Reebok seeks govt nod to open single brand retail stores in India

New Delhi: Reebok India has submitted a proposal to the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP), seeking Government of India's approval to open single brand retail stores in India. The company has applied through the '100 per cent foreign direct investment (FDI) in single brand retailing' route. Under this policy, 49 per cent FDI is allowed via the automatic route; however, beyond that limit, the company needs the government's approval. The investment is permitted only if the products are of a single brand and are sold under the same brand all over the world. Also, if the FDI proposal is for more than 51 per cent, it is compulsory for the company to source 30 per cent of the value of goods bought from India, preferably micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs). Currently, Germany-based Adidas AG sells both Adidas and Reebok sports shoes and clothes across India.

Finance Act 2017: ESOPs, FDI deals exempted from LTCG tax

New Delhi: The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) on Tuesday notified a series of exemptions to the anti-abuse provision introduced in the Finance Act 2017 to curtail money laundering through securities transactions.
The provision was aimed at preventing the misuse of long-term capital gains (LTCG) tax exemption through such transactions.
Relief given to genuine transactions is based on suggestions received after the CBDT, the apex direct tax policymaking body, brought out a draft notification in April. Tuesday’s announcement says the bona fide acquisition of securities on which the securities transaction tax (STT) is not paid, including employee stock options (ESOPs), foreign direct investment and court-approved transactions, will be exempt from LTCG tax.
Finance minister Arun Jaitley introduced amendments in the Income Tax Act this year to deny the LTCG exemption in all cases where STT is not paid, except the notified ones. The move was prompted by a recommendation by a Supreme Court-appointed special investigation team on black money that had highlighted the use of penny stocks in money laundering by inflating their price through market manipulation.
Tuesday’s notification says that when a listed firm’s shares are acquired outside the stock exchange and STT is not paid, LTCG tax is chargeable, except in cases such as acquisition of ESOPs, acquisitions as part of the government’s disinvestment programme and purchase of shares by non-residents in line with the foreign direct investment policy.
Also, where an off-market transaction is approved by the Supreme Court, the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) or the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the LTCG exemption is available even if STT is not paid. Investors prefer off-market purchases to avoid influencing the stock market.
The acquisition of shares under Sebi’s takeover code and off-market share purchases by venture capital funds and qualified institutional buyers are also exempt.
The exemptions are significant given the fact that many projects in stressed sectors could opt for bankruptcy proceedings in which lenders will explore various turnaround options including management and ownership change before considering liquidation and sale of physical assets.
The notification said that cases of acquiring infrequently traded listed securities via preferential issues will be subject to LTCG tax. Bona fide cases such as acquisitions made in line with orders by the apex court, NCLT, Sebi and RBI will be exempted. Other exemptions in this category include preferential issue of infrequently traded shares to non-residents, venture capital funds and qualified institutional buyers.
“This notification comes as a breather for foreign investors and venture capital houses as well as shareholders who have acquired shares upon corporate restructuring undertaken vide court-approved schemes on which no STT was paid. A crucial aspect that the final notification covers is granting of exemptions to taxpayers who have received shares in the course of employment (ESOPs),” said Abhishek Goenka, partner and leader, direct tax, PwC.

IMD upgrades monsoon forecast to 98% of long period average

New Delhi: Rainfall during the June-to-September southwest monsoon season will be normal this year, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said on Tuesday, confirming its first forecast that was issued in April.
According to the latest update, monsoon rainfall will likely be 98% of the long-period, or 50-year, average (LPA) for the entire country, more than the 96% IMD had estimated in April.
Monsoon rainfall will be fairly distributed across the country, IMD director general K.J. Ramesh said, adding that while central India is likely to receive 100% of normal rains, peninsular India will likely receive 99%. North-west and north-east India are expected to receive 96% of the normal rainfall.
IMD said rainfall during July and August will likely be 96% and 99% of the LPA, respectively. There is a 65% probability that rains will be normal to excess for the entire country, it added.
The weather office has ruled out the possibility of any strong El Nino developing during the latter half of the monsoon, Ramesh said, adding that “in view of this positive development we have upgraded the monsoon forecast from 96% to 98%”.
His reference is to a weather phenomenon that causes warmer oceans in the equatorial Pacific region that is normally associated with a poor monsoon in the subcontinent.
IMD’s forecast of 98% rainfall comes with a model error of 4 percentage points (on either side). A monsoon is considered to be normal when total rainfall is between 96% and 104% of the LPA.
On 30 May, the monsoon hit the Kerala coast, two days before its usual onset date. After making landfall in Kerala, it advances to other parts of the country over June.
The timely onset and improved forecast of the monsoon, together with fairly even region-wise and month-wise distribution, augurs well for rain-fed kharif crops and food inflation, Aditi Nayar, principal economist at rating agency Icra Ltd, said in a statement.
“Following the record high growth of most crops in 2016-17, we expect that growth in agriculture will moderate to 3.5% in 2017-18,” she added.
The onset of the monsoon kick-starts the sowing season for summer crops in the country. India receives 70% of its annual rainfall during this period, which irrigates over half of its rain-fed croplands.
In 2016, the monsoon was normal at 97% of LPA after two consecutive years of deficit. The normal monsoon last year aided a rebound in agricultural growth to 4.9% (2016-17) after dismal 0.7% growth and 0.2% contraction seen in 2015-16 and 2014-15, respectively.
The normal rains in 2016 also led to record foodgrain production of an estimated 273 million tonnes in 2016-17, about 9% higher than a year earlier.
Evenly distributed and normal rains will ensure a good harvest and keep food prices low, said Ashok Gulati, agriculture chair professor at the Delhi-based Indian Council for Research in International Economic Relations. “The challenge will be to ensure that farmers get at least announced support prices and are not forced to sell (produce) at a loss due to a glut,” Gulati said.

Centre has cleared record Rs 67,523 crore for urban infra in Maharashtra: Venkaiah Naidu

Mumbai: The Narendra Modi government at the Centre has approved a total investment of Rs67,523 crore to improve urban infrastructure in Maharashtra in three years, Union minister for urban development, housing, and urban poverty alleviation Venkaiah Naidu said on Tuesday.
Naidu said this was the highest investment in urban infrastructure approved for any Indian state in three years of the Modi government. The investment approved for Maharashtra accounted for more than 15% of the total investment of Rs4.35 trillion in the country in three years, he said.
Naidu was addressing a press conference after a two-day review of urban infrastructure, affordable housing, and sanitation projects being implemented in the state with central assistance. Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis was also present.
In these project approvals worth Rs67,523 crore, central assistance of Rs8,712 crore had been sanctioned to Maharashtra, he added.
The approved investments include Rs19,100 crore for seven smart cities in Maharashtra, the highest in any Indian state. “Around 218 projects are under implementation and tendering in Pune, Solapur, Kalyan-Dombivli, Nagpur, Nashik, Thane and Aurangabad which are among the 60 smart cities selected. All these seven cities are setting up integrated command and control centres to improve service delivery and Pune and Nagpur would become the first cities in the country on 25th of this month to actually operationalize such centres to mark the second anniversary of the ‘Smart City’ project,” Naidu said.
An investment of Rs20,100 crore has been approved for Nagpur and Pune metros which is 42% of the total investment of Rs48,000 crore approved for metro projects in the country in three years.
“In the next five to six years, Maharashtra would have operational metro projects with a total length of 360km spread over nine metro corridors. A total investment of Rs1.4 trillion would flow into these metro projects and increase the number of daily metro users to about 10 million per day,” Naidu said.

India is committed to transform the energy landscape of the country with significant clean energy share

New Delhi: India is committed to transform the energy landscape of the country with significant clean energy share, said Dr Harsh Vardhan, Union Minister of Science & Technology, Environment, Forest & Climate Change and Earth Sciences in his greeting speech on the occasion of Launch Ceremony of Mission Innovation Challenge on Smart Grids in Beijing today. Grid integration, stability and robustness are the foremost issues which need to be addressed for increasing the share of clean energy. The Minister congratulated all the Mission Innovation participant countries, who have come forward and decided to work together to take on this challenge collectively, engaging and involving, stake holders from industries, utilities, scientific institutions and research laboratories.
Dr. Harshvardhan said that under the visionary leadership of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, India has mounted initiative to promote global actions for clean energy. President of France and Prime Minister of India in the presence of UN Secretary General launched International Solar Alliance (ISA) in November 2015 to provide dedicated platform for cooperation among solar resource rich countries beween ‘Tropic of Cancer’ and ‘Tropic of Capricorn’. Government of India has committed to a corpus fund of more than US $ 25 million besides providing space and secretariat expenses for initial 5 years. 31 countries have already joined ISA.
India was also one of the three countries, which took initiative in sowing the seed of ‘Mission Innovation’. These initial efforts culminated into 20 countries joining in November 2015 to launch Mission Innovation. All the MI countries bring significant research prowess and resources in this global endeavour. Community of Mission Innovation has now enlarged to 23 countries and includes European Union.
The laudable objectives of Mission Innovation needed instruments to realise the loftier goals. The Minister complimented sub-group on Action and Joint Research, who developed innovation challenges to convert these global calls into action. Innovation challenges cover entire spectrum of research, development and demonstration right from early stage research need assessment to technology demonstration. The spectrum of innovation challenges demonstrates the leading themes on which R&D need to be focussed for affordable innovation.
He expressed his happiness that innovation challenge on smart grids has developed its work programme smartly right from the early stage. This is the first MI team to organise the deep dive workshop. Development of the work plan as well as organisation of this workshop was done jointly by 3 leading research institutions and co-leads from each of the lead countries namely China, Italy and India. All the 20 participating countries have made significant contributions in terms of development of the status reports and identification of research and development priorities. International agencies such as IEA, IRENA, ISGAN, WEF etc. have further strengthened the programme .
Under the visionary leadership of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, India’s plan of setting up 175 GW renewable power capacity by the end of 2022 is fully matched with tremendous progress on the ground. During the last year alone, the capacity addition of solar energy was more than the cumulative capacities set up till 2015 and our renewable energy capacity has leapfrogged to more than 52 GW. By 2030, non fossil energy sources will make up 40 percent of installed capacity.
India has vibrant national R&D infrastructure with R&D institutions, several universities, technical institutions, public sector undertakings and industries conducting research funded by Ministry of Power, Renewable Energy and Science & Technology. India has funded around US $ 50 million towards national as well as bilateral programmes with Netherlands, UK and US. India has also launched initiatives for renewable forecasting and scheduling, storage technologies, wide area grid measurement, demand response pilots etc. Monitoring, protection and control of grids, forecasting of generation and loads, seamless two way grid operations, systems for large data management, robust and secure communication technologies, devices and components for better functionality ,demand side management and storage, etc are important issues for larger as well as micro grids.
The Minister shared India’s report on research, development and demonstration on smart grids to further activities of this challenge and informed that India recently organised 1st MI India workshop of more than 40 top experts in the country representing all stakeholders at IIT- Delhi to identify R&D priorities for collaboration under Mission Innovation. He announced MI-India Funding Opportunity Announcement on these R&D priorities with an investment of US$5 million by Government of India.
He expressed hope that the collective endeavours would enable to realise the vision of an affordable, reliable future smart grids powered by decentralised energy sources which will be robust and suitable in diverse geographic conditions and would be able to develop technological solutions to make world a cleaner place.

Two-wheeler sales to grow 8-10% in FY18 note ban pangs waning: ICRA

New Delhi: Two-wheeler sales in India have started to recover and are expected to rise by 8-10 per cent in FY 2017-18, as per credit rating agency, ICRA. The sales from November 2016 to March 2017 fell 6.5 per cent year-on-year due to demonetisation and ban of BS-III models. However, as the impact of demonetisation has started fading, two-wheeler sales recorded a growth of 7.3 per cent in April 2017. ICRA further stated that pent up demand due to the deferment of purchases from October 2016 to March 2017 will also give a boost to demand from this segment. Revised pays to government employees, pensioners and muted consumer price index (CPI) will support demand from the urban segment. Demand from the rural segment will be supported by two good crop seasons, forecast of normal monsoon and rural employment guarantee schemes.

India's first 'private' railway station Habibganj to come up near Bhopal

Bhopal: If all goes according to plan, Habibganj in the suburbs of Bhopal will redefine the concept of a railway station in India. The country’s first railway station to be redeveloped as a public-private partnership (PPP), Habibganj is set to become a swanky commercial hub with shops, offices and hotels, all in a span of three years.
The operation and maintenance responsibilities for the station have been given to Bhopal-based Bansal Group for a period of eight years. It has also received four land parcels on a 45-year lease. The group, which operates in the infrastructure and construction sector, also runs a television channel and educational institutions. It won the bid in 2016.
Bansal Group will invest Rs100 crore to overhaul the station which was opened in 1979, and around Rs350 crore to develop four commercial land parcels adding up to 17,245 sq. m.
“We plan to develop the commercial areas in two phases—two office-cum-shopping complexes in the first phase, and under the second phase, a multi-speciality hospital and a budget- and five-star hotel,” said group managing director Sunil Bansal.
On 9 June, railway minister Suresh Prabhu will launch commencement of the station re-development work in Bhopal. The Habibganj railway station will be designed as a world-class transit hub, with a central concourse equipped with amenities for waiting passengers; arriving and departing passengers will be segregated. The environment-friendly station will be powered by solar energy and has facilities for the differently-abled. The station will have six lifts, 11 escalators and three travelators, along with two underpasses of 4m each provided for arriving passengers.
The station will have parking space for 300 cars, 850 two-wheelers, rickshaws, taxis and buses. In case of an emergency, the premises can be evacuated in four minutes and passengers can reach designated points of safety in six minutes.
“The management of the Habibganj railway station was given to the Bansal Group on March 1, 2017. They will be taking care of all the facilities at the station like food stalls, retiring rooms, power, platform maintenance, parking,” said Indian Railway Station Development Corporation (IRSDC) managing director and chief executive officer S.K. Lohia. The company will not be responsible for core operations such as train and parcel movement, signalling and ticketing.
IRSDC, which is overseeing the Habibganj project, is a special purpose vehicle formed by railway unit Ircon International Ltd (IRCON) and Rail Land Development Authority (RLDA) to undertake station redevelopment projects.
The national carrier plans to modernize and upgrade passenger amenities at stations by raising money through commercial development of railway land. Railway minister Prabhu is betting on non-fare avenues such as land monetization, catering and parking to boost overall revenue.
“Being the first PPP railway station project, the success of the project is very important as it will become a role model for the other projects. The project’s success will give confidence to infrastructure developers who have been careful in investing in such brownfield projects,” said Lohia of IRSDC.
The Habibganj project was undertaken as part of the Indian Railways’ ambitious plan to re-develop 400 A1 and A category railway stations.
The idea of setting up world-class railway stations was mooted in 2009-10 by then railway minister Mamata Banerjee. Although initial studies were carried out in 2010, it was only in 2015 that the project was revived by Prabhu.
“It took us around eight years to define world-class. The standards of India as compared with other countries were very different and what railways wanted was not replication of one model but amalgamation of several models,” said a senior railway ministry official, asking not to be identified.
Apart from Habibganj, other projects being handled by IRSDC are Anand Vihar (Delhi), Bijwasan (Delhi), Chandigarh, Surat (Gujarat), Mohali (Punjab) and Gandhinagar (Gujarat).
Indian Railways’ ambition of redeveloping 400 stations into world-class facilities is completely based on land monetization.
“The inventory of railway assets shows that there is huge potential in the land and what we are doing is just using that potential for a limited period of time. There is no harm in monetizing land resources of railways which are getting encroached (on) with every passing day,” the railway official mentioned earlier said.
Bansal said the railways needed to make the station redevelopment deal more lucrative.
“A lease of 99 years instead of 45 years, maintenance period extendable from 5-20 years and residential opportunities would attract more bidders,” Bansal said.
A railway board member who didn’t want to be identified said the deal could have been more lucrative for Indian Railways.
“The whole concept of land monetization would have been good, provided there was clarity. It’s prime land which is being given to the developers at circle rates of the area and not the commercial price. Besides, there is no revenue model, like royalties from developer for 45 years from the commercial development, which is a raw deal for the railways,” the board member said.
Indian Railways has adopted three models for station redevelopment. One is the PPP model, under which a project is planned, statutory clearances obtained and a developer is chosen to upgrade a facility. The second is collaboration with foreign governments to develop stations. The third model is the Swiss Challenge method, where bidders have the freedom to design and develop a project after obtaining approvals on their own. Under this method, the company whose project plan is accepted is given the opportunity to work on the project at the price quoted by the lowest bidder. If it does not accept this, then the project is given to the lowest bidder.

24 States pass the State GST (SGST) Act while 7 states viz. Meghalaya, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Jammu & Kashmir and West Bengal have yet to pass the SGST Act

New Delhi: Twenty Four (24) States have passed the State GST (SGST) Act till today i.e. 5th June, 2017 while 7 States viz. Meghalaya, Punjab,Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Jammu & Kashmir and West Bengal have yet to pass the State GST (SGST) Act .
The details of the States which have passed the State GST Act till today are as follows:
7 States viz. Meghalaya, Punjab,Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Jammu & Kashmir and West Bengal have yet to pass the SGST Act.
Sl. No Name of the State Date on which SGST Act passed in the Assembly
1 Telangana Act Passed on 9th April 2017
2 Bihar Act Passed on 24th April, 2017
3 Rajasthan Act Passed on 26th April 2017
4 Jharkhand Act Passed on 27th April, 2017
5 Chhattisgarh Act Passed on 28th April, 2017
6 Uttarakhand Act Passed on 2nd May, 2017
7 Madhya Pradesh Act Passed on 3rd May, 2017
8 Haryana Act Passed on 4th May, 2017
9 Goa Act Passed on 9th May, 2017
10 Gujarat Act Passed on 9th May, 2017
11 Assam Act Passed on 11th May, 2017
12 Arunachal Pradesh Act Passed on 12th May, 2017
13 Andhra Pradesh Act Passed on 16th May, 2017
14 Uttar Pradesh Act Passed on 16th May, 2017 (in both the Houses)
15 Puducherry Act Passed on 17th May, 2017
16 Odisha Act Passed on 19th May, 2017
17 Maharashtra Act Passed on 22nd May, 2017
18 Tripura Act Passed on 25th May, 2017
19 Sikkim Act Passed on 25th May, 2017
20 Mizoram Act Passed on 25th May, 2017
21 Nagaland Act Passed on 27th May, 2017
22 Himachal Pradesh Act Passed on 27th May, 2017
23 Delhi Act Passed on 31st May, 2017
24 Manipur Act Passed on 5th June, 2017

STATES YET TO PASS SGST ACT
Sl. No Name of the State
1 Meghalaya
2 Punjab
3 Tamil Nadu
4 Karnataka
5 Kerala
6 Jammu & Kashmir
7 West Bengal

Government to implement India's first rural LED street lighting project in Andhra Pradesh

New Delhi: Government of India, through the Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL) under the Ministry of Power, would be retrofitting 10 lakh conventional street lights with LED lights in Gram Panchayats of 7 districts in Andhra Pradesh. This is the first project for rural LED street lighting in the country under the Government of India’s Street Lighting National Project (SLNP). In the first phase, the replacement will be undertaken in gram panchayats of the districts of Guntur, Prakasham, Nellore, Kurnool, Kadapa, Ananthapur and Chittoor.
This replacement drive in rural areas will help the gram panchayats to cumulatively save approximately 147 million units of electricity annually and lead to reduction of 12 crore tonnes of CO2. The entire upfront capital cost of this project is being funded by French Development Agency Agence Française de Développement (AFD). As part of the project, EESL would be carrying out the entire annual maintenance and warranty replacement in these gram panchayats for a period of 10 years.
Earlier this year, Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, Shri N. Chandrababu Naidu, had stated that approximately 30 lakh conventional street lights across villages in the state would be replaced by LED street lights by 2018. Through the installation of 10 lakh LED street lights, EESL has assured the State government of approximately 59 percent savings in electricity, which translates to annual monetary savings of ₹88.2 crores.
Andhra Pradesh was the first state to seek assistance from EESL to replace conventional street lighting with LED lighting in Visakhapatnam, after the cyclone Hudhud caused extensive damage to the then existing street lighting infrastructure. Ever since then, EESL has installed over 5,90,000 LED street lights in the State. These installations have led to an annual savings of over 7.8 crore kWh, translating into an annual reduction of over 65,000 tonnes of CO2.
Nationally, over 23 lakh conventional street lights have been replaced by LED street lights in 21 States of India. As per the 18th Electric Power Survey of Central Electricity Authority (CEA), the estimated energy consumption in Indian public lighting sector is 8478 M KWh in 2012-13 and is constantly growing at a CAGR of 7 percent. Keeping in mind this growth rate, Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi launched 100 cities National Programme on January 5, 2015 to convert conventional street and domestic lights with energy efficient LED lights. Under Street Light National Programme (SLNP), the government aims at replacement of 1.34 crore conventional street lights across the country.

India overtakes China on ease of doing business, shows global retail index

Singapore: India has surpassed China to secure the top position among 30 developing countries on ease of doing business, according to a study that cited India’s rapidly expanding economy, relaxation of foreign direct investment (FDI) rules and a consumption boom as the key drivers.
The 2017 Global Retail Development Index (GRDI), now in its 16th edition, ranks the top 30 developing countries for retail investment worldwide and analyses 25 macroeconomic and retail-specific variables.
India’s rapidly expanding economy, easing of FDI rules and a consumption boom are the key drivers for the country’s top ranking in the GRDI. The GRDI, titled ‘The Age of Focus’, ranks China in second place. Despite its slower overall economic growth, the market’s size and the continued evolution of retail still make China one of the most attractive markets for retail investment.
“The study is unique in that it not only identifies the markets that are most attractive today, but also those that offer future potential,” said the management consulting firm A.T. Kearney in a statement.
India’s retail sector has been growing at an annual rate of 20%. Total sales surpassed the $1 trillion-mark last year and the sector is expected to double in size by 2020. Rapid urbanisation and a growing middle-class with higher income levels is driving up consumption across the country, the consultancy group said. The government’s continued support to relax FDI regulations in key areas of the retail sector have provided further boost to its growth, it noted.
In the past year, the government has allowed 100% foreign ownership in business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce businesses and for retailers that sell food products. India’s retail sector has also benefited from the rapid growth in e-commerce. It is projected to grow 30% annually and reach $48 billion by 2020. Retailers have been quick to seize the opportunity with 86% of e-commerce dominated by pure-play online retailers in 2016.
The Indian government’s effort to boost cashless payments (witnessed in the recent nationwide demonetisation exercise) and reform indirect taxation with a nationwide goods and services tax (GST) are also expected to accelerate adoption of formal retail.
“India’s top ranking is a clear vote of confidence in its retail market and vast growth potential,” said Debashish Mukherjee, partner with A.T. Kearney and head of the consumer industries & retail products practice for India. PTI