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Tuesday 19 June 2018

NEWSLETTER, 20-VI-2018











DELHI, 20th june 2018
Index of this Newsletter


INDIA

– GENERAL POLICY, INFRASTRUCTURES, COUNTRY FINANCES, ETC. 


1.1.  Swachh Bharat Mission: A remarkable transformation
1.2.  Projects worth Rs 1.85 lakh cr ($27,42 bn) awarded under Sagarmala by March 2018
2.1.  Looking beyond tactical protectionism
2.2.  India must take action before it runs dry
3.1.  The crisis in agriculture cannot be trivialized
3.2.  Microfinance institutions' equity investments see 40% surge
4.1.  Affordable housing loans to get cheaper
4.2.  The government needs to handle public sector banks with care
5.1.  IIMs face fresh threat to autonomy as HRD ministry seeks more control
5.2.  Numbed by numbers? There’s a cure for ‘maths anxiety’


– AGRICULTURE, FISHING & RURAL DEVELOPMENT


6.1.  India’s rural consumption surges in boost for FMCG firms
6.2.  About 700 digital villages will be set up by year-end: Ravi Shankar Prasad
7.1.  Foodgrain production at record 279.51 MT in 2017-18: Govt
7.2.  India makes unprecedented progress in coconut cultivation from mid 2014 to 2018 & becomes the leading country in coconut production and productivity
8. Finmin ties up with 40 entities to extend funding under Mudra scheme
9.1. There is no doubt about a rural recovery: Mahindra’s Pawan Goenka
9.2. Record increase of 77% in sale by TRIFED during 2017-18
10. Inside Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance e-commerce plan


– INDUSTRY, MANUFACTURE


11.1. Maruti Suzuki set to drive in biggest ever capacity expansion in India
11.2. Kia ties up with Hyundai to drive into India
12.1. Ashok Leyland plans 3 major launches in heavy truck range
12.2. Avera set to open ₹50-cr e-scooter plant in AP
13.1. ESC prepares strategy paper to boost exports to US$ 178 bn by 2022
13.2. Quality of hiring in India matters not the numbers’
14. Ather Energy gives Bengalureans more options to go greenGovind
15. Outsystems – a Portuguesse Company gets an Investment of 360 million from Goldman Sachs and KKR


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


16.1. Domestic air passenger volume surges 26% in Apr to 11.51m
16.2. Maharashtra best place for a career in sports: Report
17.1. 5G subscription by 2022, 78% to use 4G by 2023 in India: Ericsson
17.2. India to be shared mobility leader by 2030: Report
18.1. Govt can dispense cheaper, quality medicines, says PM
18.2. Online retail sales in India seen growing to US$ 32.7 billion this year
19.1. NIC launches new data centre in Bhubaneswar, to hire 800 people pan-India in 1 yr
19.2. After Flipkart deal, Walmart India looks to scale up kirana store business
20.1. Reliance Jio begins hiring AI team under Akash Ambani
20.2. TCS hands out 24,000 job offers amid hiring blues in IT sector


INDIA & THE WORLD 

21.1. India's exports may reach USD 350 bn this fiscal: FIEO
21.2. Cotton exports estimated to reach 7.5 million bales, highest in 4 years
22.1. Energy, trade on menu as Iran foreign minister meets Sushma Swaraj
23.1. India, Indonesia agree to nearly triple bilateral trade to USD 50 billion
24. Delhi, Washington may negotiate trade package
25. FIFA World Cup 2018: Cristiano Ronaldo and football’s shades of grey


* * *

DELHI, 20th June 2018

NEWSLETTER, 20-VI-2018



INDIA

– GENERAL POLICY, INFRASTRUCTURES, COUNTRY FINANCES, ETC. 



1.1. Swachh Bharat Mission: A remarkable transformation 
Livemint, 14 Jun. 2018, Sudipto Mundle

The large majority of our citizens in rural India, especially the women, no longer have to suffer the indignity of having to go out into the open to defecate. It marks a sea change in the dignity of their daily life

With the Narendra Modi government now on its last lap, there is a flurry of panel discussions and articles about its performance so far. Spokespersons of the ruling party make bold claims about what has been achieved, while those of the opposition claim equally emphatically that the government has not delivered on its promises. This article does not offer any overall assessment of the government’s performance. Instead, it presents an evidence-based assessment of a specific programme, the Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM).

On 15 August 2014, we were holidaying in a charming little resort near Kochi, nestled between the backwaters and the sea. I recall that after a quick breakfast we settled down to watch the new prime minister on television, delivering his maiden Independence Day speech. We were curious about the direction in which he planned to lead the country. He made many important announcements. But what completely surprised us was his emphasis on the goal of Swachh Bharat and the problem of open defecation. 

Instead of all the lofty goals and exhortations that are typical of an Independence Day speech, here was the new prime minister of the country announcing to all his countrymen and women, and indeed the world, from the ramparts of the Red Fort that one of his main ambitions as prime minister was to rid the country of open defecation. That earthy connect with the conditions of daily life facing ordinary people, especially women, was quite remarkable.

Of course, there was nothing unambitious about such a goal, however humble it may sound. How do you even begin to think about equipping 100 million rural households with toilets that they do not have? How do you go about changing the mindset of 1.2 billion people whose pre-dominant view of cleanliness is to push all the dirt out of the home and into the public space? As the months passed by and I continued to see the open piles of stinking garbage and clogged drains in the cities and towns and along the highways and byways throughout the country, I assumed that Swachh Bharat was just another zombie scheme. A scheme is announced with much fanfare, a budget allocation is made, and then nothing much changes on the ground.

The occasion that changed my mind was the recent launch of Naina Lal Kidwai’s book Survive Or Sink. At that book launch, Param Iyer, a former Indian Administrative Service officer and World Bank staff, who returned to India to head the SBM, reeled out some amazing figures about how much had in fact been achieved on the ground during the past four years. The core programme of SBM is to ensure usage of toilets in all homes through behaviour change, and, thereby, eliminate open defecation. Since October 2014, when the programme was launched, SBM has equipped 75 million households with toilets. At the time of its launch, fewer than 40% of households had toilets at home. Today that figure is up to over 85%. The number of open defecation-free (ODF) villages has gone up from 47,000 to 384,000 over the same period—about 65% of all villages in the country.

Seventeen states and Union Territories (UTs) are now ODF. Of the remaining 16, another three are almost ODF (>90%) and six are more than 85% ODF. Only seven states/UTs are lagging behind. Odisha is the worst off with only 56% sanitation coverage, followed by Bihar (57%), Puducherry (68%), Uttar Pradesh (72%), Tripura (75%) and Goa (76%). An independent survey of over 92,000 households across the country, guided by a group of international experts and representatives of Unicef and World Bank, verified that 96% of the villages declared ODF were indeed ODF, and 77% of the households surveyed had toilets (consistent with the official estimate of 76% at the time of the survey). Of the people who had access to toilets, 93% were found to use them regularly, which is very close to an even higher estimate of 95% revealed by a separate survey conducted by the National Sample Survey Office. Finally, 70% of the villages surveyed also had minimum litter or stagnant water.

The behaviour change reflected in these statistics is fairly dramatic for a programme that started less than four years ago. But why is this important? That the large majority of our citizens in rural India, especially the women, no longer have to suffer the indignity of having to go out into the open to defecate marks a sea change in their daily life. In another year or so all Indians will hopefully be spared this indignity. But, apart from the intrinsic value of enhancing the dignity of daily life, elimination of open defecation also has great instrumental value in enhancing health and economic well-being.

Shah Alam Khan of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences claimed that the SBM had not been effective as there was no statistically significant reduction in the incidence of epidemics following its launch (“Evaluating The Success Of Swacch Bharat Abhiyan”, The Wire, 13 November 2017). However, such a conclusion without controlling for others factors affecting the incidence of epidemics seems unwarranted. A more robust measure of the health impact of the SBM is its impact on malnutrition. There is much scholarly research available now to show that poor hygiene may be as important a factor contributing towards malnutrition as income poverty. Hence the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) commissioned an independent survey across several states of India using a stratified random sample design to compare the incidence of diarrhoea and malnutrition in ODF and non-ODF villages.

The BMGF survey report is appropriately cautious about attributing causality, but it found that the incidence of diarrhoea was significantly less in ODF villages compared to non-ODF villages and that measures of undernutrition (stunting and wasting), were also significantly better in the ODF villages. These differences between ODF and non-ODF villages are all statistically significant. There are also significant financial gains from SBM. A survey of over 10,000 households last year, sponsored by Unicef, estimated that, on average, an ODF village household could be gaining as much as Rs50,000 per year from savings in medical expenditure because of lower incidence of illness and less income loss due to fewer days of unpaid sick leave. A very significant gain, especially for poor households.

Those living in urban India may not be aware of the achievements cited above because all of it relates to rural areas covered under the Grameen component of SBM (SBM-G). This is as it should be, since the problem of open defecation is primarily a rural problem. However, sanitation is also a major challenge in urban India so SBM also has an urban component. Cities are now rated in terms of their sanitation status. As Kidwai reports in her book, 22% of Indian cities are now ODF and 50% of all urban wards have 100% door-to-door solid waste collection. A million schools (91%) now have separate toilets for girls, up from 37% when the SBM was launched, though there is no statistic on how many are actually functional. While not insignificant, the achievements in the urban component are not as impressive as in SBM-G. Moreover, beyond sanitation, our cities and towns also have to deal with alarming levels of water and air pollution. Clearly, there is still a long way to go in cleaning urban India.

Recently I met secretary Iyer, who is in charge of SBM-G and also responsible for coordination among all the departments dealing with SBM components and matters cutting across these components. I asked him about the way forward and the challenges ahead. He seemed confident that the SBM-G target of ODF rural India would be achieved. His ministry is also encouraging other ministries to extend the sanitation programme to their sectors by installing and maintaining toilets at public spaces, highway fuel stops, tourist destinations, rail and bus stations, and bio toilets in trains.

The main challenge, he said, is to sustain what had been achieved, namely, the changed rural sanitation behaviour. Over 450,000 grass-roots motivators, called Swachhagrahis, are now dealing with this task in rural areas. Another challenge we discussed was bureaucratic engagement. While this can often make or break a programme, Iyer said he had so far found the bureaucracy responsive, both in the central government and in the states. In fact, in many states, young and committed district collectors are delivering results faster and better than expected.

I also raised with him a political question. The terms of reference of the 15th Finance Commission have become a focal point around which some of the opposition-led state governments are now coalescing. Union encroachment into the constitutional space of the states is the main concern. Against that background, what is the response he encounters in the states to a programme like SBM, as water supply and sanitation is clearly a state subject? Obviously, the Bharatiya Janata Party-led governments at the Centre and in the states are enthusiastic about the programme. But Iyer said he found the opposition-led state governments were also quite enthusiastic.

Such bipartisan support augurs well for the future of SBM. Some of India’s most successful programmes have been sustained over the years, regardless of who was in power. The green revolution, the white revolution and economic liberalization, to mention only a few. Some of the best programmes launched by the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government, such as the highway development programme and the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojna, were sustained by the Manmohan Singh government. Similarly, some of the better programmes launched by the United Progressive Alliance have been retained by the Modi government, sometimes with a new name and some change in content. This healthy bipartisan tradition gives us hope that a remarkable programme like the SBM will be extended and sustained, regardless of who forms the next government in May 2019.

Sudipto Mundle is emeritus professor at the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy and was a member of the Fourteenth Finance Commission.


1.2. Projects worth Rs 1.85 lakh cr ($27,42 bn) awarded under Sagarmala by March 2018 
PTI, Jun. 13, 2018


New Delhi: Projects worth Rs 1.85 lakh crore have been awarded under the ambitious port-led development programme Sagarmala by March 2018, the government said today.
The Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in 2015 had given in principle nod to the project which was launched in 2016.
A total of 224 projects -- entailing an investment to the tune of Rs 1.85 lakh crore -- were launched by March 31, 2018, Ministry of Shipping said in a statement.
It said 196 projects worth Rs 71,868 lakh crores are expected to be awarded in 2018-19.

Ninety-eight projects worth Rs 31,046 crore expected to be completed in 2018-19, the statement said, adding that 59 projects worth Rs 11,299 crore have been completed till March 31, 2018.
"These include various infrastructure projects, coastal berth projects, fishery harbours and skill development projects. These projects are being implemented by relevant Central Ministries, State Governments, Ports and other agencies primarily through the private or PPP mode.
"These include unique and innovative projects like Gogha-Dahej RO-Pax Ferry Services Project and RO-RO Services Project at Mandwa," the statement said.
In addition, TEFR (techno economic feasibility report) is under preparation for development of underwater viewing gallery and restaurant at BeytDwarka Island and the consultant has been selected for preparing DPR (detailed project report) for the National Maritime Heritage Centre proposed at Lothal, it said.

As part of Sagarmala, 572 projects, at an estimated infrastructure investment of more than Rs 8.4 lakh crore, have been identified across the areas of port modernisation and new port development, port connectivity enhancement, port-linked industrialisation and coastal community development.
These projects will be implemented by relevant Central ministries, state governments, ports and other agencies primarily through the private or PPP mode, the government said.
To assist in implementation of projects, Sagarmala Development Company Limited (SDCL) was incorporated earlier for providing funding support to project SPVs (special purpose vehicles) and residual projects under Sagarmala

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


2.1. Looking beyond tactical protectionism
Livemint, 12 Jun. 2018, Vivan Sharan

Technological self-reliance in India has to be earned through internal reforms and not through protectionist attacks on foreign companies

India has to service global data flows if it is to become a hub for data-driven industries. Photo: iStockphoto
In the run-up to the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the protectionist din is growing louder in India. This is not unexpected, since, despite liberalization, we have not fully embraced an open-market identity. And despite our growing aspirations of becoming a stakeholder at the global economic high table, most political parties still seem to lack a cogent economic vision. Consequently, those in the protectionist camp have strengthened their attack on foreign companies, particularly on digital economy firms. Such companies are the softest targets, because they tend to lack the institutional experience, and sometimes even the will, to take political positions in emerging markets. However, in the spirit of debate, some rebuttals are in order.

Let us analyse the most common protectionist proposition first: that government should create different compliance burdens for foreign and Indian firms. This stems from the assumption that owing to superior technology and abundant capital, foreign-owned firms can easily outmanoeuvre domestic incumbents, if they compete on a level playing field. Therefore, like China, we should put strict conditions on foreign direct investment (FDI).

However, it makes no sense to allow, or even want, FDI, if we simultaneously want to put fetters on such capital. Industry can only prosper if we make clear choices, as evidenced in the case of telecom, the poster-child of India’s economic liberalization. In this industry, the extant national policy and licence conditions do not envision different requirements for foreign and Indian companies.

Moreover, India must account for a larger share of global value chains (GVCs), currently estimated to be only 2% of the total, before we can start selectively evoking the China model. We must harness inward investments to strategically generate this value. Many companies in the information technology (IT) and IT-enabled services space are now struggling to achieve this objective through outmoded cost-arbitrage-based business models. Ironically, some of them, unable to keep pace with innovation, are now asking for protection. This demand may be at the cost of the same market logic that created them—the ability to competitively serve global markets, with minimum government intervention.

A second, more compelling, proposition of the protectionist camp is that India should adopt a preferential approach towards strategic government procurements in the digital industries. Proponents of this approach are quick to cite examples such as the US government’s Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa), which played a role in the invention of the modern internet. Darpa works closely with the US private sector, and, in doing so, promotes indigenous innovation. However, unlike Darpa, which is well-funded, with over ₹20,000 crore or so a year at its disposal, it is hard to name Indian government departments that have seen an increase in real expenditure over the last three decades.

In an effort to promote self-reliance, India has been trying to create preferential private sector partnerships in the defence industry for over a decade. Most recently, strategic partnerships were defined and envisioned under the defence procurement policy, 2016. However, this potentially meaningful modality of deep public-private partnerships has been throttled by reticence on part of the unions representing public sector enterprises, as well as an all-pervasive lack of trust in the private sector. These are challenges within government. The solutions cannot possibly lie outside, or in the politics of protectionism.

Lastly, the newest avatar of protectionism is manifesting itself in the so-called “data economy”, the data-driven subset of the digital economy. A legitimate hypothesis is that as India transitions from data-poor to data-rich, owing to factors such as increased internet penetration and the Jan Dhan-Aadhaar-Mobile (JAM) trinity, the data-linked rights of citizens must be secured better. However, the protectionist camp goes on to offer a tenuous extension of this hypothesis: India should mandate localization of all data owned by foreign companies, again inspired by China.

There are several technical arguments in favour of cross-border data flows, but let us forget those. The central issue is that, analogous to the case for enhancing contribution to GVCs for goods and services, India will have to service global data flows if it is to become a hub for data-driven industries.

Despite large volumes, the potential for earning large value from the domestic data market remains limited. Low average revenues per user in telecom and low transaction values in digital payments are indicative of this “high-volume and low-value” paradigm. The need for data services to achieve scale is almost a prerequisite to their survival.

Unlike China, we do not have a large enough economic footprint to deter advanced countries from taking reciprocal measures against our “tactical protectionism”. And unlike in the US, our institutions and businesses do not generate enough surpluses to invest in cutting-edge research. Our markets are shallow, and our technological self-reliance has to be earned through internal reform. So, if we are to be protectionist, we must at least adopt a strategic lens—investments cannot be turned away for meeting political ends.

Vivan Sharan is a partner at Koan Advisory Group, New Delhi. The views expressed are personal. Comments are welcome at theirview@livemint.com.


2.2. India must take action before it runs dry
Livemint, 8 Jun. 2018

Failure to manage agricultural and personal water use has led India to the brink of a crisis

Rudyard Kipling once described Shimla as a “centre of power and pleasure”. The power faded with the Raj. Now, pleasure is at a premium. Shimla is struggling with a water crisis that is an echo of Cape Town’s distress earlier this year. It has run out of municipal drinking water supply during peak tourist season. Citizens are being forced to queue up to collect water from tankers. Schools have been shut down for 10 days. This crisis is a reflection of a wider problem confronting India.

India has adequate freshwater. The problem is inefficient and wasteful use. This has two components. The first is agriculture. According to the Central Water Commission, agriculture consumed about 85.3% of total freshwater in 2000. This is likely to decrease only by a meagre 2% by 2025. Water usage for major crops in India—paddy and maize, for instance—is two to four times that in other large farming nations thanks to wasteful flood irrigation, mostly in northern India. This can be traced to the subsidy regime. 

The Economic Survey, 2015-16 noted that the present subsidy structure “encourages using more inputs such as fertiliser, water and power, to the detriment of soil quality, health and the environment”. Most states provide electricity either for free or at a flat rate. This inevitably leads to wasteful water extraction.

Both the Economic Survey and a 2015 International Monetary Fund (IMF) study have noted that these subsidies disproportionately benefit rich and large farmers. A number of economists have recommended tapering off electricity and water subsidies. The Aadhaar and financial inclusion drives have laid the foundations for the Centre and states to do just that via targeted direct benefit transfers.

Concurrently, irrigation infrastructure must be upgraded and research and development efforts focused on improving agricultural productivity with lower water usage. There have been some promising developments here. Punjab Agriculture University, for example, has recently come up with a new water-saving variety of rice that matures one to five weeks earlier than other varieties without compromising on the yield. The government is also collaborating with Israel—an established leader in water-management techniques—to promote drip irrigation; Asia’s largest such project took off in Karnataka earlier this year.

The second component is the use of water for personal consumption. About 80% of drinking water needs are sustained by groundwater. Look no further than today’s centre of power to see the problems here. In 2001, India’s groundwater authority banned private water extraction in Delhi due to the looming fear of groundwater depletion. However, the black market persists. Here’s how dire the situation is: According to scientists at the National Geophysical Research Institute, Delhi could dry up in a few years.

It’s worth noting here that water is a state subject and states have kept water-pricing rates stagnant for about three decades now. Pair this with the subsidy burden—the IMF study reckoned that it “amounted to 0.6% of global gross domestic product in 2012”—and authorities are left with little financial means to invest in the water- management practices that would provide sustainable, long-term solutions. These range from the construction of reservoirs to building water treatment and recycling infrastructure.

Putting in place viable water-pricing policies and ending subsidies will be tricky given the political optics. But these are essential changes. Others are needed as well. India has an antiquated legal framework to regulate groundwater. Since it is considered a part of land and gives landowners unrestricted entitlement to it, the government is left with little leeway to act. Legislative change is important.

Policies that nudge public behaviour can also help. The World Bank’s World Development Report 2015: Mind, Behavior And Society (goo.gl/FSPP2i)studied how creative interventions by city officials, such as publishing daily data on Bogota’s water consumption, identifying households that were not cooperating and rewarding those who were in leading newspapers, effectively reduced water consumption. In Hebei, China, authorities started publishing data on temperature, rainfall, soil moisture content and groundwater level. This induced farmers to rely on such irrigation forecasts instead of their own experience in making effective water use decisions. Eateries in Maharashtra, a state struggling with critical water scarcity, have started serving only half a glass of water and replenish it only on request.

Authorities in Cape Town took a gamble last year and announced “Day Zero”—the day when taps would be turned off and people would have to adopt communal water collection. This doomsday notion, despite affecting tourism and creating panic, pushed people to act. Water use per person per day has been reduced to half and “Day Zero” has been averted—for now, at least. Governments at various levels in India must act before more Shimlas make such drastic steps necessary here.

What can be done to promote water conservation in India? Tell us at views@livemint.com


3.1. The crisis in agriculture cannot be trivialized
Livemint, 6 Jun. 2018.

The fall in real wages, disinflation in the prices of agricultural goods and rising input costs have led to a full-blown crisis in agriculture

The NDA needs to shed its indifference as the livelihood of millions of farmers has been rendered unviable by bad policies. Illustration: Jayachandran/Mint
The ongoing 10-day strike by farmers across the country is the latest episode of the crisis in agriculture spilling out on to the streets. Meanwhile, the chief minister of Haryana, Manohar Lal Khattar, and the Union agriculture minister, Radha Mohan Singh, have made rather insensitive remarks about the strike, gloating about what they think have been the successful policies of their government. Data shows, however, that the farm crisis is real and persisting.
Previously, the kisan long march to Mumbai and the protests outside Rashtrapati Bhavan by farmers from Tamil Nadu had garnered considerable media attention. In fact, the rising discontent shows in the number of reported farmer protests, which increased from 628 in 2014 to 2,683 in 2015 and 4,837 in 2016, according to the National Crime Records Bureau.

As these pages have argued, it is impossible to simultaneously keep support prices high, retail food prices low, and overall inflation under control through a tight fiscal policy. The United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government negotiated this balance by generously increasing the minimum support price (MSP), and suffered high food inflation. The present National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government has prioritized fiscal prudence, but farmer incomes have suffered during its term.

Under UPA, the growth rate in agriculture rose from 1.76% per annum between 1998-2004 to 3.84% per annum between 2004-05 and 2012-13. Farmer incomes increased at the highest rate since the beginning of economic reforms in this period, growing at more than 5% per annum. This has since decelerated to 0.44% between 2011-12 and 2015-16. Real wages (inflation-adjusted) for agricultural and non-agricultural labour have declined between 2013 and 2017.

Following droughts in 2014 and 2015, output recovered and has reached record levels in foodgrains, wheat, rice and pulses. But farm-gate prices have remained an issue. The deflation in 2016 and 2017 was thought to be due to the cash crunch and crippling of supply chains due to the goods and services tax. But farm goods’ deflation has continued well into 2018, as the Reserve Bank of India’s monetary policy committee downgraded its projection for the consumer price index (CPI) in the first half of 2018 owing to 3.38% inflation in food and beverages, which is less than the 4.4% year-on-year rise in overall CPI.
Thus, the crisis in agriculture is full-blown, and the warning bells for the government have already rung in Gujarat, Rajasthan and now the Kairana Lok Sabha by-election in Uttar Pradesh (UP).
The farmer is demanding remunerative prices for his crop. Spilling his produce is a painful act that is made less so by the low prices he would have to sell it for at the mandi. This is his way of drawing attention to his woes, undoubtedly, but it is justified by the unjust circumstances he faces, that this column has repeatedly stressed over time.

The ongoing policy of farm loan waivers—seen lately in Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and UP—is, at best, an immediate response to an emergency. The UPA government also wrote off debt amounting to Rs70,000 crore in 2009; that erased the indebted farmers’ outstanding credit and allowed them to borrow again. But it did not stop future instances of bankruptcy. Moreover, these waivers do little to relieve the indebtedness of the most vulnerable farmers who have no access to institutional credit and are entirely dependent on moneylenders.
Urbanization and better incomes are driving demand for fruits and vegetables, and India’s horticulture output is now well ahead of cereals. Small and marginal farmers are especially attracted to these crops due to the shorter planting cycle and quick turnaround on investment. But poor roads and lack of investment in cold-storage and supply-chain facilities hurt them by increasing the post-harvest loss due to bruising and pilferage. So does the supply glut that causes prices to fall during the harvest season.

The laundry list of solutions is long, but the core message is that farming continues to be shackled by government regulations which were characteristic of the Indian economy before 1991. The prices of farming inputs and outputs are influenced by the government, as is the domain of trade. Well-meaning laws, such as the Essential Commodities Act, prevent private investment in cold-storage facilities. The Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC) Act has allowed the cartelization of traders that keeps farm-gate prices low. Sudden restrictions on exports preclude farmers from selling their produce in favourable markets and keep traders from developing reliable relationships. Moreover, farmers cannot formally pool or lease their land owing to land-ceiling laws. Nor can they formally enter into contracts with companies that will share their risk in return for a definite income. Farming can be a sustainable enterprise without these restrictions.

The government should aim to stabilize returns to farming by creating futures markets, establishing a long-term policy on international trade and cold-storage facilities. In the case of the UP sugar industry, this would have allowed the knowledge about the volume of sales of the wonder sugar-cane variety, Co-0238, to translate into lower prices of sugar futures. The foreseeable glut would have incentivised some farmers to substitute it with another crop, or plan the future course of action regarding whether to sell in international markets or store the produce for later.
Agriculture being a state subject, implementing these reforms will not be achieved in one broad sweep. Meanwhile, we also cannot afford the UPA-style patronage for the farmer at the expense of progress in reducing the fiscal deficit. The NDA government, on the other hand, needs to shed its indifference as the livelihood of millions of farmers has been rendered unviable by bad policies.

How should the government increase the income from farming? Tell us at views@livemint.com


3.2. Microfinance institutions' equity investments see 40% surge
Business Standard, May 28, 2018

Kolkata: Microfinance institutions (MFIs) have logged a nearly 40 per cent rise in equity investments during the last financial year. However, debt funding by banks, which registered around 20 per cent growth, remained confined to a top few MFIs.
Data from Microfinance Institution Network (MFIN) shows that total equity funding for MFIs stood at Rs 96.31 billion in 2017-18 against Rs 68.85 billion in 2016-17. This is a substantial rise of 39.88 per cent.
Also, foreign investors accounted for nearly 45 per cent equity funding in MFIs as on March 31, 2018.
In December 2017, microfinance institution Spandana Sphoorty Financial raised Rs 1.25 billion from existing investors.

Last financial year, IndusInd Bank closed the acquisition of microlender Bharat Financial Inclusion in an all-stock deal. More recently, Fusion Microfinance raised Rs 800 million equity from existing shareholders.
Notably, between 2014-15 and 2015-16, debt funding in MFIs had surged nearly 70 per cent. However, after demonetisation, debt funding has slowed down significantly.
“Domestic equity funding is scarcely available. Hence, the share of foreign funding has been going up. About 60-70 per cent of bank funding is being gobbled up by the top 10 MFIs. Several private banks have slowed down lending to the sector. The small and medium sized MFIs are now dependent on non-banking finance institutions (NBFCs) for funding,” Rakesh Dubey, president, MFIN, told Business Standard.

For large MFIs, the cost of debt funds ranged from a low of about 8 per cent to maximum 15 per cent. However, for mid-sized MFIs, the average cost of funding has been higher than 15 per cent.
For some smaller MFIs, bank funding came at a high interest rate of 21 per cent, data from MFIN showed.
For small MFIs, only about 11 per cent of funding was from banks last year compared to about 25 per cent in 2015-16 and 21 per cent in 2016-17, indicating a progressive decrease in funding. In 2017-18, the quantum of debt funding for banks to NBFCs-MFIs was around Rs 207 billion. Notably, earlier banks constituted a small fraction of the micro-lending space. However, they now account for a major share of it.

As of March 31, 2018, banks had a total micro loan outstanding of Rs 504 billion (inclusive of direct as well as indirect lending through business correspondents), which is about 38 per cent of the country’s microcredit.
NBFCs-MFIs accounted for 28 per cent of the total portfolio while for small finance banks the figure stood at 27 per cent.
As on March 31, 2018, the microfinance industry’s total outstanding loan was Rs 13,366 billion, which is a growth of 27 % over FY16-17.
Average loan amount per account saw an increase of 19 per cent and stood at Rs 22,273.
In terms of regional distribution of portfolio, East and North-East accounted for 44% of the total NBFC-MFI portfolio, South 20 per cent, North 14 per cent and West 11 per cent. Central India contributed 11 per cent.

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


4.1. Affordable housing loans to get cheaper
Livemint, Jun. 07, 2018

New Delhi: Affordable housing loans will soon become cheaper with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) extending the ambit of priority sector lending to loans of up to «¤??35 lakh.

The priority sector lending tag, will not only reduce equated monthly instalments on loans, but will also ensure easier access of bank credit for consumers, especially for the economically weaker sections and lower income groups.
The central bank has increased the housing loan limits for priority sector loans to «¤??35 lakh from «¤??28 lakh in metropolitan centres, and to «¤??25 lakh from «¤??20 lakh in other centres. However, the overall cost of the residential unit should not exceed «¤??45 lakh in metros and «¤??30 lakh in other centres, RBI said during its monetary policy announcement. This will also align the scheme with the housing-for-all scheme of the centre.

A circular in this regard will be issued by the end of this month, said RBI.
The central bank also flagged the rising bad debts in small-ticket loans and warned that regulatory tightening was on the anvil for home loans of up to «¤??2 lakh.
“After a careful analysis of the housing loans data, it has been observed that the level of NPAs (non-performing assets) for the ticket size of up to «¤??2 lakh has been high and is rising briskly. Banks need to strengthen their screening and follow up in respect of lending to this segment in particular,” the RBI said, adding that it was closely monitoring this sector.
It further said that it will consider appropriate policy response, including “tightening of the loan-to-value ratios and/or an increase in the risk weights, should the need arise.”
Banks had lent «¤??3.75 lakh crore in housing loans classified as priority sector as of 31 March 2018, a growth of only 2% over the «¤??3.68 trillion in the year-ago period.

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


4.2. The government needs to handle public sector banks with care
Livemint, 13 Jun. 2018

Even though the government has entered its last year in office, it still has time to initiate broad banking reforms and give a fresh direction to PSU banks

Former Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor Y.V. Reddy, in a speech last week, said that confidence in the working of public sector banks is at a historic low. The reason for this is not very difficult to discern. PSU banks are grappling with a high level of bad loans, and a number of them have been put under RBI’s prompt corrective action and are not in a position to lend. In the March quarter, PSU banks booked losses in excess of Rs 62,000 crore and the total gross non-performing assets (NPAs) stood at about Rs 9 trillion.
Although the government is in the process of recapitalising state-run banks, it is likely that the current Rs 2.11 trillion PSU bank recapitalization plan will not be sufficient to put the PSU banks back on track. Since PSU banks own about 70% of banking assets, their inability to lend will have a direct impact on economic growth. Therefore, it is important that the situation is handled with care. In this context, there are a few important issues that need attention at this stage.

First, as recently reported by Bloomberg, four out of 21 PSU banks have not appointed replacements for chief executive officers (CEOs) and top executives in nine more banks are expected to leave in the coming months. Given this state of affairs, it is possible that new CEOs may not be appointed in time. It is certainly not a desirable situation, especially at a time when banks are stressed and need swift decision making. It is important to have a plan in place for a smooth transition at the top. However, it is also likely that the government will find it difficult to attract talent due to the fear of investigative agencies among bankers. A number of present and former senior executives are under investigation for past transactions. The government must ensure that investigations don’t become a witch-hunt, and that the issue is handled with utmost care.

Second, the government is now mulling the formation of an asset reconstruction company(ARC) for faster resolution of bad loans and has constituted a committee to make recommendations in this regard. The committee is expected to submit its recommendation in two weeks. While it will be interesting to see the suggestions, in principle, the idea is unlikely to go very far. The basic problem will be one of valuation of stressed assets. For instance, if they are transferred at par and the resolution is left to a government-owned ARC, it could end up creating more complications in the system. Also, the ARC will need a significant amount of capital, which the government is not in a position to provide. In fact, now that India has the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code in place, there is no need for the government to form an ARC. Banks should be able to resolve bad assets under this framework. If the government can actually find resources to reduce stress in the banking system, it would do well to reassess the capital requirement of PSU banks and revisit the capital infusion plan.

Third, apart from capital needs and faster resolution of stress assets, PSU banks need governance reforms—something that has been largely missing so far from the picture. It is correct that the present government has refrained from micromanaging PSU banks, but this in itself will not solve the problem. The government, perhaps, needs to put in place a new framework for governance where, for instance, appointments at higher levels are made in time, and the board is professional and accountable. A situation where banks run without a CEO should never arise. PSU banks should be in a position to attract talent by offering competitive compensation at every level to be able to improve their operation and risk management systems. Only when banks are run by professionals will they be in a position to fund India’s growth in the long run and create value for all stakeholders, including the taxpayer.

At a broader level, as Reddy noted in his remarks, there should be clarity on the future of PSU banks. In fact, some of the banking reforms will only work if a clear road map is defined. For instance, if the government believes that a few banks should focus on underbanked areas, some fiscal support may be warranted. Perhaps banks should be allowed to focus on specific areas of strength so that they become more efficient over time and are not dependent on budgetary support for growth.
Though the government has entered its last year in office, it still has time to initiate broad reforms and give a fresh direction to PSBs. It will be difficult to sustain higher growth in the medium term without a strong banking system.

What can the government do to improve the working of PSBs? Tell us at views@livemint.com


5.1. IIMs face fresh threat to autonomy as HRD ministry seeks more control
Livemint, 11 Jun. 2018, Prashant Nanda

HRD ministry is working on a set of rules, which may influence the fee structure, student intake, gender equation on campus, degrees offered and the corpus IIMs can maintain

New Delhi: The government is framing rules to partially control how the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) function to curb potential misuse of the powers accorded to the board of the elite B-schools under the IIM Act.

Accordingly, the human resource development (HRD) ministry is working on a set of rules, which may influence the fee structure, student intake capacity, gender equation on campuses, degrees offered and the amount of the corpus the IIMs can maintain. Besides, it is also deliberating on whether the government should have a say on the appointment of the chairman to the board of IIMs, or their retrenchment “without flouting the autonomous spirit of the IIM Act”, at least two government officials said, requesting anonymity.


“All the IIMs are not of the same quality or stature, you have to build in rules, which will save IIMs from decaying. There is a consensus across political and administrative spectrum that adequate accountability and safeguards must be built in through these rules,” said one of the officials cited above.

The IIM Act gives the institutions autonomy in administrative, academic and financial matters.

The government, however, feels that the fees should be in “commensurate with the expense”. “Unfortunately, several IIMs are building corpuses without any plan to use them. When you are building a corpus of ₹500 crore from student fees, you will have to justify, whether you are planning an expansion, or you are going to use it for R&D?” said the second official.

“We do not want to cap fees, but it has to be in commensuration with the expense. In the name of autonomy, should an IIM be allowed to charge, let us say, ₹35 lakh? The Act talks about autonomy, but how will you build in welfare of students. Are IIMs offering 100% scholarship to 10% of their students, while charging higher fees?” the second official added.

While IIMs charge between ₹10 lakh and ₹22 lakh for the two-year flagship management course, fees have been steadily rising. IIM Ahmedabad (IIM-A), for instance, has fixed the fees at ₹22 lakh for its two-year MBA course for the 2018-20 batch, from ₹19.5 lakh two years ago.

The proposed changes to the Act will also push for better gender representation on IIM campuses. Though it will not be directly binding, its non-adherence will impact the performance appraisal of the institute and the director. Similarly, it may ask the IIMs, especially the older ones, to accept more students, given that they take far fewer students than their global peers, said the first of the two officials cited earlier.

IIM-A and IIM Calcutta admitted 395 and 440 students, respectively, while the Harvard Business School gives admission to 1,000 students and Stanford Business School accepts 854.

The government is also looking to have a say in the appointment of the chairman. “Without quality chairmen, IIMs’, especially new IIMs’, quality check and mentoring will suffer. Before the government had a say, but the IIM Act is not absolutely clear on this,” the second person said.

“IIM Act is very reformative, but there is a chance of its misuse at the institution level. All IIMs are not equipped to take a call on their future growth, hence some government guidance is necessary. Rules with due checks and balances will be welcome, but it should not completely negate the autonomy granted via the Act,” said a professor at one of the older IIMs, requesting anonymity.


5.2. Numbed by numbers? There’s a cure for ‘maths anxiety'
BusinessLine, 15 Jun. 2018, GarimaSing and Maitri Porechat

Aversion: Students suffering from maths anxiety feel immense stress when asked to solve problems on the blackboard, and typically minimise preparation ahead of tests - istock.com

For some, it is a piece of cake. For most, it is the stuff of nightmares.
Maths anxiety is now a recognised psychological phenomenon, and students suffering from it have help at hand.
“Maths anxiety is often confused with dyscalculia, or maths disability,” says Trupti Talekar, a Mumbai-based clinical psychologist. “Emotional disturbance that negatively affects the child’s maths performance is what constitutes maths anxiety. (On the other hand) dyscalculia is an academic disability: a skill deficit that has a neurological basis. Both can occur separately or together.”
Maths anxiety is defined as a fear/stress that arises in some students when asked to solve a problem. It is different from plain disinterest in the subject, though the line separating the two is rather thin.
So it is important to study and understand the behavioural pattern before classifying the issue. Students suffering from maths anxiety display symptoms such as restlessness and a tendency to shy away in the maths class. They typically avoid contact with the maths teacher, and do not spend much time preparing for tests.

Pet fear
According to a survey conducted by ed-tech start-up IMAX, anxiety is more common in maths than in any other subject.
“We have seen that there is a sort of avoidance behaviour when it comes to homework,” says Naveen Mandava, co-founder and CEO of IMAX, describing the symptoms. “Students get goosebumps when asked to solve problems on the blackboard. Even during exams, they postpone preparation for the subject till the last minute.”

“Children can be classified into three categories: Proactive, indifferent and anxious,” Mandava further says. “The proactive ones are those who spend more time on the subject than what is required. The indifferent ones do the bare minimum needed — they may just about complete their homework. Lastly, there are those who suffer from anxiety.”
Though the anxiety may arise from various causes, it is often in response to certain events or situations. For instance, if a teacher scolds a student in class when he/she is unable to solve a maths problem, it may lead to anxiety, say experts.
“My child started developing the symptoms of anxiety in class 4,” recalls the mother of an 11-year-old. “He can confidently handle a problem at his desk, but gets anxious if asked to tackle it in front of the entire classroom.”
“I have started counselling him at home,” she says. “I tell him it is alright even if he gets it wrong. Now he is in class 6, and his hesitation has gradually decreased.”

Solutions at hand
“There are therapies and treatments to deal with this,” says Rajesh Sagar, a child psychiatrist at AIIMS. “With proper treatment — such as taking anti-anxiety drugs and practising relaxation techniques like breathing exercises — students can overcome maths anxiety.”
In April, the Union HRD Ministry formed a committee to come up with ways to reduce the fear of maths among students. The committee, headed by Gujarat Education Minister Bhupendrasinh Chudasama, will make suggestions to make maths ‘easy’.



AGRICULTURE, FISHING & RURAL DEVELOPMENT 


6.1. India’s rural consumption surges in boost for FMCG firms
Livemint, May 21, 2018, Sapna Agarwal

Consumption growth in rural India has outpaced urban consumption by the widest margin in five years, encouraged by good rainfall and increase in government spending on infrastructure

Mumbai: Consumption growth in rural India has outpaced urban spending by the widest margin in five years, encouraged by relatively good rainfall last year and an increase in government spending on infrastructure. 
Rural consumption rose by 9.7% in the year ended 31 March, faster than the 8.6% growth in urban spending, according to market researcher Nielsen. A year ago, rural growth outpaced urban spending by less than half a percentage point. 
“If we look at growth in volume terms, we have reached the peaks last seen five years ago. Volumes were growing at about 10% then,” Sameer Shukla, executive director at Nielsen India, said in an interview earlier this month.


The faster pace of rural growth, if it sustains, is good news for India’s consumer goods companies. Rural consumption had slowed due to droughts in 2014 and 2015, and the twin disruptions of demonetization in November 2016 and implementation of the goods and services tax (GST) from 1 July in the following year, hurting sales of companies such as Hindustan Unilever Ltd (HUL), the nation’s biggest household goods maker. 

Things have improved in the latter half of the last fiscal year, with consumer goods companies reporting faster growth. 

Fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) companies grew sales at 13.5% in the year ended 31 March, the fastest pace in last three years, according to Nielsen data. The growth was led by volume growth, which rose 9.1%, or almost 2.5-3 percentage points faster than the previous two years, according to the data.

For India’s Rs3.4 trillion FMCG industry, revenues from the rural segment account for 40-45% of the total, according to Crisil Ltd. The analytics and ratings company expects rural revenue to grow 15-16% in the current fiscal year. This is higher than the 10% growth estimated for fiscal 2018 and the 5% reported in fiscal years 2016 and 2017. Growth in revenue from urban areas is expected to remain steady at 8%, said Crisil.
This is comparable to the growth seen in the early years of the current decade, when the FMCG industry was growing at a rate of 18-20% on average, said Shukla. In those years, volume growth was in the range of 10-12% and inflation was in high single digits, he said. Retail inflation in fiscal years 2013 and 2014 was close to 10%. Since fiscal 2015, inflation has been slowing; in fiscal 2018, it fell to 3.58%, the slowest in six years.

To be sure, growth may slow down this year. Following the implementation of goods and services tax (GST) in July, prices of FMCG goods across most categories from detergents to shampoos to skincare and home care products were reduced as tax rates were lowered from 28% to 18%. “In the last couple of quarters, manufacturers were giving a lot of promotions. So, volumes were buoyant for a short period,” said Shukla. Volume growth may not be at the same level in fiscal 2018 as fiscal 2017. “But it will definitely not fall to what we have seen in 2014-15 or 2015-16,” he added.
Even Sanjiv Mehta, managing director and chief executive officer of HUL, which recorded 11% volume growth in both the December and March quarters, is cautious. 
“We should wait for a couple more quarters to see whether it’s sustainable,” Mehta told reporters after announcing HUL’s earnings for the March quarter on 14 May.


6.2. About 700 digital villages will be set up by year-end: Ravi Shankar Prasad
Business Standard, May 21, 2018

New Delhi: The urban-rural divide, which is prevalent all over the country, seems to be more evident in the non-descript Dhanauri Kalan village at Gautam Budh Nagar district in Uttar Pradesh.
Although it’s not too far from the F1 circuit, which is well connected to expressways, the few kilometers of travel on a narrow road filled with potholes could be an arduous task.
The people residing in the village have to go to town even for basic necessities as there are no facilities available in the village.
However, the government aims to bridge the divide, not by building better roads but by setting up a digital infrastructure, which will empower the villagers to fulfill their basic needs like education, health or purchase if groceries.

The local Common Service Centre (CSC) will provide broadband connectivity via optic fibre cables to 100 homes. Also, there will be a Wi-Fi choupal allowing people to access internet for as little as Rs 15. Besides internet connectivity, the CSC is also working as a banking correspondent allowing villagers to withdraw money from the Aadhaar-linked bank accounts. It will pave way for meeting doctors using the telemedicine facility and get education through the digital literacy scheme.
To provide employment to the local people, a sanitary napkin making unit has been established along with LED and candle making facilities. People can also buy Patanjali products at the centre.
Electronics and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, who visited the village, said, “CSCs are working in 180,000 gram panchayats and very soon it will reach 2.5 lakh gram panchayats by the year end.”

Currently 2.91 CSCs operate in the country. Positioned as strategic cornerstones of the Digital India programme, the CSC model has adopted six villages on a pilot basis. “About 700 digital villages will be set up by the year-end,” Prasad said. DigiGaon or Digital Village has been conceptualised as a connected village where citizens can avail various e-services of the central government, state governments and private players in even remote villages.
These DigiGaons are projected to be change agents, promoting rural entrepreneurship and building rural capacities and livelihoods through community participation and collective action. The digital villages have been equipped with solar lighting facility in their community centre, LED assembly unit, sanitary napkin unit (with active participation of Asha and Anganwadi workers) and Wi-Fi choupal (rural Wi-Fi infrastructure and a slew of suitable applications).

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


7.1. Foodgrain production at record 279.51 MT in 2017-18: Govt
PTI, May 17, 2018

New Delhi: India is estimated to have harvested a record 279.51 million tonnes (MT) of foodgrains in the 2017-18 crop year ending next month, up 1.6 per cent from the previous year, on good monsoon and higher support price, the government today said.
The country achieved an all-time high production in all four foodgrains -- rice, wheat, coarse cereals and pulses -- during 2017-18 crop year (July-June), according to the third advance estimates released by the agriculture ministry.
"Total foodgrains production in the country is estimated at 279.51 million tonnes which is higher by 4.40 million tonnes than the previous record production of foodgrain of 275.11 million tonnes achieved during 2016-17," an official statement said.
In the second advance estimates released in February this year, the ministry had projected foodgrains production at 277.49 MT tonnes for the current crop year.

The bumper crop has led to a steep fall in prices of some agri-commodities like pulses and sugar causing distress to farmers. The government has started procurement to ensure support price to farmers.
According to the data, rice output is estimated at record 111.52 MT as against 109.7 million tonnes in the 2016-17 fiscal.
The production of wheat during 2017-18 is estimated at record 98.61 MT as against 98.51 MT in the previous year. Coarse cereals output is also seen at record 44.87 MT tonnes as against 43.77 MT achieved during 2016-17.
"Total pulses production during 2017-18 is estimated at record 24.51 MT which is higher by 1.37 MT than the previous year's production of 23.13 MT," the statement said.

In non-foodgrains category, oilseeds production is estimated to have declined to 30.64 MT in 2017-18 from 31.28 MT in the previous year.
With a significant increase by 49.03 MT over 2016-17, total production of sugarcane in the country during 2017-18 is estimated at 355.10 MT.
Production of cotton during 2017-18 is estimated to have increased to 34.86 million bales (of 170 kg each) from 32.58 million bales in the previous year.
Jute and Mesta output is estimated at 10.62 million bales (of 180 kg each), lower than the production achieved during 2016-17.
The government releases four advance crop production estimates before the final one at difference stage between sowing and harvesting period.

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


7.2. India makes unprecedented progress in coconut cultivation from mid 2014 to 2018 & becomes the leading country in coconut production and productivity
Press Information Bureau, Jun. 01, 2018

India begins coconut oil exports to Malaysia, Indonesia and Sri Lanka and for the first time exports dry coconut in large quantities to U.S. and European countries

New Delhi: India has made unprecedented progress in coconut cultivation from mid 2014 to 2018 and now it has become the leading country in coconut production and productivity. Productivity increased to 11516 fruits per hectare in 2017-18 as compared to 10122 in 2013-14. Between 2014 and 2018, 13,117 hectare was brought under new plantation as compared to 9,561 hectare during 2010-2014.
Owing to an increase in production of coconut, India has been exporting coconut oil to Malaysia, Indonesia and Sri Lanka since April 2017. Till March 2017, India was importing coconut oil. Also, for the first time India has been exporting dry coconut in large quantities to the U.S and European countries. In 2017-18, India exported coconut worth Rs 1602.38 crore while imports stood at Rs 259.70 crore.

In coconut producing states, 62403 hectares have been brought under scientific coconut farming methods as compared to 36477 hectare in 2010-14. It is noteworthy that coconut cultivation has spread in new areas. In various states, 13117 hectare new area was brought under coconut cultivation till 2014-18 which was only 9561 hectare in 2010-14.
In 2014-18, 5115 coconut production committees, 430 Coconut Growers' Federation and 67 coconut producing companies have been constituted which in 2010-14 was 4467, 305 and 15 respectively. The income from export of coconut products stands at Rs 6448 crore during 2014-18 as against Rs 3975 crore in 2004-2014. Under the skill development program for coconut sector ‘Friends of Coconut Tree’, 33228 unemployed youths have been trained as compared to 27770 in 2004-14.

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


8. Finmin ties up with 40 entities to extend funding under Mudra scheme
PTI, May 22, 2018

New Delhi: The finance ministry has tied up with 40 entities including Flipkart, Swiggy, Patanjali and Amul, which are big job creators, for extending loans to small entrepreneurs under the Mudra scheme.
In order to identify people who can be given funds under the Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana (PMMY), the ministry will on May 23 (rpt) May 23 organise an event in Mumbai to extend loan under the scheme.
"We have identified about 40 companies as biggest job creators. These companies will identify people who need loans under Mudra Yojana, underwrite them and we will extend loans under the scheme," Financial Services Secretary Rajiv Kumar told PTI.
He said people who need money under the Mudra scheme approach the banks, but with this initiative the financial services department is trying to reach out to those who need loans for their businesses but have not approached the banks.

The companies which have tied up with the financial services department for this include Make My Trip, Zomato, Meru Cab, Muthoot, Edelweiss, Amazon, Ola, Amazon, Big Basket, Carz on Rent and Habib Salon.
Last fiscal the government has extended Rs 2.53 lakh crore credit under the Mudra Yojana, while Rs 5.73 lakh crore has been extended in last 3 years.
PMMY was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on April 8, 2015, for providing loans of up to Rs 10 lakh to the non-corporate, non-farm small/micro enterprises.
The focus of the Seminar in Mumbai would be creating job opportunities and instilling the sense of entrepreneurship, to facilitate people to become job creators in place of job seekers.

Further, discussions will also be held to formulate a MUDRA scheme to consider extending finance to retail franchisee/ transport solutions /suppliers of entities like Flipkart, Amazon, Uber, Ola, OYO, Amul, Patanjali and Zomata requiring loans up to Rs 10 lakh under the Yojana.
Besides, CEOs of various Banks like SBI, ICICI, BOB, PNB, senior officials in the rank MD/CEO/CFO from Oil Companies, Railway Board would be part of the event.

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


9.1. There is no doubt about a rural recovery: Mahindra’s Pawan Goenka
Livemint, 6 Jun. 2018, Amrit Raj

Pawan Goenka said last two years had been very good in terms of farm incomes, helped by two rabi and two kharif harvests, and an increase in minimum support price

Mumbai: Banking on a rural recovery and higher farm income, Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd will introduce three new passenger vehicle products; enter the 10-16 tonne truck segment to complete its commercial vehicle (CV) portfolio ranging from 0.5 tonne to 49 tonne; turn Ebitda-positive for its trucks business; set up assembly facilities overseas—all of this in the current financial year. Ebitda or earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization is a summation of a company’s profitability.
“Frankly, the kind of growth that we saw in the fourth quarter surprised all of us,” M&M managing director Pawan Goenka said in an interview, He added that the last two years had been very good in terms of farm incomes, helped by two rabi and two kharif harvests, and an increase in minimum support price. “That results in reasonably good affordability for the farmer,” he said.
Goenka is concerned about growing protectionism the world over and calls for a need to devise strategies to counter it. Edited excerpts:

You have had about 70% growth in your net profit. What has changed in the past one year?
All the uncertainty regarding GST (goods and services tax) and (the shift from) BSIII (to) BSIV is behind us, so we can now plan very well for the coming years. The safety and emission norms are well-defined. It looks like the ministry has made it clear that 31 March is the last date for production and not sale, so we don’t expect the kind of thing that happened from BSIII to BSIV.
We have been looking to see how we can make BSVI an advantage as we switch over, rather than something we are concerned about. When we go to BSVI, it will not only be about emission but we will also be looking to add to the product so they have better value for the customer.
Immediately, we are launching three products this year; the U321, S201 and G4 Rexton. All three are very important for us. Two of these are volume products, while the third is not. We believe we are well poised going into FY19 with the line-up we already have and the upcoming one.

What about the trucks business and global expansion?
We are predicting a first Ebitda-positive year for the truck business this year. We will also be entering the 10 tonne to 16 tonne segment. Therefore, our CV portfolio becomes complete from 0.5 tonne to 49 tonne.
On the international side, we had taken a call two-three years ago to have more market presence than just exporting vehicles. Therefore, now we have a physical presence in four zones in Africa—Cairo, Nairobi, Nigeria and Johannesburg. We also have offices in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Nepal. We are setting up CKD (completely knocked down) plants, which will allow us to have a more aggressive export growth.

Growth in the tractor segment is a happy story...
When it comes to tractors, the story is even more exciting in some sense. We are doing three things; the first is to fortify the core, which is the domestic tractor market where we have been the leaders for over 30 years. We have been fortifying it by launching new products. The portfolio is almost entirely new with three launches in the past three years. Therefore, we believe our domestic tractors business is reasonably well-insulated from any kind of attack.
We have established CKD operations in the US and Australia, with Brazil and Mexico coming in recently. Acquisitions over the past three years (such as Hisarlar and Erkunt in Turkey) are giving us good global growth. This year we had over $1.4 billion in revenue coming from outside India in the tractor business; this was almost 38% of revenue. That’ll keep growing.

Are you actually seeing a turnaround in rural sentiment?
It is definitely positive; there’s no doubt about it. Some of it is actually what has happened and the rest is anticipation of what is happening.

What is driving the 40% growth in tractors you saw in the March quarter? Are rural incomes really rising?
It’s a combination of things. One factor was subdued demand because of a slowdown in the tractor industry, another is the increased availability of funds for farmers.
If you were to look at where we were in FY14, we had sales of 630,000 units. In FY18, we had 700,000 units. That means 11% growth in four years. Don’t look at 40% growth in one quarter. Look at 11% growth in four years... that’s not very large. The industry was not doing well for two years and then it recovered during the next two. Therefore, if you were to look at the 8-10% average growth, we still have room for good growth.
The last two years have been very good in terms of farm incomes. We had four very good harvests—two rabi and two kharif. The support price went up also. That results in reasonably good affordability for the farmer. Everything else is positive in terms of availability of retail financing, interest rates. Everything is adding up to create this demand. Frankly, the kind of growth that we saw in the fourth quarter surprised all of us.

Are you taking a bet on the Indian economy?
When I look at the next two years, we are certainly more confident in the first year but there’s some uncertainty in the second year. GDP growth is well-poised to grow above 7%, that’s a good growth. The monsoon also looks very good. The interest rates also look good at the moment; if they go up by 25 to 50 basis points, it will not spell any kind of disaster. The only concern is the rise in commodity prices. There was high growth last year and there will probably be equal growth this year. Combining both years, we will see a 5-8% increase in commodity prices, which is quite significant. That will lead to an increase in price in our cars and tractors. Oil prices are a concern as well. There are no other macroeconomic or external concerns at the moment.
There is a concern in terms of the increase in global protectionism, which is coming in now. Almost all countries, big and small, are looking at more protection at their borders either through tariffs or non-tariff barriers. Therefore, we have to redefine our strategy for global expansion. We started a bit earlier in terms of having a physical presence in the markets rather than counting on exporting our vehicles and tractors from India. That should work very well for us.


9.2. Record increase of 77% in sale by TRIFED during 2017-18
PTI, Jun. 08, 2018

1500 Tribal products listed on e-marketing portals
Nearly 70,000 tribal artists register substantial increase in income

During the year 2017-18, a massive drive for scaling up of Retail Marketing Activities was initiated by TRIFED of the Ministry of Tribal Affairs for achieving the sale target of Rs. 21.00 Crores and corresponding procurement target of Rs.12.25 Crores. A number of new initiatives were undertaken which resulted in substantial increase in sale from Rs.11.37 Crores in 2016-17 to Rs.20.08 Crores (provisional) during 2017-18, a record increase of 77% and a record sale in the history of TRIFED.

Expansion of Outlets
The expansion of showrooms in the year 2017-18 was undertaken on a large scale. As a result, TRIFED had a network of 36 own Sales outlets, 33 outlets on consignment sale and 18 franchisee outlets located across the country as on 31.03.2018 in comparison to 29 own outlets and 13 consignment outlets as on 31.03.2017.

Own Outlets
TRIFED opened seven new own outlets at Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh), Rameshwaram (Tamil Nadu), Ranchi (Jharkhand), Jaipur (Rajasthan), Jagdalpur and Raipur (Chhattisgarh). 

Consignment Outlets
TRIFED started twenty outlets on consignment basis at Ranchi (Jharkhand), Trichy (Tamil Nadu), Tanjavur (Tamil Nadu), Bangalore (Karnataka), Uttarkashi (Uttarakhand), Ahmedabad (Gujarat), Raipur, Bhilai, Jagdalpur, Ambikapur, Bilaspur, Rajnandgaon, Kanker, Durg (Chhattisgarh) during the year 2017-18.

Franchisee Outlets
TRIFED introduced a new concept of expansion through Franchisee, in which no manpower and infrastructure of TRIFED is required, except payment of commission ranging from 10-25% on net sales to the Franchise. Eighteen franchisee outlets at Ranchi, Jamshedpur, Ramgarh Cantt. (Jharkhand), Patna (Bihar), Guwahati (Assam), Jaipur, Udaipur, Mandawa (Rajasthan), Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh), Nasik (Maharashtra), Puri (Odisha), Dehradun and Uttarkashi (Uttarakhand) were made operational during the year 2017-18.

E-Commerce& M-Commerce 
TRIFED has made arrangements for sale of various tribal products through various e-marketing platforms of Amazon, Snapdeal, Flipkart, Paytm and GeM. Around 1500 number of different tribal products were listed in these e-marketing portals and a sale of Rs.5.00 lakhs was realized in 2017-2018.
All these above activities benefitted 70,000 tribal artist families who doubled or tripled their incomes due to marketing facilitation by TRIFED.

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


10. Inside Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance e-commerce plan
Livemint, 14 Jun. 2018, Amrit Raj and Rhik Kundu

Reliance Jio and Reliance Retail plan to sign on local merchants in an online-to-offline marketplace model pioneered by Jack Ma’s Alibaba

Mumbai: Billionaire Mukesh Ambani is planning to enter the e-commerce business by combining the best of online and offline shopping experiences, a business model that will require zero cash burn to acquire customers.
As part of the plan being put together by two of Reliance Industries Ltd’s (RIL) consumer-oriented units—Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd and Reliance Retail Ltd—the company plans to sign on local merchants, boosting their sales through what is known as O2O (online-to-offline) marketplace, a business model that Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba has pioneered, said one person with direct knowledge of the matter, on condition of anonymity.
The move is in line with Ambani’s aim to generate half of the group’s revenue from the consumer businesses over the next 10 years. Currently, 80% of the group’s sales come from its traditional oil and gas business.

“Demand is going to come from tier 2 and 3 and 4 towns and cities. Then you need to have the ability to deliver at these places,” said this person.
“At present, the cost of delivery will be very high, making this unviable. So, you have to create local markets and be present everywhere, where you know the local merchants and local customers and Jio will have to connect them,” the person added.
An email sent to an RIL spokesperson remained unanswered till press time.
Under the O2O model, a consumer searches for the product or services online but buys it through an offline channel. RIL’s plan is to consolidate merchants under an e-commerce platform. The merchants, in turn, will cater to the demand from the untapped markets.
This will help the company save on costs by avoiding the discounting game and penetrate areas currently outside the traditional purview of e-commerce companies.
“Over a period of time, the company can pass on the demand to the merchant, since the (local) merchant is closer to the consumer,” said the person cited above.

This is where Jio’s role converges with the strengths of Reliance Retail.
According to a Reliance executive, the company has a formidable physical presence in the country with 4,000 Reliance Retail stores, about 50 warehouses, and 4,000 Jio points, which will be scaled up to 10,000 over a period of time.
“That is going to help us in our e-commerce venture in a big way as each of them is a touch point to sign up merchants, and act as delivery points,” the person said.


INDUSTRY, MANUFACTURE 

11.1. Maruti Suzuki set to drive in biggest ever capacity expansion in India
Livemint, May 18, 2018

New Delhi: Japanese carmaker Suzuki Motor Corp. plans to expand production capacity by as many as 2.5 million cars a year in the decade to 2030 as it lays the groundwork to maintain its dominance in India, where it sells one in two cars.
The capacity expansion, the biggest ever planned by Suzuki or its local unit in India, will be divided into two phases, two people aware of the plans said, requesting anonymity. Suzuki will first expand its Gujarat plant by adding capacity to make 750,000 cars starting 2020. In the second phase, it will build a new plant, Suzuki’s fourth after those in Gurgaon, Manesar and Gujarat. The new factory, location of which has not been identified, will have a capacity of approximately 1.5 million units and is expected to be announced around 2025, the people said.

On completion of the two phases, Suzuki’s total vehicle manufacturing capacity in India will be about 4.5 million or more than double the 1.75 million vehicles it makes now (1.5 million in Gurgaon and Manesar and 250,000 in Gujarat).
The management of Maruti Suzuki told some suppliers about the expansion plan at a recent meeting in Abu Dhabi.
Maruti Suzuki plans to sell 5 million passenger vehicles annually by 2030, Osamu Suzuki, chairman of Maruti’s parent, said at a post-earnings conference call earlier this month.
An email sent to Maruti Suzuki on Tuesday remained unanswered till press time.
By 2025, Maruti Suzuki aims to sell 3 million units—about the current size of the Indian market.
“Suzuki plans to invest in expanding its existing capacity in Gujarat, otherwise it will be difficult to meet the three million-mark by 2025. The company is also planning how to maintain the dominance beyond that period, for which they need another plant,” said one of the two people cited above.

Production of the new version of the Ciaz—a mid-size sedan—expected to be launched in 2020, will be shifted to the Gujarat plant as well, this person added.
According to the second person, who was also present at the annual vendor conference, the management has told vendors about its plan to hold on to its 50% market share and implicitly, this means that investment in the future capacity is in the offing.
Suzuki intends to invest $1.5 billion in research and development, mostly to ward off competition from Korean and European rivals in India. Mint reported earlier that Suzuki is also looking to invest in developing a range of hybrid vehicles and more efficient gasoline engines for the domestic market in the next decade.

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


11.2. Kia ties up with Hyundai to drive into India
Livemint, 6 Jun 2018, Malyaban Ghosh

In its quest to break even as early as possible, Kia Motors will start exporting engines and other components to different geographies from its India plant

New Delhi: Kia Motors, a subsidiary of South Korean car maker Hyundai Motor Company, is gearing up to enter the Indian market, but as a competitor to Hyundai Motor India Ltd.
At the parent level, Kia’s management in South Korea is collaborating with Hyundai’s India team to set up its local operations—from establishing a plant and other infrastructure to selecting vendors and dealers.
In its quest to break even as early as possible, Kia Motors India will also start exporting engines and other components to different geographies, three people directly aware of the development said.

The parent is also looking to exploit the synergies between Kia Motors India and Hyundai’s subsidiaries, Mobis and Globis, operating in India.
Kia Motors India is expected to start production at its Andhra Pradesh plant by mid-2019. It will first start production of a compact utility vehicle that was showcased at the Auto Expo.
Though the firms will compete with each other, there will be some collaboration, especially during the initial years, according to one of the three people mentioned above.
“The management in South Korea, tasked with the responsibility of setting up Kia’s operations in India, is actively consulting its counterparts in Hyundai in India,” said the first of the three people mentioned above. “This is in the domain of selecting vendors and dealers for the Indian market since some in the Hyundai management have a really good understanding of the Indian market. Both parties are actively in touch for setting up the plant as well.”
Mobis, which manufactures auto spare parts, and Glovis, which caters to the logistics space, will collaborate with Kia Motors India. “Kia Motors will need some of the subsidiaries in India to get a hold on the market,” said the second person on condition of anonymity. “They might be competing with Hyundai, but these collaborations were expected and will help Kia start on a positive note.”

“Glovis and Mobis are part of the same Hyundai-Kia automotive group and Kia Motors India will draw synergies from its global associations wherever required. Kia Motors India has a desire to become a significant player in the Indian market and will use its Indian facility to manufacture fully finished automobiles and spare parts primarily for the Indian market,” said the spokesperson of Kia Motors India, in response to an email sent on 31 May.
Mint had reported in March about Kia Motors’ plans to introduce its electric vehicles, Niro and Soul, in India given the availability of infrastructure for electric mobility in the country.
Kia Motors India will have an annual capacity of 300,000 units and the company plans to exhaust the capacity in the next three-four years.
An email query sent to Hyundai Motor Company remained unanswered till the time of going to press.


12.1. Ashok Leyland plans 3 major launches in heavy truck range 
BusinessLine, 21 May, 2018, G. Balachandar 

Hinduja flagship Ashok Leyland will roll out three heavy truck ranges this fiscal as the second largest medium and heavy commercial vehicle (M&HCV) company seeks to grow its share in the multi-axle vehicle (MAV), tipper and tractor trailer segments.
While it plans a slew of product launches across bus and truck segments, its three launches will be significant as they will come in high horse power (HP) categories, the company said.
“We have unveiled 41-tonne haulage truck, which will be first of its kind in the segment. In the next few months, we will also launch high HP tippers and tractor-trailers,” said Vinod Dasari, Managing Director.
Its tipper range has so far been limited to 120 HP. The proposed tipper range will come with 320 HP both for domestic and international markets. It is expected to compete with global players in this segment. The company will also launch 49-tonne tractor trailer with 320 HP engine.

Key challenges
A new version of 16-tonne Boss will also be launched with a driver-rest cabin. These launches come at a time when the M&HCV market has been gradually witnessing a greater preference for higher tonnage trucks.
Multiple factors such as superior economics, improving road infrastructure, a dearth of experienced drivers, stricter implementation of overloading norms and GST implementation have aided the shift to higher tonnage vehicles.
“Availability of drivers is one of the key challenges of road logistics industry. It is estimated that nearly 15-20 per cent of trucks is idle due to the dearth of drivers. Accordingly, the shift towards higher tonnage trucks helps to address this challenge,” said Subrata Ray, Group Vice President – Corporate Ratings, Icra.
Also, cost of operations of 31-tonne trucks is about 25 per cent cheaper vis-a-vis 16-tonne truck, according to industry estimates.

Fresh demand
According to Umesh Revenkar, Managing Director and CEO, Shriram Transport Finance Company, heavy vehicle demand is exceptionally strong in the northern belt. Apart from the advantage of GST and efficiency gain the improvement in the northern belt due to strict enforcement of overloading especially in Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Punjab, Bihar, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh has created a fresh demand.
“They are not just replacement demand. There is a fresh demand too, because higher tonnage vehicles are not available in the used segment,” he added.
In FY18, the M&HCV (goods) segment grew by 19.4 per cent at 304,664 units. In this, heavy truck sales (16-49 tonne) grew by 28 per cent at 212,432 units. In heavy trucks, growth was primarily driven by 37-tonne trucks and tractor trailers, which accounted for almost third of overall heavy truck sales.


12.2. Avera set to open ₹50-cr e-scooter plant in AP
BusinessLine, 8 Jun.2018, V- Risishi Kumat

Avera New and Renewable Energy Moto Corp Tech, a start-up company, is set to launch two new battery-powered electric scooters from its upcoming plant located at Nunna about 18 km from Amaravati in Andhra Pradesh.
While the initial roll out will offer two models, including a sporty one, the company plans to roll out three more models by early next year, which will include two electric motorcycles.
Avera is promoted by the diversified Chandana Group, known for its textile retail and jewellery chains in the Telugu States.
A Venkata Ramana, Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer, said: “The ₹50-crore plant is coming up on a 63-acre site where a 1.8-km testing track is being set up. Initially, we will use up about 10 acre site and later expand.”

Venkata Ramana told BusinessLine that, “The manufacturing plant with an initial capacity to manufacture 25,000 units, will be managed by an all-women team and headed by Akula Chandini Chandana.”
“Apart from rolling out scooters, which will have a range of about 140 km with two battery packs or a 70-km range single battery pack unit, we are also in the process of setting up solar-powered electric vehicle charging stations, and have set up one in Amaravati,” he said.
These Lithium Ion Phosphate batteries, sourced from leading manufacturers, will be assembled into battery packs with in-house developed management system and deployed in these vehicles.

“Typically, we expect them to work for 2,500 to 3,000 charging cycles, equivalent to five years of use,” he said. “After roll out in some select cities in August, we expect to introduce three more models including motorcycles by early next year, to be amongst the first to launch battery power motorcycles,” he said.
Venkata Ramana, who had earlier co-founded a technology firm Face Map, which focusses on facial technologies, along with co-founder of Continental Coffee, said Avera was keen to supply these scooters to e-commerce last mile service providers.
“At Avera, we believe the EV industry is gradually getting into a phase where it will see greater acceptance. As States announced policies, and the much expected Central policy is announced, we will have huge opportunity,” he said.

Published on June 08, 2018


13.1. ESC prepares strategy paper to boost exports to US$ 178 bn by 2022
PTI, May 25, 2018

New Delhi: Electronics and Computer Software Export Promotion Council (ESC) has prepared a strategy paper to boost exports to USD 178 billion by 2022, the commerce ministry said today.
Releasing the paper here yesterday, Commerce and Industry Minister Suresh Prabhu stated that the government of India will extend all support to the industry for intensifying the exports to traditional markets and explore new areas, including Africa, Latin America and Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).
He said that the government is taking proactive steps for making ICT (information and communications technology) exports more vibrant and to motivate more units to focus on exports.

The strategy paper highlights the need for some policy level changes that are critically needed, such as resolving visa problems with the US, greater access of professionals to European countries and setting up of incubation centres in major IT hubs.
The paper has also stated that for markets like Africa and Middle East, a different model is required as India mostly offers product solutions.
"ESC has prepared a strategy paper for augmenting software exports to USD 178 billion by 2022," it added.

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


13.2. Quality of hiring in India matters not the numbers’ 
BusinesLine, 24 May, K. Giriprakash/ Venkatesh Ganesh

Apart from ABS, auto parts maker Bosch is sure India needs electronic stability programme, too 
World’s leading auto parts maker Bosch Ltd is leading several initiatives such as automated cars, implementation of Industry 4.0 and on newer technologies to make driving safer. In an interview with BusinessLine, Jan-Oliver Roehrl, CTO and Director, Bosch Ltd, and Soumitra Bhattacharya, Managing Director, Bosch Ltd and President Bosch Group in India, share the company’s plans for these projects. Excerpts.

Bosch had said it will hire about 10,000 more employees. Where do you plan to deploy them?
The hiring that we talked some time back was for Bosch India. We have a big software company and we primarily do a lot of hiring there. Bosch Ltd has a total associate strength of 9,700. It’s the quality of hiring nowadays in India that matters not the numbers. As far as capex is concerned, we had a capex of ₹460 crore and for the next two years, the capex will be between ₹450 crore and ₹650 crore. So, we will continue investing in the facilities in Adugodi, Bidadi and Nashik. We will continue to invest but our primary investments will continue in Adugodi and the new plant in Bidadi.

Let us look at some of the initiatives such as accident prevention systems. By when will it come to India?
The anti-lock braking system (ABS) part, a safety regulation which the government of India has implemented, is getting implemented with effect from 2018-2019 for two-wheelers. This will come out of Robert Bosch Chassis, which is a fully-owned Bosch company and is located in Pune. All our 13 legal entities work closely. We have a common interface with all our customers for Bosch group in India. We don’t segregate for all our OEMs or all other customers. 
What I think India needs besides ABS, is ESP (Electronic Stability Program). It has now become standard across the world, and I believe, India would also mandate this. And it’s not for Bosch business, but I think it is important to save lives. 

But these things take time to adopt, especially in India...
You see, there are two ways of implementing any such process. One is to do it willingly. Usually, the industry does this for the high-end cars. It is for the compact cars where the government will need to put a legislation based on the facts and figures, which if I share with you, currently the entire emerged world or developed world has implemented ESP as a standard. 
So, it is just a matter of time before the Indian government implements it just the way we have leaped frogged from BS IV to BS VI. 
After BS VI, we will have delta on emission of only six years. So, same way, I feel for safety factors also, we have a delta between us and the emerged world or the developed world and we will reduce it and the only way to reduce it is through leapfrogging. 

What is the update on Bosch’s Agile Project House? 
We believe strongly that all good companies need to prepare and not only do well in the core business, example, ICE-Internal Combustion Engine, it's going to stay in India and the world for a long time. 
Then of course, you have a mix of what is going to be in diesel and gasoline. We also believe that other forms of mobility like hybridisation-PHEV, hybrid electric vehicles or PEV, will come in, but when will it come cannot be anticipated because the barrier primarily happens to be from the cost front and back front along with charging ecosystem. 
Bosch India has decided that since our parent has knowledge in hybridisation and pure electrification vehicles, we have created this agile house pulling in talented young workforce from multi-division,multi-location and multi-legal entities of Bosch. We have extended this to electromobility and are looking at how it can be regionalised, what solutions can we give to show that Bosch India can have a Bosch-powered electric vehicle. 
This Project House will be a very interesting concept which will give opportunities and solutions for the customers. 
One of the interesting things are the self-driving cars that's coming. We have a lot of smart city projects that are coming up. Do you think they would be the initial adopters considering that you can start from scratch? What's your sense on that.

Many of these things first start in big campuses. What are smart campuses? 
They are actually mini cities. Smart campuses have a strong-controlled environment. For any such thing, you need to have a controlled-environment. For example, The German Autobahn is also a controlled-environment. They are far more controlled as compared to the Indian highways. 
We have shown that a car without a driver through an app can park itself in a normal working environment where children and others are walking around. 
We have showcased by collaborating with Daimler. Bosch India has shown that we have the ability to deliver a park assist which can help you to park automatically. We have international solutions that are even more advanced and I strongly believe that they will come to India. 

While we are on this subject of automated cars, you are one of the early adopters of industry 4.0. What is the status there? 
Bosch India is one of the shining examples of implementing 4.0 where you can see used cases which are seamless on source-make deliver but we have also shown government of India that we have used cases of menu cards where industry 4.0 can be used in MSME in India. 
We have affordable selective industry 4.0 use cases which you can selectively take out and use or you can take the whole seamless solution. 
We are one of the few companies who are not only selling to third party but first implementing industry 4.0 in our 18 factories across India. 


14. Ather Energy gives Bengalureans more options to go greenGovind
Livemint, 6 Jun. 2018, Deepti

Deliveries for Ather Energy’s new electric scooters will begin in August and be limited to Bengaluru for now

Bengaluru: In 2006, Bengaluru not only outstripped other Indian cities as the largest market for India’s first electric car Reva, it also beat London in terms of global sales for the vehicle. The city has always been known to house early adopters of new technology.
It is not surprising then that over a decade later, another Indian company picked Bengaluru as both headquarters and the launch market for its electric scooters. On Tuesday, Ather Energy Pvt. Ltd launched two variants of its electric scooters—the Ather 340 and the Ather 450—that it developed from scratch in the city.
Ather Energy’s own in-house research conducted across Bengaluru and other cities a few months ago, including Delhi and Pune, resulted in Ather 340 scoring high across all parameters, whether it was in terms of people being okay with the purchase price, the willingness to buy an electric vehicle (EV) or even an interest in smart and connected features.

“Bangalore is pretty high in terms of EV adoption,” said Tarun Mehta, co-founder and chief executive of Ather Energy. “It is home to the Reva, the first and the original electric car in the country. It has also been home to other EV efforts in the past. There are a lot of folks in Bangalore who are aware of the green cause and who really want to conserve the environment, for whom buying an EV really matters and contributes to that cause.”
However, the company’s decision to launch its electric scooters on World Environment Day (5 June) is more a happy coincidence than a planned one, said Mehta.
To make it more convenient for people in the city to adopt EVs, regardless of the new Ather scooters, the Bengaluru-based start-up also launched charging infrastructure under the name Ather Grid two weeks ago with an investment of around $1 million.
By the end of the year, the goal is to ensure that an EV customer is not more than 4km away from an AtherGrid charging point in Bengaluru, co-founder and chief technology officer Swapnil Jain had said on 21 May.

Deliveries for Ather Energy’s new electric scooters will begin in August and be limited to Bengaluru for now. The company has already opened up its website for limited pre-orders and expects to sell around 5,000 scooters during the first year. Starting 8 June, consumers would be able to test drive the vehicles at Ather’s experience centre in Bengaluru’s upscale Indiranagar.
The company opened up its website for pre-orders only on Tuesday, but it is already getting good traction, according to Mehta. In fact, so strong is the city’s receptiveness to new technology that he believes the total market penetration of electric two-wheelers in Bengaluru can even go up to 30-40% in the next five years.
He is not alone in that view. Sandeep Kumar Maini, chairman of Maini Group that created the Reva, believes that Bengaluru scores high both on new technology adoption and awareness around sustainable living and environmental conservation.
“Bangalore has one of the largest number of young professionals. Their attitude and aptitude towards looking at something different and new, which helps the community and the future as a whole, is also probably higher than most other cities in the country,” Maini said. To complement that, the governments in Karnataka have also been very supportive of new technology, he added.


15. Outsystems – a Portuguesse Company gets an Investment of 360 million from Goldman Sachs and KKR.

Outsystems managed to raise an investment of 360 million USD through Goldman Sachs and KKR, raising its evaluation to more than 1 billion USD, becoming consequently the new Portuguese Unicorn.
Outsystems, a worldwide leader in fast development of low code applications, announces having obtained 360 million USD in an investment round through KKR and Goldman Sachs. This funding will help in accelerating business expansion and fund R&D in the SW automation, as referred to in the Company press release issued on the 5th of June.
Outsystems stresses that the low code platform permits substantial efficiency gains in the development and support of applications for Companies, adding that Toyota, Logitech, Deloitte, Ricoh, Schneider Electric and GM Financial already use it.
Outsystems has more than one thousand customers in the world. It is recognized as one of the technology Companies with fast growth, with a turnover of over 100 million USD and annual growth higher than 70%, as referred to in the press release.

This Company founded in 2001 and headed by Paulo Rosado has acquired 275 new customers in the entrepreneurial segment in the last year and had more than 50.000 new program developers using their platform. 
According to official data Outsystems is present in 52 countries, catering for more than twenty industries. Besides the Portuguese office located in Linda-a-Velha, Oeiras, it has business premises in the Unites States (Atlanta and Boston), United Kingdom, Netherlands, United Arab Emirates, Singapore, Japan and Australia.
In February the Company announced the opening of AI Centre in Lisbon
Paulo Rosado CEO of Outsystems states “we are fighting against one of the big problems of the lack of speed and agility faced by the Companies in the traditional development of SW, creating difficulties in the digital transformation of the world, hence we are excited with this partnership with KKR and Goldman Sachs in order to solve this problem bringing more innovation to our customers and redefining the SW Development in the entrepreneurial sector”.
Stephen Shanley, director of KKR, believes “we are in the beginning of a long period of growth of the market of development of low code applications and are very happy to support Outsystems, a leader in this category” 

“We noticed that we could find excited and loyal Outsystems customers in the main industrial sectors , who developed exclusive solutions and adopting their platform in the organisation” as explicited by Kirk Lepke, Vice President of Goldman Sachs Private Capital Investing. Christian Resch, Managing Director of Goldman Sachs Private Capital Investing adds –“ Outsystems is in line with our quest for new investments – the support of exceptional founders and management teams in innovative businesses, offering an unique opportunity for creating value on a long term basis. We are anxious in supporting Paulo and the team in the continuity of expansion of this unique business.”



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

16.1. Domestic air passenger volume surges 26% in Apr to 11.51m
PTI, May 18, 2018

Mumbai: Domestic air passenger volume surged 26 per cent in April to 11.51 million over the year-ago period driven by the tourists season, which began from the previous month, according to DGCA data released today.
Indian carriers together flew 11.51 million passengers in April this year as against 9.13 million in the same month last year, thereby logging a 26.05 per cent growth, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) data showed.
The Gurugram-based IndiGo remained the market leader, having flown more than four out of every 10 passengers as it carried 4.58 million passengers during the month while rival SpiceJet continued to see the highest seat occupancy across its aircraft market at 95.5 per cent.

The passenger load factor in April has shown increasing trend compared to the previous month primarily due to beginning of tourist season, the DGCA said.
Besides flying the maximum number of passengers, IndiGo also recorded the highest on time performance (OTP) with 86.6 per cent of its flights arriving and departing as per schedule from four metro airports, Mumbai, Delhi, Hyderabad and Bengaluru.
It was followed by SpiceJet and GoAir (86.1 per cent each), Jet Airways along with its subsidiary JetLite (82.9 per cent) and Vistara (78.4 per cent). This was Jet Airways best OTP in several months as it was hovering in the range of 50-60 per cent only.

Disinvestment-bound Air India recorded the lowest OTP from the four airports with nearly a quarter of its flights failing to depart or arrive on the scheduled time from the four airports.
"SpiceJet has yet again recorded the highest passenger load factor in the industry. For three years in a row, it has flown with loads in excess of 90 per cent," Shilpa Bhatia, chief sales and revenue officer at SpiceJet said.
The overall cancellation rate of scheduled domestic airlines for the month of April stood at 0.64 per cent with new entrants in the regional flight space Air Deccan cancelling 45.60 per cent of their total flights followed by New Delhi-based Zoom Air, which did not operate nearly one-thirds of its services during the months, according to DGCA data.
Interestingly, Indian carriers paid a whopping sum of Rs 2.36 crore in compensation to passengers for denied boarding, flight cancellations and delays, the data showed.

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


16.2. Maharashtra best place for a career in sports: Report
PTI, May 22, 2018

New Delhi: Jobs that support and supplement sporting talent are increasingly gaining ground and Maharashtra is the best place for such opportunities, as the state contributes 23 per cent of all sports jobs in India, says a survey.
These jobs do not reflect sports profiles as pursued by athletes and sports professionals, but rather jobs that serve to support and supplement the key players on ground, the report said.
In recent years, roles such as sports physiotherapist, sports manager, sports photographer, sports analyst, sports commentators and sports journalist have come into the limelight, courtesy of high-profile cricket events.
According to data from job site Indeed, Maharashtra tops the chart followed by Karnataka, Telangana, New Delhi and Tamil Nadu, which contribute 16 per cent, 12 per cent, 11 per cent and 7 per cent, respectively.
These states make up the leading five states in India for a career in sports.

"While the various state governments and the central government are doing their bit towards supporting and boosting sports development, the onus for this also lies with Corporate India a powerful force that can lead this transformation through their contribution," said Sashi Kumar, Managing Director, Indeed India.
Kumar further said that in the past few years, corporate associations have seen tremendous success, be it in kabbadi or football. The success of such initiatives should be encouragement enough for more companies to come forward and help in the development of the various sports that India is home to.

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


17.1. 5G subscription by 2022, 78% to use 4G by 2023 in India: Ericsson
PTI, Jun. 13, 2018

New Delhi: Indian mobile users can expect to access 5G services by 2022 while 4G connections are estimated to soar around four-folds in the country , according to a report released by Ericsson Mobility today.
"We expect 5G smartphone subscriptions to become available by 2022. And by the end of 2023, there will be some 10 million subscriptions on 5G in India," Ericsson Mobility Report (EMR) Editor Patrik Cerwall told PTI while sharing details. 
According to the report, the first commercial rollout of 5G is expected by the end of this year globally.
"The big markets where a lot of subscriptions will be taken up will be North America, China, Japan, and South Korea. When it comes to 5G in North America, just to give you a perspective, we believe that 48 per cent of all subscriptions in North America will be on 5G by 2023," Cerwall said.
The report said that India is considering the range 24.5GHz to 29.5GHz for commercial 5G networks, as well as the bands 37GHz, 39GHz and 42GHz.

In late 2016 and early 2017, India saw strong growth in the number of 4G subscriptions, mainly due to attractive free voice and data traffic offers. 
"As a result, LTE (4G) accounted for 20 per cent of all mobile subscriptions at the end of 2017. The transformation toward more advanced technologies is expected to continue in India and, in 2023, LTE is forecast to represent 78 per cent of all mobile subscriptions," the report said.
The report forecasts that India will have 780 million VoLTE (voice over LTE) subscriptions by 2023. 
EMR predicted that there will be 5.5 billion 4G subscription by the end of 2023 globally.
In terms of global mobile subscriber growth, India occupied second spot with net subscriber addition of over 16 million with total base of 1,185 million in the first quarter of 2018. China led the global subscriber growth with net additions of 53 million taking total number of customer base to 1,470 million.

EMR expects smartphones subscription in India to reach 970 million by 2023 from 380 million at the end of 2017 and most of the devices will be based on 4G technology.
Cerwall said that 5G smartphones will start coming in the market in the first half of 2019 and the largest variants of smartphone devices will probably come around 2019 end and lot of device variants will come in 2020.
The report, based on data from 180 countries, estimates that there will be 3.5 billion IoT (internet of things) cellular connection by 2023 of which 72 million are estimated in India.
Based on the adoption of 4G technology , EMR estimates that the total monthly mobile data traffic in India is expected to have increased by five times to reach 10 EB (exabyte) from 1.9 EB (close to 2 billion gigabyte or GB) at the end of 2017.

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


17.2. India to be shared mobility leader by 2030: Report
PTI, Jun. 04, 2018

New Delhi: India is expected to be a leader in shared mobility by 2030 as rising share of electric and autonomous vehicles will improve shared mile economics, says a Morgan Stanley report.
According to the global financial services major, India offers all the right ingredients to be one of the largest shared mobility markets in the world as it has large population clusters, a young demographic that is well connected to the internet and rising real incomes.
By 2030, Morgan Stanley expects shared miles to reach 35 per cent of all the miles travelled in India and this will further increase to 50 per cent by 2040.
Post 2030, it also expects this trend of shared mobility to partly replace individual car ownership while app-based taxi services will mainly replace public transport rather than personal car usage.

India had 257 billion miles driven in 2017, and of that, 10 per cent were shared (includes traditional taxis and app-based plays), based on Morgan Stanley estimates.
"We believe this can rise to 35 per cent by 2030, implying an 18 per cent CAGR," it noted.
The report further noted that large population clusters are the first prerequisite for successful shared mobility. India has 61 cities with populations greater than San Francisco's (850,000 population), and 50 cities with populations of more than 1 million.
Besides, public intercity transportation infrastructure (including trains and local buses) in India have been slow to ramp-up.

Moreover, India's internet penetration has hit an inflection point as consumers have access to cheaper handsets and affordable data plans.
As per World Bank data, 850 million of Indian are below the age of 35 and since young people are usually quicker to adopt new trends and are less likely to own a car, implying a likelihood of adopting new mobility options.
Further rises in incomes will also lead to higher spending on shared mobility, while economics and demographics will create a pool of drivers.
"Over the next decade, we expect the proportion of shared mobility to expand in the overall mix, and also, within shared mobility, we expect the mix to shift from traditional taxis to app-based plays," the report said.

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


18.1. Govt can dispense cheaper, quality medicines, says PM
BusinessLine, 8 June, 2018, Shanker Chakravarty-

Jan Aushadhi stores number to be scaled up to 5,000

Using generic medicines can cut costs by up to 90 per cent and Jan Aushadhi stores can dispense cheaper, good quality medicines, said Prime Minister Narendra Modi as he interacted with beneficiaries of the Centre’s Jan Aushadhi scheme.
The half-an-hour long interaction with patients across India, included those suffering from heart and kidney ailments, diabetes, and those who have undergone knee implants.
Subhash Gawanti of Cuttack in Odisha is a diabetic and has high BP and cholesterol. While earlier he would spend up to ₹3,000 a month on drugs, he says that now he is able to procure the generic version of the same drugs at ₹500 a month from the government store.
Another patient from Hyderabad, Mala Garu, said that while she would get medicines for 10 days at ₹2,500 from private chemists, at the Jan Aushadhi kendra, it costs ₹200.

Jan Aushadhi stores
While there are 3,600 Jan Aushadhi stores currently, Modi said they will soon be scaled up to 5,000. Up to 3,000 stores are run by private chemists, who have to get a licence to run them. Of the 850 districts, nearly 750 have these stores.
On frequent complaints of unavailability of generic medicines in these stores, Minister for State, for Chemicals and Fertilisers Mansukhlal Mandaviya told BusinessLine: “We have supply chain issues that we are working towards solving.”
For example, Anjan Prakash, a chemist in Jharkhand, stocks 500 of the 700 medicines. He opened the store last year.
“I travel to areas so remote that people do not even get two square meals a day there. It is important to provide them cheap drugs though. So, I opened the store,” Prakash told Modi during the video interaction. The Jan Aushadhi scheme had come under radar for some drugs failing quality tests in Karnataka recently. Joint Secretary Navdeep Rinwa, Department of Pharmaceuticals, stated, “We have recalled batches of drugs if there is an issue of quality.”


18.2. Online retail sales in India seen growing to US$ 32.7 billion this year
Livemint, Jun. 08, 2018

Bengaluru: Online retail sales in India are expected to grow by 31% this year to touch $32.70 billion, led by e-commerce players Flipkart, Amazon India and Paytm Mall, according to a report by marketing research firm eMarketer. However, India’s growth rate in e-commerce is yet to catch up with countries such as China and Indonesia in the Asia Pacific market.
Flipkart, Amazon and Paytm Mall have been expanding into new sectors, including grocery, and with Walmart’s recent $16 billion acquisition of Flipkart, e-commerce in India is expected to launch more offline retail stores with private labels playing a larger role in segments such as fashion and electronic accessories.
A combination of factors have contributed to India’s growing ranks of digital buyers, including large investments made by companies like Amazon, Flipkart and Paytm Mall, growing internet and smartphone usage, and demographics—the country’s young population and burgeoning middle class.
eMarketer estimates that a quarter of India’s population will become digital shoppers by end of 2018, the figure touching 41.6% by 2022.

However, E-commerce in India is yet to get into its stride. The online retail market in India has more than tripled since 2015, but it is only expected to contribute to 2.9% of the total retail sales in 2018. This, however, is expected to change in the coming years. By 2022, the sector will be worth $71.94 billion, which is a 120% growth compared to $32.70 billion in 2018, the research firm added.
Comparatively, in China, online retail already makes up more than 16% of the overall retail market, and is expected to touch 25% in 2020, according to a 2017 report by Goldman Sachs. In China, the next set of growth is expected to come from advanced logistics infrastructure and the offline-online retail mix led by omni-commerce retailers. In India, last-mile logistics still remains a bottleneck for most e-commerce marketplaces. But several companies such as Lenskart, Urban Ladder and Fab Alley have set-up brick-and-mortar stores across India to grow their customer base.

Apart from this, big offline retail chains like Max Fashion and Future Group are already experimenting with omni-commerce models.
“E-commerce is booming in India thanks to increased internet users and cheaper smartphones,” said Eric Haggstrom, forecasting analyst at eMarketer.
“In tandem with this shift to online and mobile usage, Flipkart, Amazon and Paytm Mall have been competing fiercely to claim their share of the Indian market. All three are making large investments, which include improved logistics and payment systems, as well as offering deep discounts, which will fuel future growth in the market,” he added.

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


19.1. NIC launches new data centre in Bhubaneswar, to hire 800 people pan-India in 1 yr
PTI, May 28, 2018

Bhubaneswar: National Informatics Centre will hire 800 professionals in the next one year, including for 355 cyber security experts, as increased cyber risks globally bring data protection and cyber safety to centrestage, according to a top NIC official said.
The NIC -- whose new cloud-enabled National Data Centre was inaugurated by IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad here today -- currently has 4,500 people across India in its various operations. NIC provides technology support to all governance services and hosts nearly 10,000 websites of the government.
"This data centre in Bubaneswar is of global standards," Prasad said unveiling the data centre that will host new as well as existing applications of central and state governments and has ability to support 35,000 virtual servers.

Emphasising the significance of the new national data centre here, Prasad further said that in the IT ecosystem, data centre adds to the digital clout of a state or location and raises its global profile.
"Data centre is important because data sanctity is important," he said at a conference here.
NIC's fourth national data centre after Delhi, Hyderabad and Pune, the Bhubaneswar unit aims to offer round-the-clock operations with secure hosting for e-governance applications of ministries and departments.
"With a slew of government apps including mygov, eWay bill, public finance management system, eHospials all being hosted by NIC, the demand for computing and storage has increased many folds," Neeta Verma, director General of NIC, told reporters here.
She said that over next one year, NIC will hire 800 people all over India and 355 of these will be cyber security professionals, to tackle "rising risks of cyber security".
The hiring will be both at entry level and lateral, that is, from the industry.

Minister for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Dharmendra Pradhan was also present on the occasion.
An NIC release said that the unified and shared infrastructure is flexible enough to rapidly respond to infrastructure requirements and also accommodate future technology enhancements, distributed applications, database applications, virtualized applications and cloud-based applications that are available on demand.
The cloud services will provide benefits like on-demand access to ICT (Information and Communication Technology) infrastructure for easy availability and quick deployment of applications and standardized platforms of deployment, it added.
The cloud service offerings of NIC would allow departments to provision infrastructure and add to the computing capacity "on demand".
In the traditional model, departments have to budget and procure infrastructure at the commencement of the project, leading to either over provisioning of infrastructure or under-sizing of the requirements.
But elastic nature of the cloud allows departments not only to bring the solution to deployment quickly but also to scale up based on the demand of peak or low loads.

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


19.2. After Flipkart deal, Walmart India looks to scale up kirana store business
Livemint, 4 Jun. 2018, Deepti Govind

Walmart India has been piloting Mera Kirana over the past four years and now wants to make it part of itS mainstream business

Bengaluru: Walmart India is planning to scale up its kirana store programme called Mera Kirana that helps small family-owned grocery stores modernise, while also opening a new fulfilment centre as part of a pilot run in a bid to expand its cash-and-carry footprint at a faster clip.
Walmart India has been piloting Mera Kirana over the past four years and now wants to make it part of its mainstream business, a top executive said in an interview. It is also planning to open another so-called “dark store”, or warehouse, in Lucknow over the next month or so.
Under Mera Kirana, Walmart creates zones in its Best Price wholesale stores that are designed to resemble a modern kirana store. They serve as a model for mom-and-pop (kirana) store owners to replicate when it comes to assortment and placement. The company also sends its teams out to kirana stores to work directly with them.

“We’ve seen a lot of loyalty from kirana stores because they understand that we are not just selling to them we are also helping them become modern. We’ve seen healthy double-digit growth in our membership base year-on-year,” said Rajneesh Kumar, chief corporate affairs officer at Walmart India.
Of the company’s 1 million active customer base, 70% are small mom-and-pop, or kirana stores. But many of these stores are not yet technology-enabled and that is where companies like Walmart, and its peers like Metro Cash and Carry Pvt. Ltd, come in.
These organised wholesalers work with small retailers to digitise their business, in some cases even handing out hardware and software for free. Keeping the mom-and-pop businesses strong benefits wholesalers. Metro Cash and Carry, for instance, is even considering acquisitions to aid it in digitising retail outlets.
Another tactic that Walmart is experimenting with in India is fulfilment centres. These centres will be housed in warehouses operated by third-party logistics firms, and will be used by Walmart to service kirana stores in the vicinity.

The company typically needs four acres to open a full-fledged Best Price store, and the process of getting requisite approvals and performing due diligence for these used to take up to four years earlier.
That time frame has shortened to 2.5 years in some cases, but is still much longer when compared with setting up a fulfilment centre. The first fulfilment centre that Walmart opened, in Bhiwandi near Mumbai, took just 60 days to become operational. “It (fulfilment centre) allows us to go to market faster and while store growth will continue aggressively, this is a complementary approach that we are building in to start serving kirana stores faster,” Kumar said.
Walmart, which earlier in May bought a 77% stake in Flipkart for $16 billion, has said in the past that it plans to open 50 new Best Price cash and carry stores. It currently operates 21 of these in the country.


20.1. Reliance Jio begins hiring AI team under Akash Ambani
Livemint, 4 Jun. 2018, Navadha Pandey

While Reliance Jio has already started the recruitment process for the AI team in Bengaluru, it is looking for people who can work on machine learning and blockchain

New Delhi: Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd has started hiring a team of professionals under Akash Ambani to work on Artificial Intelligence (AI) and its multiple use cases for the telecom firm, two people aware of the development said.
“Reliance Jio has hired a few senior people who will build this team...the company wants to set up this team in either Bengaluru or Hyderabad.... Akash Ambani is taking keen interest in this and is expected to lead this initiative,” one of the two people said, requesting anonymity.
The company has not selected the location.

“Reliance Jio has already started the recruitment process in Bengaluru...apart from AI, it is looking for people who can work on machine learning and blockchain,” the second person said, requesting anonymity.
Reliance Jio, the latest entrant in India’s telecom sector, has signed up a subscriber base of 186 million users since its launch in September 2016. The company first pushed its cheap data and free voice services aggressively in the market and followed it up with an “effectively free” Jio Phone available for a refundable security deposit of Rs1,500. It is now looking at technologies like blockchain, apart from leveraging the strength of its pure 4G network to move to its next phase of growth which it believes will be led by 5G, artificial intelligence, internet of things, among others.
During his inaugural address at the India Digital Open Summit in Mumbai in January, Reliance Industries Ltd chairman Mukesh Ambani’s son Akash Ambani had said that “globally, Artificial Intelligence is becoming one of the mainstream technologies and voice assistance, recognition and command are growing on a daily basis in terms of usage”.

Reliance Jio’s rival Bharti Airtel too has stepped up focus on AI and machine learning. In April, it appointed Santanu Bhattacharya as its chief data scientist to leverage data science capabilities and analytics to understand customer needs and develop innovative products and services at Airtel. Bhattacharya is based out of Bangalore and reports to Harmeen Mehta, global chief information officer and head of digital at Bharti Airtel.
“Recognizing patterns where large numbers are involved is the core of Artificial Intelligence. Reliance Jio could use it to figure out how best to run a network, deploy capacity, what to bundle, which services to target across regions, among others. Artificial intelligence can also help a telco better monetise usage of data on its pipe and strategise its content push,” a sector expert said requesting anonymity.
In May, Reliance Jio launched ‘JioInteract’, an artificial intelligence-based platform for movie promotion and brand engagement.
JioInteract can listen to user questions and respond. The platform also has an auto-learning feature that helps improve the answering accuracy, the company had then said, adding Reliance Jio is also tapping the developer ecosystem to create innovative applications like virtual showrooms, product demonstrations, ordering cart for e-commerce, etc.


20.2. TCS hands out 24,000 job offers amid hiring blues in IT sector
Business Standard, Jun. 07, 2018

New Delhi: Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has given 20,000 job offers to fresh graduates and another 4,000 to non-freshers this year, a top executive said on Wednesday, even as hiring of engineers by the information technology (IT) industry is expected to decline in the coming years. Around 70 per cent of those offered jobs are expected to join the company — a trend seen in the previous years too.
Ajoyendra Mukherjee, executive vice-president and head of global human resources, TCS, said the company had carried out an off-campus recruitment drive in January- February.
Last year, TCS, India’s largest software services firm, issued similar number of offer letters to freshers. In 2015, offer letters were issued to over 40,000 freshers, which declined to 35,000 in 2016.

“On account of automation, hiring in the IT sector will go down to a certain extent but it will not freeze. In fact, automation will also create opportunities,” Mukherjee said, adding the company had undertaken a massive reskilling drive of its existing employees so that their job roles could be interchanged as per the requirement of the company.
Under the programme, Agile, which equips employees with digitally updated skill-sets, TCS has already trained 210,000 staff, out of the total of 395,000 on its payroll. Mukherjee, however, said the reskilling drive would not impact the company’s margins, despite its operating margins declining over the past five years. “We have made sufficient investments towards reskilling programmes over the last few years and it is better than opting for outside hiring,” he added.

He blamed the rupee-to-US dollar exchange volatility in the global market for the dip in its operating margins. In the year ended March 31, 2014, TCS’ operating margin stood at 29.1 per cent, which declined to 26.5 per cent in 2015-16 and 24.8 per cent in 2017-18. On the challenges faced in the US, Mukherjee said, “The problem there is that students are not opting for the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) subjects. We are coming up with initiatives to encourage them to take up core technical disciples.”
TCS has rolled out campaigns like Go IT under which students in the primary grades visit TCS’ delivery centres in the US and learn about robotics and analytics, which, Mukherjee believes, may encourage students to pick up technical subjects. Furthermore, it has partnered Discovery Education to reach up to a million kids and 20,000 educators at school level.

“They need to have a problemsolving mind,” Mukherjee reasoned. He said the IT sector would be requiring engineers armed with managerial skills in the near future.
Asked if TCS can substitute its workforce in the US delivery centres with people from other locations owing to the challenges it faces, Mukherjee said it was always better for the company to employ the local populace. Ninety per cent of its employees in its delivery centres in China, Mexico and Uruguay were locals, he said.
As a fallout of the sanctions on H- 1B visa, TCS has been able to save on its costs as well.
“There are a certain number of visas which can be applied for now. It has now halved to what we used to apply for three years back. Besides, the cost of the visa, there are also costs related to relocation and others which have now come down,” he added.

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


INDIA AND THE WORLD


21.1. India's exports may reach USD 350 bn this fiscal: FIEO
PTI, May 30, 2018

New Delhi: India's exports are expected to record a growth of about 15-20 per cent and touch USD 350 billion in the current fiscal on account of a host of factors including rise in commodity prices, exporters body FIEO said today.
Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) President Ganesh Gupta said despite increasing global protectionism, the country's exports would continue to register healthy growth rates.
"Growth is looking promising this fiscal. Indian exports, which are hovering at around USD 300 billion, should show 15-20 per cent growth so as to reach USD 350 billion in this fiscal," he told reporters here.
He said the northward movement in petroleum and commodity prices and the recent depreciation of Indian rupee are supporting exports.
He also urged the government to provide fiscal and non-fiscal incentives to boost the shipments in both advanced and emerging markets.

Gupta also said that although exports have recorded growth in 2017-18, labour intensive sectors such as carpet and handicrafts have definitely dented the job creation opportunities.
"On a rough estimate, over USD 1 million exports create 100 jobs. Therefore, additional exports of USD 27 billion in 2017-18 should have created 2.7 million jobs in exports," he added. In 2017-18, exports stood at about USD 303 billion.
Talking about the issues being faced by exports at insurance front, Gupta said that Export Credit Guarantee Corporation of India (ECGC) delay the process of claims, which impact exporters.
"ECGC is creating problems for exporters. They try to find how to reject the claims of exporters. We have raised the issue with the commerce ministry," he added.
Further, Gupta expressed hope that the government will pro-actively engage with trading partners particularly with the US so that the trade interest of the country is safeguarded.

Commenting on the US decision to impose economic sanctions on Iran, Gupta said it would create an opportunity for domestic exporters to increase their shipments to that country.
He said that when the sanctions were imposed during 2013-14, the country's exports to Iran increased to USD 5 billion and it was only USD 2.56 billion last year.
"The crucial issue is that what kind of sanctions are being imposed by the US. This time Europe is not there. If sanctions will be imposed on the financial system, it may create a challenge for us but otherwise it will help boost rupee exports to Iran," he said.
In such situation, Indian banks should help exporters by providing affordable credit.
"I do not feel that India's exports will be impacted due to the US sanctions," he said.

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


21.2. Cotton exports estimated to reach 7.5 million bales, highest in 4 years
Business Standard, May 30, 2018

A sharp rise in international cotton prices, following abnormal weather conditions in major cotton-producing countries such as the US and China has improved India's prospects for cotton exports.
Analysts and trade organisations are revising cotton exports estimates upwards for 2017-18 (October to September is the period of active cotton production).
Now, exports are estimated to reach 7.5 million bales, highest after 2013-14. Exporters’ margins have also increased to a record high. Currently, the free on board (FOB) price of cotton being exported is 83.78 cents against the US benchmark ICE traded cotton price of 89-90 cents.

Such a high margin was never seen before, said an exporter, who is focusing on supplying cotton yarn, which has been preferred as a proxy to cotton because of India's inferior cotton crop quality in the season following a pink bollworm attack. Monthly cotton yarn exports in March were a record high at 158 million kg — the highest since December 2016.
Prerana Desai, research head at Edelweiss Agri Services and Credit said, "Indian cotton prices have remained subdued throughout the current cotton season. This is mainly due to the early reports of PBW damaged crop. With the sharp rally in the global prices, there is stiff competition.

This will result in relatively large exports in the lean season. India has exported around 6.1 million bales (with each bale of 170 kg) between October and April in the current season. The potential export capacity is 7-7.5 million bales. A weak rupee will provide a fillip to the cotton textile value chain exports, and thus end up supporting cotton prices for the rest of the season." Prices are rising because of heavy rainfall in the cotton-growing regions in China two weeks ago, and the country's depleting reserves, which is currently one-fifth of what it was three years ago.
Hence China's domestic supply is falling. US cotton has always been in demand, and India's cotton was less preferred because of its presumed inferior quality. Again, some importers of Indian cotton had shifted their focus to the US variety. As a result, in 2018, the price of the Indian Shankar-6 variety has increased 5.4 per cent, while prices of US cotton are up 14.4 per cent.

A sharp rally in US cotton, as against the slow increase of Indian prices, has spoiled arbitrage and traders are incurring heavy losses as the trend in price movement is unusual, said a trader.
Atul Ganatra, president, Cotton Association of India said, “The cotton deficit in India is set to vary from earlier estimates, with exports likely to touch 7.5 million bales, up from earlier estimates of 6.5 million. Imports, which were estimated at 2 million bales, are now revised downward at 1 to 1.2 million bales."
Ganatra said, "Next season will start late, around the middle of October, as early sowing has not happened this season." Around 10 per cent of cotton seeds are sown before the rains starts. However, to avoid pink bollworm risk, the government has advised farmers not to opt for early sowing. This will extend the lean supply season period.

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


22.1. Energy, trade on menu as Iran foreign minister meets Sushma Swaraj
Livemint, May 29, 2018

New Delhi: Seemingly unmindful of US threats to re-impose sanctions on Tehran following the US pulling out of the 2015 nuclear deal, India and Iran on Monday discussed cooperation in areas decided during a visit by Iranian President Hassan Rouhani in February.
Indian foreign minister Sushma Swaraj and Iranian foreign minister Javad Zarif reviewed bilateral ties during a quick visit to New Delhi by the latter, an Indian foreign ministry statement said.
“The two sides positively assessed the implementation of decisions taken during the visit of President Rouhani to India. These included bilateral cooperation in the areas of connectivity, energy, trade and promotion of people to people contacts,” the statement said.

“Foreign minister Zarif briefed about the discussions that Iran has undertaken with parties to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (2015 Iran nuclear deal) following the US decision to withdraw from the agreement,” the statement said.
Swaraj on her part conveyed that “all parties to the agreement should engage constructively for peaceful resolution of the issues that have arisen with respect to the Agreement,” it said.
Indian interests in the Iran nuclear deal revolve around possible US sanctions that would once again slow down the development of the Chabahar port that New Delhi is trying to develop as an entry point to landlocked Afghanistan and Central Asia.

India is also wary of US sanctions affecting its oil imports from Iran, one of its closest sources. Sanctions imposed by the Obama administration, targeting financial institutions dealing with Iran, had forced India to cuts its imports from Tehran.
Earlier, Swaraj told reporters India would only abide by sanctions imposed by the United Nations and not those imposed by any other country, such as ones announced by the US against Iran.
US President Donald Trump this month withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal and ordered the reimposition of sanctions against Iran that were suspended under the 2015 accord.

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


23.1. India, Indonesia agree to nearly triple bilateral trade to USD 50 billion
PTI, May 31, 2018

Jakarta: India and Indonesia have agreed to double their efforts to boost bilateral trade to USD 50 billion by 2025, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said today after holding comprehensive talks with President Joko Widodo.
Prime Minister Modi, who arrived here last night on his first-ever official visit to Indonesia, exchanged views with President Widodo on potential areas of cooperation in areas like defence, maritime security, trade and economy.
In a joint press statement after the talks, Modi said India and Indonesia have agreed to upgrade their ties to Comprehensive Strategic Partnership.
He said India and Indonesia have agreed to double their efforts to take bilateral trade to USD 50 billion by 2025. 

According to Indonesia's Central Statistics Agency (BPS), trade between the two countries in 2016 was USD 12.9 billion. It rose 28.7 per cent to USD 18.13 billion in 2017 with Indonesia's exports to India reaching USD 14.08 billion and its imports from India standing at USD 4.05 billion.
In a joint statement issued after the talks, the two countries said they have agreed to work intensively for the early conclusion of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership and reiterated that it needs to be comprehensive, fair and balanced with benefit to all member states. 
The two leaders also instructed officials to optimise the cooperation between ASEAN and India for establishing a sustainable and mutually beneficial trade relations.
They also acknowledged the need to further explore the untapped economic potentials and to remove impediments to trade and investment.

Both sides agreed that there are considerable potentials for expanding trade and services in various areas. 
Modi and Widodo also welcomed the conclusion of the MoU between Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin) and Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), and appreciated the setting up of a CII office in Jakarta.
President Widodo welcomed the increase in Indian investments in Indonesia and appreciated their contribution to the Indonesian economy. Prime Minister Modi also welcomed Indonesian companies' participation through the "Make in India" initiative and invited Indonesian business to avail of the opportunities presented, the joint statement said.
They also shared their views on the importance of intensifying infrastructure development in both countries and the mutual benefit of enhancing infrastructure development cooperation. 

They welcomed the signing of the MoU on health cooperation that would pave the way for closer collaboration in tackling common health challenges.
They noted that there were considerable cooperation opportunities in health and pharmaceutical sector. The two leaders further directed for the convening of a meeting in second half of 2018 comprising of health officials, drug regulators and industry representatives to develop a road map on health cooperation.
They underscored the important role palm oil plays in Indonesia's export to India and in India's consumer preference and growing consumption. Both leaders agreed to address all issues related to obstacles to trade and investment in palm oil products and industries, the joint statement said.

Both sides welcomed the MoU on cooperation in the railways sector which would promote technical cooperation, development of rail related programmes, exchange of knowledge, technology and institutional cooperation between India and Indonesia.
The two leaders welcomed the establishment of direct flights by Garuda Indonesia between Bali and Mumbai starting from April 2018 as well as the flights by Batik Air and Air Asia Indonesia serving Indonesian and Indian cities. 
They directed the civil aviation authorities of both countries to discuss the matter of enhancing the traffic rights through the bilateral air services consultation that will take place in 2018.
As maritime neighbours, the two countries underlined the importance of stronger connectivity, particularly on sea links, in order to facilitate economic cooperation and people-to-people contact. 
They welcomed the plan to build connectivity between Andaman Nicobar-Aceh to unleash the economic potentials of both areas. 

They appreciated the decision to set up a Joint Task Force to undertake projects for port related infrastructure in and around Sabang.
They recognised that access to reliable, clean and affordable energy is critical for the economic growth of both countries. 
Both leaders agreed to cooperate in the promotion of energy efficiency technologies, new and renewable energy technologies, with the shared aspiration to ensure energy security and to replace the use of fossil fuel, as well as meet respective climate change targets, the statement said.
Both leaders welcomed potential cooperation in the area of peaceful use of nuclear energy and looked forward to the early renewal of an agreement in this sector.

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


24. Delhi, Washington may negotiate trade package
Livemint, 14 Jun. 2018, Asit Ranjan Mishra

US President Donald Trump had earlier this month threatened to “stop trading” with India, complaining of tariffs that he said were as high as 100% in some cases

New Delhi: India and the US have agreed to negotiate a “trade package” at the earliest, with offers of “hard, clear steps” in order to avoid a trade war between the world’s largest democracies, a senior official said.
The decision, which could mark a major breakthrough in their bilateral trade ties, was taken during the two-day visit of trade minister Suresh Prabhu to Washington where he met US trade representative Robert E. Lighthizer, secretary of commerce Wilbur L. Ross and secretary of agriculture Sonny Perdue.
“The officials of both sides will meet and finalize the elements of the package. For example, they may agree to GSP (generalized system of preferences) and we may have to yield on some items in exchange. These are hard, clear steps,” the senior official, from the commerce ministry, said on condition of anonymity.

Mint had reported on Monday that India is contemplating a reduction in import duties on Harley-Davidson motorcycles if the US agrees to renew the country’s eligibility for GSP, which allows market access to about 3,500 products from India at zero or low duties.
US President Donald Trump had earlier this month threatened to “stop trading” with India, complaining of tariffs that he said were as high as 100% in some cases.
The time and venue of the meetings are yet to be decided.
The US acknowledged that its exports to India had increased last year and that trade deficit had come down by $1 billion, the official quoted above said.

“Our private sector is buying aircraft from the US in huge numbers. In energy, we have signed a long-term agreement. We have opened a door for substantial purchases from the US. None of their deficit partner countries have taken any concrete step like us,” the official said.
Officials of both sides would meet at a senior level “at an early date” to discuss various issues of interest to both sides and carry forward the discussions in a positive, constructive and result-oriented manner, the commerce ministry official said on Wednesday.
Biswajit Dhar, professor of economics at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, said India has to be careful as the proposed package may not be limited to goods. “The US seek more market access in agriculture. But more importantly, like they have done with China, they may pressurize India to liberalize its intellectual property regime,” he said.


25. FIFA World Cup 2018: Cristiano Ronaldo and football’s shades of grey
Livemint, 16 Jun. 2018, Sunit Chakraberty

Portugal and Real Madrid forward Cristiano Ronaldo is a master at deriving every ‘technical foul’ from these shades. And he even flaunts it

When I close my eyes, three fleeting images spool out from the Spain vs Portugal 3-3 draw—a match that has already become part of the World Cup football folklore.
The first is Portuguese captain Cristiano Ronaldo’s self-assurance and self-awareness as he struts off the bus into the stadium to put his mark on the game’s biggest stage.
Then comes the orchestrated tiki-taka of the Spanish armada around the understated Andres Iniesta. And finally, there’s the indelible imprint of Ronaldo closing his eyes and taking a deep breath before curling a free kick around the wall and dipping the ball into the top right corner of the goal to score an equaliser, minutes away from the final whistle of the Group B opener.
With power and confidence, speed and guile, and the finishing touch of a genius, Ronaldo took the match by the scruff of its neck and denied Spain a win.

The very next day, the world was witness to a contrasting performance from the man with whom Ronaldo vies for the mantle of the best footballer—Lionel Messi. Leo not only missed a free kick from just outside the D, and the sundry other chances, but also a penalty, as debutante Iceland held the mighty Argentina to a 1-1 draw.
But, for all the brilliance of Ronaldo that lights up football for us, he also represents much that is still ambivalent about the sport. The manner in which he “earned” a penalty in the opening minutes of the game was typical. He ran at the relatively inexperienced Spanish right back Nacho Fernandez, made a feint to draw out a challenge, which Nacho could not pull out of in time, made contact with the defender’s knee in his charge forward, and went down to the turf with one eye on the referee.
That’s where the subjective interpretation of a referee comes into play. Was the defender’s touch hard enough to knock Ronaldo off his feet? Or did the tricky Portuguese initiate the contacts to extract a penalty at the start of the game and the killer free kick near the end?

But, for all the brilliance of Ronaldo that lights up football for us, he also represents much that is still ambivalent about the sport. The manner in which he “earned” a penalty in the opening minutes of the game was typical

In a game between Denmark and Peru the very next day, the referee did not call a penalty even though a Peruvian attacker fell after a challenge inside the box. Replays showed the defender had made contact with the leg and not the ball. The video assistant referee (VAR), which is available for the first time in this World Cup, was not consulted. Instead, the field referee indicated that he had seen what had happened and decided it wasn’t a foul. This was one of the several shades of grey in football.

Ronaldo is a past master at deriving “technical fouls” from these shades. And he even flaunts them. It goes all the way back to his first World Cup in 2006 when he induced Wayne Rooney into a rash shove that got him a red card and knocked England out. His infamous wink to team mates after the incident, captured on camera, characterises Ronaldo to this day. His smirk at Nacho after converting the penalty in the 2018 opener showed up that side of him, again.

Should we wink at it and let go, or frown upon the gamesmanship? That depends on who we are and what we enjoy in the game. To many, it’s a flaw in character that will never elevate Ronaldo to greatness despite all his brilliance and the sense of presence he emanates on the field. Ronaldo himself has no such compunctions—he appeared to point to an imaginary goatee on his chin after scoring, in a sign of the G.O.A.T. (Greatest Of All Time).

Ronaldo's infamous wink to team mates after tackling Wayne Rooney in 2006 characterises Ronaldo to this day. His smirk at Nacho after converting the penalty in the 2018 opener showed up that side of him, again

To be fair, Ronaldo and other strikers are not the only ones exploiting the interpretative ambivalence of the rules to draw spot kicks and send-offs. Football officials have been at pain to rid the game of deliberate trips and blocks—euphemistically dubbed “professional fouls”—that defenders use to thwart attacks or even remove a dangerous attacker from the scene altogether. That Egyptian hero Mohamed Salah failed to take to the field in the loss to Uruguay was because of his injury after getting into a tangle with Spanish defender Sergio Ramos in the Champions League final before the World Cup.
Tolerance towards such tactics is petering off and it’s starting to pay off. The first yellow card of this World Cup came only in the dying moments of the first match between hosts Russia and Saudi Arabia. We’re able to enjoy the beautiful game as it should be, without unfair or brutish play and constant interruptions. Now, if referees also start showing yellow cards more often for dives by forwards from the slightest, or even no contact, that would remove a few more shades of grey.
It has happened in other sports, the best example being tennis. When the talented American John McEnroe arrived on the world stage at Wimbledon to challenge Swedish great Bjorn Borg for the world No.1 spot, he quickly became the Superbrat in British media. McEnroe used tantrums to his advantage not only to fire himself up, but also to distract opponents.

As an actor playing McEnroe pointed out in a film about the Borg-McEnroe rivalry, the tantrums contrasted vividly with the calm precision with which McEnroe served right afterwards. He was pretty much in control of his emotions all the time. Not surprisingly, there was hardly a murmur from McEnroe in the final with Borg, either out of respect for the taciturn Swede or in the knowledge that it would have no effect on the iceman.
The likes of Superbrat McEnroe and Ilie ‘Nasty’ Nastase of Romania are a faint memory in tennis, where a thrown racquet or an expletive automatically cost a point after a warning.
This is harder to achieve in a contact sport like football, but the consensus appears to be that fans, by and large, prefer to be entertained by the skills and imagination of players rather than winks and smirks. This is judging from the cleaner game we’re seeing in each successive World Cup.
But it’s still a work in progress, and until that settles down, we have to reconcile ourselves to the shades of grey in football. To see Ronaldo earning a free kick will always make us wonder if it was trickery. To see him walk the walk with a hat-trick of goals will fill us with wonder nevertheless.

Sumit Chakraberty is an author and freelance writer based in Bengaluru.

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