Govt allocates Rs 13,000 crore to DoT for BharatNet and NFS

New Delhi: As per the Output-Outcome Framework for Schemes 2017, 150,000 gram panchayats (GPs) will receive high speed broadband connectivity in 2017-18 on account of Rs 10,000 crore (US$ 1.94 billion) allocation by the government to the Department of Telecommunication (DoT). In addition, Rs 3,000 crore (US$ 448 million) has been set aside for laying optical fibre cable (OFC) and procuring equipment for the Network For Spectrum (NFS) project in 2017-18.

Early-stage start-ups will look to raise US$ 800 million in 2017: report

Bengaluru: Early-stage start-ups will seek to raise at least $800 million in 2017 as they stop blindly chasing growth and start looking for profitability, a report by venture debt firm InnoVen Capital said.
Venture capital funding in Indian start-ups last year plummeted by almost one-third from the heydays of 2015 and 2014, when venture capital firms queued up to invest at high valuations. According to a separate report by KPMG and CB Insights, a start-up intelligence firm, Indian start-ups raised $3.3 billion in 2016 across 859 deals, as against $8.2 billion across 890 deals in the previous year.
According to the survey by InnoVen Capital, the slowdown in funding was palpable with about 63% of the 175 respondents—founders of bootstrapped, angel-funded or series A and B start-ups—described the fund-raising experience last year as “unfavourable”. About 7% of the start-ups raised a bridge round, 9% ended up raising a sub-optimal round from new investors while 15% of the start-ups failed to raise any money.
“The environment is clearly pointing out that investors are becoming cautious about where to invest. This year won’t be too much different. Investors will invest in companies which have a path towards profitability or at least understand how to move towards profitability. Money is there and will continue to be there for companies which have scaled,” said Ajay Hattangdi, group chief operating officer and chief executive officer (India) of InnoVen.
About 94% of the respondents said they will try to raise money in 2017.
“There is also money available for great ideas. Where there will be relatively less money is companies which have missed milestones or me-too models which will have difficulty to differentiate,” he added.
Apart from demanding that start-ups slow expansion, slash costs and cut discounts, many venture capital firms are setting performance milestones; some investors are only releasing funds in instalments, Mint reported in January last year.
The slowdown in funding has also prompted many start-ups to shut shop or sell out to larger rivals. According to Tracxn, a start-up tracker, as many as 212 start-ups closed down in 2016, including grocery delivery start-up Peppertap and food delivery start-up Tinyowl, against 140 the previous year.
According to the InnoVen Capital report, about 53% of the start-ups with annual revenue of more than $1 million will focus on profitability this year, while the corresponding number for start-ups with more than $10 million in annual revenue stands at 75%. About 80% of the start-ups expect to turn profitable in the next two years.
The report also states that about one-third of the respondents expect to give an exit to investors through mergers and acquisitions, an indication that consolidation is likely to be the flavour of the season in 2017. To be sure, there were about 162 M&As in 2016, including Flipkart’s acquisition of fashion portal Jabong and MakeMyTrip’s acquisition of Ibibo Group’s India travel business, and 150 the previous year, according to Tracxn,
“Consolidation will happen. India until now hasn’t been an acquisitive market. At this point, there is a certain level of maturity among the companies. When they see a competitor being available for a particular price, it is a matter of time that people will see an opportunity in buying them out,” said Hattangdi.

Aero India starts in Bengaluru today, to focus on Make on India

New Delhi: The 11th edition of the Aero India air show which starts in Bengaluru on Tuesday is expected to be one of the largest in recent years, with a focus on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Make in India initiative.
Around 270 Indian and 279 foreign firms are slated to participate in the event where some major companies, including Airbus and Boeing Co, are expected to sign deals under the Make in India banner.
“It is expected that two lakh business visitors will attend the show. The gross area (of the show) has also increased from 2,50,000 sq. m to 2,60,000 sq. m,” the ministry of defence said in a statement.
While Modi had inaugurated the previous Bengaluru air show in 2015, defence minister Manohar Parrikar is likely to open it this year as the event coincides with election activity in several states.
The highlight of the show at the city’s Yelahanka Air Force Station will be fighter jets that make up a large part of the 72 aircraft being showcased. Among these will be Rafale fighter jets made by French aircraft manufacturer Dassault Aviation SA. India bought 36 of these aircraft for an estimated $8.9 billion last year in a deal that has been negotiated several times over the years.
Dassault Aviation said three fighter jets will participate—one single-seat Rafale C and two of the two-seat Rafale B.
Rafale planes have been used by the French armed forces in combat operations for more than a decade. They entered service with the French Navy in 2004 and the Air Force in 2006. Some of the 152 planes delivered so far have been used in combat in Afghanistan, Libya, Mali, Iraq and Syria.
India had started hunting for multi-role fighter jets in 2007 but later decided to scrap that tender, instead announcing that it would buy Rafale jets from France under a government-to-government deal agreed during Prime Minister Modi’s visit to Paris in 2015.
The combat aircraft—delivery of which is expected to begin in September 2019 and be completed by April, 2022—come equipped with state-of-the-art missiles such as Meteor and Scalp, according to the defence ministry.
With the air-to-air Meteor missiles, the Indian Air Force will be able to hit targets as distant as 150km, compared with the 80km it was so far capable of targeting. Scalp, an air-to-ground cruise missile with a range in excess of 300km, will also give IAF an edge over adversaries.
“Demonstrating Rafale’s capabilities in Aero India reaffirms our total commitment to India’s sovereignty. We have had a long standing relationship with Indian Air Force and industry and, thanks to the unmatched capabilities of the Rafale and to our full involvement in the innovative approach of the “Make in India” initiative, we are entirely dedicated to partner India in meeting its strategic defence and economic needs,” Eric Trappier, chairman and chief executive of Dassault Aviation said in a statement.
The Russian Sukhoi 30MKI, Light Combat Aircraft (LCA), Advanced Jet Trainers (AJT) Hawks are also likely to be present at the show.
But all eyes will be on American F-16s and Swedish Saab fighter jet Gripen E and its naval variant Gripen Maritime. Both companies are vying to bag the next multi-billion order from India under the so-called strategic partnership model according to which the manufacturer will be asked to set up an assembly line in India.
Airbus said it will showcase its H130 chopper ambulance on static display.
“The future of Indian aerospace and defence industry rests on the realization of the ‘Make in India’ vision. I look forward to having conversations around the topic at Aero India,” said Pierre de Bausset, president and managing director at Airbus India.
“We have partnered with Tata and Mahindra and are working with a host of other companies to script ‘Make in India’ success stories,” he added.
The firm said it procures about $500 million (about Rs3,400 crore) worth of products from India annually from around 45 suppliers, generating local employment for more than 6,000 people.
The Tata Group said all its key firms will participate in the event, including Tata Advanced Systems Ltd, Tata Consultancy Services, Tata Advanced Materials Ltd, Tata Motors Ltd, Titan Co. Ltd, Tata Steel (Specialty Steel business in Europe), TAL Manufacturing Solutions Ltd and Tata Power Strategic Engineering Division.
The five-day show will have exhibitors from the US, France, UK, Russia, Israel, Germany, Belgium, Switzerland, Ukraine, Singapore, Sweden, Spain, South Africa, Italy, the UAE, South Korea, Hong Kong, the Czech Republic, Canada, Australia, Poland and Greece.
Indian Air Force’s Sarang Team,the Surya Kiran Team, the Scandinavian Air Show Team from Sweden and the Evolvkos Aerobatic Team from the UK will perform aerobatics at the show.
Aero India, which began in 1996, has become one of the largest air shows in Asia. This show is followed by one in Abu Dhabi and most international players move on to showcase their military ware there over the weekend.

Government IT spending in 2017 to grow 9.5% to US$ 7.8 billion: Gartner

New Delhi: The government in India is forecast to spend $7.8 billion on information technology (IT) in 2017, an increase of 9.5% over 2016, according to IT researcher Gartner Inc. This forecast includes spending on internal services, software, IT services, data centre systems, devices and telecom services. Government comprises state and local governments and the central government.
The software segment includes enterprise resource planning , supply chain management, customer resource management, desktop, infrastructure, vertical specific software and other application tools. The software segment is expected to grow 15.7% in 2017 to reach $1 billion. Desktop will be the fastest growing segment with 16% growth in this category.
IT services (which includes consulting, software support, business process outsourcing, IT outsourcing, implementation, and hardware support) is expected to grow 14.6% in 2017 to reach $2 billion, making it the largest segment within the IT spending category.
“Government spending on IT services will total $2,093 million in 2017, a 15% increase from 2016,” said Moutusi Sau, principal research analyst at Gartner. “The IT services market is led by growth in business process outsourcing.”

For Suzuki, India revenues beat Japan's

New Delhi: The strong double-digit ride is set to make India a bigger market for Suzuki Motor Corporation (SMC) in value than Japan, its home market. SMC’s Indian subsidiary, Maruti Suzuki, already sells more vehicles than SMC in Japan, and enjoys a greater market capitalisation over its parent. SMC is faced with a declining market in Japan, whereas its Indian subsidiary is seeing a capacity constraint, leading to a waiting period of several months for some of its best-selling models.
On overtaking SMC’s Japan revenue in the near future, Maruti Suzuki chairman R C Bhargava said, “This is not something that will come as a surprise to us. The home market of Suzuki (Japan) is stagnant. Our numbers will continue to grow faster.”
The sales revenue gap between Suzuki’s Japan and India operations narrowed down to $600 million in FY16, from $2.55 billion in FY15. In these two years, SMC’s Japan revenue grew 2 per cent to $9.29 billion, while Suzuki’s India net sales went up 33 per cent from $6.55 billion to $8.69 billion, data from SMC showed. This reduced the gap in revenue between Japan and India. Both SMC and Maruti Suzuki follow the April-March financial year.
SMC’s Japan revenue and India revenue also include its two-wheeler business, though Maruti Suzuki only operates the passenger vehicle business and the two-wheeler business is a separate subsidiary. The two-wheeler business is much smaller in India and accounts for annual revenue of about Rs 1,900 crore or about $280 million.
In the first quarter of the current financial year, SMC’s Japan revenue grew by a mere 1.1 per cent to 250 billion yen. This translates to Rs 15,625 crore. Maruti Suzuki’s net sales in the same quarter rose 12 per cent to Rs 14,654 crore. If we include the quarterly two-wheeler revenue of Rs 500 crore (approximately), the India revenue exceeds Rs 15,000 crore in Q1.
The Indian subsidiary’s net sales in the first half (H1) increased 21 per cent to Rs 32,280 crore as it sold 10.4 per cent more vehicles than the previous year. Other than the volume increase, a better product mix and lower discounts improved Maruti’s average realisation per vehicle in H1, FY17 to Rs 4,21,000, up 9.64 per cent from FY16, and contributed to higher sales revenue.
While SMC is yet to announce its Q2 results, Maruti Suzuki’s Q2 net sales have surged over 29 per cent to Rs 17,594 crore. SMC’s production in Japan declined 10.6 per cent during H1, due to declining sales in both domestic and export markets. With this decline, the H1 revenue from Japan is estimated to be at par or even lower to the India.
The H2 of the year will be more interesting and Maruti Suzuki’s capacity constraint will get eased with the commencement of production at its Gujarat unit in January next year. The new plant, in the first phase, will add an annual capacity of 250,000 units to the existing capacity of 1.5 million units between the company’s two plants at Gurgaon and Manesar in Haryana. The third plant will further expand Maruti’s volume and sales revenue.

Sundaram Clayton to invest in US plant; expand in India too

Chennai: Automotive castings company, Sundaram Clayton, part of the TVS group, on Thursday said it was investing $50 million to set up a greenfield factory in the US, in sync with Trump administration's call to set up factories in America. In addition, the company has announced a Rs 400 crore expansion plan for its Indian operations.
"This is our first overseas venture," said Lakshmi Venu, joint MD of Sundaram Clayton. The plant will come up in Dorchester county in South Carolina across 50 acres. It will make high pressure die cast and gravity cast parts. Construction at the site is expected to begin by April and first production would be ready for roll out by end of 2018.
She denied it was after US president Trump's protectionist policies. "We have been planning for the past two years, We are following our clients who want changes to our existing supply chain," she said. Changing automotive dynamics are forcing companies to shorten supply chains. There will also be benefits on carbon footprint for the company.
Sundaram Clayton will also expand its capacities across its four plants in India. "We will invest nearly Rs 400 crore in the next three years for our Indian operations,' Venu said.
She said all the funding required for both projects would be through a mix of equity and debt. Upon completion of expansion, the Indian operations can make 70,000 tonnes of aluminum castings, up from 60,000 tonnes. "We are very bullish on India story. Between 2011-12 and 2015-16, we have completed an investment of Rs 408 crore in adding capacities across the three Chennai plants and one Hosur plant," she added.
The company, which ended March 2016 with revenues of Rs 1,523 crore said its export basket contributed to 40% of total revenues of which 60% of the exports were to the US.
Sundaram-Clayton is a manufacturer of aluminum die cast products catering to the automotive industry.
It is part of $7 billion TVS group, one of the largest automotive and automotive component manufacturing and distribution groups in India, besides being the holding company for two wheeler maker TVS Motor.

January sees 3-fold growth in M&A deals: report

New Delhi: Merger and Acquisitions (M&A) activity in January 2017 witnessed deals of around US$ 2.3 billion, which is nearly three times the deals signed in January 2016. The rise was seen in both deal value and volumes with 45 M&A deals worth US$ 2,364 million in January 2017, compared to 42 transactions amounting to US$ 827 million in January 2016 heavily backed by big ticket consolidation in the domestic deal activity with 23 transactions worth US$ 1.6 billion announced in January 2017. Over 55 per cent of the total deal value was led by energy and natural resources sector, while 22 per cent of the total deal volumes was led by start-ups.

Draft rules for digital payment to be released soon for public consultation: Ravi Shankar Prasad

New Delhi: With the increasing rise in the digital payments especially new age methods such as wallets, the ministry of electronics and IT is working on draft rules for digital payments which will deal with "consumer interests" and "security concerns." Ravi Shankar Prasad, union minister for electronics and IT said on Friday that the paper will be put up for public consultation soon.
Currently, digital payment companies are governed by Reserve Bank of India and these rules will be formed in consultation with the Central Bank. "The idea is that the consumer interest is protected and we should grow this business in an orderly manner," Aruna Sundararajan, secretary, ministry of electronics and IT said. She added that three rounds of workshop has already happened by the wallet companies and other stakeholders and some "gaps" have been identified. "If wallets have to grow as an instrument, issues such as what is the liability of the service provider, how the data is being protected, what the grievance redressal means have to be addressed," she added.
The government's demonitisation exercise announced on November 8 has given a huge push to digital payments in the country. Prasad also said that electronic payments saw an increase of 195% in terms of volume and 54% by value between October-January. Aadhaar-enabled payments, which would require just a person's biometric would be started later this month.
"Two years ago, the Narendra Modi government promised that this government will be known for building digital highways, we are clearly moving in that direction," said Prasad. India is becoming a hub of mobile manufacturing with a total of 72 manufacturers making their presence in the country. Till date, 42 mobile phones and 30 components makers have commenced manufacturing operations in the country. “India is changing from consumer of electronics to a manufacturer of electronics,” Prasad said.
On recent concerns raised by Donald Trump-led US government about the use of H-1B visa by Indian IT companies, Prasad said that the ministry was closely coordinating with the Ministry of External Affairs, which has communicated its stand to their counterparts in the US administration.
We are coordinating with the companies together with Nasscom and we need to take a coordinated approach on the visa issue, he added. “IT companies and entrepreneurs have done a tremendous job. Indian companies in the US pay $20 billion in tax to the US government,” Prasad said. Companies have created more than 4,00,000 employment opportunities in America while providing high quality services Fortune 500 companies. “Hence, it can be expected the problems will be resolved soon,” Prasad said.

Govt to double income of farmers by 2021-22

New Delhi: The government might ask the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) to assess farmers’ income once every five years, instead of the current practice of every 10 years.
This is part of the stated objective of doubling farmers’ income by 2021-22. A senior official said the Centre is aiming at the real income of farmers, adjusted for inflation. The base year would be the 2016-17 financial year, ending next month.
The earlier such NSSO study was in 2012-13. This showed the nominal (not adjusted for inflation) income of farmers usually doubles every six years. It pegged the income at Rs 6,426 a month in 2012-13 as against Rs 2,115 a month in 2002-03, annual increase of 11.7 per cent.
For real incomes of farmers’ to double by 2021-22, agriculture and allied activities need to grow at a much faster rate than the current average.
The official clarified that when the government talked of doubling agriculture income, it does not mean only from the crop sector but the gamut of economic activities in which farmers are engaged, including masonry, during their off-season. “We (mean) joining a whole lot of economic activities and processes like providing a proper market for agricultural commodities, proper utilisation of fallow land, horticulture and so on,” the official explained.
He said Gross Domestic Product data on agriculture and allied activity also gives a fair idea of farmer income and could be used to track the rise or change. The sector’s size was Rs 16.7 lakh crore in 2016-17, according to advance estimates from the Central Statistics Office.
To achieve all this, the Centre has constituted a committee under the chairmanship of an additional secretary in the ministry of agriculture. It will determine the growth rate needed to double farmers’ or agricultural labourers’ income in five years. “We are working on various aspects and will come out with a full-fledged strategy to accomplish the objective,” the official added. He said sub-groups were working on issues like ways to improve the cold chain network, crop productivity, how to expand horticulture, other crops, animal husbandry, etc.
“The report, which can be expected in the next few months, will have implementable strategies on all aspects of agriculture, which together will double farmers’ income,” he added.

Passenger vehicle sales recover from demonetisation jitters

New Delhi: Sales of passenger vehicles grew the fastest in four months in January with consumers appearing to have shrugged off the impact of demonetisation. Sales of two- and three-wheelers, however, continued to decline.
Sales of passenger vehicles, including vans, cars and utility vehicles, in January grew 14.4% from a year ago to 265,000 units, according to data compiled by Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (Siam). The segment grew 19.9% in September.
Sales declined across all other segments for the second month in a row. Two- and three-wheeler sales, which happen mostly through cash transactions, continued to reel from the impact of the invalidation of older high value currency notes in early November.
Two-wheeler sales declined 7.39% to 1.26 million while those of three-wheelers declined 28.2% to 31,345 units. Sales of commercial vehicles fell 0.72% to 61,239 units.
Siam expressed hope that the impact of demonetisation would be over in a couple of months.
“Demonetisation impact is over in the passenger vehicle segment at least. It has the potential to reach double digit growth this fiscal,” said Vishnu Mathur, director general, Siam, adding that same may not be true for the overall industry. In the 10 months to 31 January, sales of passenger vehicles have grown 9.17% to 2.5 million units over the same period in 2015-16.
“For the overall industry to grow at 10%, two-wheeler industry will have to pick up,” Mathur said.
To be sure, the numbers are wholesale figures—company dispatches to dealerships—and not sales to end-users.
Abdul Majeed, partner and national auto practice leader, PwC attributed the increase in passenger vehicle sales in January to increase in dispatches to dealers of new models that have a waiting period. “The two wheeler and commercial vehicles segment has reduced growth due to the impact of demonetisation, especially in the rural markets,” he added.
Majeed said customers are still cautious about buying new vehicles given uncertainties over economic growth.
“This quarter will be challenging for the overall growth of the automotive industry, but growth is expected to pick up in the third quarter of 2017,” he added.