AAPI: January 2020

DELHI, 20th January 2020

Index of this Newsletter

INDIA

INDIA & THE WORLD

21.1. L&T Technology Services bags multi-million-dollar project in Europe
21.2. Inox Wind signs pact with Continuum Power Trading for 250 mw power projects
22.1. Wellness resolutions for a new decade
22.2. Russian firm to invest $100 m to offer free Wi-Fi in metro stations
23.1. India, China should set aside rivalries to rewrite global economic rules: Deepak Nayyar
24.1. United Kingdom for Enabling Energy Self Sufficiency for Indian Railways
24.2. UK group to invest Rs 950 crore in Turbo Aviation's new airline TruStar
25.1. A Muslim royal’s Christian faith
25.2. Charles Dickens and the legacy of a Calcutta Christmas

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DELHI, 20th January 2020

NEWSLETTER, 20-I-2020

INDIA

– GENERAL POLICY, INFRASTRUCTURES, COUNTRY FINANCES, ETC.

1.1. The 21st century’s biggest achievements, in 10 charts

Livemint, 05 Jan. 2020, Vishnu Padmanabhan

Data suggests that the world in the 21st century is more peaceful, progressive, and a better place for children

New Delhi: Protests, religion-based violence, and trade wars. Ostensibly, this may seem like a turbulent time for the world. But a longer view of the data offers a more optimistic perspective. Compared to the previous century, humanity has already made significant progress on several fronts in the 21st century. For a start, more countries are now governed democratically. The world has also become safer and healthier. Children live longer and more of them attend school. Regressive views on homosexuality have turned progressive. To celebrate the beginning of the 20th year of the 21st century, we highlight 10 such major achievements so far.

Democracies outrank autocracies

In 1900, a handful of countries were governed as what can be defined as modern democracies. And though this figure steadily increased, for the whole of the 20th century, more countries were ruled by autocratic regimes than democratic ones. This changed in the 21st century with democracies emerging in far-flung corners of the world and eventually outnumbering autocracies, according to data from the Varieties of Democracy Project, a research group at the University of Gothenburg tracking global electoral systems.

Less war, more peace

More than autocracies, the 20th century was defined by two tragic World Wars. Despite occasional wars, the 21st century, fortunately, has yet to witness conflict on the scale of the two great wars. Perhaps due to the changing nature of warfare or the world simply becoming more peaceful, there have been fewer battle-related deaths in the 21st century -- even after adjusting for larger populations.

Greater globalization

2019 was a bad year for global trade. But even after a slump, the world remains relatively open - especially compared to the previous century. Starting the 1990s and continuing in the 2000s, global trade expanded rapidly, driven by both China and India’s greater participation in the global economy. But as trade wars escalate and borders tighten, some forms of globalization may be threatened in the coming years.

Urban boom

For almost all of history, most humans led a largely rural existence. Work and life was concentrated on farms and villages. With industrialization in the 19th and 20th centuries, this slowly changed as more people shifted to cities. In the 21st century, this urbanization has continued unabated. According to population projections from the United Nations, nearly 60% of the world’s population will be urban residents by 2020. India continues to urbanize much more slowly: only 35% of Indians are expected to live in cities in 2020.

Healthier children

One of the tragedies of the 20th century was that so many children lost their lives before their first birthday. According to one estimate, in 1950, 16% of all infants died before reaching the age of one; by 2017, this proportion had fallen to 2.9%. This improvement has been driven by falling poverty as much as greater vaccination coverage. Across the world, more children are now getting immunized against fatal diseases which allow them to live healthier, longer lives. Growing anti-vaccination movement in some parts of the world could pose a threat to this achievement.

More school-attendance

Children are not just healthier but also more likely to be educated. In 2000, 191 countries promised to deliver universal primary education for their children as part of the UN’s Millennium Development Goals. Over the last 19 years, there has been significant progress on one aspect of this challenge: getting children into schools. Enrollment rates globally have increased significantly. In 2017, less than 10% of the world’s primary school-age children were out of school, according to data from the World Bank.

Progressive views on homosexuality

In 2018, in a historic ruling, the Indian Supreme Court decriminalized homosexual activity. The judgment was part of a larger, global trend of greater acceptance towards homosexuality. For most of the 20th century, in most countries homosexuality was considered socially unacceptable. But now there are 150 countries that have legalized homosexuality and 45 countries have legalized homosexual marriages, according to data compiled by Equaldex, a knowledge platform for homosexual rights.

Rise of the internet

Much of the technology that underpins the internet was developed in the 20th century. Yet it was only in the 21st century that the internet became the phenomenon that defines our times. In 2000, according to data from the World Bank, just 7% of the world and 0.5% of Indians had access to the internet. Since then, thanks to cheaper connections and smartphones, both figures have grown exponentially.

Explosion of social media

The internet serves many purposes but perhaps none of its functions have become as popular as social media. Starting with Facebook, social media has transformed how humans communicate, gain knowledge, and spend their time. In 2018, there were more than 2 billion regular Facebook users across the world. Social media may have transformed our lives but its ubiquity is now raising other issues of privacy, growing polarization, and psychological pressures.

The spread of satellites

The 20th century breakthrough in space travel was meant to herald a new era of further, more frequent space travel. This may have yet to materialise but there have been major developments in another area: satellites. There are now more than 4,000 satellites orbiting Earth.

Each satellite serves a different purpose but almost all have been launched in the last twenty years. And where once almost all space activity was led by the US and Russia, others have now joined the space party. India, for instance has now launched 27 satellites since 2006.

This is the first of a two-part data journalism series on the achievements and challenges of the 21st century.

1.2. Inflation shock after GDP growth slump

Livemint, 14 Jan. 2020, Asit Ranjan Mishra

RBI may be forced to rethink its accommodative policy stance as retail inflation accelerates to 7.35% in December

Rising inflation and the growth slowdown are likely to give the Opposition ammunition to criticize the govt

B Retail inflation shot to a five-and-a-half-year high of 7.35% in December, breaching the central bank’s tolerance limit of 6% and confirming fears raised by some economists that India is entering a phase of slow growth and rising prices.

December inflation was steeper than the 6.20% median estimate in a Reuters survey of economists and the fastest increase since July 2014. In November, retail inflation stood at 5.35%.

Galloping inflation could not only constrain the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) from further monetary easing in its policy review on 6 February, but may also force it to rethink its accommodative policy stance.

Policymakers will also have to contend with the looming threat of stagflation—a toxic combination of slowing growth and rising prices.

“Along with slowing growth, more-than-desirable inflation raises the spectre of stagflation (where inflation rises even as output and employment fall)," said D.K. Joshi, chief economist at Crisil Ltd.

Nikhil Gupta, chief economist at Motilal Oswal Financial Services, said it might be an exaggeration to say India has entered a phase of stagflation as growth is still higher than 4%. The debate over rate hikes may, however, get serious, he said, adding that if one considers “it (raising rates) in the backdrop of lower savings, the case will strengthen".

India’s economic growth slowed to a six-and-a-half-year low of 4.5% in the September quarter, but the statistics department has projected GDP growth to pick up in the second half to touch 5% overall in 2019-20. The gross savings rate in India has declined sharply from 34.65% in 2011-12 to 30.54% in 2017-18, led by the household sector.

Data released by the statistics department on Monday showed food inflation accelerated 14.12% in December from 10.01% a month ago as vegetable prices surged by 60.5%.

While soaring onion prices have significantly contributed to the high food inflation, rising prices of meat and fish (9.57%), egg (8.79%), milk (4.2%) and spices (5.76%) also contributed to the acceleration in retail inflation.

Under the flexible inflation targeting framework adopted in 2016, RBI accords primacy to the objective of price stability, while simultaneously focusing on growth when inflation is under control.

In a surprise move last month, RBI paused its rate-cutting cycle amid rising inflation risk. However, the monetary policy committee said that it would maintain the “accommodative stance as long as it is necessary", but made it clear that there was a need to optimize the impact of rate reductions.

Aditi Nayar, principal economist at ICRA Ltd, said that even though she expects the headline consumer inflation to slow sharply in January and further in February from the unpalatably high print in December, it is expected to remain sticky above 4.3% in the next few quarters.

“Moreover, the concerns surrounding a higher core inflation trajectory are likely to be adequate for the monetary policy committee to remain on hold in its February policy review, along with a possible change in stance from accommodative to neutral," she added.

RBI’s latest Inflation Expectations Survey of Households released last month showed three-month ahead and one-year ahead inflation expectations had increased sharply by 120 basis points and 180 basis points, respectively.

2.1. Demographic dream is collapsing rapidly

Livemint, 16 Dec. 2019, Vivek Kaul

Savings and incomes are down and the economy is in a tailspin. What happened to India’s dream of emulating China?

India has time only till 2035 before it starts to age rapidly. Before that horizon year, Indian manufacturing needs to figure out a way to compete internationally

MUMBAI: The year is 2007. The monsoon had just arrived in Mumbai and it was pouring cats and dogs. The windows of the Premier Padmini kaali-peeli I am in are stuck and don’t go up beyond a point. By the time I reach the Taj Mahal Hotel in Apollo Bunder, near the Gateway of India, my clothes are wet.

I had gone to cover a press conference about the launch of yet another diversified equity mutual fund scheme.

Five minutes into the presentation by the fund manager of the scheme, the “IDD slide" came along. A bull market in stocks was on and, to cash in on that, almost every week a new mutual fund scheme was being launched. And almost all the presentations had what I had started calling the IDD slide, where IDD stood for India’s Demographic Dividend.

The demographic dividend of a country is essentially a period of two-three decades when the birth rates go down and this leads to a situation wherein the workforce of the country is growing at a faster rate in comparison to its population. As these individuals enter the workforce, find work, earn money and spend it, the economy is expected to do well and grow at a faster pace than it has in the past.

In the Indian case, the IDD slides told us that nearly 12 million Indians a year, or one million a month, are expected to enter the workforce. This would happen over three decades (largely up to the mid-2030s). As these individuals entered the workforce, the Indian economy would grow at a very fast pace... as fast as China’s, if not faster.

China had grown at 12.72% in 2006 and would end up growing by 14.2% in 2007. Hence, the possibilities in India were endless. The rapid economic growth would pull millions of Indians out of poverty. This was the theory that was sold to us. Things went largely as per plan up until 2011. Since then, things have started to go south and now, in 2019, we have enough evidence to say with reasonable confidence that India’s so-called demographic dividend has started to unravel and is the main reason behind the current economic slowdown. Here’s a breakdown of how India’s dream began to collapse:

The rise of debt

The gross domestic product (GDP), or the measure of the size of any economy, is obtained by adding private consumption expenditure, investment, government expenditure and net exports (exports minus imports). Among those four categories, except for government spending, the situation is dire. Private consumption expenditure constitutes the bulk of the economy. In 2018-19, it constituted 59.4% of the Indian economy.

The growth in private consumption expenditure peaked in 2011-12 at 17.53% (see Chart 1). It has largely been on a downward trend since then. In the first six months of 2019-20, for the first time since 2004-05, the growth has fallen to single digits and stands at 7.02% (all growth numbers in nominal terms).

What has been happening with consumption is broadly mirrored by the decline in savings in the economy. The net financial savings of households (their fixed deposits, insurance policies, mutual funds, small savings, etc., minus their financial liabilities) has been falling over the years (see Chart 2). The net financial savings peaked between 2008-09 and 2010-11, when they were greater than 10% of the gross national disposable income (GNDI) in each of the three years.

Since, 2010-11, however, the net financial savings have been falling and in 2017-18, it stood at 6.52% of GNDI. This is at a time when financial liabilities have been on their way up, peaking at 4.28% of GNDI.

What does this tell us? It tells us that since 2011-12, a good part of the growth in private consumption expenditure has been built on the back of higher borrowings by the household sector. People have borrowed more to finance consumption.

The other interesting thing that Chart 2 tells us is that household savings on the whole have also fallen over the years. This basically means that other than borrowing to finance consumption, people have also been spending a greater proportion of their income to finance consumption and, in the process, they have saved a lesser proportion of their income.

The question is why have people been spending a greater proportion of their income and borrowing to finance consumption. The growth rate of per capita GNDI, or the average income available to an Indian for consumption and saving, holds some clues. Growth in per capita GNDI peaked in 2010-11 at 16.94% (see Chart 3). Since then, it has been on a downward trend. In fact, in the last five years, it has grown in single digits. This explains why people have been consuming a greater proportion of their income and also borrowing more to finance consumption.

Also, income-tax data shows us that average salaries have gone up by a mere 4.5% per annum between assessment year 2012-13 and assessment year 2018-19 (income earned in 2017-18). Hence, once we adjust this for inflation, the income in real terms for the salaried class has barely grown. Growth in rural income has also slowed rapidly.

Investment scene gloomy

Investment is the key driver of growth and consumption. The logic is fairly straightforward. Investment creates jobs. Jobs provide income to people. People spend this money, and this boosts consumption and helps other people earn an income as well. These earners subsequently spend their money and provide a further fillip to consumption. So, the cycle works. In fact, this is exactly the logic that the fund manager who I had heard on that rainy day in 2007 had to offer on India’s demographic dividend.

Of course jobs cannot be created without a rise in investment. But the investment scenario in the Indian economy is deeply worrying. Investment to GDP ratio peaked at 35.81% in 2007-08, in the year before the financial crisis. It fell over the next few years only to rise again to 34.31% in 2011-12 (see Chart 4). This happened primarily because of an increase in government expenditure in the aftermath of the financial crisis, along with inducements that encouraged public sector banks to lend more to industry. It was in these years that public sector banks ended up disbursing loans to many projects, which eventually turned into bad loans. The country is still bearing the cost of the bullishness of those years.

In 2010-11, new investment projects worth ₹ 25.73 trillion were announced. In 2018-19, this was down to ₹12.1 trillion or 46% of the 2010-11 figure. During the first six months of 2019-20, new investment projects worth just ₹2.12 trillion have been announced.

When it comes to investment projects which have been dropped, the situation appears even more grim. In 2010-2011, investment projects worth ₹4.04 trillion had been dropped. In 2018-19, projects worth ₹20.74 trillion were dropped. During the first six months of 2019-20, projects worth ₹7.89 trillion have already been dropped.

All this clearly tells us that corporate India is clearly not interested in investing at this point of time. Like consumers, they have very little confidence in the economic future. In this scenario, it is not surprising that the unemployment rate among the youth has gone up significantly. According to the National Sample Survey Office’s Periodic Labour Force Survey, the rate of unemployment among 15-29 year olds was at 17.4% in 2017-18, having jumped from 5% in 2011-12.

The Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy provides us with more recent unemployment data. In January 2017, the rate of unemployment among 15-19 year olds, 20-24 year olds and 25-29 year olds, was 27.34%, 21.65% and 8.73%, respectively. In November 2019, the rate was at 40.92%, 39.23% and 10.03%, respectively.

What also needs to be emphasized is that between January 2017 and November 2019, the labour force participation rate has gone down from 45.26% to 42.37%. The labour force participation rate is the proportion of working-age population that is employed or actively seeking employment. With the rate falling, what it tells us is that many people have even stopped looking for jobs. Even after this, the rate of unemployment has increased.

Hence, job creation is not happening and without job creation what will the million individuals entering India’s workforce every month (our so-called demographic dividend) do?

Dashed dreams

It is safe to say now that India’s demographic dividend is collapsing. Some state governments are dealing with this by reserving jobs for locals and, in the process, hoping to narrow down the pool of people who are eligible for jobs within the state. Andhra Pradesh is one such state. Maharashtra’s newly formed three-party government has such plans as well. This is basically a race to the bottom which puts the entire idea of India at stake.

Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman recently said that the economy was not in a recession. And she is right, given that recession is a situation where the GDP (the size of the economy) contracts for two consecutive quarters. Having said that though, the promised acche din is not going to come soon either.

So, what is the need of the hour? As economic history clearly suggests, no nation has gone from a developing one to a developed country without making gains on the exports front.

In India’s case, exports of goods and services peaked at 25.43% of GDP in 2013-14. In 2018-19, exports had fallen to 19.74% of GDP. The country’s export capability has crashed big time.

For Indian manufacturers to be able to compete internationally, reforms are required on the land, labour, and tax fronts. The government has recently reduced corporate income-tax rates. Over and above this, even to compete within the country, the Indian entrepreneur needs to pay a fair price for electricity and freight. Currently, the cost of cheap electricity for farmers is being borne by industry. Along similar lines, railway passengers are subsidized at the cost of freight. The taxes on aviation fuel have ensured that air cargo rates in India are among the highest in the world. The turnaround time in many government-run ports is also too long.

The goods and services tax (GST) system is in a mess. India’s experiment with a multi-rate, complicated GST continues. The ability of tax authorities of different kinds to harass entrepreneurs and individuals continues to remain high. Our primary education system in particular and the education system in general, except for a few elite schools and colleges, continues to produce people with very poor competence in reading, writing and basic maths. Finally, both the justice and the police systems need rapid reform.

There is nothing new about any of these points. What needs to be done for India to grow at a pace of 8% or more, on a consistent basis, is well known. The trouble is each of these reforms challenge a legacy system which is in place.

We have time till 2035 to cash in on our demographic dividend. We are more or less in 2020 now, and 2035 is just a little over a decade-and-a-half away. After that horizon year, India will start aging and the benefits of the dividend will start to fade.

Vivek Kaul is an economist and the author of the Easy Money trilogy.

2.2. India’s poor are also document-poor

Livemint, 06 Jan. 2020, Rukmini S

Document-driven processes such as the proposed National Register of Citizens are likely to place the heaviest burden on Adivasis and Muslims

Among the many conceits of the proposed nationwide National Register of Citizens is this: that only “illegal immigrants" need fear not having the proper documentation. News reporting from Assam has exposed repeatedly that this is not necessarily the case, with women and the poor bearing the brunt of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) exercise in that state.

Official India data suggests that even at an all-India level, when it comes to paperwork, the poor and marginalized are most likely to be further marginalized by any process that demands legacy data (which prove ancestry) or documentation. The prime example is the birth certificate, which the richest and the most privileged social groups are likely to possess, according to data from the National Family Health Survey (NFHS), which recorded the responses of more than half a million respondents to a range of questions relating to health and demographics in 2015-16.

As of 2015-16, 80% of children under the age of five had their births registered (meaning that the birth had been registered with the municipality or panchayat’s Registrar, typically by the hospital). However, just 62% had birth certificates, the legal document under the Registration of Birth and Deaths (RBD) Act 1969 that the Registrar gives to the child’s legal guardian if they request it.

A decade before this, birth registration and certification was even lower. According to the previous round of NFHS conducted in 2005-06 round, just 41 percent of children under the age of five had their births registered with the civil authorities then, and just 27 percent of children under the age of five had a birth certificate.

The longer the delay in registering the child’s birth, the harder it gets to obtain a birth certificate; according to the RBD Act. Any birth which has not been registered within one year of its occurrence can be registered only on an order made by a magistrate of the first class or a Presidency Magistrate and on payment of a penalty. This suggests that for older generations, the chances of having or obtaining a birth certificate is quite low compared to younger persons.

Privilege also plays a huge role in determining who has proper documentation of their birth and parentage and who doesn’t. Better educated parents and those who are better off are more likely to get their children a birth certificate. Sikhs are the most likely and Muslims the least likely to have birth certificates among religious groups. Forward caste Hindus are the most likely and Adivasi children the least likely to have a birth certificate among caste groups.

Other data sources have shown the same trends. Using data from the 2011-12 India Human Development Survey, Itismita Mohanty and Tesfaye Alemayehu Gebremedhin found that women with greater autonomy - those with better control over their own mobility and some access to resources - were more likely to be able to take on the travel and direct and indirect costs that might be involved in the birth certification process. Other factors that raised the probability of having a birth certificate included institutional deliveries, higher parental education, mother’s access to antenatal health, higher household income, belonging to the forward/general castes, and being Hindu compared to being Muslim.

Living in a richer state where all of these variables are more likely to operate is also a strong determinant of the birth being ‘legal’. The NFHS data shows that the share of women who say that their children under the age of 5 had their births registered was lower than the official Sample Registration System data on birth registrations. While the SRS system says that 15 states and Union Territories had achieved 100% birth registration by 2016, household surveys conducted by the NFHS in 2015-16 and the IHDS in 2011-12 did not find 100% registration in a single state.

This burden on the most marginalised is evident in other crucial documents as well. In 2004-05, 51.4% households in the poorest quartile and 58.4% in the next quartile did not possess either an Antyodaya Anna Yojana or a Below Poverty Line (BPL) ration card, an analysis of National Sample Survey data found. This despite the fact that these schemes were specially targeted to the poorest of the poor.

One of the arguments that proponents of citizenship tests have been pushing is that such identification favours the “legal" poor as against the “illegal poor". What they fail to realise, however, is that the poor first and foremost have the most trouble proving that they are legal.

Rukmini S. is a Chennai-based journalist.

3.1. New hunger games in jobless Bharat

Livemint, 18 Dec. 2019, Sayantan Bera

A ground report reveals the rural landless poor are struggling to find work, and cutting down on staple food items

The govt needs to urgently expand the food safety net as it is sitting on surplus foodgrain stocks. The rural jobs scheme needs more funding and prompt payments

Chitrakoo/Patna: It is well past 2 in the afternoon, but the wall clock hanging in Seema’s bare room is stuck at 10.15am. But that is not the reason why this mother of a month-old child, is yet to have a morsel of food. A meal—rotis or wheat flatbread, and a deep red and watery curry with potatoes floating in it—has been cooked. But Seema is waiting for her husband to get back home. By eating late, she will “save" a meal. That will help buy some milk for her other child, a two-year-old girl.

The thatched roof of the single-room mud house in Dafai, a village in Chitrakoot district of Uttar Pradesh, is pockmarked with holes. Seema’s husband Sanjay, a graduate, works as a casual worker in and around the village. But it has been difficult to find work of late. At times Sanjay earns just ₹100 a day working as a porter or a construction labourer; on most days even that paltry sum eludes him. Therefore, the family’s spending on food was cut drastically.

Seema’s two-year-old daughter has a diet of rotis with salt. The girl is yet to bite into fruit, any fruit. Staples like pulses are cooked rarely and the family seldom buys vegetables other than potatoes or tomatoes. “My life now revolves around paanch rupiya ka tel aur du rupiya ka masala ( ₹5 worth of oil and ₹2 worth of spices)," said Seema.

Consumption slowdown

Last week, as the winter crept into the arid Bundelkhand region spread across the states of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, Mint travelled to three districts, Chitrakoot, Banda and Panna. The idea was to take stock of the kitchens of landless households dependent on casual work, the most vulnerable among all occupational groups.

After a collapse in rural incomes and a de-growth in causal wages—heightened by the ban on high-value currency notes in end 2016—a recent National Statistical Office (NSO) survey report leaked by Business Standard showed a significant 9% drop in rural consumption, including on staples, between 2011-12 and 2017-18. The last time a fall in consumption was recorded was half a century ago in the early 1970s.

The Bharatiya Janata Party-led central government was quick to disregard the survey by NSO. Drawing on numbers from the report, the Plain Facts team at Mint estimated a 4% jump in rural poverty during this period—or an estimated 30 million people slipping below the official poverty line of ₹26 per person per day (at 2011-12 prices). The leaked report and subsequent analyses put a number to the tragedy that has been unfolding in rural India for some years now.

Data released earlier this year showed that unemployment was at a four-decade high in 2017-18; over 17% of rural men in the 15-29 age group were unemployed, triple the number in 2011-12. With access of jobs and food worsening, there have been frequent reports of starvation deaths from Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand. Burdened by debt, disasters and low crop prices, farmers and wage earners from richer states like Maharashtra and Punjab have been taking their own lives.

The distress today is palpable despite the country witnessing record harvests of grains and pulses between 2017 and 2019. And the ground reality of a lactating mother like Seema starving herself to save on a meal is ironic and sad—the central government’s foodgrain stocks are overflowing (an excess of 30 million tonnes over buffer norms) but there is little effort on its part to extend the food safety net.

Seema’s family is excluded from the subsidized food scheme that guarantees a modest 5kg of grain per person per month under the National Food Security Act, 2013. In Dafai there has been no survey since 2016 to include new beneficiaries. Newly married women and young children have been left out, pushing families to the brink of starvation.

The situation is made worse by inadequate supplementary nutrition schemes offered in centrally funded Anganwadis (child care centres) and pilferage in midday meals for school children. The latest spike in retail food inflation driven by a rise in prices of vegetables, onions and milk —a 10% increase year-on-year in November—hasn’t helped matters, pushing families to the brink. Seema wanted to study but was married off; now she is unsure if her children will ever step into a school.

Chickpeas to the rescue

In the face of twin adversities—falling incomes and rising food prices—the landless poor in rural India have fine-tuned their food choices. In Bundelkhand, a common sight today is women plucking tender chickpea leaves from the field, the only greens in their diet. The winter crop in its infancy is a nutritious addition to the chilli-roti-salt diet of households—it’s not rare to spot a child chewing on uncooked chickpea leaves or an elderly woman relishing it with green chillies.

It is this chana saag, along with subsidized food from the public distribution system (PDS), that is saving many from acute hunger.

Take for instance Genda Bai, a woman in her mid-30s who lives in a remote tribal hamlet named Jamunehai in Madhya Pradesh’s Panna district, which is famous for its diamond mines. Around 3.30pm when this correspondent reached her mud-plastered courtyard, she was eating the first meal of the day with her daughter, 9-year-old Shish Kumari. On the plate was boiled rice cooked with turmeric and salt. Forget pulses, there was not even potato or tomato.

On my request Genda Bai spread out the grocery items from the kitchen. All she had was a kg of rice, a bag of wheat, a few shrivelled green chillies, one tomato, two small-sized onions, a pack of coriander seeds and 200 ml of mustard oil. The children in her house had never tasted milk.

What’s for dinner? “I will cook only if we are hungry," she replied. The wheat and rice she gets from PDS lasts not more than a week. So every morsel is to be saved. Her husband, who has not found work in more than a week, was in the forest, collecting wood; a head-load will sell for ₹50 in a nearby market. When asked what she may purchase if she had ₹500, Genda Bai stubbornly refused to answer. It is pointless to dream about food when you have no money, she said.

No jobs for the asking

In their struggle to put food on the plate, families in this village have stretched themselves thin. Most send the elderly and children to look after crop fields of upper-caste landlords. The wheat and mustard crop need protection from wild animals and stray cattle till it is harvested. For this 24/7 work spanning five months, families are paid in kind—about 200kg of wheat or ₹4,000. This translates to a wage of ₹27 for every 24 hours of work. This poorly paid job is reserved for the elderly and children. But this also means no child in the village goes to school, missing out on even the meagre midday meals.

Amid the ongoing jobs crisis, the rural employment guarantee scheme failed to keep up to its promise—till date about 1.77 billion man-days of work was generated under the scheme in 2019-20 (April to December), far short of the 2.68 billion man-days in 2018-19.

In the three districts that Mint travelled to, the complaints were similar: too few days of work on offer and wage payments delayed by more than a month.

The rural jobs scheme is being starved of funds at a time when informal jobs have dried up, impacting food security of vulnerable households, said Nikhil Dey, a social activist who tracks the programme closely. Workers in states like Rajasthan, for instance, have not received any payments since October. Earlier too, implementation of the scheme was affected due to the general election held in May.

Drinking a meal

At 12.30 in the afternoon last Tuesday, the children in Pathroudi Primary School in Chitrakoot were having a mock fight with their plates. It is time for the midday meal. The day’s menu, painted on the walls outside the school kitchen, states they will be served pulses cooked with vegetables along with steamed rice.

The rice is ready but the lentils are a sight to behold. It looked more like watery gruel with a few strands of spinach thrown in. On a child’s plate it emerged as an island of rice floating on a green lake. As children fiddled with the food, a teacher urged them to drink it up.

Under the centrally sponsored Mid-Day Meal Scheme, children from Class I to Class V are entitled to vegetables and pulses worth ₹4.50 per day, in addition to rice and wheat that is supplied from PDS, fuel for cooking and monthly payments for cooks. The day Mint visited this school, 49 children were present.

The pulses—that are served with rice— were cooked with just 250 grams of greens and half a kg of pigeon peas. Clearly, a fraction of the sanctioned amount has been spent by the school teachers and village local bodies who oversee implementation of the scheme. The experience was no different in all the three schools that Mint visited in Bundelkhand. “There is hardly any monitoring of the Mid-Day Meal Scheme or problems faced by families while accessing subsidized food grains," said Raja Bhaiya, who heads a local non-profit Vidya Dham Samiti.

The Aadhaar factor

The use of technology like Aadhaar— introduced to reduce corruption and pilferage—has meant additional hardship for families. Around 12 noon on 11 December, the subsidized PDS shop at Parmai village in Uttar Pradesh’s Banda district was teeming with people. They were waiting for electricity supply to be restored so that the biometric authentication machines could work.

Families in Parmai village in Banda complain that biometric authentication failures and slow internet speed force them to make repeated trips to the ration shop

Women and elderly who were waiting complained that Aadhaar-based authentication failures are common. Worn out by daily labour, their fingerprints do not match easily; the internet is painfully slow; and they are forced to make two-three trips to collect a month’s quota of ration, waiting for hours on end every time they visit.

Soon enough there was a brawl, with some pushing and shoving thrown in. A young man shouted at the shop owner, complaining that his 70-year-old mother had to repeatedly visit and some family members’ names were deleted from the system without a reason. This seems to be a common problem. Many households complained their names were dropped from the beneficiary list arbitrarily. They were asked to enrol again online, then visit the block headquarters to get an approval—a process which takes more than three months.

Then, there’s the most common form of corruption, which is providing families less than their entitlement—19kg of grains, say, when they are entitled to 20kg every month.

For those in the queue, the biometric authentication test is no less than clearing an exam. There is relief on their faces when they pass the test. Failure means going back to the end of the queue again. Authentication failures reach up to 20% on some days, said the PDS shop owner Rajendra Kumar. “We have been strictly instructed not to provide rations if authentication fails, otherwise the licence will be cancelled," he added.

Half an hour’s ride from Parmai, a middle- aged Budhiya was not in a state to talk about any of this. She sat in a corner of her open kitchen, draped in a white sari, her face hidden behind a veil. Two days back, her husband, a casual worker, committed suicide while she was away with her children. There was neither food nor money at home.

Her children, a girl and a boy in their early teens, did not speak a word. Perched by the roadside, they sat with steely faces. They seemed prepared for a future that will be no better than their parents’.

3.2. Cabinet approves conferring the status of institution of national importance to the cluster of ayurveda institutions at Gujarat Ayurved University campus, Jamnagar

IBEF, Jan. 09, 2020

The Union Cabinet, chaired by the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, has given its approval to confer the status of Institution of National Importance to the Institute of Teaching and Research in Ayurveda Jamnagar by conglomerating the cluster of Ayurveda Institutes at Gujarat Ayurveda University campus, Jamnagar , namely, (a) Institute for Post Graduate Teaching and Research in Ayurveda (b) Shri Gulabkunwerba Ayurveda Mahavidyalaya and (c) Institute of Ayurveda Pharmaceutical Sciences including Pharmacy Unit and to subsume the Maharshi Patanjali Institute for Yoga & Naturopathy Education & Research into the Department of Swasthvritta of the Institute of Teaching and Research in Ayurveda.

The Bill to that effect is to be introduced in the ensuing Session of Parliament to declare Institute of Teaching and Research in Ayurveda, Jamnagar as Institution of National Importance.

Considering the rapidly growing role of AYUSH Systems in addressing the Public Health challenges of India, conferring the status of National Importance will boost the role and importance of Ayurveda in Public Health. The strengthening of Ayurveda will reduce government expenditure on health as Ayurveda is cost-effective because of its preventive and curative approaches.

There is rising interest and demand for knowledge and services of Ayurveda all over the world. India is the country of origin of Ayurveda and the world is looking up to India to showcase state of art institutions providing international level education and training in Ayurveda. Elevation of the proposed Institute to the status of Institution of National Importance will provide it the autonomy to upgrade standard of Ayurveda education, frame various courses in Ayurveda as per national and international demand, adopt advanced evaluation methodology, etc. It will have the mandate to frame its own certification courses for deeper penetration of AYUSH across masses and will give the capacity to bring out the unrealized potential of Ayurveda for addressing the major public health challenges faced by the country. It will help the institute to develop tertiary care in Ayurveda and to secure inter-disciplinary collaborations to give a contemporary thrust to Ayurveda.

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

4.1. IP based video surveillance system being installed by Indian Railways at railway stations to enhance security

IBEF, Jan. 09, 2020

In order to enhance security at Railway stations which are major hubs of transportation, Indian Railways is in the process of installing Internet Protocol (IP) based Video Surveillance System (VSS) at stations, that is, waiting halls, reservation counters, parking areas, main entrance/ exit, platforms, foot over bridges, booking offices etc. Railway Board has approved works for provision of Video Surveillance System covering 983 stations over Indian Railways under Nirbhaya funds. This year a budget of Rs 250 crore (US$ 35.77 million) was allotted to Indian Railways from Nirbhaya fund for installation of video surveillance system.

RailTel, a Miniratna PSU under Ministry of Railways, has been entrusted with the work of providing IP based VSS with video analytics and facial recognition system. To have a better coverage and clearer image, four types of Full HD Cameras - Dome type (for indoor areas), Bullet type (for platforms), Pan Tilt Zoom type (for parking areas) and Ultra HD- 4k cameras (for crucial locations) are being provided. CCTV camera live feeds are displayed on multiple screens at the Railway Protection Force (RPF) control room for monitoring. Each HD camera at the station consumes approximately 1TB of data and 4k camera consumes 4 TB data per month.

The recording of the video feeds from CCTV cameras will be stored for 30 days for playback, post event analysis and for investigation purposes. Important videos can be stored for longer duration.

Talking about the project of providing Video Surveillance System, Shri Puneet Chawla, Chairman and Managing Director, RailTel said that in the first phase, VSS is being installed at 200 stations Pan India and as on date work has been completed at 81 stations across India. The Video Surveillance System will be extended to other stations and coaches soon. The work is being done utilizing the Nirbhaya fund for ensuring better safety for women.

In phase-I that is targeted for this year, South Western Railway (SWR) has recently commissioned Video Surveillance system (CCTV) at 6 major stations - Ballari by providing 33 Cameras, Belagavi with 36 Cameras, Vasco-Da Gama with 36 Cameras, Bengaluru Cantt with 21 Cameras, Bangarpet with 36 Cameras, Hassan with 36 Camera and at 3 Stations at Hassan, Shivamogga Town & Sathya Sai Prasanthi Nilayam, work is under progress and will be commissioned shortly. Integrated security systems comprising CCTV have already been installed at 11 stations including Bengaluru with 71 Cameras, Yesvantpur with 35 Cameras, and Mysuru with 34 Cameras. With this SWR has functional CCTV at 17 locations and will complete the work in Phase-I by having CCTV functional at total 20 railway stations by end of January 2020. Security personnel can monitor these cameras not only from station control rooms but also from Central Security Control Rooms located at Divisional HQ, i.e, Hubballi, Mysuru and Bengaluru.

Internet Protocol (IP) based Video Surveillance System (VSS) has also been installed at 10 Railway stations of Western Railway namely Bhavnagar Terminus, Udhna, Valsad, Veraval, Nagda, Navsari, Vapi, Viragam, Rajkot, Gandhidham. This Video Surveillance System is expected to ensure better security of passengers at railway stations and railway property.

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

4.2. Indian aviation flies into a perfect storm

Livemint, 14 Jan. 2020, Rhik Kundu, Biman Mukherji

Due to mounting losses and pricing pressures, aviation is suddenly looking a lot like the spooked telecom sector

Industry observers say high structural costs and mindless growth is hurting the sector. Indian aviation is at a crunch moment and any hike in airfares could hit already weak demand

NEW DELHI: When Iranian missiles slammed into US bases in Iraq last week in response to the killing of Iranian General Qasem Soleimani, airline executives in India were keenly following the fallout. They were on edge because a flare-up in crude oil prices—at a time when the Indian aviation industry is at a crucial crossroad—could signal not just deeper losses but also the potential shutdown of at least one leading private airline.

Two of India’s leading airlines —IndiGo and GoAir—are already struggling with repeated snags in Pratt and Whitney (P&W) engines on their fleet of Airbus 320neo aircraft, while another, SpiceJet, has been hit by the grounding of Boeing 737 MAX planes after emerging as one of the largest global customers for the aircraft, which has been in the middle of a global firestorm after two suspicious crashes.

Meanwhile, debt-ridden state-run Air India faces a possible shutdown if a second attempt at privatization fails. The aviation sector in India suddenly looks a lot like the spooked telecom sector.

Both in telecom and aviation, the clock seems to have come a full circle in the two decades since the late-1990s. Despite exits and business failures along the way, customers managed to get a relatively good deal. But that extended party seems to have come to a sudden end. With telecom tariffs going up after a long lull, the question is: will a similar turn of events play out on the aviation front too? If even one airline goes under, a capacity crunch— which surfaced following the collapse of India’s largest private airline Jet Airways last April—May re-emerge.

In their quest to capture the capacity vacuum left by Jet Airways, airlines had cut fares and added capacity, but nearly every incumbent is now facing a profit squeeze. They had also bet on ordering the latest and most fuel-efficient engines and aircraft to squeeze out a profit wherever they could. But that strategy appears to have spectacularly backfired.

Airlines are now facing either long-delayed aircraft deliveries—such as Boeing 737 MAX for SpiceJet—or tight timelines mandated by aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) to replace faulty P&W engines for the Airbus 320neo aircraft in the case of IndiGo and Go Air. Anticipated volatility in fuel prices is now only adding to this combustible mix.

Volatile crude prices

If the crude oil price rises by another $4-5 a barrel, another airline could go bust," said a senior airline official, speaking in hushed tones, hunched over a table. “Airlines are finding it difficult to make money," the official, who requested anonymity, said, adding that the situation is looking like the proverbial double whammy as airlines are finding it difficult to increase airfares due to cut-throat competition.

Airlines are likely to end this fiscal year with huge losses, hampered by their ability to raise fares even during the traditionally strong October-December quarter. Since the closure of Jet Airways, airlines have seen a couple of good quarters, followed by quarters that saw huge losses.

Indian airlines are expected to lose over $600 million in FY20 as compared to a previous estimate of a full-year profit of $500-700 million, consultancy Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation (CAPA) India said in a recent report.

The cash position of the industry remains under pressure, with corresponding risks. Most airlines other than IndiGo are precariously placed, with cash balances available—in some cases—to cover only a few days or weeks of expenses, it added.

The Capa India report assumes crude oil price to remain at $60-65 per barrel. Crude oil prices are currently trading at around $65-66 a barrel. Though tensions in the Middle East have eased a bit, matters could easily heat up again if there are any violent incidents.

Airlines are likely to remain under pressure not only because of high oil prices, but also due to the weakening of the rupee against the dollar, said Kapil Kaul, chief executive officer and director of CAPA South Asia. “Expect pricing (of air tickets) in Q4 (January-March 2020) to be soft as was seen in November," he added.

Brent crude prices have risen by more than 30% in the last one year, while the rupee has slipped against the dollar, which has further increased cost pressures given India’s dependence on fuel imports. The burden is being felt more acutely by the country’s airlines as taxes on aviation fuel are also one of the highest in the world.

Aviation fuel purchases make up 30-50% of an airline’s total costs, which is why the simmering tensions in the oil-rich Middle East have made the country’s airlines all the more vulnerable.

“Most Indian airlines are comfortable when oil price stays at about $60-65 a barrel, and rupee at 60-65 per dollar. When the rupee or oil prices breach this mark, airlines find it difficult to control costs," said a senior official with a New Delhi-based low-cost airline.

Faulty aircraft and snags

Problems for SpiceJet in getting deliveries of the Boeing 737 MAX aircraft—which has been grounded since March following two fatal crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia—appear to be growing amid fuzzy timelines for an approval from the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

Only last week, internal documents from Boeing Corp. showed that the company’s employees called India’s DGCA “fools" and “stupid" for having approved the aircraft earlier.

SpiceJet had ordered as many as 205 of these planes in 2017, out of which 13 have been delivered but have been grounded due to the ongoing FAA review. In the July-September quarter, SpiceJet reported a consolidated net loss of ₹461 crore, with fuel cost accounting for nearly 40% of its revenue of ₹3,076 crore.

If delivery of the aircraft is delayed beyond 2020, then the airline could potentially face more trouble, said an aviation analyst, requesting anonymity.

Its rivals IndiGo and GoAir are unlikely to fare much better due to snags in the P&W engines on Airbus 320neo planes, with frequent incidents of trouble reported every few days leading to temporary grounding of the aircraft.

“There will be a drag on capacity as well as on costs due to the problems with the Pratt and Whitney engines," said an airline executive with direct knowledge of the matter. “It looks like the engine will take some time before stabilizing." The problems were mainly on account of the engine being new to India, he added.

IndiGo has 98 A320neo family aircraft, comprising 91 A320neos and seven A321neos, all with P&W engines. DGCA has extended a deadline to modify older P&W engines on Airbus A320neo aircraft to 31 May from an earlier deadline of 31 January 2020. While the relaxation may help the airline to avert grounding of its aircraft, it would still have to contend with capacity challenges in carrying out the programme.

IndiGo plunged to a wider-than-expected quarterly loss during the September quarter, with higher maintenance and overhaul costs outweighing the increase in passenger traffic. The country’s largest domestic airline posted a loss of ₹1,062 crore in the September quarter, compared with a loss of ₹652 crore a year ago.

With airlines desperate to cut costs, they are tempted to often overwork both men and machines. An official at DGCA said the regulator had cautioned IndiGo about the manner in which it revved up engines on A320 planes at full thrust in order to burn less fuel. “It is wearing the engines down," said the official.

But regulations that could hit profits always face pushback. “Any low cost carrier will fly aircraft 14 and half to 15 hours a day, including IndiGo and GoAir," said Mark Martin, founder and CEO of aviation consultancy Martin Consulting Llc. “Airlines are bound to utilize engines as long as they can. I believe P&W will have to take responsibilities for engine woes and not airlines."

The regulator also had to recently warn GoAir against overworking pilots and crew, potentially causing safety issues. The airline had last month cancelled several flights on successive days after it was found violating a flight duty time limitation, which lays down mandatory rest periods for the crew.

Killing each other on fares

With no airline willing to raise fares, ballooning costs mean that the sector has entered into a worrying unsustainable cycle, prompting aviation minister Hardeep Singh Puri to warn industry participants to stop “predatory pricing".

“We can’t regulate airfares," said Puri, adding that the market must correct itself within the “deregulated" frame. Puri, however, maintains that excess capacity is not the key reason for low fares. “There is 11% (annual) growth in the sector with about 8% penetration (percentage of population who fly). Air traffic is not slowing down," he added.

Another airline official, who declined to be identified, said: “Airlines are reducing fares on certain routes to attract traffic. But, this is not a robust model. You have to choose between flying half empty planes with higher fares and flying full planes with very low fares. And the latter always seems more sensible."

Industry observers say the combination of high structural costs and mindless growth is hurting the sector.

“We are all held captive to the actions of the stupidest competitors, whoever they may be on a given day. They set the price and other airlines have no option but to follow," said a third senior airline executive on condition of anonymity. “This has been causing a lot of financial distress in the sector."

“All it takes is one discount, and the entire pricing discipline collapses like a pack of cards," said the executive. “And, of late, the pricing discipline in the period of a week to a fortnight before departure has vanished."

Previously, this booking period was considered a prime time slot where discounts offered would be minimal, but the country’s sluggish economy has prompted airlines to offer lower fares, said the second airline official mentioned above. “This is not a feasible model. Casualties in terms of closure of airlines are bound to happen," the executive added.

The high double-digit growth in passenger volumes that the sector witnessed during past years is also unlikely to be seen again in the foreseeable future. Rating agency Icra Ltd expects a muted domestic capacity growth, and domestic passenger traffic to grow under 4.5% during 2019-20, after five years of double- digit growth

“Despite the expected passenger growth over the medium-term and the ongoing cost rationalisation initiatives of airlines, the financial health of the industry will continue to deteriorate," said Kinjal Shah, vice president and co-head of corporate sector ratings at Icra.

SpiceJet promoter and managing director Ajay Singh has said that the aviation sector could follow the telecom industry into a bloodbath due to the intense price wars among competitors, which has resulted in a low-fare regime.

There are lessons to be learnt from the current state of telecom sector and the learning needs to be implemented to improve the health of domestic airlines, Singh told CNBC-TV18 in November.

“There is a struggling public sector unit in both sectors which the government is supporting...the system is heavy on regulations and high on taxes...and the largest player has a substantial share of the market," he added.

The maharaja’s burden

The elephant in the room, in the midst of all the turbulent weather, is Air India. The first casualty of the current climate could be the state-run airline, which most experts say may struggle to find buyers despite having attractive airport slots.

Air India’s losses have mounted to about ₹69,576 crore over the past decade, burdened not only by a large workforce but also by government obligations that require it to fly a number of loss-making routes.

For FY19, the airline’s net loss is provisionally estimated at ₹8,556.35 crore. The government is hoping to divest its 100% stake in Air India and its low- cost subsidiary Air India Express after failing to attract a single bid during a similar endeavour last year.

The process of Air India’s sale got off to a start last week, with the government approving a draft document inviting expressions of interest that is to be issued before the month-end.

While all eyes will be on how that process pans out, the state of the rest of Indian aviation doesn’t inspire much confidence. And the fate of India’s first-generation air passengers hangs in the balance.

5.1. 14 scientists awarded Swarna Jayanti Fellowships for 2018-19

IBEF, Jan. 03, 2020

Swarna Jayanti Fellowships have been awarded to 14 Scientists associated with projects containing innovative research idea and with potential of making impact on R&D in the respective disciplines. The scientists, selected for the award through a rigorous three-tier process, will be allowed to pursue unfettered research with freedom and flexibility.

The Swarna Jayanti Fellowships scheme was instituted by Government of India to commemorate India's fiftieth year of independence. Under this scheme, a selected number of young scientists, with proven track record, are provided special assistance and support to enable them to pursue basic research in frontier areas of science and technology.

The awardees are supported by Department of Science & Technology, for fellowship and research. This will cover all the requirements for performing the research and include a fellowship of Rs 25,000/- per month (US$ 357.70) as well as a research grant of 5 lakh Rupees for 5 years in addition to their salary. Out of the 443 applicants, 14 scientists have been finally selected this time for this scientist specific fellowship.

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

5.2. CSIR partners to launch the Nature India Essay Competition 2020

IBEF, Jan. 10, 2020

The Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR) and Nature India launched the Nature India essay competition 2020 today to provide young and experienced scientists, researchers and authors in India, a platform to share ideas on how societally impactful science can advance and strengthen the country.

The Nature India essay competition is open for readers aged 25 to 50. The essayists will have an opportunity to draft a compelling narrative with personal anecdotes, emotion and a science-backed story that may become potentially historic in helping shape the roadmap for India's scientific future. The essays should convey thoughts on the societal impact of science in India in not more than 1000 words. The tone of the essays must be aspirational, with emotions and storytelling. The essays should be reasoned, well-researched, forward-looking and supported by existing science.

On the launch of the essay competition, Director General, CSIR, Dr Shekhar C Mande remarked that the fruits of science must benefit the society and that Nature India essay competition would give an opportunity to Indian scientists to share their perspective and aspirations on this crucial aspect of S&T.

The submitted essays will be judged by a panel of editors, scientists and science communicators. The deadline for completed essays is midnight, India time, on March 9, 2020. The winners will have their essays published in the Nature India annual volume as well as the Nature India blog Indigenus. The top three essays will win a cash prize (Rs 40,000 [US$ 572.32], Rs 30,000 [US$ 429.24] and Rs 20,000 [US$ 286.16] or equivalent), a three-year subscription to Nature, trophies and certificates.

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

- AGRICULTURE, FISHING & RURAL DEVELOPMENT

6.1. Indian sugar exports poised to hit record 5 million tonnes this year

IBEF, Dec. 18, 2019

India, the world's biggest sugar producer, is expected to cross its own export record this year. This is attributed to a flurry of overseas sales in the past few months driven by attractive global prices, said trade and industry officials on Tuesday.

In the new season, which began on October 1, 2019, sugar mills in India have done deals to export 2 million tonnes, raising hopes that the country would sell at least 5 million tonnes globally in the season of 2019/20, over 30 per cent higher than previous year.

"Looking at the current trend, I can tell you with a lot of confidence that we'll be able to export at least 5 million tonnes this year," said a New Delhi-based dealer from the Indian unit of a global trading firm.

At 5 million tonnes, Indian exports would exceed their previous peak of 4.96 million tonnes which was shipped in 2007/08 as per the trade and industry data. This was spurred by a rally in international prices, a weak Indian rupee and a clutch of government subsidies which made exports lucrative.

"Compared to last year, exports got the momentum this year from the start of the season due to an improvement in sugar prices," said Mr Rahil Shaikh, managing director of MEIR Commodities India.

The strong rise in exports from India, also the world’s biggest sugar consumer, could weigh on benchmark prices in New York and London and trim the market share of rivals - Brazil, Thailand and Australia which are the world’s top sugar suppliers.

Higher sugar shipments from India also expected to intensify the dispute at the World Trade Organization (WTO).

Brazil has already mentioned that India's subsidies for sugar exports were not in line with WTO rules and would impact free competition in the global market. Brazil, Australia and Guatemala have questioned the subsidies at the WTO.

India, grappling with surplus sugar supplies, has approved a subsidy of Rs 10,448 (US$ 145.58) per tonne for exports in 2019/20 season - a move that encouraged mills to clinch overseas sales deals early this year.

Traders have contracted to export raw sugar at an average of US$ 300 per tonne and white sugar at US$ 330 per tonne on a free-on-board (FOB) basis, said three dealers directly involved in the deals. However, they did not wish to be identified in line with their organisations' policy.

In contrast to the 2 million tonnes of exports contracted so far this year, in the first three of the 2018/19 season Indian mills were only able to sell about 850,000 tonnes of sugar.

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

6.2. Metro AG India sales rise 10% to Rs 6,755 crore

IBEF, Dec. 31, 2019

World's fourth-largest retailer 'Metro AG', posted 10 per cent growth in net sales at Rs 6,755 crore (US$ 966.52 million) in India in the year ended September, helped by aggressive push for own labels also increased the memberships of kirana stores in market where neighbourhood stores account for nine of ten consumer items sold.

As per the annual report, the company had a sale of Rs 6,140 crore (US$ 878.52 million) in previous year.

Dusseldorf-based Metro does not sell the products directly to consumers in India and operating as an organized wholesaler/cash-and-carry operator who sell around 7,000 products to local stores, hotels and catering companies across the array of categories.

"We have focused on building a profitable and sustainable business in India through a culture of customer centricity. Currently, 78 per cent of our customers are repeat buyers who contributed to 86 per cent of our sales in FY2018-19," said Mr Arvind Mediratta, managing director at Metro Cash & Carry India.

Metro entered in India in 2003 and is the market leader in organised trade with 27 stores. The company considers Walmart as its closest rival that too operates as a wholesale but also acquired Flipkart two years ago at US$ 16 billion two years ago. Walmart saw its revenue increase 11 per cent to Rs 4,065 crore (US$ 581.63 million) for the fiscal ended March 31, while net losses almost doubled to Rs 172 crore (US$ 24.61 million).

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

7.1. Union Minister for Rural Development inaugurates Phase-III of Pradhan Mantri to further enhance connectivity of villages with hospitals, schools and agricultural markets

IBEF, Dec. 19, 2019

The Union Minister of Rural Development, Agriculture and Farmers Welfare & Panchayati Raj, Shri Narendra Singh Tomar launched Phase III of Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) on the side lines of the National Workshop on PMGSY organised by the Ministry of Rural Development in New Delhi. The Phase-III of PMGSY aims at consolidation of 1,25,000 Kms Through Routes and Major Rural Links that connect habitations to Gramin Agricultural Markets (GrAMs), Higher Secondary Schools and Hospitals with an estimated cost of Rs 80,250 crore (US$ 11.48 billion) (Central Share of Rs 53,800 crore [US$7.70 billion]) for the period 2019-20 to 2024-25. The funding pattern for the PMGSY-III will be 60:40 between Centre and the States for States other than NE & Himalayan States and 90:10 for NE and Himalayan States as applicable for Central sponsored schemes.

Addressing the gathering at the inaugural session, Shri Tomar said that PMGSY is an important program for the nation. He said that there was a time when people could not imagine that villages will get quality roads as it was a difficult task. The Minister hailed the vision of former Prime Minister Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee and said that he was determined to complete this difficult task and it was thanks to his vision and efforts that today more than 6 Lakh Kms of Roads have been constructed across rural India. The Minister highlighted the importance of roads in bringing about all round positive development and empowering the villages.

Shri Tomar emphasised that States must ensure that maintenance of roads is done on a regular basis to ensure that quality of roads remain good. He further said that now with the launch of Phase III of PMGSY, States must begin preparing and ensure effective implementation of the scheme.

Shri Tomar expressed happiness that as on 16 December 2019, a total of 1,53,491 rural road works has been completed under the PMGSY Scheme connecting 97.27 per cent of the eligible and feasible habitations and adding up a road length of 6,07,900 Kms across the country. Out of the above, a road length of 36,063 Kms has been constructed using green technologies, a major portion of which includes Waste plastic and cold mix technology.

The National Workshop organised by the NRIDA was attended by representatives from various States, Technical Institutions and Specialists who made presentations on various important topics and participated in panel discussions. Some of the important issues that were discussed during the Workshop include Maintenance of Rural Roads, Quality of Rural Roads, Contract Management, Planning of Rural Roads for increased traffic, Road Safety Issues, Use of new technologies especially plastic waste for construction of Rural Roads and Challenges in construction of roads and hilly areas and their solutions.

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

7.2. 800 FPOs registered on Farmer Connect Portal of APEDA

IBEF, Jan. 06, 2020

The Agri Export Policy was announced last year with an objective of doubling the export and ensuring doubling of farmers' income. In order to achieve this objective, Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) has been adopting a focused approach for ensuring greater involvement of the State governments for effective implementation of Agri Export Policy (AEP). Throughout the year APEDA held a series of meetings with the State Government officials and other stakeholders for the preparation of State Action Plan which included all essential components like production clusters, capacity building, infrastructure and logistics and R&D and budget requirements for the implementation of AEP. Several rounds of discussions were held with Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare, Department of Animal Husbandry & Dairying, Ministry of Food Processing Industries and other agencies under Line Ministries for seeking the inputs for formulating a strategy to increase exports and address the existing bottlenecks in the trade.

Many States have nominated Nodal agency and Nodal officer. Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Kerala, Nagaland, Tamil Nadu, Assam, Punjab and Karnataka have finalized the State Action Plan and other States are at different stages of finalization of the action plan.

State level Monitoring Committees have been formed in many of the States. Cluster visits have been made by APEDA Nodal officers to the product clusters at Jalandhar (Potato), Jodhpur (Isabgol), Banaskantha (Dairy products), Sangli (Grapes), Solapur (Pomegranate), Nagpur (Orange), Chittoor (Mango), Theni (Banana), Salem (Poultry products), Indore (Onion) and Chikkaballapur (Rose onion). The roadmap for cluster development in the clusters notified under AEP was prepared to address the identified interventions during the cluster visits. As a result of cluster visits by APEDA, the cluster level committee has been constituted in the States viz. Potato in Punjab, Isabgol in Rajasthan, Pomegranate, Orange and Grapes in Maharashtra and Banana in Tamil Nadu.

APEDA has organised a number of seminars and meetings for the implementation of Agri Export Policy throughout the year. A workshop on the role of state nodal agencies in agriculture exports was organised in New Delhi on 3rd September 2019 where majority of the states actively participated for brainstorming on implementation of AEP in States.

An MoU was signed with National Cooperative Development Corporation to include Co-operatives for their active role in AEP. A Farmer Connect Portal has also been set up by APEDA on its website for providing a platform for Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs) and Farmer Producer Companies (FPCs) to interact with exporters. Over 800 FPOs have been registered on the portal.

Buyer Seller Meet (BSM) cum Workshops between exporters and FPOs were organized in association with the State Nodal agency at Ujjain (M.P)., Mehboobnagar, Mahbubabad, Sangareddy (Telangana), Kandhamal (Odisha), Chitradurga (Karnataka), Shillong (Meghalaya), Shimla (H.P), Kadapa (Andhra Pradesh), Kolkata (West Bengal), Agartala (Tripura), Nagpur, Sangli (Maharashtra) and Dehradun (Uttarakhand).

A Market Intelligence Cell was set up in APEDA and the activity of dissemination of e-market intelligence reports comprising detailed market analysis, international trade issues, current scenario of the interest to Indian exporters in important markets and statistical information has been started from 25th November 2019. All e-reports are available on APEDA website https://apeda.gov.in. Till now 27 reports have been disseminated for mango, basmati rice, non-basmati rice, groundnut, grapes, gherkins, dehydrated onion, pomegranate, banana, potato, buffalo meat, swine meat, fresh cut flowers, wine, egg, dairy products (SMP & cheese), biscuits, jaggery, millets, vegetable seeds, moringa, makhana, fruit juices, mango pulp, potato flakes and cereal preparations.

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

8.1. Vedanta to invest Rs 60,000 crore ($ 8.58 bn) in India in 3 years, promises more FDI

IBEF, Dec. 17, 2019

Vedanta Resources Chairman Mr Anil Agarwal said the company is planning to invest around Rs 60,000 crore (US$ 8.58 billion) in the upcoming 2-3 years.

The company is also expecting a top line of US$ 30-40 billion and a bottom line of US$ 10 million in 4-5 years, Agarwal said.

"I am committed to India. I have already invested US$ 35 billion in India in the past 10 years. I have bought 13 companies so far including Hindustan Zinc, Balco, Sesa Goa and Cairn and all of them are doing well. I hope to invest Rs 60,000 crore (US$ 8.58 billion) in the next 2-3 years," he said.

Though, any further details on how the company plans to utilise these funds were not given, but the interest to acquire a few public sector companies was shown.

"We currently have the best in class assets, and we are looking at many more nationalised companies. I want to tell the government that it should not depend on foreigners but depend on us. They (foreign investors) want to make money but we want to make the country. If government depends on us, we will also bring in foreign investment," Mr Agarwal added.

He further said that the company is strongly interested in the glass and optical fibre and cable industries.

"Sterlite Tech is doing a good work in optical fibre. I am now keen on developing the glass industry which will be used in electronics. We are developing the glass used in mobiles, TV sets and computers in countries like Korea, Taiwan and Japan. If the atmosphere in India is conducive, we will get to do that here as well. This will give a boost to the electronics industry," he added.

When asked about the growth the company is expecting by FY2024-25 he said, "we are hoping to have a USD 30-40 billion of revenues and a profit of USD 10 million."

He added that as a part of his commitment to the country the aim was to take care of 10 crore children and 5 crore women and give back 75 per cent of wealth to the society.

"I am committed to India and the company has already paid Rs 2 lakh crore (US$ 28.62 billion) in tax in the last 6 years. This contribution is however very small," Mr Agarwal added.

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

8.2. Blackstone to invest Rs 380 crore in Allcargo's industrial and logistics parks

IBEF, Jan. 14, 2020

Blackstone, a private equity firm plans to invest around Rs 380 crore (US$ 54.37 million) in Allcargo Logistics in order to develop industrial and logistics parks across India.

According to Allcargo, the investment by Blackstone in the platform will be done through debt and equity.

Minority stakes will be held by Allcargo in various logistics assets and it will transfer its debt as it relates to these specific assets to their relevant subsidiaries, it said.

This transaction is expected to be done in a phase wise manner over the next 12 months, subject to satisfaction of customary closing conditions and achievement of certain milestones.

"The Indian warehousing sector is scaling an expansionary curve backed by a robust regulatory environment and government thrust in boosting manufacturing, e-commerce and organised retail. This sector has emerged as an attractive investment destination for global investors. Through this strategic tie-up, we reiterate our commitment and positioning to create a global benchmark in warehousing infrastructure and provide state-of-the-art warehousing solutions to our customers," Mr Shashi Kiran Shetty, Chairman, All cargo Logistics Ltd, said.

All cargo portfolio include the projects completed and also ongoing ones in the advanced stage of developments for 6 million square feet of Grade A logistics parks across the National Capital Region (NCR) Delhi, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Pune, JNPT in MMR (Mumbai), Hosur and Goa. The company's warehousing portfolio of around 80 per cent is pre-leased of which about 1.5 million square feet is already income producing. The company also has projects in the planning stage for another 3 million square feet.

This partnership will aid Allcargo's growing 3 PL (third party logistics) business and support MNCs and Indian companies access to its world-class warehousing assets.

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

9.1. First tripartite Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) signed under Fisheries and Aquaculture Development Fund (FIDF)

IBEF, Dec. 24, 2019

The first tripartite Memorandum of Agreement was signed between the department of Fisheries Government of India, NARBARD and the Government of Tamil Nadu for the implementation of Fisheries and Aquaculture Development Fund (FIDF). Speaking on the occasion Shri Giriraj Singh, Union Minister for Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying said that a dedicated fund has been created namely the Fisheries and Aquaculture Infrastructure Development Fund with a total of Rs 7,522.48 crore (US$ 1.08 billion) to address the infrastructure requirement for fisheries sector. He urged the coastal states to pay attention to deep sea fishing, post harvesting, cage culture and export promotion. FIDF provides concessional finance to the eligible entities, cooperatives, individuals and entrepreneurs for development of identified fisheries infrastructure. The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NARBARD), National Cooperatives Development Corporation (NCDC) and all scheduled banks are Nodal Loaning entities (NLEs) to provide concessional finance under the (FIDF).

The Department of Fisheries, Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying under the FIDF provides interest subvention up to 3 per cent per annum for providing the concessional finance by the NLEs at the interest rate not lower than 5 per cent per annum.

The Government of Tamil Nadu has signed the first Tripartite MoA for availing the initial concessional finance of Rs 420 crore (US$ 60.09 million) from NARBARD for development of three fishing harbours in the State namely, (i) Tharangampadi in Nagapattinam Ditrict, (ii) Thiruvottriyur Kuppam in Tiruvallur District and (iii) Mudhunagar in Cuddalore District. These will create safe landing and berthing facilities for many fishing vessels plying in the area, augment fish production in the regions, facilitate hygienic post-harvest handling of fish, stimulate growth of fisheries related economic activities and employment opportunities.

NABARD as one of the Nodal Loaning Entities (NLEs) provides concessional finance for development of fisheries infrastructure facilities through State Governments/State Entities under the FIDF, after execution of the Tripartite MoA. Proposals to the tune of Rs 1,715.04 crore (US$ 245 million) received from various State Governments and other Eligible Entities (EEs) have been recommended as date by the Central Approval and Monitoring Committee constituted in the Department for consideration under FIDF. The project proposals of Government of Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh for development of fishing harbours in their respective States form the major part of these recommended projects.

Smt Rajni Sekhri Sibal, Secretary, Department of Fisheries, Government of India, Dr Harsh Kumar Bhanwala, Chairman, NABARD, Dr J Balaji, Joint Secretary (Fisheries), Shri Sagar Mehra, Joint Secretary (Fisheries), Principal Secretaries and Secretaries in charge of fisheries of various States and other senior officials in the Department of Fisheries were also present during the function.

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

9.2. Tata Power Solar to build 250MW project for NTPC with mandatory local sourcing

IBEF, Jan. 14, 2020

Tata Power Solar Systems Ltd intends to develop a 250MW solar project for National Thermal Power Corporation Limited (NTPC). This project will be developed under the Centre's Central Public Sector Undertaking (CPSU) scheme that requires using domestically manufactured cells and modules for the project.

"The total value of the order is Rs 1,505 crore (US$ 215.34 million) and the completion period is 20 months. With this order, the order book of Tata Power Solar stands at approximately Rs 7,600 crore (US$ 1.09 billion), including external and internal orders," a company statement said.

NTPC has given a Letter of Award (LOA) to Tata Power Solar Systems for the project. "It is Tata Power Solar's single biggest order from a third party," said Mr Praveer Sinha, CEO & MD, Tata Power.

For the project, under the scheme only domestically manufactured cells and modules would be used.

Previously in November 2019, Tata Power Solar also received a Letter of Award from NTPC for developing a 105 MW floating solar project in Kayamkulam, Kerala. The project is estimated to be worth of Rs 343 crore (US$ 49.08 million) and is scheduled to be commissioned in less than 21 months, including a three-year O&M component.

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

10.1. India exported 3.2 million bales of cotton in first quarter of cotton year 2019-20

IBEF, Jan. 07, 2020

India has exported 3.2 million bales of cotton during the first quarter of cotton year which started on October 1, 2019, trade body Cotton Association of India (CAI) said, expecting to hit the total export of cotton around 42 lakh bales till September 2020.

"Cotton export shipments from 1st October 2019 to 31st December 2019 which have already been shipped are estimated at 10 lakh bales while balance 32 lakh bales are expected to be shipped during the period from 1st January 2020 to 30th September 2020. Total exports estimated during the entire season are 42 lakh bales," said CAI.

According to CAI, consumption by Indian spinning mills for three months i.e. from 1st October 2019 to 31st December 2019 was estimated at 30.89 lakh bales. CCI, MNCs, Ginners and MCX are estimated to have stock of about 37 lakh bales as on 31st December 2019 which is equal to about 39 lakh running bales. Thus, the total stock held by Spinning mills and stockists is estimated at 67.89 lakh bales of 170 kgs each which is equal to about 72 lakh bales, as on 31st December 2019. Closing stock is estimated at around 30 lakh bales of 170 kgs each by the committee, as on 30th September 2020.

As estimated by CAI previously, there is no change in the projection of cotton export for the season which is retained at 42 lakh bales along with projection of import of cotton which is retained at 25 lakh bales. The imports, however, is lower by 7 lakh bales as compared with the last year's estimates. "Shipment of imports from 1st October 2019 to 31st December 2019 which have reached Indian Ports are estimated at 6.50 lakh bales while balance 18.50 lakh bales are estimated to arrive Indian Ports during the period from 1st January 2020 to 30th September 2020 (total imports estimated during the entire season are 25 lakh bales)," the trade body said.

The yearly consumption is estimated by the CAI at 331 lakh bales i.e., same as estimated by the Cotton Advisory Board at its meeting held on 28th November 2019. Indian cotton arrivals during the months of October 2019 to December 2019 are estimated at 125.89 lakh bales.

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

10.2. Amazon India and Future Retail sign deal to utilize infrastructure

IBEF, Jan. 07, 2020

Future Retail Limited (FRL) and Amazon India signed an agreement under which the FRL's existing infrastructure, product knowledge and brand portfolio will be utilised by Amazon India across its retail network.

According to the deal between the two, the authorized online sales channel for FRL stores will be Amazon India and FRL will also make sure the involvement of relevant FRL stores on the Amazon India marketplace, and its programs.

Thus, Amazon India will be able to use Big Bazaar's parent company FRL's existing store-infrastructure at its retail outlets for facilitating packaging and pickup of products ordered online. All grocery, fashion, FMCG and homeware products of FRL will be listed on Amazon India.

Mr Kishore Biyani, Chairman & Managing Director, Future Retail Limited. "This arrangement will allow us to build upon each other's strengths in the physical and digital space so that customers benefit from the best services, products, assortment and price."

This service by Kishore Biryani-owned FRL and Amazon India have already launched across 22 stores. Outcome of the arrangement so far have been encouraging, thus, wider scale up is already underway.

FRL will soon list stores like Big Bazaar, and Food hall in more cites on the Amazon India marketplace. This arrangement between the companies has provided opportunities for both to collaborate for sales, operational efficiencies, collaborating on technical excellence, in relation to online sales.

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

- INDUSTRY, MANUFACTURE

11.1. Panasonic Life to set up Rs 295-crore facility in Sri City

IBEF, Jan. 13, 2020

Panasonic Life Solutions India plans to invest Rs 295 crore (US$ 42.21 million) to set up an electrical equipment material and wiring device manufacturing facility at the Sri City Industrial Park. This investment is part of the company’s plan to invest Rs 600 crore (US$ 85.85 million) in India.

The unit is scheduled to begin production by October 2021 and will employee around 600 people.

Panasonic Life Solution India will be the 25th Japanese company to invest in Sri City and the 1.33 lakh sq. m. facility will be company’s eighth electrical equipment material production base in the country.

“We have received all clearances from the State and the Central governments to set up the factory. The land acquisition agreement was signed today and exchanged between Vivek Sharma, Managing Director of Panasonic Life Solutions India, and Mr Ravisanna Reddy, Managing Director, Sri City,” a Panasonic Life Solutions statement said.

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

11.2. Infinix to bring smart TVs to India next year

IBEF, Dec. 16, 2019

Infinix, a smartphone maker plans to launch its smart television (TVs) in Indian market in first half of 2020. This will allow the company to join its peers such as Xiaomi, Motorola and OnePlus.

"We are looking at getting into new segments like smart TVs and expanding smart accessories. While it's still early to talk about product specifications, we expect to bring in smart TVs in the first half of 2020," Infinix India Chief Executive Officer Mr Anish Kapoor said.

He added that India will be among the first markets, where the company will launch its smart TVs.

"It's important to get the hardware as well as the software right. Work is on in that direction," he added.

The company is a part of China's Transsion Group and emphases on the sub Rs 10,000 (US$ 143) smartphone market in India.

Mr. Kapoor said that although a number of brands have launched their smart TVs in the Indian market, there is still room for a lot of growth.

The companies such as Xiaomi, Samsung, LG, Micromax and Motorola which are among major smartphone players also have smart TVs in their product portfolio.

The premium smartphone maker OnePlus also joined the market trend with its two premium smart TV models which are presently available in India only. Nokia also launched its smart TV in India on Flipkart recently.

The Indian television market is estimated to be about 12.5 million units annually, in which Samsung, Sony and LG control an estimated three-fourth market share.

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

12.1. In Phase-II to Fame India Scheme 2636 EV Charging Stations sanctioned

IBEF, Jan. 06, 2020

To give a further push to clean mobility in Road Transport Sector, the Department of Heavy Industries has sanctioned 2636 charging stations in 62 cities across 24 States/UTs under FAME India (Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Electric Vehicles in India) scheme phase II.

As many as 317 EV charging stations have been allotted in Maharashtra, 266 in Andhra Pradesh, 256 in Tamil Nadu, 228 in Gujarat, 205 in Rajasthan, 207 in Uttar Pradesh, 172 in Karnataka, 159 in Madhya Pradesh, 141 in West Bengal, 138 in Telangana, 131 in Kerala, 72 in Delhi, 70 in Chandigarh, 50 in Haryana, 40 in Meghalaya, 37 in Bihar, 29 in Sikkim, 25 each in Jammu & Kashmir and Chhattisgarh, 20 in Assam, 18 in Odisha and 10 each in Uttarakhand, Puducherry and Himachal Pradesh.

The sanction letters to the selected entities will be issued in phases after ensuring the availability of land for charging stations, signing of necessary agreements/MoU with concerned partner organizations like city municipal corporation, Discoms and oil companies. Subsequently, each selected public entity is required to initiate the procurement process in a time bound manner for deployment of sanctioned charging stations.

Minister of Heavy Industries & Public Enterprises, Prakash Javadekar said that in future at least one charging station will be available in most of the selected cities in a grid of 4 Km X 4 km. He said it will boost the confidence of users of Electric Vehicles and also encourage the OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturers) to launch the new electric vehicle models due to the lack of charging infrastructure.

Department of Heavy Industry had invited the Expression of Interest (EoI) from million-plus cities, smart cities, State/UT capitals and cities from special category states for submission of proposal for availing incentives under FAME India Scheme Phase II for deployment of EV charging infrastructure within Cities.

About 106 proposals from Public/Private Entities for the deployment of about 7000 EV charging stations were received. After evaluation of these proposals as per EoI, on the advice of Project Implementation and Sanctioning Committee (PISC) the Government sanctioned 2636 charging stations to 62 cities submitted by 19 public entities for 24 states. Out of these 2636 charging stations, 1633 Charging Stations will be Fast Charging Stations and 1003 will be slow charging stations. With this, about 14000 Charging Stations will be installed across the selected cities.

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

12.2. MG Motor bullish on India, to invest Rs 3,000 crore more

IBEF, Dec. 16, 2019

A British automobile brand, Morris Garages (MG), which is now owned by SAIC of China, is planning to invest Rs 3,000 crore (US$ 429.25 million) more in the country and is positive about the growth Indian market, a company official said.

As of now, the MG Motor India has spent Rs 2,000 crore (US$ 286.16 million) in the country and begun manufacturing operations at its plant at Halol in Gujarat, the official said.

"We are committed to India and have started our journey in July this year. We have a long-term plan for the country and will make further investment of Rs 3,000 crore (US$ 429.25 million)," MG Motor India chief commercial officer Mr Gaurav Gupta said.

He further added that so far, the company has sold around 13,000 units of its internet SUV, MG Hector. Mr Gupta said that the company plan to launch an electric internet sport utility vehicle and will have a total of four models by July 2021, all in the SUV segment.

The company witnessed a good response from the customers, thus, had to raise its production levels from November onward, he said, adding that the car manufacturer would focus on the SUV segment as it is quickest growing and in tandem with the global trend.

He added that the company also aims on increasing its customer service centres and around 250 showroom-cum-workshops will be put in place by March 2020.

"In MG, we strive to attain for a balanced work force and diversity is core to the ethos of the company", Mr Gupta added.

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

13.1. How to solve India’s real estate crisis

Livemint, 19 Dec. 2019, Gautam Vashisht , Om Chaudhry

Foreign funds and expertise can help stuck projects, but existing stakeholders will have to recognize deep losses
Existing stakeholders will need to take some hard decisions and recognize deep losses. There’s also a need to ring-fence the new entrants through provisions under RERA and IBC

NEW DELHI: When will the real estate sector come out of an extended slump? This question is upmost on most people’s minds, be they retirees with wealth locked up in this asset class, millennials waiting for their homes to be delivered, or others who see the fate of the economy coupled with the performance of this sector.

The country needs sustainable economic and employment growth—jump-starting the real estate sector will serve both needs, killing two proverbial birds with one stone. Urgent action is needed, as the crisis based on oversupply of homes by overleveraged developers, and aggravated by regulatory changes and the NBFC (non-banking financial company) meltdown, has now reached menacing proportions.

The recent move by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government to infuse capital in the realty sector is timely, but inadequate in terms of size. It is unlikely to serve smaller firms outside the metros and mini metros, and needs to be backed by other measures that are executed at a fast pace. Only then will there be a proper resolution of unproductive assets, which will have a positive spillover effect on the economy.

The solution to the real estate problem lies in creating a Real Estate Revitalization Ecosystem (RERE). This essentially intertwines the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act (RERA), the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC), banking and financial sector, and customers and the developer community. This proposed ecosystem would recapitalize stuck projects with equity largely from overseas; create development capacity to complete these projects; ring-fence the new entrants through provisions under RERA and IBC; and write down valuations to correct the wrongdoings of the past.

The remedial measures have to be a combination of factors: capital infusion, capacity building on the supply side to resolve the unproductive assets, incentives for new entrants and tweaks in the regulatory framework. We need to wipe the slate clean and look ahead. The need of the hour is also to take some hard decisions impacting the current stakeholders. Remember, this situation is akin to the housing-led credit crisis in the US, where a turnaround was led by foreclosed properties and those under development.

The real estate sector is caught in the tweezer grip of delayed project deliveries, developers starved of funds, high unsold inventory and a growing proportion of stalled projects. Unproductive assets in the form of under-construction, stuck or delayed projects are estimated at 560,000 homes worth ₹4.5 trillion ($65 billion) across the top seven Indian cities.

What is scary is that the entire system— from homeowners and developers to banks and lenders—is overleveraged. Prices of homes have fallen due to delayed possession and softening of the market. This has led to many homebuyers’ loan value becoming higher than the present home value. As a result, this has lowered their capacity for personal consumption. Also, developers are overleveraged to the extent of $70 billion and on average have to repay twice as much in debt servicing each year as the income they generate.

But before we detail our solution for revitalizing the real estate sector, it is important to understand how we got into this complicated mess. For that we need to analyse the growth of the sector after liberalization.

Growth phase, 2005-11

Before the sector was opened up to foreign investment in 2005, developers were acquiring land and developing projects through pre-sales, capital-efficient agreements with landowners and bank loans. This expansion was in a limited way, and focused on a city or a region.

After 2005, capital raised from overseas was deployed in equity-like structures with developers. These funds went into projects at the greenfield stage, and were largely used for land acquisition for residential projects. This inched up land prices and many developers also made handsome profits in land aggregation arbitrage, which led them to deploy these gains for more land acquisition.

The pent up housing demand was fuelled by home loans and sales of new projects were largely successful. Buyers who purchased homes for self use or investment, made huge gains on their investment.

This foreign capital raised by private equity (PE) funds for real estate was largely deployed by 2010-11. It spurred home demand and had little leverage impact for developers due to its equity-like structure. By this time, banks had started reaching their sectoral limit of exposure to real estate and it was getting difficult for developers to obtain funds for land acquisitions.

Leveraging Phase, 2011-16

The restrictions on land purchase and the exhausting of sectoral limits for lending presented an opportunity for the alternative lender to step in. These were initially domestic NBFCs, credit-based alternative investment funds (AIFs) and credit-based foreign platforms. These alternative lenders gave loans at a premium of 5-7% over the construction finance rates. Developers were repaying alternative lenders from project cash flows and also refinancing them from new alternative lenders.

The alternative lending book grew significantly—over 3.5 times to $32 billion, growing at 30-35% annually during the period. This helped developers fund their expansion spree. The excess liquidity was used by developers to build land banks, refinance loans and buy back PE funds’ stakes. Crucially, construction finance took a back seat in order of priority for funds deployment.

The excess liquidity available to developers was also backed by more-than- healthy sales, driven by easy availability of retail loans and attractive subvention scheme offered by developers. This enabling environment—easy customer advances, low regulation and low sales risk—made many unrelated business owners jump into the real estate sector without the requisite experience and track record. The projects were conceived irrespective of demand or pricing parameters, with support coming from the parallel economy. This started creating oversupply in various parts of the country.

Crisis phase, 2017 to now

Rapid changes brought through demonetization, enactment of RERA, and the introduction of the goods and services tax slowed customer inflows and sales. These also led to liquidity being sucked out for developers, besides increasing the cost of doing business. By mid-2018, initial RERA orders and IBC cases started hitting developers’ cash flows further and construction started slowing down across the board. However, alternative lenders’ capital was still available for refinancing and last-mile financing.

The Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services crisis hit in September 2018 and started impacting lenders by early 2019. Fresh loan sanctions came to a halt, loans were recalled and disbursals put on hold even for sanctioned projects. As for alternative lenders, PE funds and banks started closing their doors to them. With customers holding up progress payments, developers were now left with under-construction stock, land banks and operational and financial liability, which seemed difficult, nay impossible, to service from current cash flows.

The number of real estate companies referred to National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) is the highest in number while the resolution achieved is the lowest. This is due to challenges such as seniority being given to new capital, low residual profitability of assets, limitation in ring-fencing of liabilities, and the customer group being recognized as a secured lender and an important voice in the resolution plan.

While asset reconstruction companies clean up the books of banks and alternative lenders, the big issue of capital remains. The project still requires additional infusion of funds to kick-start development and credible entities would need to step into the shoes of the earlier developer. Clearly, funds alone will not solve the problem.

There is a need for large amounts of capital to revitalize these unproductive assets. The BJP government’s initiative to set up an AIF of ₹25,000 crore as priority lending for these projects is curative for the sector and can certainly bring huge relief to homebuyers, financiers and developers. However, a multiple of the existing committed capital is required to resolve the crisis. And that brings us to our solution, which we have titled RERE.

How to multiply capital

The capital committed by the government to AIF can be leveraged by stakeholders—that is fund managers and turnaround specialists—to multiply its reach to projects all over the country, with equal focus on big and small projects. How? The amount of contribution made by the government towards a fund-of-funds (FOF) vehicle should be matched equally or even higher by experienced fund managers in a defined timeline. For example, the ₹25,000 crore can be topped up by other investors (global funds) to the extent of, say, ₹75,000 core.

By doing so, experienced fund managers, turnaround experts and development managers will have skin in the game. Their vetting of investments, technical and operational monitoring, divestment expertise and network effect can be leveraged to resolve the problem expeditiously. This FOF approach will be very relevant and more effective in the present real estate context as downstream realty projects require immediate fund infusion in large quantities.

Customers in stuck project are now wary of existing developers (many are not around for various reasons) and are seeking a replacement developer before they hand over the next instalment. Some are even taking projects in their own hands. Driven by lack of alternatives, instances of amateur resident welfare associations gearing to complete the project themselves are not uncommon, however unpractical.

The fact is, the task ahead is enormous: replace or supplement the existing developers, enhance the reach of capital to 1,600-plus projects spread across the country and quickly build capabilities to resolve them. Only experienced entities that have deep pockets, as well as project development, monitoring and risk management experience can manage this.

What is needed is a regulatory mechanism to ring-fence their involvement by insulating them from liabilities and actions of the existing developer. They also need incentives to participate in stressed projects. This could be in the form of low-cost funds, credit guarantees from institutions and tax breaks on taking exposure in these assets.

The regulatory framework

Investors are cautious about deploying fresh capital in stuck projects at pre-bankruptcy stage as existing lenders, customers and suppliers can take these projects to liquidation under IBC. Here, fresh investors will have no seniority in the liquidation pool. This is further complicated by customers’ significant control of the committee of creditors. Here, providing seniority to this fresh capital along with defined time duration to perform before these cases can be taken to IBC will allay apprehensions of incoming investors.

It is also necessary to ensure that after funds are infused under the new financing plan, alignment of creditors and customers is achieved. Provisions have to be created to provide adequate time for this new capital to do its work before any NCLT action is taken by customers and creditors.

The stuck projects are also challenged by inadequate residual cash flows for servicing the existing lenders. Many projects have reached a stage where residual project cash flows and assets are only a fraction of outstanding debt and interest. Further, the value at which future sales will happen is also lower than the current prices, propped up by the developer. In order for sales to happen going forward, the prices of inventory also have to be brought in sync with market realities.

So, stakeholders of stuck projects have to recognize deep losses. That’s crucial if we want fresh capital to come in and complete the sea of stalled real estate projects.

Gautam Vashisht and Om Chaudhry are chief investment officer and chief executive officer, respectively, of FIRE Capital Fund, among India’s first PE funds in the real estate sector.

13.2. Puravankara to invest Rs 850 crore to build 3 luxury housing projects in Bengaluru, Chennai, Mumbai

IBEF, Dec. 24, 2019

Puravankara Ltd, a realty firm plans to invest around Rs 850 crore (US$ 121.6 million) over the next four years to develop three ultra-luxury residential projects in Bengaluru, Chennai and Mumbai.

Puravankara which is based in Bengaluru will develop these three ultra-luxury residential projects under a new brand 'World Home Collection'. Apartments are sold by the company under brand name Puravankara whereas affordable homes are under Provident brand. Under these three projects, Puravankara intends to develop a total of 1,460 units with a built-up area of 2.2 million sq. ft. and an estimated cost of around Rs 850 crore (US$ 121.6 million).

"We have launched a new residential line 'World Home Collection' in the ultra-luxury space. The new brand is targeted at a niche demographic to provide sustainable, futuristic and exclusive homes," the company's MD Mr Ashish Puravankara said.

"The evolved home buyers in 2020 will be looking for homes with a holistic living experience. Luxury for today's home buyers do not mean marble floors or chandeliers on the ceiling," he added.

The first project 'Purva Atmosphere' was launched recently in Bengaluru which comprises of around 1,050 apartments. The construction work for the second project 'Sommerset House', consisting of 180 units, has started in Chennai though the sales have not been opened yet.

The third project is expected to be launched by March 2020. This project is based in Chembur, Mumbai and has around 240 units. The project in Bengaluru is under joint development, while those in Mumbai and Chennai would be company owned.

The company offer more green areas and state-of-the-art home technology under this brand and the price of an apartment is set above Rs 1 crore (US$ 0.14 million). For the Bengaluru project, the company plans to provide pure drinking water from tap as well install an air purification tower.

The company had posted a 28 per cent growth in consolidated net profit at Rs 27.5 crore (US$ 3.93 million) for the September quarter on higher sales. Total income for the second quarter rose to Rs 623.81 crore (US$ 89.26 million) from Rs 499.28 crore (US$ 71.44 million) in the corresponding period of 2018-19.

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

14.1. CLW produces 300th locomotive of 2019-20 in less than 9 months

IBEF, Dec. 23, 2019

Chittaranjan Locomotive Works (CLW) has turned out 300th locomotive of the FY 2019-20 on 21st December 2019 evening, in less than 9 months (216 working days) of current financial year.

The working days for production of 300th loco has reduced from 292 days in the year FY2017-18 to 249 days in FY2018-19 and further to 216 days in the current FY2019-20. Therefore, a reduction of 28 per cent since FY2017-18.

Shri Praveen Kumar Mishra, General Manager flagged off the 300th loco, WAG-9 HC (32692) from CLW on 21st Dec 2019 evening amidst the presence of senior officers and staff. He appreciated the efforts of all the dedicated team of officers and staff in production of 300th electric locomotive from CLW.

Shri Praveen Kumar Mishra also expressed hope that with this trend in production, CLW will be able to even surpass the target of this FY 2019-20 and will be all set for creating a new record. CLW produced 402 locomotives in 2018-19 and thus became the world's largest producer of locomotives.

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

14.2. BEML signs pact with IRCON to explore overseas market

IBEF, Dec. 30, 2019

The defence public sector 'BEML Ltd', signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with IRCON International Ltd to explore opportunities in overseas market by synergising each other's strengths for a large infrastructure projects in the transportation sector.

As per the company release, MOU copies were exchanged in the presence of Mr DK Hota, CMD, BEML and Mr SK Chaudhary, CMD, IRCON International Ltd in the function which was held on 27th December 2019 in New Delhi.

MoU is aimed towards promoting the supply of BEML manufactured rolling stock and construction equipment for the railway projects outside India in which civil and construction work will be carried out by IRCON and also facilitate the validation of designs and provenness for rolling stock of BEML to address export opportunities together.

Hota said, "Both the companies by synergising their strengths can attain new heights in the international market. Government of India LoC is huge opportunity for BEML & IRCON to work together." He added that Prime Minister's true vision 'Make in India' is epitomised by BEML's strong manufacturing and R&D capabilities.

SK Chaudhary, CMD, IRCON, said, "IRCON has a strong International presence and have proven capabilities in the field of track laying, construction, electrification of railway and infrastructure construction projects and are presently operating in Algeria, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka".

He appreciated BEML's capabilities and international presence expressed that this MOU may turn a significant leaf in the journey of both these organisations for projects outside India. This is a step towards further thrust on globalisation by joining the complementary strengths of two large CPSEs.

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

15.1. HAL, Wipro 3D sign MoU for metal 3D printing adoption in aerospace

IBEF, Jan.03, 2020

HAL, a Bengaluru-based aerospace & Defence company and Wipro 3D, the metal Additive Manufacturing (AM) business of Wipro Infrastructure Engineering (WIN) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to design, develop, prove out, manufacture and repair of aerospace components by using metal additive technology.

MoU also emphasizes the development, prove out and application of new material which will use in metal additive technology.

This initiative will focus on MRO along with the development, prove out and production of aerospace applications by using metal additive technology. The prove-outs and certification of components which will developed by using 3D printings is also a key element of this co-operation.

HAL CEO, Bangalore complex, Mr Shekhar Shrivastava stated, "This initiative between HAL and Wipro 3D will create a unique synergy of capabilities that can accelerate the adoption of metal additive manufacturing in Aerospace in India. Qualification of parts for Aerospace is challenging as it would require prove out and extensive testing followed by certification by regulatory authorities which may also include flight testing."

Mr Pratik Kumar, CEO, Wipro Infrastructure Engineering declared, "This MoU will bring metal 3D printing into the mainstream of India's Aerospace. Wipro 3D and HAL have worked together in the past. This further strengthens our collaborative efforts to create additive technology leadership in Aerospace."

In metal 3D printing, aerospace industry has been one of the leading adopters, globally, due to the benefits of faster design iterations, weight and geometry optimization, performance improvement and flexible manufacturing.

Mr Ajay Parikh, Vice President & Business Head, Wipro 3D, said, "The MoU will provide significant manufacturing and MRO flexibility and freedom to existing, upcoming, and legacy aerospace programmes. The additive technology capability Wipro3D has built over years in aerospace and defence verticals will help us in collaborating with HAL."

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

15.2. AI & machine learning will contribute US$ 1 trillion to Indian economy by 2035; government committed to ensuring stable environment for investors and startups

IBEF, Jan. 07, 2020

Commerce and Industry & Railways Minister Mr Piyush Goyal today inaugurated the National Stock Exchange (NSE) Knowledge Hub in New Delhi, an Artificial Intelligence (AI) powered learning ecosystem that will assist the banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) sector. Speaking on this occasion Commerce & Industry Minister said that although India has developed as the second largest fintech hub in the world, a lot of work still needs to be done in the BFSI sector. He hoped that the Knowledge Hub created by NSE will fill in these gaps and help the financial sector to move into the future.

The NSE Knowledge Hub will enhance skills and help academic institutions in preparing future-ready talent for the financial service industry. It is also available on mobile and attempts to bring together world class content and learners through this state- of- the- art and future- ready platform.

Commerce and Industry Minister said that this industry driven learning eco system will help India in building next generation skills and capabilities in the BFSI sector. The use of AI will ensure that the skill upgradation is affordable and accessible and helps in the creation of a workforce that is adequate for the requirements of the sector said Piyush Goyal. AI and Machine Learning will contribute US$ 1 trillion by 2035 and this is a good beginning by NSE to tap the potential of AI and use it as a tool to create a workforce in the BFSI sector in India added the Minister.

Commerce and Industry Minister assured continued Government support to investors and start-ups and said that India is a safe investment destination today for investors, even the smallest of investors and this Knowledge Hub by NSE will strengthen and empower those working in the BFSI sector and will benefit investors and the financial services to give world class services through knowledge, innovation and value-addition.

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

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

16.1. Will Reliance Life Sciences do a Jio in the diagnostics space?

Livemint, 15 Dec. 2019, Clifford Alvares

Diagnostics is a highly under-penetrated sector. Hence, the volume growth momentum should continue
Diagnostics is a fragmented industry and also highly under-penetrated

Shares of diagnostic firms Thyrocare Technologies Ltd, Dr Lal PathLabs Ltd and Metropolis Healthcare Ltd slipped about 6.2%, 11.6% and 4.7%, respectively, in the past one week. Investors are worried that increased competition due to the entry of Reliance Life Sciences Pvt. Ltd into the diagnostics space could squeeze margins and reduce return on equity.

So, should investors worry about Reliance doing a Jio in the diagnostics space as well? Worries that a deep-pocketed player could disrupt the market may be overdone, according to some analysts. “Barriers to entry are high in the B2B model. Scaling up is a gradual process. One can’t just storm the market with free tests in order to reach a scale. Price disruption has already happened. Hence, lower pricing may not play a major role, also as a wrong diagnosis can be a matter of life and death, and it is not about what’s cheaper," said an analyst, on condition of anonymity. Of course, it’s pertinent to note that naysayers abounded even before the Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd’s launch, and investors seemed justified in being jittery about a possible price war.

In any case, margins may be hit if competition is severe. For instance, the Ebitda (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization) margins of Dr Lal PathLabs and Metropolis are in the range of 24-26%, while that of Thyrocare is about 38%, said a CLSA Ltd report.

Hence, there could be a valuation risk for some diagnostic firms. Dr Lal PathLabs is quoting at consumer goods company-like valuations of about 41 times one-year forward earnings per share.

Still, diagnostics is a fragmented industry and also highly under-penetrated. Hence, the volume growth momentum should continue.

“India is an undiagnosed market with enough potential for the industry to grow," added the analyst cited above. That should provide some relief for investors, though return expectations from here on have to be tempered.

“Growth over the past few years was largely driven by volumes, as realisations have been under pressure due to stiff competition in the B2B space and expansion into lower tier markets. PE valuations of listed players have expanded with the expectation of current volume growth sustaining as customer preference shifts towards organized players," said the CLSA report.

16.2. Personal care brand, Mamaearth, raises Rs 130 crore in a round led by Sequoia India

IBEF, Jan. 09, 2020

Mamaearth, an FDA-approved personal care brand, has raised Rs 130 crore (US$ 18.60 million) in a third round of institutional funding led by Sequoia India, with participation from existing investors, Fireside Ventures, Stellaris Venture Partners and Sharp Ventures. Thus, the total funds raised by the Mamaearth has reached a total of US$ 23 million to date.

The company witnessed exit from two early angel investors in this round, with a return of over 20X on their initial investment, the company said.

The company was established in 2016 by husband-wife duo, Varun and Ghazal Alagh. It claims to be Asia's first Made-safe certified brand that offers 100 per cent toxin-free and natural skin care, hair care and baby care products. There are currently over 80 natural, toxin-free products included in the company portfolio which have been used by 1.5 million plus consumers in over 500 cities across the country. Alongside its own platform, www.mamaearth.in, Mamaearth products are also available across major e-commerce platforms such as Amazon, Nykaa and Flipkart. The brand is also expanding its horizon by entering offline channels and so far, has established a presence in over 2,000 multi-brand stores across 40 cities in the country.

"Across India, millennials are becoming increasingly conscious and are looking for safe natural alternatives to replace the existing cosmetic products offered by large multinationals. Mamaearth is catering to this growing demand. We plan to use the fresh funds to build Mamaearth into a Rs 500 crore (US$ 71.54 million) brand, by acquiring 5 million new customers over the next three years. We crossed Rs 100 crore (US$ 14.31 million) in the revenue run rate last October and are currently at a Rs 150 crore (US$ 21.46 million) run rate. We plan to ramp up our team from 100-plus at present to 250-plus in the next two years, with a few CXO level hires in the next 12 months, and also a foray into the international market -the ASEAN cluster of markets excites us the most," said Mr Varun Alagh, founder and CEO of Mamaearth.

The funds will also be utilised to introduce sub-brands under Mamaearth in categories such as color cosmetics and bamboo-based diapers, along with the launch of more new brands focused at other opportunities for millennials under the Honasa Consumer Pvt Ltd umbrella, which is the parent company of Mamaearth, said Mr Alagh.

"Online channels contribute just 3-5 per cent of India's US$ 15-billion-plus personal care market. With 15-20 per cent of Indian shoppers influenced digitally and expected to double in the next 7-8 years, digital-first brands have the potential to redefine the architecture of tomorrow's FMCG companies. Varun's vision is to ride these market tailwinds to create a multi-brand, cross-geo, FMCG company over the next decade. The team at Sequoia India is excited about being partners in this phenomenal journey," said Mr Ishaan Mittal, Principal, Sequoia Capital India LLP.

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

17.1. Panacea Biotec bags orders worth US$ 24 million from UN agencies

IBEF, Dec. 20, 2019

Panacea Biotec has bagged orders worth Rs 170 crore (US$ 24.32 million) from UN agencies, including UNICEF, for the supply of Pentavalent vaccine.

The vaccine has a role in providing protection against five deadly diseases, including diphtheria, tetanus and hepatitis B to children.

"Panacea Biotec... has received awards worth US$ 24.32 million from U N agencies (UNICEF and PAHO) for supply of its Easy five-TT, a fully liquid WHO prequalified wP-based Pentavalent vaccine (DTwPHepB-Hib)," according to the company filing to BSE.

This award of order from UNICEF is for the calendar year 2020 and for three calendar years that include 2020 to 2022 from PAHO.

These pediatric vaccination have a major role in particular to reach the target set by United Nation under Sustainable Development Goals. The goal is to reduce under-five mortality rate to less than 25 per 1,000 live births.

"Pentavalent vaccine protects children against five deadly diseases; Diphtheria, Tetanus, Pertussis, Hepatitis B and invasive infections caused by Haemophilus Influenza Type b - becoming the foundation of paediatric immunisation programs across the world," the company said.

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

17.2. Cipla acquires brand, trademark for anti-diabetic drug Vysov in India

IBEF, Dec. 17, 2019

Cipla Ltd, a homegrown pharma major, has acquired brand name and trademark rights for Vysov for anti-diabetic drug Vildagliptin for Indian market from Novartis, stated by Cipla on Monday. However, the acquisition amount has not been disclosed.

The company disclosed in a regulatory filing that Cipla has been co-marketing Vildagliptin with Novartis under brand names Vysov and Vysov M (Vildagliptin plus Metformin).

"Owing to the increased affordability of Vildagliptin it is more accessible for better management of the disease. Cipla's acquisition of the trademark rights of Vysov will enable us to contribute to easier access of the drug in India," Cipla Executive Vice-President & Head India Business Nikhil Chopra said.

The company said, in India, the products have witnessed a strong demand for last couple of years and are currently unavailable across the country. Vildagliptin is backed by strong clinical data and is therefore a widely prescribed antidiabetic medicine for adults with type-2 diabetes mellitus, it added.

According to the IQVIA MAT data of November 2019, the market size of Vildagliptin stood at Rs 818 crores (US$ 117.04 million), the company said.

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

18.1. CGHS services to be extended to 100 cities: Dr Harsh Vardhan

IBEF, Dec. 20, 2019

"CGHS services shall be now be extended to 100 cities". This was stated by Dr Harsh Vardhan, Union Minister for Health & Family Welfare as he inaugurated the new CGHS Wellness Centre at Vikaspuri, New Delhi, in the presence of Shri Parvesh Saheb Singh Verma, Member of Parliament, West Delhi. The Union Health Minister added that at present the scheme is operational across 72 Cities through 329 Allopathic Wellness Centres and 86 AYUSH Centres. It serves 12.09 lakh primary cardholders and 35.72 lakh beneficiaries, out of which around 17 lakh beneficiaries belong to Delhi/NCR. There are more than 2.5 lakh beneficiaries aged 75 years and above. About 58 per cent of CGHS beneficiaries' avail of CGHS facilities at least once in a year.

Dr Harsh Vardhan stated that after 2014, the number of CGHS Wellness centres have expanded to 72 cities from the earlier figure of 30, which shows the exemplary commitment of the government to the health and wellness of the employees. Soon CGHS shall be extended to other cities like Itanagar, Kannur, and Kozhikode, he stated. He added that recently the Ministry has elicited the feedback and suggestions from the various stakeholders, beneficiaries and others to improve the delivery of health services through CGHS centres. As an innovative feature, for beneficiaries above 80 years of age, doctors from CGHS wellness centres call at least once in a month to enquire about their wellbeing / make a home visit if residing within 5 km.

The Union Health Minister stated that it is a reflection of the commitment to the health sector by the government, that the number of AIIMS have now increased to 21. Six of the AIIMS are now operational, he stated. Work is also progressing on setting up 157 Medical Colleges mainly in the aspirational districts of the country to ensure that people of these regions are provided superior health services, and they do not have to travel long distances to avail of them. He also highlighted the "Eat Right India" and "Fit India" campaigns of the Government aimed towards preventive, promotive and positive health, which also is the underpinning thought for the Ayushman Bharat Health and Wellness Centres. "It is sad that the people of Delhi have been deprived of the invaluable tertiary health services under Ayushman Bharat PMJAY, which have benefitted more than 69 lakh people from various parts of the country through more than 19,000 empanelled hospitals", Dr Harsh Vardhan stated. He added that these needy and poor people could not have dreamed of such health care facilities earlier, in the absence of PMJAY.

The Central Government Health Scheme (CGHS) is a contributory health scheme for serving / retired Central Government employees and their dependent family members. The scheme was started in 1954 in Delhi. It provides comprehensive health care facilities to the beneficiaries that include OPD Consultation from CGHS Medical Officers and specialists, issue of medicines, investigations at Govt. hospitals and private empanelled centres, specialist consultation and hospitalization at Govt. and private empanelled hospitals, etc. OPD consultation from CGHS empanelled private hospitals on referral from CGHS Wellness Centre is also done as part of the scheme.

Shri Sanjeeva Kumar, Spl. Secretary (Health), Shri Alok Saxena, Joint Secretary (Health), along with other senior officers from the Ministry and CGHS were also present at the event.

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

18.2. Europe's largest intercity bus network plans to enter Indian market

IBEF, Dec. 18, 2019

FlixBus, largest intercity bus network in Europe, which is backed by investors General Atlantic and Silver Lake, is looking to enter into Indian market.

The company works on the same model as already existing cab service aggregators such as Uber or Ola. Though, the company does not own any bus or hire drivers, but it provides operational support, such as scheduling, and ticketing, among other things. It partners with the regional bus operators and provide rides across Europe and in the US. The idea on which it works is the principle of dynamic pricing, through an online platform and a FlixBus app.

"We recently started our recruitment for the Indian market and the project is still in an early business development stage," said a spokesperson of FlixBus Global.

The company is among the most successful German start-ups and was launched by Mr Daniel Krauss, Mr Andre Schwammlein and Mr Jochen Engert back in 2013, after deregulation of the bus market in that country. FlixMobility is the parent company of FlixBus, which has also launched train services. The firm works with around 300 independent bus and train entities.

FlixBus began expanding internationally in 2015, with long-distance networks in France, Italy, Denmark, Netherlands and Croatia, as well as cross-border services to Norway, Spain and Britain. It connects a little more than 2,000 destinations in 30 countries, according to the company.

In August, FlixMobility said it had extended a Series-F funding round by partnering with Baillie Gifford, Luxor Capital Group and Odyssey 44, with additional investment given through funds and accounts managed by BlackRock. The capital raised will be used to for further global expansion and to launch a new FlixMobility service, FlixCar. The company would be a ride sharing platform that will add to the existing FlixBus and FlixTrain networks, as well as the company's charter platform, said the company.

Market leadership can be achieved with the help of these funds in the US by 2020, it will also see buses in South America and Asia, it said.

The new investors aside from the existing shareholders include General Atlantic, a leading global growth equity firm, and Silver Lake, a global player in technology investment. The company entered the US markets last year.

In India, it is expected that the entry of FlixBus could lead to a big shift in intercity transport. Although, there are operators that are offering online platforms for ticketing and customer support, but there is no Uber-like standardisation of services on a large scale.

Bus is the most reported means of transport in both rural and urban areas, as per an official survey titled 'Key indicators of household expenditure on services and durable goods' in 2014-15. Around 66 per cent of households in rural areas and 62 per cent in urban areas reported expenditure on bus travel.

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

19.1. IHCL to manage Fateh Prakash Palace in Udaipur

IBEF, Jan. 03, 2020

A Tata Group hospitality arm, Indian Hotels Company Ltd (IHCL), has added Fateh Prakash Palace in Udaipur to its collection of authentic palaces, which has now been renamed as Taj Fateh Prakash Palace.

The Fateh Prakash Palace was built during the reign of Maharana Fateh Singh Mewar in the 19th century. The palace was an exclusive venue for the royal functions. The palace has 65 heritage rooms and suites, IHCL said in a statement.

"As custodians of Indian hospitality, it is our privilege and honour to be entrusted with the responsibility of managing Taj Fateh Prakash Udaipur," IHCL Managing Director and CEO Mr Puneet Chhatwal said.

He added that this addition can be considered as a crucial milestone in the company's expanding portfolio of iconic and luxurious hotels.

The Lake Palace Hotels & Motels Chairman and MD Mr Arvind Singh Mewar said, "My family has shared a close and fruitful association with IHCL since 1971- when we commenced our valued relationship with Taj Lake Palace, Udaipur."

"In 2020, we strengthen our bond through Taj Fateh Prakash Udaipur," added Mr Mewar. He further added that this is a significant palace having been a witness to many royal functions over time.

With the addition of this palace into its portfolio, IHCL has become the largest hospitality operator in Udaipur with four hotels, IHCL said.

IHCL's luxury brand, Taj, consists of authentic palaces, landmark hotels, resorts and safaris.

This unique portfolio includes hotels across the globe including presence in India, North America, the United Kingdom, Africa, the Middle East, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Bhutan and Nepal.

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

19.2. STT GDC India inaugurates its 15th data centre in Bengaluru

IBEF, Dec. 23, 2019

STT Global Data Centres India Private Ltd (STT GDC India) inaugurated its 15th data centre in Bengaluru expanding its national network.

The third data centre is 18MW and is spread over 4,00,000 sq. ft., at Whitefield, Bengaluru. The centre is designed to meet the highest benchmark in green practices and is built from ground up, drawing on STT GDC India’s combined design, construction, engineering, and operations expertise.

It is built to provide to the modern-day high-density computing needs of its customers for mobility, e-commerce, IoT, cloud and big data.

Around Rs 600 crore (US$ 85.85 million) of investment is planned in phases into building the state-of-the-art, purpose-built data centre at approximately Rs 30 crore to Rs 45 crore (US$ 4.29 to 6.44 million) of investment per MW.

"Bengaluru is a hub for many start-ups as well as ITES, e-commerce, biotech and fintech entities. As the city's largest operational data centre, I'm excited to announce that STT Bengaluru DC-3 marks the first data centre to be inaugurated as part of our multi-megawatt capacity expansion across India. The new facility is also backed by our commitment to providing best-in-class data centre infrastructure for varied retail and wholesale clients" said Mr Sumit Mukhija, CEO at STT GDC India

With this latest expansion, the power capacity has been increased to over 90 MW of critical IT load across eight cities. The wide array of connectivity options consists of configuration alternatives, including shared rack space, individual racks and cage. STT Bengaluru DC-3 will offer customized solutions suiting according to ones need and multi-megawatt dedicated spaces serving to retail and wholesale customers.

STT Global Data Centres India Private Limited is a joint venture between ST Telemedia Global Data Centres and Tata Communications. This is a data centre service provider with one of the largest data centre footprints in the country. It provides service to over 1,000 customers including Fortune 500 companies and now operates three of the country's largest data centre facilities in Pune, Chennai and Bengaluru.

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

20.1. About 3,5 million passengers flown under RCS-Udan scheme till date

IBEF, Dec. 24, 2019

UDAN-RCS

• 134 routes commenced from 1.1.2019 to 10.12.2019

• 10 Airports operationalized in 2019 (till 07.12.2019) out of which 4 airports are underserved and 6 airports are unserved.

Underserved - Lilabari, Belgaum, Pantnagar & Durgapur.

Unserved - Kullu, Kalaburgi, Kannar, Dimapur, Hindon & Pithoragarh.

335 routes awarded during the year 2019 covering 33 airports (20 unserved, 3 underserved, 10 water aerodromes).

34,74,000 approx. numbers of passengers were flown under RCS-UDAN Scheme till date. It has a direct bearing on major Airports since the smaller airports have been connected to various big cities. The travelling time has reduced drastically and public at large is benefitted for the purpose of tourism, medical emergencies and religious shrines, etc.

Rs 304.49 crore (US$ 43.57 million) have been spent for upgradation of existing and new airports from April to November 2019

Belgaum, Prayagraj, Kishangarh, Hubli&Jharsuguda are the busiest airports commenced under UDAN

Air Traffic Flow Management Control and Command Center (ATFM-CCC)

New Air Traffic Flow Management Control and Command Center (ATFM-CCC) with state of art displays has been operationalized at Vasant Kunj, New Delhi in June 2019. ATFM Implementation - Nationwide Central Air Traffic Flow Management [ATFM] system operational since 2017. The Central Command Center (CCC) has become operational from Vasant Kunj premises from 22nd June 2019. The CCC is supported by Flow Management Positions (FMPs) at all major airports (36 in number) which include 8 defence airports. The ATFM system monitors the air traffic flow at all major airports and across all airspace sectors. Whenever any air traffic overload conditions are predicted at any airports / airspace sectors, the ATFM managers, proactively implement ATFM regulations (by delaying the aircraft on ground at departure airports) so that the traffic overloads are "managed". Thus, ATFM helps in maintaining safety while ensuring optimal use of airports and airspace. India also has hosted the ICAO APAC ATFM Steering group meeting in Delhi in May 2018 wherein 13 APAC countries participated.

CNS/ATM modernisation roadmap for India

In May 2019, Boeing and the Airports Authority of India (AAI) have signed a technical assistance agreement for developing a comprehensive 10- year Communication, Navigation and Surveillance/Air Traffic Management (CNS/ATM) modernization roadmap for India. The objective of the agreement is to develop a roadmap for AAI to use as guidance in the modernization of the Indian National Airspace System (NAS) based on global and local best practices to optimally utilize airspace capacity, enhance communications and invest in navigation, surveillance and air traffic management. This 18- month project will be undertaken with a grant from the U.S. Trade and Development Agency (USTDA). AAI has formed a Technical Working Group (TWG) comprising of nominated members from Airlines, Airport Operators, DGCA, IAF, IMD and AAI officers to jointly work with Boeing experts during the project. The first kick-off meeting took place at Delhi from 22nd to 25th July 2019.

Airports - AAI airports awarded 'in principle' on PPP -

'In principle' approval for leasing out of 6 airports of AAI i.e. Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Guwahati, Thiruvananthapuram, Lucknow and Mangalore through Public Private Partnership (PPP). Letter of Award has been issued on 15.07.2019 in respect of three airports viz. Ahmedabad, Lucknow and Mangalore to the highest bidder for a period of 50 years. Thiruvananthapuram, Guwahati and Jaipur airports are yet to be awarded. The proposal for leasing of next round of airports viz. Bhubaneswar, Varanasi, Indore, Amritsar, Raipur and Trichy Airports through PPP got recommended by AAI Board for which Transaction Advisor is being finalized.

AAI’s Futuristic Telecommunications Infrastructure initiative

The Airports Authority of India (AAI) has awarded M/s Harris, USA, a 15-year, Rs 945 crore (US$ 135.21 million) contract on Build Own Operate (BOO) Model to serve as the prime contractor and systems integrator for AAI's Futuristic Telecommunications Infrastructure initiative. The initiative will upgrade Communication network operations, enhance security, and improve the performance, reliability and quality of India's air traffic management (ATM) telecommunications network. This communication backbone infrastructure will also play a pivotal role in deployment of Remote Towers for managing air traffic services at RCS airports

Digital Initiatives

a. DGCA

The function & process of DGCA is being moved to an online platform to provide faster delivery of services & regulation oversight. The first module on pilot licensing shall be launched in December 2019.

b. DigiSky

DigiSky online portal has been launched for flying Civil Drones. The Beta version of DigiSky is available and captures the entire gamut of activities relating to drones viz. registration of drones and pilots, approval of flight path, post flight analysis etc. based on the distinctive features of No Permission No Take off (NPNT).

c. E-sahaj

100 per cent security clearances pertaining to the Ministry have been made online on E-sahaj online portal launched by the Ministry of Civil Aviation. The portal is operational for granting clearances in respect of 24 categories.

d. DigiYatra

Trial for rollout of DigiYatra has been started at Bengaluru and Hyderabad airports. It envisages seamless and hassle-free passenger travel using biometric technologies to improve passenger experience, reduce queue waiting time as passengers can walk through e-gates. It will remove redundancies at check points and enhance resource utilization.

e. Dashboard of MoCA

The Dashboard of Ministry of Civil Aviation was developed on17 August 2019. It provides real-time data across a number of parameters on air transportation, including RCS-UDAN.

f. Aviation Job Portal (https://aviationjobs.co.in)

A unique web-based portal, which seeks to bring together job seekers and prospective employers in the Indian civil aviation sector.

g. Air Sewa

An initiative by MoCA to bring all aviation stakeholders to a common platform so as to address the grievances of the air travellers. The status of the issues raised can be tracked online. The platform also provides updated flight status and is linked to social media.

h. Lost & Found online portal (https://www.aai.aero/en/lost-found/item-list)

Lost & Found online portal has been commissioned in June 2019 to ease out the passenger claiming process for Lost & found Property.

Tallest ATC tower

Delhi Air Traffic Service Complex (DATS- Complex) - country's tallest Air Traffic Control tower has been inaugurated on 02.09.2019 at the Indira Gandhi International Airport. This iconic infrastructure will ensure up-scaled services and systems for efficient, smooth and uninterrupted air traffic management.

Construction of Hindon and Kalaburagi Airport -

New airports built at Hindon, Ghaziabad (U.P.) and Kalaburagi, Karnataka and made operational.

Robust growth in Aviation Fleet -

Aviation sector has seen a robust growth despite grounding of Jet Airways. After discontinuance of operations of Jet Airways, major scheduled airlines were operating 529 aircrafts. The total number of operational aircraft of major scheduled airlines is 624 which is more than the aircraft operational at the time of when Jet was functional.

Amendments in the AERA ACT, 2008

Airports Economic Regulatory Authority of India Act, 2008 has been amended, now the threshold annual passenger traffic criteria for classifying 'major airport' is 'three and half million'. The Authority shall adopt the tariff in respect of an airport if such tariff has been notified by the central Government as a part of the bidding document or has been determined through transparent process of bidding in accordance with the guidelines issued by the central Government.

Security component of ASF rationalized -

Aviation Security Fee (ASF), charged as a part of passenger fare, has been rationalized and a National Trust has been created to pool all the ASF collections across airports. The trust is to be managed by AAI. The collection of ASF in a single pool account will serve the purpose of cross subsidizing the smaller airports of AAI.

Inflight WiFi Connectivity -

Inflight WiFi connectivity standards have been established and necessary security requirements worked out.

Ban of Single use Plastic -

Airports Authority of India has declared 85 airports as Single Use Plastic Free airports. Air India is in process of procuring items made of alternate material as a substitute for various plastic inflight catering items.

The CAP Directorate of AAI, which was established in 2017, has been nominated as Nodal Point for coordination with DGCA on licencing issues and implementation of licencing of controllers of AAI. Since examination and assessment tasks in respect of controllers are complex and require a high level of experience and expertise in the area of air traffic control, these tasks have been delegated to AAI under the oversight of DGCA. These high-level specialized tasks are being done by the Directorate of CAP in AAI.

The Ministry of Civil Aviation, after ICAO audit under Universal Safety Audit Oversight Program (USOAP) and Coordinated Validation Mission (ICVM), decided to licence air traffic controllers in India. The Aircraft Rules 1937 was amended on 5th November 2018 enabling licensing of controllers by the Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).

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

20.2. Lithium completes acquisition of 1000 Mahindra EVs in its fleet

IBEF, Jan. 10, 2020

According to an announcement, the partnership between Mahindra Electric and Lithium Urban Technologies crossed a milestone of 1000 Mahindra Electric vehicles in the Lithium fleet.

Mr Pawan Goenka, managing director at Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) said, "Our partnership is aimed at increasing the large-scale adoption of EVs and bringing a positive change in consumers' daily commute."

Mr Sanjay Krishnan, co-founder and chief executive officer at Lithium Urban Technologies said that the company is looking forward to strengthening its partnership with Mahindra and doubling its fleet size in the next two years.

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. L&T Technology Services bags multi-million-dollar project in Europe

IBEF, Dec. 24, 2019

L&T Technology Services said on Monday that it bagged a multi-million-dollar engineering, procurement and construction management project in Europe.

"L&T Technology Services Ltd (LTTS) won a multi-million dollar project from one of the world's top plastics, chemicals and refining manufacturers, to deliver the entire spectrum of engineering, procurement and construction management (EPCM) services for the expansion of an existing site in Europe," the company said in a filing to BSE.

The expansion project will be implemented in a period of over 30 months at the customer's brownfield plant in Germany.

LTTS, being the strategic engineering partner, will execute the entire project through an EPCM model, from procurement and supply chain management support to safety aspects and efficient design.

"LTTS has already carried out successful brownfield projects in the USA and we are privileged to extend our engagement with an important customer to the European markets," Mr Amit Chadha, President, Sales and Business Development and board member at L&T Technology Services said.

The shares of L&T Technology Services were trading at Rs 1,474.60 (US$ 21.10) a piece on BSE in morning trade.

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

21.2. Inox Wind signs pact with Continuum Power Trading for 250 mw power projects

IBEF, Dec. 31, 2019

Inox Wind entered into an agreement with Continuum Power Trading (TN) Pvt Ltd to supply, erect and commission 250 mw wind power projects in Gujarat.

"Inox Wind... has signed a term sheet with Continuum Power Trading (TN) Pvt Ltd, part of Continuum Wind Energy group, to supply, erect and commission 250 MW of wind power projects (in two phases of 126 MW and 124 MW) comprising of a mix of 2 MW (113 metre rotor diameter turbine combined with 92 metre hub height) and 3 MW (145 metre rotor diameter turbine combined with 120metre hub height) turbines," the company said in a filing to BSE.

The first phase of 126 mw of the project is planned to be commissioned by the third quarter of FY21 at Dayapar in Bhuj district, Gujarat. Project will be implemented on a turnkey project basis.

According to the agreement between the two, Inox Wind will offer end-to-end solutions to Continuum Power. These will include the solutions from development and construction to commissioning and providing long-term operations and maintenance services.

"Common infrastructure such as 220 KV pooling substation at Dayapar, 220 KV bay at Power Grid Corporation Of India Limited (PGCIL) Nirona End, 220 KV transmission line for 72 km is ready and the project will be executed on a plug-and-play basis," the company said.

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

22.1. Wellness resolutions for a new decade

Livemint, 03 Jan 2020, Vasudha Rai

As we enter the 2020s, wellness has become more about personalization and preventive care than following trends or finding cures
From the ‘pegan’ (paleo+vegan) diet to avocado oil, trends show that fitness has replaced fashion as the new social currency

It wouldn’t be inaccurate to say that wellness became a reality in this millennium. The 21st century has seen a radical transformation in food. We stopped eating carbs, turning bread into a treat. Sugar, wheat and dairy replaced fat as the new poisons, and we swapped meat-based Atkins for veganism. In the last two decades, staples such as milk, flour and butter have undergone a metamorphosis. It’s entirely normal now to get butter from nuts, flour from fruit, and milk from grains.

The focus on food is a reflection of our current obsession with agelessness. Just like fashion was a leading form of expression in the 1900s, wellness defines the 2000s. Fitness has replaced fashion as the new social currency.

The last decade in particular has seen a big boom in wellness, with the industry valued at more than $4 trillion (around ₹28 trillion), according to research by the US-based Global Wellness Institute in 2018. The digitization of health has bombarded us with more information than ever before. So as we enter the 2020s, wellness is more about personalization and preventive care than following trends or finding cures.

The Word: INFLAMMATION

“The last couple of years have been about the gut, but 2020 will be all about inflammation," says Lovneet Batra, a Delhi-based sports nutritionist who has consulted with Indian teams for the Commonwealth Games. Whether it’s the increase in number of cases of auto-immune diseases, levels of pollution, or a need to get to the root cause of disease, reducing inflammatory load is the need of the hour.

Riding the wave of lifestyles that battle inflammation, says Batra, is the new “pegan" diet, which combines the plant-based focus of veganism with the whole foods concept of paleo. She explains that the big downside of veganism is the dependence on processed foods such as (vegan) cookies, chips and pasta, which increase cellular inflammation. In the pegan diet, you can eat vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, meat, fish and eggs but avoid dairy, grains, legumes, sugar and processed foods. “By eliminating sugar, processed foods and grains, you cut a huge amount of inflammation," she says, explaining that these foods create disease-causing free radicals. Grains are on the list because most popular varieties of cereal are genetically modified. A 2013 report released by the Institute of Responsible Technology linked data on GMOs to five conditions that may either trigger or increase gluten-related disorders, including celiac disease.

The focus on fats is a tool in the current anti-inflammatory arsenal. Coconut, fish and olive oils have proved their worth in the last decade, but today the list also includes oils such as avocado and full-spectrum CBD (cannabidiol). Avocado oil is touted as the new coconut oil. Comprising more than 76% monosaturated fats that don’t raise cholesterol, the USP of this oil is its very high smoking point at 271 degrees Celsius, against coconut oil’s 232 degrees Celsius. “This means that if you use this to fry or even reheat food, it will release fewer free radicals compared to other oils," says Batra. Research shows that avocado oil also increases the bioavailability of anti-inflammatory carotenoids from vegetables. So, if you sprinkle it on your salads, it will increase your ability to absorb the nutrients from leaves and root vegetables.

CBD oil goes even deeper to reduce inflammation. In 2018, the US Food and Drug administration (FDA), approved Epidiolex, which is made with purified CBD extract and used to treat rare seizure disorders in patients over the age of 2. But CBD has transcended the treatment of nervous disorders into the more general area of pain management. “Pain is the first sign of inflammation and because CBD works on this root cause, it’s used by athletes to reduce pain and speed healing," says Batra. Advancements in research have proved that CBD is just one compound of hemp’s complex biochemistry, which includes many beneficial terpenes and cannabinoids. A 2015 study by The Hebrew University-Hadassah Medical School found that full-spectrum CBD was more effective in treating inflammation than CBD isolate.

For the hemp newbie: CBD isolate is the purest form, broad spectrum contains other cannabinoids and terpenes but no THC (tetrahydrocannabinol), while full-spectrum CBD also has minuscule amounts of THC. For general anti-inflammatory benefits, choose the other two varieties over the pure isolate form.

The Mood: SLOW

A torn ligament or injured ankle isn’t uncommon in the world of Ashtanga yoga and Insanity workouts. In 2020, though, the mood is changing. “Earlier, the trend was over-training, where people were pushing themselves without focusing on form or physical ability," says Sumaya Dalmia, fitness expert and founder of the Sumaya chain of fitness studios in the National Capital Region. “If you overstrain, you do more harm than good because it increases your cortisol levels and inflammation, and reduces your ability to lose weight." Today high-intensity workouts are being eschewed for slower, more deliberate practices such as Iyengar yoga, swimming, and high-intensity, low-impact workouts. “Consistency and comfort are keywords for 2020," says Dalmia.

Intelligent workouts are being complemented with smart meditation techniques. Apps such as YogaGlo, Headspace, Calm, Sattva and Buddhify have democratized the practice. Sound healing, a big trend for 2020, is an intelligent tool that transports you into a meditative state with little effort. “Sound has been used for healing in all cultures across the world, be it Vedic chants, Tibetan bowls or shamanic drums," says Vinnay Nasta, a sound therapist and feng shui consultant practising in Mumbai and Dubai. A 2013 review by McGill University in Montreal, Canada, of 400 published studies on music as medicine found that sound indeed improved mood and reduced stress, and rhythm in particular provided relief from physical pain. “Sound healing brings you to the present moment because it has the ability to transport the mind," says Nasta, who recommends Tibetan bowls to balance chakras, drums for grounding or a basic Om chant for peace of mind. “Ultimately you have to choose what works for you, because different frequencies suit different people."

The Tool: QUANTIFIABLE SELF

Forget about IQ or EQ, these days experts are talking about physical quotient (PQ), which determines your connection to your body and its signals. “Most people are so disconnected that they find it difficult to understand how a certain food or fitness routine makes them feel," says Dalmia. So while you may be eating and working out right on paper, you might have ignored red flags like fatigue, pain and constipation. “This is why people are becoming less healthy despite the boom in wellness—you can follow trends but they are worth nothing if they don’t work for you." To enhance PQ, Damia suggests working with a personal trainer or a functional medicine doctor to understand the positive indicators that work for you.

Today we are tracking ourselves more than ever before. Want to know the calories in your food? Use MyFitSelf. Want to track your mood? Try MoodKit. Want to check sleep quality? Try Sleep Cycle. From tracking blood sugar to energy and heart rate, wearables are obvious investments for the health conscious. In November, Google announced its acquisition of FitBit for $2.1 billion. But that’s not all. The digitization of health has also brought fitness studios to our doorstep.

Peloton, a New-York based fitness company, has revolutionized the way we exercise with a digitized stationary bike that comes with a 22-inch touchscreen. You can live-stream or join on-demand classes and compare metrics with other cyclists. Users vouch that Peloton gives them the atmosphere and competitive spirit of a real class that fits into their schedules. Peloton is still to come to India.

The modern world makes a fetish out of measurement, but attempts to quantify everything—from steps to calories—can be counter-productive. In a 2016 study by the University of Pittsburgh where 470 people were put on a low-calorie diet and asked to exercise more, it was found that those given fitness trackers lost less weight. The author of this study concluded that it was because this group assumed they had achieved fitness goals according to the trackers and therefore started easing out on the diet and exercise. Our dependence on numbers undermines our natural instinct—our biggest strength. Additionally, tracking numbers can increase anxiety in people with poor body image/eating disorders. Therefore, such tools must be seen as a convenience rather than as accurate predictors.

As time becomes the new luxury, quantified self, slow movement and preventive care are the holy trinity of wellness. Through them will flow new trends and inventions that fit into our busy, ever-connected lives.

Vasudha Rai is a Delhi-based writer.

22.2. Russian firm to invest $100 m to offer free Wi-Fi in metro stations

IBEF, Jan. 06, 2020

Maxima Digital, a Russia-based technology firm, is planning to invest around US$ 100 million over the next two years to provide free Wi-Fi in India's metro stations and coaches.

In order to provide free high-speed Wi-Fi services on metro trains, the company has been working with Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) over the past three to four months. This service will be a first in time in India.

Currently, the service is available for all stations and trains that are active on the Airport Express Line that connects New Delhi Railway Station and Terminal 3 of the Indira Gandhi International Airport. "The total investment for the whole DMRC network will not exceed US$ 100 million over the next two years. We have around 12 people and (they) will be managing the Wi-Fi services, too," said Mr Farhad Rustamov, Maxima's CEO.

The major two partners for the Wi-fi services are Vodafone Idea and Sify, that will provide a minimum speed of 15 Mbps of speed going up to 70 Mbps, said Mr Rustamov. The company is also working with many mid- and large-cap companies in India.

Techno Sat Comm India along with Maxima has formed a consortium and tied up with DMRC to offer free high-speed Wi-Fi services on metro trains.

"Till now we have set up Wi-Fi in 51 stations of the Blue Line, six stations and eight trains of the Orange Line (100 per cent complete) and we hope that in the next five weeks people can enjoy free Wi-Fi in Yellow Line stations, too," Mr Rustamov said.

The company also plans to expand to other metro projects such as in Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad and Mumbai after the DMRC project is done, over the next year, he added.

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

23.1. India, China should set aside rivalries to rewrite global economic rules: Deepak Nayyar

Livemint, 05 Jan. 2020, Gireesh Chandra Prasad

Economist Deepak Nayyar argues that India should ‘re-industrialise’ and set aside rivalries with China to rewrite global economic rules that were set about 75 years ago when Asia had no place at the high table of economic powers

NEW DELHI: By 2040, Asia will re-discover the economic might it had two centuries ago by claiming half of the world income, tilting the balance of power further in favour of Asia and eroding the hegemony of the West, according to Deepak Nayyar, economist and former vice chancellor of University of Delhi. This significant shift in power nearly a century after the end of colonial rule in India also brings challenges, argues Nayyar, who is also chairman of the board of governors of Delhi-based think tank Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS), in his latest book ‘Resurgent Asia, diversity in development.’ In an interview with Mint, Nayyar challenges the established notion that efficient markets offer a magical solution to the needs of the economy and asserts that governments have a crucial role to play in tackling the biggest challenges Asia is facing—persistent poverty, rising inequality and jobless growth. Nayyar argues that India should ‘re-industrialise’ and set aside rivalries with China to rewrite global economic rules that were set about 75 years ago when Asia had no place at the high table of economic powers. Edited excerpts:

Despite strong growth performance in the past, Asian economies are not immune to global shocks. What are the key weaknesses that need to be fixed?

For Asia, a better world is possible, but a lot will depend on how it exploits the opportunities and meets the challenges. You cannot project definitively, but my judgement is that by 2040 if not earlier, Asia will be back where it was in 1820, in terms of its share in world income. When countries have large amounts of surplus labour, they grow at much faster rate as the surplus labour is absorbed. That means creation of employment. Asia’s biggest challenges are persistent poverty, rising inequality and jobless growth. Absolute poverty will probably be eradicated in Asia by 2030, even in countries like India. But rising inequality and jobless growth will be a huge problem, which will be a big challenge for the economy and polity. The role of the government is going to be critical in the next 25 years. Anyone who believes the phenomenal growth of Asia in the past 50 years was the magic of markets and open economies is wrong. The role of the government was critical, which made the difference.

What stood in the way of India becoming a global manufacturing hub or a financial services hub like Singapore?

It is essential to recognise the diversity of Asia. The reliance on markets and the degree of openness in economy also varied across the countries. Their politics too ranged widely from authoritarian regimes to oligarchies to political democracies. So did ideologies—from communism to state capitalism to capitalism. There were different paths to development. Despite these, there are common patterns. Rising investments rates and savings rate combined with the spread of education were the underlying factors in countries that are success stories. Growth was driven by rapid industrialisation, often export led with structural changes in composition of output and employment. The role of the government and the nature and degree of openness of the economy are crucial in this context.

Today, the World Trade Organisation (WTO) seems to be on ventilator. Nations are following a less open, inward looking trade policies. That curtails the chances for India and other Asian nations to grow. Doesn’t it?

Asia is a world in itself. Trade between Asian nations is a large part of the world trade. As incomes rise in Asia, countries could find markets for themselves within Asia. Also, average income level is very low in Asia. There is surplus labour. So they could produce labour-intensive manufactured goods for domestic markets. The world economy is going through a difficult period when globalisation is under stress, as openness in terms of trade and investment policies is in retreat. This is related to the political challenges that have surfaced in recent times--resurgent nationalism in industrialised and developing countries, the rise in protectionism, deep resentment to open immigration policy and open trading systems. The resurgent nationalism in industrialised countries in North America and Western Europe can in part be attributable to the rise of Asia.

India recently walked away from a Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, as opening up markets within Asia too posed challenges to the domestic economy. Are you in favour of mega regional trade deals?

I am not. I believe that a multilateral trading system based on the principle of non-discrimination such as the WTO should be is the best particularly for small and poor countries. Regional trade deals which are diluting the non-discrimination principle of an open multilateral trading system are stumbling blocks, not building blocks. I will be much rather we would all work towards strengthening the multilateral trading system. Asia should do everything it can to rebuild the multilateral trade system, just as Asia with its growing economic strength and political voice, should attempt to rewrite the rules of global economic architecture. After all, global economic architecture was created in 1945 when Asia had no voice. Today, Asia is a significant part of the world economy. Collective voices are much more likely to be heard than single voices. This cooperation is not yet visible whether in WTO or in the IMF. It will depend on Asia’s willingness to exercise influence on how to make international economic architecture more conducive to the development of countries that are late comers and are still poor. It will be possible only if India and China decide to set aside their rivalry and work together to change the rules of the game. The danger is that China has almost arrived and when these countries become influential, they will join the big boys on the high table and forget those that lag behind. Could we not have an Asian union that is a political arrangement, notwithstanding differences in national economic interests? It could be a political forum for cooperation.

23.2. BIAL signs deal with KUNZ GmbH to acquire disabled aircraft recovery equipment

IBEF, Jan. 14, 2020

Bangalore International Airport Limited (BIAL) and KUNZ GmbH entered into an agreement to manufacture, supply, commission and maintain specialised Disabled Aircraft Recovery Equipment (DARE) for the Kempegowda International Airport, Bengaluru (KIAB).

After the commissioning of this equipment, KIAB will become the first airport in the country with the capability effect recovery of disabled aircraft up to Code F category, enabling faster resumption of operations during aircraft incidents on runways, BIAL said in a statement.

Under this agreement, KUNZ GmbH agreed to collectively establish a centre for disabled aircraft recovery training with BIAL, leading to KIAB the first such type of airport in the region to have such a facility.

This facility is expected to develop and expand the skill set in India, it said.

"The acquisition of this equipment boosts BLR Airports operational capability during runway emergencies, said Mr Thomas Hoff Andersson, Chief Operating Officer, BIAL.

The disabled aircraft on the runway have the probability to disturb the airport operations, leading to flight delays, diversions and loss of revenue for both airlines as well as airport operators.

"Kunz is honoured to have received this contract from BIAL to not only equip the airport with a wide range of Kunz Aircraft Recovery Products, but also enter into a strategic partnership to establish a centre of competency for aircraft recovery training in the region along with local support of Millennium Aero Dynamics. Together with our strong partner BIAL, we will develop a competent training centre in Bengaluru to reduce the downtime of airports during recovery situations and increase awareness to avoid secondary damage to aircraft during the recovery operation," said Mr Andreas Fuge, Managing Director of KUNZ GmbH.

A team of Recovery Managers is made by BIAL who will undergo extensive hands-on training at KUNZ GmbHs recovery training facility in Germany.

Moreover, a Quick Response Recovery Team will also be made and imparted with technical knowledge to respond to critical situations, stated the BIAL.

According to the BLR Airport's requirements a kit will be customised consisting of multiple components. This will include ground preparation tools, aircraft lifting, de-bogging, tethering, towing, and all other associated aspects of both narrow- and wide-body aircraft.

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

24.1. United Kingdom for enabling energy self sufficiency for Indian Railways

IBEF, Jan. 10, 2020

The Union Cabinet, chaired by the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, has given its approval for signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Department for International Development (Government of United Kingdom) on 02.12.2019 for Enabling Energy Self-Sufficiency for Indian Railways.

Implementation Strategy and targets

The MoU signed by Ministry of Railways with Department for International Development (Government of United Kingdom) for Enabling Energy Self-Sufficiency for Indian Railways with the following understanding:

a) The Parties agree on the scope of activities to be undertaken as a part of the endeavor for enabling energy efficiency and energy self-sufficiency for the Indian Railways.

b) Each Participant will, subject to the laws, rules, regulations and national policies from time to time in force governing the subject matter in their respective countries, endeavour to take necessary steps to enable energy efficiency and energy self-sufficiency for Indian Railways.

c) The parties agree for Energy planning for Indian Railways i.e. Solar & Wind Energy sector, adopting energy efficiency practices, Enabling Fuel efficiency, Electric Vehicle charging infrastructure deployment, Battery operated Shunting Locomotives. Capacity development like training programmes, industrial visits, field visits etc. or any other form co-operation may be approved in writing by the Participants.

d) The Participants will coordinate the activities, as appropriate, under this MoU. Nothing in this MoU will be construed to prejudice existing or future arrangements for cooperation between the participants.

e) Blither participant may request in writing a revision, modification or amendment to all or any part of this MoU. Any revision, modification or amendment approved by the Participants will form part of the revised MoU. Such revision, modification or amendment will come into effect on such date as may be determined by the Participants.

f) This Memorandum of Understanding shall come into force on its signing by the duly authorized representatives of the Parties and any of the Party may terminate this MoU by written communication addressed to the other, in which case, termination of MoU shall take effect six months after receipt of such written communication.

g) The termination of this MoU will not affect the implementation of ongoing projects and / or programmes which have been agreed before the date of the termination of this MoU. Necessarily, areas of cooperation and forms of cooperation will continue to be enforced for ongoing projects and programmes which have been agreed before the date of the termination of this MoU.

h) Any dispute or difference between the Parties shall be settled through mutual consultations and negotiations between the participants.

Background:

Ministry of Railways have signed MoUs/ MoCs for co-operation covering technical, policy, research & commercial aspects in field of development of energy sector. The objective of the programme is to support structural reforms and the integration of renewable energy into the electricity grid.

To be more specific, it aims to achieve more sustainable and inclusive economic growth, better energy security and reduced carbon emissions.

The MoUs/ MoCs provide a platform for Indian Railways to interact and share the latest developments and knowledge in the railway sector. The MoUs/ MoCs facilitate exchange of technical experts, reports and technical documents, training and seminars/workshops focusing on specific technology areas like Renewable Energy and other interactions for knowledge sharing.

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

24.2. UK group to invest Rs 950 crore in Turbo Aviation's new airline TruStar

IBEF, Dec. 17, 2019

A UK based business group is preparing to enter the Indian aviation sector by acquiring majority stake in Hyderabad-based Turbo aviation.

Under UDAN scheme, the Turbo Aviation is planning to launch a new airline called TruStar starting next year. Turbo Aviation, which was founded by Mr V Umesh, had earlier launched an additional service that is TruJet commercial airliner which is in addition to other services like aircraft maintenance and ground clearance in the past.

"We had signed an agreement with a large UK business group to dilute majority stake in Turbo Aviation in its favour. We will announce the name of our partner and other details once the security clearances are in place," Mr Umesh said. TruStar airline, which is yet to be operational has already been given 10 routes across seven states including Uttar Pradesh under the UDAN Scheme.

According to Umesh, the company's strategic investor intends to invest as much as GBP 100 million (about Rs 950 crore) in the airline company operations over a period of five years. The TruStar has plans to introduce its operations in February-March next year with an initial fleet of 5 ATRs and 5 Airbus 320s. After that, the company also plans to apply for Pan-India operations as the foreign partner would want to build a large Indian airliner over a period.

"Indian aviation sector, be it airport operations or the airline business, has not been impacted even 1 per cent by the current economic downturn and this itself speaks of tremendous business potential as well as the scope for new operators that exist in the domestic airline services," Mr Umesh said. "At present there are only four big airline companies operating in India. Obviously, there is a scope for new players in this growing sector. The country had already added 40-50 new airports for expansion of domestic air travel under the UDAN and there will be more airports in future," he added.

The new airline company intend to have a fleet of 10 ATRs, 10 AirBus 320s besides 4 Made-in-India Droniers of Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) for operations and additionally expand its fleet with new flying routes, according to its founder. Once the company is operational, it will be the first Indian commercial airliner to launch the Made-In-India Droniers as the company intends to induct them for operating in certain routes in Uttar Pradesh where landing of ATRs was not possible.

The routes awarded to TruStar include four routes in Uttar Pradesh, three routes across Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Goa, two routes between Hyderabad and Prakasham Barrage of Andhra Pradesh and between Chennai and Ramnad in Tamil Nadu and a large multi-destination route connecting Raipur, Rurkela, Jharsuguda, Jagadalpur with Bhubaneswar, Visakhapatnam and Hyderabad.

The upcoming airliner is also planning to add commercial amphibious (sea plane) to its convoy. According to the company founder, TruStar is considering transforming the connectivity in the North and Southern Sector to begin with, keeping in mind more flying routes in future.

Mr Umesh presently holds 6-7 per cent stake in TruJet as the Hyderabad-based MIAL Group had subsequently got a controlling stake following the launch of the airlines in 2015.

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

25.1. A Muslim royal’s Christian faith

Livemint, 20 Dec. 2019, Manu S. Pillai

In the 1540s, Miyan Ali, an uncle of one of the Adil Shahs, tried to establish himself as the power centre in Bijapur

The biggest blow to his ambitions came from his daughter, who renounced Islam and converted to Christianity

One of the leading techniques by which kings in the early modern world neutralized their rivals was by depriving them of their eyes. Blinding, after all, not only prevented such opponents from leading troops in battle, but also rendered them incapable of effective government. In 1607, for example, the Mughal emperor Jahangir blinded his son after the latter tried to seize the throne, while in the previous century a sovereign of Vijayanagar, it is believed, asked his minister (albeit without success) to blind his brother, the famous Krishnadeva Raya. In the Deccan, the house of the Bahmani sultans saw even a nine-year-old dealt with in this fashion, while Ibrahim Adil Shah II of Bijapur sweetly invited a perfidious regent back to court, only to inflict this immutable punishment on the unsuspecting man.

It was to escape such a fate—or worse—that one of Ibrahim’s great-uncles had left court in the early 1540s, never to return. At that time, it was another Ibrahim who sat on the throne, and this part Maratha, part Persian prince suspected the ambitions of his father’s brother, Miyan Ali. The sultan was believed to be of dubious legitimacy, so Miyan Ali, with his purer claim, threatened to emerge as an alternate power centre. No novice in these games, the uncle tried to pre-empt blinding or plain old-fashioned poisoning by making himself scarce—he proposed to go to Mecca on pilgrimage, physically removing himself from his nephew’s way and putting himself out of reach of all conspirators who might want to topple the Adil Shah in his name. It was a win-win for both: The Adil Shah could keep his throne, and Miyan Ali, his existence.

Sadly for both, the plans went awry. Miyan Ali did sail for Arabia, only to be robbed on the way and wash up in Gujarat. For two years, the man stayed there—away from the reach of his grumbling nephew—before moving to Goa, and into the fickle embrace of the Portuguese. Shia rebels from Bijapur who did not like their Sunni ruler had gravitated towards this enclave, and Miyan Ali became the face of their intrigues. Of course, the Portuguese also believed him to be a useful pawn in their own strategic games. When the Adil Shah tried to buy custody of Miyan Ali from these Europeans, they gladly accepted 50,000 gold pieces and territory, only to renege. And in the process, the royal uncle became to Goan authorities what historian Sanjay Subrahmanyam calls “a Muslim fly in the ointment".

Miyan Ali was never going to be king but the hope of such an eventuality lingered for decades. For many summers, he vegetated in Goa, subject to the vagaries of his hosts: Once, for instance, they shipped him all the way to Malabar and back, and it was only in 1555 that a real effort was made to help him take on his nephew in Bijapur. The enterprise was a debacle, and before he knew it, Miyan Ali was back in the familiar territory of frustration. As a Jesuit wrote soon after, “it is to him…that by rights the kingdom of the (Adil Shah) …in fact belongs." But he lacked the strength to enforce his claim. The old man then tried another method—he began to seek alliances for his daughter, sending out proposals not only to the sultan of Ahmednagar (who had his own axe to grind against Bijapur) but also to the emperor of Vijayanagar.

But if Miyan Ali’s ambitions were thwarted by poor luck and unsuccessful strategy, he was to receive a final blow from his child. While he was “a great follower of Muhammad and well-versed" in Islamic scripture, the princess seemed to be developing slightly different religious leanings. She had cultivated, it turned out, the acquaintance of a local Christian woman called Maria Toscana, with whom she began to communicate a great deal. Without her father’s knowledge, she expressed, in due course, a desire for the teachings of the Bible. Or, as we learn from the Jesuit, “Maria Toscana…was so zealous for the good of (the princess’) soul" and “persuaded her with such vehemence to become Christian" that after a year’s work, the girl agreed. Soon, a clandestine plot took shape to extract the woman from her father’s house and take her to church.

One Sunday morning, then, the Portuguese governor and his retinue arrived at Miyan Ali’s house unexpectedly. While a startled father spoke to his guest, women in the group made their way into the ladies’ quarters to take possession of the man’s daughter. The consequence was that “both the girl’s mother and the other female relatives", with “great outcries and shouts", held on firmly to the princess, while the “Portuguese women grabbed hold of (her) from the other side". This bizarre tug of war “assumed such proportions that all their hair came undone", but in the end Miyan Ali’s daughter was successfully seized—she left home in the governor’s palanquin, converting soon afterwards to Christianity and marrying Maria Toscana’s brother. Her Muslim mother shaved her head in grief, while Miyan Ali watched in despair.

It was the end of his quest to assert any right over the throne of Bijapur. While Miyan Ali remained staunchly Muslim till the end of his days in 1567, the heirs of his surviving son did follow in their aunt’s footsteps and convert to Christianity. In only a few decades thereafter, a number of his descendants would fully transform themselves, bearing, as Subrahmanyam shows, such names as Dom Joao Meale and Dom Fernando Meale. There was, to them at any rate, little irony in the fact that their new Portuguese surname was merely a corruption of the name of their tragic ancestor, the ill-fated Miyan Ali—an exiled Adil Shahi prince of Shia faith whose daughter and grandsons chose to become Christians.

Medium Rare is a column on society, politics and history. Manu S. Pillai is the author of The Ivory Throne (2015)and Rebel Sultans (2018). He tweets at @unampillai

25.2. Charles Dickens and the legacy of a Calcutta Christmas

Livemint, 20 Dec. 2019, Somak Ghoshal

A secular, multicultural childhood in 1980s Calcutta helped forge a deep affinity with Christmas

The bond with the festival was deepened by having to read ‘A Christmas Carol’ by Charles Dickens in school

At the school I went to in Calcutta (now Kolkata) in the 1980s and 1990s, students were subjected to one “rapid reader" after another for several years in the junior classes. The idea was to introduce us to texts that were easy to read, comprehend and enjoy. If this trinity hit its mark, chances were it would instil a love of books in our 10-year-old hearts—in those days at least, this was one of the primary aims of a well-rounded school education.

It was through one of these rapid readers that Charles Dickens entered my young life. In class V (or thereabouts), we had his immortal tale, A Christmas Carol, in the syllabus, along with The Happy Prince by Oscar Wilde. Our school had thoughtfully bound the two together into a specially produced chapbook, which we dutifully covered with brown paper, sticking a label on it with our name, class, section and roll number. “Marley was dead, to begin with," we read aloud, moving our index finger along the lines. “There is no doubt whatever about that." The sentences rolled haltingly off our tongues, except Ebenezer Scrooge’s favourite riposte, “Bah! Humbug!" We yelled out that phrase at one another during the recess, without quite knowing what it meant.

For a ghostly tale, though, A Christmas Carol was a damp squib, especially for Bengali boys and girls brought up on a far more expansive and fearsome repertoire of stories of the supernatural. At home we readThakurmar Jhuli (Grandmother’s Bag Of Stories), a collection of folklore and fairy tales about ogres and ogresses (Bengal teems with many subspecies of the latter, variously called rakkhosh, khokkosh, bhoot, petni, shakchunni, doityo, danob, and so on), put together by the writer Dakshinaranjan Mitra Majumdar. Compared to these horrific creatures with an insatiable appetite for human flesh and blood, the ghosts of Jacob Marley, and those of Christmas past, present and future, felt like benign visitations—most of them wispy shadows that glided around with a British mildness, unlike the pantheon of home-grown demons that howled and hooted through our minds, giving us nightmares.

The rituals and festivities of Christmas were familiar to my milieu though. In my middle-class Hindu family, hanging a stocking on the night of Christmas eve for Santa Claus to leave a gift was as common a tradition as shopping for new clothes for Durga Puja. A trip to Park Street, where a sizeable population of Anglo-Indians lived (and still does), during the week of Christmas was also mandatory. Baubles and lights crisscrossed the street like a canopy of stars as crowds swarmed in from all directions, heaving and swelling around New Market, the shopping district. Christmas trees and decorations would flank the stalls, an aroma of freshly baked plum cake would waft in the air as people lined up outside the butchers’ to pick up their preferred cuts of meat. If the adults were in the mood for it, we would troop over to St Paul’s Cathedral to join the throng of humanity gathered for the midnight mass.

Years later, while studying Dickens in college, I discovered a rather tragic association that the writer had with this fabled high street of Kolkata. In 1857, as Indian sepoys broke out into a revolt against the rule of the British East India Company (EIC), William Savage Landor Dickens, the fourth child and second son of Charles and Catherine Dickens, joined the EIC’s army and came to India. The 16-year-old boy was urged by the patriarch of his family to be part of the cause and probably didn’t have much hand in the decision. Although he survived the gruesome battle, he died prematurely, at the age of 22, most likely from a hereditary disease, in the city. He was buried in Bhowanipore but a gravestone marked to him lies unkempt in the ancient cemetery on Park Street, passed by Christmas revellers every year. Dickens senior never saw his son’s final resting place, but, in a peculiar coincidence, it remains tied to the festival he celebrated in a series of hugely successful books, written almost every year from 1843-48.

Having grown up among scenes of Christmas camaraderie in Kolkata, the London that Dickens depicted in A Christmas Carol during the season wasn’t entirely alien to my child’s mind. In the pre-internet age, I had a tough time imagining what a daffodil looked like as I learnt lines from William Wordsworth’s iconic poem by rote (another staple of school syllabi in many postcolonial nations). But Christmas was familiar stuff, thanks to the multicultural, secular Indian ethos I was exposed to, growing up in the Calcutta of the 1980s and 1990s. It would be several decades before I would actually find myself in London during Christmas, and Dickens’ tender portrait of a society, where pedestrians stamped their feet to warm themselves and good Christians called out “Merry Christmas" to one another, would be rudely dispelled by the mayhem I witnessed—stampede-like situations on Oxford Circus as people jostled and made beelines to enter stores where winter sales were at their peak.

Christmas, in its contemporary incarnation, may look like a festival celebrating aggressive capitalism, though it wasn’t all that different in Dickens’ time. Ironically, the writer himself has contributed much to the commodification of Christmas, says Sajni Mukherji, a Dickens scholar and former professor of English at Jadavpur University, Kolkata, on email. “In the same way Archies has done to St Valentine’s Day, or jewellery stores have done to Dhanteras in India," she adds. “More people eat plum cake and Christmas pudding than read his works!"

Yet, if there’s one English writer of the Victorian era who echoed the realities of Indian life acutely—and continues to do so, although unwittingly—it is Dickens. A staunch champion of underdogs, a clear-eyed chronicler of urban poverty, and acutely sympathetic to the plight of destitute children, he seems to hold up a mirror to a society that reflects the sordid circumstances of Indian society over the years.

In the 21st century, more than 200 years after his birth, many Dickens novels remain useful lenses to look at the world that surrounds us. It’s hard to imagine, for instance, a movie like Danny Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire, inspired by Vikas Swarup’s 2005 novel Q&A, without the informing influence of a character like Pip in Dickens’ Great Expectations (1861), which set a template for the classic rags-to-riches story. Or think of Mr Micawber in David Copperfield (1850), and his innate ability to wing it, even when he’s stuck in the doldrums. That kind of hardy resilience is emblematic of a culture like India’s, where the talent for jugaad rules the day.

Typical of many Asian nations, India abounds with hapless clerks like Bob Cratchit (from A Christmas Carol) and differently-abled children like his son Tiny Tim, lorded over by the Scrooges of the world. Child labour, though legally banned in India, remains rampant, either clandestinely or otherwise, as the custodians of law and order and the public in general choose to look away. As the rich get richer, the poor get poorer all over the world.

In 2012, the BBC World Service broadcast a radio programme by Ayeesha Menon titled Dickens And India: Mutual Friends to celebrate the 200th birth anniversary of the writer. As an academic speaking on the show pointed out, it is telling that authors like Dickens and Jane Austen became part of the educational curricula in India long before they were taught in British schools and colleges. The fact that these greats, both of whom are associated with the “canon" of English literature, were, in a sense, “exported" to the UK via India shows just how deep their hold over the Indian psyche was, and remains to this day.

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Monday 20 January 2020

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– GENERAL POLICY, INFRASTRUCTURES, COUNTRY FINANCES, ETC.

- AGRICULTURE, FISHING & RURAL DEVELOPMENT

- INDUSTRY, MANUFACTURE

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