By Haider Ali Khan Union Minister of Civil Aviation Ashok Gajapathi Raju on Friday (16 October) inaugurated International Civil Helicopters Conclave 2015. The minister asked all stakeholders to come up with new ideas to give a boost to the civil aviation sector as a whole, and the helicopter industry in particular. Raju also launched the corporate logo of Pawan Hans Limited and released a coffee table book on the occasion. The conclave marks the 30th anniversary of Pawan Hans Limited. He said, "A new civil aviation policy is in the process of being drafted. Once it is ready, response and comments of stakeholders will be sought, so that a vibrant and forward looking policy can be put in place. We should put policies in place so that flying becomes affordable and reaches the masses." Speaking on the occasion, Minister of State for Civil Aviation, Culture and Tourism Mahesh Sharma stressed upon the need to increase helicopter services to the north eastern and hilly areas of the country where road connectivity is a major problem. He talked about the need to create Helihubs in Delhi and Guwahati to facilitate smooth navigation of helicopters. "The helicopter sector needs touch light regulations. The new civil aviation policy, including the policies of DGCA will have such light touch regulations without compromising with overall safety requirements," said, R N Choubey, Secretary Civil Aviation. He said that regional connectivity and religious tourism using helicopters will be given a major push under the new policy. He said that efforts are on to work out fiscal initiatives for the sector with the Ministry of Finance. He also informed that GAGAN satellite assisted navigation systems which provide one metre resolution even in unregulated air-space will be used for efficient monitoring and tracking of helicopter movement.
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The Narendra Modi-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government is likely to issue Swachh Bharat bonds and levy cess on petrol, diesel and telecom services as well as accumulated waste to fund Swachh Bharat Abhiyan.
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The 'Make in India' initiative of the Narendra Modi-led NDA government will get a big push if the changes suggested to the Defence Procurement Procedures by the expert committee are accepted and implemented. These include key suggestions to the changes in the Offset Policy. The likely outcome: over 6000 MSMEs, nine defence PSUs and around 40 ordinance factories will get the benefit of these changes. Ashish Sinha reports. The recommendations are timely as the new defence procurement procedures 2015 has been pending for a long time. With defence production being a priority area for the central government, these recommendations will go a long way in firming up the DPP 2015, experts said. India, in the last five years has been the world’s top arms importer. India's share in arms import is 15 per cent of the global share of arms imports. India spends nearly half its capital acquisition budget on importing arms. The expert committee has made several suggestions including creating a strategic task force for developing a key partnership model with the private sector for the manufacture of aircrafts, warships, armoured vehicles etc in the country. The proposed task force will be entrusted to select an Indian strategic partner for the development of any specific platform. There will be stringent oversight mechanisms for reviewing and auditing the financial performance of all such platforms. Selected strategic partners will be allowed to develop only one platform. For example the strategic Indian partner selected to develop fighter aircrafts will only develop fighter aircrafts. The committee has identified six sectors in which strategic partners from the private sector can be selected to push the 'Make In India' initiative. These include Aircraft (fighters, transport, helicopter along with their operating systems), Armoured vehicles and their systems, warships including the submarines and their systems, complex weapons like guidance system based missiles with diverse usage including anti-ship, air defence, air-to-air, surface-to-air, air-to surface, etc. There is a proposal to allow the Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) to complete the project in a timeline of 10 years. However, considering the long gestation period of such projects, the government could extend the time period by two years, if required. Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO), testing and designing initiatives will be an integral part of the project obligations. Changes in Indian Offset partners will be allowed only if approved by the Secretary, Defence Production. Suggestions also include defining who is an Indian vendor and what will be the licensing norms, FDI guidelines etc applicable to the Indian Vendors. The committee has also recommended increasing the ratio of indigenous content in projects from current 30 per cent to 40 per cent if India is buying from overseas. However, if India buys and decides to manufacture defence-related equipment’s/hardware, then the indigenous content threshold will go up from existing 50 per cent to 60 per cent. The move is expected to give a boost to the local small and medium enterprises related to defence manufacturing. The Committee has also recommended the elimination of the inverted duty structure on inputs for defence items. It has also decided to recommend an extension of tax benefits to the defence sector that are currently provided to other core sectors like power, infrastructure etc. Considering the growing needs of the Indian defence forces and the dire need of world class products, India needs a comprehensive policy framework for defence procurement. Analysis of India's defence budget shows that around 36-40 per cent goes towards capital acquisitions or simply towards footing the import bill. In 2014-15, Indi's defence budget stood at Rs 2.22 lakh crore, virtually double of what it was a decade ago. Simultaneously, the capital acquisition budget has also double at a similar rate in the last 10 years standing today at around Rs 82,000 crore. But India needs more. ashish.sinha@businessworld.in
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By Haider Ali KhanThe Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) on Wednesday (14 October) approved a one time fund infusion for physically incomplete languishing national highway projects. "The NH projects where construction has been 50 per cent completed till November 2014 will be eligible for this one time financial assistance," Communications and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said after the cabinet meeting. "This will be a tripartite agreement between the funding agency, the NHAI and the builder," he added. CCEA, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, gave its approval for fund infusion to revive and complete languishing NH projects under the extension of provision available for BOT build-operate-transfer (Toll) projects to BOT (annuity) projects, an official statement said.The decision will allow provisions of the Policy Circular of NHAI issued in June this year on one-time fund infusion for BOT (Toll) projects to be extended and made applicable in case of languishing projects on BOT (Annuity) mode, it added. This infusion of fund would be a one-time dispensation for all such projects that have been languishing as on 1st November, 2014. AII such cases and the amount of bridge fund required in each case shall be approved by the authority, on a case to case basis. The highways sector is struggling to roll out stuck projects worth Rs 3.8 lakh crore but the developers in many cases are now shying away. Road Transport and Highways Secretary Vijay Chhibber has said last week that banks which have been "happily over- financing" road projects without necessary due-diligence were also to be blamed for this problem and there are nearly 70 projects that have got funding at escalated costs.
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Government is set to unveil an ambitious PAN activity monitoring and analysis software tool that will enable Income Tax department to check transactions history of a person country-wide and help sleuths in effective tracking of black money trail. The digital and smart platform is called the Income Tax Business Application-Permanent Account Number (ITBA-PAN) and is currently being put to final tests by a special team of tax sleuths and business software analysts at a facility in the national capital. The new software tool will enable the taxman to view, in a chronological order, the entire "PAN life cycle summary" or to simply say transactions history of an individual or entity where a PAN number has been quoted, in any part of the country. The project is expected to be activated by the end of this month by the Finance Ministry and will also enable the tax department and its two intermediary organisations--NSDL and UTIITSL-- to allocate a fresh PAN number and subsequently issue a new card in 48 hours flat as compared to the about 15 days time taken currently. The operationalisation of the project assumes significance as Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had recently said that the government is at an "advanced stage in considering the requirement of furnishing PAN card details if cash transactions beyond a certain limit are undertaken." The department, in order to enhance its capabilities to better track large value transactions in the country, has brought the ITBA-PAN portal and has for the same has also closed down its "legacy" and the existing Assessee Information System (AIS) early this month which till now used to hold the PAN database. The new platform, according to an official proposal accessed by PTI, will also allow the taxman to view and capture various events of an assessee like "death, liquidation, dissolution, de-merger, merger, acquisition, fake PAN or amalgamation of PAN" in a specific or general case in an event of any investigation to be carried out in a case of black money or tax evasion. "The ambitious project will be rolled out soon and the I-T department has already migrated all the PAN data last week from the old system to the new one. With this project going operational, PAN will become a unique identifying database in the real sense all across the country," a senior official said today.(PTI)
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Union Mines Secretary Balvender Kumar in an interview with BW|Businessworld's Suman K Jha, holds forth on the upcoming auction of various mineral blocks, and hopes that the iron ores mines would fetch a good amount: Excerpts: Various mineral producing states have identified 80-90 blocks that will be auctioned by November. The Centre is hand-holding the states. What’s the status of the auctions?Nearly 80 blocks in 8 to 9 states shave been identified. Currently they are under the process of differential GPS. Once that is finished, they will start work on documentation etc. and other steps required for auction. Hopefully by the second or third week of November, they will issue an NIT (notice for tender) for auction. Once that’s done, it will take another two to three months to complete the auctioning and other formalities. And the Centre is hand-holding the states…Where the states have demanded, we are carrying out the hand-holding exercise. Some states have asked us for survey. Spectrum auction and coal block auctions were huge hits. Will the coming mines auction be another such blockbuster?We can’t say at this moment. Some of the states are having iron ore mines like Karnataka. They are going to auction all the 15 mines of iron ores. Certainly that should fetch a good amount. For other states, it’s sort of a mixed bag. Many blocks are for limestone and other minerals. So, at this point, it’s difficult to assess and say about the potential of total auction amount. You talked about the Karnataka’s iron ore mines. What used to happen in places like Bellary will be a thing of the past?After so many court decisions and the Shah Commission, so many developments have taken place. I don’t think it would be possible now to revert to the pre-Jan 2015 situation in the district in the state. Why did the value of mineral production in India come down from Rs 285761 crore in 2012-13 to Rs 227000 crore in 2013-14?This is primarily because the prices of iron ores, aluminium, bauxite have fallen down in recent times in international market. The prices of primary metals like steel, aluminium, copper, zinc -- all have fallen. That must be the reason why the total value of the mineral production has come down in last one year. Do you have a target or figure – by this year we would be able to auction this value of minerals in the country?Right now exact details are not available with us or the states. Once the survey exercise is over, the states will come to know of the reserve prices. Once the reserve prices are known, we can say that this much money is expected through auctions. A report by Ernst and Young and the Federation of Indian Mineral Industries says that the government should complete exploration of mines before auctioning and the Geological Survey of India has been unable to complete the exploration for most minerals. What do you have to say on this?For the blocks that are going to be auctioned, the exploration exercise has been done. GSI or MSEN or in some cases state governments – they have carried out the exploration to the extent required. You are also floating global tenders for the aerial geographical survey of mineral rich states. What’s the status now?We want the primary survey for exploration should be completed in the next three to four years. So that after that a detailed exploration can be started wherever there’s a possibility. At present we are not too sure about the areas, though we know that these are the potential core areas for minerals, but exactly in which areas the minerals are located, we don’t have that much of an idea. So we feel that once this aerial geophysical and electromagnetic survey is carried out then detailed and regional exploration can be taken up. This will be for the first time that global tenders are being floated. Why did Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Gujarat say they would manage the mines on their own? How is the Centre coordinating with them?Some of the states are carrying out surveys themselves. Either they have engaged agencies/ outsourced surveys to agencies or their own staff is carrying out total station survey and differential GPS. Where they don’t have adequate manpower or technical expertise, there they have asked us to provide. In turn we have requested Mecon to depute some empanelled agencies. Gold mines too are being auctioned…Out of the 80 blocks that we’re are targeting, there are two-three blocks of gold. What about the Kolar gold mine?Kolar gold mine is closed. We are examining the matter and we will take some decision shortly. Any other latest development on this front?Mining tenement system. We have floated RFP (request for proposals). We expect the vendor to be finalized in the next one and a half months. Under this MTS from one end to another, all the processes and all the steps would be computerized and automated. Some states have taken some steps in this like Odisha. The state has automated its system. We want to have all-India automated, computerized application system.
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Arshad KhanIn a bid to strengthen Indo-Germanic ties following German Chancellor Angela Merkel's visit, the central government on Tuesday (October 6) decided to reintroduce German as an additional language in Kendriya Vidyalayas. A controversy had erupted around a year ago when HRD Minister Smriti Irani had decided to scrap German in favour of Sanskrit as the third language to be taught in KVs. A MoU has been signed under which German will be taught in Kendriya Vidyalayas as an additional foreign language while modern Indian languages will be taught in Germany. The new understanding is an exodus for the earlier agreement inked during UPA-II reign in 2011 which proposed German as a third language across 500 KVs. The flip flop in policy (and curriculum) is sure to affect 70,000 students in KVs who were told to embrace Sanskrit over German. The latest decision is sure to confuse them as to which language to pursue or laden them with the burden of an additional subject. A KV student says, “I haven’t learnt much about the changes. One thing I know is that government should not interfere in our curriculum. Moreover, it has been difficult for us to be taught by the same book in three different standards.” It was decided that students of Std VI, VII and VIII will have the same syllabus in KVs. Another student from the same school says, “We will face difficulty if they decide to introduce German in schools immediately. Given a chance I will prefer German over Sanskrit because it will give me opportunity to work in Germany.” However, a teacher associated with one of the many Kendriya Vidyalayas across the country says that they will wait for a formal notification from the government before adopting any change in their curriculum. The new pact under which German will be taught as an additional language across all KVs and modern Indian languages will be taught in Germany is to be signed between the Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan (KVS) and the Max Mueller Bhavan which the government feels would be a fresh start to the teaching of German as an additional subject. For CBSE schools, the changes in policy will not make much difference. Most privately run 'un- aided' schools under CBSE didn't change their curriculum and continued with German as a language option. In fact, the largest private school chain in India also did not discontinue German after the controversy created by the HRD ministry last year. "Our school did and continues to offer German classes to students. So this flip flop in policy will not impact our students", say a high school teacher of a private CBSE school in New Delhi.
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By Haider Ali Khan Cautioning that era of tax avoidance is over, CBDT chairperson Anita Kapur on Thursday (08 October) said that action would be taken against those who try to organise businesses with a view to minimise liability. Addressing CII's global tax summit, Kapur also said that the CBDT will focus on greater facilitation of the taxpayer and simplification of tax laws to alleviate confusion and clarify interpretation. "The era of tax avoidance, am not talking about evasion, in the garb of minimising taxes, is over. And I am very sure that people who are still bent upon organising their businesses in a manner that use all kinds of tools to avoid taxes, are going to be outliers in the system," she said. She highlighted the partnership between government and industry in enabling effective tax collection. Currently, the government is of the view that reduction in tax rates leaves more money in the hands of businesses, which leads to increased economic activity and this in turn leads to increased tax collection. According to a study, people avoid paying taxes as they believe the tax law is complex and the tax department does not facilitate tax compliance, she said. As announced by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in his Budget speech, the CBDT is contemplating reduction in the tax rates and removal of exemptions, in order to simplify taxes. She said that too many incentives tend to distort the law and leads to excessive litigation. The government has set up the High Level Committee headed by Dr Ashok Lahiri which invites issues from the industry to be taken up for departmental view. She said that easier compliance is being facilitated to all taxpaying segments; small and medium enterprises, large Indian corporate as well as multi-nationals. The challenge for facilitating the MNCs is particularly great, as they are used to operating in some of the best tax environments. V S Sirpurkar, chairman, Authority for Advance Rulings (Income Tax, Customs and Excise and Service Tax), Ministry of Finance, stressed that there is a need to educate the masses to take up tax responsibility and create better infrastructure that would enable faster disposal of cases and a reduction in pendency. Sunil Kant Munjal, chairman, Hero Corporate Services Limited, reiterated the fact that India has the potential of becoming the largest economy in the world. He welcomed the positive steps taken by the government towards simplification of the tax system.
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Beef has emerged as the second largest product exported from India after rice, in the past one year. Can India do without it? Arshad Khan asks Last year, when Narendra Modi was campaigning for the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, addressing a rally in Bihar he had said: “This country wants a Green Revolution. But now those at the Centre (the then UPA) want a 'Pink Revolution'. Do you know what it means? When animals are slaughtered, the colour of their flesh is pink. Animals are being slaughtered and being taken to Bangladesh. The government is giving subsidies to those who are carrying out this slaughter.” After coming to power, Mr Modi understood the economies attached with the beef export, letting the pink revolution bloom more than ever. India has been the largest exporter of beef in the world since last year. According to the latest data issued by the US Department of Agriculture, India is expected to export 2.4 million tonnes of beef in 2015 which will account for a whopping 23.3 per cent of the world's beef production. Read Also: Beefing Up Some TroubleBetween April-November 2014, the sale of bovine meat and meat products was worth $3.3 billion compared to $2.8 billion in the same period the previous year, registering a 16.7 per cent increase. Beef has emerged as the second largest product exported from India after rice, in the past one year. Reports say that the bovine exports are valued at around Rs 29,000 crore and banning it would be a big set-back for the economy which no government can afford. Going by the data, it seems India is in no position to ban money spinning around beef export. Exports that are purely “Made In India”. Little surprise that the top meat exporters of the country, mainly from the Capital have already appealed before the Prime Minister’s Office, to reconsider the ban. Another reason why the government will keep mum over the issue is the earnings that the sale of ox, cows and buffaloes provide to the drought hit farmers. For instance, the average value of a live animal lies anywhere between Rs 50,000 and Rs 1,00,000 and as they age their value continues to depreciate. A report tells that on an average a farmer earns Rs 30,000 to 50,000 when he sells his cattle to slaughter houses. Not to forget the little but significant earnings from milch cows. A complete ban will not only impact small farmers' fortunes but will also leave them pennilessness. Not to forget that with its high protein content, in some parts of poverty stricken India, beef is the main source of nutrition. The lack of facility and space to dispose off 20 to 30 million animals per year will be an expensive affair for the government. If not properly done, the deceased animals can cause disease and trigger health epidemics. The actions taken by the BJP government too justifies that it wants the profitable business to bring more revenues. As per a media report, the BJP government continued giving a grant of Rs 15 crore for the construction of new slaughter houses and renovation or modernisation of the existing ones. A ban on bovine slaughter completely contradicts this move by the Government. As per the ministry of Food Processing, till March 31, 2014, India had 1,623 registered slaughterhouses in the country. The top five states being Maharashtra with 316 slaughter, followed by Uttar Pradesh - 285, Andhra Pradesh - 183, Tamil Nadu - 130 and Karnataka - 96. As per the Department of Animal Husbandry, Dairying and Fisheries of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Ministry, here is the list of the states and Union Territories with the laws relating to cow slaughter. Prohibition on cow slaughterThe slaughtering of cow is completely prohibited in the states and UTs of Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Delhi, Gujarat, Jammu & Kashmir, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Orissa, Pondicherry, Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh as per their individual laws. Permission to slaughter animalsAny category of animal can be slaughtered in West Bengal, Kerala, Goa, Assam and Daman & Diu and the north-eastern states if they are given a 'fit-for-slaughter' certificate according to the laws of respective states and Union Territories.
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Mala BhargavaIndia is in the headlines. Not because the world is marveling at its economy that should by all rights have been growing on steroids, but because most of the country is squabbling over a cow. May her soul rest in peace, of course. The much-admired German chancellor, Angela Merkel will have arrived on Indian shores only to find leaders deeply embroiled in important bovine matters. She will also surely have smelt a bit of Kristalnacht in the air and wondered whether the Third Reich was back, having been successfully overcome by her own country. It has taken an age to get the world to understand that India is not that country where people live up in tree houses while snake charmers, elephants and of course cows roam the streets. Well, cows do roam the streets but that would only be to fill their malnourished stomachs with whatever garbage has been left over after the Swachch Bharat workers have done their bit. Luckily for the cows, that’s still quite a lot. Right now, quite a number of Indians would gladly trade in their entire political establishment for a nice juicy steak, so absurd has become the preoccupation over cow slaughter and consumption of beef. The flash point was of course the lynching of a poor old man who it is rumoured had stored cow meat in his house in Dadri village in Uttar Pradash and furthermore gone so far as to eat it. The least of India’s problems, cow slaughter is not illegal in all states in the country but the self-appointed guardians of Hinduism – or supporters of Hindu political parties, it is widely believed – have kept the pot boiling, having lit the fire. In the Dadri village, everyone has unanimously had it with politicians and Hindu firebrands and have asked for them to be kept out and leave the residents in peace. But it isn’t just in Dadri village that the tension has been simmering. All over the country, there’s been little talk of anything else with everyone aware that if it hadn’t been about beef, it would have been something else that is dividing people and spreading hate, fear and intolerance. It’s simmered to such an extent that the President has made what is seen as a reference to the murder of a man over his dinner when he asked Indians to not lose sight of the core values that make India the surviving and thriving civilization that it is. “We can’t allow core values of our civilization to be wasted,” said President Pranab Mukherjee, “The core values are that civilization has celebrated diversity, promoted and advocated tolerance, endurance and plurality.” Tolerance may, however, be about to take a bigger hit. While revering its cows, India has also been a large exporter of beef. Whether that’s cow meat or buffalo, is the tricky question. In Mathura, also in UP and the land of the god Krishna because of whom cows are considered holy in the first place, a beef testing lab received the sample of meat found at Mohammad Akhlaq’s house in Dadri, the reason he was killed. The lab however has made no report public and waits, perhaps for political nstructions. There will soon be other beef testing labs. The agriculture ministry has said that such labs will be set up in Mumbai at the ports to make sure no beef – cow beef, that is – escapes the shores as export. Perhaps those rendered jobless in the meat industry – abattoirs, packagers, tanneries and ore – will find new jobs in beef testing.
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