# India Vows to Improve Infrastructure to Grow Economy



## hkskyline

*Indian leader vows to remove infrastructure bottlenecks, unleash economic growth *
16 February 2006

NEW DELHI (AP) - India's president on Thursday pledged to remove hurdles constraining economic growth and push ahead with an ambitious plan to develop world class infrastructure in the country. 

Although the Indian economy has been witnessing robust growth of 7 percent in the last three years, business leaders and foreign investors have expressed fears that the country's inadequate ports and airports and severe power shortages could cramp its economic take off. 

"To accelerate economic growth and investment in infrastructure is a necessity. Government is committed to developing world-class infrastructure to make our economy more competitive," President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam said in a speech to Parliament. 

Although India's president has a mostly ceremonial role, his address at the opening of the budget session of parliament is seen as a report card of the government's policies. 

"Confidence in India, in our democracy and in our economy, has never been higher," he told lawmakers. 

Kalam promised the government would push ahead with the modernization of India's airports and ports, and ease conditions to attract long term private sector investment in the country's infrastructure. 

India's spectacular growth of the past few years has been concentrated around its sprawling urban centers and has left untouched the lives of tens of millions of people living in the country's villages and remote hamlets. It has also sparked a debate on the need to ensure that the benefits of economic growth trickle down to poorer sections of Indian society. 

Kalam said the government has set a deadline of 2009 to provide electricity, safe drinking water and telephone access to every village in the country and construct six million new homes in the rural areas.


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## hkskyline

*FACTBOX-India upgrades its creaking infrastructure *

Feb 7 (Reuters) - India, Asia's third-largest economy, has embarked on a drive to upgrade its creaking infrastructure of ports, roads and airports as it aims at a double-digit GDP growth in the medium term. 

Analysts say a woeful lack of infrastructure inhibits faster movement of goods across the country, thereby increasing costs and delays. 

Various estimates say investment of $150 billion to $200 billion is needed over the longer-term to upgrade Indian infrastructure to levels of other Asian nations. 

These are a few details about various initiatives taken up by the government. 

*ROADS *

-- Indian roads carry 85 percent of passenger and 75 percent of freight traffic. Highways, making up just 2 percent of the total road network, carry 40 percent of this traffic. 

-- Some 14,279 km (10,800 miles) of national highways are being converted to 4/6 lanes at an estimated cost of 650 billion rupees ($14.7 billion). These consist mainly of: 

* Construction of a "Golden Quadrilateral" or roads connecting the four major metros -- Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai. Four laning of 5,000 kms, comprising 85.5 percent of the total length, has been completed. The rest is underway. 

* Of the total 7,300 km length of the North-South and East-West corridors, a separate project, more than 800 km has been completed and 3,691 km is being implemented. These corridors are targeted to be completed by December 2008. 

-- The project is being funded through a tax on diesel and petrol sales. 

*AIRPORTS *

-- India has 450 airports and airstrips including those managed by the defence services and private companies. 

-- The state-run Airports Authority of India (AAI) manages 125 of them. These include 11 international airports, 77 domestic airports, 9 airports for customs department and 28 civilian enclaves at defence airfields. 

-- Passenger traffic at these airports crossed 50 million in the year to March 2005. Traffic growth is estimated at 12 percent each year between now and 2009. 

-- More than 85 percent of total passenger traffic was handled by 10 airports, which generate 80 percent of AAI's revenue. 

-- Delhi and Mumbai, the two major gateways, account for 49 percent of total passenger traffic and 33 percent of total revenue. 

-- Only 11 airports are profitable. 

-- The Delhi airport handled 10.4 million passengers in the year ended March 2004 and the Mumbai airport saw 13.28 million travellers. 

-- Passengers often face long queues, delayed flights and inadequate service standards during peak hours in most airports. 

-- The government estimates up to 200 billion rupees ($4.5 billion) is needed over the next five years to bring Delhi and Mumbai airports to international standards. 

-- Greenfield airports near Bangalore, the technology capital, and the southern city of Hyderabad are being built on a Build Own Operate and Transfer basis under the public private partnership basis. 

-- Indian carriers have been furiously expanding operations over the past two years, and new airlines have emerged because of booming demand for air travel. Indian companies have placed orders for new planes worth more than $10 billion. 

*PORTS *

-- India's 6,000 km natural peninsular coastline, bound by the Arabian Sea, the Indian Ocean and the Bay of Bengal, is dotted with 12 major ports and 185 minor ones. The federal government manages the major ports while state governments run the minor ones. 

-- The major ports handle 75 percent of traffic. About 80 percent to total volume of port traffic was in the form of dry and liquid bulk. General cargo and containers made up the rest. 

-- Container traffic grew 15 percent a year in the five years to 2003/04. 

-- Indian ports' capacity stood at 389.5 million tonnes at the end of 2003/04. Cargo handled by major ports grew 13.6 percent in April-September 2005 to hit 199.8 million tonnes. 

*RAILWAYS *

-- Indian railway network, one of the largest in the world, at 63,221 km by the end of 2004. Around a third of the network is electrified. 

-- Revenue-earning freight traffic of the railways rose 10.1 percent to hit 313.5 million tonnes in the first half of the year to March 2006. 

*ELECTRICITY *

-- India has one of lowest electricity usage levels in the world with per capita consumption as low as 606 units. 

-- India generated 123,667.821 megawatts of power till Dec. 31, 2005. The country's electricity demand exceeded supply by 8 percent in non-peak hours and suffers a 10 percent shortfall during peak hours. 

-- Of its total 35 states and union territories, only 8 states have achieved 100 percent electric connectivity. 

-- Of its total 593,732 villages, 119,570 are still in darkness. 

-- Of its 138.27 million rural homes, only 60.18 million have a bulb to switch on. 

-- India has embarked upon an ambitious plan to add about 100,000 megawatts of electricity by investing 8 trillion rupees by the year 2012. 

(Reporting by Shailendra Bhatnagar in NEW DELHI and Hiral Vora in MUMBAI) 

($1 = 44.2 rupees)


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## hkskyline

*Making the trains run on time - Face value *
18 February 2006
The Economist

Elattuvalapil Sreedharan has become a hero in India by doing the seemingly impossible 

ALL over India, the ultra-modern jostles jarringly beside the medieval—or, these days, underneath it. At Chawri Bazar, in old Delhi, bicycle-rickshaw riders tout for business, while stray cows lounge around in the middle of the roundabout. They are ready to greet those emerging from the 21st century—the deepest station in Delhi's underground-rail network. The passengers have travelled on fast, punctual trains, and arrived to a spotlessly clean station. The ticket barriers, using tokens and smart cards, are state-of-the-art, and the three-stage escalator glides smoothly up to the surface. 

Indian infrastructure is famously decrepit and is often cited as the single biggest impediment to economic growth. So Delhi is justifiably proud of its metro. Joyriders are common—in fact, the fare system has just been tweaked to deter them. Many other Indian infrastructure projects suffer controversy, scandal, delay and extra cost. An eight-year-old effort to modernise the embarrassingly shoddy airports in Delhi and Mumbai, for example, has this month suffered a nationwide strike by airport workers, and legal challenges to the contracts that have, at long last, been placed. The 17km (10 mile) metro in Kolkata (Calcutta) took 22 years to build and revised its budget upward on 14 occasions. Yet, when phase one of Delhi's three-stage metro project was completed in December, with the opening of a third line, bringing the length of the network to 56km, it was on budget and nearly three years ahead of schedule. 

That it was built at all has brought kudos to Elattuvalapil Sreedharan, managing director of the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC). That it was built so quickly, works so well and bears comparison to the best in the world has made him a national hero. Opening the new line, India's prime minister, Manmohan Singh, called Mr Sreedharan “a role model for future generations”. The adulation is a mixed blessing for a man who says he wants to retire. Already 73, he has agreed to work for three more years. This will allow him to see phase two—another 53km—well on the way to its deadline, of the summer of 2010, in time for the Commonwealth Games in Delhi. 

Besides the day job, the government has called on his advice for metro projects in Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kochi, Kolkata and Mumbai. He was even dragged into the airport-modernisation mess, as head of a committee appointed to examine the tender process. 

Mr Sreedharan has a disarmingly simple explanation for his success: the ownership structure of DMRC. Half the equity is held by the central government, and half by the Delhi authorities. Instead of doubling the amount of bureaucratic meddling, Mr Sreedharan says this almost eliminates it: there is no government ministry to which every file has to be passed. Decision-making is speeded up further by the board's delegation of authority to him. When he took the job in 1997—seven years after his scheduled retirement—he demanded, and was given, full power to pick his team and a promise of non-interference. 

That shows how much respect he already commanded. An engineer and career officer of state-owned Indian Railways, he had spent much of the 1990s running what was then the world's biggest overground-railway building project. This was the Konkan Railway, along India's south-western coast, which was the first such infrastructure contract in India ever awarded on “build, operate and transfer” principles. 

Mr Sreedharan's experience taught him two lessons that seem obvious enough, but that many other developers of infrastructure in India have yet to learn. The first is to insist on the global best, rather than to favour Indian firms. The metro's consultants are led by a consortium from Japan (whose government has financed two-thirds of the metro's cost through a soft loan); the signalling and fare-collection systems are French, the rolling-stock Korean. 

The second is an emphasis on avoiding the scourge that plagues so many Indian public-sector ventures: corruption. He has tried to purify DMRC's procurement processes by removing almost every element of subjectivity from tender-evaluation. He has also had to show the door to some employees who did not meet his exacting standards. 

*Pure at heart *

Western prejudice might expect such a demanding boss to be some kind of tartar. Mr Sreedharan's own management philosophy sounds so glibly aggressive as to be positively American: “lead from the front, not push from the rear”. But he is not prone to table-thumping harangues. In fact, he seems more like a monk than a manager. He puts his continued health and sharpness down to a “very disciplined life”, of yoga, walks, jogging and controlled eating. His only recreation, he says, is “reading spiritual books”, which gives him “mental composure” and makes him “pure at heart”. 

The new line has recently suffered some minor disruption. Earlier this month, part of it had to be shut for 90 minutes when a bird dropped a wet twig on some part of the wiring. There has been occasional trouble with points and the signalling, causing a few services to be cancelled, and some worries about crowd management and the risk of stampedes. Mr Sreedharan explains that the metro could not be “rude” to its customers by closing stations. Such courtesy is a rarity. 

Mr Sreedharan denies that the zest for beating deadlines was a factor in any of the new line's “teething troubles”; nor has his reputation suffered. If he is criticised, it is for becoming indispensable, a charge he also denies, claiming there is a “good line of successors”. He is right that the principles he has followed should not need him to enforce them. Mr Sreedharan may be the exception, but his practices could be the rule.


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## WillyWick

*Indian Railways Unveils Biggest Track Expansion Plan in Decade *

Feb. 24 (Bloomberg) -- Indian Railways unveiled its biggest spending plan in a decade to build new tracks as faster economic growth stokes demand for transporting goods from oil to cement. 

Asia's oldest rail network plans to spend 220 billion rupees ($5 billion) to build 10,000 kilometers (6,215 miles) of dedicated freight lines by 2010, Railways Minister Lalu Prasad said in his budget speech to parliament in New Delhi today. 

The expansion would allow companies including refiner Indian Oil Corp. and iron ore exporter Sesa Goa Ltd. to move goods to consumers and sea ports across the world's seventh-biggest landmass faster and cheaper. The government is removing infrastructure bottlenecks to accelerate the pace of economic growth to as much as 10 percent over the next decade from an average 6 percent since 1980. 

``This will be of great help for building India's infrastructure,'' said Viswanathan Vasudevan, who helps manage about $180 million of Indian equities at Aquarius Investment Advisors Pte. in Singapore. ``Speedy implementation is essential because economic growth is saturating the existing network.'' 

India's economy will probably grow as much as 8.1 percent in the year ending March 31, following a 7.5 percent expansion a year earlier, the country's statistics bureau forecast Feb. 7. 

Prasad outlined his spending plans four days before Finance Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram's federal budget, in which analysts expect increased spending on roads and ports. 

Indian Railways is the world's biggest commercial or utility employer with about 1.5 million on its payroll. It has presented its own budget since 1925, after British colonial rulers separated its finances from the federal government's in 1924. 


*Freight Estimate* 

Prasad today increased the estimate freight to be carried in the year ending March 31 to 668 million tons from 635 million tons projected a year ago. Railways aims to carry 726 million tons in the year starting April 1, he said. 

``Indian Railways are scaling historic highs in freight and passenger business,'' Prasad said today. ``We will not allow resource constraints to hamper expansion of rail network.'' 

The railway budget seeks to accelerate the pace of freight transport growth without increasing fares and tariffs, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said after the budget. 

Prasad said Indian Railways has 110 billion rupees of surplus cash and promised to generate more funds for expansion. The network plans to borrow 41.7 billion rupees in the year beginning April 1, he said. 

The minister cut freight rates for gasoline and diesel by 8 percent and said the cost of transporting most commodities will remain unchanged for the fifth straight year. Earnings from moving goods constitute about 66 percent of the railways' revenue. 


*Passenger Fares* 

Prasad cut some passenger fares for travel by air- conditioned coaches to lure passengers drawn by low-cost airlines. 

Total revenue, including income from freight carrying passengers, for the year ending March 31 is estimated to increase 16 percent to 546 billion rupees, Prasad said. He projected revenue of 600 billion rupees for the year starting April 1. 

``India's economic expansion is helping Railways improve its freight earnings,'' said D. H. Pai Panandiker, director general at RPG Foundation, an economic policy group in New Delhi. ``That will partly solve the finances of the expansion project.'' 

India was the first in Asia to get a passenger railway when British rulers opened a 21-mile track from Mumbai to Thane on April 16, 1853. The network now covers 63,000 kilometers and is the world's second largest under one management after the U.S. It runs 11,000 trains every day, 7,000 of which carry passengers. 


*Network Expansion* 

India's rail network expanded by 633 route kilometers between 1990 and 2004, while China added 16,608 route kilometers in the same period, according to Morgan Stanley economists Chetan Ahya and Mihir Sheth. 

China plans to invest 1.25 trillion yuan ($155 billion) in railways measuring 17,000 kilometers in length from 2006 to 2010, state-run Xinhua news agency said on Jan. 6. That will bring the country's total length of lines to 90,000 kilometers, it said. 

Indian Railways' proposed freight corridor will link the capital New Delhi with Mumbai and ports in the west, and with the eastern port city of Kolkata, formerly known as Calcutta. It will be built in two phases, Prasad said. 

``The government is trying to remove bottlenecks,'' said A.K. Rai, a director at Sesa Goa, India's biggest non-state-run iron ore exporter. The expansion will link ``industrial areas.'' 

Prasad's spending plan is the biggest on the monopoly network since the 35 billion rupee Konkan Railway Corp.'s 760- kilometer line in western India was built in 1997. 

Tracks connecting the India's biggest cities are ``saturated in most sections'' and some ``are unfit to carry freight trains at higher speeds,'' according to a May 2002 government report. 


*`Welcome Move' * 

Starting dedicated freight lines may benefiting companies including Sesa Goa and Indian Oil, the nation's largest refiner. 

``This will be a welcome move,'' said N. Srikumar, spokesman for Indian Oil Corp., the nation's largest refiner. ``Existing lines are used to carry both passenger and freight. So, invariably freight movement gets delayed because trains carrying passengers get priority.'' 

The government on Jan. 5 allowed non-state companies to run container trains. Of the 14 companies that have applied to such trains, Pipavav Rail Corp. has already been granted a license, Railways said in a Feb. 16 statement. 

Railways' share of the country's freight traffic has halved to 30 percent over the past five decades as the government expanded roads and oil companies built their own pipelines and coastal shipping improved. The government is close to completing a $14 billion road program, adding 14,100 kilometers of highways. 

An expanded rail network ``would reduce the reliance on roads,'' Jayesh Doshi, vice president of treasury at Gujarat Ambuja Cements Ltd., India' fourth-biggest cement maker. It transports 15 to 20 percent of its total cement volumes by rail. 

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000080&sid=a1nC8Jhd0VQk&refer=asia


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## hkskyline

*India wants more ADB cash for creaky infrastructure *

NEW DELHI, April 24 (Reuters) - India will seek greater funding from the Asian Development Bank to improve its creaking roads, power networks and railways, Finance Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram said on Monday. 

International agencies say India needs to shore up its infrastructure in order to lift economic growth to 10 per cent, from the present 8 percent. 

"We must enhance our capacity to present large-scale viable projects (to ADB) and utilise funding more efficiently," Chidambaram told a news conference, ahead of the 39th annual meeting of the bank to be held in Hyderabad in May. 

The finance ministry has requested other government departments to step up spending on and loan disbursement to ADB-funded projects to 20 percent from 16 percent annually. 

India proposes to increase the overall size of its borrowing from the Manila-based bank from $2.25 billion in 2006 to $2.45 billion in 2007, and $2.65 billion in 2008, the minister said. 

Chidambaram said the government will also request both the World Bank and the ADB to lend $1 billion to revive ailing cooperative credit societies. 

India is a founder-member of the ADB and its fourth-largest shareholder, after the U.S, Japan and China. It has a 6.38 percent share of the bank's subscribed capital, and has obtained about $14 billion in loans.


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## koolkid

Im glad that India is modernizing. What a great country, it deserves the best in the world.
; )


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## hkskyline

*India picks up infrastructure pace, more needed - analysts *
By Surojit Gupta 

NEW DELHI, Nov 13 (Reuters) - India's multi-billion dollar drive to upgrade its neglected infrastructure is gathering momentum, but analysts say it needs to clarify some policies to smooth the way for greater private funding. 

The need to provide world class infrastructure that keeps pace with 8 percent economic growth is clear. City roads are choked with traffic, power cuts are a fact of life and passengers are routinely delayed as booming air travel tests airport capacity. 

Analysts say the infrastructure sector as a whole needs to grow 8 percent a year, instead of 5 percent at the moment, to meet the government's vision of even higher growth, more jobs and better basic living conditions for 260 million poor. 

"The government knows that it has to move fast to improve the sector, but clarity of policies on pricing of infrastructure goods and services will help in boosting investments," said T.K. Bhaumik, chief economist with Reliance Industries Ltd. 

New Delhi is mapping out $350 billion worth of road, rail, port and power projects for the next six to seven years. 

In the past month, it has identified 276 port projects worth $12.40 billion for implementation by 2012, and expects about $7.67 billion to come from the private sector. 

It also wants investment of $48.5 billion by 2012 to upgrade highways and has unveiled a 220 billion rupee ($4.9 billion) plan to build a dedicated rail freight corridor to cut freight costs. 

Montek Singh Ahluwalia, economic adviser to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, said last month that India needed $80 billion in private investment in infrastructure projects over the next five years. 

PAST SHOULD BACK THE FUTURE 

The government has had some success in the past 10 years in luring private funds into telecoms and ports, and Bhaumik said raising private money this time should not be hard. 

"Once the public-private partnership is successful and shown to be working, money is not a problem," Bhaumik said. 

"Then there are multilateral agencies. The capital market is buoyant, so frankly speaking funding is not a problem. The government has enough funds and there is high liquidity in the system which can be used for building infrastructure." 

Others say however that private players, particularly foreigners, have been slow to invest in power and road projects in the absence of proper user charges. 

"There is plenty to do for the domestic private sector, but contractual agreements need to be more investor friendly to attract attention of foreign investors," said Sitesh Mukherjee, a legal consultant for infrastructure projects. 

India has a 1.74 trillion rupee programme to improve rural infrastructure over the next four years, and is awarding licences for special economic zones for export-oriented industries where tax breaks are on offer to lure investment and boost exports. 

One area where private firms are operating is at Mumbai and New Delhi airports. The government stood its ground in a clash with unions last December to ram their privatisation through. 

"Opportunities exist across sectors. Power, water, sanitation, energy, roads and highways. It's now worth $350 billion," said Vinayak Chatterjee, chairman of Feedback Ventures. 

GEARING UP 

Domestic construction and engineering firms are now tooling up as the government steps up spending. Analysts say firms in both sectors are operating at 85-90 percent capacity and planning expansion. 

In construction, many companies have an order book which is at least three to four times their current annual revenue. 

"We are extremely positive on construction and engineering services companies because the infrastructure story is here to stay for the medium to long term," said Ambareesh Baliga, Vice President at Karvy Stock Broking. 

Reliance Industries' Bhaumik says he sees a huge opportunity for investors. 

"I think beginning next year the infrastructure sector should witness strong momentum," Bhaumik said.


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## hkskyline

*India needs $320 bln for infrastructure over 5 years *

NEW DELHI, Dec 20 (Reuters) - Indian Finance Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram said on Wednesday the government needs $320 billion investment in the next five years to improve its infrastructure to match demands of a growing economy.


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## _BPS_

^^ Highly unlikely, in terms of receiving such a staggering amount. However, the figure probably is true, if India wants to compare with countries such as China.


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## WillyWick

FYI $1 mill ~5 cr



_BPS_ said:


> ^^ Highly unlikely, in terms of receiving such a staggering amount. However, the figure probably is true, if India wants to compare with countries such as China.



Raising 320 bill in 5years should be challenging but not impossible.The finance ministry is setting up a panel to work it out and is trying to mobilize 170 billion dollars of forex reserves.

*Panel on funding infrastructure *
http://www.hindu.com/2006/12/21/stories/2006122109871700.htm


> "Mr. Parekh has agreed to head the committee. I urge the committee to get on to the job and submit a quick report in six weeks in the run-up to the budget,'' Mr. Chidambaram said, while addressing a workshop on infrastructure organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) here.
> 
> The Parekh committee, he said, would look into the long-term financing needs, both equity and debt, as also the legislative changes that would be required for funding projects in the various infrastructure sectors.
> 
> Alongside, the Finance Minister, at long last, has agreed to look into the Planning Commission's suggestion on utilising the burgeoning foreign exchange reserves for funding infrastructure projects. The country's forex reserves now stand at about $170 billion. "I have asked the Finance Secretary to prepare a note on how to use foreign exchange reserves for funding infrastructure projects,'' Mr. Chidambaram said.


But before all that the financial institutions seem to be gearing up to fund various projects! Things would be more clear after the next budget in feb and we could hear many more proposals.

*IDBI-LIC alliance to spend Rs 50,000 cr on core sector *
http://www.financialexpress.com/fe_full_story.php?content_id=149575


> The newly formed strategic alliance between IDBI Ltd and Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) is planning to fund Rs 50,000 crore of infrastructure financing through joint and take-out financing for long gestation projects.
> 
> As per the memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed on Thursday, the projects would be jointly financed with repayment of a major part of IDBI’s exposure being front-ended, while those of LIC would be back-ended.



*Citi in talks for $5bn core sector fund*
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1061226/asp/business/story_7184500.asp


> Global financial services firm Citigroup is in talks with the government to start a $5-billion debt and equity infrastructure fund in partnership with IDFC.
> 
> Another US-based private equity firm, Blackstone, has also proposed a fund for infrastructure in India, the size of which is not known.
> 
> Citigroup has proposed a total fund of $5 billion, of which $2 billion is intended to be equity and $3 billion for debt, finance ministry joint secretary (infrastructure) Arvind Maya Ram said.


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## kronik

$350 bn at core of India`s growth



> When smart money (read private equity) heads for a country or a sector, you can be reasonably sure that the returns are in the high-two-digit bracket.
> 
> This money is currently making inroads into India and what has always been seen as a low-to-negative returns sector — infrastructure.
> 
> “Private equity funds would not have touched infrastructure two years back. Today, they are queuing up to give money,” says Jayesh Desai, national director at Ernst & Young, as he rattles out some recent investments made by these funds — JP Morgan in L&T and Och-Ziss in Gammon.
> 
> Citigroup is reportedly mulling a $5-billion infrastructure fund, as is private equity firm Blackstone.
> 
> These would be small investments in the overall requirement of $350 billion for infrastructure, a figure arrived at by the Planning Commission after taking into account the demands of a growing economy, and the plan for higher spend on infrastructure — from 4.7 per cent of GDP to 8 per cent.
> 
> Sourcing the $350 bn
> Private sector investments are nevertheless expected to provide about $75 billion of the $350 billion required over the next five years, according to Vinayak Chatterjee of consulting firm Feedback Ventures.
> 
> That is a huge order, and if even a tenth of that sum comes from overseas, it will double the FDI inflow into India ($7.7 billion this year).
> 
> The bulk of the overall burden — $200 billion — is likely to be shouldered by the government and its agencies on a stand-alone basis or through the public-private partnership (PPP) route, while the balance will be managed through Overseas Development Assistance (ODA), according to Feedback Ventures.
> 
> Shortage of “cooked” projects
> *The problem is not of funds but rather of “cooked” projects which are ready to take in investment*, says Chatterjee, who also heads CII’s Infrastructure Committee.
> 
> *A good example of cooked, ready-to-invest projects are the two ultra mega power projects that —with an investment of Rs 16,000-20,000 crore each — attracted an eye-popping 16 bids when even the most optimistic estimates were below 10.*
> 
> The response has been equally enthusiastic in other sectors where sensible projects have been put together to garner investment, whether it is ports or airports.
> 
> *The amazing infrastructure story in India today is not of a paucity of bidders, or of capital, but of bankable projects. *
> 
> More large-scale projects are required not only in the power sector that, at $120 billion, would account for the largest chunk of infrastructure spend over the next five years, but also in all other sectors.
> 
> The $50-billion National Highways Development Programme, for example, does not have a single “one billion dollar project,” according to PwC’s executive director Amrit Pandurangi.
> 
> *The country needs to look at bigger, multi-billion dollar projects to attract the large domestic and international players, and also address two other critical gaps — the lack of regulators in some sectors and the absence of political will to levy user charges. *
> 
> “The roads sector has the potential to absorb a lot more investment. In fact, an efficient port-to-rail-to-road chain could have a major impact on growth,” says KPMG’s executive director Arvind Mahajan.
> 
> Seeking Financial Reforms
> There is also a need to “broaden and deepen the domestic and international investor base for debt and equity funds for infrastructure,” says Vikram Limaye of IDFC, one of the two institutions that provide long-term funding for infrastructure, the other being the year-old Indian Infrastructure Finance Company.
> 
> *The pipe of funds flowing into the infrastructure sector could be seriously broadened through pension and insurance reforms, deepening of the debt market and availability of long-dated paper.*
> 
> *It seems the stage is being set for “appropriate” financial reforms, with the government asking IDFC Chairman Deepak Parekh to do a “quick report” on long-term financing for infrastructure. *
> 
> However, if the country continues with the “business as usual” refrain, investing just over 4 per cent of GDP in infrastructure instead of the target 8 per cent, the investment would be limited to $220 billion, according to Montek Singh Ahluwalia, deputy chairman of the Planning Commission.
> 
> If talk does not translate into action, “infrastructure investment will not touch even half of that required,” says Pwc’s Pandurangi.
> 
> If the country manages to swing it right though, there are optimists like KPMG’s Mahajan who see investment even exceeding $350 billion over the next five years. From time and cost over-runs to an investment over-run — that is what India truly needs!


Like they say, where theres a will, theres way. The people of India are raring to go, what we have to see is if our politicians feel the same way.


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## JD

_BPS_ said:


> ^^ Highly unlikely, in terms of receiving such a staggering amount. However, the figure probably is true, if India wants to compare with countries such as China.


Er.. I don't think Indian FM meant outside money like FDI.


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## hkskyline

*Water use, infrastructure key to Indian farm growth *

NEW DELHI, Feb 27 (Reuters) - An overhaul of Indian farm policy is needed to reinvigorate a sector that two-thirds of the billion-plus population depend on but which is growing at less than one third of the pace of overall economy, analysts say. 

Funds need to be used to improve irrigation and other shared infrastructure, rather than the current emphasis on easy credit for farmers, analysts said. 

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has called for stronger growth in the farm sector, raising the prospects for Wednesday's government budget to address some of the concerns. 

"There has to be a long-term vision. Just by giving more and more credit to farmers won't help as we have hardly seen an increase in productivity by doing so," said D.H. Pai Panandikar, economist with the RPG Foundation, a private think tank. 

The government expects economic growth of 9.2 percent in the 2006/07 year to end-March, the fastest in 18 years, but the farm sector is likely to lag with growth of 2.7 percent. 

Moreover, economists say the average annual farm growth this decade has fallen to 2.3 percent, from 3.1 percent in the 1990s. 

The government is aware of the problem. 

"With more than half the population directly depending on this sector, low agricultural growth has serious implications for the 'inclusiveness' of growth," India's annual economic survey said on Tuesday. 

It added that supply shortfalls due to poor productivity made price stability difficult. 

Last year a poor wheat crop led to 5.5 million tonnes of expensive grain imports, the first in six years, pushing up food prices and adding to inflationary pressures. 

Limited overseas availability of pulses, a diet staple for Indians, also meant domestic productivity would have to be increased to soothe price volatility, the ministry of finance survey said. 

"Finding immediate answers to inflation induced by commodity-specific supply shortfalls is difficult. A durable solution to such inflation problem has to be found in increasing yields and domestic output," it added. 

Irrigation and better land management were cited as priorities to lift the farm sector. 

"Food productivity is not rising because of lack of irrigation facilities," said D.K. Joshi, principal economist at CRISIL. "Giving more fertilisers alone will not do the job." 

Only about 40 percent of the country's lands are irrigated, leaving farmers vulnerable to the weather. 

"We have to also trap the rainwater flowing into oceans and make them into lakes and tanks. One really does not see too much progress in this area," Panandikar said. 

CONSOLIDATION 

A step that would lift output but may be politically unpalatable would be to encourage consolidation of farming land in a country where most blocks are around 1 to 1.5 acres. 

"Unless you have land holdings of 100 to 200 acres, it becomes a barrier to introducing new technologies," Panandikar said. 

"Tax and monetary incentives should be given by the government to encourage farmers to pool their lands." 

But since farmers are a major voting block in elections, changing the smallholding landscape may be difficult. 

Sharad Joshi, a farm leader and member of parliament's upper house, said the government should help with schemes to create larger land parcels that would boost farmers incomes rather than just have corporates take control. 

Thousands of debt-ridden farmers have killed themselves over the last four to five years, when bad weather destroyed crops and left them with little income to repay loans. 

"The urgent need for taking agriculture to a higher growth trajectory of 4 percent annual growth can be met only with improvement in the scale as well as quality of agricultural reforms undertaken by various states," Tuesday's survey said. 

Devinder Sharma, an independent agriculture analyst, said the government needed to provide a fixed income to farmers together with insurance for their crops to make them feel secure. 

The farm sector could get a boost as Bharti group, Reliance Industries and others move into food retailing, especially as it might entail better supply chain management that would cut down food spoilage, estimated at around 40 percent by some. 

CRISIL economist Joshi said investments needed to be made in research for long-term growth. 

"The growth situation won't be corrected in a day, but it is better late than never."


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## hkskyline

*India faces hurdles in winning chip factory investments *
Mon Apr 9, 9:53 AM ET
InfoWorld

A decision by Intel to build a $2.5 billion chip factory in China represents a key loss for India, which won't likely see any chip factory projects from major companies this year due to its poor infrastructure, a Gartner analyst said in a report Sunday.

India had offered to finance up to a quarter of the cost of the project for Intel, but still lost the deal, said Ganesh, an analyst for Gartner.

"Intel's decision to move to China was driven mainly by China's superior infrastructure facilities, compared with those in India, and Intel's need to be closer to its customers in China and Japan, even though China's supply of semiconductor talent is considered to be weaker than India's," said Ramamoorthy, in the report.

With the world's second largest population, India is battling to gain a foothold in manufacturing, which China dominates. In the semiconductor business, factory investments represent multi-billion dollar projects and thousands of technical jobs. Although there is no shortage of labor talent in the nation, chip production has not caught on as investors remain focused on the Pacific Rim.

The main investments in new chip production lines last year were in Japan, the U.S., Taiwan, and South Korea, according to figures published by Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International, an industry trade group. Spending in China grew faster than any other area, up 74 percent to $2.3 billion, but the overall figure is still dwarfed by Japan, at $9.2 billion, and the other three leaders, which each saw over $7 billion in spending.

India, which is best known for its research and development prowess and focus on outsourced services, has been trying to attract chip factory investments to build up its manufacturing talent. Last month, the government passed a series of investment incentives aimed at attracting new chip factories, which would reportedly finance up to 35 percent of an entire project, a huge sum of money.

The country is also growing as a market for electronics devices, an argument China has used to attract investments. The number of mobile phone users in India has grown at a steady pace of over 6 million new subscribers in each of the past several months, a figure rivaled only by China. India also boasts universities which produce about 133,000 new engineers each year, according to a study published by the India Semiconductor Association and Ernst & Young.

Plentiful engineering talent has helped the country emerge as a place for chip R&D investment, but it hasn't helped India gain any chip factory investments.

The country's infrastructure and logistics outweigh all other issues, Gartner said. The new investments in China and projects such as an Intel initiative to invest $45 million to establish a semiconductor training site at a local university near its Dalian factory site will help China narrow its engineering gap with India, Ramamoorthy said. The Indian government needs to take more proactive measures on its infrastructure if it hopes to win chip factory projects over the next few years.


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## hkskyline

Press Trust of India
Hyderabad, May 05, 2006
First Published: 00:00 IST(13/1/2007)
Last Updated: 12:03 IST(5/5/2006)
*$150 bn needed for infrastructure: PM*

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said on Friday that over $150 billion investment is needed in the next few years for development of India's infrastructure.

Speaking at the 39th Annual Meeting of the Board of Governors of Asian Development Bank (ADB), he said, "India's infrastructure need in next few years is estimated at over $150 billion."

ADB, which till now has funded public transport, power and urban infrastructure projects in India, is now looking at investments in new areas including restoration of water bodies, tourism infrastructure and agriculture.

India's investment rate, he said, was 31 per cent of the GDP. This along with foreign investment flow was expected to further increase in future.

He said India had signed agreements with SAARC, Singapore and Thailand and it was working with China, Japan and South Korea for similar agreements.

Singh also said the economic cooperation may herald new FTAs in all over Asia that could even extend to Australia and New Zealand.

He, however, said the Asian crisis of 1997, which had severly dented global confidence towards globalisation, was something from which lessons could be learnt.

"With the benefit of hindsight, there's a view that funding must come from international financial institutions before the foreign exchange reserves dry up," he said.

Referring to the vast disparity in world economies, Singh said in 2005, USA had a current account deficit of $805 billion or 6.4 per cent of the GDP. At the same time, Japan had a current account surplus of $163.9 billion, China, $158.6 billion and the Middle-East region had a surplus of $196 billion.

While mismatch in current account deficit were expected in large global economies, large disparities raised concern, he said.

"Global imblance cannot be sustained forever," Singh added.

A coordinated effort by the deficit and surplus countries was needed to prevent a sudden downturn, he said.

Stating that East and South East Asia had become an engine of global growth, he said Asia would consume more food and energy and would demand better infrastructure and services.

"We must therefore find ways of better use of our skills, collective savings and surplus in the region," Singh said.

Chinese economy, the Prime Minister said, had performed exceedingly well and the world had lots to learn from the its growth pattern.

He warned against the threat of terrorism derailing economic progress.

On the surging international oil prices, Singh said international lending agencies need to pool in their collective wisdom to devise credible ways to tackle volatilities in prices.

Challenge before Asians is to create hike economic growth on a sustainable basis. "Our government is committed to ensure that growth is all pervasive and reaches all sections of society... We are committed to reducing the gap between rural and urban income that may create imbalances in the society. And this must be done through participatory policies".

"If growth is equitable, we could have open democratic societies," he added.
http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/Print.aspx?Id=0f54df8a-e048-4248-98b0-42e5912c87c6


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## hkskyline

*ANALYSIS-Indian infrastructure requires funding, patience *
By Tony Munroe and Himangshu Watts 

MUMBAI, March 13 (Reuters) - Opportunities to invest in India's creaky infrastructure are on the rise, with $350 billion worth of projects in the pipeline, but red tape and ingrained political mistrust of privatisation mean progress is slow. 

Several Indian engineering and construction firms plan capital-raisings this year. On the project level, wider acceptance of public-private partnerships will drive institutional and corporate infrastructure investment. 

"Up until now, the supply of high quality infrastructure projects has been constrained by government antipathy towards privatisation," said Frank Hancock of ABN AMRO, which advised the government on projects to upgrade airports in Delhi and Mumbai. 

Those public-private partnerships attracted investment from domestic and overseas firms -- as well as strikes and court challenges from opponents. Similar projects are planned for airports in Chennai, Kolkata and elsewhere. 

"This model for public-private partnership, Indian-style, can be applied to other infrastructure sectors as well, such as roads, ports, power, and ultimately water and other basic services," said Hancock, who is ABN AMRO's head of M&A and equity capital markets for India. 

Besides India's notorious red tape, insufficient long-term funding in a country with underdeveloped bond, pension and insurance markets limits private sector investment in big-ticket projects with decades-long lifespans. 

The need for investment is clear. India's 9 percent economic growth is threatened by clogged roads, rails and ports, frequent blackouts and inadequate water supply. 

A cargo ship in India takes an average of three-and-a-half days to turn around, compared with 10 hours in Hong Kong's privately run ports. Investment in electricity, meanwhile, is unattractive when nearly 40 percent of output is lost or stolen. 

But outright privatisation is difficult under India's communist-backed coalition government, and the history of private sector infrastructure investment is patchy. 

GHOST OF ENRON 

Private investment in infrastructure began spectacularly in the early 1990s, when Enron Corp. announced plans to build a $2.9 billion power plant soon after India shed socialist policies and adopted liberal reforms. 

But what had been a showcase of India's ability to lure foreign capital collapsed in 2001, when the plant was shut after a billing dispute with a state utility, its sole buyer of power. 

Enron's Dabhol plant was acquired and revived last year by Ratnagiri Gas and Power Pvt. Ltd., owned by gas transmission firm GAIL (India) Ltd. and NTPC Ltd., but its legacy continues to haunt potential investors. 

"It is important that projects are presented in a viable, ring-fenced fashion that provides the sort of returns that investors in infrastructure would like to see, and I think if you look carefully there are some very attractive projects around," said Dominic Price, JPMorgan's senior country officer. 

FUNDS FORMING 

The easiest access to the Indian infrastructure story is through listed construction companies, although stocks in the sector were hammered late last month when the 2007/08 budget proposed withdrawing tax breaks on construction projects. 

Nonetheless, a handful of such firms, including Hindustan Construction, IVRCL Infrastructures, Nagarjuna Construction and Gammon India Ltd. were considering equity-raisings this year, a market source said. 

In a sign of growing interest in funding projects, Citigroup , private equity firm Blackstone Group, India's Infrastructure Development Finance Company Ltd. (IDFC) and India Infrastructure Finance Co. unveiled plans last month to raise $5 billion for infrastructure projects. 

IDFC, Citigroup and Blackstone will invest a combined $250 million, with the remainder to be raised from global and domestic institutional investors. About $2 billion will be equity funding and the remainder will be long-term debt. 

"We need project-level equity, and the Indian Infrastructure Financing Initiative addresses this," said Sanjay Nayar, Citigroup's chief executive for India, who figures that of the government's $350 billion worth of planned infrastructure projects, $75-$100 billion can be funded by the private sector. 

Optimists point to the success of India's cellphone industry. Where a decade ago it could take years to get a phone line, India's privatised mobile sector is now the world's fastest-growing, with some of its cheapest call rates. 

The industry is also profitable. 

"If telecom has happened, why can't airports, ports, roads and power do the same? The unfortunate part is that there is so much to be done ... it is taking time," said Mihir Doshi, managing director and India country head at Credit Suisse. (Additional reporting by M.C. Govardhana Rangan)


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## kronik

patience is a nice, rarely used word when describing India's pace of development. 

In the last few years, a lot has picked up though. What India needs most is clear and concise rules and regulations. More than anything, modern regulations will ensure a speedier completion of important projects than pumping in more money.


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## kurakura

Yea. India could do more with its infrastructure.
I was in Mumbai last yr.
The roads can hardly cope with the traffic :nuts: 
And more rules and regulations and enforcement should be in place.


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## hkskyline

kurakura said:


> Yea. India could do more with its infrastructure.
> I was in Mumbai last yr.
> The roads can hardly cope with the traffic :nuts:
> And more rules and regulations and enforcement should be in place.


Mumbai needs a mass transit system. The buses are very old and a metro system would be nice to start.


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## hkskyline

*HCC to increase focus on infrastructure projects *

MUMBAI, April 27 (Reuters) - Hindustan Construction Co. Ltd. plans to increase its focus on infrastructure projects, with several large road and airport construction projects expected to come up in the next few years, a top official said on Friday.

The Mumbai-based firm, which currently operates a single toll-road project in south India, plans to bid for a number of build-operate-transfer (BOT) projects and will consolidate these under a wholly-owned subsidiary that it hopes to set up this year.

"We are pre-qualified to bid for highway projects worth 50 billion rupees and will submit bids either individually or in joint venture," Chairman and Managing Director Ajit Gulabchand told reporters.

"We also see large opportunities coming up in the airport construction and hydel power segments," he said. "We will tie up with foreign partners, if necessary."

Earlier on Friday, the company reported a 16 percent fall in January-March net profit to 367.3 million rupees, which it attributed to higher tax outflow due to withdrawal of tax breaks for construction companies.

"There is no impact on cash flows as we had earmarked reserves for this purpose, in anticipation of the issue coming up," Gulabchand said. 

The company reported a 8 percent rise in quarterly net sales to 8.27 billion rupees, which it hopes to improve in the new financial year.

The company held orders worth 93.12 billion rupees at the end of March and in addition was shortlisted as the lowest bidder for projects worth 24.74 billion rupees.

Shares in the company, which fell on the lower results, were down 6.4 percent at 98.35 rupees, in a weak Mumbai market.


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## hkskyline

*India set for private sector boost *
By Joe Leahy in Mumbai
FT
Published: April 27 2007 00:22 | Last updated: April 27 2007 00:22

Indian companies have plans to invest $500bn over the next three years in infrastructure and manufacturing projects, according to one of the country’s foremost bankers.

K.V. Kamath, chief executive of ICICI Bank, the country’s biggest private sector lender, said the average profitability of the country’s corporates had been more than 25 per cent for several years, creating the conditions for a massive increase in capital spending.

“If you look at the pipeline of investment, this exceeds the investment done in the country today, in the history of the country,” Mr Kamath said.

“It’s like we are doubling investments or doubling the number of projects’ productive capacity in the span of three years compared with what we had.”

The splurge in investment cannot come too soon for India’s economy, which is struggling with bottlenecks in infrastructure that are driving up inflation.

The economy has been growing at more than 8 per cent, with a strengthening of the rupee on Wednesday pushing India’s gross domestic product over the $1,000bn (€736bn, £502bn) mark for the first time.

Of the investment pipeline, Mr Kamath said about $300bn of the total was slated for investment in infrastructure and infrastructure-related sectors while the remaining $200bn was destined for manufacturing and other sectors.

He said companies would fund up to 70 per cent of this spending from internal cash.

“Sixteen quarters of excellent profitability has meant they are throwing up surpluses, which are going to meet this investment,” Mr Kamath said.

Any large-scale investment in infrastructure will be welcomed by analysts, who worry that the government has been too slow to respond in this area.

“Rapid growth in demand for infrastructure over the past four years and a less than proportionate rise in infrastructure spend has meant that capacity utilisation in electricity, roads, seaports and major airports is at their maximum limits,” Chetan Ahya, Morgan Stanley economist, wrote in a recent report.

Talking about infrastructure, Mr Kamath said the biggest concern was the power sector.

“Even with all the power investment that takes place over the next three years, we’ll find that we’re still short by 20 to 25 per cent on our power needs,” Mr Kamath said.

“So particularly on the power front, it will be a catch-up deal.”

In the report, Mr Chetan said that during its 10th five-year plan ending March 2007 the government had targeted 41,000MW of new electricity generation capacity but had only achieved 18,000MW.


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## hkskyline

*India must deepen reforms to sustain economic growth: WTO *

GENEVA, May 23, 2007 (AFP) - India must carry out further reforms in agriculture, and open up the country's maritime transport and energy sector to competition if it is to sustain its "impressive" economic growth, the World Trade Organisation said on Wednesday. 

Continued structural reform would also help create productive employment for new entrants to the labour force, helping India reap a "demographic dividend," with one third of its population currently aged below 18, a WTO report said. 

The WTO said in its Trade Policy Review on the South Asian country that India's economy is expected to grow over nine percent in 2006/07, building on "impressive" growth averaging over seven percent between 2001/02 and the present day. 

Growth has largely been driven by unilateral trade and structural reforms, with the services sector playing a prominent role. Manufacturing has also performed well, despite some infrastructure constraints. 

By contrast, "agriculture growth continues to be slow and erratic... causing considerable distress, especially among small and marginal farmers," the WTO warned. 

The agriculture sector employs around 60 percent of the working population but is bedevilled by low productivity, at only around one sixth of its level in the rest of the economy, according to the review. 

Meanwhile, public investment in agricultural infrastructure and research has been inadequate due to excessive spending on direct and indirect subsidies to farmers, the WTO noted. 

Infrastructure remains a "major bottleneck" across all of India's economy, the trade policy review said. 

Whilst competition has been increased in telecoms and some transport sectors, maritime transport and port services continue to suffer from inefficencies. 

This constitutes "a major impediment to trade," the WTO said. 

The energy sector also needs reform, as there are frequent shortages of supply, and little progress seems to have been made in tackling the losses of state electricity boards, it said. 

India's tax-to-GDP ratio is relatively low and "seemingly insufficient to meet its developmental needs," the review noted. 

This is compounded by a "disappointing" level of foreign direct investment (FDI) at around just one percent of GDP, with high real rates of interest acting as a deterrent. 

The government has set up special economic zones (SEZs) to boost exports, especially in the electronics sector, but the WTO was doubtful as to their effectiveness in boosting both employment and investment. 

"As many of the industries attracted... appear to be capital intensive, it is not clear that this is the most effective way to create employment opportunities, especially for the less-skilled labour force," it said.


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## hkskyline

*India to hike roads spend, corruption a "cancer"-PM *

NEW DELHI, May 23 (Reuters) - India on Wednesday pledged to dramatically step up its spending on roads in rural areas, where the government wants to boost sluggish farm growth and raise hundreds of millions of people from abject poverty. 

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh told a conference that 480 billion rupees ($11.8 billion) would now be spent on a four-year project ending in 2009 to connect 66,000 villages. "Rural road connectivity is a critical component of our overall strategy for rural development. It promotes access to economic and social services and facilitates the growth processes on our rural economy," Singh said. 

Singh's premiership has seen annual growth rates of between 8 and 9 percent, but analysts say his government has failed to provide the investment in infrastructure and education needed to build a solid base for future expansion. 

The prime minister told government officials that corruption was holding back development. 

"A major reason for poor quality roads is corruption and the lack of quality assurance. Corruption in road construction projects has spread like cancer to every corner of our vast country," he said. 

In the fiscal year that ended in March the finance ministry pledged to spend 52 billion rupees on the rural road network. 

Better village roads would help India cut farmers' transport costs, promote crop diversification and create more non-farm jobs, the prime minister, who leads a coalition government headed by the Congress party and supported by communists, said. 

Sixty percent of India's one billion plus population are dependent on the farm sector, and rural consumption contributes significantly to overall growth. 

Farm expansion has stagnated at around 2 percent in recent years, and the government wants to double that to sustain an average 9 percent growth up to the fiscal year 2011/12. 

The road building is part of the ambitious 1.74 trillion rupee "Bharat Nirman" scheme to improve infrastructure, boost rural incomes and bridge the urban-rural divide. 

Financing will come from direct budget support and a Rural Infrastructure Development Fund, Singh said, adding states must ensure roads are built on time. 

The village road scheme runs parallel to a national highway project involving investment of 2.2 trillion rupees. ($1=40.56 rupees)


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## hkskyline

*Macquarie eyes Indian airports, cautious of risks *
By Reuters
Tuesday June 12, 03:55 PM 

MUMBAI (Reuters) - Australia's Macquarie Bank, the world's second-biggest owner of airports, is interested in investing in Indian airports but the risks needed to be carefully considered, an official said on Tuesday. 

Regulatory frameworks, flexibility to raise capital and exit options were all important considerations in an infrastructure sector where intense competition has pushed prices up around the world, Ambalika Banerji, an associate director at Macquarie Bank, told an aviation conference in Mumbai. 

"There's a significant pool of equity chasing a limited supply of airport assets globally, and investors are paying a huge premium for control," she said. 

"Demand for airport assets is at an all-time high, and airport trading and transaction multiples are going up very quickly." 

Speakers at the conference, organised by the Centre for Asia-Pacific Aviation, estimated the average transaction EBITDA multiple for a controlling stake in a regulated airport was 19.5 in the years 2000 to 2006, up from 15.8 before the year 2000. 

The average transaction EBITDA multiple for a controlling stake in a non-regulated airport was 20.5 in 2000 to 2006, up from 11.8 beforehand. 

There were about 60 active and potential buyers worldwide, holding about $50-$150 billion for airport assets, the conference was told. 

And potential buyers were bidding aggressively, with even traditionally conservative investors such as pension funds jumping in, Singapore-based Banerji said. 

"Bidders are willing to take on a lot of risk, especially for control, and we find that people are taking a more aggressive view of due diligence as well," she said. 

"Pension funds are going directly and bidding aggressively." 

A recent example was Birmingham Airport, which drew at least 35 parties for a 48.25 percent stake up for sale. Bidders included pension funds, besides investment bankers, private equity firms and airport operators, Banerji said. 

In India, the government, in partnership with domestic and international firms, is modernising ageing airports and building new ones to support the rapid growth in aviation. 

Second airports have been approved in the largest cities of Mumbai and New Delhi. New airports in Bangalore and Hyderabad are scheduled to open in 2008. 

Macquarie, which Banerji said was the world's second-biggest owner of airports after BAA, which is owned by Spain's Ferrovial, would be keen on investing in India but would weigh the risks carefully. 

"Look at Mumbai and Delhi - some of the standards set down seem unreachable, and the time given to reach some standards is not realistic," she said. 

"Land acquisition and resettlement are big issues, too." 

Still, Macquarie was interested in making investments and would even consider a greenfield opportunity, she said. 

"Most - if not all - our investments to date have been brownfield, and that would be more comforting, but a greenfield has its own pluses," she said.


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## hkskyline

*India JNPT plans 70-bln-rupee spend for port upgrade *

MUMBAI, Nov 15 (Reuters) - India's Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust plans to spend 70 billion rupees over the next five years to develop its infrastructure, a top official said late on Wednesday. 

In addition to developing its fourth terminal, the country's largest container port plans to extend one terminal, deepen and widen its harbour channels, buy rail-mounted quay and rubber-tyred gantry cranes. 

To start with, the port plans to widen and deepen the harbour channel draught to 14 metres from 12.5 metres now. The project is expected to cost 8 billion rupees, Chairman S. Shahzad Hussain said. 

"We don't have a problem with funds... There are several banks who are interested," Hussain told reporters, adding it would be a mix of own resources and debt. 

The western India-located port with its three terminals handled 2.30 million twenty-foot-equivalent containers in the first seven months of 2007/08, 26.4 percent more than in the same period last year. 

While Jawaharlal Nehru Port operates one terminal, one is handled by Dubai Ports World and the third is jointly operated by APM Terminals, which is part of A.P. Moller-Maersk <MAERSKb.CO> and state-run Container Corp of India . 

The Indian government has announced a $12.4 billion plan to upgrade 12 major ports to meet the rising volume of trade. Cargo handled by these ports has risen 9.5 percent a year over the last three years, a Citigroup report said. 

Jawaharlal Nehru Port plans to buy three rail-mounted quay cranes by April 2008 and six rubber-tyred gantry cranes by 2009 to upgrade its container handling infrastructure, Hussain said. 

It takes about 159 hours for each container to move out of the port, which is far higher than that in developed nations and adds to transportation costs, N. Sasidharan, chief commissioner of customs, said. 

Of this, eight percent of the total dwell time, right from the time of arrival to clearance of cargo, is taken up by the customs authorities, he said. 

"I need at least twice the staff I have now as the volume of traffic has gone up sharply," Sasidharan told Reuters. (Reporting by Arpan Mukherjee; Editing by Sunil Nair)


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## hkskyline

*India's poor left behind by blistering growth: minister *

NEW DELHI, Dec 4, 2007 (AFP) - India's scorching growth is failing to filter down to its hundreds of millions of poor people, a ruling Congress party minister has warned, stoking fears of social conflict. 

India's economy grew by 9.4 percent last year and the government is targeting nearly nine percent expansion or higher this year for the country of 1.1 billion people. 

"Here we are kissing 10 percent growth and instead of living standards rising, they are falling (for many)," minister for local governments Mani Shankar Aiyar told the India Economic Summit in New Delhi that winds up on Tuesday. 

"India is becoming prosperous but not Indians," Aiyar said. 

The boom is "disproportionately affecting a small percentage of the population," Aiyar said, noting despite strong growth, India sank in the Human Development Index to 128th place from 126 last year. 

While summit speakers have been upbeat about business prospects, they have also reminded delegates that India has no room for complacency. 

A quarter of Indians exist below the poverty line with most living off small subsistence farms, delegates were told at the summit, whose theme is how to reshape India in an "inclusive and sustainable way. 

A report prepared by the summit, part of the World Economic Forum in Davos, listed a litany of challenges. 

India's crumbling infrastructure is stretched to its limits, it said. 

The country has 18 percent of the world's population but only four percent of the planet's water and demand for water will exceed supply by 2050. 

"Eighty percent of Indians don't have access to proper sanitation, most don't have access to power," said Anand Mahindra, vice chairman of giant Indian truckmaker Mahindra & Mahindra.

India accounts for one-third of the world's illiterates with just 64 percent of adults able to read. 

Aiyar blamed a lazy, bumbling and sometimes corrupt bureaucracy for many social and infrastructure problems, citing estimates that only 15 percent of each rupee allocated to social spending reaches the needy. 

Distribution of resources needed to be done by local councils, or panchyats, that would have better accountability, he said. 

Finance Minister P. Chidambaram admitted on the weekend to the same meeting that India would fail to meet some UN Millennium Development Goals set for 2015 covering hunger, literacy and poverty reduction. 

India also needs to stop the massive migration to the cities that are becoming unlivable, Aiyar warned. 

"We must take (job and education) opportunities to rural India" using such tools as information technology, he said. 

Seventy percent of the population lives in rural areas but by 2025 the urban population will be 40 percent, the summit report said. 

"Right now people prefer to live life in utterly filthy" conditions in the cities because they feel opportunities are better, Aiyar said. 

India's financial and entertainment capital Mumbai is home to Asia's largest slums in which 60 percent of the city's population of 18 million live. 

Half a million people migrate each year to India's capital which has a population of around 16 million "to eke out a living," piling pressure on the city's already scarce power and water supplies, said New Delhi chief minister Sheila Dixit. 

"Social unrest could become a major issue if the growing inequalities in access to basic needs are not addressed" as such imbalances can "feed a vicious cycle of despair," said the conference report. 

Already Maoist rebels, who say they are fighting to improve peasants' lives in a conflict that has killed thousands of people in recent years, control wide swathes of central, eastern and southern India.


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## hkskyline

*Higher Indian growth depends on improving infrastructure: official *
Tue Dec 4, 8:48 AM ET
AFP

Billions of dollars must be spent to improve India's creaking infrastructure to achieve the economic growth needed to lift millions out of poverty, a top government policy advisor said Tuesday.

India's dilapidated ports, roads, power supplies and other infrastructure are a "critical constraint" to stronger growth, Montek Singh Ahluwalia, deputy chairman of the government's key Planning Commission, told the India Economic Summit.

"Investment in infrastructure in 2006-07 was five percent of gross domestic product and was inadequate. We need to increase it to about nine percent" by the financial year 2011-12 to around five billion dollars, said Ahluwalia.

India's goal of attaining 10 percent growth by the 2011-2012 financial year would be unachievable unless infrastructure spending moves into much higher gear, said Ahluwalia.

India has logged 8.6 percent average annual growth in the last four years and economists say expansion must shift to double digits to make a significant dent in deep poverty afflicting millions.

The Indian government will pick up the tab for 70 percent of the infrastructure spending but the rest -- around 150 billion dollars -- must come from private sources, Ahluwalia told the summit, part of a series of regional meetings ahead of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland in early 2008.

The meeting of financial players from around the world eager to learn about India's rapidly expanding economy has heard a litany of complaints from business leaders about the disastrous state of India's infrastructure.

The Indian government has introduced new policies to attract private sector investment and "now the scale of activity needs to increase" to compensate for India's "infrastructure deficit," Ahluwalia said.

India's high growth has pushed its shabby infrastructure to its limits. Power cuts last hours, congested ports delay loading and unloading and the nation's roads are notoriously potholed.

"Which state electricity board can guarantee continuous uninterrupted power?" asked Deepak Puri, chairman of compact disc giant Moses Baer India.

Many companies run their own captive power plants to overcome energy shortages and ensure continuous production.

Rajat Nag, managing director of the Asian Development Bank, called infrastructure India's most urgent problem.

India needs to spend as much as 1.6 billion dollars over the next decade or 10.5 to 12.5 percent of its GDP on infrastructure to keep growth on track, Nag said.

Rajiv Lall, managing director of the Infrastructure Development Finance Co., a private sector financier of Indian public works, said poor governance leading to slow decision-making was a major hurdle in drawing infrastructure investment.

He added there was also a shortage of the skills required for building civil engineering and other projects.

However, Ahluwalia said investors were showing interest in putting money into the power sector as India's states plan to introduce reforms to tackle widespread transmission and distribution losses.


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## hkskyline

*India set for flood of infrastructure investment, report says *

BANGALORE, India, Nov 6, 2007 (AFP) - India is set for a flood of investment in highways, ports, airports and power plants as foreign funds tap opportunities in its deficient public works, Ernst and Young says in a report. 

"We expect private investments in infrastructure projects in India to cross the four trillion rupee (101 billion dollar) mark in the next five years," said Kuljit Singh, partner at the Indian unit of the consultancy. 

"Infrastructure is key to growth in emerging markets around the globe and private investors are eager to support it," Singh said in the report received Tuesday. 

Investment in roads, railroads, water utilities, energy, ports and airports is expected to equal nine percent of national economic output by 2012, up from five percent now. 

The lack of a "master plan" has limited India's ability to attract investment in infrastructure to keep pace with its economic growth, now running at a yearly nine percent, the report said. 

Still, India's need for private capital in public works is opening up opportunities for foreign investors. 

The shabby infrastructure is seen by economists as the main impediment to accelerating the pace of economic growth in a nation of 1.1 billion people and closing the gap with neighbouring giant China. 

Power outages are common, water supply rationed, loading and unloading of freight at the ports is woefully slow and planes have to often circle airports for an hour awaiting landing slots. 

In Bangalore, India's computer-software capital, it can take two hours for programmers to be bussed over 20 kilometres of pot-holes and chaotic traffic to the immaculate campuses of companies such as Infosys, Wipro and Mindtree. 

India, its government's budget already overstretched, has been courting foreign and domestic private investment in infrastructure that has been slow in coming, as investors chased quick returns in sectors such as consumer goods. 

Unlike China, which already had the infrastructure in place to spur rapid economic growth, India is trying to refurbish and reinforce its public works to keep up with economic expansion. 

"India's challenge is not only to improve its existing infrastructure, but also to build new infrastructure to keep pace with its rapid economic growth and remain competitive," said Jayesh Desai, a director at Ernst and Young. 

"Ïndia's capital needs are so great it will require substantial private investment of approximately 100 billion dollars that spells opportunity for global investors," Desai added. 

Foreign investors such as private equity funds from the US and Europe are attracted to India by a risk-returns ratio comparable with developed markets, said Desai. The average rate of return on infrastructure projects is about 14 percent to 20 percent, he said. 

India plans nine trillion rupees of investment in roads over the next five years to improve and expand more than 50,000 kilometres of highways. It plans to invest 5.2 trillion rupees to generate 200,000 megawatts of power by 2012, up from the present capacity of 130,000 megawatts. 

The government is seeking three trillion rupees of investment by 2012 in developing private container trains and freight corridors to meet demand for railroad shipments. 

It is promoting joint ventures in seaports, estimating 486 billion rupees of investment, and also needs 364 billion rupees for airports to meet air traffic growth.


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## hkskyline

*India mobile firms pool infrastructure to cut costs, speed rollout *

NEW DELHI, Dec 9, 2007 (AFP) - Three leading Indian private mobile operators have announced the launch of a new company to share communications infrastructure to cut costs and help speed the rollout of a nationwide phone network. 

India's cellular market is growing by eight million subscribers a month and totals over 217 million customers, making it the world's fastest expanding. 

Now three major private mobile firms -- Bharti Airtel, Vodafone and Idea Cellular -- say they will merge their wireless infrastructure operations in what they say is a move to make growth even faster. 

They announced on Saturday they would set up an independent communications tower operator company, Indus Towers, to lower costs and push the mobile phone network deeper into rural areas. 

"This is the first such venture to be launched in India and we're inviting other players -- government and private -- to join us in helping roll out mobile phone services to every nook and corner of this country," Akhil Gupta, managing director of Bharti Enterprises, said in an interview. 

Bharti Airtel, led by billionaire Sunil Bharti Mittal, is India's biggest private mobile phone operator. 

"This way there will be no duplication of infrastructure building efforts," Gupta told AFP. 

The companies will pool existing communications towers so Indus Towers will start out with 70,000 tower sites and will be an independently managed company, sharing profits from rents charged to firms which use it. 

"This company is a major leap forward in reducing costs," Gupta said. "No longer will each company have to build a tower where it wants to go -- it can concentrate on growing its business." 

India's teledensity -- the number of people owning a phone out of every 100 people -- stands at just 21 percent compared to the West where the market is saturated. 

So far India's "mobile revolution" has been mainly confined to the cities but analysts say the real prize lies in the vast rural hinterland where 70 percent of the 1.1 billion population lives. Telephone penetration in urban India is around 25 per 100 people but just under two percent in rural areas. 

Bharti and Vodafone, owned by the British mobile operator giant with the same name, will hold 42 percent stakes each in the company. Idea Cellular, controlled by the Aditya Birla conglomerate, will hold the rest. 

The new company will also share infrastructure with other wireless service providers like broadcasters and broadband service providers, a statement said. 

India's mobile phone costs are already among the world's cheapest at less than two cents a minute that has helped operators win customers among poor income groups who have been driving subscriber growth. 

But the companies believe they can push down costs even further, reaching a new layer of clientele. 

"If we can make as operators phones affordable to the lowest common denominator on the economic ladder, the industry will flourish," said Gupta. 

The government is targeting 500 million mobile phone users by 2010. The easiest way to increase teledensity is through mobile phones as landline networks are more complicated and take longer to set up, analysts say. 

Sharing mobile phone infrastructure had been done on a smaller scale by such US companies as American Tower Corp and Crown Castle "with huge success" but in India "it will be on a huge scale," Gupta said.


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## hkskyline

*India wants Chinese funds for building; China wary of risk *

SHANGHAI, Dec 11 (Reuters) - India hopes China will boost investment in the south Asian nation's underfunded infrastructure sector, but Chinese firms are wary about opening their wallets for Asia's third-largest economy due to worries about returns. 

At a seminar in Shanghai on Tuesday, Indian government and company officials called on Chinese firms to pour funds into India's road, port, telecoms, power and property projects, which need $500 billion over the next 5 years. 

They said China's experience and expertise developed through a more than two-decade infrastructure construction boom at home would help India achieve its goal, and the Indian government is offering tax and other incentives to woo private investment. 

"India can certainly learn from China in terms of infrastructure investment," Prakash Gupta, consul and head of chancery of India's Consulate General in Shanghai, told the seminar about infrastructure investment in India. 

The rapid expansion in bilateral trade between the two giant Asian economies means there is much room for China to boost its direct investment in India from around $6 billion, Gupta said. 

Bilateral trade soared to $30 billion in January-October from just $3 billion in 2000, he said. 

Chinese firms investing in India include Shanghai Urban Construction Group and firms based in eastern China, such as Ningbo Bird Co Ltd and Haier Group , according to Gupta, who also noted a company from eastern China's Jiangsu province is to build an industrial park in India. 

J.J. Shrikhande, China head of Indian construction and engineering firm Larsen & Toubro Ltd , said his company is working with Chinese firms on infrastructure projects in India. He did not give details. 

Nitin Sen, Beijing representative of Indian law firm Remfry & Sagar, said Chinese capital and technology are well suited to a developing country such as India. 

"The Chinese service is okay and their prices are also good," said Sen. "Only Chinese can help India." 

But some Chinese company officials said they currently had no plans to make any significant investment in India's infrastructure sector because of risk concerns. 

"We are interested but we are not familiar with the risks in India. For example, if they get a new government, can we still reover our investment as planned?" said an official of a Chinese construction firm. 

Investment in India's infrastructure sector has lagged an economy growing at 9 percent a year, partly because of regulatory issues. 

China is moving much faster in infrastructure development, particularly in the power industry. 

China added 283,000-megawatt (MW) capacity in five years, dwarfing the 21,100 MWs built by India in the same period, said M.V. Rabade, chief representative of India's Adani Group in China. 

He said India's steel and cement capacity could not meet the power sector's requirements, and imports are increasingly essential.


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## hkskyline

*ADB offers $500 mln to India Infrastructure Fin *

NEW DELHI, Dec 14 (Reuters) - The Asian Development Bank (ADB) will provide loans up to $500 million to state-run India Infrastructure Finance Co (IIFCL) in multiple tranches over the next four years, the bank said in a statement on Friday. 

IIFCL will provide funds on commercial terms with over 20-year maturity for infrastructure projects, which is not currently being provided by the market. 

"It is estimated that the money will help catalyze private-sector investments in infrastructure of up to $3.5 billion," ADB said. 

In March, Reuters reported that IIFCL was looking to raise money abroad including that from multi-lateral agencies, to fund large projects. 

ADB said government funding would not be sufficient to meet an estimated $475 billion needed between now and 2012 for ramping up India's roads, railways, seaports, airports, electricity transmission lines and other infrastructure. 

"A serious lack of infrastructure is seen as India's Achilles' heel and it is estimated to cost the country 3-4 percent in terms of gross domestic product every year," said Cheolsu Kim, Principal Financial Sector Specialist at ADB. 

"India needs to double its current level of investment in infrastructure and to increase and mainstream public-private partnerships." 

(Reporting by Rajkumar Ray, Editing by Sunil Nair)


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## hkskyline

*India mulls alternate uses for forex reserves - minister *
Friday December 14, 07:35 PM

LONDON (Reuters) - India is examining alternative uses for its growing foreign exchange reserves, but creating a sovereign wealth fund like some of its Asian peers is not on its immediate agenda, commerce and industry minister Kamal Nath said.

Several Asian and Middle Eastern countries have set up so-called sovereign wealth funds to explore non-traditional investments, taking on more risk in a bid to generate greater returns for their vast foreign reserves.

A Chinese sovereign wealth fund -- China Investment Corp -- bought a nearly 10 percent stake in private equity group Blackstone earlier this year, and similar funds of the governments of Singapore and Abu Dhabi have recently bought into Citigroup and UBS.

"We are not following the Chinese model. We're not looking at creating any sovereign fund investment structure at the moment," Nath told Reuters in a brief interview conducted on Thursday.

Nevertheless, new uses for the country's foreign exchange reserves of more than $270 billion were being considered.

"We are having a revised look about what we should do with this in the light of the current uncertain global economic situation," he said, adding that India could consider alternative investments for its reserves.

He did not specify what those investments would comprise.

The bulk of India's reserves, which stood at $273.5 billion as on Nov. 30, is invested in U.S. government securities, leaving it exposed to the dollar's decline and falling interest rates.

An Indian government report last month said it was considering whether to release part of the reserves to a proposed financing entity for infrastructure projects.

These could then be lent to Indian firms involved in domestic infrastructure projects for buying capital equipment abroad, or used to invest in securities and provide insurance for overseas fund-raising for home projects.

Asia's third-largest economy is looking for ways to fund development of roads, ports and power, and estimates it needs nearly $500 billion to upgrade its infrastructure over the next few years to 2012.


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## unixer

almost $20 billion was spent on import of defence equipments last year. it's too much for India.

it's better to invest more on building their power plants and transportation systems than to feed russian/european/american armament dealers.

of course, india has the right to build its military power and to buy those expensive weapons. but, you know, to run 3 aircraft carriers is very expensive.


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## JD

^India has one of the lowest defense expenditure in world, This kind of rubbish logic only comes from few Pakistanis (are you one?). Even if India cut military budget by 10 billion (a pretty low budget for a big country like India), how much is that going to help? It needs 500 billion USD in next 6-7 years for it's infrastructure. It would require more than a trillion dollars in next 10-12 years. In 10 years it would save 100 billion USD by "cuts". The way you are complaining I thought the cuts are going to solve all Indian problems! May be you should figure out the numbers first. If anything, India should try to improve tax collection and cut on wasteful subsidies if it really wants to invest in anything.


P.S: Indian didn't spend 20 billion on military imports. Hell it has never spent 20 billions ever on military. Even if it allocates total annual budget of 27-28 billion for military, a good portion of money for weapon purchase remains unutilized due to various reasons.


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## unixer

i just googled, got these info:

"India to Buy 350 T-90S Tanks from Russia, they'll buy more later.
India to buy 140 Russian-made Sukhoi-30 
India's aircraft carriers: 2 in use, 1 U/C in russia, 1 planned to be built in india."

so, ur statement, "India has one of the *lowest* defense expenditure *in the world*", doesn't sound reasonable. 

one thing is very important:
before india has those weapons, don't forget to get the infrastructure done. i mean those military used sea/air ports, railway to move tanks, etc. 

btw, pakistan may not be a good neighbor, but they have the capability to build their own tanks


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## JD

unixer said:


> i just googled, got these info:
> 
> "India to Buy 350 T-90S Tanks from Russia, they'll buy more later.
> India to buy 140 Russian-made Sukhoi-30
> India's aircraft carriers: 2 in use, 1 U/C in russia, 1 planned to be built in india."



you sir don't even know that India is planning to buy these things for some time and these purchases will take many years and all the expenditure would be spread over those years. After all the aircraft carrier India is building won't be finished for 7-8 years atleast.



> so, ur statement, "India has one of the *lowest* defense expenditure *in the world*", doesn't sound reasonable.


Actually it's more than reasonable. Expenditure on these purchases are spread over many years and in NO way the sum in one years comes close to 5 billion far less 20 billion USD. On the other hand, budget allocation happens EVERYYEAR and substantial amount of money is actually spend on people since military provides employment for millions, adding RAF etc. ofcourse .




> one thing is very important:
> before India has those weapons, don't forget to get the infrastructure done. i mean those military used sea/air ports, railway to move tanks, etc.


Blah blah blah! I don't come preach about whatever country you come from, you do the same. If you don't have anything logical to say, try joining some Indian bashing forum but spare us the nonsense. Anyways, if you come out of jungle you are living in, you might see that India IS spending money on infrastructure. Funny though since Indian section is next to Pakistani section! Being ignorant is not really that great. 



> btw, pakistan may not be a good neighbor, but they have the capability to build their own tanks


I am sure Pakistan is on the top of world as for as engineering is concerned, but do I give a damn?! Keep up the "Pakistan" thing and I will send a mail to the mods. This is not a political forum.


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## unixer

tytler said:


> Keep up the "Pakistan" thing and I will send a mail to the mods. This is not a political forum.


go ahead! just do it the indian way. :lol::lol::lol:


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## Mahratta

unixer said:


> go ahead! just do it the indian way. :lol::lol::lol:


Please stop trolling these threads. We do not need politically-charged idiots ruining the forums, thanks.


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## LMCA1990

Getting back on topic... I'm glad India's improving it's infraestructure not only for economic growth but for movement in general kay:


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## Mahratta

lmcm1990 said:


> Getting back on topic... I'm glad India's improving it's infraestructure not only for economic growth but for movement in general kay:


Yeah, in major cities especially Mumbai its hard getting around by car, its definitely good that infra is being upgraded a lot


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## hkskyline

*FEATURE-Games-New Delhi's preparations criticised *

NEW DELHI, Feb 26 (Reuters) - India's hopes of using the 2010 New Delhi Commonwealth Games to showcase its capital have hit fresh trouble with a parliamentary committee saying not enough has been done to prepare for the expected influx of visitors.

Affordable hotel rooms looked likely to be in short supply in the city, the committee told organisers, who are already facing criticism for delays in preparations for the Games.

"There appear (to be) utter lack of coordination, determination and sense of urgency amongst the agencies engaged in providing facilities to the tourists who will be visiting India in connection with the Commonwealth Games," said the panel on transport, tourism and culture in a report issued this week.

It said it was dismayed that the Delhi government had not sent its proposals to the tourism ministry until November and urged authorities to improve road and air links and security for tourists.

The report was a new blow to organisers of the October 2010 Games, who are already having to cope with the credit crunch, delays in building work and environmental protests.

Sports Minister Manohar Singh Gill last week compared the slow build-up to a big, lavish Indian wedding.

"I use an absurd analogy...this is India and we've weddings, monsoon weddings, the Indian style," he said at a business forum. "Till the previous evening we will run around...then stand together the next day and sing wedding paeans.

"Next October is not that far away," he said. "The schedules are something to watch, we (the government) certainly do. Although it started late, we're working hard. They will make it."

BUDGET REVISION

The Games were initially seen as a great opportunity for India to demonstrate its growth into a modern nation and its place as an economic rival to China but those hopes have dimmed.

Government figures in December estimated Games expenditure at around 79 billion rupees ($1.6 billion), including money spent on infrastructure and on last year's Commonwealth Youth Games.

Preparations have been hit by the financial meltdown, however. Private builders have sought funds from the Delhi government, who in turn have sought federal help and the initial budget faces revision.

"The cost estimates were done one-and-a-half years ago and all of them are undergoing revision," V.K. Verma, director general of the Games said. "The government is very aware there should not be any compromise."

In November, the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) raised concerns over the slow pace of work, which forced this year's World Badminton Championships to be moved to Hyderabad.

The Commonwealth boxing championships, originally due to be held in December in New Delhi, have been postponed until February or March next year because of delays in building the venue.

The Games village being built on the banks of the Yamuna, one of India's major rivers, is the subject of a legal case after a petition raised environmental concerns.

"New Delhi could lose the right to host the 2010 Commonwealth Games if organisers are forced to shift the athletes' village from its present location," the CGF said in November.

TEST EVENTS

Despite the problems, organisers remain upbeat.

"The organising committee is confident all the competition venues and Games village would be completed as per the target dates set for completion," vice-chairman Randhir Singh said on Tuesday.

"At most of the training venues work has already started while at the remaining (venues), work will be started shortly, but everything will be completed in time," he told a news conference at the netball venue under construction.

"We're all fighting hard to make sure we are making the right programme to hold a great Games," he said. "One or two things were left behind but there is ample time to catch up."

Test events are planned for between February and June next year, before a dry run of the Games in August.

Games officials said the parliamentary report was based on old data and might not entirely reflect the present situation.

"It is for the government, I think they will manage things," Singh said. "The Delhi government has said everything will be completed, it is a legacy issue for the government. Everyone is free to say what they want."


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## hkskyline

*Port sector revival held up on funds crunch *

MUMBAI, March 25 (Reuters) - Expansion and greenfield projects at Indian ports have almost ground to a halt as an economic slowdown has choked investment into the sector, which holds great potential as a growth driver, industry players said.

A fund shortage has delayed expansion at several Indian ports, raising concerns of higher time lags and congestion after an expected traffic revival in June, they added.

"Apart from 2-3 terminals coming up in 3-4 major ports, other projects are expected to face delays," said Manish Sharma, director at consultancy firm KPMG.

Among these are JSW group's captive port on India's eastern coast, Reliance Industries' Rewas project on the west coast, besides a few others in south India.

Much of the estimated 558 billion rupees needed to revive the sector was expected to come from private players. However, this is unlikely due to longer gestation period, tighter credit and a sharper-than-expected drop in economic growth, analysts said.

India is expected to grow around 7 percent in FY09, its slowest in six years, with even slower growth seen next year.

However, cargo traffic is expected to see a revival in June, but the country's 12 major ports -- which saw volume drop over 8 percent in April-Feb 2009 compared with last year -- are not equipped to handle it, analysts said.

"A scenario where capacity additions are put on hold, while cargo volumes pick up in due course could potentially lead to the recurrence of extreme port congestions in the future, similar to those witnessed in the recent past," KPMG's Sharma said.

With its strategic location straddling major trade routes and a long coastline that boasts a port every 20 miles, India's port sector was expected to be a major driver of trade and economic progress, but has not managed to deliver so far.

Even during the last 2-3 years, when trade was at its peak, India's largest container port, Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT), had a waiting period of up to 10 days.

Port of Singapore, in comparison, took just about half a day.

Capacity utilisation in India is also abysmal with three-fourths of its 200-odd ports being defunct or seasonal.

"There is a need for deeper draught ports and services such as bunkering, coastal shipping, connectivity and hinterland development," Bhavesh Gandhi, executive vice chairman of Pipavav Port, said at a conference in Mumbai recently.

Major ports -- which handle 7 million twenty foot equivalent units of container cargo compared with about 29 million by Port of Singapore -- are expected to see 7.7 percent volume growth each year till 2013/14, government data showed.

HOPE FLOATS

The public-private partnership model will help boost growth in the sector, Gandhi added.

Of late, corporates have started to invest in traditionally state-owned ports on a build-operate-transfer basis for 25 to 50 years to cash in on India's growing trade, but lacked the desired momentum, industry officials said.

AP Moller Maersk <MAERSKb.CO>, General Electric , Singapore's PSA International, UK-based 3i Group have already invested heavily in new and existing port projects.

In the current scenario, these companies and also other domestic players now stand to benefit from cheap land and construction costs, which should help speed up development in the sector, analysts and port officials said. "This slowdown is an opportune time for capacity expansion by existing ports due to lower cost of construction as well as equipment and significantly less market risk," a spokesman at Mundra Port & SEZ said.


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## hkskyline

*Slowdown, political uncertainty hit India infrastructure *

MUMBAI, May 12 (Reuters) - One of India's most ambitious infrastructure projects, an $325 million eight-lane bridge running through the sea off Mumbai, opens next month after negotiating a maze of bureaucracy, courts and street protests.

Ten years in the making, the 5.6 km-long (3.5 miles) Bandra Worli Sea Link, aimed at easing the financial capital's legendary traffic jams, is a symbol of the neglect of India's infrastructure and the challenges such mega projects face.

Budget overruns, disputes between the state and private contractors and protests and litigation by residents and fishermen concerned at the environmental impact and loss of livelihood all but killed the project.

As India gets set to usher in another coalition government vulnerable to the competing pulls and pressure of regional groups after elections this month, the task of building a world class infrastructure on par with China seems even more challenging.

"We've had a massive under-investment in infrastructure in the last few decades and the result is blindingly obvious to anyone," said Anu Madgavkar, a partner at McKinsey & Co.

"There's no magic wand that will make our infrastructure problems disappear in a couple of years; even if we go full steam ahead, we'll just about prevent the situation from deteriorating further," she said.

At least the Mumbai sea link will see the light of day; dozens of other projects across the country face an uncertain future because of a combination of political instability and the worst financial crisis in decades.

FINANCIAL CRISIS

India estimates it needs $500 billion by 2012 to upgrade its overwhelmed airports, potholed roads and inadequate utilities.

Easing regulations and a booming economy had drawn eager local and foreign investors to the table, but just as it seemed the public-private partnership model would ease India's infrastructure woes, the financial crisis turned the tap off.

"Response from the private sector has been muted and there is a rise in risk aversion around the world. So long as the downturn persists, India faces hurdles making much-needed improvements to its infrastructure," said Moody's.com economist Sherman Chan.

Infrastructure projects, being capital-intensive, long in duration and exposed to economic cycles, are particularly vulnerable to a slowdown, with several in Asia failing or hit by delays and corruption during the crisis a decade ago.

Add to that India's underdeveloped capital market and tussles over subsidies and land ownership, and the task is tougher.

"We still have a socialist mindset: we think the government has to provide everything, and that too at subsidised rates," said Nitin Zamre, a director at CRISIL's infrastructure advisory.

"Subsidies on water and power are politically sensitive areas, and the government is not willing to let go entirely."

But with a fiscal deficit of around 10 percent of the GDP, government finances are not in good shape and there are constraints in managing and executing infrastructure projects.

Both the ruling Congress party and the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party have promised to tackle the problem.

The Congress wants to build rural Internet connectivity while the business-friendly BJP talks about investments in highways and clean energy.

"In the short term, until a new government is in place, we're in for a bit of a lean period as far as implementation of projects goes, but it is in the interest of the new government to quickly ramp up," said Madgavkar.


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## hkskyline

*Commonwealth Games: India working to secure 2010 Games, says chief*
20 May 2009
Agence France Presse

Security is the prime concern ahead of next year's Commonwealth Games in New Delhi due to the tense situation in the region, organisers said on Wednesday.

"We have to satisfy the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) on the security aspect and I am confident we can do that," organising committee chairman Suresh Kalmadi told local media.

"Security is a very important aspect of the Games and we need to have more communication with the CGF on that."

Security concerns in South Asia have grown after 166 people were killed in militant attacks in Mumbai last November, and gunmen ambushed the bus carrying the Sri Lankan cricket team in Pakistan in March.

Seven Sri Lankan cricketers were injured in the incident, forcing the International Cricket Council to abandon plans to hold a part of the 2011 World Cup in Pakistan.

The CGF and Indian organisers have said that security for the Commonwealth Games, featuring athletes from 71 nations and territories of the former British Empire, will be on par with last year's Beijing Olympics.

"The CGF had sent a couple of delegates to check on the security," said Kalmadi. "They have given a report for us to follow up on.

"The scenario in all our neighbouring countries also worries them, so we have to give them a lot of comfort on security."

Organisers are looking at the October 3-14 Games next year to showcase their ability to stage major sporting events with an eye on hosting the Olympics by 2020.

Kalmadi admitted there were minor delays in construction of two venues, but promised to have all infrastructure ready six months ahead of the event.

"It took us a while to procure mandatory approval for some infrastructure projects," he said. "That led to a delayed start, but we have now managed to catch up and most venues will be ready in time for the Games."

Kalmadi said the CGF executive board were satisfied with the progress during a visit to New Delhi earlier this month.

"The CGF executive inspected the venues and expressed satisfaction with the way the infrastructure was coming up," he said.

"We need to maintain the momentum, and the organising committee will keep monitoring the execution of infrastructure contracts."

New Delhi is only the second Asian city to be awarded the Commonwealth Games. The Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur hosted the 1998 event.


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## hkskyline

*INTERVIEW-India IL&FS Investment may launch city infra fund *

MUMBAI, June 25 (Reuters) - IL&FS Investment Managers is considering raising a fund to invest in India's overstretched city and social infrastructure in 2010, the head of the country's oldest private equity firm said on Thursday.

Archana Hingorani, who manages $2.5 billion, said the key ingredients for the development of core infrastructure such as highways, ports and power plants were in place but water, sewage, healthcare and roads in cities were crumbling.

"We could look at a fund for city infrastructure sector, may be in 2010. We are very clear there are opportunities, but have we structured a potential fund for it? Not yet," she said told Reuters in an interview.

The urban and social infrastructure fund would be feasible to start at around $200 million, Hingorani said.

The firm also hopes to raise another $200 million for an Asia infrastructure fund it runs with Standard Chartered by September to take the size to $800 million, she said.

IL&FS, which manages seven funds including two real estate funds worth $1.4 billion, also plans to launch funds in 2010 as most of the money would have been committed, she said.


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## hkskyline

*ANALYSIS-India's infrastructure hopes may hit funding roadblock *

MUMBAI, June 26 (Reuters) - India's hopes of launching much-needed road, port and power projects may be deflated by a funding squeeze as government finances are constrained, long-term domestic money is scarce and battered overseas investors and lenders watch from the sidelines.

If starved of the spending, India's overburdened infrastructure is bound to hinder the country's efforts to return to an economic growth rate of 9 percent a year and hurt its goal to become the fastest growing major economy in the world in 2010.

Asia's third-biggest economy needs $500 billion for its infrastructure over the five years to 2012, the government has estimated. About 30 percent of that is expected from private funds, as the government tries to contain a widening fiscal deficit.

Developers tend to raise equity financing through founders or overseas investors and borrow funds for short to medium terms from financial institutions. But money flow is tight these days.

"We have to seek alternative ways to raise capital," said Jai Mavani, head of infrastructure at consultancy KPMG, adding that the big pool of domestic savings must be tapped. "We have some of the highest savings rates in the world," Mavani said.

According to some estimates, household savings in India in 2007/08 was around 7.3 trillion rupees ($150 billion), from a population of 1.1 billion. Most of that is in low-risk bank deposits, insurance policies and pension funds, all of which are heavily regulated.

Infrastructure projects require capital that is willing to be committed for decades, and projects can carry substantial execution and financial risk.

"It's a new animal," said Nitin Bhasin, analyst, Nobel Group, an equity advisory firm for institutional investors. "The money is in the system but regulations have to be made more conducive."

WEAK SECTOR, WEAKER BOND MARKET

The government has announced extra spending of 200 billion rupees and cut tax rates as part of stimulus packages to boost growth, which widened the fiscal deficit to 6.2 percent of GDP in FY09 against the previously targeted 2.5 percent.

Neither India's banking system nor the domestic institutions have the money to finance India's infrastructure needs, and corporates want to tap retail money.

The firms want pension funds to invest up to 15 percent of their money in infrastructure projects and await cues from the approaching budget to be announced on July 6.

Bankers say the foreign currency market is unwilling to extend long-term funds. Meanwhile, there is a reluctance among investors to pick up long-maturity bonds, such as those issued by infrastructure companies, in an illiquid bond market, on expectations yields will rise later. 

"Ideally, you would expect the bond market to be the best vehicle for meeting infrastructure investment requirements. You get access to long duration money and all infrastructure assets are long gestation," said S. Nanda Kumar, a Fitch Ratings analyst.

Since a lot of India's infrastructure projects are in the early phases of construction, their assigned ratings are too low for bond market investors, such as banks, pension and mutual funds and insurance companies, to be able to invest in them.

The low ratings reflect the risks infrastructure projects pose, including construction and completion, high indebtedness and susceptibility to cash-flow volatility.

"There has to be innovation in terms of financing," said Amitabh Das Mundhra, director of Simplex Infrastructures Ltd , arguing that the risk factor declines over an asset's life. Simplex builds roads, power utilities and sewage systems.

"It's not a liquidity issue. It's the viability issue people need to address," he said.

Under contract terms for newer projects, companies are responsible for design, execution and funding. In return, they have control over the asset for a few decades to reap rewards, before handing it back to the government, the original owner.

Builders want longer concession periods and better terms to attract debt and equity financing for 15-30 years' tenure that infrastructure favours and is especially needed for the latest round of bidding for large build-operate and transfer (BoT) projects.

OVERSEAS MONEY

Debt-burdened developers have been looking to the equity markets to raise funds, although many market insiders say the window for equity-raising is open only to the strongest players.

GMR Infrastructure , a stakeholder in New Delhi's international airport, one of the busiest in the country, managed to attract just over half the $1 billion it is hoping to raise during an investor roadshow this month, banking sources said.

So far, private equity firms have not put any money into construction this year and invested just $160 million in 2008, Thomson Reuters data showed.

"The government has put a lot of restrictions and that, sometimes, the private equity funds and (foreign) pension funds are not comfortable with," said Vishwas Udgirkar, executive director at PricewaterhouseCoopers India.

He said infrastructure developers will be constrained until they can find more sources of funding.

"Unless and until they can tap more avenues for raising equity, it's difficult for them to go after more projects," he said.


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## hkskyline

*India needs funds, policy for infrastructure *

NEW DELHI, July 2 (Reuters) - India's efforts to revamp its creaking infrastructure are constrained by shortage of long-term finance and policy initiatives are needed to speed up projects, the government said in a report on Thursday.

In an economy survey, ahead of an updated budget on Monday, the government said it was a "challenging task" to achieve $500 billion investment the Planning Commission estimated was needed over five years to 2012 to upgrade the country's overburdened roads, airports and other facilities.

Foreign borrowings for infrastructure projects fell to $6.92 billion in the fiscal year ended in March from $10.2 billion a year before, the survey said.

Equity offerings by private-sector infrastructure companies slumped to 147.2 billion rupees ($3 billion) in 2008/09 from 870.3 billion rupees a year earlier, it said.

The infrastructure sector has come into focus following a slowdown in the economy, which grew 6.7 percent in 2008/09 in its weakest pace in six years and well below the 9 percent and more seen in the previous three years.

Even when a project achieved financial closure further delays were caused by disputes over land acquisition, raw materials and capital goods shortage, environmental issues and inadequate availability of skilled workers, the survey said.

"These problems have wide ramifications," it said. "There is no option but to address them systematically as timely implementation of projects is critical for ensuring their financial viability," it said.

National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), which builds, maintains and manages highways, could receive bids only for 22 projects in 2008/09 as the bidders indulged in "cherry-picking" for want of funds, a NHAI official told Reuters in April. ($1= 47.8 rupees)


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## hkskyline

*Indian infra a stronger theme post-budget: Kotak *

MUMBAI, July 7 (Reuters) - Indian infrastructure has emerged a stronger investment theme post-budget on plans of higher government spending and improved external funding environment, a top strategist at India's Kotak Group said on Tuesday.

Alroy Lobo, who oversees about $2 billion as chief strategist and global head of equities for the asset management arm of the group, said he also favoured consumption given India's demographic advantage and thrust on spending in rural areas where most of its people live, but infrastructure remained his top bet.

"Infrastructure is clearly the bet I would like to place on," Lobo told Reuters in an interview.

"If you look at the infrastructure programme, they have seen massive increase in expenditure," he said, referring to the budget unveiled on Monday.

In his budget speech, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee promised greater flexibility to government-run Indian Infrastructure Finance Co. to fund projects and asked state governments for speedy implementation of projects.

The budget allocated 128.87 billion rupees for urban infra, 87 percent higher than a year-ago, and provided 39.73 billion rupees for housing and basic amenities to the urban poor.

It also raised spending for national highway development programme by 23 percent over 2008/09, set aside 10 billion rupees for irrigation projects and aimed to increase investment in infrastructure to more than 9 percent of the GDP by 2014.

"Even if you assume slippages and you assume it's not 9 percent but 8 percent, the sector is going to grow at a very strong pace in excess of 20 percent," Lobo said.

"Which industry will give you sustainable growth story of 20 percent plus?" asked Lobo, whose firm holds shares such as Larsen & Toubro and Bharat Heavy Electricals .

He said the segment had contracted significantly in 2008 on fears a funding crunch would derail infrastructure projects.

Now, the pressure had eased and external commercial borrowing market revived, giving hopes that many projects, which were still on the drawing boards, will start getting executed.

"There is ample global liquidity which is wanting to find a place to rest," he said, adding Indian would be a major gainer given a strong government and easing geopolitical risks.

He said both the equity and bond markets over-reacted to the budget on Monday, with shares dropping nearly 6 percent and bond yields rising the most in three months, mainly due to projected fiscal deficit of 6.8 percent and higher borrowing programme.

But Indian shares' valuations look fairly attractive, Lobo said, adding he expected a major rebound in earnings for local firms in financial year 2011.

"When you look around the world, we are in a natural sweet spot and now we have got a very strong government," Lobo, one of whose infrastructure funds was among the world's top 100 performing stock funds in quarter to June, said.


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## hkskyline

*Wagon makers demand infra push, more trains *

MUMBAI, June 30 (Reuters) - India's wagon makers have demanded speedy execution of rail infrastructure projects, clearing pending proposals for private participation and more passenger trains in the upcoming budget.

India's rail budget, which allocates funds and announces reforms for the sector, is to be announced on July 3 by Mamata Banerjee, the newly-appointed rail minister.

"The Indian Railways need to ensure an increased contribution of the rail sector towards infrastructure creation and enhancing the growth pace of the Indian economy," the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM) said.

The railway's outdated technology, poor condition of its stations and increased competition from roads are some of the impediments blocking the growth pace of the Indian economy, ASSOCHAM said in a budget recommendation in June.

India's economy grew 6.7 percent in 2008/09, its weakest in six years, well below 9 percent rates of the last three years.

The world's second-fastest growing major economy is on a drive to improve its creaky infrastructure and boost rail connectivity between industrial hubs and major ports.

With a 63,327-kilometre long network, the railways forms an integral part of Indian life, transporting over 18 million passengers and over 2 million tonnes of freight daily.

While work on the west and the east dedicated freight corridors, spanning about 2,800 kilometres, has started, company officials said there is scope for a southern passage too.

"The railways now should look at the south, south-east and south-west corridors. There is huge cargo available, which is moving by road, which the railways must target," AK Vijay, vice president, commercial, Texmaco Ltd , said.

Currently, roads carry about two-thirds of the country's total cargo, while rail carries just a third, Vijay said, adding, "This total lopsiding in freight movement has to be corrected."

SECTOR DEMANDS

Wagon makers such as Titagarh Wagons , BEML and unlisted firm Jessop expect a boost in spending on long-distance, faster passenger trains and new metro rails at India's growing cities, to help gain orders.

They also demanded orders from the railways to be placed up to two years in advance to help planning for long-term production and to ensure timely deliveries of wagons. Currently, the railways places orders annually.

Rail operators, on the other hand, want stability in haulage charges to enable long-term contracts and reduce turnaround time, officials said.

"Frequent changes (in rates) cause problems for us. It's not possible to pass on all the charge (to users)," Sachin Bhanushali, president of Gateway Rail Freight Ltd, a unit of Gateway Distriparks , said.

Arshiya International and Sical Logistics Ltd also have licences to run container trains in a market dominated by state-run Container Corp of India.


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## hkskyline

*India to ease rules for road project investments *

MUMBAI, July 10 (Reuters) - India aims to reform policy and ease investment rules for infrastructure projects in an effort to attract capital to rebuild and expand its overburdened road network, the road transport minister said on Friday.

The government hopes to reduce the likely gap between planned and actual investment by ensuring more financial participation and through measures to improve the risk-return equation for private players, Kamal Nath said in a meeting with investors and bankers.

"The lack of roads, and in the larger context, all of infrastructure, is a major challenge to our economic reform programme," the minister said.

The National Highways Authority of India will seek bids for 6,563 kilometres of road projects in the next two quarters costing 604.8 billion rupees ($12.4 billion), its chairman told Reuters on Friday.

India has a road network of about 3.4 million km (2.1 million miles), of which about 70,000 km are national highways.

Nath said the government expected to add 12,000 kilometres of roads this year at a cost of 1 trillion rupees ($21 billion), and said preference would be given to the toll model for new roads.

Nearly 60 percent of the new roads are planned on the toll-based model, he said.

"We should look to toll roads as far as possible. We should look to build up specialised tolling companies, as in Europe," he told reporters at a press conference after the meeting.

Earlier this week, Nath told Reuters the government had earmarked $20 billion a year for road building and expected foreign investors to fund half of this. 

In its annual budget this week, the government raised funding for national highways by 23 percent, and provided for state-run India Infrastructure Finance Co Ltd to refinance bank loans for long-term infrastructure projects.

India's road expansion program has been hampered mainly by lack of access to funds, but other structural problems have also stymied investment, including the process of offering and bidding projects.

Nath said the government was also looking at improving documentation to keep investment attractive, and has already taken steps related to streamlining land acquisition.

"We have decided to award bids only once possession has been taken for 80 percent of the land, and notifications have been issued for the balance 20 percent," he said. ($1= 48.7 rupees)


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## hkskyline

*28 arrested in India for protesting power outages*
15 July 2009

LUCKNOW, India (AP) - Police fired rubber bullets and arrested 28 people for allegedly setting fire to government property during a violent protest against power outages in northern India as it reels under a heat wave, an official said Wednesday.

Three people were injured in the firing at protesters, who set on fire a state-owned utility's electricity transformer and a truck on Tuesday in Gorakhpur town, Uttar Pradesh state, said Surendra Srivastava, a police spokesman.

He said 11 people were arrested in Gorakhpur for blocking roads and disrupting traffic over complaints that homes have been getting power for only three hours a day.

Another eight people were arrested in Mahoba, another town in the state, for allegedly beating up government workers at a power supply center, Srivastava told The Associated Press. Other arrests were made in the state capital, Lucknow, and three other towns.

Those arrested were charged with rioting and attacking government workers, punishable by up to three years in prison.

Uttar Pradesh, home to 180 million people, is India's most populous state and one of the poorest. Its inadequate energy infrastructure has been unable to cope with the high demand for electricity as temperatures have peaked above 104 degrees Fahrenheit (40 degrees Celsius) in recent days.

The power shortages have left people without air conditioning or fans -- and, in some cases, without water, as electric pumps failed -- for hours each day.

Also Tuesday, angry protesters set some government buildings on fire in Amethi, a town represented in India's Parliament by Rahul Gandhi, the son of the ruling Congress party chief Sonia Gandhi. Traders, attorneys, teachers and students joined the protest.

Delay in monsoon rains by three weeks or more in northern India has hit power generation with water levels dropping in several dams.

"The Uttar Pradesh state gets 5,400 mega watts of electricity against its requirement of 6,200 mega watts. The paucity of 800 mega watts is leading to frequent power cuts," said Shailendra Dubey, an executive engineer with the Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation Ltd.

India faces chronic power shortages amid growing demand, spurred by its rapid economic growth, and a lag in building new power stations.


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## hkskyline

*India needs $70 bln investment in roads - minister *

NEW DELHI, July 17 (Reuters) - India will need to spend $70 billion on building roads over the next three years, Transport Minister Kamal Nath said on Friday, as it looks to infrastructure spending to stimulate demand and boost the economy.

Nath, speaking at an investors' conference in Singapore, said $40 billion of that could come from private investors, with a quarter of that coming for foreign investors. His comments were released by his office in New Delhi.

Nath had previously said he wanted foreign investors to fund as much as half of the $20 billion a year earmarked for road building. 

India has a road network of about 3.4 million km (2.1 million miles), of which about 70,000 km are national highways and has set up a target of building 20 km of roads per day.


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## hkskyline

*Coal fires up India's farmers against new power plants *
1 August 2009
Agence France Presse

Rajni Ramakan Patil has a message for the energy companies that want to build coal-based power stations on the land that she and two generations of her family have farmed for more than 50 years.

"Even if you give us gold, we won't leave this place. This is our land," she said.

Rajni and five other families from the village of Poinad cultivate a small parcel of land on the flat and fertile plains near the coastal town of Alibag, about 130 kilometres (80 miles) south of the western city of Mumbai.

The land, used for sowing rice crops and growing vegetables like okra and white onions, is among 8,500 acres (3,400 hectares) earmarked for the construction of four giant thermal power plants.

Activists opposed to the development fear it could destroy the livelihoods of thousands of people in the area, pollute the clean air and soil and create health problems among the poor farmers and their families.

"They only know how to sow, how to manage fields, how to harvest, how to fish," said Satish Londhe, who is spearheading the villagers' fight against the proposals.

The situation in the lush foothills of the Western Ghats mountain range embodies the problem facing India: how does it meet the increasing demand for energy as the country's population explodes and economic growth continues.

According to the International Energy Agency, more than half of the world's energy demands by 2030 will come from India and its fellow emerging economic powerhouse China.

But while China was reportedly building two new power stations per week, India's energy infrastructure has struggled to keep pace with rapid growth.

Some 400 million people currently lack regular electricity and even where it is available power cuts can be daily occurrences.

Maharashtra Energy Generation Ltd, a unit of India's largest private utility firm Reliance Energy Ltd, Tata Power and the other companies involved in the proposed plants say the 7,700 megawatts produced will ease supply problems.

The villagers and environmentalists supporting them accept the need for more electricity but question whether coal is the answer.

With concern about high levels of greenhouse gas emissions from the burning of fossil fuels, they want renewable energy, which currently supplies about 25 percent of India's electricity, to be given greater priority.

According to Greenpeace India, wind, solar and tidal power could provide up to 35 percent of the country's power by 2030, with less environmental damage and social consequences.

"People don't want the project," said Vishnu Mhatre, a medical doctor who runs a clinic near the proposed power plant sites. "They want change but they don't want pollution.

"They want electricity but electricity can be provided by wind or other renewables."

But India -- the world's third-biggest producer of electricity from fossil fuel -- appears set on coal, which at present provides just under 55 percent of the country's power.

The ministry overseeing the industry maintains that coal will continue to take "centre stage of India's energy scenario" in the years to come, calling it a "unique ecofriendly fuel service to (the) domestic energy market".

Retired Admiral L. Ramdas, a former chief of the Indian naval staff, lives in Alibag with his wife, Lalita, who sits on the board of directors of Greenpeace International.

He called for more use of wind power and energy storage and described the potential displacement of thousands of farmers at a time of chronic food shortages in some parts of rural India as a "crazy, crazy situation."

The fight between India's fabled "common man" and at least two of its biggest corporate beasts might seem unevenly matched, but there is a precedent for a victory against the odds.

Proposals for another power plant in the southern state of Karnataka were shelved after popular protests.

"Even a project delayed is a limited victory," said Ramdas. "We will carry on. We will wear them out. They won't wear us out."


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## hkskyline

*India to continue reforms for higher growth-finmin*

NEW DELHI, Aug 4 (Reuters) - India will continue reforms to get back to a higher growth trajectory of at least 9 percent at the earliest and encourage state-run firms to sell stakes through public offerings, the finance minister said.

Asia's third largest economy was hit hard by the global crisis and expanded by 6.7 percent in 2008/09 (April-March), its slowest pace in six years and much lower than growth rates of 9 percent or more recorded in the previous three fiscal years.

A government survey last month said India needed to make sweeping reforms including removal of fuel subsidies, and speed up infrastructure development to attain 7 percent growth in 2009/10 (April/March).

"...it should be clear that the process of economic reforms that began in the early 1990s will continue in right earnest so that the economy is back on the path of 9 percent plus growth at the earliest," Pranab Mukherjee told industrialists on Monday.


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## hkskyline

*IDFC eyes new fund, valuations a challenge *

MUMBAI, Oct 6 (Reuters) - India's IDFC Private Equity, an arm of Infrastructure Development Finance Co Ltd , could raise its fourth fund for large infrastructure projects in late 2010, although rising valuations are a challenge for deals, a top executive said on Tuesday.

IDFC Private Equity, India's largest infrastructure-focused fund, has spent about 40 percent of IDFC Private Equity Fund III, which was closed in May 2008 after raising $700 million, chief executive Luis Miranda told Reuters in an interview.

However, it has not done any deals in a year as valuation expectations have shot up, he said.

"We could be back in the market 15 months later, by end 2010, for a new fund," said Miranda. "Today, if I were to raise a fund, it would be around $700 million."

"There are tremendous investment opportunities. The challenge is valuation," Miranda said.

India's benchmark stock index <.BSESN> has risen 75 percent so far this year, raising the valuation expectations of Indian entrepreneurs looking for partners and investors.

Many firms have raised funds via stake sales or initial public offerings as the market has surged. Share sales have raised more than $15 billion this year, most of it in recent months.

"One of the significant challenges is the stock market," said Miranda.

"Certainly, valuations are so high and investor appetite is so strong that people will say, 'I'd rather list my company rather than being stuck with a stupid private equity company on my board trying to tell me how to run the company'."

INVESTMENT EXITS After being unable to exit investments last year as the stock market slumped by more than half, the firm was now working on about half a dozen "liquidations", either full exits via trade sales or initial public offerings of shares, he said.

Ashoka Buildcon, an IDFC-backed construction company, has filed an application for a stock market listing, he said.

"We are comfortable with the pace of the investment. We have done four deals, which has been slower than before but it has been larger sums of money," said Miranda.

"What have been not been comfortable is the work we have been spending on our portfolio companies. We thought we would have 8 liquidity events in 2008, but we ended up with zero," he said.

He said the firm was spending more time improving the operations of companies it had invested in, saying they had to learn to survive in the medium term to take advantage of the long-term potential of India economic growth.

IDFC Private Equity has investments in 26 Indian companies, its website showed. Miranda said those that were focused on exports or related services, such as port builders, had been hit hard by the global downturn and the fund would focus more on firms driven by domestic infrastructure needs.


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## hkskyline

*Solar lantern lights up rural India's dark nights *
22 October 2009
Agence France Presse

For more than 100 Indian villages cut off from grid electricity, life no longer comes to an end after dark thanks to an innovative solar-powered lantern that offers hope to the nation's rural poor.

While cooking, farming and studying after sunset were once a struggle using inefficient kerosene or paraffin lamps, the solar lantern now provides a cheap and practical source of light.

The simple device, which is charged during the day from a communal rooftop solar panel, uses between five and seven watts of power and has a battery that lasts up to eight hours.

It also boasts a socket for charging mobile phones and a hand crank for topping up the power.

Villagers pay between three and six rupees (six to 13 US cents) a day to rent the lantern under the "Lighting a Billion Lives" (LaBL) scheme, which was launched last year to promote solar energy as the environmentally friendly answer to India's energy shortages.

"I keep my shop open as late as 9:00 pm. All my fish get sold by that time," a fish seller in Govindorampur district in West Bengal state who uses the lamp told researchers.

He is one of those whose lives have been transformed by the first wave of 5,000 lanterns distributed across nine states in India.

The LaBL scheme, run by The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) in New Delhi, plans to eventually put 200 million lamps into use.

Organisers say each lamp should work for ten years, saving between 500 and 600 litres of kerosene which would produce about 1.5 tonnes of carbon dioxide.

Government figures show more than 10,000 impoverished Indian villages have no access to grid electricity, but the solar revolution could also change middle-class lives in urban India, where energy demands have soared.

Power cuts are common even in the smarter suburbs of New Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata as residents soak up fragile supplies with air-conditioning units, freezers and washing machines.

While per capita electricity use in India -- 704 kilowatt hours in 2007-2008 -- is far lower than the 8,000 kilowatt hours per capita in many industrialised countries, there is no sign of consumption slowing.

"There is something like 30 percent overdemand. There's significant undergeneration as it is, even if you don't electrify any more," said Joel Slonetsky, a researcher with LaBL.

One "green" solution to the outages is a solar-charged inverter for backup electricity during cuts.

"People have started realising the scarcity of power," said Chandra Sekhar, CEO of Solar India Solutions, which sells the inverters in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh. "They have become scared so they don't mind spending an extra little."

Sekhar said most of his clients belong to the "domestic middle-income group" and they choose to shell out between 3,000 to 6,000 dollars for the solar inverters that work as well as traditional ones.

"Right now the technology is at a stage where we can say that it stands side by side with conventional electricity," said Ajay Prakash Shrivastava, president of the Solar Energy Society of India.

Increased efficiency and new materials mean the price of solar-powered equipment has been coming down for years, although initial installation costs are steep, said Shrivastava.

While the long-term benefits may be an incentive for some, he acknowledged that most people who have opted to use solar energy have done so out of necessity rather than a desire to be environmentally friendly.

"There are certainly people thinking in that direction," said Shrivastava. "But that group is not very large."

Slonetsky said although the Indian solar industry is constantly evolving, the options for domestic solar power use are still somewhat limited.

"It may just be a lag both in terms of consumer awareness and supply here." he said.

It is certainly not for lack of sunshine -- India receives a high level of solar radiation, equivalent to more than 5,000 trillion kilowatts or up to 3,200 hours of sun a year, according to government statistics.

The government hopes to harness this potential into 20,000 megawatts of solar power by 2020 as part of its National Solar Mission to promote renewable energy.

The plan envisions railway signals and water pumps eventually running on solar technology, but for now, villagers are content with the portable lamps that have made daily tasks such as cooking and cleaning easier.

"The lanterns have changed our position in society," said Ayesha Begum from Sahsoul village in the eastern state of Bihar.


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## hkskyline

*Crisis? At India forum, it's back to business as usual *

NEW DELHI, Nov 9 (Reuters) - After a year of global economic crisis and political limbo, investors in India are returning to business as usual -- this time with real hope that a new government might actually bring in needed financial reforms.

The word "reform" has been touted in India for years but if discussions at the World Economic Forum are anything to go by, Asia's third-largest economy may have turned a corner with its political will to help it reach 9-10 percent growth rates.

With the re-elected Congress-led government freed from the shackles of communist support, reforms from foreign investment in retail to recycling India's $400 billion in domestic savings to help fund infrastructure projects were seen as real possibilities.

Aside from 2005-2008 when India's economy expanded by more than 9 percent annually, the Asian giant has struggled to keep up with China's breakneck growth, hampered by infrastructure bottlenecks, red tape and an often plodding financial system.

"There is now political stability," said Saurabh Agrawal, head of investment banking for Bank of AmericaMerrill Lynch in India. "The government is making the right noises and it looks like there is political will."

Congress's May general election win, recent state victories and a weak opposition have freed the hands of reformists in the government, including Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

"India is in a sweet spot," one senior banker said, as the centre of gravity over the last year has leaned towards emerging economies, while Western economies struggled to stay afloat.

"If you want a high rate of return, where would you invest? Europe? Brazil? Russia? China?" he added, referring each time to their economic or regulatory problems. "India does stand out."

Singh set the tone on Sunday, saying that clear signs of an upturn in the economy were laying the path for the expansion of long-term debt markets, deeper corporate bond markets, stronger insurance and pension sectors, and improved futures markets.

At a host of conference sessions, calls for reform resonated around the rooms -- foreign investment in universities, making highway concessional contracts better for private investors, changes to quicken court cases over contractual disputes.

Investors have also been buoyed by plans this week to sell stakes in profit-making state companies.

Many said they had heard all this before.

But there appeared genuine optimism that Singh and economic policymaker Montek Singh Ahluwalia, architects of India's ground-breaking market opening in 1991, now have the clout to fend off political pressures.

CUTTING THE KNOT

For many investors, financial reform could be the sword to cut the gordian knot.

India's savings rate is nearly 40 percent of GDP, but a restrictive and underdeveloped financial system means little is funnelled to capital markets to help fund, for example, the $20 billion a year the government wants to raise for highways.

Robert Morrice, chairman and chief executive of Barclays Asia Pacific, pointed out that around 40 percent of India's household savings was invested in physical assets like gold -- hardly the stuff of productive investments.

The government plans to introduce in parliament by December long-delayed bills proposing raising foreign stake limits in the pension and insurance sectors.

"To get 9-10 percent growth rates, India will need reform," said Kevan Watts, head of Bank of AmericaMerrill Lynch in India. "They have to ensure domestic capital flows into investments."

But participants warned that there were also far deeper problems to solve -- higher hanging fruits for a government apparatus that is notoriously slow and bureaucratic.

"Less than half of India has access to a bank account," said Kalpana Morparia, chief executive officer of J.P. Morgan in India. "It's not just about insurance and pensions."

Getting India's obselete infrastructure moving, and helping reduce growth bottlenecks, was for many the biggest challenge. The government has said it needs to spend $500 billion in the five years through 2012 on infrastructure.

But many question whether the Congress party, beholden to a rural base wary of change, can carry out bold reforms. And officials admitted there was little chance that India could emulate China's quick building of roads, ports and airports.

"We are not only the loudest democracy, but the rowdiest," said Kamil Nath, the transport minister.


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## simcard

:bash:India is stupid, it sends its labour and man power to UAE where they are proply utilised by the Emirates, record buildings growth and all, yet the same Indian labour cannot build thier own infrastructure in thier own country



> "We are not only the loudest democracy, but the rowdiest," said Kamil Nath, the transport minister.


^^ this guy needs to STFU  his democracy is rubbish and foul


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## Onn

simcard said:


> ^^ this guy needs to STFU  his democracy is rubbish and foul


....?


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## hkskyline

*Bankers seek concession for infra sector lending *
14 January 2010

MUMBAI, Jan 14 (Reuters) - Union Bank of India said on Thursday bankers have sought concession for easing lending to the infrastructure sector at its pre monetary policy meeting with the central bank.

"The norms for infrastructure sector lending are a roadblock and we have sought some concessions," M.V.Nair, chairman and managing director, said.

"This I think will help long term lending to the sector," said Nair, who is also the head of the Indian Banks Association, the apex industry body for bankers.


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## hkskyline

*India's all-electric-vehicles dream unfolds from this city in Maharashtra*
Economic Times _Excerpt_
Nov 20, 2017

NEW DELHI: India's dream to have only electric cars by 2030 has been charged at Nagpur. It became the first city in India to have an electric-vehicle charging station by an oil marketing company, Indian Oil Corporation. IOC has become India's first oil marketing company to set up a charging station at its petrol pump. 

Nagpur, also the first city to introduce electric public transportation in India, happens to be the constituency of Union road transport and highways minister Nitin Ga .. 

Read more at: https://economictimes.indiatimes.co...-city-in-maharashtra/articleshow/61729441.cms


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## hkskyline

Nov 21, 2017
*COLUMN-India rushing to join natural gas boom risks eventual LNG shortage: Russell*
Reuters _Excerpt_

(The opinions expressed here are those of the author, a columnist for Reuters.)

LAUNCESTON, Australia, Nov 21 (Reuters) - India is planning to join the Asian rush to boost the use of natural gas over coal, a further sign that the liquefied natural gas (LNG) market will tighten faster than previously expected.

India’s state oil refiners Indian Oil, Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum aim to raise the contribution of natural gas to between 5 percent and 15 percent of their incomes over the coming years, up from virtually zero currently.

This is part of the government’s target to boost the natural gas portion of India’s primary energy mix to 15 percent by 2030, up from 6.5 percent now.

Increasing the use of natural gas will mainly come at the expense of coal, a move aimed at meeting climate targets and lowering emissions, something that has become more pressing since New Delhi’s air pollution is now worse than Beijing‘s.

In practical terms what this means is that the state oil companies will be spending billions of dollars to build new LNG import terminals and associated gas pipelines.

This will serve to boost India’s natural gas consumption from around 50 billion cubic metres (bcm) currently to around 70 bcm by 2022 and 100 bcm by 2030, according to figures from a government think tank and the Oxford Institute of Energy Studies.

Most of this additional natural gas demand is going to have to be met by imports, given the limitations of expanding domestic output.

India imported around 19.7 million tonnes of LNG in 2016, equivalent to about 26.8 bcm, according to vessel-tracking data in Thomson Reuters Eikon, making the South Asian nation the fourth-largest importer of the super-chilled fuel.

In the first 10 months of this year, India’s LNG imports came to 16.4 million tonnes, putting it on track to at least match last year’s figure.

The steady import performance this year contrasts with the expected surge in demand in a few years time, and it’s this gap that presents a potential dilemma for the Asian LNG market.

Assuming India does actually build its LNG import infrastructure at the pace suggested by the government and the state oil companies, it’s likely that it will be ramping up its natural gas demand at the same time as several other countries in Asia.

More : https://www.reuters.com/article/col...s-eventual-lng-shortage-russell-idUSL3N1NR21X


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## hkskyline

*Indian aviation outlook very good; infra worrisome, says IATA*
PTI
Dec 10, 2017

The outlook for the fastest growing Indian aviation market is "very good" but infrastructure and taxation issues could be detrimental for its growth, according to global airlines' grouping IATA chief Alexandre de Juniac. 

Clocking high double-digit growth for more than two years, India's domestic aviation market is one of the fastest growing in the world. 

Even as he emphasised that the country's aviation market is "promising", the IATA's Director General and CEO sa .. 

Read more at:
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com...ofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst


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## hkskyline

Jan 18, 2018
_Excerpt_
*Poor urban planning to blame for pricey housing and expanding slums, experts say* 

MUMBAI (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Urban planners in many cities around the world are imposing regulations that discourage the creation of affordable housing while slums expand, experts said.

Nearly 55 percent of the world’s population lives in urban areas, a proportion that is expected to increase to two-thirds by 2050, according to data from the United Nations.

At the same time, the number of people living in slums and informal settlements in cities is also rising, U.N. data showed.

Much of their need for affordable housing could be met if city planners eased regulations that govern the use of land, said Alain Bertaud at New York University’s Marron Institute of Urban Management.

They should instead allow markets to determine density and affordability, he said during a visit to Mumbai this week.

“Poor planning regulations are responsible for unaffordable housing in many prosperous cities,” Bertaud told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

He pointed to Mumbai’s Floor Space Index (FSI), which regulates the amount of floor space in a building relative to the size of the plot of land it sits on.

The FSI in Mumbai is set fairly low, which means there is less space available for residences and businesses.

The policy has contributed to huge imbalances, said Bertaud.

Mumbai has some of the priciest real estate in the world, while more than half its population lives in slums.

Instead of imposing such strict regulations, planners should allow the market to determine how much floor space a building should have, Bertaud said.

He said that would encourage the development of lower cost housing, which is in high demand.

More : https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...and-expanding-slums-experts-say-idUSKBN1F71S9


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## hkskyline

*Roads To Riches Or Roads To Nowhere? How Better Infrastructure Affects Growth In Rural India*
Forbes _Excerpt_
Feb 14, 2018

Investments in public infrastructure such as improved roads are a key component of economic growth strategy for emerging economies, with policymakers frequently advocating the trickle-down benefits of better connectivity for rural households.

The assumption is that better roads will allow farmers to shift to cash crops, move goods produced in villages to marketplaces, and generate employment. In India, for example, such programs have become a particular focus of the current government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

In general, policymakers and economists assume that once roads are built, financing and financial institutions will follow, encouraged by and in order to facilitate the best use of new productive opportunities created by the improved connectivity.

In India many rural and agrarian communities are held back by an absence of formal financial institutions and rely instead on informal moneylenders who often are unreliable and charge usurious interest rates.

This begs some important questions. Firstly, if you build it (roads), will they (financing) come? Second, even if financing does follow infrastructure improvements, who will it benefit? Will it be a few already relatively rich villagers, or the poorer villagers who were excluded from formal finance to begin with?

More : https://www.forbes.com/sites/nusbus...e-affects-growth-in-rural-india/#3e6abe76b610


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## hkskyline

*World Bank plans to boost India lending by $1 bln/yr for next 5 yrs - India head*

NEW DELHI, March 14 (Reuters) - The World Bank plans to raise lending to India by about $1 billion every year for the next five years from the current $3 billion to $3.5 billion, its country director to India said on Wednesday.

The lending will be mainly for infrastructure projects, Junaid Ahmad said.

Last November, India jumped into 100th place on the World Bank’s ranking of countries by Ease of Doing Business for the first time in its report for 2018, up about 30 places, driven by reforms in access to credit, power supplies and protection of minority investors.


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## hkskyline

Apr 7, 2018
*India agrees to open waterways, rail link to Nepal capital*
_Excerpt_

KATHMANDU (Reuters) - India agreed on Saturday to construct a rail link to Nepal’s capital, Kathmandu, and to open up inland waterways in the landlocked Himalayan nation that has also by courted by China with transport deals.

The agreement emerged at the end of talks in New Delhi between Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Nepali counterpart K.P. Sharma Oli, making his first foreign visit to India after returning to power earlier this year.

During his earlier tenure, Oli sealed deals with Beijing in 2016 to use Chinese roads and ports, seeking to reduce Nepal’s dependence on India for trade and transit.

The planned railway line from the border town of Raxaul to Kathmandu would be the mountainous nation’s most ambitious railway project. Nepal currently only has rail links on its southern plains.

“As a first step...India would carry out preparatory survey work within one year,” a joint statement after the talks said, to finalise the details of the line.

Nepali officials say they are already in talks with China over an extension of the Chinese railway network into Nepal from Tibet as part of China’s Belt and Road Initiative that Nepal joined last year.


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## hkskyline

April 24, 2018
*China fails to get Indian support for Belt and Road ahead of summit*
_Excerpt_

BEIJING (Reuters) - China failed to get India’s support for its ambitious Belt and Road infrastructure project at the end of a foreign ministers’ meeting of a major security bloc on Tuesday, ahead of an ice-breaking trip to China this week by India’s prime minister.

The Belt and Road is Chinese President Xi Jinping’s landmark scheme to build infrastructure to connect China to the rest of Asia and beyond, a giant reworking of its old Silk Road.

India has not signed up to the initiative as parts of one key project, the $57 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, runs through Pakistan-administered Kashmir that India considers its own territory.

Whether or not China will be able to bring India round to Belt and Road will likely be a key measure of the success of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s trip to China to meet Xi for an informal meeting on Friday and Saturday.

But India’s foreign minister did not express support for Belt and Road in the communique released after foreign ministers of the China and Russia-led Shanghai Cooperation Organization met in Beijing.


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## hkskyline

May 11, 2018
*Fears of flooding as Mumbai plans to open salt pans for social housing*
_Excerpt_

BANGKOK (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - A plan by Mumbai authorities to develop protected coastal land now used for making salt could cause severe flooding in the congested city, said environmentalists who are considering legal options to block the initiative.

The Mumbai Development Plan for the period through 2034 earmarks nearly 3,355 hectares (13 sq miles) for 1 million units of social housing, as well as tourism.

The salt pans, which are protected by coastal zone rules, will be re-classified to make way for much-needed housing, said Chief Minister Dev Fadnavis.

“This will pave the way for accelerated (economic) growth of Mumbai,” he said in a statement announcing the plan last month.

Opening the areas to development is part of a wider strategy to free up land for commercial and residential use in the city where about 60 percent of its 18 million people live in slums and informal settlements.

But experts say developing the salt flats, which act as a buffer against the sea and a drainage area for monsoon rains, will make Mumbai more vulnerable to flooding while also hurting the livelihoods of thousands of people.

“It is a terrible idea,” said Debi Goenka of the Mumbai-based environmental group Conservation Action Trust, noting that rising sea levels are expected to eventually inundate the areas.

“Upgrading slums and settlements in-situ with better facilities is a far better way to house the poor - and it is what they want too,” he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation on Friday.

More : https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...en-salt-pans-for-social-housing-idUSKBN1IC0XT


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## hkskyline

June 12, 2018
*India set to miss key target for Japan-backed bullet train project: sources*
_Excerpt_

PALGHAR, India/TOKYO (Reuters) - India is set to miss a December deadline to acquire land for a Japan-backed $17 billion bullet train project following protests by fruit growers, government officials said, likely delaying one of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s most ambitious projects.

Modi’s office is now monitoring the project week-to-week, as Indian officials seek to reassure Tokyo that the hurdles can be overcome through intense negotiations with sapota and mango growers in the western state of Maharashtra.

Protests, backed by local politicians, have flared up in recent months against attempts to secure sections of a 108-km (67-mile) stretch, which is around one-fifth of the entire bullet train corridor connecting Mumbai with Ahmedabad, the largest commercial city in Modi’s home state of Gujarat.

“I’ve worked hard for three decades to develop this plantation, and they are asking me to hand over this land,” sapota farmer Dashrat Purav, 62, said as he showed his orchard in the town of Palghar, a three-hour-drive north of Mumbai.

“I haven’t worked hard to surrender land for the project. I did that for my children.”

Purav said he would sell his land only if at least one of his two unemployed sons was promised a government job.

Protests against land acquisitions are common in India, where tens of millions of farmers till small holdings. A planned $44 billion refinery to be run by a consortium including Saudi Aramco, the world’s biggest oil producer, is also struggling to secure land in Maharashtra.

More : https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...ed-bullet-train-project-sources-idUSKBN1J72QG


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## hkskyline

*India urges AIIB to increase loan book tenfold to $40 bln by 2020*
_Excerpt_

MUMBAI, June 26 (Reuters) - The China-backed Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) should increase lending tenfold within two years to help the region meet its investment needs faster, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said at the third annual meeting of the multilateral lender in Mumbai.

To date the AIIB’s loan portfoli totals $4 billion, but by 2020 the figure should rise to $40 billion, and by 2025 it should go up to $100 billion, Modi said.

AIIB began operations in January 2016, having been cast by Beijing as an alternative to other multilateral lenders like the World Bank and Asian Development Bank. It has 87 members, a capital base of $100 billion, and it has approved 25 projects in a dozen countries so far.

Despite the rivalry between China and India, New Delhi has received the largest share of AIIB funding so far - about $1.3 billion.

As well as disputes over stretches of a 3,500 km (2,200 miles) border - the two fought a brief border war in 1962 - the Asian giants have squabbled over China’s signature “Belt and Road” infrastructure initiative.

India has signaled unease over China’s grand trade and transport plan as one strand runs through Pakistani-administered Kashmir, which India claims. Many “Belt and Road” projects are supported by China’s state-owned banks and the AIIB.

However, at a summit meeting in April, Modi and Chinese leader Xi Jinping agreed to begin a new chapter in their relationship.

Modi said finding resources to improve infrastructure in developing countries was a challenge and multilateral institutions including the AIIB can play a “central role” in helping raise resources.

AIIB President Jin Liqun said that between now and 2030, Asia’s investment in infrastructure must rise to $2 trillion a year, about triple that in the past.


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## hkskyline

July 13, 2018
*Forced to walk miles, India water crisis hits rural women hardest*
_Excerpt_

MUMBAI (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Women in villages who have to walk miles each day to fetch water are bearing the brunt of India’s worst water crisis in history, with activists warning of serious impacts on their health and well-being.

About 200,000 Indians die every year due to inadequate access to safe water, and 600 million face high to extreme water stress, the government think tank Niti Aayog said last month.

Most of them are from villages, where the task of fetching water for cleaning, cooking and washing falls to women.

With women also tending the fields as men migrate to cities in search of jobs, the burden is even greater, said Nirja Bhatnagar, a regional head of the charity ActionAid.

“Women in the rural areas are the biggest victims of India’s water crisis,” she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

“The entire burden of providing water for the family and the field is taking a heavy toll on her physical and mental health. Yet she has no say in how water is managed or distributed.”

Nearly 163 million of India’s population of 1.3 billion lack access to clean water close to home - the most of any country in the world, according to a report this year by the Britain-based charity WaterAid.

More : https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...crisis-hits-rural-women-hardest-idUSKBN1K318B


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## hkskyline

Aug 16, 2018
*Indians demand a say as construction chokes cities*
_Excerpt_

BANGKOK (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Large real-estate developments in India should be subject to the same scrutiny as industrial projects given their environmental impact, according to city planners and campaigners.

A proposal to redevelop parts of New Delhi that required the felling of thousands of trees recently provoked fierce protests, court petitions and night patrols to guard the trees.

While projects measuring more than 20,000 square meters require impact assessments, exemptions are often made and public hearings are never held, analysts said.

“Large construction projects have a huge environmental and social footprint, and deserve scrutiny for their impact on energy and water use, and urban infrastructure,” said Kanchi Kohli at New Delhi think tank Centre for Policy Research.

“Cities are already dealing with severe air pollution, water shortages and traffic congestion. Residents deserve a say in these projects,” she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

Worldwide, cities occupy 2 percent of the land mass, but account for more than 70 percent of carbon dioxide emissions.

India is forecast to overtake China by 2024 as the world’s most populous country, with tens of millions of citizens cramming into already crowded cities.

As developers rush to cash in, unplanned urban sprawl is leading to congestion, flooding and more slums, analysts say.

Authorities have introduced stricter environmental laws for businesses in recent years, but analysts say they are poorly implemented in a rush to lure investors.

But it is not all one way.

Chirayu Bhatt, an urban planner at CEPT University in Ahmedabad, said large developments - be they residential or commercial - can be good for future generations even if today’s city dwellers often pay the price.

More : https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...y-as-construction-chokes-cities-idUSKBN1L11QH


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## hkskyline

*Flood damage may slash India's coffee output by 20 pct -trade body*
_Excerpt_

MUMBAI, Aug 23 (Reuters) - India’s coffee production in 2018/19 is likely to fall by at least one-fifth from a year ago as floods in key producing states damaged the crop and delayed exports, industry officials told Reuters.

Some of the worst flooding in India in a century killed hundreds of people in the southern states of Kerala and Karnataka earlier this month, both of which account for more than 90 percent of the country’s total coffee production.

“Earlier we were expecting better crop than this year. Now we are expecting at least 20 percent drop in the production,” Ramesh Rajah, president of the Coffee Exporters’ Association of India, told Reuters.

The severe crop loss was reported in the coffee-growing regions of Kodagu in Karnataka and Wayanad in Kerala, while the Chikmagalur and Hassan districts in Karnataka also reported damage on limited scale, he said.

The South Asian country, famous as a tea producer, is also the world’s sixth-largest coffee grower, according to India’s state-run Coffee Board, mainly churning out the robusta beans used to make instant coffee, but also producing some of the more expensive arabica variety.

In 2017/18 marketing year that ended on Sept. 30, India produced 316,000 tonnes coffee, including 221,000 tonnes of robust and 95,000 tonnes of arabica, according to the Coffee Board.

Floods have badly damaged infrastructure, especially roads connecting to ports, said M. M. Chengappa, the former chairman of Karnataka Planters’ Association (KPA) who still operates a coffee farm in Kodagu.

Exports of around 20,000 tonnes have been delayed for two weeks and the quantity is unlikely to be shipped in the next fortnight as roads connecting ports to the hilly coffee-growing region have been washed away, said Rajah of the exporter’s association.

India, where according to folklore coffee cultivation started in 1670 with seven beans smuggled into the country, exports three-quarters of its production.


----------



## hkskyline

Sep 3, 2018
*As India adds 100 Smart Cities, one tells a cautionary tale*
_Excerpt_

LAVASA, India (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - When David Cooper and his wife were looking for somewhere to retire, they wanted a place by a river or a lake, away from Mumbai’s congested streets, worsening pollution and vanishing green spaces.

They did not have to go far: they bought a two-bedroom flat in a complex for senior citizens in Lavasa, a private city that was being built in the hills a four-hour drive away, and touted as India’s first Smart City.

But their retirement dream quickly took a turn for the worse as Lavasa’s developer, after battling for environmental clearances and surviving a year-long shutdown, ran out of cash.

“When we moved in, it was absolutely pristine. The roads were like race tracks, we could drink water out of the tap, there were no power outages, and we felt absolutely secure,” said Cooper in a cafe in Lavasa.

“Now, there is litter everywhere, buildings are half done, roads are potholed, and there are break-ins because few security staff are left. Our dream has turned into something else,” he said.

With rapid urbanization, governments across the world are making cities “smarter” by using data and digital technology in security, healthcare, energy, mobility, water and waste management for more efficiency, sustainability and liveability.

Nowhere is this more urgently needed than in India, which is forecast to overtake China by 2022 as the world’s most populous country, according to United Nations data.

But Lavasa’s abandoned buildings and cratered roads are a far cry from the blueprints for a city modeled after the colorful Italian seaside town of Portofino, with facilities for about 250,000 people to live, learn, work and play in.

In its decline, Lavasa serves as a cautionary tale for India’s $7.5 billion plan to turn 100 urban centers into Smart Cities by 2020, with high-speed internet and modern transportation systems, analysts say.

The federal program does not address structural issues such as poor design, and ignores the needs of low-income and marginalized groups, according to planners and rights groups.

“Without fixed targets and no clear-cut delivery or assessment plan, there is a lot of confusion over what makes a city ‘smart’,” said Saswat Bandyopadhyay, a professor at CEPT University in Ahmedabad, who teaches a course on smart cities.

“A city can install 1,000 CCTV cameras or 100 solar-powered street lights and call itself smart. But that is not it,” he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

The U.N. forecasts the world’s urban population to grow to 70 percent by 2050 from 55 percent now.

India will add about 300 million people to its urban centers over the next 20 years, and requires investment of $1.2 trillion to handle this transformation, according to consultancy McKinsey.

“Planned urbanization is required rather than the ad-hoc, unplanned urbanization that we have seen so far,” said Shirish Sankhe, a McKinsey senior partner in India.

More : https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...ies-one-tells-a-cautionary-tale-idUSKCN1LJ04G


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## hkskyline

*India's oil demand to climb to 500 mln tonnes per year by 2040: Indian Oil*
Sep 25, 2018

India’s crude oil demand is forecast to grow to 500 million tonnes per year by 2040, but persistent increases in oil prices might act as a dampener for the rate of growth, Partha Ghosh, an executive director at Indian Oil Corp said on Tuesday.

That would be equivalent to around 10 million barrels per day (bpd), up from about 4.7 million bpd in 2017.

Globally oil demand will increase by 15.8 million bpd from now until 2040, Ghosh said during the Asia Pacific Petroleum Conference (APPEC) in Singapore. India’s growth of 5.9 million bpd will make up about 24 percent of the overall gain, he said.

*India’s refining capacity would increase to about 439 million tonnes per year by the financial year of 2030 as new and existing refineries continue enhancing their infrastructure, while domestic demand is forecast to increase to 356 million tonnes per year over the same period, Ghosh said.*

Higher refining capacity will mean India could export more refined oil products to countries in the region.

“In the future, say about five to seven years down the line, when more refineries with bigger capacities come up, better (export) infrastructure will come along with that,” Ghosh, the executive director for optimization at Indian Oil Corp, the country’s biggest refiner, said on the sidelines the conference.

“Then, it’ll be possible, even if the domestic demand does not grow because of high prices, refineries will be competitive enough to actually supply products to the entire region, be it East Africa or Asia.”


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## hkskyline

*Indian cities dump 'progressive' law to speed up land acquisitions*
Oct 3, 2018
_Excerpt_

BANGKOK (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - India’s fast-growing cities are hurting the poor in their drive to speed up land acquisition for new metro train networks, roads and government offices by ditching vital legal safeguards, analysts and campaigners say.

Several states have introduced amendments that dilute the federal Land Acquisition Act of 2013, which was designed to protect land owners by ensuring their consensus, paying generous compensation and rehabilitating those displaced.

Their alternate acquisition methods often “lack transparency and are regressive”, said E.A.S. Sarma, an activist who filed a petition against plans to build a greenfield city the size of Seattle along a river in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh.

“The amendments to a mostly progressive law have opened the floodgates to forcible acquisition of land,” the former bureaucrat told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

The rapid expansion of Indian cities has triggered disputes over land, with rights groups reporting violent evictions of poorer communities.

India’s urban population is forecast to double by 2050, with the area used by towns and cities rising five times by then, according to the World Resources Institute (WRI), a Washington-based think tank.

That would require an average of 15 square km (6 square miles) of land, fitted with infrastructure and amenities, to be readied every day up to 2050 - most of which would come from converting rural land to urban use, said WRI’s Rejeet Mathews.

More : https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...w-to-speed-up-land-acquisitions-idUSKCN1MD1LF


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## dreadathecontrols

[quote name="thefacelessman" post=152317430]https://www.thebetterindia.com/114040/indore-madhya-pradesh-clean-garbage-free-india/[/QUOTE]


Great stuff.
The people involved deserve countrywide recognition.
Their ideas of best practice need to be replicated.
Proves it can be done.
The unkempt Indian cities are the direct result of crap municipal authorities.


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## hkskyline

*Can India's Amaravati become the next sustainable city?* 
_Excerpt_

Oct 15 (CNN) - In south-east India, 217 square kilometers of farmland along the Krishna River are being transformed into a city billed as an urban utopia.

When complete, Amaravati will not only be the new capital of Andhra Pradesh state -- developers hope it will also be one of the most sustainable cities in the world.

At its center will be a 5.5-kilometer-long and 1-kilometer-wide Central Park-inspired green spine, according to British architectural firm Foster + Partners, which is leading the project.
Solar panels on rooftops will power Amaravati's buildings, while cycling routes, electric vehicles and water taxis will serve the transport network. An irrigation system will utilize recycled water, and shaded streets will encourage walking.

The estimated total cost of the project is $6.5 billion, according to the Andhra Pradesh authorities.

"Many traditional settlements in India were built around principles of sustainability, and we have taken inspiration from them in our design," said Chris Bubb, senior partner at Foster + Partners.

In 2014, the redefining of state boundaries transferred Andhra Pradesh's then-capital, the tech powerhouse of Hyderabad, to the newly created neighboring region of Telangana.

Left without a capital, the Andhra Pradesh authorities decided to build a new city. They would name it Amaravati, after an ancient village about 10 kilometers away.

More : https://edition.cnn.com/style/article/amaravati-india-sustainable-city/index.html


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## hkskyline

*Indigenous rights in the spotlight as Indian states head to polls*
_Excerpt_

BANGKOK, Nov 6 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - The rights of farmers and indigenous people have grabbed an unlikely spotlight as three Indian states head to the polls, underlining growing discontent with land policies ahead of crucial national elections, analysts and activists said.

Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh states have elections starting this week, pitting the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) against the main opposition Congress Party.

While election rallies typically see grand promises to generate jobs and alleviate poverty, several speeches by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi have focused on the rights of indigenous people and farmers.

“The tribal people must have their rights over land, water and forests,” he said in a recent election rally in the central state of Madhya Pradesh.

Gandhi vowed to implement a long-delayed law on tribal rights if the party is voted into power, and accused the BJP of diluting the Forest Rights Act (2006) and an earlier law that gave indigenous communities veto power over protected land.

Both laws, as well as the Land Acquisition Act (2013) which required consensus and a social impact assessment for purchases, were enacted by a Congress-led government.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has also commented on indigenous communities.

“Rights to jal, jungle, jameen (water, forest, land) has always been a demand of indigenous people,” said Madhu Sarin, a researcher who had advised on drafting the FRA.

“That the two biggest leaders are talking about them shows they can no longer ignore the discontent over denial of rights. It is an indication of what’s to come in the national election,” she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

*There are about 650 disputes over land across India affecting more than 7 million people, according to the research firm Land Conflict Watch, as demand for land increases to build infrastructure such as highways and airports.*

Modi, who faces five state elections and a general election due by May, praised tribal communities in his monthly radio address in October for protecting forests and the environment.

“The nation is indebted to the tribal communities for saving the country’s forest land,” he said.

The Forest Rights Act aimed to improve the lives of impoverished tribes by recognising their right to inhabit and live off forests where their forefathers settled.

Under the law, at least 150 million people could have their rights recognised to about 40 million hectares (154,400 sq miles) of forest land. But progress has been slow.

About 40 percent of claims have been approved, according to the Ministry of Tribal Affairs.


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## hkskyline

Nov 20, 2018
*Exclusive: India to probe alleged antitrust behavior by Maersk, DP World at Mumbai port - sources*
_Excerpt_

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India’s antitrust regulator has ordered a probe into alleged anti-competitive practices by Denmark’s A.P. Moller-Maersk (MAERSKb.CO) and Dubai’s DP World at the terminals they operate at the country’s largest container port in Mumbai, five sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.

The decision by the Competition Commission of India (CCI) to investigate follows a complaint by Singapore’s PSA International Pte Ltd, which alleged that Maersk and DP World created entry barriers to hinder the growth of PSA’s terminal by colluding on certain charges they levy at the state-owned Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT).

Handling 66 million tonnes of cargo in the last fiscal year to March, JNPT is critical to India’s international trade. The port handles more than half of India’s traffic of shipping containers each year.

Units of Maersk, DP World and PSA operate four of the port’s five terminals, with the fifth owned by the government. The PSA terminal, inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in February, is planned to be the largest, expected to nearly double JNPT’s capacity and help fulfill the government’s vision of boosting India’s economic growth by modernizing its ports.

The dispute centers around so-called inter-terminal transfers.

Under the system, which aims to make the most efficient use of common infrastructure, freight trains arriving at JNPT typically carry containers destined for several terminals, but stop at just one that handles all the cargo on a given day. Other operators then collect their containers by truck for loading at their own terminals. A similar procedure is followed, in reverse, when imported containers are unloaded.

More : https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...dp-world-at-mumbai-port-sources-idUSKCN1NP1RY


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## hkskyline

*India ramps up spending on coal exploration as it slashes funds for mine safety*
_Excerpt_

NEW DELHI, Feb 1 (Reuters) - The Indian government will increase spending on exploration of coal and lignite by 20 percent in the coming financial year but will slash funding for coal mine safety and conservation, according to the federal budget document released on Friday.

India is one of the world’s largest consumers of coal and rising imports of the fuel are adding to a burgeoning trade deficit, prompting the government to invest in developing more domestic resources.

In the 2019/20 financial year that begins in April, the government aims to spend 6 billion rupees ($84 million) on exploration of coal and lignite, the document for the 2019/20 budget showed.

At the same time, it will cut spending on conservation, safety and related infrastructure development by about a third from last year to 1.35 billion rupees, according to the document.

India is one of the most dangerous countries in the world to be a coal miner, with one miner dying every six days on average in 2017, according to government data, but this will be the second straight year that the government has cut spending on safety.

The coal ministry said that coal companies had their own safety budgets.

State-run Coal India Ltd has a near monopoly, producing over four-fifths of the country’s coal output. It allocated 8.6 billion rupees for safety-related expenditure for the year ending March 2019, up from 8 billion rupees a year earlier, the ministry said in an emailed statement to Reuters.


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## hkskyline

Mar 15, 2019
*India LNG demand journey to be shaky, slow due to infrastructure limits*
_Excerpt_

SINGAPORE/NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India’s demand for liquefied natural gas (LNG) is set to rise by about 10 percent this year even as the country adds import capacity at a faster clip, because infrastructure constraints keep gas from getting to consumers and hinder growth rates.

New Delhi made a commitment in the Paris Agreement of 2015 to reduce the carbon emissions intensity of India’s economy by one-third, and aims to more than double the share gas has in its energy mix to 15 percent by 2030, from 6.2 percent now.

India had four terminals receiving LNG last year, taking in 21 million to 23 million tonnes of the super-chilled fuel, up nearly 10 to 13 percent from 2017, according to data from the Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell and shipping data.

Over the next seven years the government plans to build another 11 terminals. One of those was commissioned this month, and two more are expected to start up later this year.

“The strongest growth rate is expected in city gas demand, primarily due to an increase in consumption by commercial users on the back of growth in city-gas infrastructure,” said Poorna Rajendran, senior analyst for consultancy FGE.

But with existing terminal capacity now at 35 million tonnes a year, and additions and expansions expected to bring that to 41.5 million tonnes by end-2019, India’s LNG import terminals are likely to remain underutilized for years to come.


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## hkskyline

Mar 26, 2019
*India seeks bids for $5 billion in transmission lines to fuel renewables growth*
_Excerpt_

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India will launch $5 billion of transmission-line tenders in phases, beginning in June, to route a targeted 175 gigawatts (GW) of power from renewable sources into the country’s grid by 2022, the secretary at the ministry of renewable energy said.

India, the world’s third-largest emitter of greenhouse gases, has pledged to cut emissions and have clean energy account for at least 40 percent of its installed capacity by 2030, up from 21.4 percent now, while looking to manage its energy appetite as its population becomes more prosperous.

The renewable energy targets would require investment in feeder lines and infrastructure upgrades.

India has awarded tenders for 12 GW of transmission lines since December, while bids for a further 16 GW will be launched by the end of June. Another 38 GW will be bid out before March 2020, he said.

Building transmission lines for 66 GW worth projects would need an estimated investment of 430 billion rupees, the secretary for renewables, Anand Kumar, said.

More : https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...lines-to-fuel-renewables-growth-idUSKCN1R71H7


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## hkskyline

*Modi Pledges $1.44 Trillion on Infrastructure in Re-Election Bid*
Bloomberg _Excerpt_
April 8, 2019

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party pledged spend $1.44 trillion on infrastructure to boost the economy and raise living standards, in a bid to match its main rival’s populist promises.

The BJP, which is seeking to retain power in elections starting April 11, released its manifesto in New Delhi on Monday, reiterating its pledge to double farmers’ income by 2022, improve GDP share from manufacturing and double exports. It will also scrap Article 370 of the Indian Constitution which grants special concessions to the disputed state of Kashmir.

India’s 263 million farmers are a key voting bloc in the world’s largest democracy. The main opposition Congress Party has promised to write off farm loans throughout the country. To match it, BJP said it would invest 25 trillion rupees ($359 billion) in rural development and offer farmers 6,000 rupees per year in income support.

The infrastructure promise ties in with estimates reflected in the 2017-18 Economic Survey document by former adviser and economist Arvind Subramanian, who pegged the needed investments at $4.5 trillion till 2040. BJP’s figure is roughly one fourth of this requirement. In comparison, the government has set aside $57 billion for spending on roads, railways and airports in the year ending March 2020.

The manifesto lists banking reforms and lower inflation as achievements that can help raise funds for building infrastructure, but gives no details of how the party will ensure funds will be raised.

More : https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...ouble-farmer-s-income-by-2022-to-retain-power


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## gsouza

*Swachh Bharat Mission - Household Toilet Coverage across India*










Swachh Bharat Mission Index

Swachh Bharat Mission Dashboard

_____________________________________________________________

*96% usage of toilets under Swachh Bharat, shows survey by an independent verification agency*

The survey also covered schools, anganwadis and public or community toilets in these villages.

By Aman Sharma ET Bureau | Mar 05, 2019, 10.58 AM IST

NEW DELHI: An independent verification of the Swachh Bharat (Grameen) programme has confirmed 96% usage of toilets in the country, ET has learnt.

The National Annual Rural Sanitation Survey (NARSS) 2018-19, conducted by an Independent Verification Agency under the World Bank support project to the Swachh Bharat Mission Grameen (SBM-G), has found that 96.5% of the households in rural India who have access to a toilet use it, government sources told ET. The survey has also re-confirmed the Open Defecation Free (ODF) status of 90.7% of villages which were previously declared and verified as ODF by various districts and states. The survey was conducted between November 2018 and February 2019, covering 92040 households in 6136 villages across the country.

Other key findings of the survey, ET has learnt, were that nearly 93% households were found to have access to toilets during the survey period while 96.5% of the people who had access to toilets used them. While 90.7% of villages which were previously declared and verified as ODF were confirmed to be ODF, the remaining villages also had sanitation coverage of about 93%, the survey shows. Further, 95.4% of the villages surveyed found to have minimal litter and minimal stagnant water, the survey has highlighted, ET has learnt.

The Independent Verification Agency has presented their findings to the Expert Working Group (EWG) constituted for oversight of the survey, comprising representatives from organizations including the World Bank, UNICEF, Water Aid, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, India Sanitation Coalition, NITI Aayog, and Ministry of Statistics and Program Implementation. The survey used the PPS (Probability Proportion to Size) sampling methodology, which yields results within a confidence interval of 95%. Data was collected using the Computer Assisted Personal Interviewing platform. The survey also covered schools, anganwadis and public or community toilets in these villages.

The government claims that since its Swachh Bharat Mission programme started in October 2014, 500 million people have stopped defecating in the open, down from 550 million at the beginning of the programme to less than 50 million today. Over 9 crore toilets have been built across rural India under the Mission. Over 5.5 lakh villages and 615 districts have been declared ODF, along with 30 ODF States and Union Territories, as per the government.


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## gsouza

*Access to electricity (% of population)*

India__79.17__2014

Index Mundi










Saubhagya Dashboard


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## gsouza

*India ranked 58th most competitive economy in WEF index, jumps 5 places from 2017*

Press Trust of India | New Delhi 
Last Updated at October 17, 2018 03:35 IST

India has been ranked as the 58th most competitive economy on the World Economic Forum's global competitiveness index for 2018, which was topped by the US.

India's rank rose by five places from 2017, the largest gain among G20 economies, the WEF said.


On the list of 140 economies, the US is followed by Singapore and Germany at the second and the third positions respectively.

India was ranked 58th with a score of 62.0 in the latest Global Competitiveness Report. "*This is the largest gain among all G20 economies*," WEF said.

Meanwhile, neighbouring China was ranked at the 28th position in the overall list.

According to the report, the top performers in the "upper and lower middle-income brackets", such as China and India, are catching up with or even outperforming the average among high-income economies.

"China, is already more advanced when it comes to investing in research and development sub-pillar than the average high-income economy, while India is not far behind and let down only by its less-efficient bureaucracy for business creation and insolvency," the report said.

Among the BRICS economies, China topped the list at 28th place with a score of 72.6, ahead of the Russian Federation (65.6, 43rd), India (62.0, 58th), South Africa (60.8, 67th), and Brazil (59.5, 72nd).

India, however, remained the "South Asia's main driving force".

As per the report, India leads the region in all other areas of competitiveness except for health, education and skills, where Sri Lanka boasts the highest healthy life expectancy (67.8 years) and the workforce with the highest amount of schooling (9.8 years).

"These two countries (India and Sri Lanka) are also the ones that can rely on the most efficient infrastructure system. India has invested more heavily on transport infrastructure and services, while Sri Lanka has the most modern utility infrastructure," it added.

As per the report, India's greatest competitive advantages include its market size, innovation (in particular the quality of its research establishments and business dynamism (including the number of disruptive businesses).

While the areas that the country needs to improve include, labour market (in particular workers rights), product market (in particular trade tariffs) and skills (in particular pupil-teacher ratio).

Other countries in the top 10 include, Switzerland (4th), Japan (5th), Netherlands (6th), Hong Kong (7th), United Kingdom (8th), Sweden (9th) and Denmark (10th).

The World Economic Forum's Global Competitiveness Index 4.0 is a composite indicator that assesses the set of factors that determine an economy's level of productivity - widely considered as the most important determinant of long-term growth.

The GCI 4.0 framework is built around 12 main drivers of productivity -- Institutions, Infrastructure; Technological readiness; Macroeconomic context; Health; Education and skills; Product market; Labour market; Financial system; Market size; Business dynamism; and Innovation.

https://www.business-standard.com/a...-jumps-5-places-from-2017-118101700097_1.html










http://reports.weforum.org/global-competitiveness-report-2018/country-economy-profiles/#economy=IND


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## hkskyline

April 30, 2019
Reuters _Excerpt_
*KKR, GIC betting on India's power sector with $400 million investment: sources*

Global investment firm KKR & Co Inc is leading a deal to acquire a controlling stake in India Grid Trust (IndiGrid), in a bet on the country’s rapidly growing power sector, people familiar with the transaction told Reuters.

KKR, together with Singaporean sovereign wealth fund GIC, will acquire up to 57 percent of IndiGrid for about $400 million, the people said. IndiGrid’s current market value is about $332 million.

The deal would mark KKR’s first infrastructure investment in Asia since it set up a team late last year that focuses on the sector in the region.

The pair will invest 20.64 billion rupees ($295 million) for a 42 percent stake in the trust via a preference equity issuance, the people said.

KKR, having applied to become sponsor of IndiGrid, will then acquire a 15 percent stake from its current sponsor, Sterlite Power Grid Ventures Ltd, pending regulatory approval.


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## hkskyline

*India's Modi flies over cyclone-ravaged east, promises millions to rebuild*
_Excerpt_

BHUBANESWAR, India, May 6 (Reuters) - Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi saw for himself the damage wreaked by a powerful cyclone on Monday, pledging an extra 10 billion rupees ($144.19 million) to the hardest-hit state of Odisha where hundreds of thousands returned home from shelters.

Cyclone Fani killed at least 34 people in India, destroying houses, ripping off roofs and knocking down electricity poles.

Early warnings from meteorologists helped authorities evacuate more than a million people from low-lying towns, minimising the death toll from the strongest storm in 43 years to pummel India's east coast.

Modi flew by helicopter over battered towns and villages where thousands of rescue workers and volunteers were sifting through the debris.

"Before the cyclone, we had released 381 crore (3.81 billion rupees) to Odisha and we will now give an additional 1,000 crore (10 billion rupees) for relief and rebuilding efforts of the state," Modi said.

He also announced financial compensation for victims.

Modi said his officials would work closely with the state government to rebuild infrastructure.

Modi, who is busy campaigning in India's 39-day staggered general election, last week chaired meetings in New Delhi to oversee efforts to deal with the storm. India's seven-phase election began on April and voters in Odisha have already cast their ballots.

Tens of thousands of people remained without electricity in the state capital Bhubaneswar and the Hindu temple town of Puri after the storm made landfall on Friday.

Power has been restored to airports and hospitals. Bhubaneswar airport had resumed flights, state government officials said.

More : https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...t-promises-millions-to-rebuild-idUSKCN1SC0Q1?


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## hkskyline

India awaits more infrastructure in the next election : https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/16/business/india-modi-election-economy.html


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## hkskyline

May 16, 2019
_Excerpt_
*Mass texting and 50,000 volunteers: how India moved a million people to safety* 

NEW DELHI (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - From mass texting to mobilizing 50,000 volunteers, the Indian official who masterminded the evacuation of more than a million people revealed on Thursday how they were moved from the path of a deadly cyclone.

The state of Odisha on India’s east coast has won global praise for the speed and scale of its response to Cyclone Fani, which struck on May 3 packing winds of about 200 km (124 miles) an hour.

It was the strongest summer cyclone to hit the state in 43 years, but the death toll was limited to 64 because authorities managed to evacuate vast numbers of people from its path.

Two decades ago, 10,000 people were killed when a super-cyclone battered the coast of Odisha.

“We believe that every life is precious, so we maximized our efforts to ensure minimum destruction and no human casualties,” Odisha’s Special Relief Commissioner Bishnupada Sethi told the Thomson Reuters Foundation by phone.

“And these are the unique things we did that really helped in a big way.”

Sethi’s team started making an action plan a week in advance to spare one of India’s poorest states, which is home to 46 million people and highly exposed to cyclones in the Bay of Bengal.

His team mobilized 50,000 volunteers, emergency workers, police officers, boats, buses and trains to evacuate more than a million people living in low-lying areas to shelters.

More : https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...oved-a-million-people-to-safety-idUSKCN1SM1UN


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## hkskyline

*INSIGHT-India's jobs deficit: Project in Gujarat struggling to create employment*
_Excerpt_

GANDHINAGAR, India, May 24 (Reuters) - When he was chief minister of the Indian state of Gujarat in 2011, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi kicked off an ambitious project to develop a financial hub in the style of Singapore or Dubai.

The developers were tasked with transforming an expanse larger than New York’s Central Park into a city with more than 100 skyscrapers supporting more than 1 million jobs - all within a decade.

Nearly eight years later, Gujarat International Finance Tec-City, or GIFT City, supports only 9,000 jobs and only about 3 million of its 62 million square feet of planned development have been built, according to documents from the company’s current presentations to investors reviewed by Reuters, and interviews with GIFT officials. Three million square feet are under construction.

Despite efforts by the Modi government over the past five years to offer tax and regulatory concessions, and a big push to get banks and brokerages into GIFT, the project remains far short of expectations. GIFT’s future is uncertain, with its main partner in financial trouble over soured bets in other projects.

The lack of development and job creation at GIFT, critics say, reflects one of Modi’s challenges as a whole as he begins a second term in office.

More : https://www.reuters.com/article/ind...struggling-to-create-employment-idUSL4N2300KE


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## hkskyline

June 5, 2019
*More work, less water: India's booming 'Silicon Valley' faces dry times*
_Excerpt_

BANGALORE, India (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Waiting under the scorching sun for a tanker truck to deliver water to his home, Chandra Shekhar reminisced about how his southern Indian city once brimmed with pristine lakes and lush gardens.

“They are all gone now. They have been consumed by buildings and more buildings,” said the 59-year-old retired engineer, who has seen the IT hub of Bangalore - often dubbed India’s Silicon Valley - transform since he was a boy.

“Bangalore has gone from being the city of lakes to the city of concrete. Because of this, all the water has disappeared.”

Years of rapid urbanization, a swelling population and poor water management have led to drying taps, falling groundwater levels and filth-frothed lakes that can burst into flames.

Bangalore is paying a heavy price for its success since marketing itself as a tech hub in the late 1990s and attracting top firms including Microsoft, IBM, Dell and Google.

While job opportunities have soared in the sprawling city, millions have no piped water and instead rely on an army of privately-run tankers that suck water from wells inside and outside the city and deliver it to homes.

Other families dig unauthorized private wells in search of water for drinking, bathing, laundry and other daily needs.

Even those living in long-established neighborhoods with piped water often find water trickling, rather than gushing, from the tap.

More : https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...-silicon-valley-faces-dry-times-idUSKCN1T60U3


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## hkskyline

June 16, 2019
*Beyond shelter in a storm, Odisha eyes sturdier homes, power and trees*
_Excerpt_

BHUBANESWAR, India (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Six weeks after India’s eastern state of Odisha was battered by the strongest storm since 2013, officials are considering how to build back damaged homes and power networks to better withstand future wild weather, as well as protecting the coast with trees.

When powerful Cyclone Fani swept ashore, the wind yanked a huge banyan tree from the soil and crashed it onto Phula Rout’s corrugated-roof home in Shastri Nagar slum in Bhubaneswar city.

As the tree’s roots began to pop, 30-year-old domestic worker Rout and her family rushed outside their two-room house.

The Routs were lucky, but many of the more than 16 million people in the path of the storm were saved instead by careful disaster planning, which led to an evacuation of 1.1 million to safer shelter ahead of the cyclone striking in early May.

Right after, Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik said the state government aimed to substantially reduce damage in future disasters as it moved into recovery and reconstruction mode. 

More : https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...-sturdier-homes-power-and-trees-idUSKCN1TH0KG


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## hkskyline

June 24, 2019
_Excerpt_
*Indian builders woo buyers with cleaner, greener, 'smart' homes*

BENGALURU (Reuters) - When Arkesh Mishra, 33, and his wife Anasuya scouted for a new home in India’s tech hub of Bengaluru this year it was not the old real estate adage of “location, location, location” that was their main consideration - it was “peace of mind”.

As Bengaluru, and several other Indian megacities with aging or inadequate infrastructure, struggle to tackle issues such as air pollution, congestion and water shortages, builders are looking to woo millennials with homes in upmarket gated-communities that offer open green spaces, drinkable tap water and amenities that range from smart-home connectivity to oxygen generators.

“Both my wife and I work and we need to have a place to come back to where we love living. The government’s not been able to provide these facilities, which is why we are paying for them,” said Mishra, a human resources lead for a large multinational.

“For our generation, these are important. I want to have the option of going for a jog, or a swim without having to deal with traffic, noise or worry about safety issues,” said Mishra, whose gated-community boasts a tree grove, an art street and an open air cinema, among other features.

More : https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...ith-cleaner-greener-smart-homes-idUSKCN1TP0ZS


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## hkskyline

*World Bank pulls funding for new state capital in India after Delhi drops support*
_Excerpt_

NEW DELHI, July 19 (Reuters) - The World Bank said on Friday it had withdrawn $300 million of funding for a new capital in the south Indian state of Andhra Pradesh after the central government dropped support for the project.

The Beijing-backed Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), that was due to finance $200 million of the project, then said it was reviewing its involvement.

The construction of the city, known as Amaravati, is the brainchild of the state’s former chief minister, N. Chandrababu Naidu, who lost power in elections in May.

The two banks were due to provide the lion’s share of the $715 million cost of critical funding for transport, sanitation and water supply.

The World Bank’s withdrawal was reported by Indian media on Thursday but the federal government’s involvement in that decision has not been previously disclosed, nor had the AIIB’s plans for a review.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone for the project in 2015, but he and Naidu fell out after Naidu’s party broke from Modi’s ruling coalition last year.

“The government of India has withdrawn its request to the World Bank for financing the proposed Amaravati Sustainable Infrastructure and Institutional Development Project,” Sudip Mozumder, a New Delhi-based spokesman for the bank, told Reuters.

“The World Bank’s Board of Executive Directors has been informed that the proposed project is no longer under preparation following the government’s decision.”

More : https://www.reuters.com/article/ind...india-after-delhi-drops-support-idUSL4N24K2HV


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## hkskyline

Aug 1, 2019
*India grants infrastructure project status to $10-billion hyperloop plan*
_Excerpt_

MUMBAI (Reuters) - India’s western state of Maharashtra has granted infrastructure project status for a $10-billion plan to build the world’s first ultra-fast hyperloop project, aiming to link the financial hub of Mumbai with the neighboring city of Pune.

Proposed as a replacement to existing rail infrastructure, hyperloops use magnets to levitate pods inside an airless tube, creating conditions in which the pods can shuttle people and freight at speeds of up to 750 miles (1,200 km) per hour.

The status could help fasttrack land acquisition for the project over a 117.5-km (73-miles) stretch that will shuttle people between the cities in about 35 minutes.

“This project would mark the beginning of a new era in the country’s transport sector,” the state government said in a statement late on Wednesday.

More : https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...us-to-10-billion-hyperloop-plan-idUSKCN1UR4RG


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## hkskyline

*India's indebted IL&FS gets binding bids for 10 road assets *
_Excerpt_

BENGALURU, Aug 30 (Reuters) - India’s debt-laden Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services Ltd (IL&FS) has received binding bids for 10 of its road assets, accounting for nearly a fifth of overall debt, the company said on Friday.

The road assets, which largely comprise highway projects across India and account for debt of more than 177 billion rupees ($2.48 billion), received 14 binding offers from multiple bidders.

IL&FS, a major infrastructure financing and construction company, collapsed late last year after a series of defaults that triggered fear of contagion in India’s financial sector and forced the government to take control and overhaul its board.

Four of the 10 assets that received bids were under the “red” category, or companies which have the most trouble meeting their debt obligations.

More : https://www.reuters.com/article/ind...binding-bids-for-10-road-assets-idUSL3N25Q4D8


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## hkskyline

_Excerpt_
*India and Nepal open South Asia’s first cross-border oil pipeline*
Sep 10, 2019

KATHMANDU (Reuters) - India and Nepal officially opened South Asia’s first cross-border oil pipeline on Tuesday, a project seen as part of New Delhi’s efforts to increase its influence in the Himalayan nation where China is also making deep inroads.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Nepal counterpart K.P. Sharma Oli joined the inauguration ceremony by video link from their respective capitals.

India funded the 3.24 billion rupee ($45 million) pipeline project, which has an annual capacity of 2 million metric tonnes and will enable Nepal to import fuel from India at a lower cost. India is Nepal’s sole supplier of oil which is currently carried on tankers via road to the land-locked country.

The 69-km (43 miles) pipeline, built by state-owned Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) in cooperation with Nepal Oil Corporation, was completed 15 months ahead of schedule, officials said.

“This is a matter of satisfaction that South Asia’s first cross-border petroleum pipeline has been completed in record time. This has been completed in about half of the expected time,” Modi said.

More : https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...first-cross-border-oil-pipeline-idUSKCN1VV135


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