides with school and college holidays.
IndiGo retained the No 1 spot among domestic airlines followed by Jet Airways-Jet Konnect, which secured a 21 per cent share and Air India, 18.6 per cent. Data from the Directorate-General of Civil Aviation shows only IndiGo and GoAir have added market share since January at the expense of others. IndiGo's share increased 27.7 per cent in January to 31.7 per cent in May and GoAir’s share rose from 8.4 per cent to 9.8 per cent in the same period. The market share of all other airlines declined.
However, in terms of loads, Air India put up a good show. The government carrier's load factor increased from 74.2 per cent in May 2013 to 79.5 per cent last month. IndiGo had the highest load factors among all airlines (82 per cent) last month. However, IndiGo's load factor fell from 89 per cent in May 2013 to 82 per cent last month. In fact, IndiGo’s loads in January-May 2014 have been lower than in the first five months of 2013. Over the same period, Air India's loads have shown a growth on a year-on-year basis. An industry source said one of the reasons for the fall in IndiGo’s load factors is the expansion in capacity and the airline added nine planes last year. “One reason why we see Air India's loads better than IndiGo in certain months is because Air India flies planes with fewer seats. All of IndiGo's planes have 180 seats and SpiceJet Boeing 737s have 189 seats and both airlines carry more passengers per flight. Air India's planes have a business class seating and thus have fewer seats,” said the source.
IndiGo did not respond to an email query on topic.
“Drop in share is due to modest reduction in capacity vis-a-vis market capacity. SpiceJet load factors have shot up since earlier this year since we introduced the new network on March 30 and is now amongst the top,” said a SpiceJet spokesperson.
“In April and May, traffic has risen five per cent, which is an encouraging trend. This could be an early sign of a revival in demand catalysed by flash sales and promotions,” said Sharat Dhall, president, Yatra.com.
Airline executives, however, remain cautious. “Unless we see some serious cost correction, there will be no revival. Capacity continues to grow at eight-to-nine per cent and demand is growing at four to five per cent. The first half of June has been good for airlines, but once schools and colleges re-open, the occupancy will tank,” said the senior executive with a private airline.
GO INDIGO
31.7% Market share of Indigo in May. This was followed by Jet Airways-Jet Konnect with 21% and Air India with 18.6%
6 mn Number of passengers who travelled via air in May as against 5.7 mn in May 2013
7.5% Increase in domestic airline capacity on year-on-year basis
79.5% Air India's load factor in May this year as against 74.2% in the same period last year
82% Load factor of IndiGo, highest among all airlines, but 7% decline from May 2013

SEBI unveils measures to revitalise primary market

New Delhi: In an effort to improve retail participation and boost the primary market, the Securities and Exchange Board of India announced a slew of measures on Thursday. They include reservation and discounts for retail investors under the offer for sale (OFS) mechanism and a hike in the minimum shareholding for public sector undertakings (PSUs).
“We have broadened the scope of OFS, which though well accepted by the market, has been criticised for no retail participation,” SEBI Chairman UK Sinha told reporters after a three-hour-long meeting of the SEBI board.
It was decided that there would be minimum 10 per cent reservation for retail investors in this mechanism. They could also be given a discount.
Introduced in 2011-12, the OFS or auction method is used to sell shares through stock exchanges and is used mainly for the Government’s divestment programme.
Wider scope
“We have also extended the scope of companies (that can use the OFS mechanism) to the top 200 companies from 100 earlier. We have also provided that not only the promoters group but also any entity owning 10 per cent or more can participate in an OFS through stock exchanges,” Sinha said.
He added that 10 per cent dilution in one go through the bourses would not be disruptive.
According to Prime Database, an independent primary market monitoring firm, a total of Rs. 13,518 crore was mobilised through the OFS route in 2011-12, Rs. 28,024 crore in 2012-13, and Rs. 6,859 crore in 2013-14.
Public holding in PSUs
The regulator has also decided to bring the minimum public shareholding in PSUs at par with private sector companies. This means all listed PSUs will have to maintain a 25 per cent minimum public shareholding as against 10 per cent currently. Sinha said that 36 (out of 50) listed PSUs would have to comply with the norms within three years.
SEBI has also decided to remove the anomaly regarding issue size of an initial public offering (IPO). Now, the minimum dilution to the public in an IPO will be 25 per cent or Rs. 400 crore, whichever is lower, for companies with post-market capitalisation (number of shares offered multiplied by issue price).
With this, Sinha said the existing anomaly would be corrected. At present, if the post-issue capitalisation was more than Rs. 4,000 crore, the issuer was supposed to issue only 10 per cent or Rs. 400 crore worth of shares. Whereas, if capitalisation is even a rupee less than Rs. 4,000 crore, the promoters were required to issue 25 per cent shares, or close to Rs. 1,000 crore.
Greater participation
Prithvi Haldea, Chairman of Prime Data Base, said that with the removal of this anomaly, companies with strong fundamentals or those expecting better valuation in the future would come into the market.
As a part of primary market reforms, the regulator also decided to increase the anchor investor’s bucket to 60 per cent from the current requirement of 30 per cent of the institutional bucket. It also permitted bonus shares issued a year prior to filing of the draft document for a public issue to be offered for sale. SEBI expects these measures to breathe new life into the primary market.

ICAI signs memorandum of understanding with the Saudi Organization for certified public accountants

New Delhi: The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Saudi Organization for Certified Public Accountants (SOCPA) yesterday at ICAI Bhawan, New Delhi.
The MoU interalia provides that both ICAI and SOCPA would be working together in establishing possible co-operation in respect of Corporate Governance, technical research and advice, quality assurance, forensic accounting, issues for Small and Medium Sized Practices (SMPs) etc.
As ICAI has taken upon itself being a mentor and collaborative partner to transition economies, developing of accountancy profession in Saudi Arabia is a step forward in achieving the desired goal.
Mr. Mohammad Alaqeel, Assistant Secretary General for Membership and Professional Development, SOCPA stated “This MoU would be a step forward to strengthen bilateral relation between India and Saudi Arbia”.
CA. K Raghu, President, ICAI remarked “This MoU will establish closer working linkages between ICAI and SOCPA as it will enable the two to draw synergies from the professional expertise available with each other in areas of accounting, technical research, corporate governance and alike.”

FIEO inks pact with Afghanistan export promotion agency

Mumbai: The Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Export Promotion Agency of Afghanistan (EPAA) and the Ministry of Commerce and Industry of Afghanistan, following the visit of a 10-member business delegation representing natural herbs, fresh fruits and dry fruit sectors from Afghanistan.
The signing of the agreement is important since Afghanistan has just got over with elections signifying that the environment is conducive for conducting business. The MoU was signed by Ajay Sahai, Director-General and CEO, FIEO, and Najilla Habibyar, CEO of EPAA.
The MoU is aimed at facilitating exchange visits of investment and trade missions, project study groups, with both parties providing information on standard requirements of their respective countries.
While FIEO will share its experience with EPAA and support the agency in terms of capacity building and exchange programmes, it would cooperate with EPAA to enhance the export capacity, particularly in processing and packing of Afghanistan’s products.

10 Indian varsities in Times Asia rankings

Mumbai: Ten Indian institutions have made it to this year’s Asia University Rankings by Times Higher Education, while Japan topped the list with 20 institutes on the top-100 list. Last year only three institutions from India had figured on the list. IIT-Bombay is not on this year’s list (see chart). Last year it was ranked 33.
Panjab University, 32nd on list this year, was the topmost from India. This institution was also the topmost institution of higher education in the country, according to the Times Higher Education World University Rankings released in October 2013. The rankings revealed that China is posing a stiff challenge to Japan, which used to enjoy supremacy in the region. Although the latter retained its premier position, with the University of Tokyo scoring the No. 1 position and other 19 of its universities in the top 100, it lost two candidates from the list. On the other hand, China has improved its position with 18 of its universities figuring on list against 15 in 2013.
It showed that India made maximum progress in this year’s rankings. India now has 10 universities on the list. Panjab University (32nd rank) is followed by the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)-Kharagpur (45th), IIT-Kanpur (55th) and six more IITs. Jadavpur University (76th), Aligarh Muslim University (80th) and Jawaharlal Nehru University (90th) have also found place on the list.
In third place is South Korea with 14 institutions, followed by Taiwan with 13 (down from 17 last year). While Japan is the top-most country, the Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology (81st in 2013) and Yokohama National University (joint 96th) have exited the table this year and three more institutions are close to the precipice: Okayama University (down nine places to 94th), Kanazawa University (96th) and Chiba University (which has fallen a massive 23 places to 98th).
India’s Secretary for Higher Education Ashok Thakur writes the question of whether the country should go “full hog” for the global university rankings “has mercifully been laid to rest by none other than the president of India, Pranab Mukherjee, who has made it clear that as a matter of policy, all institutions in the country have to participate wholeheartedly in the rankings process”.
Phil Baty, editor of Times Higher Education Rankings, said these prestigious rankings were wonderful news for India. “A drive to introduce systematic quality assurance and accreditation for the country’s huge range of higher education institutions, plus plans to boost university research, should push it even further. And the election of a majority government raises the prospect of further decisive action in the higher education sphere, cutting through the red tape that has untrammeled previous initiatives,” he said.
The Times Higher Education Asia University Rankings 2014 is one of the world’s largest academic reputation surveys with 10,000 academics in 2013 and almost 60,000 since 2010. It has thirteen indicators across five areas taken into account, and examines all the core missions of the modern global university — research, teaching, knowledge transfer and international activity.

India, Russia to set up study group to push FTA

New Delhi: India and Russia have agreed to set up a joint study group to look at the feasibility of a free trade agreement between India, the Customs Union of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan.
The decision to set up a study group was agreed at the four-hour long meeting between Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry O. Rogozin and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj here on Wednesday.
“Formalities for these are under process in all the countries and a formal announcement of the constitution of the study group will be made as early as possible,” said a spokesman of the Ministry of External Affairs.
The study group is being set up both the leaders feel the existing level of bilateral trade at $10 billion did not reflect the potential.
The spokesman added that the principal focus was on improving the untapped potential between India and the customs union countries of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan in terms of economic and commercial engagement.
Hydrocarbons, nuclear energy, pharmaceuticals, fertilisers, diamonds, cooking coal and infrastructure development were the sectors identified for enhancing trade.
Energy ties
The two leaders also had a detailed discussion about cooperation in the field of hydrocarbons and energy.
The two leaders also felt that the CEO Council, which was set up last year, should be asked to work more intensively to make suggestions for boosting trade and investment ties.
At the meeting the possibility of India having a trade show in Moscow in September also came up.
Sushma Swaraj also informed the Russian Deputy Prime Minister about Kudankulam attaining criticality of 1,000 MW on June 7.
“They discussed the way ahead and the understanding was that Kudankulam II is likely to attain criticality by the end of the year,” the spokesman added.
Rogozin is here to prepare the ground for Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit later this year for the annual summit meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Technopark Incubator setting up ‘OpeniSpace’ for start-ups

Thiruvananthapuram: The Technopark-Technology Business Incubator is setting up an ‘OpeniSpace’, an open innovation space on its campus, for innovators and young student entrepreneurs.
P K Kunhalikkutty, Minister for IT and Industries, will inaugurate the space in the presence of Chief Minister Oommen Chandy at a function here this afternoon.
Plug-and-play
The ‘OpeniSpace’ start-up space will provide plug-and-play facilities with four to 12 seats along with Wi-Fi Internet connectivity to young entrepreneurs.
This is a joint initiative of the Technopark Incubator and Rajdhani Technologies-Istrian Technologies-Waybeo Ventures.
The incubator had mooted the project due to insufficient space for start-ups, according to K C Chandrasekharan Nair, Managing Director.
Out of the 190-odd start-ups, around 40 firms shared virtual space here.
“We now have over a thousand applications pending for allotment of space. We hope to provide them space at OpeniSpace,” Nair added.
Free IDs, licences
The ‘OpeniSpace’ huts will also offer 50 free email IDs, software licences, virtual work spaces, servers, cloud infrastructure and other hardware for start-ups at minimum cost.
Concepts like Bring-Your-Own-Device, Platform-As-A-Service and Software-As-A-Service will also be promoted here.
The park will also provide a data farm to provide cost-efficient data storage facility to companies operating in the campus with support from HP Cloud services and IBM BlueMix.
The incubator has already signed MoUs for these purposes.
Those attending the inaugural function include Aruna Sundararajan, Managing Director, Kerala State Industrial Development Corporation; P H Kurian, Principal Secretary (IT), Kerala; K G Girish Babu, CEO, Technopark; Hrishikesh Nair, CEO, Technopark Incubator; and Biju Ramesh.
‘YES’ summit
This is being done on the sidelines of a function to mark the formal announcement and logo launch of Young Entrepreneurs Summit (YES) by the Chief Minister.
YES is a key initiative included in the State Government’s ‘Mission 676’ programme. The State Industrial Development Corporation will organise the summit in Kochi in September.
Partners to the event are Kerala IT, Technopark, the Technopark-TBI, Infopark, Kerala state Industrial Infrastructure Corporation, the Startup Village, TiE, and the Confederation of Indian Industry.

Tata Power crosses 500MW renewable energy capacity

Mumbai: Tata Power recently crossed the milestone of 500MW renewable energy capacity with the commissioning of solar plant at Palaswadi in Maharashtra.
"This achievement is in line with the company's commitment to have a 20-25 per cent contribution in energy generated from clean power sources that includes a mix of hydro, solar, wind, geothermal, and waste gas generation,'' said an official.
Tata Power has a total operating capacity of 460.6MW from wind farms and 54MW in solar generation. In addition the Company has 447 of hydro and 202.5MW from waste gas based generation.
The company has aggressive plans to increase its generation capacity from green energy sources alone, based on projects that are already in advance stage of execution. It has a dedicated team that looks for opportunities in the renewable energy space and development of clean technology, officials said.
"The Company has been working in different areas of renewable power generation - both grid connected as well as distributed generation,'' the officials added.
Tata Power managing director Anil Sardana said: "We are committed to reduce carbon footprint through "clean and renewable energy" generation and further diversify energy portfolio to reduce fuel price risk. The Company has aggressive plans of additional generating capacity by 2022."

Water management firm Wabag to cuts costs by shifting control from Austria to India

Chennai: VA Tech Wabag, a water and wastewater management company, will increasingly operate its overseas businesses out of India to take advantage of lower costs and higher margins, according to Rajiv Mittal, Managing Director of the Chennai-based multinational.
Earlier, its international businesses were run out of Austria, the base of its erstwhile parent company, which it acquired in 2007.
But now, new subsidiaries fully handled out of India have emerged as better paying verticals, says Mittal. In 2013-14, the overseas businesses contributed over 60 per cent of the company’s revenue of about ₹2,230 crore.
The business in Egypt, Tanzania, the Philippines, Nepal and Oman are directly under Indian team support, on the basis of financials, technology and manpower. Even the large markets in Latin America are supported from India.
“We believe the margins from this vertical are closer to those in India, by about 10-12 per cent, rather than that those of international markets with margins of around four-five per cent,” he said.
The company takes advantage of the global reach of the 90-year-old Wabag brand with lower costs and comparable expertise available in India. This gives it an edge over international competition, he said.
The company has strengthened its operations in South-East Asia, West Asia – with focus on Qatar, Oman and Saudi Arabia – and entered Africa last year, he said.
Also, common functions like human resource management, finance, treasury, MIS (Management Information System) reporting are being brought to India for better control and done at one-fifth the cost the company will have to pay in Europe. “This is helping us rationalise costs. We are not reducing but shifting people,” Mittal said.
Markets handled out of Austria cover Central and Eastern Europe, including Turkey, and North Africa, part of West Asia. It is also slowly moving into some CIS countries.
Over the last three years, VA Tech Wabag achieved its annual guidance targets for revenue and order intake. For 2014-15, its revenue guidance is pegged between ₹2,600 crore and ₹2,700 crore and an order intake of ₹3,200 crore-3,400 crore. As of now, its order book stands at ₹5,354 crore.

Donald Trump to sign two realty deals in India

Mumbai: After changing the skyline of many global cities with his trademark flamboyant construction style, New-York based real estate mogul and billionaire Donald Trump is making his maiden trip to India this August. He would be accompanied by his son Donald Trump Junior, who would be on his second visit to India.
Though his India itinerary is being firmed up and under tight wraps, cementing two new realty deals and scouting for fresh tie-ups to expand his company ‘Trump Organisation’s’ global footprint into India is set to be the high point of Trump’s India agenda, according to available information.
One of the two deals includes a yet-to-be announced residential project with existing partner Panchshil Realty in Pune. The formal inking of the Trump Tower deal in Mumbai, announced earlier with Lodha Developers, is also part of the agenda. The new Trump Tower project to be announced in Pune with Panchshil Realty would comprise 6,000 square feet sized river-front apartments spread across 1.2 million square feet, while the Lodha project comprises a 77-storey residential Trump Tower in Worli, in mid-town Mumbai.
The latter would be the signature tower in The Park project, which is part of Lodha’s 17.5 acre township in Worli. Sources indicated that the Lodha-Trump deal is valued at around Rs. 160-170 crore.
Both the ultra premium luxury projects would be owned, developed and promoted by local developers, with Trump lending only his brand name in return for a fee, as part of the brand licencing deal arrangement.
According to industry watchers, brand licencing tie-ups are a win-win strategy for both the sides, as it involves zero investment by the foreign party, and allows the local developers to levera

Govt to make e-clusters in 8 cities: Prasad

New Delhi: Communications and Information Technology (IT) Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Tuesday said the government would develop new manufacturing clusters for electronic goods in eight cities as part of its agenda to boost manufacturing.
Prasad said manufacturing was a priority for the government and the sector had the potential to employ 28 million.
The ministry would develop the clusters in Bhopal, Bhubaneswar, Hyderabad, Maheshwaram, Bhiwadi, Jabalpur, Hosur and Kakinada.
Prasad said the government had identified eight other cities where it would offer subsidies and incentives to companies setting up facilities. The government would extend the modified special incentive subsidy scheme (M-SIPS) to Ahmedabad, Ghaziabad, Vadodara, Gandhinagar, Nagpur, Nashik, Aurangabad and Thane. In July 2012, the government had notified M-SIPS, under which refunds would be given on capital expenditure for new units or for expansion of more than 25 per cent of existing capacity in specific new or existing electronics clusters. The earlier government had allocated Rs 10,000 crore for the scheme.
According to Prasad, the government would promote semiconductor fabrication in India. The earlier government had in February approved the establishment of two semiconductor units. State-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam have been directed to improve the quality of services. Their performances would be monitored, according to Prasad. The government has decided to spend Rs 5,000 crore for setting up 8,000 mobile towers in the northeast, said Prasad.
On spectrum allocation, Prasad said he was working out a "transparent arrangement for spectrum issues," keeping in view the objectives of consumer welfare and the country's growth in mobile telephony. The government has approved preferential market access guidelines that force it and its agencies to give preference to locally-made electronic and telecom equipment for procurements.
PMA was mootedto incentivise domestic manufacturing in the country, which presently dependson large-scale imports to meet its demand for electronic goods.
The policy isone of the many initiatives taken by the government in the past two years toget an electronics manufacturing ecosystem going. According to governmentestimates, Indiaimports about $40 billion of electronics items.

Regen Powertech to launch wind-solar hybrid systems

Chennai: Regen Powertech Ltd, one of India’s leading wind turbine manufacturing companies, is ready to launch wind-solar hybrid systems, the company’s Managing Director, Madhusudan Khemka, said.
While the idea of putting a solar power plant under a windmill is not altogether new, Regen has perfected the system, marrying photo-voltaic plants of either 500 kV or 750 kV with Regen’s 1.5 MW wind turbines. The tweaking has been done in terms of optimising power electronics. The cost of the solar plant would be 20 per cent lower than a standalone solar plant of the same capacity, Khemka told journalists on the sidelines of Renergy 2014 , a renewable energy conference-and-expo, organised here by the Tamil Nadu Energy Development Agency. There are always sufficient chunks of land which won’t fall in the shadow of the wind tower, he said. This is important because if a shadow falls on any part of a solar plant, the generation of electricity of the entire plant will suffer. Though Khemka did not disclose costs, he said the economics worked out favourably.
Regen, which produces gearless turbines with permanent magnet-based generators using technology licensed from Vensys of Germany, sold 300-MW capacity of machines in the twelve months ended March 2014. The company has extended its financial year till September.
Khemka said that the company has orders worth 550 MW to be executed this year. “We are extremely busy this year,” he said. He said the company had enough land banks under its control to support 1,000 MW of wind turbine installations.

GMR Infra-led consortium bags Rs 389-cr order

Bangalore: A consortium led by GMR Infrastructure Limited has won three construction packages of rail line doubling of Multi Modal Transport System (MMTS) – Phase II works on Secunderabad Division of South Central Railway in the State of Andhra Pradesh, India. Rail Vikas Nigam Limited has issued the Letter of Award to the GMR consortium on 11th June 2014.
The total contract is valued at Rs. 389 crore of which GMR’s share of work is about Rs. 207 crore.
The work includes construction of roadbed, major and minor bridges, track linking, outdoor signal & telecom (S&T) Works, Over Head Electrification (OHE), Traction Sub Station (TSS) & General Electrical works for MMTS – Phase II on Secunderabad Division of South Central Railway in the State of Andhra Pradesh, India.
GMR is the Lead Member of the consortium with TATA Projects & Kalindee Rail Nirman Ltd. as the partner for OHE and Track works, S&T works respectively. The Project is scheduled to commence by middle of July 2014, with a completion period of 30 months.
BVN Rao, Business Chairman, Urban Infrastructure and Highways, expressed, “This is a testimony of our continuing interests in Railway projects, as we see a huge potential to upgrade the Railway Infrastructure in the country. This includes the Dedicated Freight corridor (DFC) and the upcoming high speed Railway projects, as recently announced by the Government”.

Reliance Jio, RCom to ink roaming pact

New Delhi: In what will extend the telecom alliance between the two brothers beyond infrastructure-sharing, Anil Ambani-promoted Reliance Communications (RCom) is tying up with Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Jio for a pan-India intra-circle agreement, straddling the 800-MHz and 2,100-MHz bands.
Currently, their alliance is restricted to sharing towers and fibre-optic network.
Through the deal, to be signed in a few days, Reliance Jio, which faces challenges in the 2,300-MHz and 1,800-MHz spectrum bands (these don’t offer subscribers high-speed data indoors), can now address this issue by using RCom’s 800-MHz band. RCom has five MHz of 800-MHz spectrum in most circles across the country and currently, this spectrum is unused. After the spectrum is liberalised, it can be used for fourth generation (4G) long-term evolution (LTE) services, too.
The intra-circle roaming pact will also give Reliance Jio roaming rights on RCom’s 2,100-MHz 3G band and offer services on this band. The roaming deal will bring Reliance Jio on a par with rivals who have an advantage in that they have spectrum across bands to offer seamless data and voice services. While Bharti has spectrum across the 900-MHz, 1,800-MHz, 2,100-MHz and 2,300-MHz bands, Vodafone has spectrum in the 900-MHz, 1,800-MHz and 2,100-MHz bands.
Earlier, Reliance Jio had spectrum in the 2,300-MHz band. After the recent telecom spectrum auction, it bought spectrum in the 1,800-MHz band. However higher bands aren’t well suited for 4G LTE data services, as telecom companies have to invest large sums in more towers for quality similar to that in a lower band. With this deal, the company will be able to offer customers roaming rights on RCom’s spectrum in the 800-MHz and 2,100-MHz bands.
Both the companies declined to comment on the matter. The intra-circle roaming deal follows the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal removed a stay on companies roping in new subscribers. A few years earlier, Vodafone, Airtel and Idea Cellular had signed an intra-circle roaming pact to use each other’s 3G spectrum to offer services in places where they didn’t have spectrum.
Reliance Jio and RCom have already signed a number of deals. These include deals to share inter-circle and intra-circle fibre optic networks, as well as towers. Under the tower deal, Reliance Jio can use about 45,000 towers of RCom across the country. For using the towers, Reliance Jio had promised to pay Rs 12,000 crore for 10 years.
RCom is set to gain from the latest deal, too, as its revenue share will be based on Reliance Jio subscribers’ the usage of its network. It is expected the funds will help reduce the company’s debt.
STRONG SIGNAL
Through the deal, Reliance Jio, which faces challenges in the 2,300-MHz and 1,800-MHz spectrum bands (these don’t offer subscribers high-speed data indoors), can now address this issue by using RCom’s 800-MHz band
RCom has five MHz of 800-MHz spectrum in most circles across the country and currently
The roaming deal will bring Reliance Jio on a par with rivals who have an advantage in that they have spectrum across bands to offer seamless data and voice services
With this deal, RJio will be able to offer customers roaming rights on RCom’s spectrum

Mahindra enters affordable housing with 2 projects

Mumbai: Auto-infotech conglomerate Mahindra Group, has entered affordable housing through its property development arm Mahindra Lifespaces (MLDL). Through the newly created business vertical Happinest, MLDL will launch two such housing projects in Boisar near Mumbai and Avadi in Chennai. The two projects will have 2200 apartments and a total of one million sq ft. The apartments, priced below Rs 20 lakh, will be launched in the next two months.
The projects, targeted at families with monthly income of Rs 20,000 to Rs 40,000, will be built in phases. While the first phase will be completed in12 months, the entire projects will be completed in two years.
The company’s foray into affordable housing coincides with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s focus on home for all within 75 years of India’s independence or by 2022.
The company has tied up with credit scoring agencies such as Inventure and mico housing companies such as Mahindra Finance, Muthoot, MFHC and HFFC for housing finance for its customers.
Companies such as Tata Housing, Usha Martin and Jerry Rao’s Value and Budget Housing have launched affordable housing projects in the past but the category as a whole had not been a favourite with top realty developers due to lower margins in the segment, consultants said.
“By 2030, about 600 million people will live in urban centres and 70 per cent of the new jobs will be created in cities. To meet the demand, you need a new Chicago every year. It sounds very daunting but it is a $150 billion opportunity,” said Anand Mahindra, Chairman of Mahindra group.
“If I were in Delhi, I would be trying to see how policy can be streamlined to become reality through incentives, creation of templates and ecosystem,” Mahindra said.
On leveraging intra group synergies, he said the group would leverage synergies within group companies like IT and other skills.

Technopark in Thiruvananthapuram sets a target of creating 45,000 new jobs in 2014-16

Kochi: The first IT park in the country, the Technopark in Thiruvananthapuram has set a target of creating 45,000 new jobs during 2014-16 as part of its efforts to emerge a major centre of the information technology industry.
Technopark, which is poised to celebrate its Silver Jubilee next year, currently provides direct employment to 45,000 IT/ITeS professionals through its 330 IT companies.
With the completion of the ongoing construction activities this year of TCS, Infosys, UST Global, Tata Elxsi, IBS and Technopark's Phase III building, around 45,000 additional direct jobs will be created in Thiruvananthapuram. This will lead to a total of 90,000 direct jobs and 3,50,000 indirect jobs.
Technopark CEO K G Girish Babu said the capacity built during the last 24 years would be doubled during the next two years in terms of employment through companies located in the IT park. Clocking an impressive growth during the FY 2013-14, Technopark's export turnover could be around Rs 5,000 crore as compared to Rs 3,500 crore in 2012-13. It also added 1.1 million sq ft of built-up space during the period.
Under Phase I and II of Technopark, construction of buildings on a total area of 2.5 million sq ft is progressing, which will be completed within a year. The companies building their own campuses are Infosys, TCS, UST Global, Tata Elxsi and IBS.
Technopark Phase II is an 86-acre Special Economic Zone (SEZ) campus being jointly developed by Infosys and UST Global. When fully developed, it can accommodate 50,000 IT/ITeS professionals.

L&T Shipbuilding delivers first commercial vessel to Qatar company

Chennai: L&T Shipbuilding, a subsidiary of Larsen & Toubro, on Friday delivered its first export commercial vessel, built at the Kattupalli Shipyard near Chennai, to Halul Offshore Services Company WLL (HOSC) of Qatar.
A statement from L&T said, the ship, Halul 42, is the first in a series of six platform supply vessels (PSVs) to be delivered to HOSC.
Ali Bin Jassim Bin Mohammad Al-thani, chairman of HOSC, received the vessel at a ceremony at the Kattupalli Shipyard.
The PSV has an overall length of 78.60 metres and a breadth of 18 metres with a dead-weight of 3,450 tonnes and a deck area of 725 sqmetres.
It has been designed as a multi-purpose vessel equipped for fire-fighting, rescue and standby, offshore supply, oil recovery and other offshore related activities. The vessel has state-of-the-art diesel-electric propulsion with dynamic positioning capability.
The vessel has twin azimuth thrusters and twin bow thrusters that give it high manoeuvrability and station-keeping ability in all sea and weather conditions, typically prevalent in Arabian Gulf and the North Sea.
The company claims that the vessel complies with the latest marine, environmental and crew accommodation regulations. The external fire-fighting capability, survivor facilities and fast rescue boats make Halul 42 capable of enhancing the safety of any offshore field where the vessel is deployed. The ship is certified for carriage of noxious cargo and dangerous goods in packaged form.
Larsen & Toubro is a $14.3 billion technology, engineering, construction, manufacturing and financial services conglomerate, with global operations. Its products and systems are marketed in over 30 countries worldwide. L&T is one of the largest and most respected companies in India's private sector.
L&T set up the Rs 4,000 crore port-cum-ship building company jointly with Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation ( TIDCO) in two phases on a 1,200-acre of land at Kattupalli, through L&T Ship Building Limited (LTSB), for developing a minor port and building specialized ship, along with a repair unit.
In the third quarter of financial year 2013-2014, L&T Shipbuilding bagged orders for six specialized commercial vessels, valued at US$154 million.

Apollo Tyres to invest Rs 400 cr in Kerala

Chennai: Apollo Tyres Limited is planning to invest about Rs 400 crore at its Kerala facility to expand its off-highway tyres manufacturing capacity.
According to Satish Sharma, president - APMENA Region, Apollo Tyres, growing demand, especially in the global market, has pushed the company to go for expansion.
At present, the company’s Kalamassery plant in Kerala manufactures 30 tonnes of off-highway tyres and its capacity would be raised to 110 tonnes in the next 18-24 months, he said.
These tyres are used in specialised vehicles like loaders, golf vehicles, agriculture equipments and others. The company exported 60 SKUs to the European operations, he said.
On the company’s Chennai plant in which the company invested around Rs 2,300 crore, Sharma said, “We thought the break-even will be reached in seven years, but in three years the plant reached break-even level.” The plant, located at Oragadam, on the outskirts of Chennai, was inaugurated three years ago.
“The real challenge now is manufacturing, not sales. To address this issue, we are now planning to expand the capacity of the plant by around 30-35 per cent,” said Sharma. The overseas market contributed to around nine per cent last year for Apollo Tyres and the company expects to increase this to 14 per cent in 2014-15, said Sharma.
The official said in the last few months, the company witnessed around 40 per cent growth in overseas business. The company said it was open to inorganic growth, which would give both market access and manufacturing capacities.
“One of our major focuses is the Asean region and this is the market where the company needs a manufacturing base,” said Sharma.
“It is not only to avail duty benefits, but it is important for the company to be close to the market and to avoid high freight rates,” he said.
The company is looking at manufacturing facility in Thailand, Indonesia and Philippians. “It will take another two years to decide on the destination. The focus now is to make the eastern Europe facility up and running by 2016.” The facility is a greenfield project and the company is investing around ^500 million in this facility, over four years.

Telenor to buy remaining 26% stake in Uninor for Rs 780 crore

New Delhi: Norway’s Telenor Group on Friday said it plans to invest an additional Rs. 780 crore to raise its ownership in Indian subsidiary Uninor to 100 per cent.
Telenor currently owns a 74 per cent stake in Uninor and the balance is held by Lakshdeep Investments, a company owned by Sun Pharmaceutical’s Executive Director Sudhir Valia.
“Continuing its long-term commitment to India, Telenor Group has filed to take complete ownership of its Indian business unit.
An application has been filed with the Foreign Investment Promotion Board of the Government of India, seeking approval for an additional investment of Rs. 780 crore to raise ownership in Uninor to 100 per cent,” said a company statement.
The money being paid by Telenor to acquire the 26 per cent stake does not reflect the valuation of Uninor as the transaction is based on the shareholders agreements signed with Valia. Other telecom companies, including AT&T, Vodafone and MTS India, have also sought to increase their holdings in their respective Indian ventures after the Government allowed 100 per cent FDI in telecom.
Expansion plans
Telenor’s Indian operations have had a rough ride with the Supreme Court cancelling its initial licences as part of the 2G spectrum scam order.
But the Norwegian company has since then participated in two auctions to acquire spectrum in the range of 5Mhz to 7.2 Mhz in seven circles that together represent more than half of India’s population.
This year, Uninor has announced an additional investment of Rs. 500 crore towards expansion of its network and distribution infrastructure by 30 per cent. Uninor has emerged as the fourth largest mobile operator by both customer and revenues share in some of its best circles.
The company now has over 30 million subscribers and is set to launch services in its newest circle of Assam this year.

Indian Government to create ministry for entrepreneurship and skill development

Panaji: The Union Government will create a separate ministry for promoting entrepreneurship and skill development, as per Mr Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of India.
“A separate ministry, which will look after promoting entrepreneurship and skill development, would be created. Even developed countries have accorded priority to promoting skilled manpower,” said Mr Modi while addressing a gathering of 150 special invitees.
About 65 per cent of the Indian population is under the age of 35 and promotion of skill and development will give job opportunities to unemployed youth in India as well as abroad, as per Mr Modi.
The Prime Minister said his Government was firm on applying austerity measures in an effort to bring down expenditure and enhance economic growth.
Mr Modi favoured inviting large-scale foreign direct investment (FDI) to revive growth. “Foreign countries are now keen to invest in India,” he said, adding that the country’s focus should be to give basic amenities to all citizens.
He said India will complete 75 years of independence in 2022, and to accomplish the dream and vision of the country’s freedom fighters, the Government will provide houses to all by that year with facilities like water, electricity and toilets.
As part of the celebrations to commemorate the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi (in 2019), the Union Government will commence a nationwide cleanliness drive, said the Prime Minister.
“Our Government will fulfil the people’s aspirations and expectations. This is a nation of honest people,” he added.

India becomes permanent member of Washington Accord

New Delhi: In what can be seen as a boost for techies, India on Friday became a permanent member of the Washington Accord (WA), an elite international agreement on engineering studies and mobility of engineers.
The country now joins a select group of 17 countries who are permanent signatories of the WA. “The signatory status will substantially increase global employment opportunities for technical and engineering graduates,” HRD Minister Smriti Irani said in a statement issued by the Ministry.
Washington Accord is an international agreement amongst prominent nations of the world, with the charter of promoting mobility and quality assurance of engineers across international boundaries.
The charter requires that nations set up suitable accreditation standards, which would ensure a minimum quality of attainment for their engineering graduates.
Irani said, “This will ensure highest quality assurance standards to be implemented in our technical and engineering programmes and provide global mobility to our engineering graduates.”
“Graduates having degrees, which have been so accredited, would have substantial international equivalence of their achievement levels across the signatory nations. This will substantially enhance their employment opportunities around the world,” she added.
Former HRD Minister Pallam Raju also tweeted: Congratulations to MHRD, after a seven-year effort by the Ministry, India has gained permanent membership of the Washington Accord!

AirAsia takes off, eyes non-trunk routes

Bangalore: As its brand new A320 took off from Kempegowda International Airport in Bangalore and headed to Goa, AirAsia India became the country’s latest domestic airline. With its maiden flight, AirAsia India became the country’s fourth low-cost carrier, after IndiGo, SpiceJet and GoAir.
CEO Mittu Chandilya told newspersons that Bangalore would be the airline’s operational hub while Chennai will remain the corporate and maintenance base.
Chandilya noted that the high tax rate of 29 per cent on aviation turbine fuel levied by the Karnataka Government is a deterrent and the airline has requested the State Government to reduce it.
AirAsia will operate its next flight on June 19, from Bangalore to Chennai. Two more new A320s will join the fleet in a month or two. The budget carrier plans to add an aircraft a month to its fleet over the next 10 months.
Focus on tier-2 cities
It will add nine new destinations in the next few months, mostly in the south, including Mangalore, Hubli and Jaipur, where A320s can land. During the next three years, the airline plans to expand the network to 30 cities.
“Our focus will be on tier-2 cities and we are not keen on ‘trunk’ routes (to Mumbai, Delhi or Kolkata),” Chandilya said.
He said the airline sold all 180 seats within minutes of opening bookings on May 30. As a promotional offer, the airline sold 40 per cent of the tickets at Rs. 990, 10 per cent at Rs. 5 per ticket and the balance for up to Rs. 1,900 a ticket.
The 300-staff airline has shifted its pilots, crew and office to Bangalore. “Over the years we will invest and develop our hub here. Bangalore’s airport is excellent. I am interested in being here. I have moved the entire team here and am putting in contracts that are very Bangalore-centric.”
The Indian venture of the Malaysian airline has an initial investment of Rs. 90-crore ($15-million) from Air Asia Berhad (49 per cent); Tata Sons (30 per cent); and Telstra Tradeplace (21 per cent); it will go up to $20 million (around Rs. 120 crore), the CEO said.
Eyeing quick break-even
On recovering the investment, he said: “We will break even in four months… Our fares will be 35 per cent lower than the market rat. At this rate, we believe we can sustain and be profitable.”
AirAsia’s Indian venture was approved in February 2013. The carrier got its first plane in March this year and its operating licence in May.

India to be Ford’s centre piece for small cars

Chennai: With 60 per cent of the cars sold worldwide being compacts and sedans, “India is the centre piece for small cars” for Ford, according to Alan Mulally, President and CEO, Ford Motor Company.
More than half the cars sold globally are in the Ford Focus and Fiesta sized segment. So, the Indian customer and the company’s design team here are important.
Ford has decided its Indian operations will be the export hub. It now exports to over 50 countries and “we see that increasing over time,” he said in an interaction with media persons.
Mulally, who retires in July after eight years at the US-based automobile company, said for the first time, Ford used a single platform in the B-sized segment to offer the Figo and the EcoSport, a hatchback and a small SUV. This flexibility is an inherent part of Ford’s strategy worldwide.
Small cars are no longer about being ‘cheap and cheerful.’ Customers expect them to offer safety, quality and fuel efficiency as much as cars in any other segment, according to Mulally.
The company has nine basic platforms that can cater to over 85 per cent of the volume of vehicles sold globally covering compact cars to SUVs and wagons. It can bring to India any of its offerings including the largest of sedans in the market, if the customers want it.
Ford’s investments in India and China, the fastest growing markets, have been ‘tremendous’. “You are our future,” he said.

Industry grows at fastest rate in 13 months

New Delhi: After falling for two months, industrial production grew at a 13-month-high rate of 3.4 per cent in April, driven mainly by electricity generation and manufacturing.
The numbers, if sustained, could push up economic growth, stuck below five per cent for two years now. However, economists are still not certain about the recovery in manufacturing, as it is driven by volatile capital goods.
The country’s industrial output, as measured by the Index of Industrial Production (IIP), had declined 0.5 per cent in March and 1.7 per cent in February, official data showed on Thursday.
Industrial output grew just 1.5 per cent in April last year and contracted 1.3 per cent in April the previous year. Economists said the slow IIP growth rate in April last year magnified the expansion in the month this year — in what is technically referred to as the base effect.
Electricity generation in April this year surged at a seven-month-high rate of 11.9 per cent, compared with 5.3 per cent the previous month. Mining grew 1.2 per cent, after contracting 0.3 per cent the previous month.
Manufacturing, which has the highest weight of 75.5 per cent on IIP, grew at 2.6 per cent, its fastest in nine months. Had it not been for a revision in the January data — from a 0.5 per cent contraction to a 0.2 per cent rise — manufacturing output would have declined for six months before April this year. Its production grew 1.8 per cent in April 2013 and shrank 1.8 per cent in April 2012.
However, economists remain concerned. “Manufacturing activity is still a concern, with no significant growth trend evolving within IIP,” said Debopam Chaudhuri, chief economist at Zyfin Research.
Economists want to watch the IIP data for a few months more before they can declare a revival, as the index is prone to volatility and is often revised. Volatility is particularly true of capital goods, which spurted 15.7 per cent in April after contracting in the previous four months. “The only caveat to the good news is that all of the upward surprise came from the notoriously lumpy and volatile capital goods sector,” said JPMorgan Economist Sajjid Chinoy.
Arun Singh, senior economist, Dun & Bradstreet, said he would look at IIP data for four months to confirm whether industry was recovering.
The capital goods segment, with a weight of 8.8 per cent on IIP, was responsible a 1.38 per cent rise in industrial production in April. Most of the push came from electrical machinery & equipment sector, which grew 66 per cent in the month.
With investment activity yet to display a broad-based pick-up, it was unclear whether the double-digit growth in the capital goods index would persist in the ongoing quarter, said ICRA Senior Economist Aditi Nayar.
Sustaining momentum in industrial production would depend on the government’s resolve to fast-track stalled projects, revive the investment pipeline and lift consumption demand by improving growth prospects, research firm CRISIL said in an analysis.
Fourteen of the 22 industry groups on the index posted growth in April, against 10 the previous month.
However, growth skipped consumer goods. Consumer durables have been declining for over a year now and in April non-durables also contracted. Consumer durables declined 7.6 per cent in April and consumer non-durables fell 3.3 per cent. Overall, consumer goods declined 5.1 per cent in April.
"Fast-moving consumer goods have also started bearing the brunt of a persistently high inflation rate,” Singh said. The fall in consumer non-durables may also be due to the base effect of 11.3 per cent growth in April 2013.

68% teens shop online in cities, 91% in mini-metros own mobiles

Mumbai: Almost seven out of 10 urban teenagers shop online and teenagers in mini-metros are ahead of their metro counterparts in adopting digital lifestyles, found a survey. The survey, which aimed to study the digital preferences of high school students, also found over 48% respondents had bought clothes and accessories online.
The TCS Gen-Y 2013-14 survey covered 18,196 students aged between 12-18 years across 14 cities in the country. Over 68% respondents said they shop online, compared to 37% last year. "While the number of teenagers who shop online has definitely increased, the difference in what they are shopping is stark. Last year, they were shopping for low value things like movie tickets and books, but this year clothes and accessories have taken the lead," the survey said.
While over 82% teenagers own a mobile phone in the metros, the numbers are higher in mini-metros at 91%. Similarly, teenagers from mini-metros also lead in the use of social media for school projects, with over 66% agreeing it helps them perform better in studies compared to 60% in metros. "Students have started using the internet for self learning and projects. Classrooms are taking that ahead and holding discussions," said Ajoy Mukherjee, the company's executive vice-president and global head of human resources.
Mobile phones and tablets were the most popular gadgets with teenagers, while Facebook continued to remain their most preferred social network. Over 85.8% of respondents were registered on it and more than 21% posted on the site everyday.
However, micro-blogging site twitter was not too popular with the teenagers. Over 31% respondents said they had a twitter account, only 2.7% said it was their most preferred social network. "The low popularity may be because the teenagers find it more complex," the survey said. Over 87% think social media has made them aware of current affairs.
The survey, which also looked at the career preferences of teens, found IT and engineering were their top two choices but observed a growing interest in media and entertainment compared to last year. Almost 10% respondents picked media or entertainment as their top three preferred choices.

Overseas funds rushing to invest in India, over $5 billion invested in last 8 months

Mumbai: Several sovereign wealth funds (SWF) and overseas pension funds are rushing to invest in India, driven by hopes of economic recovery under a new stable government. At least three sovereign funds from West Asia have invested over $5 billion in the past eight months and one global pension fund has committed to invest $450 million.
Two other funds are scouting for investments in India's real estate and infrastructure developers.
"Risk of returns are out of the way and these funds can invest capital for longer tenure," said the head of a realty fund, which has received investments from two SWFs in West Asia.
"They have lesser redemption pressure unlike private equity funds, which have to give returns to their investors in few years."
Private equity (PE) experts say a trend is visible of both SWF and pension funds investing heavily in the past six months. They say they expect to see more such investments this year.
"SWF and pension funds will be the largest investors in the next one year, while the fund of funds and PE funds will stay away after being caught in the two cycles of economic slowdown," said a senior PE fund manager, whose fund runs a distressed asset fund jointly with an American bulge bracket fund.
Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA), which had invested roughly $500 million in the past decade, has also upped the ante. Abu Dhabi power company Taqa, owned by ADIA, purchased a 51% stake in Jaypee Group's thermal power projects for $1.5 billion jointly with a Canadian pension fund and local PE IDFC Alternatives Fund.
Last year, ADIA also appointed Suresh Sadasivan as head of its internal equities department for Asia excluding Japan, responsible for developing strategy, managing risk and overseeing management of portfolios.
Oman's State General Reserve Fund, Government of Singapore Investment Corp (GIC) and Temasek committed $200 million investment in a real estate fund run by India's biggest mortgage lender, Housing Development Finance Corporation.
In May last year, Qatar paid $1.26 billion for a 5% stake in India's largest mobile telephony by customers Bharti Airtel.
Canadian Pension Plan Investment Board, which manages $218.1 billion of assets, formed two joint ventures in November last year.
It formed a joint venture with real estate developer Shapoorji Pallonji Group to invest in commercial real estate in India, and formed an equal real estate finance company with billionaire Ajay Piramal group's Piramal Enterprises, which will specialise in debt and structured finance. The fund committed $200 million in the first and $250 million in the second venture. "We will be deploying more and more capital to India and that is fungible.
We are constantly moving our capital, so it can't be seen as what happens to one dollar invested in one project," Mark Wiseman, president and CEO at Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, said after announcing its real estate venture. The fund opened its second office in India outside Canada after Hong Kong.
Consultants say the fund flow to India will rise as Japan allowed its $1.26 trillion pension fund to invest in alternate assets overseas.

Japan's Meiji Holdings acquires Medreich for Rs 1,720 Cr

Mumbai: Japanese pharmaceutical major Meiji Holdings has bought out Temasek-backed Medreich for $290 million (Rs 1,720 crore), the company informed Tokyo Stock Exchange on Wednesday, marking the first inbound investment in the Indian pharmaceutical sector by a Japanese company after Daiichi Sankyo's ill-fated acquisition of Ranbaxy in 2008.
Temasek, the private equity arm of the Singapore government, had invested Rs 109 crore in 2005 for a 25 per cent stake in Medreich which manufactures therapeutic generic and branded drugs. Temasek has made almost a four-fold return on its investment in the company by getting around Rs 430 crore from this transaction.
"Meiji, through its operating subsidiaries, Meiji Seika Pharma, has bought out 100 per cent stake in Medreich as it plans to enter the Indian market," said a person with direct knowledge of the deal. As part of the Japanese company's 2020 vision, it wants to expand to newer geographies, the person explained.
Medreich sells generic pharmaceuticals products to Europe, Asia, and Africa. Its main business partners include GSK, Adcock Ingram, Pfizer, Sanofi, Novartis and Mylan, among others. "The Meiji Group wants to enter the global generics field, particularly in Asia and emerging countries," the company's release in Japanese read.
The $5-billion Meiji Group's acquisition signals a return of longterm confidence in the Indian pharmaceutical sector. Last month, in an all-share transaction, Sun Pharmaceutical Industries bought generic drugmaker Ranbaxy Laboratories for $3.2 billion. Daiichi had paid $4.2 billion for a 69 per cent stake in Ranbaxy in 2008.
"If multinational companies have to make a mark in India, they cannot grow organically, and if they have to acquire companies, they will trigger the foreign direct investment issue," said Sujay Shetty, head of life sciences at consultancy PwC when the Ranbaxy-Sun Pharma deal was announced.
Investment bank JP Morgan was the advisor to Meiji Holdings and NM Rothschild advised the investors and promoters of Medreich. Medreich, founded in 1976 by Rajeev Mehta, Keith De Souza and CP Bothra, has the capability to produce over 500 products with an R& D team of over 75 scientists. The company has been profitable since its inception. The company's branding and name will not be changed post the acquisition, Meiji Holdings has said.
For Temasek, this marks a blockbuster exit from an Indian company. Temasek has made several large private equity investments in India, including in Bharti Airtel, Tata Teleservices in Maharashtra, GMR Energy, National Stock Exchange and Godrej Consumer Products.

Brookfield to buy Unitech subsidiary for Rs 2,000 crore

New Delhi: Canada-based Brookfield Property has entered into an agreement to acquire Candor Investments, a subsidiary of Unitech Corporate Park (UCP), for about Rs 2,000 crore.
In an announcement to London Stock Exchange, UCP said it had entered into an agreement with an affiliate of Brookfield Property Partners for the sale and purchase of the entire issued share capital of Candor, subject to conditions, for a cash consideration of about £205.9 million (about Rs 2,034 crore).
Through its subsidiaries, Candor Investments holds 60 per cent stake in six properties—two in Gurgaon, three in Noida and one in Kolkata; the Unitech group owns the rest of the equity.
LIFE SAVER
Candor Investments holds 60% stake in 6 properties; the Unitech group owns the rest of the equity
Unitech said of a total of 6 special economic zones, it had transferred its interest in four to an independent third party
The amount raised through the deal will likely be used to reduce Unitech’s debt, at Rs 6,200 crore in 2013-14

In a separate statement to the BSE, Unitech said of a total of six special economic zones , it had transferred its interest in four (the most developed) to an independent third party. As part of the transaction, certain affiliates of Unitech will continue to manage and develop these assets to ensure there is no impact on tenants and other stakeholders.
Sources privy to the deal said Unitech sold the stake for about Rs 1,500 crore, adding it was likely most of the funds would be used to refinance the company’s debt. For 2013-14, Unitech’s debt stood at Rs 6,200 crore.
In April this year, UCP had said a party had expressed interest in acquiring its subsidiary Candor Investments, the holding company for UCP’s property interests.
After completion of the deal, UCP is expected to have cash resources to provide shareholders capital returns of about 56 pence/ordinary share in aggregate, a 45 per cent premium to the share price on April 2 and a 79.2 per cent premium to its lowest share price in the last 12 months (September 25, 2013).
The deal will require the approval of shareholders, in accordance with the AIM Rules for Companies. It will also seek shareholder approval to adopt a new investing policy to return capital to shareholders, following the completion of the Candor sale. In this regard, an extraordinary general meeting is scheduled to be held on June 27.
Donald Lake, chairman of UCP, said, “The offer for UCP’s property interests from Brookfield at more than the latest book valuation reflects the hard work put in through recent years to let the office space and grow income to achieve the best possible price on behalf of investors in the company. The independent directors believe the proposed sale represents a very attractive opportunity for investors to realise strong value from the properties and facilitate a distribution of the proceeds.”
On Wednesday, the Unitech stock closed at Rs 33.95 on BSE, down 7.11 per cent.

ZTE to set up network operating centre in India

Shanghai: Chinese telecom equipment maker ZTE Corporation plans to set up a Global Network Operating Centre (GNOC) in India.
The centre will manage the networks of multiple telecom carriers across Asia and Africa. Similar centres have been set up in India by rival firms, including Nokia Solutions and Networks and Ericsson. ZTE’s centre would be one of its major GNOCs in the world that will take care of managed service requirement of operators across the regions. Currently, the company has centres in China and Romania, which manages Chinese and European clients, respectively.
“ZTE is in discussions with several telecom operators in Indonesia, Malaysia and Nigeria to manage their networks from a future GNOC in India for both fixed line as well as wireless networks,” Xu Huijun, Senior Vice-President — Wireless Business, ZTE Corporation, told Business Line.
Speaking on the sidelines of Mobile Asia Expo here, he said the centre would also lead to more hirings in India, which it would decide once the plan is finalised.

Exports post double-digit growth in May

New Delhi: Exports posted double-digit growth in May, the highest in six months, as shipments of key commodities, such as engineering goods, petroleum products, readymade garments and pharmaceuticals registered strong increases.
Imports continued to fall during the month, mostly due to declining gold imports, which narrowed the trade deficit sharply compared to the previous year.
Recording growth for two consecutive months of the new fiscal year after a lacklustre performance last year, exports increased 12.4 per cent in May to $28 billion over the same month a year ago.
India had missed its export target of $325 billion last fiscal year, as outbound shipments grew just 3.98 per cent to $312.35 billion because of tepid international demand.
Trade body hopeful
Exuding optimism, exporters’ body FIEO said this may be the beginning of a high-growth period for the sector. “Going by the current trend, exports could reach $360 billion in 2014-15. Most economies, barring a few countries in Latin America, are posting better results, which augurs well for India’s exports in the coming month,” an official release said.
But, the Commerce Ministry is not ready to celebrate yet. “Double-digit growth is encouraging after a period of low growth. If this trend continues I will definitely be saying there is a revival (in global demand). I would like to see what happens next month,” said Commerce Secretary Rajeev Kher, at a press conference.
Imports fell 11.41 per cent in May to $39.23 billion. Gold imports declined to $2.19 billion, plummeting 72 per cent from May 2013.
The Commerce Secretary indicated that the Government may rationalise gold import duties and relax import procedures in the forthcoming Budget. The trade deficit stood at $11.23 billion in May, which was 42 per cent lower than the $19.3 billion posted in the same month last year.
The recent appreciation in the value of the rupee against the dollar is unlikely to have a big impact on exports, said Kher.
According to Crisil, historical evidence suggested that global demand was more important than exchange rates in driving export growth. “With advanced economies’ growth expected to pick up to 2.2 per cent in 2014 from 1.3 per cent in 2013, we expect faster growth in India’s exports this year,” a Crisil release said.
Exports in the April-May period grew 8.87 per cent to $53.63 billion compared with the same period in the previous fiscal year. Imports fell 13.16 per cent in the first two months of the financial year to $74.95 billion, pulling the trade deficit down to $21.32 billion.

India’s pvt wealth to rise 150% by 2018: Study

New Delhi: By 2018, India could become the world’s seventh-biggest nation in terms of private wealth, with a 150 per cent jump in total from $2 trillion in 2013 to $5 trillion, suggests a recent study by The Boston Consulting Group (BCG). The country jumped two notches from 17th in 2008 to 15th in 2013.
Though the US and Japan are likely to occupy the first and the third spots, China could consolidate its position as the second-wealthiest nation with its private financial wealth increasing to $40 trillion in 2018 from $22 trillion in 2013.
The number of India’s millionaire households, meanwhile, increased to 175,000 in 2013 from 164,000 the previous year. The US topped in this with 7.1 million households, while China was second (2.3 million) and Japan third (1.2 million).
In its report ‘Global Wealth 2014: Riding a Wave of Growth’, BCG has said soaring equity markets and creation of new rapidly developing economies (RDEs) boosted global private financial wealth, which in 2013 grew 14.6 per cent over the previous year to $152 trillion.
Private financial wealth includes cash and deposits, money market funds and listed securities held either directly or indirectly through managed investments or life and pension assets, and other onshore and offshore assets. But, it excludes investors’ own businesses, any real estate, and luxury goods. “In nearly all countries, the growth in private wealth was driven by the strong rebound in equity markets that began in the second half of 2012. The performance was spurred by a relative economic stability in Europe and the US and signs of recovery in some European countries like Ireland, Spain, and Portugal,” the report says.
“Currency developments were more relevant to private wealth growth in 2013 than in 2012. Driven by the slowdown in quantitative easing, the US dollar gained in value against many currencies, particularly those in emerging markets, as well as the Japanese yen,” it adds.
India also made its entry into the club of top 15 ultra-high-networth households (more than $100 million in private financial wealth) in 2013. It was ranked 13th with 284 such households. The US (4,754 households), the UK (1,044) and China (983) were the top three.
BCG suggests in its report that high savings rate and GDP growth have fuelled the rise in private wealth in the Asia-Pacific region (excluding Japan), which grew 30.5 per cent to $37 trillion in 2013.
With its private wealth projected to rise at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 10.5 per cent, the region could expand to an estimated $61.0 trillion by the end of 2018. At this pace, the region is expected to overtake Western Europe as the second-wealthiest region in 2014, and North America as the wealthiest in 2018.
Overall, the global private wealth is projected to post CAGR of 5.4 per cent over the next five years to reach an estimated $198.2 trillion by the end of 2018, the report says.

Honda to sign deal with Gujarat govt for unit

Ahmedabad: While the proposed project in Gujarat of the country's largest car maker, Maruti Suzuki, seems to have hit a minor block as reported, another Japanese automotive company, two-wheeler maker Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India (HMSI), is set to soon sign the State Support Agreement (SSA) with the administration here.
A senior state government official said, "The project proposal will soon be moved to the state cabinet, after which the formal SSA could be signed in around a month. The chief secretary has already approved the company's proposal."
HMSI is learnt to have bought around 200 acres of private land at Vithlapur in the Mandal region of this district at Rs 15-20 lakh an acre to set up its fourth manufacturing unit in the country. The company could not be reached for a comment.
The parent group's passenger car outfit, Honda Cars India Ltd (HCIL), is also scouting for land in the same region. Government sources claim the car-maker requires around 250 acres and is hoping to buy privately.
Senior HMSI officials had visited Gandhinagar last November to finalise details on the SSA. The company intends to invest about Rs 1,000 crore on the Gujarat project. The state government offers certain standard incentives for all projects entailing an investment of at least Rs 1,000 crore, such as value-added-tax refunds and waivers on stamp duty and registration fee.
The two-wheeler maker aims to sell 4.5 million units in FY15, up from the 3.72 mn sold in 2013-14, mainly on the back of two new motorcycles expected to be launched later this year, and its recently launched scooter, the Activa 125.
The company currently has three manufacturing facilities in the country, one at Manesar in Haryana (1.6 mn units annual capacity), another at Tapukara in Rajasthan (1.2 mn units annually) and the third at Narsapura in Karnataka (1.2 mn). HMSI is adding another 600,000 units at the Karnataka plant, taking its capacity to 1.8 mn annually. With this expansion, the cumulative annual production capacity would be around 4.6 mn units.
Vithlapur is only a few kilometres away from the site of Maruti Suzuki's proposed plant, at Hansalpur in the Mandal region. Maruti Suzuki has also bought a land parcel at Vithlapur for future expansion. The area is around 110 km from this city, between Sanand on one side and Mehsana town on the other.

Marine product exports zoom to record $5 b

At a news conferenceLeena Nair, chairperson of the Marine Products Export Development Authority (MPEDA), said the total export earnings were $5.007 billion ( Rs. 30,213 crore.) In rupee terms, the growth was a whopping 60 per cent over the previous year, though in dollar terms this was 42.60 per cent. In the previous year, the earnings were $3,512 million.
In quantity terms, 9,83,756 tonnes were exported, an increase of around 6 per cent. Fish items were the largest chunk in terms of quantity, though when it came to value, frozen shrimp was the biggest money earner. More than three lakh tonnes of shrimp were exported, of which 73 per cent was cultured. There was also a 35 per cent increase in unit value – black tiger shrimp secured the highest value.
Among regions, South-East Asia continued to be the largest buyer of Indian marine products with a share of 26.38 per cent, followed by the US with a share of 25.68 per cent. The European Union is the third largest buyer with 20.24 per cent share, followed by Japan at 8.21 per cent, other countries 8.20 per cent, China 5.85 per cent and West Asia 5.45 per cent.
One reason for the higher exports is increased production of L. Vannamei shrimp, whose exports to the US market jumped to 59.63 per cent. Export of frozen shrimp rose by 7.38 per cent in quantity terms and 28.23 per cent in dollar terms.
Nair said lower exports from Thailand and other prawn-producing countries because of a disease that had afflicted their aquaculture. On the other hand, depreciation of the rupee against the dollar and increased production of vannamei in Andhra Pradesh and other States helped in higher earnings from prawns. The quality of Indian prawns and other marine products had improved remarkably – contributing significantl to the rise in unit price. Participation in major global seafood fairs also had helped.

Government readies Rs 10,000 crore VC fund for MSMEs

New Delhi: The government is readying a Rs 10,000 crore venture fund for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in a bid bolster the flow of funds to the sector that accounts for 45% of manufacturing activity and 40% of exports.
Sources said that the proposal was discussed with the finance minister Arun Jaitley during a presentation made by the department of financial services on Thursday. They added that the new VC fund aimed to boost startups will be based on priority sector lending by banks and will have a seven-year tenure.
The fund will replace the Rs 5,000 crore India Opportunities Venture Fund (IOVF) that was launched by Sidbi in 2012. The sources said that the fund, with a three-year tenure did not take off prompting the government to plan a new fund.
In fact, even the Reserve Bank of India had certain concerns, which is now prompting the government to underwrite the losses.
Funding to MSMEs has been a major area of concern as entrepreneurs often find it tough to raise equity.
The new fund may be announced in the Budget, scheduled for the first week of July, said sources, since the broad contours have been worked out by the finance ministry. In any case, MSMEs, given the large job potential, is a key focus area of the government.
In fact, even commerce & industry minister Nirmala Sitharaman tweeted on Friday that she has asked her officials to focus on labour-intensive sectors as it is key to job creation in manufacturing.

US, India green councils to focus on knowledge exchange

Hyderabad: The green building councils of India and the US are strengthening their association for the next 10 years to focus on areas of knowledge exchange and work on the green building movement in India.
The licence agreement that Indian Green Building Council (IGBC) and the US Green Building Council (USGBC) signed in 2004 comes ends in June and a new agreement is being signed for the next 10 years to work in the areas of advocacy, knowledge exchange and market transformation. The LEED India projects that are already registered with IGBC will be certified by IGBC till end of 2018. Starting July 1, LEED projects in India will be registered and certified directly by GBCI, the certification institute appointed by USGBC.
Prem C Jain, Chairman, IGBC, said “LEED India rating, which is for commercial buildings, forms about 25 per cent of the total built-up area registered with IGBC, for green building projects in India. Very soon, rating systems for green schools and affordable housing segments will be launched.”
CII Indian Green Building Council (IGBC) has recently crossed the milestone of 2 billion sq. ft built-up area of green building projects registered with the Council. It plans to have 10 billion sq ft by 2022 when India will be 75 years post-independence.
Mahesh Ramanujam, Chief Operating Officer, USGBC and President, GBCI, said “Over the past 10 years, IGBC has been instrumental in mobilising the green building movement in India and helping establish LEED India as a key driver for market transformation.”

AirAsia India set to take off on June 12

Mumbai/New Delhi: After months of anticipation, AirAsia India is set to take to the skies on June 12, with the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Thursday approving the airline’s flight schedules.
Sources said DGCA had allowed AirAsia India to fly twice a day on the Chennai-Bangalore-Chennai route and once a day on the Bangalore-Goa-Bangalore route.
According to data available with DGCA, there are 14 daily flights between Chennai and Bangalore and five between Bangalore and Goa, according to the summer schedule for this year.
“As of now, they have only three aircraft. They have secured permission to start commercial operations with three daily flights on the Chennai-Bangalore and Bangalore-Goa routes. The approvals are subject to the airline having a total fleet of five aircraft at the end of the first year of operations,” said a source.
Budget carrier SpiceJet responded promptly to AirAsia’s announcement, offering tickets for as low as Rs 1,499, excluding taxes, on the Chennai-Bangalore and Bangalore-Goa routes. This limited inventory offer is for travel after June 12.
“As part of the ongoing policy of the airline to stimulate the market by offering attractive fares and grow the travel sector, SpiceJet is glad to come out with this special offer on high demand routes such as Goa and Chennai from Bangalore,” said Kaneswaran Avili, chief commercial officer, SpiceJet.
For AirAsia’s domestic services, tickets would be sold from Friday, group chief executive Tony Fernandes tweeted on Thursday. He, however, didn’t disclose the routes on which AirAsia India would commence services.
“Very, very proud to announce AirAsia India open for sale tomorrow. Wow! First flight June 12. See you all in India on the 12th,” Fernandes tweeted.
It was expected the airline would make a formal announcement on its first flight in the evening, but this was postponed. AirAsia India chief executive Mittu Chandilya said he was busy at meetings in New Delhi.
AirAsia remained tight-lipped about plans on its routes. Sources said earlier this week, the airline had told travel agents bookings for the Bangalore-Goa route would open on Friday. Earlier this month, the airline had secured an operating permit from DGCA. The approval, however, was contingent upon the outcome of suits against the airline — Bharatiya Janata Party leader Subramanian Swamy and the Federation of Indian Airlines had moved court against the government’s approval to the airline, saying this violated foreign direct investment norms. The Delhi High Court is set to hear the petition on July 11.
AirAsia is known for its ultra low-cost fares and promotional offers; it offers free and discounted tickets. Earlier this month, Chandilya had said the airline would offer fares at 30-35 per cent discounts compared to rivals. Apart from its own website, the airline will sell tickets through online portals and leading offline agents.
“We will break even in four months. My partners will expect no less of me. We will be disruptive in pricing. My competitor is not other airlines operating in this country. My benchmark is the first class fare offered by the railways. Yes…the kicker for me is low fares. But quality of service, safety standards, reliability and on-time performance are very important hygiene factors,” Chandilya had told Business Standard.
AirAsia India, a joint venture between Malaysian low-cost airline AirAsia, the Tata group and Telesetra Tradeplace, indicated it would start operations from Chennai and connect tier-II and -III cities. Initially, the airline had said it wouldn’t fly to the Delhi and Mumbai airports because of high airport charges, but earlier this month, Fernandes said the airline was considering flights to these two cities, too.

Japan's Isuzu Motors plans to sell 50,000 pickup vehicles in India

Gurgaon: Japan's Isuzu Motors aims to sell 50,000 pickup vehicles in India in the next few years to gain market leadership, a top company executive has said. The company, which has a fully owned subsidiary in Chennai, has earmarked Rs 3,000 crore for a 120,000 units per year manufacturing facility close by.
"We have an ambitious plan for the Indian market with our range of globally renowned pickup trucks," Takashi Kikuchi, president and managing director of Isuzu Motors India Pvt Ltd, told ET, adding that the company has started assembling DMax pickups at Hindustan Motors' Chennai plant.
Pickup vehicles, popular in the West, are generally jeeps with rear payload carrying flat bodies. Of the 160,000 pickup vehicles sold in India every year, more than half are manufactured by Mahindra& Mahindra. The other two major Indian manufacturers are Tata Motors and Force Motor.
"We will crank up sales once our own facility in Sri City, in the southern part of Andhra Pradesh, gets on stream in 2016. We are aiming high sales with D-Max in the high-end segment, which is one of the largest selling pickup trucks in the world, to cater to the burgeoning Indian market for stylish and powerful pick-up vehicles with a high lifestyle quotient as owner driven vehicles," Kikuchi said.
According to Isuzu executives, the 1-1.2 tonne pickup segment in India is set to become the world's largest pickup vehicle market by 2023, with expected sales of over 800,000 units.
Isuzu, a relatively late entrant into the Indian pickup vehicle market, was supplying diesel engines to Hindustan Motors for its iconic Ambassador cars, production of which was stopped in April this year. The automaker, which started its India operations in 2012, is relying on its reputation for making tough and durable diesel engine vehicles to make a mark in the country.
"We have been one of the largest diesel engine manufacturers globally, which are high on quality and mileage. We plan to have edge over our competitors in India in the pickup vehicles segment, which is poised to grow exponentially," Kikuchi said.