Snapdeal.com, an online marketplace and Tata Value Homes have entered into real estate market to sell houses online. With this step, Snapdeal.com will now foray into the real estate category and start selling apartments by the real estate major on its site. Brotin Banerjee, Managing Director & CEO, Tata Housing and Tata Value Homes said, “Today India is buying increasingly on online space. We always strive for excellence with innovative ways to reach our customers. From our number, we have seen that 70 per cent of our customers come from the online medium. In addition to reaching out, online, also plays a big role in influencing them. Our success in selling homes online is a testimonial to the above. We strongly believe that India is ready to buy homes online and hence a partnership with Snapdeal will help us revolutionize the Industry. Snapdeal being the largest online marketplaces in India and with a strong base of customers will help us reach out to a larger audience base, making home buying a click away.”As part of this partnership, Snapdeal.com and Tata Value Homes will together offer online booking of all the Tata Value Homes projects on the website. One can book a home by paying just Rs 30,000. For the launch period, Tata Value Homes will also offer an exclusive benefit for a limited period of time to customers who book through Snapdeal. Under this, each customer will get Rs 10,000 per month for a year on booking any of the Tata Value Homes property on Snapdeal.com. Bookings will open on 28 August at 10 am on Snapdeal.com.Kunal Bahl, CEO and Co-founder at Snapdeal.com said, “At Snapdeal.com, our vision is to create life changing experiences for both our buyers and sellers. Buying a home is one of the most important and life changing events for in our lives. In line with this, we want to bring our promise of ease and best value to the real estate category as well. We have partnered with TATA Value Homes as it stands out in the industry with quality construction, ethical and transparent business practices. We have changed the way consumers shop. Now we intend to change the way they buy their homes.”Dell Unveils New Solutions To Optimise Virtual Infrastructure, Applications and ManagementDell unveiled a broad range of innovative solutions across its enterprise portfolio at VMworld, that optimise and simplify management and productivity within customers’ VMware virtualisation environments. The new offerings showcase Dell and VMware’s long-standing and strong partnership to build unique, industry-leading product and service solutions, which help customers achieve more from their IT investments.Taking a customer-first approach, Dell supports businesses wherever they are on their journey, from traditional IT to new IT, by adding to its portfolio of hyper-converged and software-defined offerings with new solutions for VMware environments: · Dell Engineered Solutions for VMware EVO: RAIL™ bridge the capital and operational cost savings of new IT solutions while maintaining compatibility with traditional IT workloads. The appliances help customers streamline the deployment and scale-out of their virtual infrastructure and workloads.· A Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) reference architecture and new Dell Storage and VMware integrations help customers simplify traditional IT solutions including management and access of data and applications for traditional VMware environments. BMW, Mercedes-Benz Battle Hard For Top Spot OnlineWhen it comes to buying a luxury sedan, except a niche segment of buyers, for most people in India, it was until recently a toss-up between three of the world's top luxury brands: Mercedes, BMW and Audi offering the best German technology with fascinating products, exciting brand experience and innovative retail programmes. There has been a subsequent addition to that list – with the success of the Jaguar-Land Rover brand (now a Tata Motors owned company). With growing section of rich Indians especially from the young generation being targeted by luxury car companies, internet is playing small yet considerate role in decision- making process. Google Search trends present some interesting insights on the level of interest these brands attract among the growing new segment of progressives who love driving their own car and not merely lie to own it.German luxury car brands in India are facing stiff competition from each other as they continue to bite into each other sales with new models and advanced offerings. Mercedes-Benz and BMW both together shared the ‘Top spot’ as their aggressive online presence attracted a large number of brand and product related queries on Google search. Searches on Jaguar Cars presented an interesting surprise as it pushed Audi’s ranking to the fourth spot on Google search. Audi may well be giving strong competition to its rivals; it remained a distant fourth especially considering the amount of queries posted on Google search by Auto enthusiasts in 2014.BMW which leads the search charts at the start of the year with searches peaking in its favour has been found losing its momentum as it witnessed the lowest search interest for brand BMW during the month of May. Mercedes-Benz meanwhile continued to attract large amount of searches during the year and finally surged ahead of its competition keeping a significant edge in search interest over the past couple of months.Smaller cities and towns are now very much part of the mainstream markets with most number of searches emerging from these places as leading luxury car makers fast-moving to these cities. Thiruvananthapuram, Ludhiana, Vadodara, Ernakulum, and Surat contributed the most number of searches for Mercedes-Benz leaving behind Metro cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Gurgaon and Bangalore. According to reports, the Indian luxury car market had sales of more than 32,000 units in the calendar year 2013 and is expected to cross the 50,000 mark in 2014. With big brands looking to target emerging youth with launch of new models, their online presence and popularity is well going to be a key contributor to their larger success story. Oppo Mobiles India Partners With FlipkartOPPO India, a technology brand, announced their partnership deal with Flipkart, to sell their smartphone devices online. OPPO’s entire range of smartphones that have been launched in India till date, including the award winning OPPO N1, and their latest 4G flagship smartphone - OPPO Find 7, will now be available to online customers from August 26 onwards. Flipkart will be exclusively offering OPPO’s first 4G flagship device, OPPO Find 7, which has QHD Screen, 50MP Ultra-HD photography and comes with rapid charging technology called VOOC.Tom Lu, CEO, OPPO Mobiles India, said “We have been striving to come closer to our customers and become a part of the society. With more and more consumers going online, having a digital presence has become a must. Flipkart is definitely one of the most popular shopping platforms with a very loyal customer base and by partnering with them, we are sure OPPO’s smartphones will reach out to more customers. With our products, Indian customers will get a chance to experience the best in innovation, the way many customers have enjoyed globally .”OPPO has been on a network expansion spree in India. The deal is a part of their strategy to enable them to strategically, increase their pan-India footprint. The company also has plans to expand more service centers in the next one year. So far they have launched 10 devices in the India market that cover the price range from below Rs 10,000 to around Rs 40,000 this year.Strides Arcolab Receives US FDA Approval For Buspirone TabletsStrides Arcolab has received approval from the United States Food & Drug Administration (USFDA) for Buspirone Hydrochloride Tablets USP, 5 mg, 10 mg, 15 mg and 30 mg.According to IMS data as on September 2013, the US market for generic Buspirone Tablets is approximately USD 65 Million.The product will be manufactured at the Company’s Oral dosage facility at Bangalore and marketed directly by Strides in the US Market.The Company has 5 manufacturing facilities presence in more than 75 countries in developed and emerging markets.Avaya, HP To Deliver Expanded Communications Services To The EnterpriseAvaya and HP Enterprise Services (ES) announced a multi-year agreement to offer cloud-based unified communications and contact center technology and management solutions for enterprises.Together, the companies will sell a combined portfolio of Unified Communications-as-a-Service, Contact Center-as-a-Service, and infrastructure modernization services. Combining HP’s expertise in services delivery with Avaya’s strong unified communications and contact center portfolio will create one of the most advanced solutions in the industry, including mobile applications, software, and networking for unified communications and customer experience management. These as-a-Service solutions will be delivered with the same standard of care that puts Avaya services above industry benchmarks[1] with the added benefit of HP’s industry leading cloud capabilities.The Avaya-HP agreement addresses growing global demand for comprehensive, secure, reliable business collaboration solutions, delivered as a service. HP ES will resell the as-a-Service offerings and in parallel, Avaya has the benefit of increased scale enabled by HP’s highly flexible deployment models to quickly reach more customers and help simplify and transform business communications. Avaya will also apply its market leading communication and collaboration products to help HP improve the efficiency and performance of its contact center operations.Organisations Spend Less Than 10% Of Overall Brand Budget On Employer BrandingMonster India (www.monsterindia.com), an online career and recruitment solutions providers, launched a study ‘Employer Branding Trends 2014’ in collaboration with People Matters.According to the survey, Indian corporations are still looking for the right formula for budget participation and executions. Monster.com and People Matters’ Employer Branding Survey 2014 indicated that while CEOs realise how important employer branding is for their organisations, not many plan to spend substantially, only 72 per cent of organisations spend less than 10 per cent of their brand budget on employer brand.Sanjay Modi, Managing Director, Monster.com (India/Middle-East/Hong Kong/South East Asia), added, “Building an employer brand is like building a brand from its inception stage. A CEO could be an ideal custodian of Employer Branding. If we look at any established employer brand, we’ll find that it is built through a systematic, sustainable effort with active involvement of all stakeholders, driven by the CEO. Our survey among 85 CEOs in Indian organizations reveals that more than 70% of organizations spend less than 10% of their overall brand budget on employer branding. This indicates a level of unwillingness to take serious steps towards building an employer brand.”While branding is always a top agenda for the marketing teams in companies, most of their efforts seem to center on product branding. Moreover 46 per cent do not seek professional aid for marketing employer branding. Despite the undying focus on strengthening this, CEO continues to shy away from aligning business strategies to employer branding.Smartlink Appoints Jayesh Kotak As Vice President For Product MarketingSmartlink Network Systems Ltd announced that it has appointed Jayesh Kotak as its Vice President for the Product Marketing Department at their Corporate Office in Mumbai. Jayesh Kotak will handle the Product Management for the entire range of DIGISOL products and the Associated Product Marketing across India.In his new role, Jayesh will oversee and broaden Smartlink’s partnerships with marketing and technology providers, while identifying new market opportunities that will support the company’s marketing campaigns. He will also play a strategic role for ensuring a smooth integration between technology and marketing to achieve business requisites.Jayesh brings over 24 years of rich experience in Sales & Marketing domain. Prior to Smartlink, he spearheaded the new line of business for Digital Infrastructure at Ashtech Infotech Pvt. Ltd. He has also worked as the Vice President of Product Management at D-Link India Ltd.Kotak holds his Bachelors in Engineering (BE- Electronics & Communication) from Karnataka University and Masters of Management Studies (Marketing) from Somaiya Institute of Management Studies. Carrier Transicold’s New Citifresh Unit Provides “Fresh Only” Refrigerated Transport Solution For IndiaCarrier Transicold India’s new Citifresh range of fresh-only truck refrigeration units has designed to meet India’s growing demand for transportation of fruits, vegetables, dairy and confectionary products using longer refrigerated trucks. Carrier Transicold, a division of Carrier Airconditioning & Refrigeration Limited, helps improve global transport and shipping temperature control with a complete line of equipment for refrigerated trucks, trailers and containers, and is a part of UTC Building & Industrial Systems, a unit of United Technologies Corp. (NYSE: UTX).The Citifresh range, debuting at the National Center for Cold Chain Development’s “Farm to Fork” event in Bangalore, is ideal for transporting chilled products on medium- to large- commercial vehicles with a loading capacity of 16 to 55 cubic meters. The Citifresh range can handle a broad chilled temperature range of 4 degrees Celsius to 22 degrees Celsius. The range operates in tandem with the truck engine and provides a high airflow of 2,200m3/hr, crucial for proper air circulation.As the second largest producer of fruits and vegetables in the world, there is significant opportunity to deliver fresh, healthy food throughout India. Yet some $7 billion (Rs 13,300 crore) worth of fruits and vegetables are wasted every year, primarily due to the lack of an integrated cold chain.The Citifresh 500, the first unit to be introduced within the Citifresh range, uses non-ozone-depleting refrigerant R134a. The unit’s high-efficiency compressor delivers refrigeration capacity up to 4,500 Watts in high ambient temperatures.Deshpande Foundation, Microsoft Ventures Partner To Launch Sandbox StartupsDeshpande Foundation and Microsoft Ventures in India announced a partnership to launch Sandbox Startups, an incubator focused on nurturing startups in tier two and three cities of India. The three-year collaboration was formalised with the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) here on 23 August, in the presence of Dr Gururaj ‘Desh’ Deshpande, Founder, Deshpande Foundation, Jairam Ramesh, Former Minister, Government of India, Rajinish Menon, Director, Microsoft Ventures in India, Naveen Jha, CEO, Deshpande Foundation, Phanindra Sama, CEO, Redbus.in and other industry leaders. Rajinish Menon, Director, Microsoft Ventures in India, said: “Indian startups from across the country are building products that are addressing global and local challenges. As the culture of innovation spreads, it’s fascinating to see the kind of problems that startups from smaller towns are trying to solve. Our partnership with Deshpande Foundation aims to engage with entrepreneurs from smaller towns at every stage of their journey from ideation to maturity. At Microsoft, we are extremely excited to help incubators roll out products and raise capital to fund their growth, eventually benefiting India’s budding entrepreneurial ecosystem. And this specific endeavor is aimed at entrepreneurs from smaller towns which have a less mature ecosystem to nurture them. Startups can call Microsoft's Jumpstart hotline on 1800 2002114 to know more about the program and how to be a part of it.”Imparting relevant skills is also essential for the students and entrepreneurs to succeed. Through this partnership, Deshpande Foundation is also launching a new skill development program to ensure that the students and entrepreneurs have access to cutting edge technology training.Biggest Online Shopping Festival: Fantastic 15PayUMoney has come up with Fantastic Fifteen Shopping Festival, in association with ICICI credit and debit cards. This is by far the biggest online shopping festival spanning over 15 days for Indian shoppers with 35 exciting online brands to choose from on a platter.Shoppers get up to 40 per cent off on shopping with ICICI Bank Credit and Debit Cards. Further, every consumer will get an assured discount of upto 15 per cent on every transaction done through PayUMoney.Aptly named Fantastic Fifteen, the shoppers can start filling their shopping carts from 26thAugust till 09 September, 2014. Interestingly, to make the shopping experience even more fulfilling, shoppers stand a chance to win two Moto-G smart phones every day and 3000+ gift vouchers across the span of 15 days.
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For housing realty in Mumbai, it is bad news again with the property broking house Knight Frank reporting that demand within the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) had dropped by a whopping 25 per cent in the first half of calendar 2014 in comparison with the same period last year. The unsold inventory will take almost three years to sell. "Buyers continued to sit on the fence for the most part of H1 2014 in anticipation that the new and stable leadership at the Centre would revive the ailing economy," the report said. The half yearly report of Knight Frank called 'India Real Estate Outlook' released on 26 August, however sees an uptick in the Mumbai market with four important transit infrastructure projects coming up in Mumbai including the commissioning of the Metro Rail, the part-opening of a monorail system and the Eastern Freeway. "These may redefine the property market dynamics of the entire metropolitan region," the report said. Although 2014 would witness a decline of 15 percent in new launches to 92,845 housing units, it would be a trend reversal year for absorption, which will increase by 8% to 80,022 units.The office segment too has been slow with the absorption at 2.5 million square feet, a decline of 34 percent in the first half of the year, as compared to H1 of 2014. "Owing to the general elections, corporates adopted a noncommittal attitude towards taking up office space during the first half." With developers deferring fresh launches to adjust to the changed market conditions, new project completions dropped by 25 percent in H1 2014 in comparison with the same period last year.On an all-India basis though, the report is bullish about future prospects. Mumbai and Bangalore are expected to lead the recovery in sales volume, with 49 percent and 26 percent growth, respectively from H2 2013 to H2 2014. The election results and incentives announced for the housing sector in the Union Budget have improved home buyer sentiments in the last three months.However, Knight Frank's own data showed that the recessionary conditions were continuing with as the number of new launches showed a subdued growth of 5 per cent in the next 6 months owing to high unsold inventory and poor response to new launches.Some cities however bucked the trend and had shown quick price appreciation. Bangalore appreciated at the fastest pace of 11 per cent in H1 2014 compared to H1 2013. This was followed by Hyderabad, at 9 per cent during the same period.
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A mass cancellation of coal blocks awarded since 1993 could cost the country up to $3 billion in additional imports and hurt financial firms that have lent to the sector, broking firms said on Tuesday (26 August). The Supreme Court ruled on Monday that the allocation of more than 200 coal blocks at the centre of a cronyism scandal was illegal. The Supreme Court is due to decide on Sept. 1 whether to cancel the allocations, or to impose some sort of penalty. Shares in resource stocks fell further following a broad sell-off on Monday after the ruling, which jeopardised projects built around the blocks and threatens to exacerbate a shortage of the fuel. "The ruling creates uncertainty and has to be resolved quickly. I hope the Supreme Court gives a clear roadmap in September," said Samir Arora, a fund Manager at Helios Capital in Singapore. The government's awards of the blocks to steel, cement and power companies has been at the centre of a scandal Indian media has dubbed "Coalgate", with the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report in 2012 saying the underpriced sales had cost the exchequer up to $33 billion. Analysts said a mass cancellation of the blocks would be a worst-case scenario and add to a shortage of coal for power plants. Coal is used to generate more than two-thirds of India's electricity. Macquarie estimated in a note that complete de-allocation of the coal blocks would increase India's import bill by $3 billion. De-allocation could also impact financial firms, Credit Suisse said, with companies such as State Bank of India and Power Finance Corp Ltd lending some $10-$12 billion to the coal, power and steel sectors. Jindal Steel and Power Ltd shares fell as much as 8.1 percent, after falling 13.9 percent on Monday, while Tata Power Co Ltd fell as much as 4.6 percent. Some other firms rebounded, with Hindalco edging up after a 9.7 percent fall in the previous session. Macquarie urged investors to wait for more clarity to emerge. "The government will impress upon the Court about coal shortages, power cuts and derailment of the investment process," it said. Power and Coal Minister Piyush Goyal said on Monday he looked forward to a resolution of the issue, which has kept the sector in limbo for several years. The uncertainty surrounding the allocations has made it difficult for firms to develop the coal. Dipesh Dipu, partner with Jenissi Management Consultants, said only 30 of the blocks are operational with annual capacity of about 40 million tonnes. India produced 565 million tonnes of coal in the year to March 31. (Reuters)
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The Supreme Court of India continues to take a stringent view of coal block violations, cancelling close to 200 licences on Monday (25 August), saying the allocations were against public interest.The apex court said the coal block allocations to various companies between 1992 and 2008 were arbitrary and lacked transparency.The allocations, which are being scrutinised by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), were made in a casual manner without a comparative assessment of applicants, the court said.However, it allowed the allocations made to mega power projects to continue on the condition that they must not use the coal for any purpose other than captive consumption."No objective criteria was followed and guidelines were breached in coal block allocations," said the bench headed by Chief Justice of India R.M. Lodha.The fate of these illegal coal blocks remains undecided, with the court announcing it will decide the manner of reassigning mining rights after a series of hearings starting on September 1.One hundred and ninety-four coal blocks were allocated between 1992 and 2008, which the court declared illegal on Monday. The judges said that no guidelines were followed in handing out coal licenses and the 36 different committees made to allocate the blocks acted arbitrarily.Read Also: The SC OrderThe bench noted that "public good suffered" as a result. In September 2012 the court had first issued a notice on the matter based on a PIL filed by advocate M.L. Sharma, who was later joined by Common Cause NGO and other activists. The petition has led to much drama in the corridors of power, with increased pressure on the CBI to report its findings and progress on the "Coalgate".There have been reports of missing files amid CBI-Government collision and allegations about a lack of independence for the investigation agency.Govt Ready To Act QuicklyWelcoming Supreme Court judgement as ending of uncertainty, Coal and Power Minister Piyush Goyal said the government is ready to act quickly once the court delivers its final view on the coal mines allocation, which it has declared illegal, reports PTI.The government is awaiting Supreme Court to deliver its final view on how the mines "illegally" allocated between 1993 and 2010 should be treated, Goyal told reporters in New Delhi.Later, Goyal went to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi."The fact that this has brought to finality and closure a dispute or problem that has been for many years ... (It is) a big plus for the Indian economy. I think in fact they should have been immensely pleased that the economy can now move forward rapidly rather being cast with the shadow of uncertainty," he said.He said the clarity of law in policy and certainty of future are the "hallmarks of a good economy and will be liked by the investor community", with coal sector poised for progress after being in "limbo" for long.His remarks follow the Supreme Court ruling that all coal block allocations between 1993 and 2010 had been done in an illegal manner by an "ad-hoc and casual" approach "without application of mind".SC Monitoring CBI ProbeThe Supreme Court is monitoring the CBI investigation into the coal block allocations, initiated following the Comptroller and Auditor General's report in 2012. The CAG report states that the country has lost close to Rs 2 lakh crores due to the arbitrary allocations spanning three political regimes of the NDA, UPA I and UPA II. The scam took the nation by storm and damaged the UPA’s image as the coal portfolio fell under former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's charge for most of the period under question.Last year the court had issued a show-cause notice to the central government to report the action taken on the CAG report and in January this year, it reserved the verdict on the matter. At that time, the Centre submitted that 40 coal blocks were de-allocated. The court had suggested de-allocation of 29 blocks allotted to private companies as well. But the State representative said that companies had already invested a lot of money and therefore it would be difficult to cancel the licences. The apex court dismissed the claims, stating that investments cannot be reason for not cancelling illegal allocations, reserving the order for August.It said on Monday that illegal coal blocks must be de-allocated. The CBI is investigating the allocations and has so far filed 16 FIRs, where they have some proof of cheating, criminal misconduct and corruption. The FIRs have named some big names like AMR Iron and Steel, JLD Yavatmal Energy, Vini Iron and Steel Udyog, JAS Infrastructure Capital Pvt Ltd, Vikash Metals, Grace Industries, Gagan Sponge, Jindal Steel and Power, Rathi Steel and Power Ltd, Jharkhand Ispat, Green Infrastructure, Kamal Sponge, Pushp Steel, Hindalco, BLA Industries, Castron Technologies and Castron Mining. The CBI has been trying to identify possible collusion between government officials and firms, which led to the irregularities in allocations and pricing of the blocks. It is believed that many firms misrepresented facts in order to appear eligible for coal blocks and more often than not were also given the blocks without any verification of these claims at very low prices. The investigative agency has filed over 15 FIRs in the matter naming project proponents from all spheres of India Inc from Birlas to Jindals. At the same time the CBI has also decided to file a closure report in the coal block allocation scam involving Kumar Mangalam Birla and former Coal Secretary P.C. Parakh after a 10-month probe for lack of evidence.A Jindal Steel Spokesperson said: "We are not in a position to comment as we are currently evaluating the SC Judgement and the implications for JSPL." moyna@businessworld.inmmatbworld@gmail.com
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French electrical engineering group Alstom has won contracts with a total value of 800 million euros to build high-voltage direct current power transmission lines in India, South Korea and Canada, the firm said.Half of this amount was booked in the first quarter of its April 2014-March 2015 fiscal year and the other half will be booked in the second quarter, the company said in a statement.In India, Alstom won the second phase of an 800 kiloVolt (kV) Ultra-High Voltage Direct Current (UHVDC) line contract from Power Grid Corporation of India Limited (PGCIL), after winning a first order in 2012.With the two contracts, Alstom lines will be able to transfer up to 6000 megawatts (MW) of power - roughly equivalent to the output of six nuclear plants - from the centre of the country to the north. Alstom has supplied HVDC links to India since 1996.In South Korea, Alstom won a contract for a 500 kV, 1500 MW HVDC line in a region south of Seoul, through its joint venture KEPCO-Alstom Power Electronics Systems (KAPES). In Canada Alstom will build a 1,100 km long 350 kV line to transmit hydropower from the 824 MW Muskrat Falls dam to the island of Newfoundland.Alstom said its Alstom Grid unit is one of the top three providers of HVDC technologies worldwide, and has delivered more than 35,000 MW of connection capacity around the world, including the world's longest HVDC transmission system in Brazil at 2,375 km (3,150 MW, 600 kV). Alstom also built a 660 kV HVDC system in China, and the 2,000 MW submarine interconnection between France and Britain.Alstom said its HVDC lines transmit 30 per cent more power than the conventional alternating current lines.The French firm competes with Swiss engineering group ABB, Germany's Siemens and several Chinese manufacturers.The head of Alstom Grids said in July that power network operators around the world are likely to spend about 50 billion euros by 2020 on new equipment to transport power over long distances.(Reuters)
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The Vedanta Group promoted power and telecom infrastructure company, Sterlite Technologies, which attracted the first foreign investment in India’s power transmission sector in July, hopes to realise major revenues from its investments in power infrastructure business from FY15, according to CEO Anand Agarwal.Sterlite Power Grid Ventures Ltd (SPGVL), a subsidiary of the Pune-based Sterlite Technologies, focused on the development and operations of power transmission projects, has a portfolio of six projects on Build, Own, Operate and Maintain (BOOM) basis spread across 10 states. Of this, the first three projects with over 2,000 kilometre of transmission lines and two high voltage substations are in the final stages of completion. The other three projects will start operating sequentially from FY17, Anand Agarwal told BW Businessworld.“We have a capital commitment of nearly $1.3 billion and the Rs 500-crore equity investments from Standard Chartered Private Equity in Sterlite Power Grid Ventures Ltd (SPGVL) will be used as equity contribution in existing as well as new power transmission projects”, said the executive.The RS 2,726-crore Sterlite had commissioned India’s first Ultra Mega Transmission Project (UMTP) - the Purnea-Bihar Sharif line in September, last year.Sterlite, which generated Rs 35-crore revenues from power infrastructure segment in FY 14, expects to realise full revenues of over Rs 1,200 crore by 2020 from all the six projects. About Rs 560-crore business is expected by FY16 and over Rs 800 crore by FY18. Currently Sterlite has an all time high order book of Rs 4,400 crore, split evenly between the telecom and power segments, 28 per cent of this from export orders.“With the resurgence in India’s power sector, the transmission and distribution business is expected to grow 12-14 per cent in the coming years”, said Agarwal.The Power Grid Corporation of India (PGCIL) is planning to invest close to Rs 23,000 crore every year in the coming years to strengthen the T&D sector and the total PGCIL ordering in FY 14 was Rs 10,760 crore. When compared to the investments in power generation capacity addition, the investments in India’s T&D sector are only half of what is required, he noted.Sterlite, which makes optical fibre solutions for the telecom sector, power conductors, cables and accessories, had 59 per cent of its revenues coming from the power sector in FY14.He said with the 4G rollout and fiberisation of Towers, the Indian optic cable fibre market is at an inflexion point with an anticipated growth of over 20-22 per cent year on year. India had 10 million fibre kilometres (MFKM) in 2012 and this increased to 14 MFKM in 2013. It is expected to reach 18 MFKM by the end of 2014. Sterlite makes optic fibre cables and controls over 40 per cent of the Indian market. The company has optic fibre manufacturing facilities in India, China and Brazil. Write to pbjayan@gmail.com
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Billionaire Gautam Adani plans to invest $2 billion to build a 2,500 megawatt power plant in Odisha, which would raise group capacity by a quarter and boost supply in a country where a third of the population still goes without power.A college dropout and self-made entrepreneur, Adani has built a power, mining and ports giant with revenue of nearly $9 billion. Among his latest purchases in an expansion spree was the $327 million acquisition of a power plant from Lanco Infratech earlier this month.The Adani Group, the largest private power producer in India, expects to sign a pact with the Odisha government in four months to set up a new plant, said Rajesh Jha, who looks after the group's mining business in the state.The conglomerate plans to generate 1,000 megawatt (MW) of electricity by 2017 in Odisha, ramping up to full capacity by 2019, Jha told Reuters on Monday.The plant will source coal from two blocks it is developing in Odisha with a total capacity of 70 million tonnes per year."We expect to start coal mining in two years," Jha said, adding that the power plant would require 25 million tonnes of coal per year at full capacity.The Adani Group, controlled by flagship Adani Enterprises, currently has 9,240 MW of power capacity at its plants in Gujarat, Maharashtra and Rajasthan states, according to a company presentation.It imports about 100 million tonnes of coal a year mainly from Indonesia to feed the plants.Its inbound shipments of coal could double by 2020, Jha said. Many Indian power producers are forced to rely heavily on imports as state monopoly Coal India Ltd has struggled to raise output fast enough to meet demand.Newly elected Prime Minister Narendra Modi's plans to provide power to all will further raise imports.(1 US dollar = 60.4450 rupees)(Reuters)
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Oil Ministry will approach Cabinet regarding the possible deregulation of domestic diesel pricing as local prices could soon reach parity with global levels, two ministry sources told Reuters.India regulates diesel prices to protect the poor and curb inflation and deregulation could bring the return of private firms such as Reliance Industries and Essar Oil to retail sales.Such companies do not receive federal support for selling diesel at discounted rates and currently sell via state refiners despite having their own sales infrastructure.Any decision to deregulate retail prices would require a mandate from the Cabinet, one of the sources said.A rising subsidy bill and strained public finances in a sluggish economy forced the Cabinet in January 2013 to allow state retailers to raise retail diesel prices marginally each month.Fuel retailers have been hiking pump prices by 40-50 paise or less than a cent per litre each month since."It (the January 2013 decision) was silent on whether the prices will be deregulated after (they reach parity)," this source said."For a final decision it has to go to the Cabinet," the source said.The incremental increases along with falling global oil prices have reduced the diesel subsidy bill to less than Rs 1 per litre, a second source said."If there is no change in global oil prices and rupee exchange rate, maybe next month we will look at going to the Cabinet to have clarity on the issue," this source said.He said the January 2013 decision allowed retailers to raise prices each month "until further orders".Brent crude oil futures slipped below $103 a barrel on Friday, near a 14-month low, reflecting a strong dollar and plentiful supplies.($1=60.45 rupees)(Reuters)
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