Today Sector News – 22.03.2018
* AUTOMOBILES: The government's move to increase customs duty on completely knocked down units, and slash the duty on fully built motorcycles will hamper its flagship 'Make in India' programme, said Vimal Sumbly, managing director of Triumph Motorcycles India.
* AVIATION: The long queues at immigration counters and check-in points at Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, and Delhi airports are set to come down drastically as the government is ready to implement a biometric-based system for allowing entry to genuine passengers at the airport gate. The Finance Minister Arun Jaitley-led alternative mechanism for the privatisation of Air India met to discuss modalities of the draft inviting expressions of interest for sale.
* BANKING: Exim Bank, one of the unsecured lenders to bankrupt Binani Cement, has moved a petition in the Kolkata bench of the National Company Law Tribunal, seeking to maximise value for itself from the resolution process. Battling with frauds and dodgy borrowers, the Reserve Bank of India has asked auditors of state-owned banks to watch out for unrealistic cash-flow projections that corporates often make to obtain new loans or rejig old loans to buy time.
* COMMODITIES: Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has set up a panel headed by the State Cooperation and Marketing Minister Subhash Deshmukh to address a number of problems being faced by the sugar industry following the sharp decline in prices.
* ECONOMY: The world economy may get a temporary boost from a combination of US tax cuts and Chinese government spending to bolster state-owned enterprises, but payback is coming and longer-term growth prospects remain subdued, the International Monetary Fund said in a new report.
* ENERGY: The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs gave 14 urea manufacturing units two more years to meet the new energy norms and imposed a token penalty on them. Essel Infraprojects, part of Subhash Chandra-led Essel Group, is in talks with various renewable energy players to sell three of its six solar projects with an aggregate capacity of about 215 MW, even as the company plans to build its solar portfolio by focusing on investments in solar parks. Suzlon Group said it has designed and manufactured the country's longest wind turbine blade at its Padubidri rotor blade unit.
* HEALTHCARE: The Union Cabinet has approved the launch of the Ayushman Bharat-National Health Protection Mission, which aims to provide coverage of up to 500,000 rupees to over 100 mln poor families, the government said.
* LOGISTICS: Global operator of marine and inland terminals DP World on Wednesday said it has held talks with Tata Group to explore opportunities for cooperation, including logistics and supply chain operations.
* INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY: Information Technology Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said the government may summon Facebook Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg if the social media giant is found to have breached user confidentiality data of Indians.
* MINING: The cancellation of 88 mining leases in Goa by Supreme Court may lead to other mineral-rich states reviewing the court order to ensure the leases granted by them were consistent with the provisions of the Mines and Minerals Development and Regulation Act, 2015, said legal experts.
* OIL & GAS: The Krishna-Godavari Basin is likely to see a total investment outlay of over $14 bln by two oil and gas exploration and production companies by 2021-2023.
* POWER: The government has revised downwards the proposed size of the Centre's funding of hydro power projects by way of 4% interest subvention by 34% to 110.49 bln rupees for the 2018-2028 period.
* REALTY: The government has eased environmental clearances for buildings and construction sector, with the environment ministry more than doubling the threshold for construction projects requiring environmental clearances from the Centre to 50,000 sq mtr of built-up area from 20,000 sq mtr.
* REGULATORY: The Securities and Exchange Board of India may impose trading restrictions on shares of companies that are undergoing insolvency proceedings. The Securities and Exchange Board of India and stock exchanges have introduced additional surveillance measures on stocks with surveillance concerns such as price variation, volatility etc. A Securities and Exchange Board of India panel headed by former Reserve Bank of India deputy governor R. Gandhi is set to recommend a major rejig of rules for appointment of top executives at stock exchanges, clearing corporations and depositories.
* STEEL: The resolution plans submitted by both Numetal Mauritius and ArcelorMittal India for Essar Steel have been disqualified by the committee of creditors and the resolution professional. The US has decided to slap anti-dumping duty on stainless steel flanges imported from India and China, after it found in its preliminary probe that both countries provided subsidies to their exporters. Numetal has approached the National Company Law Tribunal against the decision of lenders to declare it ineligible to bid for bankrupt Essar Steel.
* TAXATION: Central Board of Direct Taxes has invited suggestions from stakeholders and the general public to prepare new tax law.
* TELECOMMUNICATION: Nokia, the Finnish network equipment maker, is urging India and other countries to be prepared to deploy 5G broadband services, saying that China has a headstart on the next-generation mobile technology that promises blistering download speeds of 20 GBs/second against 1GB/second on a 4G network. The telecom department has extended the time limit for re-verifying mobile numbers through Aadhaar till the time the Supreme Court decides on an ongoing case on the validity of the identification number and its enabling law. Telecom operators and analysts have backed the telecom regulator's call to review the mobile number portability process to make it more efficient but cautioned that the porting scenario in India with over a billion users is far more complex than the rest of the world.
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* AVIATION: The long queues at immigration counters and check-in points at Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, and Delhi airports are set to come down drastically as the government is ready to implement a biometric-based system for allowing entry to genuine passengers at the airport gate. The Finance Minister Arun Jaitley-led alternative mechanism for the privatisation of Air India met to discuss modalities of the draft inviting expressions of interest for sale.
* BANKING: Exim Bank, one of the unsecured lenders to bankrupt Binani Cement, has moved a petition in the Kolkata bench of the National Company Law Tribunal, seeking to maximise value for itself from the resolution process. Battling with frauds and dodgy borrowers, the Reserve Bank of India has asked auditors of state-owned banks to watch out for unrealistic cash-flow projections that corporates often make to obtain new loans or rejig old loans to buy time.
* COMMODITIES: Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has set up a panel headed by the State Cooperation and Marketing Minister Subhash Deshmukh to address a number of problems being faced by the sugar industry following the sharp decline in prices.
* ECONOMY: The world economy may get a temporary boost from a combination of US tax cuts and Chinese government spending to bolster state-owned enterprises, but payback is coming and longer-term growth prospects remain subdued, the International Monetary Fund said in a new report.
* ENERGY: The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs gave 14 urea manufacturing units two more years to meet the new energy norms and imposed a token penalty on them. Essel Infraprojects, part of Subhash Chandra-led Essel Group, is in talks with various renewable energy players to sell three of its six solar projects with an aggregate capacity of about 215 MW, even as the company plans to build its solar portfolio by focusing on investments in solar parks. Suzlon Group said it has designed and manufactured the country's longest wind turbine blade at its Padubidri rotor blade unit.
* HEALTHCARE: The Union Cabinet has approved the launch of the Ayushman Bharat-National Health Protection Mission, which aims to provide coverage of up to 500,000 rupees to over 100 mln poor families, the government said.
* LOGISTICS: Global operator of marine and inland terminals DP World on Wednesday said it has held talks with Tata Group to explore opportunities for cooperation, including logistics and supply chain operations.
* INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY: Information Technology Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said the government may summon Facebook Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg if the social media giant is found to have breached user confidentiality data of Indians.
* MINING: The cancellation of 88 mining leases in Goa by Supreme Court may lead to other mineral-rich states reviewing the court order to ensure the leases granted by them were consistent with the provisions of the Mines and Minerals Development and Regulation Act, 2015, said legal experts.
* OIL & GAS: The Krishna-Godavari Basin is likely to see a total investment outlay of over $14 bln by two oil and gas exploration and production companies by 2021-2023.
* POWER: The government has revised downwards the proposed size of the Centre's funding of hydro power projects by way of 4% interest subvention by 34% to 110.49 bln rupees for the 2018-2028 period.
* REALTY: The government has eased environmental clearances for buildings and construction sector, with the environment ministry more than doubling the threshold for construction projects requiring environmental clearances from the Centre to 50,000 sq mtr of built-up area from 20,000 sq mtr.
* REGULATORY: The Securities and Exchange Board of India may impose trading restrictions on shares of companies that are undergoing insolvency proceedings. The Securities and Exchange Board of India and stock exchanges have introduced additional surveillance measures on stocks with surveillance concerns such as price variation, volatility etc. A Securities and Exchange Board of India panel headed by former Reserve Bank of India deputy governor R. Gandhi is set to recommend a major rejig of rules for appointment of top executives at stock exchanges, clearing corporations and depositories.
* STEEL: The resolution plans submitted by both Numetal Mauritius and ArcelorMittal India for Essar Steel have been disqualified by the committee of creditors and the resolution professional. The US has decided to slap anti-dumping duty on stainless steel flanges imported from India and China, after it found in its preliminary probe that both countries provided subsidies to their exporters. Numetal has approached the National Company Law Tribunal against the decision of lenders to declare it ineligible to bid for bankrupt Essar Steel.
* TAXATION: Central Board of Direct Taxes has invited suggestions from stakeholders and the general public to prepare new tax law.
* TELECOMMUNICATION: Nokia, the Finnish network equipment maker, is urging India and other countries to be prepared to deploy 5G broadband services, saying that China has a headstart on the next-generation mobile technology that promises blistering download speeds of 20 GBs/second against 1GB/second on a 4G network. The telecom department has extended the time limit for re-verifying mobile numbers through Aadhaar till the time the Supreme Court decides on an ongoing case on the validity of the identification number and its enabling law. Telecom operators and analysts have backed the telecom regulator's call to review the mobile number portability process to make it more efficient but cautioned that the porting scenario in India with over a billion users is far more complex than the rest of the world.
