The Centre is doing all it can to beef up the power distribution sector. The National Electricity Fund (NEF) is the latest in the line of centrally backed schemes to strengthen what is considered the weakest link of the power sector. NEF is an interest subsidy scheme that was first mentioned in the 2008-09 budget, but the guidelines were only issued in July. Rural Electrification Corporation (REC) is the nodal agency for the scheme. REC is to pay out interest subsidies totalling Rs 8,466 crore spread over 13 years for loans taken by distribution companies (discoms) to the tune of Rs 25,000 crore during 2012-13 and 2013-14. The agency has already taken up Rs 4,250 crore in loans taken by discoms for processing under the scheme and the target is Rs 10,000 crore for the current fiscal. “We can only process the amount, and the sanction has to be given by the steering committee headed by the power secretary,” says Sanjeev Kumar Gupta, general manager (transmission and distribution), REC, who also heads the NEF cell at REC. Click Here To View (GRAPHIC: CHAMPAK BHATTACHARJEE)The states have been divided into two groups under the NEF. Group 1 has all the main states and the Union territories and group 2 includes special category states, the north-eastern states, focus states like Bihar and Jharkhand where the per capita consumption (Bihar with 122.11 kWh and Jharkhand with 880.43 kWh) is less than the national average (814 kWh), and Jammu & Kashmir. In group 1, Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, West Bengal and Kerala have claimed subsidies under the scheme; while in group 2, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu & Kashmir have done so. Of these, six have committed investments of Rs 4,250 crore (see First Movers), and five are in the process of doing so. “The scheme was to incentivise investment into distribution. The previous plan had seen a lot of deficit in the distribution sector and only 35 per cent of the investment target in the distribution sector could be realised,” says Gupta. “It is not a free lunch and the participating companies have to show real progress in order to claim subsidies,” says Gupta. The scheme, through its pre-eligibility conditions and the final subsidy disbursal conditions, seeks to encourage discoms to improve their financial health. 4,250 crore rupees is the investment committed so farMeasures like reduction in the aggregate technical and distribution losses, reduction in the gap between the average cost of supply and average revenue realised, and timely filing of tariff orders are among the benchmarks to claim the interest subsidy. Considering the appalling state of accounts of group 2 discoms, the scheme has given them a relaxation of three years to set their house in order. NEF also allows private discoms to claim interest subsidy if they meet the parameters — unlike the Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana and the Restructured Accelerated Power Development and Reforms Programme. This would come as a great relief to Orissa’s private discoms that have been termed a “near failure”, having accumulated losses of Rs 3,359 crore in 2010-11.(This story was published in Businessworld Issue Dated 10-12-2012
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The Karnataka iron and steel industry is in a quagmire. On 23 November, the Karnataka Iron and Steel Manufacturers Association (KISMA) held a press conference highlighting the “dire situation” caused due to the shortage of iron ore. Their complaints revolved around three issues — low production and evacuation by state-owned NMDC, the largest iron ore producer, high iron ore prices in the region and the delay in mining resumption. Karnataka was embroiled in an illegal iron ore mining scandal in 2011. In July last year, the Supreme Court (SC) put a ban on iron ore mining in the state. It allowed only NMDC to mine 12 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) and auction 1.5 mt each month to meet the needs of domestic plants dependent on the state’s iron ore. About 36 category A and B mines can now resume mining subject to certain conditions and necessary clearances. But, KISMA says, two of the three integrated steel plants in the state are operating at just 40 per cent capacity, pig iron and alloy steel plants are operating at 21 per cent, pellet plants at 63 per cent and sponge iron manufacturers at 27 per cent. Of the eight pellet plants in the region, five are shut; 28 sponge iron producers have also shut shop, and around 15,000 jobs have been directly hit.3 of the 20 category A mines have restarted productionKISMA accuses NMDC of consistently missing targets. Since October 2011, it has produced, on average, only 550,000 tonnes a month, says Seshagiri Rao, group CFO and joint MD at JSW Steel, which is operating at 70 per cent capacity but is unsure how long it can sustain this way. NMDC, however, has refuted the allegations. In an emailed reply to BW’s queries, it said that it had reduced iron ore prices by 2-11 per cent in October and again by 3-12 per cent during November. It also said that more than 50 per cent of the iron ore lumps put up in November’s auction had been sold, as opposed to the 10 per cent alleged by KISMA. NMDC said that all of the fine ore was in the process of being sold. Though, it did admit that evacuation issues had dampened production but maintained that the October figures were 5 per cent more than last year. According to KISMA, currently only three of the 20 category A mines have started operations, and the rest are waiting for clearances and approvals. They have written to the steel ministry. Steel secretary D.R.S. Chaudhary could not be reached for comments since he was on tour. A senior official at the mines ministry says they have received 15 requests from category A mine owners and only four for category B mines. “So who is causing the delay?” he asks. NMDC clarified in its email that there was sufficient iron ore in the country. It pointed out that in 2011-12, production was about 170 mt while consumption was 116 mt. With the buck being passed around, an early resolution is unlikely.(This story was published in Businessworld Issue Dated 10-12-2012)
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In its biggest investment ever, state-owned ONGC Videsh (OVL) has finalised an agreement for acquiring the 8.4 per cent stake of ConocoPhillips, a $237-billion entity, in the North Caspian Sea Production-Sharing Agreement (NCSPSA) — that includes the Kashagan field in Kazakhstan — for close to $5 billion. This is OVL’s second investment in Kazakhstan — the first was a 25 per cent stake in the Satpayev offshore block in 2011. Kashagan, in the shallow waters of the Caspian Sea, is said to be the most important oil discovery in the world, after Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, in 1968, and is reported to have 30 billion barrels of oil equivalent. However, the field is reported to be running eight years behind schedule. As things stand, it is likely to start production in March 2013. But before OVL acquires the stake, it needs approvals from the Kazakhstan government, including thepre-emption rights of the Kazakh government and other shareholders. The consortium partners include global oil majors Eni, Total, Royal Dutch Shell, ExxonMobil and KazMunayGaz (Kazakhstan’s state-owned oil firm), each with a 16.81 per cent participating interest, while Japan’s Inpex has 7.56 per cent. The partners have 60 days to exercise their pre-emption rights. Once approved, it is expected to add 1 million tonnes (mt) of oil annually to OVL’s annual production of 6.75 mt (2010-11). Says an official in the petroleum ministry on condition of anonymity: “The future of the Kashagan field is good. The delays it had faced are behind it. OVL will be part of the expansion of the field.” OVL’s investment will be funded from internal resources. That is mainly on account of ONGC having a cash and cash equivalent to the tune of Rs 20,914 crore as on 30 September this year. In a media release, Don Wallette, executive vice-president, commercial, business development and corporate planning at ConocoPhillips, said: “The sale of this quality asset is an important component of our ongoing strategic asset disposition program. We are pleased that ONGC Videsh recognises the value of this asset.” As on 30 September, the carrying value of the assets related to ConocoPhillips’ interest in Kashagan was approximately $5.5 billion. The proposed investment in Kazakhstan is almost double the investment that OVL has made in Sudan since 2003. In a written reply in the Rajya Sabha, minister of state for petroleum and natural gas Panabaka Lakshmi said that the total planned expenditure in various OVL projects in undivided Sudan till September this year was close to $2.6 billion. The Kashagan acquisition is important for OVL, which has been facing rising problems in Sudan ever since the country’s partition. Production was temporarily stopped in Sudan for 20 days in April this year because of the border conflict between Sudan and South Sudan. Whether this acquisition of the stake in ConocoPhillips is the right decision for OVL or not — considering the state-owned firm saw production fall at Imperial Energy in Russia, which it had acquired for $2.1 billion in 2009 — only time will tell.(This story was published in Businessworld Issue Dated 10-12-2012)
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If you are looking for a getaway in the Himalayan state of Uttarakhand, chances are that you may not take note of Berinag, a sleepy hill station, located about 102 km from Pithoragarh, the eponymous district headquarter town. But if you are from the renewable energy sector, you may perhaps already be aware of both Berinag and Pithoragarh, thanks to Rajnish Jain and his Avani Bio Energy, which has developed the technology for producing electricity from pine needles, a biomass that is not just abundantly available in the state but also wreaks great devastation there because of its tendency to catch fire easily. Today, a 9 kilowatt power plant fuelled by pine needles is in operation at the Avani campus at Berinag; the campus is not yet connected to the grid. The plant serves the captive needs of a textile unit run by the organisation, mainly running heat rollers, welding machines and a small mechanical workshop. “We have applied for a patent on the technology which is pending,” says Jain, 52, and an MBA. In January, Jain will join the ranks of renewable energy entrepreneurs in the country such as Gyanesh Pandey of Husk Power Systems (HPS) when Avani will commission a 120 kilowatt plant connected to the grid in the district. HPS uses rice husk to fire small power plants in north Bihar villages that are not yet connected to the grid (BW tracked the journey of Pandey and HPS so far in its story The Rice Husk Power Experiment in its 14 May 2012 issue). Avani Bio Energy has already signed a power purchase agreement (PPA) with the Uttarakhand Power Corporation (UPCL) at a base price of Rs 3.70 a unit. The PPA stands valid for 20 years. To start with, Jain and his wife Rashmi did not start Avani, a not-for-profit organisation, with the intention of providing electricity to villages in Pithoragarh. Unlike most of Bihar, villages in Uttarakhand, on average, get 12 hours of electricity from the grid now.“We realised that pine needles were a big problem in this area as they cause a lot of fires. We stared exploring what we could do, looking at technologies which could harness the destructive energy,” says Jain, adding, “the initial idea was to use it for thermal energy (heating).”In fact, Avani had begun operations by providing solar power systems (water heaters, lighting, driers) to villages which had very low grid connectivity then. Over the years, as more and more villages got connected to the grid, solar power systems are now used as a supplementary energy source. As of 2011-12, the state had a power deficit of just 305 million units (2.9 per cent) against a requirement of 10,513 million units.The not-for-profit organisation also set up a textile unit to provide livelihood to women by making contemporary products using their traditional weaving styles. For this purpose, it brought in new colours, dyes, technology and design. The finished products are now marketed in other states of India and even abroad.Jain’s preoccupation with pine needles came much later. He recalls meeting a couple of people who were trying to find some use for pine needles. “They were making charcoal from pine needles and briquetting it for use as cooking fuel but were using soil as a binder. It wasn’t a very practical solution,” he says. It was at a conference on renewable energy, where someone spoke about using pine needles as a feedstock for gasifiers, that Jain got his inspiration for his current mission. But that was more than four years ago. It has been an arduous journey since.The search for a workable solution to run a gasifier on pine needles took him to many more conferences on biomass technologies and research institutes, without much success. Jain recalls asking at a conference attended by representatives of Ankur Scientific, an organisation which had been working on the same lines: “My first question was how to run a gasifier on pine needles after which they asked me to send a sample and promised to call back. After not receiving any word from them for a month I called back. The representative told me that he hadn’t called me as he didn’t want to discourage me,” says Jain. Speaking to the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore had proved equally unproductive. IN HARM’S WAY: Pine needles are a trigger for forest fires in UttarakhandWhile pine needles have a calorific value as high as the best quality wood, their low density makes it difficult to use them as a source of energy. Determined to come up with a solution, Jain began looking for ways to increase their density. “One day, I sat with a flour grinder and started grinding. After labouring for two hours, I had a kilo of ground pine needles with increased density,” says Jain.Today, the power plant on the Avani campus uses pine needles in gasifiers after cutting them into fine pieces. It requires 1.2 kg of pine needles to generate one unit of electricity. The Avani innovation has won many business competitions, including Mahindra Rise where it was voted the second best idea. The initial seed capital requirement was met through an investment of Rs 6-7 lakh by Volkart, a Swiss foundation. break-page-breakLooking For ScaleJain, like others in the biomass energy space, is a lone man battling odds. A lot of lip service is paid to the biomass energy sector but very few individuals or state governments actually venture into it. Despite its huge forest cover, Uttarakhand has zero electricity coming from biomass-based projects. “At present, we have no biomass-based projects and most of our renewable energy comprises of small hydroelectric power units,” says an official of the Uttarakhand Power Corporation (UPCL). Of late, however, efforts are being made to promote the use of biomass energy by the Centre. These include the establishment of the renewable compliance market, which requires distribution companies to increase the share of renewables in the energy mix. “I am not venturing into other states as yet. Uttarakhand alone has a potential for up to 350 MW. For now, I am completely focused on getting my 120 kilowatt unit off the ground,” says Jain. He expects to break even in the next seven years.Uttarakhand is one of the states that allows wheeling of electricity which makes it possible for power producers to sell their power directly to big industries like steel and cement. UPCL is bound to purchase 5 per cent of its total electricity consumption from renewable energy-based projects under the renewable purchase obligation (RPO). “We are right now falling short of 100 million units of our RPO. With the commissioning of the Avani power plant, we hope to bridge some part of this gap,” says the UPCL official.Avani Bio Energy plans to set up three more power plants in 2013 after commissioning the first in January. By 2016, it plans to have 20 plants — four in 2014, and six each in 2015 and 2016. Jain hopes to bag PPAs for future projects in the state as well. Should biomass-based power projects be feeding the grid than handling distribution themselves, as is the case with Pandey in Bihar? “Feeding the grid is easier in the sense that management pressure is much less. It is more predictable. It can even be less expensive compared to the situation where the grid has to be set up to distribute electricity. However, the downsides are that the rates offered by the state electricity boards are fairly limited and not very lucrative,” argues Pandey. Jain seems to have factored in the low rates as the PPA gives him “the right to ask for a revision in the price in case of an increase in our costs”. Does Uttarakhand have enough raw material to meet the expansion planned by Avani Bio Energy? The state has around 3.43 lakh hectares of pine forests and they produce about 20.58 lakh tonnes of dry biomass annually.Avani’s land is just enough to meet the requirements of its 9 kilowatt plant. For future requirements, Jain has already signed an agreement to use pine needles from the community forest land and is in the process of signing a similar agreement with the state forest department. The authorities charge a minimum of Rs 20 per tonne. “The forest department actually encourages the use of pine needles by the villagers in order to mitigate the destruction caused by pine needles,” says Jain.Although pine trees shed needles only for four months in a year, they are enough to meet the requirements for the whole year, as the extra litter can be stored for use during the rest of the year.“Every village has enough pine needles to run a 100-200 kilowatt power plant. This one plant can provide power to almost 1,200 rural families, or up to 10-12 villages. Also, the per capita consumption is quite low (about 100 watts) in hilly areas as they only use power for lighting purposes,” says Jain. Avani Bio Energy is also taking care of last-mile connectivity. It is laying lines to connect its power stations with a substation 3 km away so that there are no interruptions in supply. “We are looking at creating a bundle of 5-6 plants with the same supply line so that we don’t suffer any cost overruns,” says Jain. Avani also employs local people to collect pine needles and pays them Re 1 for every kg. This helps in providing livelihood to the locals, in keeping with the company’s social agenda.Funding? No ProblemJain is sure of finding enough funds to meet his expansion plans. Acumen Fund has provided $250,000 as the first round of funding. Additionally, Rs 35 lakh has come from winning various business competitions. Avani will look at raising another round of funding in late 2013. The capital required for setting up the next four plants of 100-120 kilowatt each will be around Rs 4 crore.Avani Bio Energy was incorporated as a for-profit organisation last year. “We needed to go commercial in order to scale up as it wouldn’t have been possible to raise the funds through a not-for-profit organisation,” says Jain.“We will be looking at various sources of funding. Part of the funding will also come in the form of subsidy from the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy. We have already received a letter of comfort from the government and have asked for a Letter of Intent. There is also a strong possibility that we will approach banks for part-funding given that we have all the necessary papers — PPA, LoI, etc.,” says Jain.Jain believes a good scalable plan is the key to raising funds. Pandey, however, disagrees. “It’s not always enough to have a scalable plan to land good funding. People care more about the capability to execute and this is what the biggest challenge is. The ecosystem is still in a rather formative stage and, hence, there is rather limited availability of manpower, technology providers, etc.,” he says.It does not seem as if such issues will worry Jain much. After all, he came to Kumaon in search of a meaningful life. “I did not move to Kumaon to be a social do-gooder; my wife and I did that for a very selfish reason — to have a meaningful life for ourselves,” says Jain, who hails from Haryana and spent three years at the Osho Ashram in Pune before setting off for Uttarakhand some 16 years ago.“I was always trying to balance between having a regular life with a well-paying job and leading a more meaningful life. At last, my basic instinct won and the time I spent at the ashram further steeled my resolve to do that,” says Jain, who chose to settle down in Kumaon because it was part of Uttar Pradesh then, and other hilly states did not allow outsiders to buy land.chhavi(dot)tyagi)at)abp(dot)in(This story was published in Businessworld Issue Dated 10-12-20)
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Petronet LNG — majority owned by Government of India — is one company that is perhaps closely watching the court case between the Ambani brothers over the supply of Krishna-Godavari Basin gas. The availability of natural gas from the KG Basin at lower prices can have an adverse impact on Petronet's business. But Petronet's management is not fretting yet. "It is a supply-based demand for gas in India," says P. Dasgupta, managing director and CEO of Petronet, hinting that there is space for all to operate. "We are happy being the third or fourth supplier in the country," he says. India's gas demand is set to increase from 180 million standard cubic metres per day (mmscmd) in FY08 to 280 mmscmd by year 2011-12. While Reliance Industries (RIL) can add 80 mmscmd at full capacity, experts say, there will still be latent demand.Petronet sources LNG (liquefied natural gas) through a strategic tie-up with Qatar's RasGas and sells it to three intermediate buyers — Gail, Indian Oil and Bharat Petroleum Corporation — who in turn sell gas to the end users. The company, however, recently announced plans to become its own customer by diversifying into power generation. It plans to set up two 1,200-MW power plants at Dahej in Gujarat and Kochi. As per industry estimates, gas procured at $6 per mmbtu could help generate power at Rs 3.5 per unit. This is much higher than coal-based projects — anywhere from Rs 1.6-2.5 per unit. The price dynamics have changed since RIL's gas find at the KG Basin. "Domestic gas of Reliance could now be much cheaper than $8-plus per million metric British thermal unit (mmbtu) paid by LNG customers currently," says Ballabh Modani, analyst at Enam Securities. Also, a CLSA brokerage report indicates pre-tax delivery price of $6 per mmbtu in Maharashtra and Gujarat for RIL's gas. For Petronet, it could be $7.5 over the next two years (see ‘Rather Costly'). Experts say it is only a matter of time, before the gas buyers switch loyalties. For instance, Ratnagiri Gas and Power (erstwhile Dabhol) has started sourcing gas from RIL instead of Petronet for its Maharashtra plant. Petronet was supplying gas to them at $7.8 per mmbtu, but now with RIL supplying at $6.2 per mmbtu, they are saving 35-40 paise per unit of power generated. RIL itself buys gas from Petronet at spot prices, but that is likely to stop once RIL scales up production. But there are other serious issues that are taking a toll on Petronet's margins. Escalating gas procurement cost and lack of long-term supplier and buyer contracts. The company is also in expansion mode. "Our long-term concern is that Petronet may find it difficult to sell long-term contract volumes as linkage of its LNG price to oil rises," says an analyst with a foreign brokerage house. Till December 2008, RasGas supplied gas to the company at a fixed rate — based on $20 per barrel pricing. But from this year, the prices will get increasingly aligned to market prices of oil — it hit $80 per barrel levels recently. "For the September 2009 quarter, average LNG procurement cost per unit (trillion British thermal unit, or tBtu) for Petronet increased by 43 per cent year-on-year (y-o-y) primarily because of the rise in the cost of contracted gas (owing to its linkage with Japanese cocktail crude prices) and rupee depreciation," says Deepak Pareek, an analyst at Angel Broking.A calculation by another brokerage shows that at an oil price of $80 per barrel, freight on board (FOB) price of gas from Qatar could rise to $10 per mmbtu for Petronet's Dahej operations and up to $10.7 per mmbtu at Kochi, which will get gas from Gorgon, Australia. The landed prices may be even higher after taking into account shipping, customs and regasification charges touching $13 per mmbtu (for Kochi terminal). At these rates, Petronet will find it difficult to attract buyers.The company recently went for capacity expansion. It increased its LNG regasification capacity at Dahej from 6.5 mmtpa to 11.5 mmtpa. It also plans to come up with 2.5 mmtpa facility at Kochi, which could be extended to 5 mmtpa. RasGas currently supplies 5 mmtpa and will supply an additional 2.5 mmtpa from next year, according to a brokerage report. From the Gorgon project — it inked a deal recently — its Kochi terminal would get 1.5 mmtpa. But that would pour in only by 2014, while Kochi terminal would be operational by early 2012. The viability of new projects is hinged on its ability to get long-term customers and that is where the plot of getting into power generation fits in. For now, the firm is dabbling more in the spot market. "We could break even with our first 7.5 mmtpa of operations and rest we could play in the spot market," says Dasgupta. Higher cost of sourcing LNG and higher extent of spotting has hit its margin. Its operating profit margins contracted to 7.4 per cent in the September 2009 quarter compared to 11 per cent in the same period last year mainly due to negative marketing margin and increase in LNG cost (see ‘Margin Woes'). Analysts believe that with likely increase in gas supplies from the KG basin, selling high quantity of spot volumes will be an arduous task for Petronet. var intro = jQuery.trim(jQuery('#commenth4').text()) var page = jQuery.trim(jQuery('#storyPage').text()) if (page.indexOf(intro) < 0) { jQuery('#commenth4').attr('style', 'display:block;') } (This story was published in Businessworld Issue Dated 30-11-2009)
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India's infrastructure sector output grew 6.5 per cent in October from a year earlier, higher than a revised annual growth of 5 per cent in the previous month, government data showed on 30 November.The infrastructure output for eight sectors - coal, crude oil, oil refinery, natural gas, steel, cement, electricity and fertilisers - grew at 3.7 percent in the April-October period from 4.3 per cent a year earlier.The infrastructure sector accounts for 37.9 per cent of India's industrial output.(Agencies)
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Capital value expectations in India have turned positive for the first time in over a year, reflecting the first signs of recovery in the Indian commercial property market, says a survey by the UK-based Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS). The turnaround is relatively evenly spread across the three major sectors of commercial property — office, industrial and retail. Rental expectations, however, remained negative — rents are still expected to decline, though at a lower pace.India has done better than major economies such as the US, the UK and Japan, where capital value expectations for the fourth quarter of 2009 remain negative. Other signs of an ease in the downturn include an increase in occupier demand for the second consecutive quarter and at a faster pace than in the last quarter. On the supply side, new projects continued to shrink compared with three months ago, while available space has increased. Use of incentives such as rent-free periods increased at a slower pace in the third quarter.Also, the fall in the number of bidders for each property was slower. Transactions continued to fall as per the survey, but at a much slower pace than in the previous quarter. In fact, the net balance of respondents reporting a rise in investor purchases turned positive in the office sector.The survey showed that rental freefall was easing across global property markets. Hong Kong and Brazil showed sharper recoveries with rentals actually expected to rise in the fourth quarter. Capital values are also expected to rise in some emerging markets.The RICS Global Commercial Property Survey is a quarterly survey that tracks trends developing in commercial property investment and the occupier market; it is conducted across 10 major markets. var intro = jQuery.trim(jQuery('#commenth4').text()) var page = jQuery.trim(jQuery('#storyPage').text()) if (page.indexOf(intro) < 0) { jQuery('#commenth4').attr('style', 'display:block;') } (This story was published in Businessworld Issue Dated 16-11-2009)
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One more attempt has been made to track the not-so-transparent real estate market with the launch of the Real Estate Sensitivity Index (RESSEX) by Pankaj Kapoor-promoted property tracking firm Liases Foras. RESSEX will provide data through several verticals such as inventory (supply) index, sales-demand index, price index, which shows weighted average price against the unsold inventory, and business turnover index. The data will be collected in four survey months — June, September, December and March — which will be available in the updated index a month later. RESSEX promises to provide location-specific data across 400 locations in six cities covering as many as 10,000 projects. HDFC is supporting RESSEX to the extent it will help validate the data, says HDFC's joint managing director Renu Sud Karnad.This is not the first attempt at a realty index. The National Housing Bank already has a price-tracking index. However, most of the property data collection is done by broking firms such as CB Richard Ellis and Jones Lang LaSalle Meghraj. Being active realty players, the credibility of their reports is suspect.Notably, the main stakeholders, developers and builders, are not forthcoming in providing sales and pricing data; Mumbai-based builder Niranjan Hiranandani concedes that builders have not opened up their books. So, data collection will continue to be a problem. Another round of realty firms going public might increase the pressure to have transparency. var intro = jQuery.trim(jQuery('#commenth4').text()) var page = jQuery.trim(jQuery('#storyPage').text()) if (page.indexOf(intro) < 0) { jQuery('#commenth4').attr('style', 'display:block;') } (This story was published in Businessworld Issue Dated 30-11-2009)
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