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Policy & Economy News |
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India's digital infrastructure seen reviving economy India's growth trajectory holds immense potential for global stakeholders: Sinha |
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Business News - The India Boom Factor |
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Sugar exports up Coal import up India's exports seeing more of high-value products |
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Shipping News |
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Concor will expand coastal shipping service to Bangladesh: CMD |
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Logistics News |
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CONCOR registers impressive performance in 2018-19 Flipkart may invest Rs 5,000 cr (Rs.50 billion) in logistics parks, generate 50,000 jobs |
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Indian Port News |
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VOC Port Trust plans third Container Terminal VPT achieves a green turnaround India's Mumbai Port expects 150 international cruise vessels to call this year |
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Policy & Economy News |
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India's digital infrastructure seen reviving economy Exim News Service - Bengaluru, April 23 Top |
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Mr Nandan Nilekani, Co-founder and Chairman of Infosys Technologies, has said that India's digital infrastructure will play a major role in reviving the economy. He was addressing FICCI members at the National Executive Committee Meeting on 'Digital India and its Impact on Economy and Industry' here on Monday. He said that the country has witnessed dramatic transformation through Aadhaar-based e-KYC and online payments, adding that India's digital data architecture will set the tone for business revival. "Once data becomes the basis for decision-making in many sectors, you will see a big change," said Mr Nilekani. "World over, data is becoming central to people and government. Data empowerment architecture in India will benefit all segments of the economy," he said. Mr Nilekani emphasised that Aadhaar e-KYC has been revolutionary in making life simpler for people and India now has the infrastructure to deal with direct benefits transfers (DBT) in any segment, adding that DBT can revive the power sector. He also said that Goods and Services Tax (GST) has increased the number of taxpayers. "GSTN is a great example of technology-led cooperative federalism," he said, and added that RFID tags linked to bank accounts is another big reform. Earlier, addressing a session on 'India's Growing Bio Economy', Ms Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, Chairperson, Biocon Ltd, said that the country's bio-economy sector is set to reach $ 200 billion by 2030. "Bio-economy is a crucial segment of our economy and the new government must focus on this in a big way," she said. Pointing out that in India, investment in research and development is less than 1 per cent of GDP, Ms Shaw said, "we must invest at least 2 per cent of our GDP in science, technology and research", as per a release. |
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India's growth trajectory holds immense potential for global stakeholders: Sinha Press Trust of India -United Nations, April 22 Top |
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India's growth trajectory holds immense potential for global stakeholders to establish energy, infrastructure and technology collaboration with the country, a UN forum here has been told. Counsellor in India's Permanent Mission to the UN Ashish Sinha stressed on Wednesday at the ECOSOC Forum on Financing for Development Follow Up that India wanted to use growth as a mechanism to pull the maximum number of people out of poverty and improve quality of life in an inclusive manner. "India has retained its position as the world's fastest growing major economy. Indian economy has been growing over 7 per cent for several years and the forecast for the future is equally robust," he said. Sinha noted that India improved its ranking by 23 positions in the World Bank's Ease of Doing Business rankings last year. India improved its ranking on the World Bank's 'ease of doing business' report for the second straight year, jumping 23 places to the 77th position on the back of reforms related to insolvency, taxation and other areas. "India's growth trajectory holds immense potential for our global stakeholders to establish energy, natural resource, and infrastructure and technology collaboration with us," Sinha said. The current global economic outlook also reiterates the need for the promotion of policies for enhancing economic growth and growth inducing investments, he said. Earlier this month, the World Bank said India's GDP growth was expected to accelerate moderately to 7.5 per cent in fiscal year 19-20, driven by continued investment strengthening, particularly private-improved export performance and resilient consumption. "The objective is to bank the unbanked, secure the unsecured, fund the unfunded and service the un-serviced areas," Sinha said. Noting that India has taken strong initiatives for financial inclusion, he said in the the past three years, the government has opened over 320 million bank accounts for those who never had an account. "We have leveraged these bank accounts with the power of a biometric identity system and mobile phones, to deliver subsidies and services to the deserving poor," he said, adding that 1.6 million people have benefited from the recently launched cashless health insurance scheme called 'Ayushman Bharat' in the first four months of its launch. India is also the sixth largest producer of renewable energy in the world and Indian solar power capacity will grow robustly at an annual average rate of 15.3 per cent to reach 105.9 GW by 2028, up from 26 GW in 2018, he said. Sinha noted that research and innovation would be the driving force in the 4th industrial revolution era. The Indian government has introduced the flagship programme Start-up India with 1.4 billion dollars fund for four years to create a startup ecosystem in India. The effort of the government has also been to maximise resources with lowering of the tax rate by following the theory of lower taxation, higher compliance, he said. "However, we fully acknowledge the role of international cooperation on tax matters in a globalised and digital economy. In this regard, to further strengthen the work of the UN Tax Committee, India continued its contribution to its Voluntary Trust Fund for the Tax Committee for the second consecutive year in 2018," Sinha said. Stepping up our cooperation with the fellow developing countries here at the United Nations, India established the India-UN Development Partnership Fund that supports Southern-owned and led, demand-driven, and transformational sustainable development projects. A sum of USD 150 million has been committed for the next decade focusing on developmental projects in Least Developed Countries and Small Island Developing States. The Fund already has projects in 39 countries. Sinha said the world finds itself at a critical moment which calls for an action-oriented resolve in an increasingly complex inter-dependent world. "The 2030 Agenda, Paris Agreement and Addis Ababa Action Agenda have been remarkable acknowledgements of these interlinked challenges, and our collective responsibility to overcome these with collective action at the international level," he said. |
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Business News - The India Boom Factor |
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Sugar exports up
Exim News Service - Mumbai, April 21 Top |
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The country's sugar mills have contracted to export 27 lakh tonnes of the sweetener, Mr Praful Vithalani, President of All India Sugar Trade Association, has said, adding that sugar exports have risen three times over the previous year from October to April. This includes 8 lakh tonnes of raw sugar, according to market reports. Although this may seem only 50 per cent of the quota allotted by the Centre, exports have gone up three times as compared to the same period of the previous year, he said. The Centre had allocated a quota of 50 lakh tonnes from October 2018 to April 2019. Of this, 17 lakh tonnes has been already shipped to destinations, including Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Somalia, Iran and Sudan, Mr Vithalani added, as per reports. |
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Coal import up
Exim News Service - New Delhi, April 22 Top |
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Provisional data by mjunction services shows that India's coal import increased by 8.8 per cent from 214.61 million tonnes (MT) in 2017-18 to 233.56 MT in 2018-19. India's coal and coke imports during 2018-19, through 31 major and non-major ports, are estimated to have increased by 8.83 per cent to 233.56 MT (provisional) as compared to 214.61 MT (revised) imported in 2017-18, it said. Non-coking coal imports were at 164.21 MT in 2018-19, about 13.25 per cent more than the 144.99 MT recorded in 2017-18. Coking coal import was almost flat at 47.73 MT compared to 47.22 MT in 2017-18, reports added. mjunction, a joint venture between Tata Steel and SAIL, is a B2B e-commerce company that also publishes research reports on coal and steel verticals. |
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India's exports seeing more of high-value products
Exim News Service - Mumbai, April 23 Top |
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There appears to be a discernible shift in India's export basket to high-value products, according to the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) recent bi-monthly monetary policy statement for 2018-19. It emphasises that there is a definite trend of the country's exports moving away from primary and traditional low value-added exports to higher value-added manufacturing and technology-driven items. Comparing key export items during the 2011-12 to 2018-19 period, the statement points out that there has been a significant increase in the shares of chemical and related products and engineering goods. It adds that such a shift has imparted a measure of resilience to export demand in a hostile international trading environment, reports said. |
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Shipping News |
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Concor will expand coastal shipping service to Bangladesh: CMD
India Seatrade News - April 27 Top |
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Container Corporation of India (Concor) will open 20 distribution logistics centres with a combined warehousing space of about 50 million square feet in five years and expand its recently started coastal shipping service to cover India's east coast and also Bangladesh, its Chairman and Managing Director V Kalyana Rama said. State-run Concor flagged off its coastal shipping service in January linking Deendayal Port Trust in Kandla with V O Chidambaranar Port Trust in Tuticorin with stops at New Mangalore Port Trust and Cochin Port Trust by a weekly call deploying two 700-TEU capacity ships. The Navratna PSU opened its first distribution logistics centre in Chennai on March 31. "We have completed just 10 voyages since staring the coastal shipping service in January, but we are already having more than 80 per cent occupancy. Very soon, the two 700-TEU capacity ships will run full. We will expand our service into the east coast and connect Bangladesh as well," Kalyana Rama told. Earlier this year, the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) permitted Indian-flag vessels to make calls en-route at Sri Lankan and Bangladeshi ports during their export-import (EXIM) and domestic services. The move will help fleet owners make optimum use of their space, cut transportation costs and boost modal shift of cargo from road and rail to sea. Discount scheme: Kalyana Rama said Concor has decided to extend the volume discount scheme offered to shipping lines to five years, from the existing one year, and will count the volumes offered by the lines for coastal shipping for the purpose of working out the volume discount. "We are ready to extend the volume discount agreement for five years so that every year we need not keep negotiating with the shipping lines. It will also help build a stable relationship between the two parties to grow business. Besides, the loaded volumes given by shipping lines will be counted for the purpose of volume discount which we are now giving on an annual basis. So, along with the rail volumes given by shipping lines, the coastal shipping volumes will also be taken for counting volume discount. It will be beneficial for the lines to give us transhipment containers as the highest discount offered under the volume discount scheme is 3.5 per cent of gross freight which is a big margin in logistics. This is an incentive we would like to offer to shipping lines," Kalyana Rama said. "The volume discount is only for export-import (EXIM) transhipment containers not on coastal domestic containers. It is for EXIM containers which will be unloaded from mother vessels at some ports and have to be transhipped to smaller ports. If there are more volumes, we don't mind calling at other ports en-route our service; these things can be planned," he said. Concor has identified 20 locations for setting up distribution logistics centres - a vertical integration of its core business. "We will be developing around 50 million sq ft of warehousing in 4-5 years at these distribution logistics centres which will be structured on a public-private-partnership model for 30 years, wherein the business partner come and work with us. The asset is his, the entire operations will be looked after by them and we are providing the complete marketing and all other support including on service levels, planning etc," he said. For its first distribution logistics centre in Chennai, Concor has teamed up with D P World to exclusively use its three facilities that were originally developed by the NDR Group and was acquired by the Dubai-based firm last year. |
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Logistics News |
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CONCOR registers impressive performance in 2018-19
Exim News Service - Hyderabad, April 21 Top |
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The Container Corporation of India Ltd (CONCOR) posted an 8.5 per cent increase in throughput at 3.83 million TEUs in the financial year ended March 31, 2019 against 3.53 million TEUs in the previous financial year, taking the total tonnage of cargo handled up by 7.25 per cent at 46.25 million tonnes (43.12 million tonnes), said its Chairman and Managing Director, Mr V. Kalyana Rama, while interacting with the media here, as per reports. Cargo handled by rail went up 8.4 per cent to 43.32 million tonnes, the highest-ever in the history of the Corporation. There was a 30 per cent increase in double-stack trains from 2,303 to 3,000 trains in the year under review. Mr Kalyana Rama said, "We are doing well and will cross Rs 7,000 crore (Rs.70 billion) turnover in the year ended March 2019 and will also be a billion-dollar company," reports quoted. In 2017-18, CONCOR had registered a turnover of Rs 6,450 crore (RS.64.5 billion). He further announced that the Corporation was introducing fixed tariff for the entire financial year from April. He said, "We want to assure our customers that they can depend on us throughout the year without worrying for any hike in tariff in the middle of the year. This will drive our volumes further.'' Moreover, with its first distribution logistics node in Chennai commissioned recently, he announced, "Going forward, we will have 20 distributor nodes all over India with 50 million sq. ft of warehousing space." The total number of terminals will also be increased from the present 83 to over 100 in next three years, as per reports. It may be recalled that during the last fiscal, CONCOR had commissioned three terminals, at Bodhjungnagar (Tripura), Barhi (Haryana) and Krishnapatnam (Andhra Pradesh). It now has pan-India presence with 83 terminals. With diversification to coastal shipping, Mr Kalyana Rama also announced that CONCOR "will start inland waterways service as well". |
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Flipkart may invest Rs 5,000 cr (Rs.50 billion) in logistics parks, generate 50,000 jobs
Business Standard - Bengaluru, April 24 Top |
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Flipkart is acquiring 300 acres in Karnataka, Gurugram and West Bengal to set up logistics parks as the e-commerce major looks at tapping the next wave of e-commerce opportunity in the country. According to sources privy to this development, the Walmart-owned firm is likely to invest up to ~5,000 crore (Rs.50 billion) to set up these logistics parks, which are expected to generate about 50,000 direct and indirect jobs. These investments are expected to give an edge to Flipkart, which is locked in a fierce battle with Walmart's US rival Amazon to dominate the online retail market in India. "The Flipkart team is sourcing land privately in Bengaluru, and has identified four sites. In West Bengal, construction is expected to start soon," said a person, adding, "For Gurugram, land has already been identified for the purpose." The fully-integrated parks will include Flipkart warehouses, improve supply-chain efficiency, and reduce costs by deploying mechanised warehousing. They will act as freight aggregation and distribution hub, and leverage technology for intelligent transport systems. The Flipkart logistics parks will be built on the principle of sustainability to curb any wastage of valuable natural resources, sources added. On being asked, a spokesperson of Flipkart said on Tuesday that the infrastructure it is building across the country through these warehouses and logistics parks would help it in tapping the "next 200 million customers". Financial services firm Morgan Stanley estimates the Indian online retail market to touch $200 billion by 2028, from about $30 billion last year. The company also brushed aside rumours around the possible exit of Flipkart Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Kalyan Krishnamurthy, saying those are "completely baseless and inaccurate". Flipkart said Walmart President and CEO Doug McMillon, who was in India last week, also exuded strong faith in the leadership of Flipkart group companies. "I met with Kalyan (Krishnamurthy), Sameer (Nigam), and their leadership teams and was excited to see how the Flipkart, Myntra, and PhonePe teams are driving the industry with innovative solutions to serve its diverse and growing ecosystem," McMillon said in a statement. "There is tremendous progress and we are making a difference. Kalyan, Sameer, and their teams have our full support to continue executing the growth strategy for our e-commerce business in India," McMillon added. In May last year, Walmart paid a whopping $16 billion to acquire around 77 per cent stake in Flipkart, a transaction that valued the e-commerce firm at over $20 billion. According to Krishnamurthy, the Flipkart group has received tremendous support from the Walmart leadership. "There are many areas where we are already working together and learning from each other, and I only expect that to keep increasing - which is a great indicator of how the partnership is progressing," said Krishnamurthy. He said that it is an exciting time to be in Flipkart group, which is focused on delivering the next wave of e-commerce growth in India, supporting opportunity creation for consumers, small suppliers, infrastructure development, and innovation-backed by technology. "I am super committed to Flipkart and this partnership with Walmart. This is the coolest job in the country," said Krishnamurthy. |
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Indian Port News |
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VOC Port Trust plans third Container Terminal Daily Shipping Times - Tuticorin, April 26 Top |
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VO Chidambaranar (VOC) Port in Thoothukudi plans to have a third container terminal with current handling capacity set to reach its maximum by end of this fiscal at the two private terminals. However, the Port Trust is in a fix on identifying the right concession model to be offered to the new operator considering that two different models - royalty and revenue share - are already in vogue at the Port. PSA SICAL Container Terminal, which runs a container terminal since 1992, operates on a royalty-based model while the Dakshin Bharat Gateway Container Terminal (DBGT), operating since 2014, is on a revenue-sharing model. Together, the two terminals are expected to reach maximum capacity of 1.2 million TEUs (twenty foot equivalent units) by the end of this financial year, thus warranting a third terminal. The Port Trust plans to convert berth no. 9 as a container terminal with a handling capacity of 0.6 million TEUs. The tenth birth has also been identified for possible future container handling with a capacity of 0.88 million TEUs. The container handling through the VOC Port witnessed a CAGR of 8 per cent in last five years to reach volume 0.7 million TEUs on March 31, 2019, and is to handle over 1 million TEUs by the end of next financial year. |
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VPT achieves a green turnaround The Hindu: Visakhapatnam, April 26 Top |
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Adjudged second cleanest port by Quality Council of India Shedding its earlier image of a rustic, unclean port to emerge as one of the most environmentally-friendly ports in the country, Visakhapatnam Port Trust has achieved an enviable turnaround in enhancing its brand image. The port was adjudged the second cleanest by the Quality Council of India and won a greenery award from AP Greenery and Beautification Corporation. It was also successful in stopping diversion of cargo by embarking on a massive mechanisation drive in the past five years. Efforts pay off "We spent over ?200 crore (Rs.2 billion) to drastically reduce dust pollution due to open handling of iron ore and coal, and are today rated as a port with a very good track record and a bright future," VPT Chairman M.T. Krishna Babu, who will be completing his five-year Central deputation early next month, told The Hindu. The port was able to improve its efficiency parameters by implementing the recommendations of the Boston Consulting Group. "Now, we are in the process of becoming a world-class port," Mr. Krishna Babu said. "Insufficient supply of rakes by the Railways still remains a stumbling block, preventing faster evacuation," the VPT chairman said. Mr. Krishna Babu said they initiated proactive measures in consultation with the government to waive storage charges in order to ensure a level-playing field with Gangavaram and other ports to prevent cargo diversion. "We used to charge ?200 for handling and ?700 for storage per tonne of cargo as against free storage offer by Gangavaram for 90 days. Hence, we almost stopped diversion of bulk cargo to Gangavaram and shifting of containers to Krishnapatnam," he said. New berths VPT, which increased its cargo handling capacity from 86 to 133 million tonnes, invested ?1,200 crore (Rs.12 billion) from internal accruals for rebuilding six 60-year old berths and two new berths. "For the first time among all the major ports, we have made such a huge investment on our own by convincing the government, which had earlier wanted to take up berth mechanisation and capacity augmentation projects under Public Private Participation (PPP) route. This will help us fetch more revenue," Mr. Krishna Babu said. PPP projects VPT is the frontrunner in the country in implementing as many as nine PPP projects. Essar has completed construction of India's largest iron ore terminal with a capacity of 24 million tonnes at an investment of ?830 crore (Rs.8.3 billion) in March 2018. While Adani revived its operations after temporarily stopping work on coal terminal, SEW Infrastructure and its Malaysian partner PRSB stopped work on a coal and steam coal berth. Now, the issue is pending for arbitration. |
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India's Mumbai Port expects 150 international cruise vessels to call this year Xinhua.net: Mumbai, April 25 Top |
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India's Mumbai Port expects 150 international cruise vessels to call at its terminal this year and 300 cruise vessels are lined up next year, said its chairman Sanjay Bhatia on Thursday. Last year, 48 cruise vessels called at the port, he said while addressing an industry event organized by the Confederation of Indian Industry. "The Mumbai port is shifting towards development of Sea tourism and Sea water transportation," Bhatia said, adding that domestic cruises have also started operations. The port, based on India's west coast in the state of Maharashtra, has reduced the load capacity to 60 million tons of cargo per day and is promoting sea tourism by redeveloping its land around the port into world-class tourist hub. "7-8 hectares of land around the port will be open for real estate development with world class restaurants, ports and harbors. A 1-km Eastern waterfront is under development with all modern amenities to handle capacity of 300 yachts," he said. |
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Above information is only indicative and given in good faith. We have collected the above information from various secondary sources. We have tried our best to be as correct as possible. However, we cannot guarantee 100 % accuracy in the above data. Our company / group will not be responsible for any mistakes / inaccuracies which might have crept in inadvertently. |