Passport Seva goes rural through Common Services Centers

The Ministry of External Affairs, along with CSC e-Governance Services India Limited {which is promoted by the Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY)}, is all set to launch Passport related services through the vast network of over one lakh Common Services Centers (CSCs) across rural hinterland. The initiative would largely bridge the digital divide in the country.
The CSC Scheme was approved by the Government of India in September 2006 for setting up of 100,000+ (One Lakh+) Internet enabled centers in rural areas under the National e-Governance Plan (NeGP). The CSCs are the delivery points for Government, Private and Social Sector services in the areas of agriculture, health, education, banking, insurance, pension, utility bill payments, entertainment, etc. to rural citizens of India at their doorstep. The passport related services are being added as part of their bouquet of services.
Under the Passport Seva, the Ministry of External affairs has made it mandatory to complete the entire form filing process on-line, including payment of applicable fee and scheduling of appointment for seeking Passport related services. The CSCs would facilitate filling and uploading of Passport application form, payment of applicable fee (through debit/credit card or through SBI internet banking/challan mode) and scheduling of appointment for the visit to the Passport Seva Kendra (PSK) at nominal charge not exceeding Rs. 100/-. As per the appointment schedule, an applicant will have to visit the PSK for completion of application submission process (including collection of digital photographs/biometrics, verification of supporting documents and approval). The services through CSCs would be available throughout the week, including during the weekend.
The services would be shortly launched in pilot mode at 15 select CSC locations in Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand in the second week of March 2014. The full roll out across the country is expected to conclude by end of March 2014.
For more details related to passport services, Passport website (www.passportindia.gov.in) or the National Call Centre (toll free number 1800-258-1800) may be accessed.

GDP may grow 5.6% next fiscal: India Ratings

New Delhi: The economy is likely to grow 5.6 per cent in the next fiscal, India Ratings and Research has said. This is lower than the Government’s estimate of 6 per cent.
IMF has projected a growth rate of 5.4 per cent while NCAER says it will be 5.6 per cent. The World Bank has given most optimistic estimate of 6 per cent. Growth in 2013-14 is estimated at 4.9 per cent.
“The economic growth in FY15 (2014-15) is likely to be contributed majorly by the industrial sector, which is estimated to grow by 4.1 per cent. This is good news for centre as well state government finances,” it said in a report on public finances. State finances were likely to remain resilient to the slowdown, it said, estimating some slippage in the fiscal deficit of states, which could go up to 2.3 per cent against 2.2 per cent in 2013-14.
Value added tax (VAT) on petroleum products could pose a concentration risk for the consolidated state finances if crude oil prices decline, though this presently looks difficult. The petroleum sector contributed nearly 30 per cent (with a growth of 14.4 per cent on yearly basis) to the VAT collection of states.
Aggregate debt of states as a percentage of GDP is likely to increase to 21.7 per cent in the current fiscal from the budgeted estimate of 21.5 per cent. Despite this slippage, debt will be sustainable as the agency believes nominal growth of the economy in excess of interest rate on debt will continue to support the agency’s debt sustainability expectations. However, indirect risk such as guarantee and deficit, state PSUs' debt could impact the credit profile of some states.
It expects the liquidity of state governments to remain comfortable in 2014-15. Even in the current fiscal most states did not face difficulty due to a surge in investment in the national small savings fund.

GVK commissions 330 MW hydel project in Uttarakhand

Hyderabad: GVK Power & Infrastructure Ltd has commissioned its 330 MW Shrinagar hydro-electric project developed on the Alakananda, in Uttarakhand.
Energy generation
The plant, in Garhwal district, is expected to supply 12 per cent of the energy to Uttarakhand at no charge. The balance 88 per cent power generated will go to the Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation Ltd under a Power Purchase Agreement.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav inaugurated the project in the presence of Samajwadi Party President and Union Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav.
The 248-metre-long project has been developed at 90 metres from deepest foundation level dam. It is expected to utilise the net head of around 66 metres between the diversion dam and the power house to generate electricity.
The water conductor system consists of two head race tunnels, RCC troughs, power channel and penstocks.

Reliance Jio signs deal for Bharti's towers

New Delhi: Weeks after bagging 1,800 MHz spectrum in 14 circles, Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Jio has started widening its telecom tower agreements to work towards a seamless launch. The company, that already holds pan-India spectrum in the 2,300 MHz band, has signed a tower deal with Bharti Airtel as it works to roll out its high-speed 4G plans where it will also offer voice over internet.
Reliance Jio signed a Master Services Agreement under which it will utilize the telecom tower infrastructure of Bharti Infratel to launch services. As per the agreement, the pricing would be at arm's length, based on prevailing market rates.
The deal with Bharti comes in even as Reliance Jio has an agreement with Anil Ambani's Reliance Communications (RCoM) for sharing of network. Reliance Jio has an inter-city optic fibre as well as tower sharing deal with RCoM, and its new tie-ups will mean that its outsourcing benefits will go to various operators and not just to the cash-strapped RCoM.

India's e-commerce to zoom to $76 bn by 2020

Ahmedabad: India’s e-commerce is expected to go up from the current $1 billion to $76 billion in the next six years, by 2020.
Only in 2013, online shopping has increased by 88 per cent, according to Saran Chatterjee, Vice-President, Product Management, Flipkart India Pvt Ltd.
This phenomenal increase in e-tailing will be due to deeper penetration of Internet-based smartphones that would make online shopping easier, he said.
While Internet has now reached almost 11 per cent population of India, smartphone business is witnessing a 150 per cent year-on-year growth.
A recent report by Boston Consulting Group noted that, at present, 45 per cent of online consumers in India use only their mobile devices to access the Internet. This is expected to increase to 60 per cent over the next three years. Mobile traffic is growing at two times the rate of desktops.
Flipkart, India’s largest e-commerce platform, is now focusing on mobile phone-based retailing in which Gujarat now ranks 8th in the country. Online marketplaces are already booking 20 per cent of their orders through mobile phones while one-thirds of Flipkart’s customers now place orders this way. “Smartphones have overtaken personal computers,” Chatterjee said.
By 2015, he said, Flipkart aims to grow its merchandise value to $1 billion.
Most articles ordered online are books, electronics and accessories. While books constitute the maximum volumes handled, electronics accounts for the maximum revenue transacted.
Launched as an online books marketplace in 2007, Flipkart now offers products across over 20 categories. It has 1.40 crore registered users and daily visits of more than 20 lakh.

Empowered Institution (EI) Approves PPP Projects Worth Rs. 1369.51 Crores

The Empowered Institution (EI) in its Fifty-third (53rd) meeting granted approval to five (5) projects worth Rs. 1369.51 crore. Two (2) Projects granted in-principle approval were from Government of Madhya Pradesh for setting-up of 50,000 MT Modern Food Silos at Indore and Bhopal each. The EI also granted final approval to three projects approving a total Viability Gap Funding (VGF) of Rs. 260.92 crore. These comprised two road sector projects and one in the power transmission sector as follows, ‘Two laning of Guna - Ashok Nagar - Ishagarh (SH 20) road’ in the State of Madhya Pradesh and ‘Four laning of Mohania - Ara Section of NH 30 in the state of Bihar and ‘Development of 400 KV DCDS Sarni (Satpura) - Ashta transmission line project for evacuation of power from 2X250 MW extension units at Satpura Thermal Power Station’ in the state of Madhya Pradesh. The aforesaid Fifty-third (53rd) meeting of the Empowered Institution’s (EI) was held here yesterday under the Chairmanship of Dr Arvind Mayaram, Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance.

Over 20 small IT firms get nod to invest in Punjab

More than 20 small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the information technology sector have recently received land allotment letters from the Punjab government for setting up their units with an investment of Rs 500 crore. Earlier, these companies had signed memorandums of understanding (MoUs) with the state government during the Investor Summit in December last year.
The companies that received allotment letters include Emerson Electric Company (India) Pvt Ltd. (which will invest Rs 51.73 crore); Knack BPO Pvt. Ltd (Rs 56.25 crore); Netsmartz Infotech India Pvt Ltd., Chandigarh (Rs 51.54 crore); Bebo Technologies Pvt Ltd (Rs 32.7 crore); Maxval Technologies Pvt Ltd. Belapur Station Complex, Mumbai (Rs 27 crore); Allengers Medical Systems Ltd. (Rs 25 crore); SE-Biz Infotech Ltd. (Rs 21 crore); Dr ITM Limited (Rs 20.61 crore); Xeam Ventures Pvt Ltd (Rs 16.74 crore); Aequor Information Technology Pvt Ltd (Rs 15.75 crore); Offshore A-One Technology Pvt Ltd. (Rs 12.85 crore); Kiran Foreign Trade Pvt Ltd (Rs 11 crore); and Cyber Futuristics India Pvt Ltd, UP (Rs 9.2 crore).
To ensure speedy implementation of these projects, land has been allotted to each company on lease for three years, and if any company fails to invest within the stipulated time, the MoU will be cancelled by the state government.
Handing over land allotment letters to the SMEs recently, Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal said, "It is a just a beginning and in the next three years Mohali would be the first planned IT destination of the country, which would further give a big push to economic activities in the state."
In addition to these SMEs, software giant Infosys has laid the foundation stone for its campus spread over 50 acres and committed an investment of Rs 425 crore in the first phase to create a built-up area of 650,000 square feet to seat 5,000 software professionals within 24 months.
Further, the setting up of two Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) centres as well as state-of-the-art incubation facilities at Mohali and Amritsar are expected to play a pivotal role in promoting the IT culture in the state. The recently announced industrial policy also offers incentives to IT SMEs.
According to entrepreneurs, the handing over of allotment letters to SMEs and the new STPI centres will go a long way in encouraging new IT/ITES entrepreneurs to set up shop and start operations in the region.
The incubation facilities in the STPI centres will provide entrepreneurs with facilities such as ready to use plug-and-play facilities - including a data centre and a network operations centre - and a readymade business environment. The two centres are expected to be ready in the next two years.

Healthcare firms to spend $1.08 b on IT

Mumbai: Healthcare providers in India are expected to spend $1.08 billion on IT products and services in 2014, a four per cent increase over 2013.
This forecast by Gartner includes spending by healthcare providers (including hospitals and hospital systems, ambulatory service and physicians' practices) on internal IT (including personnel), hardware, software, external IT services and telecommunications.
The largest
IT services, which includes consulting, implementation, IT outsourcing and business process outsourcing, will be the largest overall spending category throughout the forecast period, the global research and analyst firm said.
It is expected to reach $276 million in 2014, up from $266 million in 2013 – with the consulting segment growing by 8 per cent, it added.
Internal services
Internal services will achieve the highest growth rate amongst the spending categories – forecast to be 18.5 per cent in 2014.
Internal services refer to salaries and benefits paid to the information services staff of an organisation.
Software will achieve a growth rate of six per cent to reach $101 million this year, up from $95 million in 2013, led by growth in vertical specific software (software applications that are unique to a vertical industry. These are standalone applications that are not modules or extensions of horizontal applications).

Manufacturing rises to a year high

New Delhi: Manufacturing activity continued to remain buoyant in February on a jump in domestic and export orders suggesting that the worst may be over for India Inc.
The HSBC Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) for the manufacturing sector moved up to a one-year high of 52.5 in February, bringing some good news for the UPA Government at the fag end of its tenure. The index, which is based on monthly data compiled from replies to questionnaires to purchasing executives in around 500 manufacturing companies, clocked 52 in March 2013. In January 2014, the PMI was 51.4. A number under 50 suggests contraction.
Consumer goods segment was again the best performing sub-sector of the manufacturing economy, leading the rise in both output and new orders. Operating conditions also improved for intermediate goods producers, but remained unchanged in the capital goods category. New export business rose at a quicker clip, the survey said.
February data indicated that manufacturing employment increased, stretching the current period of job creation to five months. That said, payroll numbers rose at a fractional pace that was the weakest in that sequence.
The PMI number came as a surprise as the Government’s advance estimates for 2013-14 suggested a decline of 0.2 per cent in the manufacturing sector for the year as a whole. Even the data for April-December showed a decline of 0.6 per cent in the manufacturing sector. Government data for January will be out in 10 days while that for February will come in April.
Commenting on the latest trend, Leif Eskesen, Chief Economist for India & ASEAN at HSBC, said manufacturing activity picked up as new order flows have firmed, with the improvement in external demand and the reduction in macroeconomic uncertainty since last summer. This, in turn, has provided a lift to output growth.
“However, the recovery in activity is still likely to prove protracted given the lingering structural constraints. Moreover, underlying inflation pressures remain potent, which was evident from the jump in the input price component of the PMI survey. This will keep the RBI hawkish and may compel it to raise rates a bit further this year,” he cautioned.

South Africa woos Indian investments in SEZs

Mumbai: South Africa plans to offer special incentives to tap investment from India in the special economic zones being promoted across each of its nine provinces. The country currently has four Industrial Development Zones, primarily focusing on exports.
The South African government had already announced various incentives to attract investment, but it is studying various models adopted by different countries, including China and India, to woo more investment.
Speaking to the media here after a round table with Indian investors, Elizabeth Thabethe, the country’s Deputy Minister for Trade and Industry said it will choose the best practices adopted by each country to arrive at a comprehensive plan to promote investment in the special economic zone, which would focus on boosting domestic demand.
Trade relations between the two countries got a fillip after Coal India and South Africa’s Department of Trade and Industry recently decided to team up to explore mutual prospects in the coal sector. “As a precursor to attract investment, our Government is planning to invest $4 trillion to develop infrastructure across the country,” she said.
Trade target
She said South Africa and India have already surpassed the trade target of $15 billion set for 2015, and a new target would be fixed in the coming days.
Indian companies have invested about $7 billion in South Africa, while South African countries have investments of $610 million in India.