Growth in India to pick up further in 2017, 2018: IMF

Washington: India will stay ahead of China on the growth curve in 2017 and 2018, said the International Monetary Fund (IMF) while retaining the country's GDP forecast at 7.2 per cent for the current fiscal.
"Growth in India is forecast to pick up further in 2017 and 2018," the IMF said in its latest World Economic Outlook Update released in Kuala Lumpur on Monday.
China's growth, the IMF said, is expected to remain at 6.7 per cent in 2017, the same level as in 2016, and to decline only modestly in 2018 to 6.4 per cent.
Global output is projected to grow by 3.5 per cent in 2017 and 3.6 per cent in 2018, said the report.
"While activity slowed following the currency exchange initiative, growth for 2016 at 7.1 per cent was higher than anticipated due to strong government spending and data revisions that show stronger momentum in the first part of the year," the IMF said in its latest update.
Global growth for 2016 is now estimated at 3.2 per cent, slightly stronger than that of April 2017.
This primarily reflects much higher growth in Iran and stronger activity in India following national accounts revisions, the report said.
"Economic activity in both advanced economies and emerging and developing economies is forecast to accelerate in 2017, to 2 per cent and 4.6 per cent respectively, with global growth projected to be 3.5 per cent, unchanged from the April forecast," it said.
The growth forecast for 2018 is 1.9 per cent for advanced economies, 0.1 percentage point below the April 2017 WEO, and 4.8 per cent for emerging and developing economies, the same as in the spring.
The 2018 global growth forecast is unchanged at 3.6 per cent.
The revisions mirror primarily macroeconomic implications of changes in policy assumptions for the world's two largest economies, the United States and China, the multilateral agency said.
According to the report, China's forecast for 2017 was revised up by 0.1 percentage point, signalling the stronger than expected outturn in the first quarter of the year underpinned by previous policy easing and supply-side reforms.
For 2018, the upward revision of 0.2 percentage point mainly reflects an expectation that the authorities will delay fiscal adjustment to meet their target of doubling 2010 real GDP by 2020.
The delay comes at the cost of further large increases in debt, but downside risks around this baseline have also increased, it said.
According to the IMF, China's failure to continue focus on addressing financial sector risks and curb excessive credit growth could result in an abrupt growth slowdown, with adverse spillovers to other countries through trade, commodity price, and confidence channels.
A faster-than-expected monetary policy normalisation in the United States could tighten global financial conditions and trigger reversals in capital flows to emerging economies, along with US dollar appreciation, it predicted.
The US is projected to grow at a clip of 2.1 per cent in 2017 and 2018.

Prime Minister Modi and Prime Minister Costa launch unique Start-up portal

New Delhi: Prime Minister Modi and Prime Minister Costa today launched a unique startup Portal - the India-Portugal International StartUp Hub (IPISH) - in Lisbon.
This is a platform initiated by Startup India and supported by Commerce & Industry Ministry and Startup Portugal to create a mutually supportive entrepreneurial partnership.
IPISH hosts a range of tools and will provide information on the start-up hotspots of Bangalore, Delhi and Lisbon; and on associated subjects, such as policy, taxation, and visa options. It will develop a Go-To-Market Guide to support start-ups.
IPISH is expected to help in mutual capacity building, and enable connections between start-ups, investors, and incubators from relevant sectors. It is also expected to establish a network of honorary ambassadors based in India and Portugal to guide start-ups from both countries.
Background:
There are strong complementarities between India and Portugal in the start-up sector. Portugal has one of the highest rates of business creation in Europe and has emerged as one of the most vibrant European eco-systems for entrepreneurship. Lisbon is hosting the Web Summit - a key annual international technology conference - for 3 years from 2016 onwards. The last Web Summit had 700 participants from India, and the number is expected to go up further this year. The governments of both India and Portugal are focusing on promoting Start-ups.

MFs get record monthly SIP inflows

New Delhi: Inflows into mutual fund schemes through the so-called systematic investment plan (SIP) route hit a record high of Rs 4,584 crore in May. SIP inflows were 44 per cent higher compared to the corresponding month of last year and 20 per cent more than one-year average.
SIP is an option wherein an investor makes a recurring commitment to put in a fixed income periodically. SIPs, as opposed to lump sum investments, help mitigate risk, particularly when the markets are trading at near record levels.
Even the mutual fund industry benefits from SIPs flows as they are consistent in nature. The industry has been creating a lot of awareness investing through this route. Market players say inflows through the SIP route will only increase from current levels. Broking firm Geojit Financial Services in a recent note said SIP flows could double to Rs 10,000 crore in next two years. “Investors are increasingly coming to equity markets through SIP route, leading to a sudden spike in SIP folios in the past one year and the trend is likely to gather more speed over the next couple of years,” the brokerage says.

Indian renewable market to witness strong growth: Moody's

Mumbai: As India is moving towards meeting its commitments under the Paris agreement on climate change, its renewable energy market is likely to witness a strong growth over many years, says Moody's Investors Service.

"However, renewable energy projects face challenges related to the weak credit quality of offtakers, an evolving regulatory framework, as well as financing and execution risks," Moody's vice-president and senior analyst Abhishek Tyagi said in a statement issued here.

According to the rating agency, India's emission reduction commitments under the Paris agreement will lead to a sharp rise in renewable energy capacity.

India aims to achieve 40 per cent of cumulative installed capacity through non-fossil fuel sources by 2030 from the current 30 per cent and also plans to grow its renewable energy capacity to 175 GW by 2022 from the current 57GW.

"Such growth will be driven by the public and private sector. However, the key offtakers for most renewable projects are state-owned distribution companies, and these firms typically demonstrate weak financial profiles.

"This situation poses a key challenge for developers.

And, while there is no history of defaults under power purchase agreements, payment delays are quite common," he said.

Moody's also points out that the evolving policy framework for renewables presents a risk for renewable projects.

"Adherence to renewable purchase obligations has been limited, leading to lower demand for renewable energy.

Nevertheless, the feed-in-tariff and competitive bidding guidelines for wind and solar projects are well established and improve revenue visibility over the life of purchase power agreements," the agency noted.

It further said the rise in renewable energy capacity will bring execution challenges, including land acquisition, establishing resource quality, grid connectivity and availability.

On the financing of renewable energy projects, India will need to invest close to USD 150 billion to meet its 2022 renewable energy targets.

Since domestic banks are constrained in their lending to renewable projects, foreign capital will play an important role. However, foreign currency financing is constrained by the limited hedging products available to fully cover the rupee currency risk of purchase power agreements, it said. PTI PSK

LPG sales jump by record 9.8 pc on Ujjwala push

New Delhi: LPG sales have jumped by 9.8 per cent in the fiscal year ended March 31 after the government gave a record number of cooking gas connections, most of them to poor households.
Public sector fuel retailers sold 18.9 million tons of packed domestic LPG -- the fuel that is sold to consumers in cylinders -- during 2016-17.
"Packed LPG growth in 2015-16 was 7.1 per cent and in 2016-17 it was 9.8 per cent," a senior oil ministry official said.
The growth rate assumes significance considering that petroleum product sales have stagnated at 4-6 per cent.
India consumed 5.2 per cent more petroleum products like petrol, diesel, LPG and jet fuel, in 2016-17 at 194.2 million tons.
"LPG is the highest grosser. As many as 111.3 crore cylinders were sold in 2016-17," the official said.
State-owned Indian Oil Corp (IOC), Bharat Petroleum Corp (BPCL) and Hindustan Petroleum Corp (HPCL) together have 23.71 crore LPG customers registered with them out of which 23.46 crore customers are domestic users. Of these only 19.88 crore are active users.
The official said about 3.32 crore new domestic LPG connections were issued during 2016-17, including two crore under Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY).
Under the PMUY, the government is giving free LPG connections to poor households with a view to weave them away from polluting fuel like firewood.
The PMUY has helped increase LPG coverage to 72.8 per cent of the population, up from around 50 per cent three years ago.
The official said there may be few states where the LPG refil purchase has been below the national average of 4-5 cylinders a year but overall there has been a tremendous growth in LPG consumption.
"Bihar recorded the highest growth at 22.7 per cent, followed by Chattisgarh at 17.6 per cent, Jharkhand at 16.7 per cent, West Bengal at 15.9 per cent and Uttar Pradesh with 15 per cent growth rate," he said.
States which do not have abandunt alternate cooking fuel like forest wood, have shown greater ease in switching over to LPG usage.

25 Ministries/ Departments to turn into e-office by end of June, says Dr. Jitendra Singh

25 Ministries/ Departments to turn into e-office by end of June, says Dr. Jitendra Singh
E-files increased from 8,000 to 4,62,000, says MoS (PP)
The Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Development of North-Eastern Region (DoNER), MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh visited the office premises of Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG) here today, to review the implementation of the Swachhta Action Plan. The DARPG and Department of Pension and Pensioners’ Welfare are observing the Swachhta Pakhwada from 16th-30th June, 2017.
On the occasion, Dr. Jitendra Singh complimented both the Departments for undertaking various Swachhta related activities during this Pakhwada and also expressed happiness that the two Departments are working together as one team. He said that the habit of cleanliness should be practised by all and it should be the responsibility of everyone to keep their surroundings clean. Highlighting the steps taken by DARPG, he said that 25 Ministries/ Departments will be turned into e-office by the end of this month. He also said that there has been an increase of a whopping 6000%, in the number of e-files with 4,62,000 e-files generated in 2017, compared to 8,000 e-files last year.
Dr Jitendra Singh said under the guidance of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, the Departments are committed to provide maximum Governance to the public. He said that the process involved in the Civil Services Day has been completely transformed by DARPG in the last three years, as the participation and involvement of stakeholders has increased many folds. He said that DARPG is seen as the HR department of the Government of India. All good practices originate from this Department, he added. The Minister said that an MoU between India and Portugal on Cooperation in the field of Public Administration and Governance Reforms has been recently approved by the Cabinet. Dr Jitendra Singh expressed happiness over the fact that there has been near 100% disposal of grievances under Centralized Public Grievance Redress and Monitoring System (CPGRAMS) and 50% of the feedbacks received under Centralized Pension Grievance Redressal and Monitoring System (CPENGRAMS), have expressed satisfaction on their grievance redressal.
Secretary, DARPG Shri C Viswanath said that Modernisation and Swachhta go hand in hand and the allocation for DAPRG Modernisation has been doubled compared to last year. He said that the Department has implemented 100% e-office with digitisation of records. He also said that 58 Central Ministries/Departments and 33 States and UTs have abolished affidavits and attestation. He highlighted the various activities being undertaken by the Department during the Swachhta Pakhwada.
The DARPG is undertaking various activities like recording, reviewing and weeding out of old records, digitization of records, disposal of old and obsolete items etc. A poster(s)/ slogan competition has also been organised on the theme of Swachha Bharat. The best workstation will also be declared in the Department and appreciation certificate will be awarded to the winner. The Department has also planned to utilise Rs 10 lakhs for Swachhta related activities in the department during the current financial year. The Department of Pension & Pensioners' Welfare is also undertaking similar activities during this Pakhwada.

Cruise Tourism to be a growth driver for India's economy, says Shri Nitin Gadkari

Cruise Tourism to be a growth driver for India’s economy, says Shri Nitin Gadkari
Clear Action Plan drawn to revitalise Cruise Tourism in India
The Minister of Shipping and Road Transport and Highways Shri Nitin Gadkari has said that Cruise Tourism is one of the fastest growing components of the leisure industry worldwide, and can be a major growth driver for the Indian economy by generating huge employment opportunities. Shri Gadkari was speaking at the National Workshop on “Action Plan for Development of Cruise Tourism in India”, in New Delhi today. The workshop was also attended by Minister of State for Culture and Tourism (I/C) Dr Mahesh Sharma, and representatives of all stakeholder organizations – both from the government and the private sector – including regulatory agencies which deal with issues impacting cruise tourism.
Pointing out that tourism has the highest investment to employment multiplier Shri Gadkari said that on an average, employment generation on a cruise ship is 1 job for 3-4 passengers. With India having the potential to cater to 700 cruise ships per year as against 158 handled this year, the cruise industry can generate more than 2.5 lakh jobs for ten lakh cruise passengers, giving a big boost to the country’s economy. He further informed that cruise terminals are being developed at five major ports – Mumbai, Goa, Cochin, Mangalore and Chennai. In addition, the transport potential of 111 inland waterways will also be tapped. Work will start for developing ten inland waterways by the end of this year. This includes the rivers Ganga and Brahmaputra on which work is already in progress, he informed.
Shri Gadkari called upon state governments also to play an active role in promoting cruise tourism by developing, packaging and marketing their tourists attractions to draw more and more tourists.
The Ministry of Shipping has been working actively with all relevant ministries and organizations of the government to promote cruise tourism in the country. A joint task force headed by Secretary Shipping and Secretary Tourism was constituted for the purpose, and a global consultant was engaged for drawing up an Action Plan. The objective of today’s workshop was to discuss this Action Plan which requires various arms of the Government to take action for creating an enabling business eco-system for growth of cruise tourism in the country.
Speaking on the occasion Dr Mahesh Sharma said that India is fast growing as an attractive tourist destination. To realize the full potential for cruise tourism in the country there was a need for all stakeholders to work together, in cooperation with each other, and create a favourable ecosystem for growth.
Highlighting the efforts of the Shipping Ministry for promoting cruise tourism, Dr Alok Srivastava, Special Secretary (Shipping), informed that e visa, e-landing and incentives like minimum rebate of 30% on all cruise vessel related charges and additional rebate of 25% for coastal cruise movement have already been implemented. Further to this, a joint task force has been set up by the Ministry of Shipping & the Ministry of Tourism and an action plan for deriving standard operating procedure has been drawn, which would be implemented in a time bound manner after discussion with various stakeholders.
Secretary Tourism Smt Rashmi Verma said that the coming together of the Shipping and Tourism ministries to promote cruise tourism in the country would help maximize the benefits that the sector has to offer.
Stakeholders discussed several regulatory issues pertaining to various aspects of cruise port operations namely security, immigration, customs, ports in the workshop. They worked towards drawing up Standard Operating Procedures for all govt. organizations for cruise vessel handling.
Please click here for Backgrounder on Cruise Tourism

Cement sector to see 5-6% CAGR for next 3 fiscals: Crisil

New Delhi: The cement sector will witness 5 to 6 per cent CAGR over the next three fiscals on account of recovery in demand, rating agency Crisil said.
Primarily, the demand would be driven by government's focus on affordable housing and increased spending on infrastructure like roads, railways and urban development, it added.
According to Crisil, the demand of cement will double to 48 million tonnes (MT) over the next three fiscals as compared to the past three financial years.
It, however, said supply would be down to 31 MT from 39 MT.
"We foresee a sharp recovery in demand this fiscal after demonetisation dealt a major blow leading to a 1.2 per cent de-growth last fiscal," said Crisil Ratings Senior Director Sachin Gupta.
He further added: "The industry should be able to rack up 5-6 per cent compound annual growth rate between this fiscal and 2020, or nearly twice as fast as between fiscals 2015 and 2017."
According to the rating agency, the surge in demand would also improve the operating metrics of cement makers.
The cement segment, which is witnessing consolidation - last fiscal, had signed acquisitions of Rs 32,000 crore last fiscal.
It was financed through debt of Rs 25,000 crore.
"The acquisitions totalled 42 MT of capacity, tantamount to the capacity addition seen in the past 2.5 years," said Crisil, adding that once these transactions are completed, acquirers will increase their installed capacity significantly to 37 per cent from 28 per.
However, it also warned: "Their share of industry debt will increase from 17 per cent now to 45 per cent." PTI KRH

Tractor industry may record volume growth of 10% in FY18:ICRA

Mumbai: The Indian tractor industry is expected to record a volume growth of 9-10 per cent in the current financial year, mainly supported by healthy monsoon, according to rating agency ICRA.
"Healthy monsoon expectation, coupled with good reservoir levels, augurs well for farm output in the current fiscal. This, coupled with an expectation of improvement in non-farm income, aided by the government's focus on rural spending, infrastructure creation and irrigation spending, is likely to drive the demand for tractors, which is expected to record a volume growth of 9-10 per cent this fiscal," ICRA said in a report here.
"Over the long term, we continue to maintain an annual growth estimate of 8-9 per cent for the industry. The long term industry drivers for the industry continue to remain intact. The government remains committed towards rural development and agro-mechanisation, a critical component in improving the state of agriculture in the country," ICRA Senior Group Vice President Subrata Ray said.
Also, he said, continued support towards enhancing irrigation penetration through fresh allocations would reduce rainfall dependence.
"This, coupled with other factors such as increasing rural wages and scarcity of farm labour, is likely to aid growth in industry volumes," he added.
Tractor volumes reported a healthy growth during FY17, boosted by improving farm sentiments following healthy southwest monsoon and expectations of better cash flows in the backdrop of strong growth in kharif and rabi crop production.
Additionally, ICRA said, government support programmes in various states also supported demand to an extent.
The volumes suffered a blip in November 2016 following demonetisation. However, domestic volumes recovered quickly to a moderate to healthy growth in volumes during December 2016-March 2017, it added.
In April and May, 2017 also, leading tractor Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) have reported robust double digit growth rates in domestic volumes.
However, tractor exports market remained weak during FY17, with the weak demand in the global markets attributable to high supplies of commodities and accompanying fall in crop prices across various markets, ICRA said.

Textiles Ministry undertakes cleanliness drive

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ew Delhi: The Union Textiles Ministry has organised a fortnight-long cleanliness drive dubbed Swachhtha Pakhwada to drive home the government's Clean India campaign.
All 17 bodies under the Ministry, apart from jute mills and residential colonies of workers in the textile sector, undertook various activities towards cleanliness during the drive organised between May 1 and 15.
Besides, students of various National Institutes of Fashion Technology centres across the country worked closely with various sections of the society and cleaned public places and decorated walls with mural paintings containing messages of cleanliness.
An exhibition on waste management and organic farming was organised by Central Silk Board. Plantation drives, awareness campaigns, health and cleanliness camps, debate competitions, slogan-writing competitions, street plays, human chain, Padayatras and painting competitions were also held in various locations as part of the Pakhwada.
Addressing reporters here, Minister of State for Textiles, Ajay Tamta said there is a need for the message of Swachhtha (cleanliness) to reach every citizen of the country.
He said everyone needs to realise that Swachh Bharat Abhiyan (Clean India campaign) can become a success only if each one participates actively in it.