AAPI: August 2020

DELHI, 20th AUGUST 2020

Index of this Newsletter

INDIA

INDIA & THE WORLD

21. India can learn a lot from Korea’s economic boom
22. Opinion | Who’s afraid of foreign universities coming in?
23. The secret sauce behind Asia’s growth miracles
24.1. Outsourcing of game development work to India gains traction
24.2. Surge in travel, leisure stocks shows Street is betting on vaccine with gusto
25. Ex-Engineer brings Goan village with 500 families back to farming after 30 years

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DELHI, 20th AUGUST 2020

NEWSLETTER, 20-VIII-2020

INDIA

– GENERAL POLICY, INFRASTRUCTURES, COUNTRY FINANCES, ETC.

1.1. Cabinet Approves National Education Policy 2020, paving way for transformational reforms in school and higher education systems in the country

IBEF, Jul. 30, 2020

The Union Cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi approved the National Education Policy 2020 today, making way for large scale, transformational reforms in both school and higher education sectors. This is the first education policy of the 21st century and replaces the thirty-four-year-old National Policy on Education (NPE), 1986. Built on the foundational pillars of Access, Equity, Quality, Affordability and Accountability, this policy is aligned to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and aims to transform India into a vibrant knowledge society and global knowledge superpower by making both school and college education more holistic, flexible, multidisciplinary, suited to 21st century needs and aimed at bringing out the unique capabilities of each student.

Important Highlights

School Education

Ensuring Universal Access at all levels of school education

NEP 2020 emphasizes on ensuring universal access to school education at all levels- preschool to secondary. Infrastructure support, innovative education centres to bring back dropouts into the mainstream, tracking of students and their learning levels, facilitating multiple pathways to learning involving both formal and non-formal education modes, association of counsellors or well-trained social workers with schools, open learning for classes 3,5 and 8 through NIOS and State Open Schools, secondary education programs equivalent to Grades 10 and 12, vocational courses, adult literacy and life-enrichment programs are some of the proposed ways for achieving this. About 2 crore out of school children will be brought back into main stream under NEP 2020.

Early Childhood Care & Education with new Curricular and Pedagogical Structure

With emphasis on Early Childhood Care and Education, the 10+2 structure of school curricula is to be replaced by a 5+3+3+4 curricular structure corresponding to ages 3-8, 8-11, 11-14, and 14-18 year respectively. This will bring the hitherto uncovered age group of 3-6 years under school curriculum, which has been recognized globally as the crucial stage for development of mental faculties of a child. The new system will have 12 years of schooling with three years of Anganwadi/ pre schooling.

NCERT will develop a National Curricular and Pedagogical Framework for Early Childhood Care and Education (NCPFECCE) for children up to the age of 8. ECCE will be delivered through a significantly expanded and strengthened system of institutions including Anganwadis and pre-schools that will have teachers and Anganwadi workers trained in the ECCE pedagogy and curriculum. The planning and implementation of ECCE will be carried out jointly by the Ministries of HRD, Women and Child Development (WCD), Health and Family Welfare (HFW), and Tribal Affairs.

Attaining Foundational Literacy and Numeracy

Recognizing Foundational Literacy and Numeracy as an urgent and prerequisite to learning, NEP 2020 calls for setting up of a National Mission on Foundational Literacy and Numeracy by MHRD. States will prepare an implementation plan for attaining universal foundational literacy and numeracy in all primary schools for all learners by grade 3 by 2025. A National Book Promotion Policy is to be formulated.

Reforms in school curricula and pedagogy

The school curricula and pedagogy will aim for holistic development of learners by equipping them with the key 21st century skills, reduction in curricular content to enhance essential learning and critical thinking and greater focus on experiential learning. Students will have increased flexibility and choice of subjects. There will be no rigid separations between arts and sciences, between curricular and extra-curricular activities, between vocational and academic streams.

Vocational education will start in schools from the 6th grade and will include internships.

A new and comprehensive National Curricular Framework for School Education, NCFSE 2020-21, will be developed by the NCERT.

Multilingualism and the power of language

The policy has emphasized mother tongue/local language/regional language as the medium of instruction at least till Grade 5, but preferably till Grade 8 and beyond. Sanskrit to be offered at all levels of school and higher education as an option for students, including in the three-language formula. Other classical languages and literatures of India also to be available as options. No language will be imposed on any student. Students to participate in a fun project/activity on ‘The Languages of India’, sometime in Grades 6-8, such as, under the ‘Ek Bharat Shrestha Bharat’ initiative. Several foreign languages will also be offered at the secondary level. Indian Sign Language (ISL) will be standardized across the country, and National and State curriculum materials developed, for use by students with hearing impairment.

Assessment Reforms

NEP 2020 envisages a shift from summative assessment to regular and formative assessment, which is more competency-based, promotes learning and development, and tests higher-order skills, such as analysis, critical thinking, and conceptual clarity. All students will take school examinations in Grades 3, 5, and 8 which will be conducted by the appropriate authority. Board exams for Grades 10 and 12 will be continued but redesigned with holistic development as the aim. A new National Assessment Centre, PARAKH (Performance Assessment, Review, and Analysis of Knowledge for Holistic Development), will be set up as a standard-setting body.

Equitable and Inclusive Education

NEP 2020 aims to ensure that no child loses any opportunity to learn and excel because of the circumstances of birth or background. Special emphasis will be given on Socially and Economically Disadvantaged Groups (SEDGs) which include gender, socio-cultural, and geographical identities, and disabilities. This includes setting up of Gender Inclusion Fund and Special Education Zones for disadvantaged regions and groups. Children with disabilities will be enabled to fully participate in the regular schooling process from the foundational stage to higher education, with support of educators with cross disability training, resource centres, accommodations, assistive devices, appropriate technology-based tools and other support mechanisms tailored to suit their needs. Every state/district will be encouraged to establish “Bal Bhavans” as a special daytime boarding school, to participate in art-related, career-related, and play-related activities. Free school infrastructure can be used as Samajik Chetna Kendras

Robust Teacher Recruitment and Career Path

Teachers will be recruited through robust, transparent processes. Promotions will be merit-based, with a mechanism for multi-source periodic performance appraisals and available progression paths to become educational administrators or teacher educators. A common National Professional Standards for Teachers (NPST) will be developed by the National Council for Teacher Education by 2022, in consultation with NCERT, SCERTs, teachers and expert organizations from across levels and regions.

School Governance

Schools can be organized into complexes or clusters which will be the basic unit of governance and ensure availability of all resources including infrastructure, academic libraries, and a strong professional teacher community.

Standard-setting and Accreditation for School Education

NEP 2020 envisages clear, separate systems for policy making, regulation, operations, and academic matters. States/UTs will set up independent State School Standards Authority (SSSA). Transparent public self-disclosure of all the basic regulatory information, as laid down by the SSSA, will be used extensively for public oversight and accountability. The SCERT will develop a School Quality Assessment and Accreditation Framework (SQAAF) through consultations with all stakeholders.

Higher Education

Increase GER to 50 per cent by 2035

NEP 2020 aims to increase the Gross Enrolment Ratio in higher education including vocational education from 26.3 per cent (2018) to 50 per cent by 2035. 3.5 Crore new seats will be added to Higher education institutions.

Holistic Multidisciplinary Education

The policy envisages broad based, multi-disciplinary, holistic Undergraduate education with flexible curricula, creative combinations of subjects, integration of vocational education and multiple entry and exit points with appropriate certification. UG education can be of 3 or 4 years with multiple exit options and appropriate certification within this period. For example, Certificate after 1-year, Advanced Diploma after 2 years, Bachelor’s Degree after 3 years and bachelor’s with Research after 4 years.

An Academic Bank of Credit is to be established for digitally storing academic credits earned from different HEIs so that these can be transferred and counted towards final degree earned.

Multidisciplinary Education and Research Universities (MERUs), at par with IITs, IIMs, to be set up as models of best multidisciplinary education of global standards in the country.

The National Research Foundation will be created as an apex body for fostering a strong research culture and building research capacity across higher education.

Regulation

Higher Education Commission of India (HECI) will be set up as a single overarching umbrella body for entire higher education, excluding medical and legal education. HECI to have four independent verticals- National Higher Education Regulatory Council (NHERC) for regulation, General Education Council (GEC) for standard setting, Higher Education Grants Council (HEGC) for funding, and National Accreditation Council (NAC) for accreditation. HECI will function through faceless intervention through technology & will have powers to penalise HEIs not conforming to norms and standards. Public and private higher education institutions will be governed by the same set of norms for regulation, accreditation, and academic standards.

Rationalised Institutional Architecture

Higher education institutions will be transformed into large, well resourced, vibrant multidisciplinary institutions providing high quality teaching, research, and community engagement. The definition of university will allow a spectrum of institutions that range from Research-intensive Universities to Teaching-intensive Universities and Autonomous degree-granting Colleges.

Affiliation of colleges is to be phased out in 15 years and a stage-wise mechanism is to be established for granting graded autonomy to colleges. Over a period, it is envisaged that every college would develop into either an Autonomous degree-granting College, or a constituent college of a university.

Motivated, Energized, and Capable Faculty

NEP makes recommendations for motivating, energizing, and building capacity of faculty through clearly defined, independent, transparent recruitment, freedom to design curricula/pedagogy, incentivising excellence, movement into institutional leadership. Faculty not delivering on basic norms will be held accountable.

Teacher Education

A new and comprehensive National Curriculum Framework for Teacher Education, NCFTE 2021, will be formulated by the NCTE in consultation with NCERT. By 2030, the minimum degree qualification for teaching will be a 4-year integrated B.Ed. degree. Stringent action will be taken against substandard stand-alone Teacher Education Institutions (TEIs).

Mentoring Mission

A National Mission for Mentoring will be established, with a large pool of outstanding senior/retired faculty – including those with the ability to teach in Indian languages – who would be willing to provide short and long-term mentoring/professional support to university/college teachers.

Financial support for students

Efforts will be made to incentivize the merit of students belonging to SC, ST, OBC, and other SEDGs. The National Scholarship Portal will be expanded to support, foster, and track the progress of students receiving scholarships. Private HEIs will be encouraged to offer larger numbers of free ships and scholarships to their students.

Open and Distance Learning

This will be expanded to play a significant role in increasing GER. Measures such as online courses and digital repositories, funding for research, improved student services, credit-based recognition of MOOCs, etc., will be taken to ensure it is at par with the highest quality in-class programmes.

Online Education and Digital Education:

A comprehensive set of recommendations for promoting online education consequent to the recent rise in epidemics and pandemics in order to ensure preparedness with alternative modes of quality education whenever and wherever traditional and in-person modes of education are not possible, has been covered. A dedicated unit for the purpose of orchestrating the building of digital infrastructure, digital content and capacity building will be created in the MHRD to look after the e-education needs of both school and higher education.

Technology in education

An autonomous body, the National Educational Technology Forum (NETF), will be created to provide a platform for the free exchange of ideas on the use of technology to enhance learning, assessment, planning, administration. Appropriate integration of technology into all levels of education will be done to improve classroom processes, support teacher professional development, enhance educational access for disadvantaged groups and streamline educational planning, administration, and management

Promotion of Indian languages

To ensure the preservation, growth, and vibrancy of all Indian languages, NEP recommends setting an Indian Institute of Translation and Interpretation (IITI), National Institute (or Institutes) for Pali, Persian and Prakrit, strengthening of Sanskrit and all language departments in HEIs, and use mother tongue/local language as a medium of instruction in more HEI programmes .

Internationalization of education will be facilitated through both institutional collaborations, and student and faculty mobility and allowing entry of top world ranked Universities to open campuses in our country.

Professional Education

All professional education will be an integral part of the higher education system. Stand-alone technical universities, health science universities, legal and agricultural universities etc. will aim to become multi-disciplinary institutions.

Adult Education

Policy aims to achieve 100 per cent youth and adult literacy.

Financing Education

The Centre and the States will work together to increase the public investment in Education sector to reach 6 per cent of GDP at the earliest.

Unprecedented Consultations

NEP 2020 has been formulated after an unprecedented process of consultation that involved nearly over 2 lakh suggestions from 2.5 lakh Gram Panchayats, 6600 Blocks, 6000 ULBs, 676 Districts. The MHRD initiated an unprecedented collaborative, inclusive, and highly participatory consultation process from January 2015. In May 2016, ‘Committee for Evolution of the New Education Policy’ under the Chairmanship of Late Shri T.S.R. Subramanian, Former Cabinet Secretary, submitted its report. Based on this, the Ministry prepared ‘Some Inputs for the Draft National Education Policy, 2016’. In June 2017 a ‘Committee for the Draft National Education Policy’ was constituted under the Chairmanship of eminent scientist Padma Vibhushan, Dr K. Kasturirangan, which submitted the Draft National Education Policy, 2019 to the Hon’ble Human Resource Development Minister on 31st May, 2019. The Draft National Education Policy 2019 was uploaded on MHRD’s website and at ‘MyGov Innovate’ portal eliciting views/suggestions/comments of stakeholders, including public.

Disclaimer: This information has been collected through secondary research and IBEF is not responsible for any errors in the same.

1.2. The key reforms under India’s new education policy

Livemint, 30 Jul 2020, Prashant K. Nanda

The new NEP has put in place a slew of reforms to guide the sector. It underlines a sweeping exam reform across the school and higher education segments. If implemented well, it will reduce focus on marks and rote learning. Mint explores

The new National Education Policy (NEP) has put in place a slew of reforms to guide the sector. It underlines a sweeping exam reform across the school and higher education segments. If implemented well, it will reduce focus on marks and rote learning. Mint explores

What does the NEP say about shift in exams?

The culture of school examination system will shift from one that is summative and primarily tests rote memorization skills to one that assesses competency, critical thinking and conceptual clarity. It will help teachers and students revise teaching-learning processes continuously to optimize learning development for all. Students will take examinations in grades 3, 5, and 8, which will test achievement of basic learning outcomes and application of knowledge in real-life situations. The progress cards will include self-assessment, and peer and teacher assessments. The new structure may gradually adopt a semester system to reduce stress.

What about reforms in board examinations?

The board examinations at Class 10 and 12 levels will continue but they will become ‘low stake’ exams. They may be conducted more than once a year and students may get to choose the best of two attempts. Boards may further develop viable models such as annual or semester, or modular exams. It may have a question pattern that includes both objective and prescriptive type questions. “Board exams will be made easier, as they will test core competencies rather than months of coaching/memorization," the new policy says. The NCERT along with its state counterpart and a specialized national assessment centre, will notify the guidelines.

What role will the National Testing Agency play?

The National Testing Agency (NTA) will facilitate single entrance exam in each stream. It will offer a “high-quality common aptitude test" like the SAT examination, as well as specialized common subject examinations at least twice every year for university entrance exams. However, it won’t be compulsory for all the states.

How will unpacking the UG course help?

The multiple entry and exit system will help mobility from classroom to workroom and back. Learning and assessment credits will be kept in an academic credit bank which will allow professionals to come back and pursue a degree from where they left, let’s say five years ago. So, one can pursue graduation in three tranches and in between gain experience and get back to upskill later. The new policy says the higher educational institutes shall also move away from high-stakes exams towards more comprehensive evaluation.

Will universities get to devise curriculums?

The new policy says institutions and faculty will have the autonomy to innovate on the matters of curriculum, pedagogy, and assessment within a framework of higher education qualifications. All assessment systems shall also be decided by the institutions, including those that lead to final certification. This means that the role of regulator in the exam system and proctoring will reduce. The universities can set learning goals and assess students based on their performance through a rolling process.

2.1. PM launches High Throughput COVID testing facilities at Kolkata, Mumbai and Noida

IBEF, Jul. 28, 2020

Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi launched three high throughput COVID-19 testing facilities via video conferencing today. These facilities are located at the National Institutes of Indian Council of Medical Research, at Kolkata, Mumbai, and Noida.

Prime Minister said that these hi-tech state-of-the-art testing facilities will boost the testing capacity by almost 10,000 daily tests. More number of tests will assist early detection and treatment, thereby helping fight the spread of the virus. He added that these labs will not be limited to testing for COVID, but in future, will also be able to test for Hepatitis B and C, HIV, Dengue, and several other diseases.

Timely decisions

Prime Minister underlined that due to timely decisions taken by the government, India is better placed vis-a-vis other countries in terms of deaths due to COVID. The recovery rate is also higher than other countries and is improving on a daily basis. The total number of people who have recovered from the virus is about to reach 10 lakh.

Corona specific health infrastructure

Prime Minister said that it was imperative for the country to develop corona specific health infrastructure at a fast pace. He noted that the Centre had announced a package of Rs 15,000 crore at the beginning of this battle. The country now has more than 11,000 COVID facilities and more than 11 lakh isolation beds.

While the country had only one COVID testing centre in January, there are almost 1300 such labs now. He said that at present, more than 5 lakh tests are being conducted in the country daily, and efforts are underway to increase this capacity to 10 lakh in the coming weeks.

He noted that the country has become the second largest PPE kit manufacturer. The country has progressed from not having even a single PPE kit manufacturer as recently as six months ago, to having more than 1200 manufacturers now, who are producing more than 5 lakh such kits daily. He also highlighted that from being dependent on imports, now more than 3 lakh N-95 masks are being produced in the country daily, annual production capacity of ventilators has become 3 lakh and there has also been a significant increase in the production of medical oxygen cylinders. This has not only helped save lives but has also converted India from an importer to an exporter.

Talking about efforts to contain the spread in rural areas, Prime Minister mentioned the need to develop new health infrastructure as well as boost the already existing health infrastructure facilities in the villages.

Ramping up human resource

Prime Minister said that apart from developing the physical infrastructure, the country has also managed to swiftly ramp up human resources including paramedics, ASHA workers, Anganwadis etc, who have played a significant part in controlling the spread of the pandemic. He also spoke about the need to work on continuously attaching new and retired health professionals with the health system to prevent fatigue from setting in our corona warriors.

Being safe during festivities

He forewarned people to be cautious during the celebrations of the festivals to come, to keep the virus contained. He underlined that the benefits of PM Garib Kalyan Anna Yojna should reach the poor timely. He added that till the time a vaccine is not developed, do gaz doori, wearing masks and hand sanitization are the tools at the disposal of the people to keep them safe.

Union Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan said that labs to test for COVID are now available across the country. He also spoke about the Union Home Minister working along with Delhi Chief Minister to control the spread of the virus in the national capital.

Chief Ministers speak

The Chief Ministers thanked the Prime Minister for the launch of the testing facilities. Maharashtra Chief Minister Shri Uddhav Thackeray praised the leadership of the Prime Minister in the tough circumstances. He spoke about the ‘chase the virus’ initiative in Mumbai and discussed establishing permanent infection hospitals.

West Bengal Chief Minister Ms. Mamata Banerjee appreciated the cooperative attitude of the Prime Minister towards the States, spoke about efforts to track cases, use of tele-medicine and also about the need to ramp up facilities in some of the existing labs in the State.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Shri Yogi Adityanath expressed his gratitude towards the Prime Minister for his untiring efforts in this fight against the virus. He said that these labs launched today will dramatically reduce testing time. He mentioned about ramping up testing ability in the State and the plan to increase the number of daily antigen tests.

Background

These three high-throughput testing facilities have been set up strategically at ICMR-National Institute of Cancer Prevention and Research, Noida; ICMR-National Institute for Research in Reproductive Health, Mumbai; and ICMR-National Institute of Cholera and Enteric Diseases, Kolkata, and will be able to test over 10,000 samples in a day. These labs will also reduce turn-around-time and exposure of lab personnel to infectious clinical materials. The labs are enabled to test diseases other than COVID as well, and post the pandemic, will be able to test for Hepatitis B and C, HIV, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, Cytomegalovirus, Chlamydia, Neisseria, Dengue, etc.

Disclaimer: This information has been collected through secondary research and IBEF is not responsible for any errors in the same.

2.2. Shri Sadananda Gowda launches Schemes and announces guidelines paving way for setting up of Bulk Drugs Parks & Medical Devices Parks in the country

IBEF, Jul. 28, 2020

Union Minister for Chemicals and Fertilizers Shri DV Sadananda Gowda launched here today four schemes of Department of Pharmaceuticals for promotion of domestic manufacturing of bulk drugs and medical devices parks in the country. On this occasion MoS(i/c) for Shipping and MoS for Chemicals & Fertilizers, Shri Amitabh Kant, CEO Niti Ayog, Dr P D Waghela, Secretary, Dept of Pharmaceuticals were also present.

Speaking on the occasion, Shri Gowda said that this is in line with the vision of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, and his clarion call for making India Atma Nirbhar in pharma sector. For this the Government of India has approved four schemes, two each for Bulk Drugs and Medical Devices parks. He exhorted the industry and the States to come forward and participate in these schemes.

He said , India is often referred to as ‘the pharmacy of the world’ and this has been proved true especially in the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic when India continued to export critical lifesaving medicines to needy countries even during the countrywide lockdown. However, despite these achievements, it is a matter of concern that our country is critically dependent on imports for basic raw materials, viz. Bulk Drugs (Key Starting Materials (KSMs)/ Drug Intermediates (DIs) and Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs)) that are used to produce some of the essential medicines. Similarly, in medical devices sector, our country is dependent on imports for 86 per cent of its requirements of medical devices.

Shri Mandavia said that this is a very important initiative towards further developing Indian pharmaceutical capacities. Giving details of the Guidelines Shri Mandaviya said that the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) schemes for promoting domestic manufacturing of KSMs, DIs and APIs and medical devices will go a long way including to boost domestic manufacturing of 53 bulk drugs, on which India is critically dependent on imports.

The list of 41 products contained in the scheme guidelines will enable domestic production of 53 bulk drugs. Financial incentives will be given to a maximum of 136 manufacturers selected under the scheme as a fixed percentage of their domestic sales of these 41 products manufactured locally with required level of domestic value addition.

The incentives would be subject to annual ceilings communicated in the approval letter. The incentives would be given for a period of 6 years. In case of fermentation-based products, the rate of incentive is 20 per cent for first four years, 15 per cent for the fifth year and 5 per cent for the sixth year.

In case of chemically synthesised products, rate of incentive is 10 per cent for all six years. The selected manufacturers shall have to complete committed investment above a threshold investment mandated for each product and achieve a prescribed minimum installed capacity before they are eligible to receive incentives. Threshold investment is Rs 400 crore (US$ 56.75 million) for four fermentation-based products and Rs 50 crore (US$ 7.09 million) for ten fermentation-based products. Similarly, threshold investment is Rs 50 crore (US$ 7.09 million) for four chemically synthesised products, and Rs 20 crore (US$ 2.84 million) for 23 chemically synthesised products. Minimum installed capacity to be achieved for each of the 41 products is prescribed in the guidelines. The incentives for fermentation-based products would be available from FY 2023-24 i.e. after a two-year gestation period during which the selected applicant has to complete the committed investment and install the committed capacity.

For chemically synthesised products the incentives would be available from FY 2022-23 i.e. after a gestation period of one year during which the selected applicant has to make the committed investment and install the committed capacity. Any company, partnership firm, proprietorship firm or LLP registered in India and possessing a minimum net worth (including group companies) of 30 per cent of proposed investment is eligible to apply for incentives under the scheme. An applicant can apply for any number of products.

The applicants will be selected based on a transparent composite evaluation criterion which include the annual production capacity committed by the applicant and the sale price of the product quoted by the applicant. Applicants quoting low sale price and higher production capacity will get higher marks in the evaluation.

The guidelines are available on the website of the Department of Pharmaceuticals. The salient features of the four schemes are:

The scheme is open for applications for a period of 120 days from the date of issuance of guidelines and the approval will be given to the selected applicants within 90 days from the closure of application window. Applications will be received only through an online portal. The total financial outlay of the scheme is Rs 6,940 crore (US$ 984.54 million).

Scheme for promotion of Bulk Drug Parks: The scheme envisages creation of 3 bulk drug parks in the country. The grant-in-aid will be 90 per cent of the project cost in case of North-East and hilly States and 70 per cent in case of other States. Maximum grant-in-aid for one bulk drug park is limited to Rs 1000 crore (US$ 141.86 million).

States will be selected through a challenge method. The States interested in setting up the parks will have to ensure assured 24*7 supply of electricity and water to the bulk drug units located in the park and offer competitive land lease rates to bulk drug units in the park. The location of proposed park from environmental angle and logistics angle would be taken into account while selecting the States.

The ease of doing business ranking of the state, incentive policies of the State applicable to bulk drug industry, availability of technical manpower in the state, availability of pharmaceutical/chemical clusters in the state will also be factored in while selecting the States. The interested States will be scored and ranked on an evaluation criterion, given in the guidelines, which captures above parameters. The States getting top 3 ranks will be selected. The States have to submit their proposal within 60 days of the date of issuance of the guidelines. Selection will be done, and in-principle approval will be given to three selected States within 30 days of last date of submission of proposals.

Thereafter, the 3 selected States will have to submit a Detailed Project Report (DPR) within 180 days of the in-principle approval based on which final approval will be given. The grant-in–aid will be released in four instalments.

First three instalments will be 30 per cent each and the last will be 10 per cent of the grant-in-aid. The selected States will have to complete the parkas per the approved DPR within two years of date of release of first instalment of grant-in-aid. It is envisaged to have a single window system in these parks for all regulatory approvals under one roof. The creation of a centre of excellence is also envisaged to enable an ecosystem for Research and Development. The total financial outlay of the scheme is Rs 3,000 crore (US$ 425.59 million).

Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme for promoting domestic manufacturing of Medical Devices: The scheme intends to boost domestic manufacturing of medical devices in four target segments by giving financial incentives on sales to a maximum number of 28 selected applicants for a period of 5 years. Financial incentive will be given at a rate of 5 per cent of the sales of domestically manufactured medical devices. The incentives would be subject to annual ceilings communicated in the approval letter the incentives would be available from FY 2021-22. Four target segments are:-

Cancer care / Radiotherapy medical devices

Radiology & Imaging medical devices (both ionizing & non-ionizing radiation products) and Nuclear Imaging devices Anesthetics and Cardio-Respiratory medical devices including catheters of Cardio-Respiratory Category and Renal Care medical devices

AII Implants including implantable electronic devices.

Any company registered in India and possessing a minimum net worth (including group companies) of Rs 18 crore (US$ 2.55 million) (30 per cent of threshold investment of first year) is eligible to apply for incentives under the scheme. The applicant can apply for multiple products within one target segment as well as multiple target segments. The selected applicants shall have to complete a threshold investment prescribed for each year and achieve a minimum prescribed sale for that year for them to be eligible to receive incentives. The application window is 120 days from the date of issuance of guidelines and the approval thereafter to the selected applicants will be accorded within 60 days from the date of closure of application window. The applications will be received only through an online portal. The total financial outlay of the scheme is Rs 3,420 crore (US$ 485.18 million).

CEO NITI Ayog, Shri Amitabh Kant said India Produces huge number of Generic medicines as well as more than 500 API, still it has to import large quantity of API. He said prime minister wants to reduce dependency on imports. Secretary pharmaceuticals Shri P D Vaghela gave a detailed presentation of the guidelines.

It is expected that these schemes will make India not only self-reliant but also capable of catering to the global demand for the selected bulk drugs and medical devices. This is a golden opportunity for the investors since incentivisation to industry and world-class infrastructure support simultaneously will help in bringing down the cost of production significantly. These schemes along with the liberal FDI policy in these sectors and an effective corporate tax rate of about 17 per cent (including surcharge and cess) will give a competitive edge to India in the selected products vis-à-vis other economies.

Disclaimer: This information has been collected through secondary research and IBEF is not responsible for any errors in the same.

3.1. Coming soon: Tech to predict lightning strikes up to three hours in advance

Livemint, 20 Jul 2020, Omkar Khandekar

A project to install a lightning sensor on a geostationary satellite can help India avoid thousands of deaths due to thunderstorms

It often goes unacknowledged but lightning strikes kill more people than any other extreme weather event in India. Between 2,000-2,500 people die every year, most of them in rural areas. With climate change prompting unseasonal thunderstorms, the death toll is only expected to rise in the future.

At a webinar on 13 July, Dr M Rajeevan, secretary at Ministry of Earth Sciences, acknowledged the dangers posed by lightning strikes. To address this issue, he said the government was in talks with Indian Space Research Organization (Isro) to install a lightning detector on an upcoming geo-satellite. “If all goes well, we will have a geo satellite in space with a lightning detector within a year," said Dr Rajeevan.

Dr Sunil Pawar is a senior scientist at Pune-based Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, and has been researching lightning and thunderstorms for over two decades. Over a phone interview, he told Mint about India’s existing technological infrastructure, how a satellite-mounted lightning sensor works, and how it will dramatically enhance the quality of India’s disaster response.

Edited excerpts:

What kind of technology do we have in predicting thunderstorms and lightning strikes?

Lightning strikes is a complex phenomena. In the last 3-4 years, we’ve identified lightning prone regions. But the accuracy of the existing metrological models isn’t too high. We can roughly say that a Pune district can have a thunderstorm but can’t say exactly which taluka or village will be affected.

In the recent years, we’ve started creating a lightning detection network. This includes both ground based and satellite based systems. Most countries are using ground-based systems. It detects which region the thunderstorm will start in, which direction it is headed and the speed at which it is moving. Then they start generating the warning. In India, we can get a warning with a 1 hour notice with more accurate predictions with 30-40 minutes to go.

The Ministry of Earth Sciences has announced plans to install a lightning sensor on a geostationary satellite in collaboration with ISRO. How will that help our ability to predict lightning strikes?

The limitation of ground-based satellite is, it can’t get data from remote areas or in oceans. And most thunderstorms start from oceans and then go on to the land. A geostationary satellite can give us continuous data as observed from above the earth. It is useful to map the full region – even the Himalayan and the oceanic regions. But this satellite depends on light-imagery detection i.e. if lightning strikes and the light is visible, the satellite will pick it up. But sometimes, it might not be able to detect because of thick clouds.

Are the two systems then meant to complement each other?

Yes. For research purposes, ground is more accurate and informative. And using satellite-based warning, you can also get information for remote regions.

How will this benefit India’s disaster response in practical terms?

Using these systems, we can develop good warning systems. We’re trying to develop SMS alerts, especially for those living in remote areas. Satellite and lightning data will be useful for models also. It will help improve the accuracy of warnings and our forecast.

Has India been slow in using technology and other means to predict and coordinate the response?

Yes. We started recognizing lightning as a major natural disaster only 20 years ago. But now, almost all state governments have started educational and awareness programmes. I have been called by many state governments to understand what they can and not do. It’ll improve a lot more in the next 1-2 years.

Is the kind of infrastructure we have in the country today enough?

The setting up of the lightning detection system is almost complete. We have installed 83 ground-based systems over the entire country. Now with the satellite-based system, we’re expecting to detect the data even better. At the moment, we can issue accurate predictions between 40 minutes to 1 hour. If we combined [satellite-based systems] with the existing technology, we can get predictions up to 3 hours earlier. We can fine-tune to smaller regions as well, find out which villages will be affected in up to a 10*10 km region.

What more can be done?

The government and scientists should work together. It has been a challenge. Like other countries, we should have a dedicated 24-hour weather channel. The main difficulty we’re facing is regarding the best way to reach farmers. We’ve started a mobile app called ‘Damini’ to issue weather related warnings but it is largely underused. Damini gives SMS updates but that goes to users of Android phones. A lot of people in villages don’t have such phones. We’re trying to get SMSes via feature phones also. But the main thing is, people should be educated on how lightning strikes happen and how to protect oneself.

3.2. How a baby monitor became a tool to track the health of covid patients

Livemint, 21 Jul. 2020, Shrabonti Bagchi

Raybaby, developed by the three-women founding team of Bengaluru startup RioT Solutions, has pivoted to become useful both in the covid-19 sickroom and in neonatal care

It was earlier this year, in the early days of the pandemic, that the three-women team behind Raybaby, an IoT (Internet of Things) based baby monitor, realized that their device could be used to track the respiratory rate of covid-19 patients and provide vital data to doctors about treatment and prognosis.

Raybaby, which was launched at the prestigious American tech conference CES in 2017 (and was a finalist in the 2019 CES in the Baby Tech category), was developed as a high-tech baby monitor by three Bengaluru-based engineers: Aardra Kannan Ambili, an Artificial Intelligence (AI) scientist, Ranjana Nair, a computer science engineer specializing in gesture-based technology, and Sanchi Poovaya, a mechanical engineer. The Raybaby is based on advanced radar and motion sensor technology and is different from regular baby monitors (which are usually simple camera devices) in that it is able to capture the baby’s breathing rate and analyse the breathing pattern.

The team had a eureka moment when it realized, after reading a paper on the topic published from Wuhan, China, that the respiration rate can also be used to monitor the progress of covid-19 in infected patients.

The respiration/breathing rate or the number of breaths per minute (the normal range is 11-21 breaths per minute in a resting state in a healthy individual) is a vital sign, along with others like blood pressure and oxygen saturation that are used to track patient health in hospitals and ICUs, but is not as widely used in the medical system. In fact, a 2008 article in the Medical Journal Of Australia calls it “the neglected vital sign". The reason, says Ambili, is that most devices which measure the respiratory rate are contact devices that are usually strapped to the patient’s chest and are uncomfortable. The Raybaby, however, is a non-contact device that uses low-power radio waves along with advanced motion sensors that can track micro-movements to measure the respiration rate of a patient from a distance of 3ft or less.

The device incorporates AI to analyse breathing patterns and offer useful insights: As a baby monitor, it can show parents how their baby is sleeping, how to improve sleep routines and sleep training; in the clinical scenario, it can use respiratory rate data to monitor an infant or adult patient’s overall health and predict outcomes.

The RioT team has just completed an observational trial of the device at the neonatal intensive care unit (Nicu) of Cloudnine Hospital in Bengaluru, covering 760 hours of breath monitoring among preterm babies to test its efficacy in preventing Respiratory Distress Syndrome, a major cause of death in the first month of life.

“Respiration rate can predict adverse health events hours before they occur, and in that sense is a more predictive vital sign than even blood pressure or heart rate," says Ambili. For instance, if you monitor the respiration rate of cardiac patients, it can predict a heart attack hours before it actually occurs as the number of breaths per minute goes up in this scenario. “Recent data has shown the importance of monitoring respiratory rate variability (RRV) as a useful predictor of the deterioration of patients. Respiratory rate, in comparison to blood pressure or pulse rate, is deemed as the better determinant in identifying high-risk patients," says a 2018 peer-reviewed paper on the US National Library of Medicine website.

The device is currently being used by doctors at HCG hospital in Bengaluru in the covid-19 ward. The Raybaby team has developed an app for use by medical professionals that gives them a dashboard to monitor patients under their care using data from the device. “If the breathing rate of a patient goes over a particular threshold, the app sends a notification to the doctor’s phone, alerting them that they need to check on the patient. It significantly reduces the burden on medical teams," explains Ambili. Since covid-19 is a disease that aggressively attacks the respiratory system, tracking the respiration rate is an important way to monitor the well-being of patients.

Although there has been interest from individual users for the device, Ambili says that for now it will be used under medical supervision only. In the future, they feel the underlying technology can be used not just by parents to monitor babies but by adults in medical scenarios such as sleep apnoea. “Since the monitor picks up pauses in breathing and captures breathing data every 5 seconds, it can be well-suited to track the breathing patterns of sleep apnoea patients at a very granular level. The accuracy is very high," says Ambili.

For now, the team is happy that at a time when startups are finding it tough to raise funding or even stay viable, Raybaby has found a way to pivot itself and stay relevant while providing an important service. “Currently, we are trying to ramp up production in order to meet the demand. As a startup, that’s certainly good news for us," says Ambili.

4. Everything you wanted to know about covid-19 treatments, in five charts

Livemint, 04 Aug. 2020, Rukmini S

India’s official experiments with recommending drugs for treatment of covid-19 are marked with opacity around evidence

When India’s National Task Force on COVID-19 recommended against including Itolizumab, Biocon’s psoriasis drug, in its treatment guidelines, the move represented two key aspects of the global scramble for a cure for covid-19 - the problematic bar for evidence, as well as the sheer size of the challenge.

The Task Force’s decision stemmed from its members’ dissatisfaction over the adequacy of evidence generated from Biocon’s 30-person clinical trial. Similar doubts were expressed by many in the medical and scientific fraternities in the days after the Drug Controller General of India granted emergency use authorisation for the drug.

But the bar for evidence has not been uniform, or, at the very least, transparent. In the US, the recommendation by its National Institutes for Health for or against most known drugs is accompanied in its clinical guidelines with the evidence behind each such recommendation.

In India, drugs have appeared and disappeared from the protocol, which is published by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, with no explanation. In the second week of March, a Jaipur hospital declared “success" in treating an elderly Italian couple infected with the virus with a combination of antiretroviral drugs used in the treatment of HIV - lopinavir and ritonavir. Three days later, the drug combination had made it to the Health Ministry’s treatment guidelines. The ministry recommended Lopinavir-Ritonavir for high-risk patients including those above 60, those with diabetes, kidney failure, chronic lung disease and the immuno-compromised. By the next iteration of the treatment guidelines, this combination was gone, with no explanation, and in its place, now hydroxychloroquine was here.

Perhaps no drug candidate in the race for a cure for covid-19 has seen as much controversy as the anti-malarial drug - from being recommended heavily by US President Donald Trump who said he took it as a preventive, to being first ‘proven’ as ineffective by a major study published in the Lancet which then had to retract it for numerous problems centring opaque and implausible data. On July 4, the World Health Organisation announced that it was discontinuing the hydroxychloroquine arm of its global ‘Solidarity’ clinical trial, because little to no evidence of its effectiveness was emerging, alongside some “safety signals", meaning concerns it was instead causing harm. Yet India continues to recommend its use.

India’s clinical management protocol (as of July 3) currently focuses on supportive therapies, and directly recommends only a few types of drugs. For mild cases, it recommends hydroxychloroquine for high risk patients. For moderate cases, it also recommends anticoagulants to prevent blood clots, and corticosteroids like dexamethasone, the drug that reduced mortality by one-third in ventilated patients in the University of Oxford’s ‘Recovery’ trial. For severe cases, it recommends the same set of drugs, but not hydroxychloroquine.

India’s guidelines also suggest three “investigational therapies" for which there is limited evidence, but which can be used at the doctor’s discretion. Of these, remdesivir, the drug initially developed by Gilead for use in hepatitis C but subsequently used for the treatment of Ebola, is also recommended by the US. The second is Tocilizumab, Roche’s rheumatoid arthritis medicine which again the US did not find enough evidence to recommend for or against. The third is the non-drug convalescent plasma therapy that has been used extensively in Delhi in particular. The US has found no evidence to recommend for or against it.

Globally, over a billion dollars have been committed by governments and major philanthropies to develop drugs against covid-19, according to Policy Cures Research, a British think-tank, more than half of it from the US, followed by Canada and the United Kingdom.

Research into a cure is broadly divided into three types of drugs being investigated: antivirals such as remdesivir, anti-inflammatory drugs such as dexamethasone, and others including protein inhibitors, according to Policy Cures Research. The majority of drugs being investigated are repurposed variants of existing drugs.

The COVID-NMA project, led by an international team of researchers from the British charity Cochrane as well as from the University of Paris and other universities tracks ongoing research on covid-19. The project, backed by the World Health Organization (WHO) identifies 1236 clinical trials focused on treatment (as opposed to preventive vaccines) across the world, 52 of them in India.

Globally, the success rate of ongoing research remains low, with the NMA project raising concerns about the quality of evidence in claims put forward by most trials that are reporting data thus far.

In that respect, India’s experiments with recommending drugs to treat covid-19 are not unusual. What stands apart, however, is the opacity over its reasoning.

Rukmini S. is a Chennai-based journalist.

5. Import bans can’t be a throwback to the licence raj

Livemint, 10 Aug. 2020, Karan Bhasin

The defence ministry on Sunday announced a ban on import of 101 defence items to create domestic manufacturing of ₹4 trillion in six to seven years to protect local industries. The move is in line with the Centre’s push for self-reliance. Mint explores the issue in detail

How exactly do the import bans work?

There are two kinds of policy instruments that are used by governments to regulate international trade, one being import tariffs like custom duties and the other being quantitative restrictions or quotas. Import tariffs allow for import of certain items after paying a tax, while quantitative restrictions limit the amount of goods that can be imported into a country. A ban on import is a type of a quantitative restriction that prohibits import of an item in the country. With a ban on imports of defence equipment, our defence forces will now have to meet their requirements through domestic manufacturers.

How are they different from licenses, quotas?

They key difference between the import bans that have now been imposed and the licences and quotas that existed before 1991 is that there are only a few items under the negative list that require permission or licences from the government. Unlike earlier, for all goods outside the negative list, people can set up businesses and produce goods and services without having to procure a government licence before manufacturing an item. The same is true for imports where only specific items require prior government permission or can only be imported up to a certain quantity.

Will import bans help lift the domestic industry?

India has tried various forms of protectionism in the past to assist domestic manufacturers, from import tariffs to quotas, but these did not have the desired impact. The key issues are land laws, labour laws, availability of affordable electricity for industries, high cost of taxes and capital along with issues related to enforcement of contract.

Why are we still opting for import bans, then?

Most advanced economies provided protection to their local industries during the early periods of industrialization. Many South Asian countries combined protectionism with domestic reforms, which led to the creation of an incentive structure for firms to look at export-oriented markets. A key element of the self-reliance move includes a strong push for reforms across sectors. This, combined with the proposed land and labour law changes, suggest a push towards making domestic manufacturing competitive.

Is there a chance for clock turning back?

Many people have cautioned against the possibility of Atmanirbhar Bharat turning the clock back to a period of licence-quota raj because of the increase in tariffs and import bans. However, it is noteworthy that India allows liberal foreign investment inflows, as against the situation before 1991. We are inviting foreign firms to invest for catering to our domestic market. However, we must be careful as India has the chance to integrate with global value chains.

Karan Bhasin is a Delhi-based policy researcher.

- AGRICULTURE, FISHING & RURAL DEVELOPMENT

6.1. Milk production is expected to rise to 330 million tons by 2024; Government trying to increase milk processing up to 40 per cent - Shri Giriraj Singh

IBEF, Jul. 17, 2020

Union Minister of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying Shri Giriraj Singh today launched the Implementation Guidelines for Animal Husbandry Infrastructure Development Fund (AHIDF) worth Rs 15,000 crore (US$ 2.13 billion), which was approved by the Union Cabinet on 24.06.2020 under the Atma Nirbhar Bharat Abhiyaan stimulus package for ensuring growth in several sectors. Union Minister of State for Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying Shri Pratap Chandra Sarangi was also present on the occasion.

Thanking Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi for announcing the Animal Husbandry Infrastructure Development fund (AHIDF), Shri Giriraj Singh said that India is engaged in breed improvement to increase milk production and on the other hand also taking care of the processing sector. India is producing milk of 188 million tonnes and by 2024 the milk production is expected to rise up to 330 million tons. Only 20-25 per cent milk is coming under processing sector and Government is trying to bring the same up to 40 per cent. He also informed that the Dairy Processing Infrastructure Development Fund (DIDF) is being implemented for infrastructure development in cooperative sector and AHIDF is a first type of scheme for private sector. Millions of farmers will be benefited once the infrastructure is created and more milk will be processed. This will also increase export of dairy products which is presently negligible. India needs to go up to the standards of countries like New Zealand in the Dairy sector. He expressed satisfaction that during COVID-19 lockdown, dairy farmers could maintain steady supply of milk to the consumers in the country.

Government has been implementing several schemes for incentivizing the investment made by dairy cooperative sector for development of dairy infrastructure. The AHIDF has been set up as MSMEs and Private companies also need to be promoted and incentivized for their involvement in processing and value addition infrastructure. AHIDF would facilitate much needed incentivisation of investments in establishment of such infrastructure for dairy and meat processing and value addition infrastructure and establishment of animal feed plant in the private sector.

The eligible beneficiaries under the Scheme would be Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs), MSMEs, Section 8 Companies, Private Companies, and individual entrepreneurs with minimum 10 per cent margin money contribution by them. The balance 90 per cent would be the loan component to be made available by scheduled banks. Government of India will provide 3 per cent interest subvention to eligible beneficiaries. There will be 2 years moratorium period for principal loan amount and 6 years repayment period thereafter.

Government of India would also set up Credit Guarantee Fund of Rs 750 crore (US$ 106.40 million) to be managed by NABARD. Credit guarantee would be provided to those sanctioned projects which are covered under MSME defined ceilings. Guarantee Coverage would be up to 25 per cent of Credit facility of borrower. The beneficiaries intending to invest for establishing dairy and meat processing and value addition infrastructure or strengthening of the existing infrastructure can apply for loan in the scheduled bank through “Udyami Mitra” portal of SIDBI.

There is huge potential waiting to be unlocked in investment through private sector. The Rs 15,000 crore (US$ 2.13 billion) AHIDF and the interest subvention scheme for private investors will ensure availability of capital to meet upfront investment required for these projects and help enhance overall returns/ pay back for investors. Such investments in processing and value addition infrastructure by eligible beneficiaries would also promote export of these processed and value-added commodities.

Since almost 50-60 per cent of final value of dairy output in India flows back to farmers, therefore, growth in this sector can have significant direct impact on farmer’s income. Size of dairy market and farmers’ realization from milk sales is closely linked with development of organized off-take by cooperative and private dairies. Thus, investment incentivization in AHIDF would not only leverage 7 times private investment but would also motivate farmers to invest more on inputs thereby driving higher productivity leading to increase in farmers’ incomes. The measures approved through AHIDF would also help in direct and indirect livelihood creation for 35 lakh persons.

Union Minister of State for Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying Shri Pratap Chandra Sarangi said that Government has decided to vaccinate 53.5 crore animals and 4 crore animals have already been vaccinated. Breed improvement is taking place through technology intervention. However, we are lagging in processing sector. Using the AHIDF, processing plants can be established for fodder also. This will help in doubling farmers’ incomes and contribute to achieving Hon’ble Prime Minister’s dream of a US$ 5 trillion economy.

Disclaimer: This information has been collected through secondary research and IBEF is not responsible for any errors in the same.

6.2. How Amul swung the great Indian milk run

Livemint, 14 Jul 2020, Sayantan Bera

The farmer-owned dairy cooperative is a case study in seamlessly maintaining supply chains during a pandemic
While many businesses have struggled to maintain their supply lines, Amul is likely to gain market share in 2020-21. Managing director R.S. Sodhi expects an enviable 15-16% revenue growth

NEW DELHI: Like millions of householders in India, Devender Sodhi, too, was glued to her television late evening on 24 March. India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi was expected to unveil a covid-19 crisis management plan. Barely six minutes into his speech, Modi announced a stringent 21-day lockdown to control the spread of the novel coronavirus.

No one will be allowed to move out of their homes from midnight, the Prime Minister proclaimed. Panicky households rushed to grocery stores to stock up on essentials. Twenty-two minutes into his speech, Modi said essential services would be exempted from the lockdown, but many did not wait that long.

Sodhi alerted her husband immediately after the speech. She wanted to stock up on milk, curd, butter and cottage cheese. The husband took a brisk seven-minute walk to reach the nearest milk parlour, but by then the shelves were nearly empty. He picked up whatever little was left: two small packs of curd and a pouch of butter milk.

Families across India went through a similar situation that night. The only difference is, the Sodhis are no ordinary household. The husband, Rupinder Singh Sodhi, happens to be the managing director of Amul, a popular household brand and India’s largest dairy company with an annual turnover of ₹52,000 crore.

On his way back, R.S. Sodhi thought, “If my own family is panicking what others must be going through." On reaching home, he quickly put out a video—shot by his wife on a mobile phone—assuring households that milk supplies will be normal. Being an essential food item, dairy products are exempted from the lockdown.

Around the time Sodhi recorded the video message which was sent out to news channels and social media, a crowd was gathering outside a warehouse more than 3,000km away. For the residents of Lunglei, a small hill town in north-eastern India’s Mizoram state, 9pm is well past midnight; shops usually down their shutters by six in the evening, but this wasn’t any other day.

“There was a winding queue outside our warehouse and we had no choice but to do retail sales," said Jennyfar Hrahshel, a distributor for Amul and other consumer products from the town. Her team worked late into the night. To Hrahshel’s surprise, there were no disruptions the next morning. The milk truck arrived on time.

Over the next three months she fulfilled the rising demand for milk as household consumption shot up. Demand for the iconic Amul butter and products like cheese nearly doubled, but there were no shortages.

India enforced a stringent lockdown between 25 March and 7 June but there were no instances of scarcity of dairy products or consumers being overcharged. In comparison, essential perishables like fruits and vegetables witnessed repeated fluctuations in prices and availability.

The lockdown was a testimony to how legacy dairy cooperatives saved the day for the Indian consumer. Presence of pan-India brands like Amul and others, such as Nandini in Karnataka, Aavin in Tamil Nadu or Verka in Punjab, meant steady supplies at regular prices.

Farmer members of these dairy cooperatives were also largely protected—unlike vegetable growers they did not have to dump their produce and received a fair price which is close to 80% of the consumer rupee. Compare that with, say, tomatoes, which urban consumers purchased at ₹50 a kg in the early days of the lockdown while farmers scrambled to get a tenth of the retail price. Even dairy farmers in states like Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra, where the cooperative network is weak, had to sell milk at a pittance, at rates of less than ₹20 a litre.

“The pandemic proved the inherent strengths of the cooperative dairy industry and the resilient supply chain built by brands like Amul which was later replicated across states (beginning 1970s)," said Harekrishna Misra, professor at the Institute of Rural Management Anand.

According to Misra, the Amul model was a social innovation built on trust and a disciplined supply chain. “Pandemic or no pandemic, it has never reneged on the promise of a stable price to both consumers and farmers despite milk being a highly perishable product."

Navigating a lockdown

India announced a total lockdown beginning 25 March but Amul was already geared up to prevent any disruptions to what Sodhi dubs its C2C (cow to consumer) and B2C (buffalo to consumer) supply chain.

That chain is a mammoth one. The Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation or GCMMF, which sells its products under the Amul brand, is owned by 3.6 million farmers. Of these, around 2.6 million farmers bring their milk twice daily to 18,600 village societies from where chilled milk is transported to district milk unions for processing into packaged milk and value-added products. The products then reach over a billion consumers daily via 10,000 distributors and a million retailers.

“More than a week before the lockdown was announced, we began preparations by intensively planning with supply chain partners," said Sodhi. Social distancing norms were introduced in village societies beginning 17 March along with new sanitization protocols.

Soon after the lockdown was in place, Amul announced cash incentives for dairy plant workers, drivers, sales executives, distributors and retailers. While casual workers received between ₹100 to ₹125 extra cash support for working during a pandemic, distributors got an extra 35 paisa incentive per litre of milk. Food and stay arrangements were made for workers inside dairy plants to avert any labour shortages.

Simultaneously, the company reached out to the Union home ministry and state animal husbandry departments to arrange passes for its workers and ensure that empty trucks were allowed to return (after delivering milk products).

To ensure uninterrupted supply of packaging materials, it engaged with district collectors where packaging factories were located. Amul even arranged for cattle feed to be transported from states like Punjab and Haryana for its farmers in Gujarat. Close to 45% of its products were moved via freight trains, which cut down transit time.

During a half-an-hour conversation over the phone, Vijay Shete, the head of Amul’s Taloja plant in Mumbai, repeatedly used the phrase “take care", while explaining the most challenging part of the lockdown—assuaging the fears of casual workers.

On 22 March, three days before the lockdown was announced, when worried labourers refused to work at the plant, Shete and his staff had to work till 3am. It was an early warning. “We started taking extra care of our workers, arranging for their food and stay plus cash incentives. From warm water for drinking to Ayurvedic medicines (for improving immunity), we did everything we could," Shete said.

Shete takes pride in the fact that not a single case of infection was reported among plant workers. And not a single litre of milk was wasted. The plant could seamlessly handle over 500,000 litres of milk it received daily.

A pandemic boost

Rating agency Crisil estimates that revenue growth in the Indian dairy sector will be flat during 2020-21, compared to a 10% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) over the past decade due to weak sales of value-added products like flavoured milk, cheese and yogurt, which are more profitable than liquid milk. The closure of hotels and restaurants, which account for 20% revenues of the organized dairy sector, coupled with negligible consumption of products like ice-creams could reduce operating profitability by 50-75 basis points, Crisil said.

Amul, however, is likely to buck this trend. As unorganized trade and small dairies withdrew from milk procurement, Amul received 15-17% more milk from farmers. Demand for Amul’s liquid packaged milk went up by 5-7% compared to pre-covid times as households chose a trusted brand over loose milk.

Demand for cheese and paneer is at least 30% more despite closure of hotels and restaurants, while butter and ghee sales are up by 10-20%. Demand for ice creams nosedived during the lockdown but Amul was quick to divert its distribution network for ice creams to other product segments.

“The consumer’s trust in Amul and uninterrupted deliveries helped us to grow during this period. We managed to put ₹12,000 crore cash in the hands of the dairy farmers who supplied raw milk to us," said Sodhi. The result: while many businesses struggled during the pandemic to maintain its supply lines and product sales, Amul is likely to gain market share. In 2020-21, Sodhi is expecting an enviable 15-16% revenue growth, only marginally lower than the 17% CAGR seen in the past years.

“The advantage of the Amul cooperative model is that profits are not a business target. They never turn a farmer away and the primary objective is to deliver products at the lowest possible price to the consumer," said Sunil Alagh, former CEO of Britannia Industries.

“It has done a brilliant job (during the lockdown) drawing on its work culture, image and the massive trust it enjoys among consumers. But it could have used this opportunity to enter in a bigger way into adjacent categories like biscuits," he added.

Lessons from history

The brand wasn’t built in a day, of course. Way back in 1957, the Kaira milk union in Gujarat’s Anand, under the leadership of its legendary general manager Verghese Kurien, chose the name Amul, derived from the Sanskrit word amulya, which means priceless. Even before India got its independence, farmers of the Kaira union were battling a mighty private firm, Polson Dairy, which deliberately kept milk prices low, forcing them to organize under a cooperative.

“As the chief executive of their cooperative my main goal became to ensure the best deal for the farmers... without exploiting the consumer," wrote Kurien in his autobiography I Too Had a Dream. “Very soon I was convinced that one of our key areas of concentration would have to be marketing of these products... there could have been no production of anything unless it was marketed at a price advantageous to those who produced it, which provided them with an incentive to produce more and more."

The result was one of the longest-running campaigns in Indian advertising history: the Amul mascot, an adorable little girl wearing a polka-dotted skirt, who appeared on packs of butter with the punchline “Utterly, Butterly, Delicious."

The roaring success of the Amul brand was what prompted the then prime minister Lal Bahadur Shastri to request Kurien to help replicate the Amul model across the country. In the summer of 1970, the official launch of “the billion litre idea" also known as Operation Flood eventually catapulted India to become the largest producer of milk in the world. It is largely these farmer-owned dairy cooperatives which prevented any supply disruption during the ongoing pandemic.

And not just that—the recently released Kantar’s Brand Footprint report shows that co-operative dairies such as Amul, Aavin and Nandini are among the top brands chosen by the Indian consumer. Among all fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) brands in India, Amul was only second to Parle biscuits.

“The success of the Amul model is a result of a unique mix—a company owned by farmers, managed by professionals, where consumer safety and trust are paramount," said T. Nanda Kumar, former chairman of the National Dairy Development Board. “If farmers’ share in the consumer rupee is a measure of success, Amul could be a benchmark while fixing the fruits and vegetables supply chain in India."

7.1. 2,000 multi-brand retail outlets to be opened in Haryana under cooperative department

PTI, Jul. 20, 2020

Khattar said that through the cooperative department the state government is coming out with a new brand 'Harit' under which 2,000 multi-brand retail outlets will be set up.

Chandigarh: Under the aegis of Haryana's Cooperative Department, 2,000 multi-brand retail outlets will be opened in the state to encourage young entrepreneurs, Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar said on Sunday. Khattar said that through the cooperative department the state government is coming out with a new brand 'Harit' under which 2,000 multi- brand retail outlets will be set up.

These outlets will have products from state's own brand Vita as well as items from other states like dairy products, fruit juices, bottled water, items prepared from Self Help Groups etc, Khattar told a news conference here this evening.

The conference was regarding the Ordinances related to the agriculture sector, which Khattar said were in the interests of farmers and hit out at those who are trying to "mislead the peasants" on this.

The Centre had promulgated three ordinances--the Farmers' Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Ordinance, Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Ordinance, and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Ordinance.

He said that some vested groups were trying to spread "disinformation" on the Ordinances and mislead the farmers.

Notably, in neighbouring Punjab, some farmers' outfits had already announced to hold a state-wide protest on July 20 against the ordinances and rising fuel prices.

Khattar said both MSP and assured marketing continue unhindered.

Referring to the Ordinances being in the interest of peasants, he said some systems will have to be changed as farmers income has to be doubled.

"But some vested groups are trying to mislead farmers, but farmers should not be misled by anyone," he said and spelled out several steps which the BJP led government in the state and at the Centre had taken in the past for peasants' benefit.

He said even during difficult times caused by COVID-19 situation, the state government introduced new things for farmers' benefit during crop procurement.

About the Ordinances, he said these will give farmers wider choice to sell their produce to anyone without restrictions.

"Some people are trying to mislead that MSP system will be scrapped, which is baseless. I will appeal farmers not to be misled by vested groups. Our every step is in the larger interest of common people, poor and farmers," he said.

He said more warehousing facilities will be set up, dryer units will be increased, infrastructure for agricultural products will be increased.

"These things are in the interests of farmers. It will also golden opportunity for farmers to explore markets. Even Arhitiyas (Commission Agents) can make agreement with farmers acting as purchaser of the farmers' produce," he said.

The move will also encourage diversification of crops as farmers will get wider market now, he said.

Khattar also talked about new initiative, in which sampling area for providing soil health cards will be reduced from 2.5 acres to 2.5 acres.

"Till now 2.5 acres patch was taken as sample to issue soil health card, we are going to make area smaller to one acre to give certification. We will register the same in revenue record as we are already undertaking digitizing the land record and it will be mentioned what is the soil quality of a particular patch. For this, we are going to open more labs.

"We will also utilize chemistry labs in colleges and schools and make provisions to keep an equipment for testing soil, which can be done by students even. Thus, we will be involving schools and colleges in this. We have 70 lakh acres of land and in three years certification of soil has to be done once," he said.

Referring to his government's "Mera Pani Meri Virsasat" crop diversification scheme, he said as against target of sowing alternate crops other than paddy on 1 lakh hectares of land, farmers have already diversified to other crops over 1.18 lakh hectares.

On another issue, he said steps had been taken to extend support to needy sections who had been adversely hit by the pandemic.

State's revenue had been adversely affected during three months due to COVID-19 situation, said Khattar, adding that things were returning back to track in July.

"We lost Rs 12,000 crore revenue by the situation. Now, in July things have started to come back to normal-be it GST, Excise, VAT collections are nearing back to normal, though revenue from transport sector is still down," he added.

7.2. Mega food park launched in Mizoram, to benefit 25,000 farmers and create 5,000 jobs

ET Bureau, Jul. 20, 2020, Madhvi Sally

“The park will leverage an additional investment of about Rs 250 crore in about 30 food processing units in the park and would eventually lead to a turnover of about Rs 450-500 Crores annually,” Food Processing Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal said in the statement.

New Delhi: Food Processing Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal launched a food park in Mizoram that will benefit 25,000 farmers and create 5,000 jobs, an official statement said.

Badal said that in the last six years, 88 projects including 7 in Mizoram, have been initiated for north-eastern India with an outlay of Rs 1000 crore by her ministry which will directly benefit 3 lakh farmers and will provide job opportunities to 50,000 youth from the region.

The minister for development of the north-eastern region, Jitendra said that Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has accorded highest priority to the region in the last 6 years and the changed the work culture with micro attention to the needs and aspirations of the region.

Singh said the park would help double the income of farmers in the area by doing away with the middlemen. He said nearly 40% wastage of fruits in the absence of any processing unit. He said, the North-East Region has the potential to become the Organic Destination of the world due to its rich agricultural and horticultural produce. He informed that Sikkim has already been declared as an organic state.

8. Big Boost to Khadi; Indian Red Cross Society to Buy 1.80 lakh Face Masks from KVIC

IBEF, Jul. 31, 2020

As the popularity of the Khadi Face Masks grows across the country due to its fine quality and affordable price, the Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) has received a prestigious purchase order from Indian Red Cross Society (IRCS) to supply 1.80 lakh face masks.

As per KVIC, the IRCS masks will be made of 100 per cent double-twisted handcrafted cotton fabric in brown colour with red piping. KVIC has especially designed these double-layered cotton masks for the Indian Red Cross Society as per the samples provided by them. The mask will have suitably printed IRCS logo on the left side and the Khadi India tag on the right side. The supply of masks will begin by next month.

The execution of this order will require over 20,000 meter of fabric which will generate 9000 additional man days for the Khadi artisans.

KVIC Chairman, Shri Vinai Kumar Saxena welcomed the purchase order from the Indian Red Cross Society and said the massive demand of Khadi Face Masks is a major step in the direction of “Aatmanirbhar Bharat”. “This order will help our Khadi artisans to produce more yarn and fabric and will further add to their income in these difficult times,” Saxena said.

KVIC has added that so far it has sold over 10 lakh face masks which include double layered Cotton Masks and triple-layered Silk Masks. The biggest order for face masks that the KVIC received was from the Jammu & Kashmir government for 7 lakh masks that has been delivered on time.

Approximately 1 lakh meter of Cotton fabric worth over Rs one crore (US$ 0.14 million) and nearly 2000 meters of Silk fabric of different colours and prints has been used in making these masks till recently.

KVIC received repeat orders from the Rashtrapati Bhavan, Prime Minister’s Office, Central Government ministries and orders from public through KVIC’s E-portal. KVIC has supplied over 20,000 face masks to the Indian Railways too. Apart from the sale, KVIC has free distributed nearly 10 lakh Khadi masks to the District Authorities though its Khadi Institutions across the country.

“Face Masks are the most critical tool to fight the Corona Pandemic. These masks prepared from Double Twisted Khadi fabric not only meet the quality and scale of demand but are cost effective, breathable, washable, reusable and bio-degradable” Saxena added.

Disclaimer: This information has been collected through secondary research and IBEF is not responsible for any errors in the same.

9.1. India can be among top-5 agri goods exporters with effective policies: Report

IBEF, Jul. 31, 2020

According to a report by the World Trade Centre, India can be among the top five exporters of agro-commodities by shifting its focus on cultivation and effectively handholding farmers.

The Government has also introduced some reforms in the farm sector by permitting farmers to sell produce outside the regulated APMC markets, and relaxing the Essential Commodities Act, among others, which can help boost exports.

The country ranked eighth with an annual agro exports of US$ 39 billion in 2019, after the EU (US$ 181 billion), the US (US$ 172 billion), Brazil (US$ 93 billion), China (US$ 83 billion), Canada (US$ 69 billion), Indonesia (US$ 46 billion) and Thailand (US$ 44 billion), quoted the WTC report.

The report added, "Through focused intervention in capacity-building, we can enhance our agro exports to surpass Thailand and Indonesia and become the fifth-largest exporter in the world".

In order to achieve this, the first step is to re-orient the role of the government extension centres — the 715 krishi vigyan kendras across the country and to handhold farmers in growing those varieties of crops that have demand in the global markets, added report.

The study noted that Indian consignments get rejected many a time because of the presence of pesticides above the prescribed maximum residual limits, Thus, farmers should be guided through Krishi Vigyan Kendras on prudential use of pesticides and other chemicals so that they conform to the global quality standards.

"Having attained self-sufficiency in agriculture, we need to re-orient our extension services system, which was developed in the days of the green revolution that focused on attaining self-sufficiency in farm production," the report said.

It further added that it is time we move towards growing quality food for the global markets rather than quantity.

One of the major areas could be cultivating horticulture crops that abide to the quality, colour, shape, and chemical contents acceptable in foreign countries or which are fit for further processing.

India is the second-largest producer of fruits and vegetables, but the share in global exports is under 1.8 per cent. It is the largest producer of papayas, lemons, and limes; however, we meet hardly 3.2 per cent of the world papaya demand, 0.5 per cent for lemons and limes, according to data from the Food and Agriculture Organization.

It was seen that India made remarkable progress in exports of niche items like capsicum chilly, castor oil, tobacco extracts, and sweet biscuits, apart from basmati rice, meat, and marine products in the past decade.

"These success stories should be and can be replicated in other potential food items," the report concluded.

Disclaimer: This information has been collected through secondary research and IBEF is not responsible for any errors in the same.

9.2. Mother Dairy enters bread segment, aims Rs 25,000 crore turnover in next 5 years

IBEF, Jul. 31, 2020

Mother Dairy, a leading milk supplier in Delhi-NCR, forayed into bread segment as part of its strategy to diversify business, and announced its target to more than double its revenue to Rs 25,000 crore (US$ 3.55 million) in the next five years.

It launched three different type of bread- sandwich, brown and fruit and milk bread priced between Rs 15 (US$ 0.21) and Rs 40 (US$ 0.56). The breads will be available at its existing network of booths in Delhi-NCR.

“Mother Dairy already offers milk, butter, cheese, curd and fruits. With bread, we also want to raise awareness about breakfast and how it is the most important meal of the day. It has been found that one out of four Indians in metro cities, skip breakfast, which could lead to chronic diseases," said Mr Sangram Chaudhary, managing director at Mother Dairy Fruit and Vegetable Private Ltd.

The company has set a target of Rs 100 crore (US$ 14.19 million) revenue from bread segment over the next three years.

Mr Chaudhary said the newly introduced range will strengthens the company’s breakfast portfolio as a source of protein with low-fat content.

The bread market in India is estimated to be Rs 5,300 crore (US$ 751.88 million) currently and is expanding at an average growth rate of 10 per cent for last five years.

Mr Chaudhary said that the company has introduced around 20 new products in the market, including five types of sweets.

Consumption pattern has seen a change during the pandemic time as people are opting for home delivery of products.

Mr Chaudhary said, "The bread market in India is localised due to logistical and supply chain issues. With Mother Dairy, this has never been a challenge because of our existing network. Hence, having bread in our kitty was a natural fit."

Mr Sanjay Sharma, business head of dairy products, said “Breads are being currently manufactured by a third party and will be sold through 1,800 company outlets in the first phase. However, retail distribution network as well as product portfolio would be expanded based on customers' response.”

Mother Dairy was established in 1974 as a wholly owned subsidiary of the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB), under 'Operation Flood' initiative, world's biggest dairy development program launched to make India a milk-sufficient nation.

Currently, it has a portfolio in edible oils under Dhara and fresh fruits and vegetables and frozen vegetables under Safal brand, the bread launch comes close on the heels of the launch of Haldi Milk.

Disclaimer: This information has been collected through secondary research and IBEF is not responsible for any errors in the same.

10. Studds commissions 2 new facilities in Haryana; invests Rs 200 crore in plants

IBEF, Aug. 11, 2020

Studds Accessories, a leading helmet manufacturing company, commissioned two new facilities at Faridabad in Haryana entailing total investment of Rs 200 crore (US$ 28.37 million). The company made an initial investment of around Rs 160 crore (US$ 22.70 million) to set up the largest helmet manufacturing facility in Asia, Studds Accessories said in a statement.

The plant is spread across an area of over 5.5 acres and will also produce bicycle helmets for domestic market besides motorcycle helmets, including the Shifter and Thunder series.

It has also commenced operations at another production unit which has in-house production line for expanded polystyrene (EPS), which is the most important safety feature in a helmet.

The second plant is spread across 1.5 acres and investment of Rs 40 crore (US$ 5.67 million) has been made, marking a total investment of over Rs 200 crore (US$ 28.37 million) in the manufacturing plants, Studds said.

"With the goal of expanding our production efficiency, our new plants would provide employment prospects for local citizens as well as add to the overall economic growth," Studds Accessories Ltd Managing Director Mr Sidhartha Bhushan Khurana said.

He added that the new plants will have production capacity of 75 lakh units of motorcycle helmets and 15 lakh bicycle helmets per annum.

The facilities will ensure direct employment for over 1,500 individuals, Mr Khurana said.

"Currently, we have just begun operations and are planning to ramp up production gradually. With the commencement of our new plants, we have doubled our production capacity from 7 million to 14 million units of motorcycle helmets," he added.

With these new manufacturing units, Studds now has four manufacturing factories in the country, all of them located in Faridabad, Haryana.

Export of helmets by the company is been done to more than 40 countries and the new plant is aimed at ramping up the exports.

Studds also plans to introduce a new range of exciting helmets in this financial year, it said.

Disclaimer: This information has been collected through secondary research and IBEF is not responsible for any errors in the same.

- INDUSTRY & MANUFACTURE

11.1. KVIC opens state-of-the-art Footwear Training Center for Leather Artisans in Delhi

IBEF, Jul. 17, 2020

The first-of-its-kind footwear training center in Delhi to train the marginalized community of leather artisans was inaugurated by Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC). The center has been established with the technical knowhow of Central Footwear Training Institute (CFTI), Agra, a unit of the Ministry of MSME. The “KVIC-CFTI Footwear Training Cum Production Center” located at Gandhi Darshan, Rajghat, will provide a comprehensive 2-months training program to leather artisans for making high-quality footwear.

KVIC Chairman Shri VK Saxena while inaugurating the centre termed the leather artisans as “Charm Chikitsak” (leather doctors). The training center will also provide logistical support to the trained artisans in starting their own shoe-making business once their two-months training is successfully completed. The artisans will also be provided a tool kit worth Rs 5,000 (US$ 70.93) for carrying out their activities in future.

The KVIC-CFTI Footwear Training Cum Production Center equipped with advanced tool kits and machinery has been set up in a record time of less than two months. The inauguration was, however, delayed due to lockdown. Initially the training programs was designed for a batch of 40 leather artisans but keeping in view the social distancing norms in wake of Corona disease, the number has been reduced to a batch of 20 artisans. KVIC is setting up a similar footwear training center in Varanasi also.

The KVIC Chairman said the training of leather artisans or the 'charm chikitsak' is aligned with the Prime Minister’s vision of “Sabka Sath, Sabka Vikas”.

He said footwear has become an integral part of fashion and shoe-making no longer remains a menial job. “Through this training center, we are trying to rope in maximum people with shoe-making activities. The program has been so designed that in just two months’ time, the artisans will be able to manufacture all kinds of footwear. This will increase their income by manifold,” the KVIC Chairman said.

Disclaimer: This information has been collected through secondary research and IBEF is not responsible for any errors in the same.

11.2. Sunteck Realty adds new housing project in Mumbai, aims Rs 5,000 cr revenue in 5-7 years

IBEF, Jul. 23, 2020

Sunteck Realty entered a joint development agreement with land-owners to construct a housing project in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region that has a revenue potential of Rs 5,000 crore (US$ 709.32 million) over the next five-seven years.

According to the company’s regulatory filing, the agreement was done between multiple parties that own the land for the residential project in Vasai (West).

The company, in a separate filing, said that it has acquired a prime project of about 50 acres in Vasai (West), having a development potential of around 4.5 million sq ft in Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR).

"The project will have a revenue potential of Rs 5,000 crore (US$ 709.32 million) over the next five-seven years, further strengthening the cash flow and the balance sheet of the company," the company said.

Mr Kamal Khetan Chairman and Managing Director of Sunteck Realty said, “The project will largely cater to the mid-income segment, especially post the COVID-19 scenario, since it fulfils the emerging customer needs: residential premises that complement today's luxurious lifestyle and suit the requirements for work-from-home".

Mumbai-based Sunteck Realty is a luxury real estate development company and has a portfolio of about 31 million square feet spread across 26 projects.

Disclaimer: This information has been collected through secondary research and IBEF is not responsible for any errors in the same.

12.1. India on the cusp of the age of super apps

Livemint, 12 Jul. 2020, Mihir Dalal

Business is down, of course, but the internet economy has received a big digital push thanks to the pandemic
Most shoppers still use different apps across e-commerce, travel, food delivery and other sectors. With the increasing depth and width in the internet economy, this could change

BENGALURU: India’s first nationwide lockdown in late March did not spare internet businesses. The internet market shrank to about 15% of pre-covid levels over the next month. But starting from May, when lockdowns were eased and the initial disruptions in supply chains were largely resolved, the internet ecosystem has been seeing a slow and steady recovery driven by sectors like e-commerce, online pharmacies and digital education.

In June, the internet market rose to an annualized $45 billion, well below its pre-covid level of $75 billion annualized, but up sharply from its April number of $10 billion, according to a report by market research and advisory firm RedSeer Management Consulting Pvt. Ltd.

The numbers are the latest proof that the outbreak of the novel coronavirus has battered internet businesses. The pandemic’s impact, however, has been extremely uneven. While sectors like travel, hospitality and mobility have collapsed, it has brought about an unprecedented boom in sectors like online grocery and digital education.

In an effort to identify the internet companies that have benefited most from the lockdown, RedSeer has compiled a Covid Impact Leadership Index that it shared in a report with Mint. To arrive at a score, RedSeer used three parameters: resilience, which looks at metrics like new customer additions and time spent; innovation, which captures consumer perception of new products, services and features launched by the internet platforms during the lockdown; and empathy, which measures the consumer perception of the health focus and charitable contributions of the internet companies.

According to the index, the big winners of the lockdown were BigBasket, Flipkart’s grocery ordering app Supermart and Amazon’s grocery business. These were followed by Grofers, Netflix and PharmEasy. Other top performers in the index include Amazon Prime, Medlife, Paytm and PhonePe.

The index is entirely based on consumer surveys. RedSeer surveyed more than 7,000 internet users across 30 cities to compile the index, which covers about 100 internet companies. All these users were people who had bought products from the companies in the index. The index covers the period from late March to late May.

The RedSeer report shows that millions of people who were earlier buying only a small number of products and services on the internet were forced to move a large part of their overall spending to the digital medium from offline.

In the last three months, customer retention rates have shot up anywhere between two to three times for internet platforms. At the same time, their customer acquisition costs plunged as much as 80%, and even more in some spaces like online grocery, e-pharmacies and online education, RedSeer data shows.

Given that internet companies spent up to $3 billion on customer acquisition in 2019, the savings will provide a boost to the companies’ bottom-lines this year. For the winners, it’s a dream combination: add millions of new users and retain most of them while spending far less money to attract them.

Notwithstanding the short-term hit, these trends indicate that the pandemic has triggered some structural shifts in consumer spending habits and usage patterns that will bring huge benefits to internet companies over the coming years.

The report’s findings confirm what entrepreneurs in spaces like online grocery, e-pharmacies and digital education have been saying. Companies like BigBasket, Grofers, Practo, 1 mg, Byju’s and Unacademy are all registering a spike in usage and sales even as India braces for a sharp economic contraction this year. These companies are all in talks to raise large amounts of capital at soaring valuations amid a broader funding downturn for internet startups.

State of the internet

The recovery in the internet economy has been driven by a strong rebound in e-commerce. Compared with January levels, online retail was up by more than 10% to an annualized $33 billion in June, compared with January. In the first six months of 2020, private consumption spending dropped by as much as 33% from last year’s levels. Given the drop in offline retail, e-commerce comprised 4.5% of India’s overall retail market in June, a big jump from 3% in January.

Pent-up demand and clearance sales have driven recovery of e-commerce across sectors, RedSeer said. Still, more than 50% of the people in the survey said that they will “trade down"—buy cheaper brands—over the next six months in discretionary categories like fashion, electronics and personal care, reflecting worries about the poor economy and income losses. This means that the private label products of online retailers like Flipkart and Amazon India may become a key area of focus.

Within e-commerce, nearly all categories, except fashion, grew in size in June compared with January. The sharpest expansion came in online groceries, large appliances and other electronic products. Products like laptops and televisions are seeing high demand as people across large and small cities are forced to continue working from home.

The growth in online groceries has sustained despite the partial reopening in cities. RedSeer said that e-groceries has seen the addition of two major sets of customers: middle-age people in metros and affluent users in tier II cities and below. Previously, online grocery services were mostly used by millennials in big cities.

Sales of fashion products, however, are still down from pre-covid levels, as people working from home have cut back spending on clothes and footwear. Still, even within fashion, online firms have fared much better than offline chains like Shoppers Stop and Future Group that are struggling to attract customers after reopening their stores in some cities.

Three other sectors have benefitted from the pandemic: online healthcare, digital education and entertainment content. Scores of patients and doctors both have been forced to rely on digital health platforms to treat fevers, coughs, mental illnesses and other ailments as many clinics remain shut. More people are ordering medicine online. Internet penetration in digital health doubled to 2% of the overall market in June from January, RedSeer data shows.

With schools and colleges shut, and the fear of transmission leading to a cancellation of offline tuition classes, digital education has seen a surge in demand. Digital education doubled in size in June from pre-covid levels. By 2022, the sector will grow to $3.5 billion from about $750 million last year, according to RedSeer estimates. Audio and video entertainment apps like Netflix, Amazon’s Prime Video and Jio’s Saavn have seen usage jump to all-time highs. By adding dozens of new films, TV shows and other content and offering flexible pricing plans, their subscription numbers have increased too.

Travel, expectedly, has collapsed. The size of the online travel market shrank to $2.2 billion in June from nearly $22 billion in January, according to RedSeer’s data. All affected companies, including Oyo, MakeMyTrip, Yatra, Treebo and others have cut thousands of jobs since March.

Another sector badly hurt by the pandemic is mobility. In May, bookings at mobility firms like Ola, Uber, Bounce, Vogo and others were less than 10% of their pre-covid figures. These firms, too, have cut hundreds of jobs and other expenses to conserve cash in order to tide over the crisis.

Demand for food delivery has also slumped, hurting both Swiggy and Zomato. In June, the food delivery sector was at just 40% of its regular size, according to RedSeer. People have cut back on ordering food in favour of cooking meals at home. Restaurant and bar visits were completely halted till the end of May. Though some state governments began to allow restaurants to open last month, only 20-30% of all dine-in restaurants in India are operating, as per RedSeer estimates. Even these are now struggling to attract customers.

However, both Swiggy and Zomato were among the top 15 in RedSeer’s index, mostly because people surveyed said they appreciated the efforts of the two companies to protect the health of their workers and customers by introducing measures like contactless delivery and temperature checks of delivery executives. Swiggy’s expansion of its grocery service was also well-received by customers.

In terms of recovery of the struggling sectors, the survey showed that people expect the mobility and food delivery spaces to regain 90% of their old business by December. Travel, however, could take far longer to recover.

Cross-platform usage

In 2019, of the 583 million internet users in India, only 232 million people paid for any service or product online at least once (the rest used the internet primarily for messaging and browsing), according to RedSeer. And even among the 232 million, only 135 million bought products from e-commerce platforms, indicating the relative shallowness of the internet economy.

According to RedSeer, it is largely the same set of users that has driven the recovery in the internet economy since May. What’s different is that users who were earlier only buying something once or twice a year in the past have now been forced to buy both more frequently and a wider range of goods and services.

“There hasn’t been much expansion in the overall number of transacting users, but there is a steep growth in the number of serious or holistic users who are shopping on multiple platforms," said Mrigank Gutgutia, an associate director, RedSeer.

RedSeer said that this change could finally sustain so-called super apps in India.

Super apps are dominant in China’s internet space where platforms owned by Tencent, Alibaba and Meituan-Dianping offer a wide range of products and services like e-commerce, travel bookings, food delivery and cab bookings all within the same app. In India, so far, this concept hasn’t worked. Most online shoppers still use different apps across e-commerce, travel, food delivery and other sectors. With the increasing depth and width in the internet economy, this could change, potentially providing a boost to Paytm, PhonePe and Amazon Pay, which are attempting to become super apps.

“From the customer surveys, what has emerged is that there are now a very large number of online users who are using multiple platforms. We believe that this is the right time for a super app to emerge," Gutgutia said.

12.2. Phonemakers in India build capacity to tap global orders

Livemint, 10 Aug. 2020, Prasid Banerjee

Lava plans to produce as many as 100 million smartphones annually in the next few years

Smartphone makers have already begun investing in expanding capacities and their manufacturing capabilities to move beyond just assembling phones

Smartphone makers in India are seeing rising interest from global firms for partnerships to produce phones and key components in India, said two senior industry executives.

This comes amid border tensions between India and China, and the Modi administration’s call for self-reliance in the production of mobile phones and electronic parts. The government announced in June a production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme for firms to promote electronics manufacturing.

“We are looking at a very big opportunity, and we’re already in talks with large global players for servicing not only the domestic markets but also export markets," said Atul Lall, CEO of Dixon Technologies.

Dixon Technologies also owns Padget Electronics—among domestic manufacturers that have applied for the ₹41,000 crore PLI that aims to make India a global manufacturing hub for smartphones. The country is currently the world’s second-largest smartphone market, with 152.5 million units shipped in 2019, according to IDC.

According to government estimates, global and Indian companies that have applied for the PLI scheme will produce goods worth ₹11.5 trillion over five years and export about half of the production.

The scheme extends an incentive of 4% to 6% on incremental sales of goods manufactured in India under the targeted segments.

Smartphone makers have already begun investing in expanding capacities and their manufacturing capabilities to move beyond just assembling phones, to a more “design-led" manufacturing approach that includes software and hardware design, and product aesthetics.

“We also have to extend our service to the electronics manufacturing sector (EMS). And that’s the reason why we’re investing in Sojo as well for EMS," said Shailendra Nath Rai, co-founder of the Lava brand of smartphones. Lava and its unit, Sojo Manufacturing Services, have also applied for the PLI scheme. EMS includes the manufacturing of display panels, camera modules, silicon wafers and other parts.

Lava plans to produce as many as 100 million smartphones annually in the next few years, while Dixon’s Lall said the company will be able to make almost 70-to-80 million smartphones per year soon. Both did not give a specific time frame.

To attract large mobile phone vendors to India, the country needs to ramp up its manufacturing capacity, Rai said, adding that Lava is already investing in building Sojo’s capacities to meet future requirements.

13.1. Panasonic turns focus on tier 2 and tier 3 towns, bets big on first time buyers

IBEF, Jul. 23, 2020

Local arm of Japanese consumer electronics major Panasonic has speeded up the plan to take its products into India's smaller towns, as COVID-led lockdowns have encouraged shoppers in these markets to buy new home appliances and electronics while they spend more time at home.

Bharat Marketing was set up by the company as a separate function internally. The main work of Bharat Marketing is to connect with more trade partners, use technology to gather real time information on its inventory in smaller markets and also customize products to suit needs of shoppers in the country's tier 2, 3 cities and rural pockets.

“What we are doing we are now mapping India separately—which is the bigger cities and urban markets. All the universe of trade channels, the display of products and partners whom we deal with—will be separate for bigger towns and separate for smaller towns. So we have formed a function in our organization called Bharat Marketing with a focus group to create and execute a strategy towards smaller towns, rural markets," Mr Manish Sharma, president and CEO, Panasonic India and South Asia said.

There was increase in first time buyers in small towns and semi-urban areas, once the COVID lockdown restrictions were eased. This, said Mr Sharma, has prompted the company to accelerate its plans.

"Ideally this was planned for next financial year i.e. April 2021. But we really understood that it was important for us to set up this focus group as immediately as possible because the opportunity is exponentially shaping up," he said.

Panasonic has portfolio in range of home appliances such as direct cool refrigerators, one tonne air conditioners, semi-automatic top load washing machines, and small screen television sets that has already reached India's smaller markets.

This increase is on the back of COVID-19 and the following restrictions on movement, which has left millions spending more time at home. It has pushed consumers to upgrade appliances and go for bigger refrigerators and television sets; shoppers also bought laptops and mobile phones as they work and study from home. In order to ease the household chores, first time buyers have also shown up at stores asking for washing machines and refrigerators.

Furthermore, with consumers turning frugal and cutting back on discretionary spends in a post-COVID world, Mr Sharma reckons they are spending on items they urgently require.

Although, most retailers mainly apparel and footwear, are still struggling with sales severely affected by COVID, appliance and consumer electronics retailers have seen a surprising uptick in demand.

Sales in the month of June across retailers of electronics and appliances was 70-75 per cent pre-COVID levels.

Mr Sharma says the uptick in home appliances and consumer electronics is likely to sustain, especially as penetration of white goods in India is still low. For instance, refrigerator penetration in India is at 34.1 per cent, while that of washing machines is 14.3 per cent, for air conditioners it is much lower 4.8 per cent. While, LED TVs have a much higher penetration rate at 61.9 per cent.

"This is a tectonic shift in the way we live, so in some sense it isn't just a pent up demand situation we are looking at, this is a situation which is going to continue," he said.

The company also plans to accelerate customizing products for such markets. The group will simultaneously focus on identifying products that need to be customized for those markets, Mr Sharma said.

Disclaimer: This information has been collected through secondary research and IBEF is not responsible for any errors in the same.

13.2. Kodak TV to invest Rs 500 crore to set up plant in Hapur

IBEF, Aug. 05, 2020

Kodak TV India plans to invest over Rs 500 crore (US$ 70.93 million) in the next three years to set up a fully automated television manufacturing plant in Hapur, Uttar Pradesh.

Super Plastronics Pvt Ltd (SPPL), the brand licensee in India for Kodak TV, said the first phase of the plant would be operational by the end of 2021. This move is expected to help the company increase the local value addition and disrupt the affordable smart TV market in India, it added.

It intends to use this manufacturing plant for developing and testing Android TV products within India and reduce dependency on imports from other countries, SPPL said in a statement.

The company further added, “It will make an investment of more than Rs 500 crore (US$ 70.93 million) over the next three years in a fully automated TV manufacturing plant in Hapur, UP to provide a thrust to its Make in India commitment and leverage its Android certification."

"With this investment, we are planning to increase our manufacturing capacity to one million units in the new unit. All our future projects will be developed and tested in India in partnership with Google. With this new plant we will generate more than 2000 jobs," SSPL founder and CEO Mr Avneet Singh Marwah said.

The local value addition in TV manufacturing will go up to 50-60 per cent, he added.

"Currently, the Indian TV industry imports most of the raw materials and has a value addition of only 10-12 per cent. However, with this investment and Partnership with Google.... Kodak TV aims to increase value addition to 50-60 per cent," said Mr Marwah.

He added that the new plant and R&D centre will help manufacture technology-driven products and introduce more manufacturing lines aligned to Make in India.

"The certified Android TV manufacturing plant with complete backward integration and R&D centre will be operational by 2021.

"With a capacity to produce a million TV sets annually, the new facility will be equipped with two fully automated, AI-enabled manufacturing lines to facilitate near-contactless production," the company said.

SPPL is also a brand licensee for French electronics brand Thomson.

In June 2020, the company had announced its plan to invest Rs 1,000 crore (US$ 141.86 million) over the next five years to expand its manufacturing capacity and strengthen its presence in the consumer electronics and appliances segment.

Currently, SPPL has three manufacturing plants, located in Noida, Una, and Jammu.

Disclaimer: This information has been collected through secondary research and IBEF is not responsible for any errors in the same.

14. Average completion time for houses under restructured Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana-Gramin comes down to 114 days; 1.10 crore houses completed which includes houses to 1.46 lakh landless beneficiaries

IBEF, Jul. 27, 2020

To achieve the objective of “Housing for all by the year 2022”, Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi launched the restructured rural housing scheme, namely Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana-Gramin (PMAY-G) on 20th November, 2016 with the target of construction of 2.95 crore houses with all basic amenities by the year 2022.

The selection of beneficiaries through a three-stage validation (Socio Economic Caste Census 2011, Gram Sabha, and geo-tagging) has ensured selection of the poorest of the poor under PMAY-G. The department took various measures including IT/DBT to ensure smooth flow of fund to the beneficiaries account, use of new housing designs after studying local region specific typologies, evidence based monitoring through geo-tagged photos taken at all pre-determined stages of construction, transaction based MIS, adequate provision of fund, training of rural masons etc., for timely completion of houses.

All these measures ensured increased pace for construction of houses resulting in completion of 1.10 crore houses which includes houses to 1.46 lakh landless beneficiaries under Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana-Gramin (PMAY-G). The increased pace of work has been reflected in the NIPFP study which indicated 114 days as average completion time for Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana-Gramin (PMAY-G) as compared to 314 days earlier. The Ministry of Rural Development has also completed construction of around 72 lakh houses under Indira Awas Yojana totalling construction of 182 lakh houses since 2014.

PMAY-G also addresses the basic needs of households through convergence with various government programmes. The poor not only get a home but also get up to 90-95 days of work under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS). Their homes are also provided electricity connection under the existing Ministry of Power schemes and LPG connection under Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Scheme besides the households’ toilet under Swachh Bharat Mission / MGNREGS and tap connection under Jal Jeeval Mission. Efforts have also been made to provide livelihood development and diversification opportunities to 1.82 crore rural households, under Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana-National Rural Livelihood Mission (DAY-NRLM).

With partnership with the States, the Ministry of Rural Development is confident that with a large number of houses under different stages of completion and increased pace of completion of houses, it would be able to achieve the target of construction of 2.95 crore houses under PMAY-G by March, 2022.

Disclaimer: This information has been collected through secondary research and IBEF is not responsible for any errors in the same.

15.1. Welspun launches Rs 1,100 crore manufacturing facility in Telangana

IBEF, July 27, 2020

Welspun Flooring Ltd, which is Welspun Group's fully integrated and independent vertical, launched a manufacturing facility in Hyderabad, Telangana with a potential capacity of 40 million square metres per annum.

This facility is set up with an investment of Rs 1,100 crore (US$ 156.05 million), is spread across 200 acres. It provides employment to around 1,600 members. The facility will manufacture wide variety of innovative products ranging from carpet tiles, greens (artificial grass) and broadloom carpets (wall to wall carpet) to the patented product – the Click-N-Lock tiles.

It was launched with an initial capacity of 10 million square metres and will be expand to 40 million square metres annually. Out of 40 million square metre, the hard flooring products are given 25 million square metres while rest will be for soft flooring products.

The Welspun Group is also developing a manufacturing plant adjacent to this for its emerging business-like advanced textiles. It plans to investment Rs 400 crore (US$ 56.75 million) over a span of two financial years.

“The flooring business is meant to complement the group's existing businesses such as home textiles”, said Welspun Group chairman Mr B K Goenka.

"Our retail brands like Welspun and Spaces has gained high consumer acceptance and continues to drive our growth in the evolving domestic market. We are now entering another exciting phase of our growth with foray into the flooring segment. This emerging business is poised to benefit from the synergies with our existing businesses and large customer base, thereby creating a strong domestic as well as global growth opportunity," Mr Goenka added.

“This plant launch is in line with Welspun Flooring Ltd.'s aim to disrupt and transform the new homes and renovation segments of the Rs 35,000 crore (US$ 4.97 billion) Indian tiles market”, Mukesh Savlani, President and CEO- International Business of the company said.

The company also plans to offer holistic flooring solutions for architects, designers, retailers, and customers, and aims to manufacture products for every industry including residential, hospitality, and commercial. It also plans to export to Europe, US, Australia, and the Southeast Asian countries along with focusing on Indian market.

Disclaimer: This information has been collected through secondary research and IBEF is not responsible for any errors in the same.

15.2. Electronics manufacturing in India to grow 30 per cent annually for next 5 years: IT Secretary

IBEF, Aug. 07, 2020

The electronics manufacturing is expected to increase at an annual rate of 30 per cent over the next five years and clock Rs 11.5 lakh crore (US$ 163.14 billion) additional production during this period, said electronics and IT secretary Mr Ajay Prakash Sawhney.

The exports of the electronic products are also estimated to grow in the range of 40-50 per cent annually over the next five years, he added.

"Electronics manufacturing in India has been growing quite significantly. We have registered 23 per cent cumulative annual rate of growth over past five years. Now in this journey the growth is expected to be 30 per cent year on year for next five years," said Mr Sawhney at the Invest India Exclusive Investment Forum - Japan Edition.

He added that India has seen an increase in mobile manufacturing from 6 crore handsets five years ago to 33 crore at present, and meeting over 90 per cent of country's mobile phone requirements through domestic production.

"Last year we have seen spurt of 25 per cent. In next five years, growth in exports could be 40-50 per cent year on year at a bare minimum," Mr Sawhney said.

There are around 22 domestic and international firms, including iPhone maker Apple's contract manufacturers as well as Samsung, Lava, Dixon and so forth, that have lined up with proposals for mobile phones production worth Rs 11 lakh crore (US$ 156.05 billion) over the next five years.

Union Minister Mr Ravi Shankar Prasad said, “These proposals under the government's Rs 41,000 crore (US4 5.82 billion) production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme for mobile phone manufacturing are expected to create around 12 lakh jobs, 3 lakh direct and 9 lakh indirect employment opportunities in the country”.

Mr Sawhney further added that Japanese companies have enormous expertise and market share in capital goods which are used in the factories that manufacture electronic goods, digital displays, semiconductors, and India is looking forward to their engagement in the domestic market.

"I would say India and Japan have a tremendous complimentary position, especially in the electronics sector. It is time for us to bring in more investment from Japan into India, more technologies into India," Mr Sawhney said.

Disclaimer: This information has been collected through secondary research and IBEF is not responsible for any errors in the same.

- SERVICES (Education, Healthcare, IT, R&D, Tourism, etc.)

16.1 Hyderabad to host Medtronic's largest global R&D centre outside US

IBEF, Aug. 13, 2020

Global leader in medical technology, Medtronic plans to invest Rs 1,200 crore (US$ 170.24 million) in scaling up and expanding its current research and development centre into a modern engineering and innovation hub in Hyderabad.

This investment will make Medtronic Engineering and Innovation Centre (MEIC) as the largest global R&D centre outside of the United States for the company. The investment will be focused on building new capabilities in the region, setting up ultra-modern labs including high-end robotic-assisted surgery equipment.

"Medtronic's investment in India is a testament to our commitment to the region and we are proud to be collaborating with the government of Telangana on this major investment in the country," said Mr Omar Ishrak, Executive Chairman and Chairman of the board.

"The expansion of MEIC will help us use medical technology to alleviate pain, restore health and extend life for patients around the world, which is also aligned with the government's vision to improve access to healthcare for patients in India," he said.

The discussion between the state government of Telangana and Medtronic regarding the modalities of investment has been going on for two years. In 2016, during his visit to the United States, Minister for Industries and IT KT Rama Rao and his team of officials met Mr Ishrak.

Though the partnership was finally announced this month via a virtual meeting. "We are delighted that Medtronic has chosen Hyderabad as its largest R&D base outside the United States and intends to create about 1,000 jobs in the next few years," said Mr Rao.

"It is indeed a great honour for the city to host this centre and it is a testimony to Hyderabad's growing prowess in the medical devices sector," he said.

Disclaimer: This information has been collected through secondary research and IBEF is not responsible for any errors in the same.

16.2. Advent to acquire RA Chem Pharma

IBEF, Jul. 31, 2020

PE firm Advent International signed a definitive agreement to acquire a controlling stake in RA Chem Pharma Ltd, a vertically integrated pharmaceutical company promoted by Micro Labs Ltd.

The deal is sad to be valued at Rs 1,000 crore (US$ 141.86 million), though no official statement was released disclosing the financial details of the transaction.

Hyderabad-based RA Chem was founded in 2003 with core focus in active pharmaceutical ingredient (API). However, over time, it has forward integrated into pellets, formulations, and clinical research to provide end-to-end offerings to its customers. Currently, its product portfolio ranges from pharmaceuticals to niche areas of animal health and cosmeceuticals. It has four manufacturing units, two research and development centres and a clinical research facility.

Advent has invested over US$ 1.7 billion globally in six companies in the healthcare sector in the last 12 months. It has invested over US$ 700 million in seven Indian businesses in the same period across sectors such as healthcare, consumer, and financial services.

“We continue to be excited about India’s pharmaceutical landscape and investing in RA Chem Pharma will further strengthen our presence in the sector. We aim to build one of the leading API platforms in India and will leverage our financial and operational resources globally to scale RA Chem Pharma both organically and inorganically," said Ms Shweta Jalan, managing director and head of India, Advent International.

Besides RA Chem, Advent’s other investments over the last 12 months include Bharat Serums and Vaccines, Aditya Birla Capital and DFM Foods.

Disclaimer: This information has been collected through secondary research and IBEF is not responsible for any errors in the same.

17.1. India's richest man takes on Amazon, Walmart in e-commerce gamble

AFP, July 18, 2020

The mogul has long trumpeted his ambition to revolutionise retail in the country of 1.3 billion by convincing farmers and shopkeepers to sell their goods on his new JioMart platform launched this year. But modernising India's creaky, inefficient supply chains will not be easy, even for Reliance, the nation's largest retailer by revenue with a portfolio including supermarkets, electronics stores and fast-fashion outlets.

Mumbai: Backed by multi-billion-dollar investments from global tech giants, India's richest man is ready to rumble with Amazon and Walmart for the country's huge e-commerce market through his conglomerate Reliance.

But it is far from certain that Mukesh Ambani's latest gamble will pay off in a crowded market where many suppliers are not well-versed in digital business.

But modernising India's creaky, inefficient supply chains will not be easy, even for Reliance, the nation's largest retailer by revenue with a portfolio including supermarkets, electronics stores and fast-fashion outlets.

Google on Wednesday became the latest Silicon Valley player to invest in the digital unit of the Indian oil-to-telecoms juggernaut, following in the footsteps of Facebook and Intel.

These votes of confidence notwithstanding, Ambani's success will depend on India's mom-and-pop stores and their ability to adapt to the demands of an online business, analysts say.

Keeping bargain-hungry consumers satisfied in a fiercely contested market may be even harder.

Early signs have not been promising for JioMart since its roll-out in 200 Indian cities in May.

Customers have complained about everything from rotting vegetables to missing deliveries and delayed refunds.

An avid online shopper who buys electronics from Amazon and clothing from Walmart-owned retailer Myntra, Mehul Shah is the kind of customer much sought after by Ambani and his rivals.

The 22-year-old placed his first JioMart order soon after the platform's hotly-anticipated launch.

"I wanted to experience what it was like... because there was so much hype around it," he told AFP.

But fewer than half his items were delivered and mint leaves he ordered arrived rotten, forcing Shah to throw them away.

- Money, money, money - Shah's experience underlines the challenges facing Ambani as he attempts to take on Amazon, BigBasket and Grofers, all of which have established supply and delivery networks in India.

The 63-year-old tycoon will likely deploy the same strategy he used to make his Jio mobile service a market leader following its 2016 launch.

Jio's cut-price discounts put phones in the hands of millions of first-time buyers in India, clobbering the competition and driving rivals out of the race.

In recent months Ambani has raised more than $22 billion in a rights issue and through selling stakes in Reliance to foreign investors.

The conglomerate is now net-debt-free and has cash to burn, analysts say.

"JioMart will use the money by offering deep discounting to get consumers, and is in it for the long haul," said independent analyst Minakshi Ghosh.

But the firm will also need to pump funds into training local shopkeepers in online trading. Many say their businesses have been badly hit by the rise of supermarkets and e-commerce.

"Even in my dreams I never imagined running such a modern business... or receiving card payments," said Kavita Chowdhury, a shopkeeper in Navi Mumbai, a city neighbouring India's financial capital.

Her partnership with JioMart could not have come at a better time for the 30-year-old, with the coronavirus pandemic forcing her to shutter the bricks-and-mortar store.

She can now sell online instead and business is booming, she told AFP.

- 'Teething issues' - A Reliance source told AFP JioMart had received an "amazing" response from consumers.

"People in small towns are buying Del Monte olives and focaccia bread... They are aware of global trends and want more options," he said.

But he acknowledged the company faced "teething issues" in logistics -- problems which analysts believe could prove its Achilles heel.

"You need consistent delivery models and customer satisfaction" to run a successful e-commerce operation, Forrester Research senior forecast analyst Satish Meena told AFP.

Reliance will not "have a walkover just because of their financial strength", he said.

Some customers have already sworn off the platform.

Vamshi Krishna, 28, told AFP he would never again buy anything from JioMart after his first two orders went missing.

"Despite problems with my first order, I decided to give them a second chance... because it is an Ambani company," he said.

"Now I seriously doubt whether I will ever get my money back."

17.2. Flipkart buys Walmart India's wholesale biz

IBEF, Jul. 24, 2020

Flipkart acquired the Indian operations of Walmart Inc. as its US parent consolidates its operations in this fast-growing retail market to compete with Reliance Industries Ltd and Amazon, among others.

Flipkart will take over Walmart India Pvt. Ltd, which operates the Best Price cash-and-carry wholesale stores and will launch a digital marketplace, Flipkart Wholesale, which is in pilot mode, in August, to expand its business-to-business (B2B) vertical.

This acquisition brings Walmart’s entire portfolio in India under the Flipkart group, two years after it bought a majority stake in the homegrown e-tailer for US$ 16 billion. The 28 Best Price stores will remain operational.

It is expected that the Walmart India’s team based in Gurugram will be shifted to Bengaluru, where Flipkart is based, next year.

Walmart first entered India in 2007 in partnership with Bharti Enterprises. It went solo with its cash-and-carry stores after parting ways in 2013 with Bharti Enterprises.

Flipkart Wholesale will initially operate with the fashion category and will expand gradually to grocery, home, large and small electronics products. This new vertical will be headed by Flipkart veteran Mr Adarsh Menon while Mr Sameer Aggarwal, CEO of Walmart India, will move to another role within Walmart after the transition.

Mr Menon, senior vice-president, and head-Flipkart Wholesale said that the B2B market size of finished goods across all categories is an estimated US$ 650-700 billion.

“We are looking at a part of that market, which is valued at US$ 150 billion, as the online B2B business continues to grow as a critical channel. Flipkart Wholesale can leverage Walmart India’s merchandising experience, strong relationship with brands and over 12 years of experience of operating Best Price stores, most of whom are small businesses," he added.

It is expected that Flipkart’s new B2B or online wholesale business will cater to the largely unorganized kirana segment and smaller shops who can order goods directly through this platform.

Currently, around 1.5 million members are supported by Best Price, including kirana stores, food service and hotel industries, and other medium and small enterprises.

For the year ended 31 March 2019, the total income of Walmart’s 28 Best Price stores was Rs 4,095 crore (US$ 580.93 million), while losses stood at Rs 171.68 crore (US$ 24.36 million), according to data sourced from Tofler.

This deal also comes at a time when retailers are focusing on B2B models, digitising kiranas and leveraging online sales to draw benefits from India’s large consumer base.

JioMart, Reliance Industries’ e-commerce portal, is operating with small shopkeepers or kiranas to facilitate online deliveries. It plans to scale up the model further, going forward and is expected to expand to apparel, electronics and healthcare. It began with pilots in May in Maharashtra, and orders through the hyperlocal retail business have scaled to touch 250,000 per day.

“It is process integration and how Flipkart wants to grow the food and grocery business in India. The food and grocery business is still small for them, and with its ability to reach the market and technology that it has, Walmart would want to alter the cash-and-carry model of not just being a brick-mortar-led store but use e-commerce so they can ramp up faster," said Mr Ankur Bisen, senior vice president, retail and consumer products, Technopak.

“Walmart wants to grow the business by collaborating with traditional retail rather than competing with them. Even JioMart is trying to grow the business by on boarding kiranas as a model to grow," Mr Bisen added.

Flipkart Group said it is set to receive a US$ 1.2 billion fund infusion led by Walmart, along with a group of existing shareholders. The investment values Flipkart at US$ 24.9 billion in post-money valuation, with funds expected to arrive in two tranches over the rest of the fiscal.

Mr Kalyan Krishnamurthy, CEO, Flipkart group, said, “…The acquisition of Walmart India adds a strong talent pool with deep expertise in the wholesale business that will strengthen our position to address the needs of kiranas and MSMEs uniquely."

Mr Judith McKenna, President, and CEO, Walmart International, said, “Today marks the next big step as Walmart India’s pioneering cash-and-carry legacy meets Flipkart’s culture of innovation in the launch of Flipkart Wholesale."

“Reliance and its kirana strategy have shaken up a lot of things in the B2B market over the last six months. If Walmart wanted to build its B2B side of the business just by way of their own stores, the only way to succeed is to have Flipkart do it because that’s the way they can scale," said an analyst.

Disclaimer: This information has been collected through secondary research and IBEF is not responsible for any errors in the same.

18.1. India crosses a milestone, conducts more than 2 crore COVID tests

IBEF, Aug. 04, 2020

In a landmark achievement, India has tested 2,02,02,858 COVID-19 samples so far. This is pursuant to the key strategy followed by State/UT governments under the guidance of Centre for management of COVID-19 to “Test aggressively, Track efficiently and Isolate and Treat promptly". Effective implementation of this approach has led to ramping up the testing capacity across the country and facilitated widespread COVID testing of people.

With 3,81,027 samples tested in the last 24 hours, the number of Test Per Million (TPM) has increased to 14640. Currently, the testing per million for India is 14640. While the country's TPM has demonstrated a steady upward trend indicating the growing testing network, 24 States and UTs have reported higher testing per million than the national average.

The testing lab network in the country is continuously strengthened with 1348 labs in the country; 914 labs in the government sector and 434 private labs. These include:

• Real-Time RT PCR based testing labs: 686 (Govt: 418 + Private: 268)

• TrueNat based testing labs: 556 (Govt: 465 + Private: 91)

• CBNAAT based testing labs: 106 (Govt: 31 + Private: 75)

For all authentic & updated information on COVID-19 related technical issues, guidelines & advisories please regularly visit: https://www.mohfw.gov.in/ and @MoHFW_INDIA.

Technical queries related to COVID-19 may be sent to technicalquery.covid19@gov.in and other queries on ncov2019@gov.in and @CovidIndiaSeva .

In case of any queries on COVID-19, please call at the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare helpline no.: +91-11-23978046 or 1075 (Toll-free). List of helpline numbers of States/UTs on COVID-19 is also available at https://www.mohfw.gov.in/pdf/coronvavirushelplinenumber.pdf .

Disclaimer: This information has been collected through secondary research and IBEF is not responsible for any errors in the same.

18.2. Jubilant Generics launches remdesivir under 'JUBI-R' brand

IBEF, Aug. 04, 2020

Jubilant Generics Ltd, the Noida-based pharmaceutical firm, launched the COVID-19 drug Remdesivir under the ‘JUBI-R’ brand at Rs 4,700 (US$ 66.67) per vial in the Indian market.

It is estimated that the subsidiary of Jubilant Life Sciences Ltd will make the drug available to more than 1,000 hospitals providing COVID-19 treatment in India through its distribution network. It will also offer a 24-hour helpline to enhance access to the drug during the pandemic.

Jubilant Bhartia Foundation, the Jubilant Group’s non-profit organization, also plans to launch programmes to give increased access to the drug for patients below the poverty line and to frontline paramedical staff.

“We have launched the product at affordable prices and strive to make it available in sufficient quantities to meet high demand for the drug in the Indian market and in other countries," said Mr Shyam S. Bhartia, chairman and managing director, and Mr Hari S. Bhartia, co-chairman of Jubilant Pharma Ltd, in a statement.

The company added that the entire treatment will cost around Rs 28,200 (US$ 400.05) as the treatment requires six vials of the drug.

Pharma major Gilead Sciences Inc., the innovator of remdesivir, had signed a pact with Jubilant Life for licensing the generic of its novel drug and for its sale in 127 low- and middle-income countries, including India.

The licence was given on a royalty-free basis till an alternative drug is discovered, or till the World Health Organization declares the end of its ‘Public Health Emergency of International Concern’ for the drug. The freedom to the companies is also given to price their products.

On 20 July 2020, Jubilant received approval from the Drug Controller General of India to manufacture and market the antiviral drug for restricted emergency use in India for the treatment of severe COVID-19 patients. ‘JUBI-R’ will require to be administered intravenously in a hospital setting under the supervision of a medical practitioner, it added.

Disclaimer: This information has been collected through secondary research and IBEF is not responsible for any errors in the same.

19. Amazon to open 10 new India warehouses; offers insurance

IBEF, Jul. 24, 2020

Amazon.com Inc's India unit announced its plan to open 10 new warehouses in the country and begin offering auto insurance, in moves that will help the e-commerce giant widen its reach in a key growth market.

Amazon will now have over 60 warehouses or fulfilment centres across 15 Indian states with an area equivalent to more than 100 football fields, said the company.

It plans to add these new warehouses in 10 Indian cities including Delhi, Mumbai, and Bengaluru, it added.

India has emerged as one of the fastest-growing markets for US-based Amazon, although the company had to face the most regulatory hurdles, and a backlash from traders over accusations of offering discounts.

Amazon also said that its local payments arm, Amazon Pay, has partnered with private firm Acko General Insurance to offer car and motor-bike insurance. This marks India as the first market where Amazon is offering such a financial service.

The insurance service is available on Amazon's app and mobile website.

Customers of Amazon's Prime loyalty programme -- which promises free movies and music streaming as well as faster deliveries for an annual 999 rupees (US$ 13.36), will also get extra benefits and more discounts, Amazon said.

The service will compete with local rivals including SoftBank-backed digital payments firm Paytm and insurance aggregator Policybazaar.

Disclaimer: This information has been collected through secondary research and IBEF is not responsible for any errors in the same.

20. BYJU's acquires code training app WhiteHat Jr for US$ 300 million

IBEF, Aug. 06, 2020

BYJU’s, an online education platform, has acquired Mumbai-based education technology (edtech) start-up WhiteHat Jr in an all-cash deal worth US$ 300 million. This marks BYJU’s entry into the fast-growing computer code training segment targeted at high school and college students.

It is company’s fifth and largest acquisition to date. Osmo, a maker of educational games, was last acquired by it for US$ 120 million in its first-ever purchase of a US company in January 2019.

WhiteHat Jr. is a coding platform that was founded in November 2018. It aims to provide students with computer coding skills and targets pupils from classes 9-12. It helps kids aged 6 to 14 years build commercial-ready games, animations, and apps online using the fundamentals of coding. The company offers four levels of courses including beginner, intermediate, advanced, and professional.

Recently, WhiteHat Jr had announced their plans to expand to other global markets like Canada, UK, Australia, and New Zealand and already has a presence in the US market since February 2020.

This acquisition will help BYJU’s expand its portfolio and increase the course offerings on the platform for school students in India. It has plans to make further investment into WhiteHat Jr’s technology platform, product innovation while expanding the teacher base to cater to demand from new markets, according to a company statement.

“Technology is at the centre of every human interaction today and we had set out to create a coding curriculum that was being delivered live and connected students and teachers like never before. Integration with a visionary company such as BYJU’S will help take this idea to new heights and help unleash the remarkable creative potential of kids at a global scale," Mr Karan Bajaj, founder, WhiteHat Jr.

“Empowering children with the right future skills has always been part of our vision at BYJU’S and coding fits well into this. WhiteHat Jr’s coding product capabilities, combined with our pedagogy, expertise and scale, will help expand our learning offerings for school students," added Mr Byju Raveendran, chief executive, BYJU’s.

Disclaimer: This information has been collected through secondary research and IBEF is not responsible for any errors in the same.

India and the World

21. India can learn a lot from Korea’s economic boom

Livemint, 19 Jul. 2020, Vivek Kaul

In 1961, the per capita income of India and South Korea was similar at $85.4 and $93.8. In 2019, there was a huge difference as they stood at $2,104.1 and $31,762, respectively. How did that happen and what can India learn from it? Mint explains

What has happened between 1950s to now?

As Arvind Panagariya, the first vice-chairman of NITI Aayog, writes in India Unlimited: “In the early 1950s, South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, China, and India had comparable per capita incomes. The first three switched to outward oriented policies in the early to mid 1960s, resulting in wholesale economic transformation." Export oriented policies ensured that South Korea grew at 8.97% per year between 1960-2000, with the GDP (in constant 2010 US dollars) jumping from $23.3 billion to $724.6 billion. The fast growth was due to labour-intensive exports, which by 1972 accounted for 72.5% of Korea’s goods exports.

What labour-intensive exports are these?

As Panagariya writes in Free Trade and Prosperity: “Most products whose exports grew rapidly during the 1960s were labour-intensive. These included plywood, woven cotton fabrics, clothing, footwear and wigs... In the later years it only intensified, with new, unexpected items such as wigs and human hair emerging as major exports." This expansion of labour-intensive exports led to the creation of jobs, which helped people move away from agriculture towards manufacturing jobs. This led to income levels rising and that created a demand for services. In the process, a large part of the economy was rapidly urbanized.

What else did Korea do right to drive fast growth?

The labour markets were flexible. Policy changes weren’t random. Education was given the highest priority. Panagariya writes: “An important reform in 1965 raised deposit interest rates to encourage savings. This change plus rising incomes contributed to increased savings." The higher savings were channelized to build more industry and raise incomes.

Where did India go wrong vis-à-vis Korea?

Up until 1991, India had an inward-looking import substitution policy. Even after opening up, we haven’t been able to get labour intensive exports going. In the last 15 years, India’s engineering exports have been more than labour-intensive exports of leather, textiles and readymade garments, put together. Only when we add agricultural and allied products exports to the labour intensive exports, does the situation change. Nevertheless, in the last two years, engineering exports have been more even after adding agricultural exports.

Why has India’s export growth been lagging?

A major reason for this is that Indian firms in manufacturing are small. As the Economic Survey of 2019-20 points out: “Most firms face [a] complex architecture of the Indian governance framework. Manufacturing units have to conform with 6,796 compliance items, which is a… time consuming task." Of course, every unit does not have to conform to every item, but this is a long list nonetheless. This is where economic reform is needed. Vivek Kaul is the author of Bad Money.

22. Opinion | Who’s afraid of foreign universities coming in?

Livemint, 30 Jul. 2020

Their entry under our new education policy could result in a vigorous bout of competition in academia that could yield an array of benefits. College autonomy, though, would be a must

India’s new National Education Policy (NEP), approved by the Union cabinet on Wednesday, could cause a major dust-up in the only field of publicly-funded academia that can claim any success since independence: higher education. This is not just because we could soon have a reworked school system, a common entrance test for college admissions, a flexible approach to undergraduate studies, and a shift in what students are taught, all overseen by a new regulator, but also because our hallowed portals of learning may be thrown open to foreign universities. In a significant break with tradition, they would now be allowed to set up local campuses here. Whether it is varsities of America’s Ivy League stature that take up the offer, or less fancied names, this is sure to prove controversial—not least because the country’s current ruling party had opposed a similar move by its predecessor on nationalist grounds. Today, the idea of letting them in seems to have bipartisan support, and that is arguably good for India.

The new policy aims to “facilitate" the entry of the world’s top 100 universities through an enabling law. This would expand the set of choices available to Indian students and perhaps save billions of dollars in fees paid by parents who send their children abroad for studies. Over 750,000 Indians are estimated to be studying overseas; their bills are truly exorbitant, and many of them may opt to stay in India if they could get the same degree at a lower cost. The same package could attract students from elsewhere too, helping us earn foreign exchange as a “knowledge hub", a term used by Prime Minister Narendra Modi for what India ought to become. These new institutions are likely to charge far more than what subsidized Indian colleges currently do, but so long as our subsidy regime survives, nobody should fear an overall rise in educational fees after their entry. The country’s commitment to equity should ensure that high-quality education never goes out of anyone’s reach. The market has already got segmented by fee brackets with the proliferation of private colleges, and this trend will probably get accentuated. What is of greater relevance, however, is the effect of global competition in a domain that has had too little of it. Already armed with a cost advantage, Indian colleges would be spurred to raise the quality of teaching and research in a bid to attract the best students. We may even see a fascinating rivalry between the world’s top academic names and India’s own.

Suspicions have been around that the globe’s best reputed universities have fee structures that reflect not just their excellence, but also their “brand premium" and scarcity of seats in the face of swelling demand. India’s best- regarded colleges are also extremely short of seats, as seen in our annual admissions scramble, but at least they offer exceptional value for money. Now that the NEP promises to widen subject choices and blur the rigid separation of arts and science streams, our homegrown institutions could conceivably compete with the Ivy League on their unique selling point: their offer of a multi-discipline “liberal arts" education. This is great stuff for the diversity of exposure it affords. Higher education in India has had horse-blinders for too long. For the field to acquire sufficient vibrancy, however, each college must be granted the autonomy it would need to pursue its own aims. This may depend on how liberal the sector’s regulatory authority turns out to be.

23. The secret sauce behind Asia’s growth miracles

Livemint, 01 Aug 2020, Nikita Kwatra, Pramit Bhattacharya

Investments in social infrastructure, such as education and public health systems, are critical for sustainable growth but do not get the attention they deserve

It is well-recognized today that India’s infrastructure deficit needs to be fixed. From erratic power supply to clogged ports, India’s strained infrastructure drags down productivity and hurts growth. Unsurprisingly, the Reserve Bank of India Governor Shaktikanta Das called for a big infra push to revive India’s growth engines at a Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) event a few days ago.

What is less well recognized is the role of India’s social infrastructure deficits --- in education, skills, health and nutrition --- that have stifled India’s growth potential. A Mint analysis of a broad range of economic indicators suggests that India’s deficits in social infra may be harder to bridge than its deficits in physical infra.

Only countries with gross domestic product above 2 trillion (PPP, current international dollars) and with per-capita incomes at most 3 times India’s current levels have been considered for this analysis. There are four such countries in the world: China, Indonesia, Mexico, and Brazil. The analysis considers the gap between India and each of these countries in terms of the number of years separating them by examining when each peer was at the same level as India is right now, on various parameters.

On some infra indicators, such as mobile and internet connectivity, India is less than a decade behind its peers. But it is several decades behind most peers on all social indicators.

About three-fourths of adults in India are literate today. China reached the same level of literacy in 1988, Indonesia reached that milestone in 1985. Brazil and Mexico reached the same levels of literacy even earlier.

The gap in life expectancy is narrower than the gap in literacy but still very large. In 2018, India reached a life expectancy of 69.4. China reached the same levels in 1992, 26 years before India. Mexico reached the same levels in 1987, 31 years before India. Brazil reached the same level in 1998, 20 years before India. India’s life expectancy gap with Indonesia is relatively smaller, with Indonesia reaching India’s current level only in 2011.

While China’s lead over India in terms of its impressive physical infrastructure is widely commented upon, China’s early efforts in providing education and healthcare to masses elude attention. China’s early investments in social infra during the Mao era provided a solid launch pad for its growth take-off in the post-Mao era, wrote Pranab Bardhan, emeritus professor of economics at the University of California Berkeley, in his 2011 book, Awakening Giants, Feet of Clay: Assessing the Economic Rise of China and India. Deng Xiaoping, who took charge of the Chinese communist party in 1978, unshackled many of the Mao-era socialist controls to usher an era of unprecedented prosperity. But the Maoist legacy of heavy investments in broad-based education, healthcare, and rural electrification also helped Deng’s cause, Bardhan argued.

The World Bank’s first study on the Chinese economy published in 1983 noted that despite low per capita consumption levels, China’s ‘most remarkable achievement has been to make low-income groups far better off in terms of basic needs than their counterparts in most other poor countries’.

The story of the Asian tigers is broadly similar to China in this respect. All four of the so-called Asian tigers—Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, and South Korea—which made the transition from being underdeveloped countries to developed economies in less than half a century, embraced wide-ranging state interventions including heavy investments in education and health.

During the first half of the twentieth century, Japan’s rule over Korea and Taiwan left both countries with ‘a major accumulation of human and physical capital’, wrote the American economist Henry J. Bruton in a 1998 review of the experiences of fast-growing emerging economies.

Most colonial rulers saw their colonies as markets for their own factories. In contrast, Japan used its colonies as production hubs as it prepared for war. The Japanese also borrowed from the best European practices to create a world-class health infrastructure in these colonies.

Although access to schooling in India has improved over the past two decades, learning outcomes continue to be poor. In the last international comparison of learning outcomes that India participated in 2009, India ranked 72nd out of 73 countries, outranking only Kyrgyzstan.

India’s meagre investments in health have been even more lop-sided, with greater investments in curative facilities than in preventive public health initiatives such as disease surveillance and waste management. Among curative care facilities, tertiary medical centres have received far more attention than primary health centres. The upshot: India has always ranked among the countries with the highest toll from contagious diseases, much before the novel coronavirus landed on our shores.

The legacy of poor investments in education and health shows up in poor productivity numbers. The lack of quality education and healthcare also make it difficult for the less privileged to take part in India’s growth process. As these pages have pointed out earlier, the premium on higher education has climbed steeply in India’s job market since the turn of the century. With greater digitization and automation in the post-covid world, such returns are likely to increase even further. Unless educational opportunities are equalized, existing inequalities will only widen in the years ahead. It will become even more difficult to sustain growth in the face of such inequities.

The key to the ‘East Asian miracle’ lay in the ability of their political leadership to make ‘shared growth credible’, wrote the researchers Hilton L. Root and Jose Edgardo Campos in a 1996 Brookings Institution report.

That’s a challenge Indian leaders have perennially struggled with.

This is the third of a four-part series on India’s growth challenge. The first part examined how three decades of rapid growth have transformed the country , and the second part examined India's growth measurement challenge.

24.1. Outsourcing of game development work to India gains traction

Livemint, 05 Aug. 2020, Abhijit Ahaskar

Though China was leading the game art industry, recent tensions have shifted the preference towards India

NEW DELHI: Indian game development firms providing art and animation services are in demand as global game publishers look to outsource work to reduce costs and meet launch deadlines. This has also driven up demand for skilled professionals for game development in India, at a time online gaming has soared worldwide thanks to lockdowns and mobility curbs.

“Game development work being outsourced to us has grown by almost 25-30% in a span of 2-3 months. It is not just existing clients that are coming to us, but also new clients, especially from Japan," said Manvendra Shukul, CEO of Lakshya Digital, a Delhi-based game art creation company.

Riding the new demand for online gaming, many mobile game companies want to rush their products to the market while the big ones behind AAA titles (games with high development budgets) want to ensure their games don’t get delayed.

“A lot of gaming companies are trying to keep up with deadlines. Demand for entertainment has never been higher. At the same time, work-from-home has impacted production timelines. They need to accelerate and to do that, they have to delegate. India is becoming a natural choice as many game development firms are coming up here," said Oliver Jones, co-founder and director of Bombay Play, a game development company.

According to a 2019 report by KPMG, India has 250 game development firms, compared to 25 in 2010. Many big global names have set up studios here in the last 1-2 years. French gaming company Ubisoft has studios in Pune and Mumbai, while US-based Rockstar acquired Indian art production studio Dhruva Interactive for $7.9 million last year. Many large gaming firms are looking to cut costs in the development process and outsourcing can help accomplish that.

“With a lot of workforce already working from home, many gaming companies are finding outsourcing more viable. Outsourcing across borders also gives them a cost advantage," said Rajan Navani, president of Indian Digital Gaming Society and MD at Jet Synthesys, a game development company.

Though China has been leading the game art creation industry, recent geopolitical events have led to a growing preference for India. According to Lakshya Digital’s Shukul, in markets like Japan, recent issues with China have played a role in the decision by many firms to hold back from outsourcing to China, benefiting Indian companies.

The growing demand has created new job opportunities for 3D artists and animators in India. Lakshya Digital, which currently has a team of 500, is planning to hire up to 70 more people in the next one year. Ubisoft too has put up several posts on job portals.

24.2. Surge in travel, leisure stocks shows Street is betting on vaccine with gusto

Livemint, 13 Aug. 2020, Pallavi Pengonda

Broadly, investors are betting that consumers would be less afraid of venturing out once there is a vaccine. This could result in better demand for services of travel and leisure firms, which have seen their revenues evaporate in the June quarter

MUMBAI: After Russia approved the world’s first covid-19 vaccine, named Sputnik V, travel and leisure stocks have skyrocketed. Shares of InterGlobe Aviation Ltd, which runs the IndiGo airline, have risen over 23% this week, while hotel chains The Indian Hotels Co. Ltd and Lemon Tree Hotels Ltd saw their stocks soar by 25% and 36%, respectively. Shares of cinema chains PVR Ltd and Inox Leisure Ltd have risen by over 11% each.

Note that these stocks have been the underdogs during the pandemic crisis, dropping 40-60% from their pre-covid highs. While some of these stocks continue to be 40-50% lower than their highs earlier in the year, shares of IndiGo are now just 23% lower compared to pre-covid highs, as investors expect it to gain market share with other airlines having deeper troubles.

Broadly, investors are betting that consumers would be less afraid to venture out when there is a vaccine. This could result in better demand for services of travel and leisure firms, which have seen their revenues evaporate in the June quarter.

But analysts said this improvement would at best start showing in the next financial year (FY22), with the first half of FY21 being a washout. Besides, the improvement will be gradual, as social distancing norms will prevail for quite some time. Further, with the income levels dropping, consumers are expected to cut discretionary spending.

Even so, IndiGo finds itself in a sweet spot in the aviation sector with ample cash on its books and a strong balance sheet. Plus, the airline intends to raise funds. This, at a time when its peers are struggling and are expected to lose market share. Not surprisingly, shares of smaller peer SpiceJet Ltd are still down 57% from their highs earlier in the year.

In the hotels sector, analysts said Indian Hotels is in a relatively better position as far as debt against peers goes, given its limited refinancing needs and strong promoter backing.

Some analysts are worried about Lemon Tree’s high debt. Even though Lemon Tree shares have seen a bigger rally this week, they are down 49% from pre-covid highs compared to a 34% decline in Indian Hotels’ shares.

Riding on the ‘vaccine theme’, shares of multiplexes PVR and Inox Leisure, too, have done well this week. However, shares of both companies are still 40-48% lower vis-à-vis their pre-covid highs.

To be sure, the momentum seen this week will only sustain if there is a meaningful improvement in demand. As such, most of these stocks are far away from their pre-covid highs seen earlier this year.

Moreover, it’s worth noting that companies that benefited from the work-from-home theme, such as Britannia Industries Ltd and Tata Consumer Products Ltd, are still flirting with their recent highs.

Some investors are hedging their bets.

25. Ex-Engineer brings Goan village with 500 families back to farming after 30 years

The Better India, Gayatri Mishra

"With our cities in tatters, builders have now started attacking our interior villages. We want people to get back to farming, and show them that it's a profitable endeavour."

POST AUTHOR: RINCHEN NORBU WANGCHUK

POST PUBLISHED: AUGUST 1, 2020

POST CATEGORY: FARMING GOA

Nestor Rangel, a 52-year-old agriculturist, and his team, have helped 500 families in his native village of St Estevam to convert fallow and unused land into productive organic paddy fields.

Like most villages in Goa, the picturesque village on the river Mandovi was once a prime target for real estate developers looking at parcels of arable land lying fallow, to build concrete commercial and residential establishments. The village was even earmarked by developers for a coal transportation carriageway.

Nestor's successful model of community farming, which began in earnest during the kharif season of 2018, is being seen as a means of obstructing the rapid conversion of farmland into concrete jungles. This has spawned similar initiatives in different Goan villages with local communities mindful of the need to protect their land and ecology.

Starting the Journey

An electronic engineer by trade, Nestor spent most of his life away from St Estevam in cities like Mumbai and subsequently Vadodara, where he was the manager of a factory owned by a Japanese multinational corporation AIWA manufacturing consumer electronics. In 2002, the factory shut down with the Japanese MNC closing shop around the world.

After the company shut down, he returned to Goa to open an electronics service centre and showroom dealing in consumer electronic products. With service centres in Margao and Panaji, he had about 40-odd employees working for him.

Everything changed in 2007, he decided to shut shop and venture into farming. Just before getting out of the electronics business, Nestor bought a seven-acre strip of land in Thane, a village in

Goa's Sattari Taluka. Today, this "strip of land" which extends upto 40 acres, includes a dairy, goat farm, a mango plantation of 700+ trees and a massive cashew orchard.

However, after Nestor began expanding his farm in 2007, Father Bismarque Dias, an activist priest once known for taking on the state's notorious land mafia, urged him to bring back farming to St Estevam. "He was always after me to start a community farm project in St. Estevam, and visited my farm many times," he recalls.

For the past four decades, residents of the village had given up farming to take up more lucrative work aboard ships sailing abroad or in cities like Mumbai.

"Knowing of my involvement in agriculture, he wanted me to do something in St Estevam. Land all over Goa is being bought and occupied by people from outside the state, who are constructing massive structures atop these pristine fields. Our fields have been lying fallow for 30-40 years since most locals work on ships sailing abroad or in Mumbai. Most Goans are hardly dependent on agriculture. However, If we don't practice farming, the government will say that the land is merely lying vacant, take it away and sell it to the highest bidder. We decided to fight back by cultivating our lands," mentions Nestor.

Khazan Farming, Paddy and the Comunidade

One way of bringing back agriculture to this picturesque river island was to revert to tradition. Past generations of Goans had long practiced an estuarine agriculture system called Khazan, "a carefully designed topo-hydro-engineered agro-aquacultural ecosystem mainly based on the regulation salinity and tides," states a report in the Down to Earth magazine.

"Khazans are reclaimed lands from the river or the sea. A created network of bunds protects the agricultural fields and adjoining villages from tidal flows," notes this description.

One crop which can grow in these saline conditions is paddy. "It's a pretty versatile crop, which can grow in saltish and brackish water. So, we decided to take up paddy cultivation since we also receive sufficient amounts of rain. This was sometime in the 2017-18 kharif season, and for the community project we took up 500,000 square metres," says Nestor.

Underpinning the community-level exercise led by Nestor and his team, was a mechanical cultivation process for ploughing, transplanting and harvesting, considering prohibitively high labour costs and manpower shortages. Helping them in this endeavour were Father George Quadros, a pioneer of mechanised paddy cultivation in South Goa, the State agricultural department and its subsidiary Agricultural Technology Management Agency (ATMA).

"We have gone into total mechanisation working with paddy and concentrating on the fallow lands of Goa. More specifically, we are working with the transplanter to take away the drudgery, high cost and non-availability of labour. Farmers get their fields ploughed and ready, we as service providers, bring the transplanter to their fields. The transplanter covers one acre per hour, which is tremendous and saves the farmer 50% on their original cost. There are not enough service providers at the moment, but once this grows agriculture in Goa will be more or less community based," says Father George, who is the project director at Don Bosco Loutolim Society.

For the project, the community employed transplanting machines manufactured by Kubota, a Japanese company, in which they have to put seedlings in trays. These trays are then loaded into the transplanter machine, which picks up the seedlings and transfers them onto the land. It can cover about 30,000 square metres in about 8 hours with just two persons operating it and thus cuts down on labour costs. No chemical fertilizers or pesticides were used in the process, and for harvesting they employed a harvester machine.

"To purchase this equipment, we needed subsidies from the government. The only time we used labour was for de-weeding, an important part of the process since weeds end up taking up nutrition meant for your rice. Most people use chemicals for de-weeding, but we decided not to because there is a lot of biodiversity in our fields like snakes, crocodiles, fish, etc. Instead of putting them at risk, we decided to weed manually," says Nestor.

It's a bit on the expensive side, but the community was going for an organic project. Labour for weeding came from Sattari. After the cashew season came to end in May, women labourers working on Nestor's farm in Thane had no employment. He put 10 of them to work on the community farm in St Estevam, driving them 40 km each way on his truck.

Each of these women got about Rs 30,000-35,000 after they helped with de-weeding.

"In our first harvest, we got about 75,000 kg of paddy. There are agencies that procure paddy from farmers at government approved price which is about Rs 20 per kg. Selling it at that price, farmers lose money because their cost of cultivation works out to around Rs 4.5-5 per square metre. Without subsidies, it goes upto Rs 8-9 per square metre.

If we sell the paddy as is to a government agency, we lose money. Instead, we decided to process it and convert that paddy into rice. The rice we grow is a nutritious brown colored variety called Jyothi. I took this rice to a mill in Maharashtra' Sindhudurg district, which helped us convert paddy into rice. From the total amount of paddy, they extracted about 60% into rice. The rice wasn't polished to retain its nutritional value. After we processed the rice, we packaged it and sold it all over the state for Rs 60 per kg," informs Nestor.

"Communities in Goa have come together to farm their lands. If communities don't come together, mechanisation doesn't work since the use of such equipment requires big areas. Mechanisation saves time, cost and brings efficiency to the whole process," says Father George.

Capital Generation and the Comunidade

Capital for this entire project came from the village residents. Historically, Goans practiced a distinct form of community farming called the gaonkaria system which the Portuguese colonialists overhauled and rechristened into what is known today as comunidade.

Land was collectively owned by the village and parcelled out by an administrative unit at the local community level. At a community level they would allocate land to a family where they could build a house or farm to sustain their family.

Each family was allocated about an acre or so by the core administrative unit, which handled the leasing out of the land to its residents. The land could not be leased out to non-residents. If a woman married a man from another village, she would lose her gaonkari (village resident) status, and would have to register as a gaonkari in her husband's village.

"When India reclaimed Goa from the Portuguese, they brought in their rules and unfortunately the person who was tilling the land now became a tenant. Earlier, if you didn't farm on the land for two-three years, it would go back to the community, which would reallocate that land to somebody else.

Once community owned lands, they were now under individual tenants. People have their names on a land document called Form I & XIV, which marks them out as tenants. Out to make a quick buck, many sell off the land to the highest bidder.

Naturally, the old rule of giving the land back to the community went away. That's one of the reasons why farming stopped in Goa," informs Nestor.

Backed by the entire village, Nestor and his team collected money from the people. Even his family are tenants on one acre of comunidade land.

"As per the landholding on Form I and IV, we took Rs 3.50 per person per square metre. If somebody has 1,000 square metres, they would give Rs 3500. All this money was collected under the 'Ilha Verde Farmers' Club'. There were about four of us organising everything in the club because most didn't engage in farming," he says.

Everyone in the village is part of the farmers' club. Each one paid the group Rs 3.50 per square metre as per their landholding to start the work since they didn't have any other source of capital.

This is how they generated capital.

"After processing the paddy into brown rice, we managed to pay back everybody and there was some additional money left in hand (Rs 200,000-300,000 as per some estimates), which we used for repair works of structures like the manos, which are sluice gates that control the flow of water to and from dikes and prevent salt water from entering. It's like a dam system. So, we used the money to repair these sluice gates and even construct new ones. If these sluice gates break, the salt water from the river floods the fields making them uncultivable because the soil becomes too saline even for rice cultivation," he notes.

More than Farming

For the next season in 2019-20, the St Estevam community doubled the area under cultivation to 10,00,000 square metres. Unfortunately, there was heavy flooding that season and the village was waterlogged for about 20 days. All the rice rotted, and they lost about Rs 28,00,000-30,00,000 last season. Till now, they haven't been compensated by the government.

This year, as a result of COVID-19, a lot of male residents who work on ships abroad, came back because there was no business on cruise lines. They had taken up 1 lakh square metres this year just on a trial basis, and things seem to be progressing nicely.

"The St Estevam experiment has given the entire agricultural sector in Goa hope that mechanisation, land pooling, community farming and social marketing can work and make Goa's rice fields a working reality once again," said former agricultural officer Miguel Braganza to Scroll.in.

However, Nestor's endeavour isn't merely limited to St Estevam. He is today consulting with other villages like Santa Cruz and Dongri who want to emulate their model of community farming.

Meanwhile, he also picks up paddy from other farmers engaged in Khazan farming and facilitates the sale of 10,000 kg of rice every month. He sells rice only from Khazan lands because it tastes different with river minerals. Every two months he processes 25,000 kg of paddy and takes it to Kudal, Maharashtra, for processing.

"Maybe due to the pandemic, since other industries have shut down, many Goans are going back to farming. But I hope this trend continues. Our main aim wasn't to grow rice, but to get our fields cultivated so that builders don't eye them.

Rampant construction is resulting in hills being cut and pristine farmland destroyed. With our cities in tatters, builders have now started attacking our interior villages. We want people to get back to farming, and show them that it''s a profitable endeavour. In my own farm, I employ about seven people and pay them each Rs 15,000 a month in addition to a free litre of milk everyday.

This is a project to save our fields and we are using agriculture as a vehicle to do that," emphasises Nestor.

"My village doesn't depend on farming financially. This is about protecting our lands from rampant construction. My activism isn't protesting on the roads, but growing paddy on the fields and taking them back from builders," he adds.

(Edited by Gayatri Mishra)

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Wednesday 19 August 2020

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NEWSLETTER, 20-VIII-2020

– GENERAL POLICY, INFRASTRUCTURES, COUNTRY FINANCES, ETC.

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