Government of India and AIIB sign agreement for $500 million to improve the network capacity, service quality and safety of the suburban railway system in Mumbai

 

The Government of India, the Government of Maharashtra, Mumbai Railway Vikas Corporation and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) today signed a loan agreement for a US$ 500 million Mumbai Urban Transport Project-III to improve the network capacity, service quality and safety of the suburban railway system in Mumbai.

The Project is expected to increase network capacity in the region with the reduction in journey time and fatal accidents of commuters. It is estimated that among primary beneficiaries of the project, 22 per cent are female passengers who will benefit from improved safety and quality of service.

The loan agreement was signed by Shri Sameer Kumar Khare, Additional Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance, on behalf of the Government of India, Shri Sanjay Kumar, Chief Secretary on behalf of the Government of Maharashtra, Shri R. S. Khurana, Chief Managing Director on behalf of the Mumbai Rail Vikas Corporation and Shri Rajat Misra, Director General (Acting), Investment Operations on behalf of the AIIB.

Shri Khare said that this project will assist in improved mobility, service quality and safety of passengers of the sub urban railway system of Mumbai, by providing faster, more reliable, and higher quality transport services compared to road-based transport. There will be direct safety benefits to passengers and the public through introduction of trespass control measures.

With a population of 22.8 million (2011), Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) is the most populous metropolitan region in India and is expected to reach 29.3 million by 2031 and 32.1 million by 2041. This population growth represents the core driver behind Mumbai’s urban expansion, compelling the state of Maharashtra to prioritize sound urban and infrastructure planning which balances economic activities, mobility as well as the optimization of environmental and social outcomes.

Around 86 per cent of Mumbai commuters rely on public transport. However, supply has not kept pace with rising travel demand. The Mumbai suburban railway network, which carries three quarters of all motorized travel (78 per cent of passenger km or eight million passengers per day) increasing at three per cent annually, suffers from some of the most severe overcrowding in the world. User experience is further compromised by low amenity of carriages, substandard stations and station access, and serious safety concerns. Between 2002-2012, there were more than 36,152 fatalities (on average, 9.9 fatalities per day) and 36,688 injuries on the Mumbai suburban railway network. A key reason for accidents and deaths is trespassing at or between stations as well as overcrowding of both stations and train cars.

AIIB Vice President D.J. Pandian said that this project represents another major step in supporting our member countries in their efforts to provide transport capacity while removing transport bottlenecks, and thus improving the daily commuting experience of millions of Mumbaikars. In line with our Transport Sector Strategy, the Mumbai Urban Transport Project-III will also help in reducing carbon emissions by shifting passengers away from higher-carbon road transport towards efficient and convenient rail-based mobility. In addition, female passengers will benefit from improved safety and quality of service.

The total estimated cost of the project is US$ 997 million, of which US$ 500 million will be financed by the AIIB, US$ 310 million by the Government of Maharashtra and US$ 187 million by Ministry of Railways. The US$ 500 million loan from the AIIB has a 5-year grace period and a maturity of 30 years.

Digital payments market in India likely to grow 3-folds to Rs 7,092 trillion by 2025: Report

 

Digital payments in India are expected to increase over three-folds to Rs 7,092 trillion (US$ 100.61 trillion) by 2025 on account of government policies around financial inclusion and growing digitisation of merchants, according to a research report by RedSeer Consulting. In 2019-20. the country's digital payment market was worth around Rs 2,162 trillion (US$ 30.67 trillion).

"The current 160 million unique mobile payment users will multiply by five times to reach nearly 800 million by 2025. This growth will be driven by a number of demand and supply-side drivers," said the Bengaluru-based management consultancy.

"Mobile payments will drive around 3.5 per cent of total digital payments of Rs 7,092 trillion (US$ 100.61 trillion) by financial year 2025, up from the current one per cent. The total mobile payment users who currently stand at about 162 million would reach around 800 million during this period," the report added.

It is estimated that the wallets will continue to be major contributor in the growth with the constant increase in both frequency and user base.

RedSeer offers its service to various e-commerce companies and venture capitalists including Tiger Global. It estimated that this growth of digital payments will be on the back of increased penetration with offline merchants and the penetration with the unorganised retail sector, which will grow on the back of increased merchant digitisation in cities beyond tier II.

COVID-19 was seen as a catalyst to digital payments across India by RedSeer.

"COVID-19 seems like another demonetisation-like catalyst for the industry. Digital payment providers have been quite hands-on in terms of responding to this situation, by offering enhanced support on essentials such as offering groceries, masks, sanitisers, COVID-19 insurance, offering integration with donations to PM fund and other essential product and services," RedSeer Consulting founder and CEO Mr Anil Kumar said.

It was seen that share of grocery stores increased to 75 per cent in digital payments due to COVID-19 as people opted paying through mobile phone due to safety concerns.

"There is significant headroom for growth of EDC (electronics data capture) terminals in the small retailer universe. Large and mid-sized retailers use more than 2 EDC terminals. Today we have around 5 million terminals, which is almost 5 times that in financial year 2015," the report said.

The report further added that the payment gateway aggregator market in India is expected to grow by 2.4 times driven by large value transactions from current Rs 9.5 trillion (US$ 134.77 billion). The growth at a compounded annual growth rate of 19 per cent in the next five years to reach Rs 22.6 trillion (US$ 320.61 billion) is expected by FY25.

"The payment gateway market today is very competitive, and all leading players are fighting for the market share. Paytm leads this pack and has grown the fastest followed by BillDesk with marquee government clients," the report said.

Singapore govt invests Rs 450 crore in Phoenix Mills share sale

 

The Government of Singapore has invested Rs 450 crore (US$ 63.84 million) in the latest qualified institutional placement (QIP) offering of mall developer Phoenix Mills Ltd.

Sor far, Phoenix Mills has raised Rs 1,100 crore (US$ 156.05 million) through its QIP.

The biggest investor in the share sale was the Government of Singapore, contributing almost 41 per cent of the total amount.

The sale also included some major domestic institutional investors such as ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund, SBI Mutual Fund and Aditya Birla Sun Life Mutual Fund, according to the stock exchange filing of the company.

The investors were issued shares at Rs 603 (US$ 8.55) apiece.

Phoenix Mills plans to utilise this proceeding of the QIP in growth opportunities including investing in existing and proposed business ventures, proposed acquisitions, debt service obligations, capital expenditure and working capital requirements.

The advisor for Phoenix Mills were Investment banks Kotak Mahindra Capital and UBS.

It has been seen that the Singapore Government and its investment arms have been flowing in large sums of capital into listed Indian companies, especially financial services companies.

Singapore govt and its investment arms have so far committed a total of US$ 670 million in ICICI Bank Ltd, HDFC Ltd, and Bandhan Bank Ltd in the first half of August.

EPFO Makes Significant Progress in Updating KYC of its Subscribers During July- 2020 Despite COVID Pandemic

 

During the month of July 2020, EPFO has been successful in updating 2.39 lakh Aadhaar's, 4.28 lakh Mobile numbers and 5.26 lakh Bank Account's in the Universal Account Number (UAN) of its subscribers.

As the country faces the unprecedented challenge of the COVID 19 pandemic, the concept of social distancing has assumed immense importance. EPFO, as the principal social Security Organization in the country, has been striving hard, to provide unhindered services to its subscribers through digital mode with almost minimal contact.

The organization, in its endeavour to extend the availability and reach of its online services, has been proactively updating its Know Your Customer (KYC) data to enable its subscribers in availing its services through online mode.

The KYC updation is a onetime Process that helps in the identity verification of its subscribers through linking of the UAN with the KYC details. Once this exercise is completed and seeded KYC details validated, the EPFO subscriber becomes empowered to avail services of EPFO through digital mode.

To safeguard its subscribers and its employees, the organization has consciously adopted a strategy for active focus on KYC updating of its subscribers, through deployment of its workforce on this crucial task as Work from Home activity. Many EPFO staff members are exclusively assigned the task of updating KYC, including rectification of the details as a WFH activity. This has been undertaken as a time bound exercise which has yielded very encouraging results. This KYC updation has helped tremendously in empowerment of EPFO subscribers for availing services of EPFO in digital mode and thus eliminating need for any kind of physical contact with any office of EPFO for its needs.

Shri Gadkari to lay foundation Stone and inaugurate 35 highway projects worth over Rs 9400 crore in Madhya Pradesh

 Union Minister for Road Transport, Highways and MSMEs Shri Nitin Gadkari will lay foundation stone of and inaugurate 35 highway projects in Madhya Pradesh on Tuesday, August 25, 2020. Chief Minister Shri Shivraj Singh Chauhan will preside over the virtual function, to be attended by Union Ministers Shri Thavarch and Gehlot and Shri Narendra Singh Tomar, MoSs Shri Prahlad Singh Patel, Shri Faggan Singh Kulaste and Gen (Dr) V K Singh (Rtd), Ministers from the State, several MPs, MLAs and senior officers from the Centre and the State.

These projects for inauguration and foundation laying carry a Road length of 1,139 kilometers, involving construction value of over Rs 9,400 crore (US$ 1.33 billion). Paving the way for development of MP, these roads will enhance better connectivity, convenience, and economic growth in the State.

Aarogya Setu introduces 'Open API Service', a novel feature to help the people, businesses and the economy to return to normalcy

 As we move on to the new normal of learning to live with COVID19, Aarogya Setu team has worked on a new innovative feature which is called ‘Open API Service’. In order to help businesses and economy to start functioning while being safe, the Open API Service enables organizations to check the status of Aarogya Setu and integrate it into its various Work from Home features. The Open API Service of Aarogya Setu, addresses the fear/risk of COVID-19 infections and help the people, businesses, and the economy to return to normalcy.

Aarogya Setu has been powering India’s fight against COVID-19 since its launch on 2nd April 2020. Aarogya Setu has now emerged as the most downloaded contact tracing App in the world, with more than 15 crore Users. The overwhelming support of the people has enabled Aarogya Setu to aid the efforts of frontline health workers and the Government in COVID-19 mitigation and management efforts. More than 6.6 million Bluetooth contacts have been traced and percentage positive of those who have tested is almost 27 per cent. Thus, Aarogya Setu based Bluetooth contact tracing and testing is very efficient and effective. Similarly, many others have been advised for caution and quarantine and it has led to breaking the chain of spread and has been effective in early detection and ensuring that fatality rates in India are amongst the lowest. The Aarogya Setu ITIHAS interface which uses location data and Aarogya Setu analytics to predict emerging hotspots at Sub Pincode levels has been very effective in helping the health officials and administration to take necessary precautionary steps. More than 30,000 hotspots have been identified at a very granular level of 300 m X 300 m and shared with State Governments and Districts.

Since its launch, Aarogya Setu has continuously innovated and introduced more novel features like e-pass integration, QR Code scanning, sharing of Health status with family/known persons - all of which have been very effective in keeping India and Indians safe in line with the motto of Aarogya Setu – Main Surakshit, Hum Surakshit, Bharat Surakshit.

Open API Service

The Open API Service of Aarogya Setu, can be availed by organizations and business entities, who are registered in India with more than 50 employees, and they can use the Open API Service to query the Aarogya Setu Application in real-time and get the health status of their employees or any other Aarogya Setu User, who have provided their consent for sharing their health status with the organization. The Open API shall only provide the Aarogya Setu status and name of the Aarogya Setu User (with User's consent). No other personal data shall be provided through the API.

Registration for Open API Service can be done at: https://openapi.aarogyasetu.gov.in

Technical queries, related to Open API can be addressed to: openapi.aarogyasetu@gov.in

Indian Railways generates more than 6,40,000 mandays of work till 21 August 2020 under Gareeb Kalyan Rozgar Abhiyan

 

Indian Railways has generated more than 6,40,000 mandays of work under Gareeb Kalyan Rozgar Abhiyan in 6 States viz. Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh.

Shri Piyush Goyal, Minister of Railways and Commerce and Industry is closely monitoring the progress made in these projects and generation of work opportunities for the migrant labours of these states under this scheme. Around 165 Railway infrastructure projects are being executed in these states.

Till 21 August 2020, 12,276 workers have been engaged in this Abhiyaan and the payment of Rs 1,410.35 crore (US$ 200.08 million) has been released to the contractors for the projects being implemented.

Railway has appointed nodal officers in each district as well as in the States so that a close coordination is established with the State Government.

Railway has identified no. of railway works which are being executed under this scheme. The works are related to

• construction and maintenance of approach roads for level crossings,
• development & cleaning of silted waterways, trenches and drains along the track,
• construction and maintenance of approach road to railway stations,
• repair and widening of existing railway embankments / cuttings,
• plantation of trees at extreme boundary of railway land and
• protection works of existing embankments/ cuttings/bridges.

It may be noted that Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi launched a massive employment -cum- rural public works campaign named Garib Kalyan Rojgar Abhiyaan to empower and provide livelihood opportunities in areas/ villages witnessing large number of returnee migrant workers affected by the devastating COVID-19 on 20th June 2020. The Prime Minister announced that an amount of Rs 50,000 crore (US$ 7.09 billion) would be spent for building durable rural infrastructure under the Garib Kalyan Rojgar Abhiyaan.

This Abhiyaan of 125 days, is being undertaken in mission mode, and involves focused implementation of 25 categories of works/ activities in 116 districts, each with a large concentration of returnee migrant workers in 6 states of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Jharkhand and Odisha. Public works is being undertaken during this campaign will have a resource envelope of Rs 50,000 crore (US$ 7.09 billion).

The Abhiyaan is a convergent effort between 12 different Ministries/Departments, namely; Rural Development, Panchayati Raj, Road Transport & Highways, Mines, Drinking Water & Sanitation, Environment, Railways, Petroleum & Natural Gas, New & Renewable Energy, Border Roads, Telecom and Agriculture, to expedite implementation of 25 public infrastructure works and works relating to augmentation of livelihood opportunities.

1.22 crore Kisan Credit Cards sanctioned with credit limit of Rs 1,02,065 crore under the special saturation drive

 In an effort to buffer the agricultural sector from the shock of COVID-19, a special saturation drive is underway to provide concessional credit to farmers through Kisan Credit Card (KCC). As on 17.08.2020, 1.22 crore KCCs have been sanctioned with credit limit of Rs 1,02,065 crore (US$ 14.48 billion). This will go a long way in reviving the rural economy and accelerating agricultural growth.

It may be recalled that as part of the Aatma Nirbhar Bharat Package, the Government had announced provision of a concessional credit of Rs 2 lakh crore (US$ 28.37 billion) which is likely to benefit 2.5 crore farmers, including fishermen and dairy farmers.

Tata Tele partners FirstWave solutions to expand cyber security portfolio

 

Tata Teleservices (TTSL) has partnered with Australian cloud security company FirstWave Cloud Technology to expand its cyber security portfolio.

Under this partnership, TTSL will use FirstWave's Cloud Content Security Platform (CCSP) to provide email security, web security, next-generation firewall, endpoint security and multi-factor authentication (MFA) Security Services.

The SMB customers of Tata Teleservices will have access to a comprehensive smart perimeter security proposition that is robust, scalable and can be rapidly deployed at an affordable cost as a part of this agreement, the company said.

"The COVID-19 Pandemic has created a unique set of opportunities and threats in its wake. We are excited to partner with FirstWave to offer Customers a world-class Platform based Security Portfolio that will enable them to meet these cybersecurity threats, efficiently and cost-effectively," TTSL president for enterprise business Harjit Singh said.

The company will offer security solutions for customers using public and private cloud business applications.

Tata group had earlier sold consumer mobile business to Bharti Airtel but continues to operate the enterprise division of TTSL.

Atal Innovation Mission partners with India-Sweden Healthcare Innovation Centre to expand Start-up ecosystem

 In line with a shared vision of expanding the culture of innovation in the country, Atal Innovation Mission (AIM), NITI Aayog and Business Sweden on behalf of India Sweden Healthcare Innovation Centre are collaborating to promote the disruptive potential of Indian entrepreneurs, and, boost the vibrant start-up ecosystem across the country.

A virtual Statement of Intent (SoI) was signed between AIM and India-Sweden Healthcare Innovation Centre here on Thursday, 20 August 2020.

Under AIM, various programmes or initiatives are being run such as Atal New India Challenge (ANIC), Atal Incubation Centre (AIC), Atal Community Innovation Centers (ACIC), Atal Tinkering Lab (ATL) and Atal Research & Innovation for Small Enterprises (ARISE). Through this collaboration, these initiatives are set to receive support by the means of conducting programs, awareness campaigns, various activities and events that would promote the overall innovation grid of both the countries through these programmes.

India-Sweden Healthcare Innovation Centre is a collaboration between AIIMS Delhi, AIIMS Jodhpur and Business Sweden. The Innovation Centre aims to create an ecosystem of open innovation and is built under strategic guidance from Government of India’s Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), Government of Sweden’s Ministry of Health and Social Affairs and Embassy of Sweden in India. It also has a strong network of ecosystem partners - Invest India, AGNII, Start-up India, and knowledge partners – AstraZeneca, NASSCOM and VINNOVA. The Innovation centre has recently launched its first healthcare innovation challenge to collaborate with partners on the Innovation Centre platform to help solve some of the problems in the healthcare delivery landscape of India. Through this collaboration with Atal Innovation Mission, the India-Sweden Healthcare Innovation centre ecosystem will be further strengthened to provide all the required support to the innovators for faster scale-up of their solutions.

“We are very proud that India-Sweden Healthcare Innovation Centre is partnering with us in our endeavours to nourish the existing innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem in India while also enabling innovation collaborations with counterparts in Sweden. Such synergies will enable a vibrant growth of world class Indian start-ups addressing both Indian and global opportunities leveraging global partnerships and networks of Swedish companies,” Mission Director AIM, NITI Aayog R Ramanan said.

He added that the collaboration with India Sweden Healthcare Innovation Centre is in line with AIM’s various initiatives that have been taken in recent past for scaling up the country’s entrepreneurial and innovation network through several international collaborations.

Sharing further details about the SoI, he mentioned that AIM will be supporting initiatives such as Innovation Challenges, Incubation, Mentorship, access to funding networks, innovation showcase and conference events.

Meanwhile, the India Sweden Healthcare Innovation Centre has agreed to support the goals of AIM by enabling synergies towards creating a sustainable ecosystem of innovation and entrepreneurship between the two countries. This will also include building seamless experience for the start-ups onboarded at India-Sweden Innovation centre.

Virtual SoI was signed by Mission Director AIM, NITI Aayog R Ramanan and the Swedish Trade Commissioner to India, Mr Anders Wickberg on behalf of the India Sweden Healthcare Innovation Centre

Sharing his views during the signing event, Wickberg asserted that “We are very happy to partner with AIM who has been playing a significant role in promoting Indian start-up ecosystem. The collaboration with AIM will further strengthen the India-Sweden healthcare innovation centre eco-system to enable seamless experience and faster scale-up to start-ups onboarded with the India-Sweden Healthcare innovation centre”

All such steps being taken by AIM, NITI Aayog are expected to shape the future of a thriving innovation and start up economy across the country.