Profiles of Delhi, Mumbai and Gurgaon, the first, second and third rankers, respectivelyClick here to view 'The 40 Most Competitive Cities In 2014'(This story was published in BW | Businessworld Issue Dated 01-12-2014)
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Gurgaon — a part of the National Capital Region — is fast catching up with its bigger neighbour, Delhi. It is now among the top three competitive cities in India, behind only the national and the financial capitals of the country. Its ranking rose three places in 2014, with an overall score of 64.10 as against Mumbai and Delhi, which scored 70.06 and 73.13, respectively.According to the India City Competitiveness Index 2014 — published by the Institute for Competitiveness — Gurgaon fared well on indicators such as communication environment and business incentives.That is quite a surprise as, until a few years ago, Gurgaon was far from being a popular destination for doing business. Every summer, the city faced frequent and long power cuts. It, in fact, mostly survived on private power back-up. The situation improved only after some local industrialists met with the government in October 2013 to find a solution. The government, which promised to improve the situation by January 2015, installed 16 new substations. It spent Rs 581.82 crore to bring the city out of ‘darkness’. Now, Gurgaon boasts of a renewable energy park, which cost around Rs 2 crore to build. Result: The city scored a total of 93.54 points in business incentive. But power was not the only problem the city was beset with. Despite being the city with the best of the IT industry, Gurgaon was often criticised for its poor infrastructure — seen as a restricting factor to growth. People living or working in the city had no option but to travel in poorly maintained private buses or highly unsafe ‘shuttle’ autos. Things didn’t change much even after the Metro reached Gurgaon as many, not living in the vicinity of Metro stations, continued to have a tough time making the best of this modern transport system. The government’s long-term planning has, however, started bearing fruit. The monorail, launched in November 2013, now connects different commercial hubs in the city and provides the last-mile connectivity with the Metro.The situation is likely to improve further as the municipality, in its 2014 budget, has allocated Rs 500 crore solely for infrastructure projects like underpasses, flyovers, roads and bridges out of the total budget of Rs 889 crore. The government has also started a low-floor bus service in the city, which will provide relief to Gurgaon’s burgeoning population. All Sparkle: Gurgaon scored a total of 93.54 points in business incentive and has largely overcome its power problem (Photograph by Sanjay Sakaria)“The infrastructure in Gurgaon has improved drastically over the past few years, and today, I find it much more convenient to travel in Gurgaon than in Delhi’s Greater Kailash,” says Rattan Kapur, chairman, Haryana state council, CII.One area where the city’s ranking has slipped is ‘institutional support and supplier sophistication’. It ranked 17th in 2014, compared to its 11th spot in 2013.The city still suffers during the monsoon as large swathes of its residential as well as commercial areas face water-logging which, in turn, lead to massive traffic snarls. Gurgaon can, however, improve its performance on parameters related to finances, communication, administrative capacity and innovation, where it ranks 11th, much below Chennai, which ranks third in these particular areas. In ‘income distribution’ and ‘demographics’, Gurgaon scored 67.24 and 58.52, taking the seventh position in the index.Although Gurgaon has seen a marked improvement in its ranking, to rise further, it will have to deal with the challenges of increasing crime, a skewed sex ratio and the high cost of living. Kapur believes that with resident welfare associations and the police working together to control crime, Guragon will do well in the future on these parameters too. (This story was published in BW | Businessworld Issue Dated 01-12-2014) ]]>
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Mumbai has seen a revolution in urban infrastructure and transportation in the past two years. In quick succession, the Scomi-built 9-km first phase of the monorail project was commissioned in February this year, followed in June by the city’s first 11.4-km Metro line connecting Oshiwara with Ghatkopar on an east-west axis. Simultaneously, the 17-km Eastern Freeway that provides an easy exit from the city has made life easier for long-distance motorists. These three projects alone involve an outlay of Rs 10,000 crore, and there is more to come. The Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) is the nodal agency driving Mumbai’s infrastructure revolution. Keeping a hawk eye on the execution is metropolitan commissioner U.P.S. Madan. “Never before have we seen so many infrastructure projects come to fruition in such quick succession. It has substantially decongested traffic and made life easier,” he told BW in an exclusive interview. He gives credit to MMRDA’s concept plan drawn up in the mid-1990s, which studied Shanghai and Singapore’s development and evolved a ‘holistic’ plan, that took into account Mumbai’s needs for the next 40 years. Work on the Rs 23,000-crore Metro Line 3, largely underground, which will provide a central transport spine from Colaba in the south to Seepz in the north-west suburb of Andheri, has already begun. Two other Metro lines are on the anvil, he revealed, and will require another Rs 50,000 crore to be raised. Mumbai’s projects will get an infusion from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), which has extended a line of credit to the tune of Rs 13,250 crore for the Metro Line 3 project. Similarly, the 22-km Trans Harbour link that will connect Mumbai to the south-west, and which has been floundering for funds, has also been offered a lifeline by JICA. Surf’s Up Mumbai has a lot happening on the transport and connectivity frontWhere Mumbai has failed though is in providing mass, affordable housing to its citizens. A recent central government survey indicated that of all the metros, Mumbai’s slum density is the worst, with about 43 per cent of the population continuing to eke out an existence in shanties on encroached land and other informal housing. The Slum Rehabilitation Scheme, a brainchild of late Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray, was in 1995 touted as the answer to the city’s slums, by providing homes to 40 lakh people. Builders were roped in to build rehab housing on encroached plots in lieu of saleable development rights. But the Slum Rehabilitation Authority, which oversees the scheme, instead gained notoriety for offering sweet deals to builders, and nothing to slum-dwellers. Its ‘achievement’ on its website comprises allotting just 1.5 lakh units over two decades. To make amends, the state government is experimenting with ‘reservation’ of 20 per cent of housing stock for economically weaker sections in projects on plots of one acre and above. The scheme has been notified, but it remains to be seen whether it will make headway. Some success at decongestion of the Island City has also been achieved by the development of satellite cities. However, this has made travel time and distances increasingly burdensome. The difficulty and high cost of land acquisition have been exemplified in the state government’s inability to develop an alternative airport. This has hampered connectivity and business growth. In developing a long-term ‘Mumbai Transformation’ plan, an interesting proposal came from the Singapore-based planning consultant, Surbana International. Taking a leaf out of Hong Kong, Singapore and other island cities, Surbana proposed a massive land reclamation effort. Countering sceptics who said it would be too expensive a proposal, Surbana demonstrated how land reclamation would provide premium locations to businesses and generate over $300 billion for Mumbai’s development. Ultimately, environmental and other regulatory issues pushed the proposal to the back burner. But it is high time Mumbai revives such plans to ensure the city’s growth trajectory does not flag. gurbir@businessworld.in (This story was published in BW | Businessworld Issue Dated 01-12-2014)
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Delhi continues to be India’s most competitive city for the fifth year running, despite having no elected government for the most part of the current fiscal. According to the Institute for Competitiveness India (ICI), the national capital has again outdone other Indian cities in the annual competitiveness index, with a total score of 73.13 points, bettering its score of 69.89 last year, and improving on every parameter — infrastructure, housing, transport, gross domestic product (GDP) — except administration. The city’s outstanding performance is often linked to more money spent on infrastructure and transport compared to other Indian cities. The annual report by ICI rates a city’s performance based on its infrastructure, income distribution, institutional support, demographics, communication, etc. In the case of Delhi, 20 to 25 per cent of the total plan outlay over the past five years has been earmarked for transport. This year, Union finance minister Arun Jaitley set aside Rs 3,702 crore for Delhi’s transport sector, which accounts for 22 per cent of the total allocation. “The serious infrastructure investment in Delhi has ensured its most-competitive-city status,” says Vinayak Chatterjee, chief executive officer, Feedback Infra, an integrated infrastructure consulting firm, and chairman of the Confederation of Indian Industry task force on infrastructure projects. “Being the nation’s political hub, Delhi offers proximity to political and administrative heads, thus making it an attractive destination to set up businesses,” says Rajnish Goenka, chairman, Tobu Cycles, and head of the Delhi and NCR committee of the PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry. This explains why even without a government in power for more than eight months, Delhi’s ranking was not affected. The city has been at the forefront of utility reforms, beginning with discoms, and construction of flyovers, the Metro, etc., says Chatterjee. Delhi ranks No. 1 on the parameters of ‘demand conditions’ and ‘context for strategy’, scoring 87.95 in demographics, 70.8 in income distribution, 97.85 in competition intensity and diversity and 98.93 in business incentives. These scores reflect the perceived ease of doing business for entrepreneurs and investors. “Transport and connectivity have attracted a large talent pool,” says Goenka. “Hence, it is easy to find skilled personnel at a reasonable cost in Delhi.” Transport accounts for 22 per cent of the total budget allocation for the current fiscal — at Rs 3,702 croreIn 2014, Delhi’s healthcare segment accounted for 16 per cent (Rs 2,724 crore) of the total plan outlay. Several healthcare projects are under way: a Rs 940-crore project to add 1,400 hospital beds, a medical college with 100 seats, 50 dialysis machines and 110 ambulances. Allocation of Rs 2,482 crore for education (15 per cent of plan outlay), Rs 2,154 crore for housing and urban development (13 per cent), and Rs 1,249 crore for water supply (12 per cent) too figure in policy-makers’ plans. But with little physical space left within the city, green-field expansion has shifted to the National Capital Region comprising Noida, Gurgaon, Faridabad and districts in Uttar Pradesh and Haryana bordering Delhi. Consequently, these satellite cities too, have moved up in the competitive index, with Gurgaon jumping from 6th position in 2013-14 to No. 3 this time. “The satellite cities have eased congestion in Delhi,” says Goenka. In addition, Delhi is one of the few Indian cities to fund its expenditure through internally generated revenue. In 2013-14, its total tax revenue was Rs 30,454 crore, of which VAT was the highest contributor (Rs 20,000 crore). In the current fiscal, total receipts were Rs 37,103.81 crore, of which the largest share (85 per cent or Rs 31,571 crore) was tax revenue. VAT accounts for close to 67 per cent (Rs 21,000 crore) under the tax revenue head. (This story was published in BW | Businessworld Issue Dated 01-12-2014)
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Building happy, futuristic cities is the flavour of the season. Earlier, polluted, over-crowded cities were seen as India’s ugly face; something nobody was doing anything about. Now, cities are ‘in’; urban India is where people are moving to. Call it the Modi-effect or a realisation that has come late, but governments at the Centre and the states are now tripping over themselves to announce new initiatives and reforms. It cannot be otherwise. Today, 35 per cent of the country’s 1.2 billion people live in urban agglomerations. By 2050, half of India will be living in cities and towns. Meanwhile, neglect and lack of comprehensive civic programmes have made existing cities cesspools of deprivation. Nearly 45 per cent of Mumbai lives in slums, while for Kolkata and Chennai the figure is close to 30 per cent. So when the Narendra Modi government unveiled its first budget proposals in July this year, it grabbed the bull by the horns. Finance minister (FM) Arun Jaitley put building homes and cities at the top of the development agenda, while Prime Minister Modi said ‘housing for all’ was not just a slogan but an achievable target by the year 2022. Simultaneously, the FM announced that the government was committed to building 100 ‘smart’ cities, and allocated Rs 7,060 crore for initiating the process. Everybody knew this was not enough to even set up the drawing boards for planning the new cities. So where is the money going to come from? THE TOP 10 CITIES IN 2014DELHIMUMBAIGURGAONNOIDACHENNAIHYDERABADBANGALOREKOLKATAPUNEAHMEDABADOverseas investment is part of the answer. To attract money to construction and realty, the Union Cabinet has now approved dropping the minimum 10-hectare requirement for serviced housing plots and reducing the minimum floor area for FDI-compliant projects from 50,000 sq. metres to 20,000 sq. metres. The new norms also halved the minimum FDI requirement to $5 million from $10 million earlier. Further, the condition of a three-year lock-in period for developers of FDI-compliant projects has been dropped, making exits for foreign investors easier. Beyond the hype though, little is known about ‘smart’ cities and where they are to come up. ‘Smart’ cities is a term used by European urban planners to define technologically advanced urban communities that use gadgetry to make life comfortable and transportation seamless and easy. Metropolitan commissioner for Mumbai, U.P.S. Madan, says for him turning the posh corporate enclave of Bandra-Kurla Complex (BKC) into a ‘smart’ city meant complete wi-fi coverage, electronic display of parking, intelligent signalling systems and a hi-tech security network with CCTV coverage to protect the community. Others have defined ‘smart’ cities more comprehensively based on international experience stretching from Copenhagen to Cape Town and from San Francisco to Singapore. Anshuman Magazine, chairman and managing director of realty broker CBRE South Asia, flags a few important pointers: scientific governance at the municipal level; holistic urban planning; involving the urban citizen; smart technology; integrating green technology with human development; and addressing challenges of informal urban settlements. What is also becoming clear is that the ‘smart’ cities the government has in mind will be new, greenfield creations, probably satellite towns of larger cities rather than re-engineered versions of decrepit metropolises. The government has announced a few — Ponneri in Tamil Nadu, Krishnapatnam in Seemandhra, Tumkur in Karnataka, Varanasi in UP, and the Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (GIFT). An initial concept note prepared by the Union Ministry of Urban Development has estimated the project development cost over 20 years to be around Rs 6.86 lakh crore, of which it proposes to earn Rs 39,000 crore from a slew of environmental and green taxes. break-page-breakMeanwhile, the focus on planning and investing in ‘smart’ cities should not be at the neglect of refurbishing and remodelling old metros. The Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM), an initiative of the former UPA government, was directed at precisely that. It pumped in more than Rs 50,000 crore over a few years into rebuilding water distribution and transport systems in neglected tier II cities; and investing in sewer lines and drains. With a new government in place, however, JNNURM faces an uncertain future. Among the biggest challenges to the creation of ‘smart’ or new cities is land acquisition. It has stalled the development of Naya Raipur as Chhattisgarh’s new capital by over a decade. Jharkhand is unable to find land to set up Indian Institute of Management and Indian Institute of Technology campuses. Earlier, the archaic Land Acquisition Act of 1894 that allowed for ‘forced’ takeover and payment of peanuts as compensation created widespread social and class conflicts. This was replaced last year with a more equitable law — the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013. This has been dismissed by industry for allowing ‘outrageous’ compensation. It is in the context of a revived interest in urban India that the city competitiveness survey assumes greater importance. The survey shows both strengths and weaknesses of big metropolises like Delhi and Mumbai. While the top two rankings remain unchanged, the leading city Delhi emerged stronger in ‘Innovation’ and ‘Human Capacity’, while the No. 2 city Mumbai performed better in ‘financial’ and ‘administrative’ parameters. More importantly, what the survey proves is that it is the ‘satellite’ cities that are the way of the future. Gurgaon and Noida, that were lower down the rankings, have clawed their way up in this year’s survey to No. 3 and No. 4 positions, respectively. They have scored high on ‘business incentives’ and Noida particularly performed well on the ‘communication’ parameter. The rise of Gurgaon and Noida has been at the expense of Chennai and Hyderabad, which are to No. 5 and 6 positions, respectively. Then there are those who are reinventing themselves. Kochi, for example, has gone up from No. 16 last year to No. 11 this year. Vadodara and Kanpur have risen too. As a whole new crop of ‘smart’ cities comes into being in coming years, the competition will only become sharper; and these rankings more important. (This story was published in BW | Businessworld Issue Dated 01-12-2014)
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Brent crude was trading below $82 per barrel on Tuesday after hitting a four-year low, as a firm dollar and robust production from U.S. shale oilfields outweighed a drop in Libyan output.Brent crude for December fell $1.11 to $81.23 per barrel, its lowest since October 2010, and was trading at around $81.90 by 0905 GMT. U.S. crude was down 50 cents at $76.90 per barrel.The US dollar hit a seven-year high against the yen and was up 0.2 percent on the day against a basket of currencies.In India, crude oil futures fell by 0.63 per cent to Rs 4,753 per barrel as speculators trimmed positions amid a weak trend in Asian trade.At the Multi Commodity Exchange, crude oil for delivery in November month contracts fell by Rs 30, or 0.63 per cent, to Rs 4,753 per barrel in 1,329 lots.Besides, oil for December delivery moved down by Rs 29, or 0.62 per cent, to Rs 4,784 per barrel in 150 lots.Analysts said the fall in crude prices at futures trade was primarily after it ended losses in the Asian trade as the prospects of a production cut by the OPEC oil cartel dimmed, despite a global supply glut.Meanwhile, West Texas Intermediate crude for December delivery shed 11 cents to USD 77.29, while Brent crude for December eased 22 cents to USD 82.12 a barrel in mid-morning trade on the New York Mercantile Exchange.Strong Dollar Low DemandA strong dollar suppresses demand for oil and other dollar-priced commodities by making them more expensive for purchasers using other currencies."The path of least resistance is lower, until the OPEC meeting," said Michael Wittner, oil analyst at Societe Generale, in a research note.Brent has fallen nearly 30 percent since late June due to rising production, slowing global demand, and the absence of clear signals from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries that it will cut output at a Nov. 27 meeting.Falling prices have had little impact on drilling in the United States, with output from the fastest-growing and largest shale fields showing no sign of slowing, the Energy Information Administration said."U.S. producers may begin to cut production next year. The market may rebound if we see confirmation of that, but as long as production keeps rising from non-OPEC countries, the market will continue to fall," said Yusuke Seta, a commodity sales manager at Newedge Japan in Tokyo.A supply shock in Libya lent some support to prices, as a rival government that has seized the capital took control of the country's biggest oilfield, El Sharara.Libya's output in the coming months will depend on whether that government can consolidate control over assets and avoid international sanctions, but most analysts believe production in 2015 will be significantly lower than the peak above 900,000 barrels a day, achieved in September.JPMorgan slashed its 2015 Brent price forecast by $33 to $82 per barrel on Monday, citing supply pressures in the Atlantic Basin and the apparent inability of OPEC member states to work cohesively to restrain production.(Agencies)
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Is auctioning of energy resources the best way to increase production? The experience of India’s hydrocarbon sector would certainly prove to the contrary. After 15 years and 9 rounds of auctions under the New Exploration and Licensing Policy (NELP), the country has managed to award 260 hydrocarbon blocks to the private sector. However, only three of the discoveries have actually started commercial production.This is the reason why India imports 75 per cent of its fuel requirements accounting for one third of India’s import bill at $168 billion (Rs 102,480 lakh crore) in 2013-14. Out of the three blocks under production, one is under arbitration where the contractor is accused of misrepresenting the investment figures with the government levying a penalty of over $2 billion on the contractor for not producing the projected quantity of gas.The newly elected NDA government, like in other sectors, has decided to overhaul the hydrocarbon policy in the country, even though the recommendations were prepared by a committee appointed during the Congress-led UPA government.The government has prepared a draft Model Revenue Sharing Contract (MRSC), which seeks to fill up the loopholes of the previous hydrocarbon policy and create a more conducive and competitive environment to attract foreign companies to invest money in India’s hydrocarbon basins.The Fine PrintThe government has prepared an uniform policy for the hydrocarbon sector this time. The NELP policy was only for the Oil and gas. Other hydrocarbon resources like CBM and shale gas were governed by separate policies. Merger of all policies into one was being demanded by the industry for many years.The new policy proposes a model that does not allow cost recovery of investments. Rather the company will have to indicate the quantity of oil and gas it will share with the government at different stages of production as well as at different rates. Under the newly proposed model, the government’s share of revenue will be determined through production price matrix."The government's revenue share of crude oil and/or natural gas shall be determined on the basis of a two dimensional production-price matrix, where the government's revenue sharing with the contractor(s) shall be linked to the average daily production in a month and average oil and gas prices in a month," reads the draft MRSC.Besides quoting the amount the companies will share with the government at different levels of production, the companies would also be required to quote the quantum at different price levels. For example, at less than $100 per barrel, at $100-125, $125-150 and at more than $150 per barrel for crude oil. In case of gas, the draft MSRC proposed 4 price bands starting from less than $6 per million British thermal unit rate (mmbtu), $6-10, $10-14 and more than $14 per mmBtu.The production levels for onland, shallow offshore and deepwater have been proposed at different tranches.Companies will have to bid the amount they will share with the government at different levels of production as well as different rates for oil and gas.Under the cost recovery model, the companies used to bid for maximum work programme, (the amount of capital to be invested). In that model, the government would get its revenue only after the company recovered its investments. This model was criticised by the Comptroller & Auditor General which said it encouraged companies to keep raising cost so as to postpone higher share of profits to the government.Is Revenue Sharing Better Than Cost Recovery?Analysts feel that the in the developed countries, it is the cost recovery method that is successful because of the trust between the government and the companies. However in India, there is always a suspicion over the investment figures produced by a company. This is why, the revenue sharing model is better. “It is about the cultural difference. In India, the private sector has not won the trust of the government. Therefore cost recovery method created a lot of problem,” said an analyst with an international consultancy.The fact that there is lack of trust between the government and the investors is substantiated by the introduction of the escrow account in the draft MRSC.According to the guidelines issued in the draft MRSC, the contractor will be required to put all the revenue generated through the sale of Oil and gas in an escrow account. And any withdrawal from the account will have to be decided by the Government.P Elango, former CEO of Cairn India Ltd, questions the logic of escrow account in the proposed policy. “It is for short term transactions. In the Oil and gas sector, contract terms are for over 25 years. Investors would be very disappointed if they do not have direct access to revenue.” said Elango.“By making escrow account mandatory, the government has killed the spirit of trust that should be there between the two parties to work together for such a long duration,” added Elango.RS Sharma, Former Chairman, ONGC also criticised the clause on Escrow account and said the government should withdraw this part of the draft immediately.The draft policy differentiates between the levels of challenges that geography of the block poses for the explorer. Based on this, the government has proposed different timelines for the submission of appraisal programme based on different categories like Ultra deep water, high temperature and tight reservoirs etc.For onland and shallow water blocks, the time has been increased from 34 months 10 days to 60 months 7 days. Similarly, for deep water blocks, the appraisal timelines has been increased from 46 months 10 days to 66 months and 7 days.The government has also tried to make companies accountable for the production projections that they make. It has introduced penalties through a clause in case an operator does not produce the Oil or gas promised under the annual programme quantity.Reliance Industries, operator of the KGD6 basin, had projected that it will produce 80 million metric standard cubic meters of gas per day from 2012. However, the company missed its target by miles and has been producing between 8-15 mmscmd of gas for the past 2 years.“In case, the contractor fails to achieve the approved programme quantity in any year and falls short by more than 25 per cent of the Programme quantity, liquidated damages of 10 per cent of the value of the shortfall will be imposed on the Contractor,” reads the proposed policy.The government while preparing this draft MRSC, has tried to walk a tight rope. On one hand it has tried to repair the loopholes that were exploited by the contractor in the KGD6 basin, on the other it has tried to be flexible with the timelines for bringing discoveries into production.Former secretary to the government of India, EAS Sarma compared the existing production sharing contract with the proposed RSC: “If the existing production sharing contracts (PSCs) incentivise gold-plating of investments and over-invoicing the costs, that permits money laundering, the proposed revenue sharing contracts (RSCs) avoid these possibilities but, on the other hand, provide scope for under-stating potential production schedules to escape penalties and under-invoicing revenue accruals to profiteer at the expense of the government.”The final policy will have some changes as per the suggestions of the stakeholders, but whether it helps India ramp up its hydrocarbon production will be known only in the course of next 4-5 years.neeraj@businessworld.inneeraj.epiphany@gmail.com
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In an apparent U-turn, CBI, which had filed a closure report in a coal blocks case involving industrialist Kumar Mangalam Birla, former coal secretary P C Parakh and others, on Monday (10 November) told a special court there was enough evidence against the accused to take cognisance of offences.The Supreme court appointed-special public prosecutor (SPP) R S Cheema submitted before Special CBI Judge Bharat Parashar that the court can take cognisance on the closure report filed by it on October 21 as there was prima facie "evidence against the accused to show their involvement".The court after hearing the submissions advanced by Cheema and CBI prosecutors V K Sharma and A P Singh fixed the matter for November 25 for consideration of the agency's closure report."SPP states that under the facts and circumstances of the case, prima facie there is enough material to take cognisance of the offences against private parties and some of the government officials involved in the process of coal blocks allocation. Put up for consideration on the closure report on November 25," the judge said.The CBI also placed on record a compilation of relevant documents relating to the case.During the hearing, Cheema said, "We are asking for cognisance on the closure report as there was evidence against the accused to show their involvement."The judge asked the prosecutor that if the court decides to take cognisance of the offences, will the agency be ready with its documents.To this, Cheema said some further investigation was required in the matter.Earlier, on October 21, CBI had filed a "detailed and comprehensive" revised final closure report before a the court in the case.The FIR against Birla, Parakh and others was registered in October last year by CBI which had alleged that Parakh had reversed his decision to reject coal block allocation to Hindalco within months "without any valid basis or change in circumstances" and shown "undue favours".The FIR relates to allocation of Talabira II and III coal blocks in 2005. On September 12, the court had asked CBI what was the hurry in closing the case in which FIR was registered against Birla, Parakh and others after it first filed the closure report on August 28.CBI had booked Birla, Parakh and other officials of Hindalco under various sections of the Indian Penal Code, including criminal conspiracy and criminal misconduct on the part of government officials.In its FIR, the agency had alleged that during the 25th Screening Committee meeting, chaired by Parakh, applications of Hindalco and Indal Industries were rejected for mining in Talabira II and III "citing valid reasons".(PTI)
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