Suresh Prabhu launches first phase of station redevelopment project

New Delhi: Railway minister Suresh Prabhu on Wednesday launched the first phase of his ambitious station redevelopment project under which he plans to modernize 400 railway stations across the country by providing several passenger-friendly amenities.
These redeveloped stations would support digital signage, have escalators and elevators, self-ticketing counters, executive lounges, luggage screening machines, walkways and holding areas for passengers, among other facilities.
The 23 stations shortlisted for the first phase include Chennai Central, Ranchi, Udaipur City, Indore, Yesvantpur, Bengaluru Cantt., Visakhapatnam, Howrah, Kamakhya, Faridabad, Jammu Tawi, Secunderabad, Vijayawada, Kozhikode and Bhopal.
The project of re-developing 400 A1 and A category stations in the country is the biggest non-fare revenue generating programme being undertaken by Indian Railways. The projects will be executed in a public-private-partnership (PPP) model through a fair bidding system.
Under the project the entire cost of redeveloping stations will be met by leveraging “commercial development of vacant separable land and air space in and around the station”.
A senior railway ministry official, requesting anonymity, said under the first phase of the project Indian Railways will provide approximately 140 acres of encroachment-free land at these stations to the developers on a 45-year lease. “The phase is expected to be of approximately Rs6,000 to Rs9,000 crore in size,” he said.
Railway ministry, in a statement, said that the program will provide approximately 2,200 acres of prime land to the private developers across top 100 cities of the country. A committee of eminent experts would be formed to provide suggestions to zonal Railways on proposals submitted by bidders in addition to the technical and financial committee recommendations.
Commercial potential of this vacant Railway land at/near stations will be leveraged to develop world-class stations with no additional funding required from the Railways. The program is expected to generate a surplus in excess of Rs10,000 crore for Indian Railways which can be invested in other modernization projects.

India to beat Japan to become third largest domestic aviation market globally

Mumbai: The Indian aviation market is likely to overtake Japan this year to become the world's third largest domestic market after US and China.
"The Indian domestic market is on track to surpass 100 million passengers in 2017," said Kapil Kaul, CEO, Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation (CAPA) in his address at the CAPA aviation meet on Wednesday.
In fact, domestic air traffic could grow by close to 25 percent in 2018 and approach 130 million passengers.
"In reaching this milestone, India will have achieved average domestic traffic growth of over 15 percent per annum since the liberalisation of the sector commenced in 2004," he said.
The reasons for the growth are primarily strong economic fundamentals, although traffic has been over-stimulated by low fares, Kapil Kaul said. The ramifications of the Indian government's demonetisation initiative announced in November last year is unclear but the introduction of the GST in the next fiscal year may possibly have a short term negative impact on economic growth for a couple of years.

At 19 million tonnes|year, India 2nd-largest LPG user in world

New Delhi: India has become the second-largest domestic LPG (liquefied petroleum gas) consumer in the world due to the Central government's rapid rollout of clean fuel plan for poor households and fuel subsidy reforms.
LPG consumption by households has reached 19 million tonnes, registering an annual growth rate of 10%.Consumption is expected to rise 20 million tonnes, backed by expanding consumer base in urban areas and rapid rollout of the `Ujjwala' scheme for providing LPG connections free of cost to five crore poor households by 2019.
The Ujjwala scheme has turned India into an example for energy experts from other emerging economies still struggling to provide clean fuel to their rural folks. No wonder the World LPG Association (WLPGA) -so far focused on developed economies -has chosen to hold its Asia summit in Delhi.
Barely nine months after being launched by the PM in May 2016, the scheme has covered 1.6 crore poor households, topping the target set for the entire 2016-17 financial year on the back of a massive rural outreach push. “It simply beats me how they achieved this,“ WLPGA Yagiz Eyuboglu told a curtain-raiser session on Monday in a compliment to oil minister Dharmendra Pradhan.
“When we assumed office, we had a system of misdirected subsidies, rich and uppermiddle class were entitled to LPG subsidies. There were many duplicate connections and the subsidized LPG was diverted to commercial and industrial segments. As a result poorest of the poor never had access to LPG. In 2014, almost half of Indian households didn't have LPG connections. We decided to change the LPG landscape in India,“ Pradhan said, giving an insight into the government's thinking behind the reforms.
Pradhan said reforms in the subsidy mechanism -elimination of ghost consumers and direct subsidy transfer -saved an estimated Rs 21,000 crore, or $3.2 billion, in the two years of the Modi government. During this time, he said, Rs 40,000 crore, or $6.5 billion, in subsidy has been transferred directly to bank accounts of consumers.

Sebi to overhaul governance norms for stock exchanges

Mumbai: The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) is looking to increase its oversight of the boards of stock exchanges by having a greater say in the appointment of public interest directors, said three people aware of the matter, including an official with the regulator.
To this end, the Sebi board, when it meets on Saturday, will propose amendments to the Stock Exchange and Clearing Corporation (SECC) regulations pertaining to appointment and remuneration of these directors and also ownership and governance norms, these people said.
“This is in the wake of exchanges getting listed and certain governance lapses that have come to notice,” one of the three said on condition of anonymity.
Currently, SECC rules mandate the boards of exchanges and clearing corporations to appoint public interest directors and fix their fees in line with the Companies Act.
To be sure, the regulator played an active role in appointment of the chairman and public interest directors at the National Stock Exchange of India (NSE) last year.
Bloomberg Quint reported on 4 January that five public interest directors on the board of NSE—Ashok Chawla, former chairman, Competition Commission of India (CCI); Dinesh Kanabar, founder of Dhruva Advisors Llp, former Infosys Ltd director Mohandas Pai; Dharmishta Raval, former executive director, Sebi; and Naved Masood, former secretary at ministry of corporate affairs—were Sebi appointees and entrusted with the task of improving governance standards at India’s largest stock exchange, where some officials allegedly allowed unfair algorithmic trading access to some entities.
Now, the regulator is looking to institutionalize its oversight.
“Sebi has always been on top of vetting independent directors at exchanges though it may not choose them from the start,” said Raval. “The issue currently important for stock exchanges is on governance front to address conflict of interest when they (exchanges) are getting listed.”
Secondly, Sebi is considering setting up a panel to comprehensively review SECC norms, especially those related to ownership and governance, said the regulatory official cited earlier. This person didn’t reveal details of what the review will cover.
“The accountability of exchanges needs a massive overhaul. Currently, the exchanges accountability is limited and that doesn't bode well for governance. Regulator should also consider removing the 5% investor cap to increase competition in exchange space,” said Sandeep Parekh, founder, Finsec Law Advisors.
Sebi’s review comes at a time when the BSE has listed on its rival NSE. The latter filed a share sale prospectus with the regulator.
The Sebi board will also discuss reforms in the commodity derivatives market such as finalizing price settlement for commodity options, guidelines for warehouses and so on.
Separately, the board of the market regulator will meet with finance minister Arun Jaitley to implement announcements in the Union budget such as a proposal to integrate the commodity spot and derivatives markets.
“Sebi will initiate consultation with various stakeholders—spot market participants, commodity derivatives exchanges and electronic national agriculture market (e-NAM) platform,” said the second person cited earlier.
The government will form an expert panel to draft a bill to integrate the two markets and Sebi will offer its comments on the bill, this person added.
Sebi will also create a framework to list security receipts created from the stressed assets. “For selling stressed assets on stock exchanges, Sebi will create a framework where these would be sold as receipts on stock exchange’s debt platform with a high ticket size of Rs25 lakh,” said the first person.
In the Union budget, the government announced that securities receipts issued by asset reconstruction firms would be allowed on exchange platforms to help resolve the bad loans and increase capital flows to this sector.
Indian banks were sitting on a Rs6.7 trillion bad loan pile at the end of September.
Additionally, in its meeting with the finance minister, Sebi is going to clarify its position on the Rs5,548-crore National Spot Exchange Ltd (NSEL) payments crisis and what actions it has taken on NSE giving unfair trading access to some brokers.

Lok Sabha passes Wages Amendment Bill

New Delhi: The Lok Sabha on Tuesday passed the Payment of Wages (Amendment) Bill, 2017 which allows for digital payment of salaries or through cheque. The bill will now go to Rajya Sabha and following its passage in the upper House, the amendments will be notified.
The move will enable employers to pay wages of less than Rs 18,000 a month by cheque or digitally to bank accounts, besides in cash, by doing away with the requirement of employees' written consent for the same.
At present, wages can be given through cheque or transferred to a bank account only after a written authorisation from an employee. The Bill was introduced in the Lok Sabha on December 15, but it could not be taken up for discussion amid din over demonetisation.

Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare constitutes a committee to achieve the target of doubling of income of farmers by March 2022

New Delhi: To understand the impact of demonetization on farming sector, Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR)-National Institute of Agricultural Economics and Policy Research (NIAP) conducted a short survey of farmers in few villages around Delhi under Mera Gaon Mera Gaurav (MGMG) initiative. Survey findings could not establish any significant adverse effect of demonetization on input availability, market arrivals of produce and area sown in Rabi season. As per preliminary reports received from the States, the total area sown under Rabi crops as on 27th January, 2017 stands at 637.34 lakh hectares as compared to 600.02 lakh hectares this time in 2016 indicating no significant impact of demonetization on Rabi sowing.

In order to achieve the target of doubling of income of farmers by March 2022, the Department of Agriculture, Cooperation and Farmers Welfare has constituted a Committee under the Chairmanship of Additional Secretary, for the following aspects:
To study the current income level of farmers/ agricultural labourers
To measure the historical growth rate of the current income level
To determine the needed growth rate to double the income of farmers/agricultural labourers by the year 2021-22
To consider and recommend various strategies to be adopted to accomplish (iii) above
To recommend an institutional mechanism to review and monitor implementation to realise the goal
To examine any other related issue.
The Committee has held five meetings so far to evolve a suitable strategy.
This information was given by the Minister of State for Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, Shri Parshottam Rupala, in written reply to a question in Lok Sabha today.

Govt doubles highways target to 15,000 km in next fiscal

New Delhi: The government has set a target of constructing 15,000 km of highways in the next financial year, 50 per cent more than that in the current fiscal.
The road transport and highways ministry expects to construct a record 8,000 km of highways this fiscal, even as that will be 2,000 km short of the target.
Officials said 5,000 km of highways were constructed between April and December 2016, at 18.5 km a day on average.
However, they said, the pace always remains subdued during the monsoon months and picks up during the last quarter. In the last fiscal, the ministry built nearly 6,100 km of highways, higher than 4,410 km in the previous year.
The budget for 2017-18 has earmarked nearly Rs 12,000 crore more for the ministry for the next fiscal, compared to the revised allocation of Rs 52,446 crore for the current year.
Besides, the ministry has been allowed to raise another Rs 59,000 crore through National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) bonds during the next fiscal.
For the current year, NHAI was allowed to raise Rs 50,000 crore, of which it has already raised Rs 25,000 crore. Two more tranches of Rs 5,000 crore will be raised in the coming days.
"The target for the next year is ambitious. But given the availability of funds through budgetary allocation and extra budgetary sources such as bonds, we could still meet it. Our capacity to undertake projects has also been enhanced in last two years," said a senior government official, who did not wish to be identified.
The official further said, "If you put together our budgetary allocation and the amount permitted to be raised through bonds, it comes out to be around Rs 1.24 lakh crore. Given that the average cost of construction per km ranges between Rs 8 crore and Rs 10 crore, we'll comfortably be around the target.
" From the budgetary allocation of Rs 64,900 crore for the next year, the ministry plans to construct projects worth Rs 24,000 crore under the National Highways Development Programme while other national highway projects have got allocation of Rs 21,543 crore.
Highways in the North East have got an allocation of Rs 5,765 crore, whereas Rs 7,300 crore has been kept aside for development of roads owned by states and Rs 3,000 crore will be spent on maintenance of highways.
Through the funds to be raised by NHAI, the government has planned to undertake construction of 2,000 km of coastal expressways. These highways will come up in Maharashtra, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Odisha.

Digital transactions rose to 3 crore a day in 2016: Ravi Shankar Prasad

New Delhi: Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad today said that digital transactions had risen to 3 crore a day in 2016 from only 66 lakh a day in 2013.
Saying that 'Digital India' would lead to an empowered and inclusive nation, Prasad exhorted entrepreneurs to develop more technologies for education and social inclusion.
Here are the key points on Digital India from Ravi Shankar Prasad's speech:
Digital transactions a day were 66 lakh in 2013, 96 lakh in 2014, 1.3 crore in 2015 and 3 crore in 2016.
India has 35 crore smartphones.
India is being developed as the biggest destination for telecom manufacturing.
78 smartphone makers have approached the government to set up operations.
Digital India is meant for the poor and the underprivileged.
India's talent + information technology = India's tomorrow.

Railways plans massive track expansion in Arunachal Pradesh, connect Tawang

Guwahati: Union ministry of Railways is readying for building massive railway infrastructure in Arunachal Pradesh, state bordering china. Railways will start survey of three railway tracks linking Tawang.
Railways are anticipating these projects will require investment of around Rs 50,000 to Rs 70,000 Crore.
China has often claimed Arunachal as part of its territory. Union minister of state for Railways, Rajen Gohain on Saturday said, “Together with ministry of Defence we are developing border communication. We will initiate survey for three new railways lines.”
These railways tracks include Bhalukpung to Tawang, Silaphatar to Bama and Murkongselek via Rupai to Pasighat.
General Manager of North East Frontier Railway (NFR) (Construction), H.K Jaggi told said that the elevation of a track my range to 500 to 9000 feet. “We will first study the soil conditions and other geological conditions.”
Railways planned to cover the length and breadth of Arunachal by railway network. The union budget 2017-18 has sanctioned survey of construction of new lines from Doom Dooma to Wakro via Simalguri, Namsai and Chowkham (96km), Dangri to Roing (60km), Lekhapani to Deban via Nampong (75 km),
Besides Tinsukia to Pasighat via Deomali Lekhapani Jairampur Kharsang Miao, Roing and Dambuk (300km).

iPhone SE to be assembled in India

Bengaluru, New Delhi: Apple is looking to produce lower-cost iPhone SE at its upcoming facility in Bengaluru as it looks to gain a price advantage in the market in which it has been a fringe player so far.
While the plant in Bengaluru, owned by partner Wistron, is already being upgraded to support assembly of Apple’s iPhones, the Cupertino company continues to engage in talks with the central government over full-scale manufacturing of its flagship devices in the country.
For this, Apple is seeking a 15-year tax exemption from the government to make India a hub for exporting the devices rather than just producing devices for the local market, according to officials at the commerce ministry. Apple is facing a challenge of rising input costs in China, apart from the government increasingly cracking down on foreign companies.
Wistron, which will assemble iPhones in Bengaluru, is one among the few original design manufacturers Apple employs to build its iPhones. The company has previously won contracts abroad to manufacture lower-cost iPhone 5c, 5s, and SE devices, while larger partners such as Foxconn have handled production of flagship iPhone models.
“Wistron manufactures low-cost devices for Apple, the iPhone 5c, 5s, and SE. So the chances are high that only those are going to be manufactured at first. It also makes sense for them to save that extra 12.5 per cent on low-cost devices where margins are slim,” said Neil Shah, partner at Counterpoint Research.
The iPhone SE, which was launched in March 2016, was seen as Apple’s weapon to win in emerging markets. However, the device saw slow sales in India after being priced close to Rs 40,000, a market where seven out of 10 smartphones sold cost less than Rs 10,000.
"Winston has begun upgrading infrastructure at the Peenya location, indicating Apple is keen to make iPhones here. An agreement is yet to be signed," a government official said. "More details will emerge once Apple's talks with the central government are over."
In a statement on Thursday, the Karnataka information technology minister said that Apple representatives had met the state’s ministers and officials on manufacturing devices here. Apple’s delegation was led by Priya Balasubramaniam, vice-president of iPhone operations.
“Our pitch to Apple was that they have the entire ecosystem ready here in Bengaluru. No other place in India can offer the pool of hi-tech talent, researchers and app developers,” said minister Priyank Kharge in a telephonic interview.
Currently, Apple controls just three per cent of the 100-million-plus smartphone market in India.
In the quarter that ended December, Apple said it had posted record revenue in the country despite a slowdown in consumption due to demonetisation. In the September quarter, the company had said sales of its iPhones grew 50 per cent in the 12-month period, signalling a positive environment.
Apple continues a two-pronged attack in India, wooing customers with its latest iPhones and simultaneously pushing older models at more affordable costs.
Nearly 45 per cent of Apple’s iPhone sales continue to come from models like the iPhone 5s that cost under Rs 20,000 on popular online retail channels in the country.