Success in my Habit
Friday, April 28, 2017
Bank credit demand up 5.5% in FY18's first fortnight: RBI data
India to become major wind energy hub: Tanti
In an interview to Business Standard, Tulsi Tanti, chairman and managing director, Suzlon, said, “India will be a large hub for wind manufacturing in five years on the strength of its domestic demand. It will be like China that has a 20 Gw domestic solar market and, therefore, promoted manufacturing in their country. Now, the global market is dominated by four Chinese companies.”
Solar equipment manufacturing, however, is unlikely to pick up in India as Chinese imports are more cost-effective, Tanti said. “Unless a solar manufacturer comes in the entire value chain of production, right from polysilicon, is not likely to work out,” he added.
Tanti does not see any need for incentives for wind equipment manufacturers, except for exports. “The government should give five per cent of an exporter’s logistics cost as incentive. The propelling factors include coming up of faster bidding by nine wind potential states. They are estimated to bid out 600-800 megawatt (Mw) each. Another 6-Gw capacity in the current year is likely to be bid out by the central government for non-wind potential states to enable them to meet their renewable purchase obligation. Besides, 10 Gw will come up in the captive market, while 50 Gw will be through investment by financial institutions,” he said.
He said that instead of incentivising manufacturers or developers, state distribution companies that meet their renewable purchase obligation norms should be given performance-based incentive. It could be 50 paise per unit (kilowatt hour). “This could be funded from the clean energy cess,” he said.
Asked for his views on the Union government’s plan to compensate states for revenue shortfall on account of the goods and services tax through the clean energy cess, he said the corpus was large enough to meet the need for performance-based incentive, compensation to states and also the special requirements of coal-bearing states. The corpus roughly has Rs 54,000 crore currently. Tanti said he did not see the tariffs for solar or wind going down further unless the interest rates come down. On his company’s debt situation, he said they had been able to bring down their debt level by $1 billion through the conversion of foreign currency convertible bonds.
Suzlon also announced its wind turbine of hub height of 120 metre and 2.1 Mw capacity achieved 42 per cent plant load factor in its first 12 months of operation at the Jamanwada site in Gujarat’s Kutch district.
The prototype was commissioned in March 2016.
The PLF is 20 per cent higher than what was achieved by another turbine in its first 12 months at the same location.
Narendra Modi underlines consolidated approach to complete infra projects
The PM’s remarks were aimed at ensuring that “no de-duplication of work is done” and that ministries work in collaboration as there were some reports of ministries not following an “integrated approach,” said a senior government official requesting anonymity.
Modi, who was undertaking a review of infrastructure projects including roads, railways, airports, ports, digital and coal sectors on Tuesday evening, told the officials that it was the time to deliver results. The meeting attended by top officials of the prime minister’s office, NITI Aayog and all infrastructure ministries continued for around four-and-a-half hours. NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant gave a presentation on the status of infrastructure development of various projects.
Modi later tweeted, “Progress in road construction, particularly in rural areas is gladdening. Progress in highways sector is also showing great improvement.”
“In railways, we are exceeding targets in laying of new rail lines. Over 1,500 unmanned level crossing have also been eliminated in 2016-17,” he said, adding: “Aviation sector is buzzing with enthusiasm. We discussed how Regional Connectivity Scheme is going to positively impact travelers.”
During the review, Modi directed the think tank NITI Aayog to examine global standards in the application of technology in infrastructure creation and their feasibility in India so that the country can start adopting global standards and have a world-class infrastructure. He also said the government should use new technologies for road and highway construction to expedite projects.
Apart from updates on regular targets, Modi was briefed on the progress of some important projects such as the Eastern Peripheral Expressway, Char Dham, Quazigund-Banihal Tunnel, Chenab railway bridge, the Jiribam-Imphal project, and the Regional Connectivity Scheme which will connect 43 destinations by air, including 31 destinations that are currently not served by air transportation.
In his presentation, Kant said that under the Pradhan Mantri Gramin Sadak Yojana (PMGSY), the ministry of rural development has achieved its highest ever average daily road construction rate of 130km. The rate of construction has led to the addition of 47,400km of road under the scheme in 2016-17, connecting around 11,641 additional habitations. He added that the pace of four- and six-lane national highways construction is also improving, with 26,000km of highways built in 2016-17.
The PM was told green technology such as waste-plastic, cold-mix, geo-textiles, fly-ash, iron and copper slag had been used in around 4,000km of rural roads and that this was being given a further push.
Modi directed efficient and stringent monitoring of rural roads so that construction and quality were not compromised.
For the railway sector, Modi asked the railways ministry to focus more on non-fare revenue and speed up work on redevelopment of railway stations so that deliverables are visible. He was told that 953km of new lines were laid in 2016-17 as against a target of 400km. Similarly, track electrification of over 2,000km and gauge conversion of 1,000km were achieved in the same period.
For ports, Modi stressed better outcomes for the turnaround time of ships and clearance for EXIM cargo as the sector saw the highest-ever capacity addition of 100.4 million tonnes per annum in major ports during 2016-17.
Wednesday, April 26, 2017
Amazon Prime a key differentiator for the US e-commerce firm in India
Data from the report by market researcher RedSeer Consulting, shows the number of Prime subscribers in India rose rapidly during the October-December quarter, reaching 5-6 million at the end of December.
Prime now accounts for nearly a third of Amazon’s active customer base with 25-30% of Indian customers opting for it, the report said. These estimates include paying and non-paying subscribers.
Prime subscribers spend at least 15% more than non-Prime customers and place more orders on an average every month, the data shows. They seem to be more satisfied as well: according to RedSeer, average Net Promoter Score (NPS)—an indicator of customer satisfaction—for Prime customers in India was 40% against 24% for non-Prime customers.
In less than nine months since Prime launched in India, it accounts for one out of every three orders that Amazon delivers to customers—highlighting how consumers are increasingly paying for quicker and more reliable deliveries and hence are increasing their online spending budgets on platforms that offer such membership programmes.
Prime has become a key lever for Amazon in its battle against arch-rival Flipkart. A significant part of Prime’s growth is also being driven by its online video streaming service, which competes with Netflix and Hotstar.
The Indian numbers mirror a phenomenon that Amazon first witnessed in its home market, the US, when it first launched Prime in 2005. Over the last decade, Prime became one of the biggest levers of Amazon’s growth in the US, as the online retailer sold more to existing customers, who typically ended up shopping more from Amazon after signing up for Prime.
“We’ve seen a big rise in frequency as well as a big lift in actual order values from Prime customers,” Akshay Sahi, head of Amazon Prime in India, said in an interview with Mint earlier in April. “What happens is, apart from mobile phones, any of the other categories are not one-time purchase categories. Because you just keep buying more and more of those things. Your fashion budget will move more towards Amazon, your electronics budget will move more towards Amazon, your consumables budget moves more towards Amazon because of the loyalty you have and the experience you enjoy and the programme that you’re a part of.”
Last July, Amazon India launched its annual Prime membership programme in more than 100 cities, offering one-day and two-day delivery on hundreds of thousands of products and exclusive discounts for an initial price of Rs499 per year.
Prime was the single biggest-selling product among the 15 million units sold on Amazon India during a five-day sale in October. Amazon expanded the service by adding video content in December through Amazon Prime Video, pitting it against Netflix and Hotstar.
Prime’s success in India may force arch-rival Flipkart to re-think its strategy towards paid subscription services. So far, Flipkart has not actively promoted its own loyalty programme for consumers, as the e-commerce firm privately believes that Indian shoppers typically don’t care or pay for delivery and convenience or content.
“Flipkart is missing out big-time by not promoting its own membership service as aggressively as Amazon. They still have an opportunity to educate customers and offer them that option of quicker and cheaper deliveries, but they have to get into this game quickly,” said Harminder Sahni, founder and managing director, Wazir Advisors, a consulting firm.
Natural rubber production surges 23% in 2016-17
NR production also showed an increase of 66.7 per cent to 55,000 tonnes in March 2017, as against 33,000 tonnes in March last year. Rubber Board officials attributed the increase to the improved market price and initiatives taken by the Board at the field level, including mass contact programmes, to improve production and productivity.
Rubber Board is bringing more untapped areas into production by grouping farmers under ‘Tappers Bank’, which works more like a self-help group. The Board has launched this on a pilot basis, and 60 rubber-producing societies were identified for it.
The Board is seeking to achieve the current rubber demand of around 10 lakh tonnes by producing domestically.
NR exports from the country during the last financial year were 20,010 tonnes, whereas these were only 865 tonnes in the preceding year.
The branding of NR, initiated by the Rubber Board, has helped Indian exporters to claim their market share as the quality assurance helped boost buyers’ confidence, according to the Rubber Board. About 65 per cent of the NR exported was under the brand ‘Indian Natural Rubber’.
RIL reclaims top slot by market value after 4 years, replaces TCS
India aims to cut fuel imports as it boosts alternative fuel use, Gadkari says
T
he Government of India plans to bring down its import of oil products and move towards using alternative fuels like methanol in the Indian transport sector, with an aim to reduce dependency on imports and be self-sufficient, said Mr Nitin Gadkari, Ministry of Road Transport & Highways. The country plans to start fifteen factories that produce second generation ethanol from biomass, bamboo and cotton straw and aims to develop its mandate to blend ethanol into 5 per cent of its gasoline. India imported 33 million tonnes of oil products over April 2016 to February 2017, which was 24 per cent higher than the imports during the same period a year ago. India is the third largest consumer of oil and the domestic energy consumption is expected to increase as the country targets a higher economic growth.
RBI governor Urjit Patel says demonetisation effects 'transitory'
The “accumulating evidence points to” the effects of demonetisation as “transitory,” governor Urjit Patel, who took over from Raghuram Rajan in September, told an audience Monday at Columbia University in New York. “Credit is more important than currency, and credit was not affected at all.”
Authorities have been seeking to rein in liquidity after the government’s November recall of high-denomination currency notes flooded the banking system with cash. The excess funds not only threaten to stoke inflation, but have also constrained the RBI’s ability to intervene at a time when the rupee is rallying.
Households’ inflation expectations “continue to be adaptive and therefore difficult to bring down in a durable manner,” said Patel, who rarely appears in public.
In a bid to burnish the Reserve Bank of India’s credentials as an inflation-fighting central bank, Patel has called for “close vigilance” on inflation. Consumer prices rose 3.81% in March from a year earlier, having risen 3.65% in February. India’s central bank targets keeping inflation around 4 percent in the medium term.
Earlier this month, India unexpectedly raised the reverse repo rate while keeping the benchmark unchanged, effectively tightening policy to step up the fight against inflation.
Speaking about the world economy, Patel said Monday that the data point to a broad-based upswing in global growth, though risks remain, such as protectionism and geopolitics.
There is international push-back against trade talk emanating from the US, Patel said, defending the benefits of an open trading system. Companies’ share prices reflect benefits from global supply chains, and “if policies come in the way of that, then the main wealth creators in a country that advocates protectionism” are going to be affected, he said. Bloomberg
Monday, April 24, 2017
Medical tourism on the rise in India
The ministries of health, external affairs, tourism and culture are working to increase the number of medical tourists. The government provides online visas, multiple entries, extensions of stay, and accreditation to more hospitals. Several other measures are under way, according to the Indian Medical Association (IMA). “The government has improved the visa policy to make it patient friendly. There is no waiting time for foreign patients at hospitals,” said Radhey Mohan, vice president, international business development, at Apollo Hospitals. The chain received 170,000 foreign patients from 87 countries during 2016-17.
Medical tourists to India typically seek joint replacement surgeries, heart, liver and bone marrow transplants, spine and brain surgeries, cancer and kidney treatments, and in vitro fertilisation (IVF).
Patients from Africa and the Middle East access private healthcare in India due to lack of facilities and doctors back home. Medical tourists from Europe and the US come here for cosmetic surgeries that are not covered by insurance. “We do bariatric surgery at $6,000-8,000, while it costs around $15,000 in the US. Almost 15-20 per cent of our surgical patients are from other countries,” said Dr Sukhvinder Singh Saggu, practising laproscopic surgeon at Apollo Spectra New Delhi.
Non-resident Indians, persons of Indian origin (PIOs) and overseas citizens of India (OCIs) prefer to come here for IVF and gynaecology treatments. “They spend only 30 per cent of what it costs in the US or UK. Moreover, they have family support here,” said Dr Kamini Rao, medical director at Milann — The Fertility Centre.
AV Guruva Reddy, managing director of the Hyderabad-based Sunshine Hospitals, said the general standard of hygiene and technology in Indian medical facilities had improved. The number of foreign tourists coming to the country for medical purposes increased 50 per cent to 200,000 in 2016 from 130,000 in 2015. This number is expected to double in 2017 with several new initiatives like easier visas for medical tourists.
Northern India can be a hub of renewable energy, says study
The report titled ‘State Renewable Energy Policies: A Comparative Study’ was released by industry lobby Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).
It highlighted that southern and western regions of the country are fast moving up the renewable energy installed capacity graph. The study also stressed that the ecosystem of renewable energy in India is still fraught with constraints, particularly with respect to state policies.
The Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government has set an ambitious target of 175 GW of renewable power target by 2022.
The CII report said that all northern states have come up with sector-specific policies to promote renewable energy. States that are counted in the northern region are Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Delhi and Chandigarh.
“These States have dedicated Solar (power) policies. However, very few States have specific policies for small hydro, except Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and Uttarakhand, and for wind only Rajasthan has a specific policy,” the report said.
“Even though most of the northern States have come up with their renewable energy policies, it is important to understand and imbibe the best incentives and practices depending on the need of the state/region,” it added.
As per the report, the northern region accounts for about 20.49%, which is about 10,247 MW, of the 50,018 MW overall installed capacity of renewable power in India (till 31 December 2016). In comparison, the southern region alone accounts for 43.42% (21,721.42 MW) of India’s total installed renewable power and the western region for 33.7% (16,861 MW).
“All 29 states of India are working relentlessly to make this a success and some major milestones have already been achieved. The northern states, in specific, already have and in the future will play a pivotal role in achieving the renewable energy target set out by the government,” the study said.
“The potential of northern region in the renewable space is huge with about 363 GW available to be exploited. Amongst the northern States, Rajasthan has the biggest renewable potential at 145,518 MW and the highest potential in both solar and wind capacities at 142, 310 MW and 5,050 MW respectively,” it added.
In terms of renewable potential, Rajasthan is followed by Jammu and Kashmir (118,208 MW), Himachal Pradesh (36,446 MW), Uttar Pradesh (27,593 MW), Uttarakhand (19,071 MW), Punjab (6,768 MW), Haryana (6,470 MW), Delhi (2,181 MW) and Chandigarh (6 MW).
It further emphasised that northern India also has a good potential for small hydro projects with Himachal Pradesh having the second highest small hydro potential in the country after Karnataka.
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