Success in my Habit

Saturday, April 21, 2012

Daimler sets up truck factory in TN


Chennai: German auto maker Daimler AG has decided to consolidate its truck manufacturing operations in India. As part of the plan, it will shift the production of Actros from Pune to Oragadam in Tamil Nadu.

The company launched the facility in Oragadam on Wednesday. It will manufacture the BharatBenz trucks and all commercial vehicles there.

The Rs 4,400-crore facility will have an initial capacity of 36,000 units, including 24,000 units for heavy duty trucks and 12,000 for light duty trucks under the BharatBenz brand.

The capacity could be raised to 70,000 units per annum, said Dieter Zetsche, chairman of the board of management of Daimler AG and head of Mercedes-Benz cars. The facility is spread over 400 acres.

Zetsche said India was not just emerging, but thriving. The exceptional role of the economy was a matter of fact — not next decade, not next year, but today. “If India’s economy were in Mercedes, it would have to be an SLS AMG super sports car.

“If you don’t make it here, you won’t make it at all. Because a strong position in the global market requires a strong position in India and at Daimler, we always go for the leading position in our industry. That’s why India will play an increasingly important role in our business”.

The company said it could join hands with the Renault-Nissan alliance for commercial vehicles in India, although there was no immediate plan.

Zetsche said, “Though we don’t have any plan now, we don’t rule out the possibility. Our partnership is not restricted to any region. It is possible to do something together in India as well”.

Daimler and Renault-Nissan build commercial vehicles together in Europe.

The Oragadam facility can roll out one heavy duty vehicle every 11 minutes and one light duty vehicle every 22 minutes. The new plant will make light and heavy duty trucks in the 7-49-tonne range and is meant for both domestic and international markets, including Asean and Africa.

“Our priority is the domestic market, once we address the domestic market, we will look at exports,” said Andres Renschler, member of the board of management at Daimler AG and head of Daimler Trucks and Daimler Buses.

The first of these trucks, used in construction, mining and on highways, will be rolled out in September, he added.

According to compay sources, the vehicles will have 85 per cent localisation. Besides assembling, the facility will also have a power train facility to cater to heavy duty trucks, with a capacity of 24,000 engines. For light duty vehciles, the engines will be manufactured at Pithampur in Madhya Pradesh.

A separate facility, within the Oragdam plant, will be created to manufacture the Actros trucks, which are high-end heavy duty trucks and the largest-selling truck model worldwide.

According to a Daimler India Commercial Vehicles (DICV) official, the company wants to have all truck manufacturing in one location while cars will be rolled out of the Pune plant.

DICV will also shift its research and development (R&D) team to the plant site though from a different location in Oragadam. Currently, the auto major employees around 1,000 people in its R&D unit.

The official said 85 per cent of the components were locally sourced.

Korean Woori Bank opens first India branch in Chennai


Chennai: Seoul-headquartered, South Korean Government-owned Woori Bank has opened its maiden India branch in Chennai with a capital of $35 million.

Mr Soon Woo Lee, president and CEO of the bank, told ET via a translator, "We will provide assistance to Korean companies that have entered the market ahead of us. Once that is done, we will focus on localisation, accommodating the needs of the India companies and customers."

He said the bank was on the verge of starting operations in 2007 but had to put it off after the global financial crisis struck.

Chennai houses more than 170 Korean companies, including big names such as Hyundai Motors, Lotte and Samsung. Apart from this, many local Indian vendors in Chennai are working together with Korean companies. The number of Koreans in Chennai has also doubled in the last three years. It has gone up to 4,000 from 1,500.

A lot of Korean shops and restaurants have also emerged in and around Sriperumbudur, the industrial hub.

"Two Korean firmsDoosan and Mando are opening operations in India and they focus on infrastructure. We see the opportunity in taking up state or government projects through them," said Lee.

Moo Soo Kim, chief executive officer of the bank's Indian operations, said," The opening of Woori Bank will also ensure that there is mutual development and cooperation between Korea and India. We would also be of good support in the local development of Tamil Nadu with the help of Korean firms."

West Bengal government joins hand with UK to develop fiscal instruments for climate change

Kolkata: British Deputy High Commission-Kolkata and CII along with West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation (WBIDC) are working with technical partners CII-Sohrabji Godrej Green Business Centre, Eunomia Research and Consulting, UK and Jadavpur University on a first-of-its-kind project in India titled "Fiscal Instruments for Climate - Friendly Industrial Development in West Bengal and Odisha."

This project is being funded by UK FCO's Prosperity Fund India programme, to help develop low carbon industrial policies of the states. The project objective is to help West Bengal and other states adopt appropriate fiscal instruments by 2013 to mobilize low carbon investment and facilitate low carbon industrial development.

In this regard, CII together with British Deputy High Commission, Kolkata, will be organising a session on UK-India partnership: Fiscal Instruments for Low Carbon Business to launch the project reports on national and international review of lessons learnt from fiscal instruments for low carbon industrial development.

Mr Gregory Barker minister of department of energy and climate change, UK, Mr Partha Chatterjee, West Bengal commerce and industry minister and Dr Sudarsan Ghosh Dastidar, the state environment minister will hold a discussion on this issue.

Budget proposals on ECBs for power, road sectors take off

New Delhi: The Union finance ministry on Wednesday began implementing the Budget proposals on external commercial borrowing (ECB) for capital needs of the power and roads sectors. It also indicated the same thing would be done for the airline sector later this month.

This comes a day after Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee’s assertion that the 50-basis-point repo rate cut by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) would be followed by policy steps in tandem. RBI, too, had made it publicly clear that its monetary policy initiatives needed to be backed by government policy action.

On on Wednesday’s changes, the ministry’s joint secretary, capital markets, Thomas Mathew, said RBI would be issuing the relevant circulars and notifications within a week.

Power companies have now been allowed ECB to finance their rupee debt up to a maximum of 40 per cent, provided the remaining 60 per cent of ECB raised is utilised for investment in a new project. “This would increase access to cheaper funds for companies in the power sector,” said Mathew.

Currently, Indian companies in the infrastructure sector are permitted to use 25 per cent of fresh ECB raised by them towards refinancing of rupee loans under the approval route.

To also provide a fillip to road construction, the Budget for 2012-13 proposed allowing ECB for capital expenditure on the maintenance and operations of toll systems, provided these were part of the original project. “Implementation of this policy decision will provide an additional source of low-cost capital,” said Mathew on Wednesday.

Other measures proposed in this year’s Budget included permitting ECB for working capital requirements of the airline industry for a year, subject to a ceiling of $1 billion and allowing ECB for low-cost affordable housing projects. Also proposed were reduction in the rate of withholding tax on interest payments on ECB from 20 per cent to five per cent for three years for power, airlines, roads and bridges, ports and shipyards, affordable housing, fertilisers and dam projects.

Mathew said implementation of the step proposed for meeting the capital requirement of the airline sector was next. And, all the other measures announced in the Budget would be implemented soon.

He said there was no proposal to raise the ECB ceiling for 2012-13 but the existing limit would be adequate, not a hindrance. The ECB ceiling for 2011-12 had been enhanced from $20 bn to $30 bn.

Friday, April 20, 2012

Lanco Infra completes 56 MW grid connected solar photovoltaic power plants in Gujarat


Ahmedabad: Lanco Infratech subsidiary Lanco Solar announced the completion of 56 mw grid connected solar photovoltaic power plants in Gujarat.

It includes three plants of 35 MW owned by Lanco Infra and additional 21 MW built as turnkey EPC for Gujarat Power Corporation Ltd (GPCL), GSPC Pipavav Power Company Ltd, GHI Energy and Gujarat State Electricity Corporation.

These Power Plants will generate upto 90 million units of green electricity annually resulting in reduction of CO2 emissions by 85757 tonnes annually, claimed Lanco Infra in its media statement.

"We look forward to our continued growth here over our existing 56 MW, that we have built as a Developer & an EPC player in the last one and a half years in Gujarat, said Lanco Solar CEO V Saibaba. GPCL partnered with Lanco for its 5 MW PV Project in Gujarat Solar Park at Charanka village.

On Thursday, the state government will dedicate 600 mw of solar power generation capacity, including 214 mw at Gujarat Solar Park. Recently, NKG Infra also announced commissioning of 10 mw of solar project at Solar Park.

Lanco Solar is claiming to be building more than 350 mw of solar farms as a developer and an EPC player. More than 90 MW solar PV is currently operational at different locations in India, Europe and USA. The company is also currently bidding and working on solar projects in Middle East and Africa, read the statement.

Walmart to expand its India R&D centre


Bangalore: Walmart, the world's largest retailer, said on Tuesday it would have 200 research and development (R & D) engineers at the @WalmartLabs centre in Bangalore. In November last year, the company had announced plans to set up an R & D centre in Bangalore, responsible for creating the next generation products and platforms for Walmart's e-Commerce business globally.

The company has since then build a team of about 20 people in Bangalore. It aims to add another 180 people by the end of 2012, according to senior officials of the company. They also said resources located in Bangalore would work in core R & D works, including new platform developments, analytics, big data and system integration. This is in line with the company's strategy to provide the customers ‘anytime, anywhere' access to its products through mobile devices, internet or at physical stores.
Gandhinagar: Commercially exploiting large tracts of wasteland, Gujarat is set to emerge as India's largest solar power destination. The Chief Minister, Mr Narendra Modi, will dedicate 600 MW of solar power projects to the nation on Thursday.

Currently, India's total solar power production is nearly 900 MW, two-thirds of which will be produced by Gujarat alone.

On Thursday, Mr Modi will launch India's first Solar Power Park with generation capacity of 500 MW in 3,000 acres Charanka village, Randhanpur taluka, in Patan district. Currently, it has an aggregated operational capacity of 214 MW of solar power projects commissioned at a single location. The Patan ceremony will be attended by representatives from Australia, Canada, China, Germany, Italy, Hong Kong, Singapore, the UK and the US.

The Gujarat Solar Park is an innovative concept of the State Government to promote solar installations in which it allocated developed land to the project developers with the entire infrastructure including power evacuation, roads and water for commissioning of the power project put on fast track.

Under its Solar Power Policy, the State Government had signed up memorandums of understanding for generation of 968.5 MW of solar power by December and also took an initiative to launch the Gujarat Solar Park with a vision to build it as the world's largest solar power park. Its foundation stone was laid in December 2010.

The dedication ceremony will be followed by the 'India Solar Summit 2012: Investment and Technology Expo' to be held in Gandhinagar on April 20 and 21, said Mr. D.J. Pandian, Principal Secretary, Energy and Petrochemicals Department.

TRAI sets quality norms for mobile banking services


New Delhi: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India on Tuesday laid down ground-rules for telecom companies offering mobile banking services. Under the new rules, mobile companies have to enable banks to complete a transaction within ten seconds.

By the new guidelines, telecom companies have to give banks and customers the option to transact using either SMS, Interactive Voice Response, or Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD). All the operators are already using these platforms and hence do not have to make additional investments.

USSD, for example, is used by operators to inform pre-paid cards users about their balance on a real-time basis. The service providers can also optionally facilitate the bank to use WAP or Sim Application Toolkit (STK). STK has been deployed by many mobile operators around the world for many applications, often where a menu-based approach is required.

Cost-effective
The regulations are aimed at ensuring that mobile operators offer good services to banks that launch mobile banking services. “Mobile banking consists of banking transactions and the use of mobile networks for communicating through mobile phones by the customer for such transactions. The entire transaction depends on the capability of the mobile network to deliver a fast, reliable and cost-effective method of communication,” TRAi said.

“The response time for delivery of messages for mobile banking services generated by the customer or the bank will be within the prescribed time-frame of less than 10 seconds for SMS, IVR, WAP and STK, and less than 2 seconds for USSD,” the regulator said. The regulations also mandate that if the SMS sent by the bank is not delivered to the customer due to network or handset-related problems, then a USSD communication confirming the completion of the transaction should be sent.

Two stages only
The regulator has also made it mandatory for operators to ensure that, to get the benefit of banking services such as cash deposit, cash withdrawal, money transfer and balance enquiry, the customer should be able to complete the transaction in not more than two stages. Every access provider needs to maintain records of mobile banking messages for six months for audit purposes. TRAI will monitor the quality of services offered by the mobile operators on a regular basis.

12th Plan to focus more on skills development: Montek


Bangalore: The Planning Commission is working on composite set of policies to include skills development in the 12th Plan.

Speaking after laying foundation stone for ‘Multi Skill Development Centre' (MSDC) in Bangalore, Mr Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Deputy Chairman Planning Commission said, “We have realised skills development is an important condition to achieve 9 per cent growth.”

“Realisation has come late for us; it will be addressed in the 12{+t}{+h} Plan. We plan to devote more towards skills development. The Planning Commission has also realised for hitting 9 per cent growth again emphasis needs to be given for both higher education and skills development,” he added.

German connection
Mr Ahluwalia said, “Germany stands out for doing more through skills development among the industrialised world. Now, time has come for us to emulate and impart the same in India to secure future for our youth.”

“Demographic transition, we have not done enough. India has huge young population. Number of young people getting employment and earning is going up by the day. It is here we need to create more opportunities for young workers by offering both education and training,” he added.

Mr Ahluwalia said, “The Union Government is strongly in favour of public private partnerships (PPP) and state governments should tap this through various models for skills development.”

“Karnataka will be in the lead with these skills development experiment and Planning Commission will be monitoring its progress,” he added.

MSDC is a public private joint venture between Union Labour ministry and Karnataka Directorate of Employment and Training with technical support from German International Cooperation (GIZ).

Speaking on the occasion, Mr Hans-Herrmann Dube, Regional Director GIZ-South Asia said, “Germany has 350 years of history in offering vocational training. We treat it as important as academic learning.”

“In Germany, currently it offers good employment and youth earn good salaries,” he added.

Speaking on the occasion Mr Mallikarjun Kharge, Union Minister for Labour and Employment, said that his department has taken skills development on pilot basis with a German collaboration.

For the first time in the country two MSDC has been taken up in Gulbarga and Bangalore where 1,800 students in each centre will be imparted technical training in IT, environment engineering, electrical maintenance, electronic design and manufacturing, automation, welding and construction technology.

AP to ink pact with UK co for re-gasification facility

Hyderabad: The Andhra Pradesh Government and GDF Suez LNG UK Ltd will sign a project framework for setting up of a floating storage re-gasification unit at Kakinada seaport.

The terminal will be set up by GAIL and APGDC with an outlay of Rs 4,000 crore. This facility is expected to have capability to re-gasify liquefied natural gas of 15 mmscmd.

This floating unit will be a boon to gas-based independent power generation companies and thereby help boost the economic activity in the East Coast. The terminal planned to be completed by the end of 2013 will help generate additional 3,000 MW.

A project framework agreement for setting up of a floating storage re-gasification unit at Kakinada will be signed at New Delhi on Tuesday between the State-owned AP Gas Development Corporation and GDF Suez, according to a statement from the State Energy Department.

The Andhra Pradesh Government is keen that this project gets commissioned at the earliest to enable the State to help bridge the demand-supply mismatch of gas required for power plants in the State.

The natural gas produced domestically is inadequate to cater to the needs of electricity consumers including to the non-priority sectors. While 9.5 mmscmd has been allocated from KG-D6, barely 5 mmscmd is being supplied, hampering generation.

While additional capacity of 4,000 MW is under various stages of construction, there is no indication of fresh gas supplies. This project is expected to support 3,000 MW of power capacity.

The average cost of generation would work out to Rs 6 a unit versus Rs 9 a unit in the case of RLNG now.