AAPI: August 2022

DELHI, 20th AUGUST 2022

Index of this Newsletter

INDIA

INDIA & THE WORLD

21. Big Pink Diamond Discovered in Angola, Largest in 300 Years
22. Indian Companies Eye New Trade Channels in US Amid Erosion of Generic Prices
23.1. India receives a record high FDI inflow of Rs. 631,050 crore (US$ 79.58 billion) in FY22
23.2. Nissan achieves milestone of shipping out one million 'Made in India' cars
24.1. Delhi Gate To Alexandria
24.2. DMRC Is Bidding In Bahrain, Mauritius, Tel Aviv, Alexandria & Ho Chi Minh City
25. Basmati rice exports increase by 26% in Q1 to $1.15 bn: Commerce Ministry

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DELHI, 20th AUGUST 2022

NEWSLETTER, 20-VIII-2022

INDIA

– GENERAL POLICY, INFRASTRUCTURES, COUNTRY FINANCES, ETC.

1.1. What will cities of the future look like?

Mint, 13 Aug. 2022

As we celebrate 75 years of India’s independence, Lounge examines whether the cityscapes of 2047 will allow individuals the freedom to live life to their fullest potential

Detail from Gigi Scaria’s ‘Equator’, digital print on archival paper. Courtesy: the artis Avantika Buyan

What will the world look like in 2047, 25 years from now, a year when India will be marking 100 years of independence? Will it be straight out of a dystopian science fiction movie, with floating cities, AI-powered pods and flying cars? Going by the news reports of our times, some of the landmarks of the future might be located not on Earth but on celestial bodies far, far away. Architects around the world are already working on extra-terrestrial architecture. The US-based multiplanetary design agency AI SpaceFactory, for instance, has envisioned its space habitat design, MARSHA, for Mars, 54.6 million kilometres away, using materials available on that planet.

Not everyone, though, will be able to get on to SpaceX founder Elon Musk’s spaceship, points out Madhav Raman, co-founder of the Delhi-based firm Anagram Architects. So what happens if you stay back on Earth? Will the issues of the day—climate change, overpopulation, to name two grave ones—completely overwhelm society by then?

History doesn’t just happen, it is shaped by us

Certainly, it is becoming clear that architects will have to reimagine the cityscape, assuming they have the liberty to. Some have already begun doing this in small ways, showcasing a return to traditional local materials and designs melded with modern processes and planning. For most of them, the future lies in flexibility, “unbuilding”, harnessing resources wisely— and greenery.

“The next generation will encounter unprecedented social, political and ecological challenges and we should be prepared to deliver holistic solutions for retrofitting and designing new buildings that actively mitigate the risks and amplify positive change,” notes It’s Alive: A Vision For Tall Buildings In 2050, a report by ARUP, an architecture firm with offices in over 30 countries, including India.

Gautam Bhatia’s ‘Hotel In A Suitcase’—a satirical take on the future of architecture. Courtesy: the artist.

Indeed, architecture is not just about tangible structures; it’s reflective of a way of life, a sociopolitical ideology, a marker of identity. In India, for instance, the Hall of Nations at Delhi’s Pragati Maidan complex, designed by Raj Rewal, engineered by Mahendra Raj and inaugurated in 1972, was emblematic of a young, optimistic nation eyeing economic and industrial growth; it has since been demolished. As we celebrate 75 years of freedom, one wonders what the landmarks of the future will be, what built spaces will look like when India turns 100. Will we be looking at larger-than-life monumental structures or will we seek greatness in minimalism? Will cityscapes be restrictive or allow individuals the freedom to live life to its fullest potential?

Two architectural scenarios are emerging—one that looks at a business-as-usual scenario and the other, at a more ideal situation. Noted architect Gautam Bhatia reflects on the likely scary outcome of the first scenario, if we continue to crowd cities with private housing and smart buildings, stretching already overstretched towns into the countryside and on to farms, extending highways till everything is a dense mass of concrete. “Not-for-profits and world leaders will still be trying to piece together a treaty for climate change everyone can agree upon. People will live in small barricaded houses or cheerless blocks, working on their own, stealing vegetables and livestock, fighting over water and electricity,” he etches a dystopian picture.

It doesn’t end there. Bhatia imagines a world with dried-up rivers and trees in a “plant zoo” that people will visit from time to time to remind themselves of a life that once was. “The surviving symbol of India’s architectural heritage, the Taj Mahal, will still be visible but could be occupied by squatters as low-cost housing,” he goes on.

There’s more. Delhi-based artist Gigi Scaria, whose practice revolves around imagined cityscapes, feels the landmarks of the future will be intelligent, high-tech malls, with private enterprises racing to make the tallest one. “All public spaces will continue to be occupied by corporations and big malls. A lot of investment is being pumped into specific parts of the city. If that collapses, then in 25 years the city could be dotted by skeletons of failed malls,” he notes.

The future need not be so dismal—if we course-correct, and quickly. Bhatia, for one, is counting on serious introspection over the next couple of years that could be followed by a massive shift—with the old ideals of large houses, glass malls and private ownership of lands making way for new. He muses on the future: “People live either below the earth or raised high above. Urban populations are accommodated in buildings that do not occupy much land; underground farms are the source of all agriculture, slow transport appears.”

He imagines cityscapes without cars or planes, movement that is local and terrestrial, communities that are small but connected and permanent. “The saving grace of architecture for India at 100 will be if it ceases to exist as a practising profession and submits to a new order, both natural and technological. Only the Taj Mahal remains (as a landmark), a monument to a forgotten time,” he adds.

1.2. Toll plazas will be removed, tax to be deducted automatically from bank accounts: Union minister Nitin Gadkari

ET Gov. 5 Aug. 2022

"The number plate technology is good. There will be no toll plaza and there will be a sophisticated computerised digitalised system."

The Union government on Wednesday informed Rajya Sabha it will soon introduce a new technology that will deduct tolls directly from the bank accounts, thereby ensuring the removal of toll plazas on roads and hassle-free travel.

Responding during Question Hour, Union Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari said the government will introduce a new technology to collect the toll within six months. "We are in the process. We are yet to take an official decision on the kind of technology. The number plate technology is good. There will be no toll plaza and there will be a sophisticated computerised digitalised system.

"There will be no queues. No person. Nothing will be there and it can give great relief to the people by and large. And the government will get absolute revenue from that," Gadkari said.

According to the minister, the government is thinking over two options to collect the toll. One is a satellite-based toll system where the GPS of the car will help directly collect the toll tax from the bank account. The other option is the number plate. We can replace the old number plate with the new number plate and there will be a computerised system by which we can use the software to collect the toll, he said.

"The easiest system is when you start from the point it will register and when you leave the highway it will again register. So only the exact amount the car drove will be deducted from the owner's account. We are already working on it. We have not made up our mind as far as the selection of the technology is concerned. But within a month we will select the technology. We will use all the sophisticated technology of the world which will be useful for the people," the minister said.

Gadkari said that the government will also need to introduce a bill in parliament as there are no legal provisions to deal with those who violate the new system. "We will introduce the best system in the world. I will try my best to do it as early as possible within six months," he added.

2. ‘India Open to Capital from Everywhere for Education’

The Economic Times, 3 Aug. 2022

India is open to “invite capital from everywhere” to provide quality education infrastructure that can educate and skill over 255 million youth in the 15-25 age group and improve the Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) for higher education from 27% to 50% by 2030, Union Education & Skill Development Minister Dharmedra Pardhan told ET Roundtable on Monday, adding that government will “very soon” release new guidelines for foreign players in education sector.

“UGC’s primary work is completed and consultations are on with stakeholders to deregulate. We are also talking to various prestigious institutions,” he said.

Pradhan added that India is working with a 2030 timeline in mind, keeping in sight its demographic advantage, to augment quality, capacity and infrastructure in the sector.

“Our overall GER is 27%. This must be increased up to 50% by 2030 for us to achieve productivity as a nation. For this, we need to augment the existing strength, capacity and infrastructure in the education system. How do we do that? We must invite capital from everywhere. We must also ensure that market forces don’t overpower the institutions and there is no commercialisation. So, anyone is welcome to our system with one expectation—that it should not be exploited,” he said.

In terms of data, Pradhan said there were roughly 255 million youth in the 15-25 age group, of which only 110 million are in educational institutions. “This means that another 14 crore (140 million) are either at work or not gainfully employed. India cannot be a superpower unless we focus on all these 25.5 crore (255 million) students and give them the right orientation, training, knowledge and opportunity. The State has the responsibility to do so,” he added.

While the government permits 100% foreign direct investment in the education sector through the automatic route, foreign investors have hardly shown any enthusiasm so far.

Regulatory requirements that it be routed through a ‘not for profit’ entity and absence of enabling regulations by higher education regulators—University Grants Commission (UGC) and All India Council for Technical Education—are said to be key hurdles.

3.1. 471 to nearly 73,000: India's start-ups have increased 15,400% in last 6 years

IBEF, Jul. 26, 2022

In India, the number of established startups have risen by 15,400% during the past six years. The number of new-age enterprises, which operate in 56 diversified sectors, increased from 471 in 2016 to 72,993 in 2022. Over 4,500 start-ups have been recognised in sectors such as the internet of things (IoT), robotics, artificial intelligence and analytics.

The government is implementing the Fund of Funds for Startups (FFS) Scheme and the Startup India Seed Fund Scheme (SISFS) to provide financial assistance to startups through Alternative Investment Funds (AIFs) and incubators, respectively, said Mr. Som Prakash, Minister of State for Commerce and Industry.

In terms of the number of startups created over the past six years and the employment they have generated, Maharashtra has edged out Delhi and Karnataka for the top rank. In Maharashtra, 13,519 startups were established which generated 1.46 lakh jobs over this period. Karnataka registered 8,881 startups and 1.03 lakh jobs, while the national capital registered 8,636 startups and 87,643 jobs.

The National Initiative for Developing and Harnessing Innovations (NIDHI), an umbrella programme launched by the Department of Science and Technology (DST), was introduced in 2016 with the goal of fostering knowledge-based and technology-driven innovations into profitable enterprises.

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

3.2. It’s the Economy, India!

ET, 15 Aug. 2022

Job creation seems to loom very large in the minds of citizens as India completes 75 years of independence. Employment and livelihood opportunities would be the top challenges for the country.

Job creation seems to loom very large in the minds of citizens as India completes 75 years of independence. In a countrywide LocalCircles survey about people’s expectations of what India will achieve in the next five years, when the country turns 80, close to half of the respondents (43%) felt creating enough employment and livelihood opportunities would be the top challenge for the country.

Only 39% of respondents, spread across 371 districts, were confident that India would be able to create enough employment and entrepreneurship opportunities in that time.

Even as over 80% of respondents felt the country will have greater clout globally, they were less optimistic about the domestic situation, with the majority not seeing India’s social stability improving in the next five years.

Less than a quarter of the respondents saw India achieving growth and prosperity for all in this period while 38% expect growth and prosperity for a few. The survey received over 79,000 responses in all.

4.1. Hit the Road, and How

The Economic Times, 3 Aug. 2022

The nationwide rate of road-building is 40 km per day. But BMP contributes only 11 km per day. A total of 11 km a day across 200 or so projects that are in execution does seem quite slow.

The first phase of the ambitious Bharatmala Pariyojana (BMP) is four years late. According to Icra, the first phase is now likely to get completed by 2025-26, against the original schedule of 2021-22. Icra also cites delays in land acquisition as a major reason. But that part is hardly a revelation. It is also superficial.

In 2014, the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) had already realised that unavailability of land is a major impediment in executing road projects. In response, it enacted a policy of not awarding projects without acquiring 80% of the required land. In 2018, it made that policy more stringent, raising the requirement to 90% with contiguous stretches of at least 5 km. And, yet, the problem remains.

Given the centrality of BMP to ‘Make in India’ and India’s economy, it’s vital to understand what exactly the land acquisition problem is and what is causing it. Only then can we accelerate the remaining work and significantly reduce the final delay. To define the problem, it is necessary to look at the underlying numbers.

The nationwide rate of road-building is 40 km per day. But BMP contributes only 11 km per day. A total of 11 km a day across 200 or so projects that are in execution does seem quite slow. But how much faster can those projects really go? Today, a typical 30-50 km project takes three years, but can be completed in 18 months, even when it includes bridges and special structures. So, by solving the land acquisition problem, NHAI can double the BMP rate to 22 km per day and reduce its delay from four years to two.

So how can NHAI speed up land acquisition? What are the difficulties and bottlenecks inside of the land acquisition process? What are the levers of change to alleviate those difficulties and bottlenecks?

Land acquisition is done in three stages:

Identification: Identifying land and issuing public notices to acquire it. Even though this stage is largely procedural, based on data from the Bhoomi Rashi portal, it takes about 40 months to get done. It should be possible to complete this stage in less than a year just by enforcing deadlines — and not just creating them — because the work is by and large defined and administrative.

Negotiation: This is the real bottleneck. It requires the Competent Authority for Land Acquisition (CALA), NHAI and multiple state and central bodies to conduct negotiations with many owners. Delays in some of those negotiations are inevitable, especially when owners are groups rather than individuals, and cooperation from state and local levels is required. But those delays are greatly exacerbated because of synchronisation challenges.

Synchronising the efforts of multiple resource groups is not easy when they are working on 3,000 stretches across 400-plus projects. Not only do individual stretches need to be completed in the shortest time possible, but they also need to be done in a way that you end up with ‘complete’ projects. For issuing the dates of appointment to contractors, it doesn’t help to finish 40% stretches across 20 projects. The desired outcome is 80% stretches completely done across 10 projects.

Execution: The same resource groups are also involved in resolving residual land acquisition issues for these projects. It is worth noting that completion of a project by itself does not bring much of a benefit. Projects are part of larger corridors. From the ‘Make in India’ and citizenry’s perspectives, an entire corridor is what must be completed. Therefore, efforts must be synchronised towards completing not just projects but also entire corridors.

The solution to the synchronisation problem starts with changes at the ministry level. The ministry of road transport and highways (MoRTH) must rationalise due dates and set clear priorities for corridors. Without that, NHAI resources will stay spread thin. Also, more than 50% of projects get appointment dates in the last quarter of a fiscal year. Such a bow wave of work also contributes to de-synchronisation. So, the ministry must insist on a consistent monthly rate of appointments instead.

These changes at the ministry-level will provide NHAI an opportunity to focus its efforts and complete work in a steady manner. If it can systematically transmit that focus to the frontline, it can easily double the rate of land acquisition and complete BMP within the next two years. And, with just a few simple changes, provide a major boost to ‘Make in India’ and the economy.

The writer is CEO, Realisation Technologies

4.2. Adani Group to invest US$ 70 billion in green energy, infra: Mr. Gautam Adani

IBEF, Jul. 27, 2022

The Adani Group will invest US$ 70 billion in green energy transition and infrastructure projects, said Mr. Gautam Adani, Chairman, Adani Group. The group is in the race to make India less reliant on foreign oil and gas imports and eventually a net exporter of sustainable energy.

We now have a sizable global portfolio of renewable energy sources, but during the past 12 months, we have also achieved outstanding success in a number of other areas, said Mr. Adani.

The company has also entered into sectors such as data centres, digital super applications, industrial clouds, metals, and minerals, all of which are in line with the government's vision of an Atmanirbhar Bharat, added Mr. Adani.

Adani Group is building India's infrastructure, winning some of the largest road contracts and growing its market share in business such as ports, logistics, transmission and distribution, city gas, and piped natural gas. Following the acquisition of Holcim’s assets in India that include two of the most recognised brand names across the country – ACC and Ambuja Cements, the company is now the second largest cement manufacturer in India.

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

5. Time to Reform Telecom Regulatory Regime: Min

The Economic Times, 29, Jul. 2022

The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) is focusing on bringing radical reforms in the existing regulatory framework for the telecom industry to encourage investments and advance planning, telecom minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said on Thursday.

“We have a responsibility for regulatory dimension and are working to make India’s regulatory regime a global benchmark so that the industry can plan investments ahead and invest in the sector,” Vaishnaw said at a curtain raiser event for India Mobile Congress (IMC) 2022, to be held in New Delhi from September 29 to October 1.

“It’s time to replace legal and regulatory regime without any disruption. We want active participation from the industry to make a law,” he said.

DoT had recently floated a consultation paper on how to radically reform the legal framework for telecommunications to make it in sync with global developments and changing technologies.

Vaishnaw said the department is taking each suggestion on the consultation paper seriously.

He said the industry should come forward in the area of technology development locally, and make it for the world. “This will be a goal in the next 2-3 years,” he said. The technology addition rate in India is phenomenal and the industry will get dividends for taking connectivity to the last mile in far-flung villages, the minister said. “Chipset makers should go to universities, smaller colleges and schools to set up experience centres.”

Vaishnaw said the Centre is working on a mechanism to provide ₹500 crore annual support to the industry. He also thanked the telecom industry for making the 5G auction a success.

- AGRICULTURE, FISHING & RURAL DEVELOPMENT

6.1. Demand from US, Japan, New Mkts Revives Mango Exports

ET, 12 Aug. 2022

Resumption of orders from the US and Japan, new markets such as Argentina, and at least 50% higher per unit realisation have helped revive India’s mango exports. Exports of the fresh fruit to Japan have doubled to 50 tonne in the current season from 24.

New Delhi: Resumption of orders from the US and Japan, new markets such as Argentina, and at least 50% higher per unit realisation have helped revive India’s mango exports. Exports of the fresh fruit to Japan have doubled to 50 tonne in the current season from 24.52 tonne exported in 2021-21 while around 1,000 tonne mangoes have been exported to the US.

Similarly, mangoes are being sent to South Korea after a two-year gap due to the Covid-19 pandemic, and Malaysia has assured imports of Alphonso, Kesar and Banganpalli varieties of mango, officials said.

“There is a 10-15% rise in mango exports in this season as compared to last. Exports have recovered,” said an official.

India exported fresh mangoes worth $44.07 million in FY22, lower than $56.11 million in 2019-20 as the US stopped mango imports for lack of physical inspections during the pandemic period.

Mangoes headed to the US have to be irradiated before they are exported.

“This year also marked a breakthrough in penetration of Japanese market. Mangoes are also being sent to Korea and it is expected that few containers as test marketing will be made available there,” the official said.

The Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority has promoted Langda and GI-tagged Zardalu in Bahrain and organic mangoes to Russia this year. The king of fruits is also being promoted in Riyadh, Brussels, Thimpu, Kuwait, Dubai, Denmark and Berlin.

Sources said Malaysia has assured imports of Alphonso, Kesar and Banganpalli varieties of mango.

“Market access was also gained in Argentina,” the official said.

In April-June 2021, exports of fresh fruits and vegetables, including mangoes, were $642 million and that increased to $697 million in corresponding months of current fiscal.

6.2. High-priced rare orchids being smuggled out of India

Mint, 12 Aug. 2022

GUWAHATI: Many years ago, on a dripping wet day in a forest in Cherrapunjee, Khyanjeet Gogoi saw the blue vanda (Vanda coerulea) for the first time. He still remembers the sight of the rare orchid, which looked, at a glance, like the long tresses of a woman. So many were in bloom that day that the “forest", it seemed to Gogoi, “had turned blue."

In subsequent visits to the East Khasi Hills, Meghalaya, he found it harder to spot the delicate blooms in the wild. Three decades later, Gogoi is doing what he can to stop the illegal trade in this rare flower—as well as other orchids that grow wild in the tropical forests of the North-East. It’s not an easy task, given how the underground trade in orchids is not even a blip on the radar of law enforcers, even though the flowers are protected by India’s wildlife laws.

For instance, in May this year, a police station in Tinsukia, Assam, appeared to be stumped by a FIR (first information report) filed by the Orchid Society of Eastern Himalaya, a non-governmental organization. It accused the owner of a Facebook page of advertising and selling rare orchids protected under Schedule VI of Wildlife Protection Act, 1972 to clients in the country. The NGO warned that if the unabated collection of orchids from the wild for trade continues, then many of these species run the risk of going extinct.

“But the police told us that they were not supposed to look into the trade of flowers," says Gogoi, who is a legal advisor to the Orchid Society of Eastern Himalaya. “We had to explain to them that these are valuable and rare plants. But many people from the police or even the forest department won’t be able to differentiate between orchids and common flowers," he says.

And, it is hard to find estimates about the value of flowers being trafficked, from India and across the world.

In a paper published in Biological Conservation, in 2015, researchers Amy Hinsley, Diogo Verissimo, and David L. Roberts stated that the demand for wildlife products drives an illegal trade estimated to be worth up to $10 billion per year. “Orchids are one of the best-selling plants in the legal horticultural trade but are also traded illegally and make up 70% of all species listed by the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES)," the paper stated.

CITES comes up with an Annual Illegal Trade Report. Its analysis of wildlife seizure data, between 2016 and 2020, underlines the magnitude of the problem.

A total of 917 genera were specified in the seizure records—just 20 of these genera accounted for almost half of all seizure records (43,685 records or 48% of all seizure records). “This included a variety of genera such as giant clams, stony corals, ginseng, kuth, rosewood, crocodiles, staghorn coral, elephants, orchids, alligator, brain corals, pythons, conchs, aloe, Mediterranean tortoises, pangolins, and sea horses," the organization reported.

From India, orchids are mainly traded via the Myanmar border in Moreh, Manipur. They find their way to Myanmar, China, and Vietnam, where they are treasured for their ornamental and medicinal properties.

Currently, the blue vanda, the red vanda (Renanthara imschootiana), and all nine species of the lady’s slipper are protected under Schedule VI of Wildlife Protection Act, 1972. However, this has not stopped their trafficking. Seizures of the flowers have been reported from West Bengal and Assam by the department of revenue intelligence (DRI), according to a factsheet on India’s illegal orchid trade released by TRAFFIC, a wildlife trade monitoring network. “Orchids are illegally collected and traded for ornamental plants, traditional medicine and food," it said.

Saket Badola, who is currently the director of Rajaji National Park, Uttarakhand, and former head of TRAFFIC in India, says, “This factsheet is important because its purpose was to create awareness among the enforcement agencies. We know that orchid trade is happening but we don’t have enough data about it. The scale of the trade is unknown. Even the species which are protected under the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, are often being smuggled because they are not being identified."

An officer from an enforcement agency, who didn’t want to be quoted, said that seizures of orchids in North-East India started just five years ago and that too not on a regular basis.

Some varieties are collected from the wild and used in making Chyawanprash, a popular dietary supplement in India. Gogoi says that the Chinese demand for orchids is because of a belief in their medicinal quality. “The Chinese think that orchids are aphrodisiac and it enhances sexual power. There was a time when Dendrobium aphyllum, an orchid commonly found in Upper Assam districts of Dibrugarh and Tinsukia, was sent in bulk to China. Its population has dwindled now," he said.

The Tinsukia police, however, said it did not find evidence of illegal trade. According to Inspector Parag Jyoti Bhuyan of the Tinsukia police station, who investigated the complaint of the NGO cited above, “We didn’t get evidence that these collectors are selling orchids banned under Wildlife Protection Act, 1972 on Facebook. If they were collecting these orchids from reserve forests, then they could be charged under Forest Rights Act. But there is no proof of that."

Local to global

In 1847, the blue vanda was formally “discovered" in the Khasi Hills by British botanist John Lindley. A few years later, another botanist Joseph Hooker wrote about how he had foraged clusters of the flower to carry to the Royal Botanical Garden at Kew. But, ultimately, very few specimens reached England alive.

Orchids being sold at village markets is a common sight in the roadside markets of Guwahati, Shillong and Imphal. Gogoi says most of the villagers are unaware about the commercial value of these plants.

“They know that these plants have a demand among city folks. So, they collect it from their nearby forests. But traders take advantage and engage them in collecting orchids from the wild. The villagers might sell it for ₹50-200/kg and the trader will sell it for ₹5,000/kg. When it reaches the global market, its price will soar to ₹15,000/kg" he said.

The states in the North-East, says Gogoi, form the ‘orchid hotspot’ of India. With 900 species of orchids, they account for 72% of the total orchid population in the country. But trade in this region, he says, has gathered steam only since the last decade. “Earlier, orchids were smuggled from Darjeeling, Kalimpong and Sikkim. But now vigilance has increased along that route and the number of orchids has also dwindled in that region. So, the focus is on the North-East," he says.

Not all trade in the flowers is a crime. In the 1980s, the government even gave out licences for legal trade in orchids. “However, very few people have this licence in the North-Eastern states," Gogoi says. The racket is fairly organized with a well-oiled network of collectors, middlemen and sellers—and mostly run out of Assam, Meghalaya and Manipur.

Without a survey, it is difficult to tell the extent of the damage to the orchid population. Karbi Anglong is reportedly one of the most orchid diverse regions in Assam. However, Bolin Deori, additional superintendent of police, West Karbi Anglong, states that the forests in Karbi Anglong are rapidly losing their orchid population. “You will now hardly get to see the orchids from the Dendrobium family. Maybe 20% now survive in the wild" he said.

A researcher from Manipur flagged similar damage in the state’s hill districts of Ukhrul, Tamenglong and Churachandpur.

Online trade of orchids

The Internet has become one of the major pathways of orchid trade and North-East India is no exception. Bappa Mandal, who was named in the FIR registered at Tinsukia police station, last month, runs a Facebook page called Meghalaya Orchid. The page puts up a photo and price of the wild orchids and interested buyers contact the seller through a phone number shared in the page or through messenger. “Many of these groups start as horticulture fan groups where they appreciate each other’s plants and post photos," says Ivy Farheen Hussain, a project officer with wildlife NGO Aaranyak. “When they realize that there is a demand for these plants, they start posting the price and negotiate with customers. These groups generally have 11000-12,000 members. Last year, I tracked down 15 such groups. Then, I reported them and got them blocked. But I am sure more groups have popped up in the meantime."

There are many groups on Facebook, some with more than 20,000 members, where orchids are traded openly. Apart from that, platforms like WhatsApp and Ebay are also used for trading of orchids.

Of course, not all orchids are banned from being traded. “Orchids which are not protected under Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, can be cultivated and sold. It is difficult though to figure out from photos posted on online groups whether a plant has been cultivated in somebody’s backyard or uprooted from the wild," says Badola.

Gogoi says that traders don’t generally sell protected species like the blue vanda directly on social media. “They know the punishment involved. So, they don’t trade these orchids directly. Once they make contact with the seller, the orchids are delivered discreetly," he says.

Commercial prospects

Thailand is currently the world’s biggest producer and exporter of cut orchids, with total exports valued at $85.5 million in 2019—America and Europe are some of its biggest markets. Some experts say that following the Thailand way of commercialization might stop the illegal harvesting of orchids.

Scientist Jumter Nyorak, who has been working on biotechnology and taxonomy of orchids in the Orchid Research Centre at Tippi in Arunachal Pradesh since the last two decades, says that if production of orchids can start in laboratories with the help of tissue culture, it will stop the illegal trade. “Currently, we don’t have the equipment or facility to carry out production of orchids in our laboratories. We can do that if our resources are upgraded. Then, there will be no need to collect orchids from the wild and the species will be saved. The demand for orchids as ornamental plants will always be there because they are long-lasting plants—with proper care, some orchids can last for 1-3 months after blooming" he says.

Ankur Raj Gogoi, a 28-year-old orchid conservationist from Assam, meanwhile, is working towards setting up an orchid sanctuary in Charaideo district, with the help of the local Tai Khamyang community. “At the Sola Reserve Forest, there are 78 species of orchids. The forest is protected by the Tai Khamyangs, who inhabit the 10-15 villages around that forest. We have plans to inaugurate it by next year. The plan is to invite orchid enthusiasts from around the globe and enjoy the beauty of orchids in their natural surroundings," Ankur says.

The forest is also home to wildlife like Bengal slow loris, deer, capped langur, the black panther and 60 species of butterflies. He hopes the sanctuary will also boost the local economy, generate jobs for the youth from nearby villages.

According to enforcement agencies, however, orchid trade is still being done mainly at the local level in India. Agni Mitra, deputy director, East Zone, Wildlife Crime Control Bureau (WCCB), says, “In India, the trade is limited to sporadic extraction to meet the demand of local nurseries and households." He does admit that a consignment of exotic wild animals seized in Mizoram a few years back contained orchids. “Some seizures have also been made from North Bengal. Currently, we can only work on the protection of species which enjoy scheduled status under Wildlife Protection Act, 1972. However, if someone collects any species of orchids from a protected forest, then that will be a punishable offence."

Gogoi, however, expressed concern about the species which don’t enjoy any protection under our wildlife laws – only 11 are protected. He says, “We need to act fast to stop the illegal trade of orchids. If we wait for them to attain scheduled status under the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, many more species might become extinct in the North-East."

7.1. India slashing logistics costs to power growth

Mint, 29 Jul. 2022

India’s logistics cost, currently well above that of major economies such as the US, China and the EU, is set to become very competitive in about five years with massive efficiency gains to the economy and last mile connectivity to people even in remote areas, central ministers said at the Mint Mobility Conclave on Thursday.

The build-up of infrastructure investment in the country is resulting in improved mobility which is set to bring about big savings for the economy with logistics cost set to come down to 10% from the current 16-18%, union minister for road transport and highways Nitin Gadkari, the Chief Guest at the event, said.

Multiple ministries are making coordinated effort under the Prime Minister’s Gati Shakti mission in transforming mobility and building modern infrastructure, a key element of India’s economic revival strategy due to its multiplier effect.

Railway Minister Ashwani Vaishnaw, who was present on the occasion, pointed out in his special address that sustaining increased capital spending, embracing new fuels like hydrogen and increasing the share of Railway in goods transport with the idea of lowering logistics costs were top on the agenda.

Civil aviation minister Jyotiraditya Scindia said in his special video address at the conclave that air travel is becoming a more common mode of transport with growth increasingly coming from smaller cities unlike earlier when travel between metro cities and foreign travel drove growth. An approach to make mobility more accessible and to ensure last mile connectivity is the focus of the government, especially in border towns, the minister said.

The conclave captured the mobility revolution taking place in the country which has a strong bearing on long term economic growth by way of making transportation more economical, efficient and sustainable.

Gadkari said bringing India’s logistics cost to around 10% would make it comparable with around 11-12% in Europe, around 10% in the US and below 10% in China. The minister said use of renewable energy including ethanol, electric mobility and liquefied natural gas (LNG) fuelled trucks will all reduce the cost of transportation aided by an improved road network and interconnect between various modes of transport. This would also improve mobility, he said.

“Today the cost of transportation is very high. If we are able to reduce logistics cost to 10%, our exports would also rise one and half times," the minister said.

Railway Minister Ashwani Vaishnaw said the public carrier will step up its investment with at least ₹three lakh crore a year capital allocation expected from next year onwards.

“India should be investing significantly more into railways. We have to invest ₹3 lakh crore consistently to meet the aspiration of the people and lower logistics cost in the country. If you look at competing economies, they have been investing around ₹9 lakh crores for the last 30 years," Vaishnaw highlighted.

The Indian Railways saw a 14% jump in capital expenditure to ₹2.45 lakh crore in the financial year 2022-23 from ₹2.15 lakh crore in the last financial year. A higher capex push could boost railways efforts to revamp its operations.

Vaishnaw informed that the first hydrogen train in India could be operationalised by August 15 next year. The Railway minister highlighted that India’s share of railways in overall transport of goods has been falling since 1950 which is the prime cause that the cost of logistics is so high in the country.

India’s telecom market has the potential to attract new players now that the government had undertaken significant reforms for improving the financial health of the sector, said Vaishnaw, who is also the minister for communications and electronics and information technology.

Comparing the growth rates in the aviation sector with air-conditioned train travel, Scindia said that air travel was increasingly becoming a common mode of transport.

“Though it was a sector in its infancy in earlier days, we are now going through a very major growth phase in civil aviation in India," the minister said.

7.2. Small Cities Turn Out to be Big Market for Several Retailers

The Economic Times, 12 Aug. 2022

Small towns, or tier 2 and 3 markets, are growing faster than the larger metros across diverse categories such as packaged foods, beauty, personal care and quick service restaurant chains, executives said. Manan Jain, chief growth officer at personal care and beauty products direct-to-consumer company Good Glamm Group, said tier 2 and tier 3 cities are currently growing at 50% higher compared to tier 1 cities. “Tier 2 and tier 3 cities used to do 28-35% of our revenue till last year. This year, we are running at 45% contribution from the same cohort,” Jain said.

Executives said small towns are either growing faster than the metros, or are contributing equally to growth. This is across sales of both direct-to-consumer (D2C) brands, which retail online only, and mainstream retail brands.

Packaged foods company Nestle’s chairman Suresh Narayanan said in its second quarter earnings call: “In the April-June 2002 quarter, class one towns (with less than 1 million population) grew in double digit; these semi-urban markets were getting ready for growth because small town aspirations and availability had to match. That is bearing fruit for us now.”

The maker of Maggi instant noodles and Nescafe coffee said the acceleration across smaller towns was on the back of the company’s ‘rurban’ strategy of pushing distribution coverage.

Even brands perceived as 'urban-centric' are growing rapidly in the smaller markets, and increased digital adoption by consumers in these markets, which started during the pandemic, has translated to consumption at physical stores too, now.

“Markets like Guwahati, Surat and Ahmedabad are among our best performing ones,” said Ankush Tuli, managing director at Mexican cuisine quick service chain Taco Bell Asia Pacific. Taco Bell, which announced the setting up of its 100th store in India this week, said it will focus as much on smaller markets as metros, as it expands to meet its earlier stated target of 600 stores on a capital investment of about $100 million.

The growth is riding on companies pushing last mile direct distribution, bringing in first-time consumers, ecommerce platforms and smaller and more affordable ‘bridge’ (or smaller) packs amid the ongoing inflation.

Vishal Chaturvedi, VP (South Asia) at cosmetics maker The Body Shop, which operates over 200 plus stores, said: “Demand from markets like Rajkot, Pudicherry and Darjeeling is leading us to set up an incrementally higher number of stores there. Our sales are back to 2019 levels”.

8. Amazon India signs MoU with COHANDS to digitally empower artisans and weavers

ET Gov. 12 Aug. 2022

Amazon India on Wednesday signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Council of Handicrafts Development Corporations (COHANDS), an apex body of 30 Central/state government handicrafts and handloom development corporations, established in the year 1983-84, under the aegis of the Government of India, Ministry of Textiles, Office of Development Commissioner (Handicrafts).

Through this collaboration, Amazon India aims to empower the growth of over 50,000 artisans and weavers associated with over 100 craft clusters and specific interventions across India under the Amazon Karigar programme. The collaboration will also positively impact 55 artisanal clusters which are funded by the Ministry of Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprise’s (MSME’s) flagship project Scheme of Fund for Regeneration of Traditional Industries (SFURTI). This initiative is driven by the intent to encourage digital inclusion and empower the artisan and weaver community, offer economic opportunities by becoming Amazon sellers, as well job creation.

Sellers joining the Amazon Karigar Programme through this association will be able to avail of a host of benefits such as reduced referral fees, training support for shipping and delivery of products, imaging and marketing, technical know-how, and business and sales. This association will also enable a possible expansion of the customer base for these Amazon Karigar enrolled sellers bringing in greater recognition for their work and providing more employment opportunities. Millions of Amazon’s customers from across the country can access and shop from a wide variety of over 500 varied products, manufactured by these artisans and weavers, which include products from beaten metal, bamboo, pottery, and zardozi, amongst others.

Sumit Sahay, Director, Selling Partner Services, Amazon India, said, “India is known for its handicraft and handloom industry across the world, and it is imperative to support the growth of artisans and weavers, who are the flagbearers of India’s rich heritage and culture. In line with our commitment to digitising 10 million SMBs by 2025, we’re excited to ink this MoU with COHANDS and bring these artisans and weavers under the e-commerce fold. In addition to accelerating the growth of artisans and weavers, the Karigar Program is driven by the intent to expand product selection by bringing in local art forms to make Amazon marketplace selection truly representative of India’s rich culture.”

VP Thakur, Executive Director, COHANDS, said “MSMEs are India’s growth catalyst and aided with the right tools, technology, and insights, they can play a definite role in accelerating the growth of the Indian economy. This is an important development toward empowering thousands of artisans and weavers associated with COHANDS. Access to e-commerce through Amazon will offer unlimited opportunities for them to grow and scale their business. This collaboration with Amazon India will provide them with an effective medium to showcase their products on Amazon marketplace, helping them become a part of India’s digital economy.”

Mohammad Fazal, Technical Advisor, COHANDS, said, “Our collaboration with Amazon will play a pivotal role in enabling over 50K artisans and weavers associated with COHANDS to accelerate their business growth. Amazon’s logistical prowess and vast customer base will open up a whole new world for our craftspeople to scale their businesses across India and the world.

Living in a digital world, it has become imperative for us to make use of digital facilities and tools to provide opportunities for our artisans and weavers to contribute effectively to the digital economy. We’re thrilled to have joined hands with Amazon as the marketplace to help us realise this vision.”

Since the launch of the Amazon Karigar programme in 2017, Amazon has onboarded more than 4500 sellers including master weavers, co-operatives, artisans, brands and APEX bodies to sell online. The program has made a difference in the lives of over 15 lakh artisans and weavers across India. Amazon has also partnered with over 30 Government Emporiums and 5 Government bodies to showcase authentic crafts to craft lovers and increase market connectivity. Today, Karigar showcases over 2 lakhs+ products, including 470+ unique arts and crafts from across the country.

9. India now home to 75,000 startups... this is only the beginning, says Mr. Piyush Goyal

IBEF, Aug. 4, 2022

India has 75,000 startups in its 75th year of independence, according to Minister of Commerce & Industry, Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, and Textiles, Mr. Piyush Goyal.

As India celebrates Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav, the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) has acknowledged more than 75,000 startups in India.

Of the total recognised startups, about 12% are in the IT sector, 9% are in the healthcare and life sciences sector, 7% are in the education sector, 5% are in the professional and business services sector, and 5% are in the agricultural sector.

"The Indian startup ecosystem has so far generated an astonishing 7.46 lakh jobs, a rise of 110% annually over the previous six years. The fact that around 49% of our startups are currently from tier II and tier III cities is proof of the enormous potential of our nation's youth," according to a statement from the Ministry. The Ministry added that whereas the first 10,000 startups were recognised in 808 days, the most recent 10,000 were achieved in just 156 days.

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

10. Lifestyle & Grocery Retail Cos on a Hiring Spree, Add 180K Staff in FY22

The Economic Times, 1 Aug. 2022

Eight retailers — Reliance Retail, Shoppers Stop, Trent, Raymond, Bata, Titan, Avenue Supermarts and Page Industries — saw their combined workforce increase by 57% to nearly 490,000 employees, according to their latest annual reports.

More than half a dozen listed lifestyle and grocery retailers added 180,000 employees last fiscal, reversing the trend seen in FY21 when most brands resorted to layoffs or froze hiring amid declining sales and lockdowns.

The staff count surge was across permanent and contractual employees, as they aggressively expanded their store network last year and restored operations.

According to HR firm TeamLease’s latest hiring outlook study, retail is one of the top six sectors on hiring intent in the current quarter. “Significant investments are happening in the retail sector. Companies are looking to use this fresh capital to shore up hiring across multiple verticals, with some startups looking to add more physical stores too,” said TeamLease executive director Rituparna Chakraborty.

The biggest gain was in Reliance Retail which added 161,000 people to its workforce. In fact, the pace of employment generation continued in the last quarter (April-June) as well with Reliance Retail adding 17,000 new jobs, driven by expansion of store network and ecommerce business.

Shoppers Stop is the only exception as it has trimmed its staff strength consistently over the past two years.

Top-listed retailers and quick-service restaurant chains opened over 3,000 doors or about nine new stores every day on an average in FY22, doubling the expansion rate from a year ago.

As per a report by ICICI Securities, 16.7 million sq ft of retail space would be added by eight large, listed retail chains between FY21 and FY24, more than double compared with 8 million added in the preceding four years.

The retail segment, especially apparel, was severely impacted during the pandemic and was the slowest to recover in the consumer discretionary space. However, revenue for most retailers have recovered by 90-100% of pre-Covid levels in FY22, led by strong revenue growth in the second half due to pentup demand and improved vaccination coverage. Rental, employee costs and selling or promotional expenses are the other key cost heads for a retailer, typically accounting for 29-30% of its total cost.

“After the strict cost rationalisation seen in FY21, retailers largely rolled back the cuts on employee expenses and advertising expenses in FY22,” said a recent report by ICRA, which last week upgraded the retail sector outlook to stable from negative. “The sector is likely to witness 12-13% year-on-year revenue growth in FY23, with an increase in operating profit margins by 150 bps to 8.2%.”

- INDUSTRY & MANUFACTURE

11. Maharashtra: CIDCO uses advanced technology to build 12-storey residential tower in just 96 days

ET Gov. 27 Jul. 2022

The contractor Larsen & Toubro used the precast technology for ultra-rapid construction to build safe and durable homes.

The Maharashtra government’s town planning and infrastructure development authority, the City and Industrial Development Corporation (CIDCO), has completed the construction of a 12-storey residential tower with 96 tenements at Bamandongri locality in Navi Mumbai in just 96 days using advanced precast technology.

CIDCO has undertaken the Mass Housing Scheme under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) based on the ‘Transit Oriented Development’ (TOD). Under the scheme, the constructions of tenements for economically weaker sections (EWS) and low-income group (LIG) categories, is currently ongoing in various nodes of Navi Mumbai.

The town planning authority had set a target of ‘Mission 96’, of completing the construction in a short time. Accordingly, the contractor Larsen & Toubro used the precast technology for ultra-rapid construction to build safe and durable homes. Flagged off on 4th April, 2022 the construction of a 12-storey residential tower was completed on 9th July, 2022.

“Mission 96 has showcased the precast technology capability to build with superior quality in a factory-controlled environment, reduced floor cycle time and low manpower availability risks,” said Sanjay Mukherjee, VC & MD, CIDCO.

With this, CIDCO has set a new benchmark in construction of mass housing projects helping fulfil the objective of PMAY scheme ‘Housing for All’ in the fastest way.

The precast technology is touted as the future of construction of residential towers for mechanized rapid construction with superior quality based on controlled manufacturing in a factory environment.

The work involved production and installation of 1,985 precast elements of the superstructure along with architectural finishes and MEP (Mechanical, Electrical and Plumbing) works over a built-up area of 64,000 sq. ft. Apart from construction technology, digital technology was also used to monitor the development of a construction.

12. IIT Bombay, IIT Kanpur jointly develop new air purification technology that deactivates COVID-19 virus in 1 minute

ET Gov. 28 Jul. 2022

The technology has been tested at CSIR-IMTECH and has proven to be able to deactivate corona virus with an efficacy of 99.9% within just 1 minute.

Indian Institute of Technology, IIT Kanpur and IIT Bombay have jointly developed a new “Anti-Microbial Air Purification Technology”. This technology will be effective against COVID-19 virus along with the air pollutants. The technology has been tested at CSIR-IMTECH and has proven to be able to deactivate corona virus with an efficacy of 99.9% within just 1 minute.

This new Air purification technology is developed by AiRTH, a startup incubated at the Startup Incubation and Innovation Centre (SIIC), IIT Kanpur. As the new technology has received the CSIR-IMTECH validation, the technology can be termed pioneering in its efforts to combat COVID.

As per the official statement by IIT Kanpur, Ravi Kaushik, CEO and Founder of AiRTH realized the limitations in the existing purification technologies, while he was pursuing his Masters in Environmental Engineering at IIT Bombay. With guidance and support from Professor Amitabha Bandopadhyay, Professor-in-charge of the Startup Incubation and Innovation Centre, IIT Kanpur, AiRTH was incubated. The Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India, played a crucial role in testing the prototypes, with validation from trusted and respected laboratories of India like CSIR-NPL, CSIR-CDRI, amongst others.

AiRTH Anti Microbial Air Purifiers are already in use in hospitals, protecting immuno-compromised cancer patients at fatal risk even from a common cold. AiRTH’s technology has helped Corporates, both Private and Government by ensuring business continuity and encouraging their employees to return to clean air offices. The technology developed by AiRTH exemplifies the vision of ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ and ‘Made in India’ initiative.

The relatively novel technology from AiRTH is different from the other similar air purifiers in the market. Earlier generation of air purifiers that flooded the market, works on the mechanism of capturing particles; however continuous over-usage of the filter medium leads to the filter itself becoming a breeding ground for germs, like a petri dish. The new technology from AiRTH makes sure that the germs are deactivated due to its plant-based coating on the filters, UV irradiations and OH (Hydroxyl) radicals.

13. Apple may Ship iPhone14 from India & China

The Economic Times, 6 Aug. 2022

Apple could be evaluating shipping its upcoming iPhone 14 from India and China, a first for the US smartphone giant, as it looks to mitigate geopolitical risks on supply efficiency by setting up non-Chinese production sites.

The iPhone 14, which is rumoured to be launched in September, could be the first to be manufactured in India in tandem with China, where the majority of devices are manufactured, according to Ming-Chi Kuo, an analyst at TF International Securities, a financial services group in the Asia-Pacific region.

“My latest survey indicates Foxconn’s iPhone production site in India will ship the new 6.1 iPhone 14 almost simultaneously with China for the first time in 2H22 (India being one quarter or more behind in the past),” Kuo posted on Twitter.

He added that while in the short term, India’s iPhone capacities/shipments still have a considerable gap with China, it’s an important milestone for Apple in building a non-Chinese iPhone production site.

Apple and its contract manufacturing partners did not respond to ET’s emailed queries.

The Cupertino-based tech giant has been gradually ramping up production of iPhones from India. Currently, the devices are manufactured in India by three contract manufacturers — Foxconn (Hon Hai), Wistron, and Pegatron.

All three are part of the government’s production-linked incentive scheme for mobile manufacturing, with each having a target to make phones worth ₹8,000 crore this year.

Aside from Foxconn, Wistron could also be preparing to manufacture the latest model, with an announcement expected next month, according to a person in the know.

14. Best plans discussed for Indo-US joint research projects to be implemented through technology innovation hubs

ET Gov. 11 Aug. 2022

The DST is implementing National Mission-Interdisciplinary Cyber-Physical Systems (NMICPS) with an outlay of Rs 3,660 crore for a period of five years to encourage innovation in new-age technologies.

Experts from India and the United States interacted to bring out the best plans for joint research projects that would be implemented through the technology innovation hubs (TIH), at DST-NSF Joint Research and Development Projects kick-off workshop on Tuesday.

The workshop was organised by IIT Delhi in association with the Department of Science and Technology (DST) to discuss how the projects to be implemented by the six TIHs identified under NM-ICPS for collaborative research and development with NSF-supported institutions would leverage unique resources, such as testbeds and datasets available in India and in the US, expand collaborations on critical technologies like AI and advanced wireless, and encourage student and researcher exchange programmes.

Akhilesh Gupta, Senior Adviser, DST informed that a total of 35 joint projects have been identified which will be implemented by the Technology Innovation Hubs (TIHs) and research institutions from the USA. “This endeavour will further help us to achieve collaborative research and development between the two countries in the area of CPS,” he said.

The US is our natural partner. Especially in science, we have traditionally partnered and through collaborative projects, the engagement will deeper at the institution level, government level and even people level,” Gupta pointed out.

Six TIHs under NM-ICPS have been identified for collaborative research and development with NSF-supported institutions. These projects aim at adding the component of international collaboration to existing research projects in both countries. The Hubs are part of a five-year, nearly US$430 million investment by DST under the National Mission on Interdisciplinary Cyber-Physical Systems and comprise academic researchers and industry partners.

“US is committed and proud to partner with India for prosperity and opportunity for all. These projects shall be aspirational and should be able to solve the societal problems,” NSF Director Sethuraman Panchanathan.

Rangan Banerjee, Director, IIT Delhi said that this workshop will enable linkages and build up TIH to solve problems of society.

The DST and National Science Foundation (NSF) joined hands for collaborative research and development in September 2021 in the thematic areas of Agriculture, Autonomous systems technologies and applications, Health and Environment, Rehabilitation and assistive robotics, and Smart cities covering various cyber-physical systems.

The DST is implementing National Mission-Interdisciplinary Cyber-Physical Systems (NMICPS) with an outlay of Rs 3,660 crore for a period of five years to encourage innovation in new-age technologies. As part of the mission implementation, 25 technology innovation hubs (TIHs) have been established in reputed institutes across the country in advanced technologies to create a strong foundation and a seamless ecosystem for Cyber-Physical Systems, leading a platform for policymakers, researchers/innovators, premier institutes, start-ups, entrepreneurs, investors, industries and global connect as well.

The workshop was attended by Sanjeev K Varshney, Head, International Corporation, DST, Ekta Kapoor, Head FFT Division, JBV Reddy, Scientist F, DST, Kendra Sharp, Head, Office of International Science and Engineering; Bridget Turaga, Program Director, International Science & Engineering, Gurdip Singh, Director of the Division of Computer and Network Systems along with the representatives from TIHs and institutes from the US.

15. US chip equipment maker Lam Research to open its 2nd R&D centre in India in Sep

Mint, 16 Aug. 2022, Abhijit Ahaskar

The new centre will include a state of the art hardware engineering lab consisting of deposition (a fabrication process in which thin films of materials are deposited on a wafer), etching (chemically removing layers from the surface of a wafer), and wet processing units (used for etching and cleaning the wafers), along with AR/VR-enabled capabilities

NEW DELHI: US-based semiconductor fabrication equipment supplier Lam Research is setting up its second research and development (R&D) centre in India in September. In an interview, Rangesh Raghavan, corporate vice president and general manager of Lam Research, India, said the new facility will help the company’s engineers complete designs locally and reduce the reliance on US counterparts.

“This will improve capability. Until now we relied on US counterparts to build and test our designs," Raghavan said. He said that the new centre, the company’s second in Bengaluru, will include a “state of the art" hardware engineering lab consisting of deposition (a fabrication process in which thin films of materials are deposited on a wafer), etching (chemically removing layers from the surface of a wafer), and wet processing units (used for etching and cleaning the wafers), along with AR/VR-enabled capabilities.

Lam Research is a leading supplier of equipment to semiconductor manufacturers such as Intel, TSMC, Samsung and Micron. The company already has over 2,000 employees in India and the new facility will help bring the majority of its work to the country. “This will help develop a network of local suppliers, which will contribute to the economy," Raghavan said.

According to an April 2022 report by industry body Indian Electronics and Semiconductors Association (IESA), India could account for $85-100 billion of the global $550-600 billion global market for semiconductor manufacturing by 2030.

Raghavan said that while semiconductor manufacturing in India is in its early stages, its participation in the ecosystem is already very strong from the design perspective. Large chip design firms, including Intel, Texas Instruments, Qualcomm and Nvidia are already designing chips in India.

Further, he said more than half the company’s hardware and software engineers are in Bengaluru. “More than 80% of our revenues come from the Asia Pacific region. We have made significant investments and grown quite substantially in India over the last few years. We have seen a 100% growth in India in the last two years," he added.

Last December, the government announced a ₹76,000 crore production linked incentive scheme for chip manufacturing and design. Homegrown conglomerates, Vedanta and Tata groups, are set to build manufacturing facilities in the country.

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

16.1. Advanced automated instrument for therapeutic emesis in Ayurvedic treatment gets patent

ET Gov. 23 July 2022

This technology is equipped with monitors for monitoring of vital data of patients during the procedure.

The Ayush sector has been constantly attempting to use technology and new innovation for various Ayurveda therapies. An advanced automated system or instrument for Therapeutic Emesis has been developed, which will make this therapy simple and convenient. Dr. B Sreenivasa Prasad, President, Board of Ayurveda, National Commission for Indian System of Medicine (NCISM) and his team of inventor were granted a patent for development of an advanced automated system or instrument for Therapeutic Emesis by the Controller of Patents, Government of India.

Panchakarma is the prime treatment modality in ayurveda. Panchakarma are administered for prevention, management, cure as well as for rejuvenation purposes. Vamana (therapeutic emesis), virechana (therapeutic purgation), basti (therapeutic enema), nasya (therapy through nasal route and raktamokshana (blood letting therapy) are the five procedures under panchakarma.

Vamana is a therapeutic procedure that expels impurities or doshas through oral route. The procedure is tedious to administer for both patient and panchakarma expert consultant. Further, handling the vomitus hygienically is a major challenge. Till now there is no technology developed to ease the procedure.

The present patented equipment 'advanced automated equipment or system for therapeutic emesis' has been developed to administer the difficult Vamana procedure comfortably. This technology is equipped with monitors for monitoring of vital data of patients during the procedure. There is provision for handling the vomitus hygienically and as per biomedical waste management policy. It is also provided with an emergency kit that is required to manage complications of the procedure. Clinical parameters that are required to assess the procedure are also automated. In total this technology is the complete solution for administering the Vamana procedure comfortably.

This product has been developed by Dr APJ Abdul Kalam Ayurtech Incubation Centre of KLE Ayurworld and KLE Engineering college at Belagavi, Karnataka. The technology was among top 10 at IICDC 2018 and Incubate at NSRCEL, IIM Bangalore and supported by DST and Texas Instruments.

This advanced automated system will help the Ayurveda fraternity in teaching and practicing Ayurveda with use of technology. Going forward commercialization of this invention is also being looked into, so that it can be used across hospitals in the country, according to AYUSH.

16.2. Opinion: How Indian Research & Development institutions can serve as vehicles of growth

ET Gov. 1 Aug. 2022

Most of the research organizations have done wonderfully well in bringing out new technologies and bridging technological gaps even when the funding on research and development in India is a pale shadow of that in European, American and even some Asian countries.

Research and innovation have been considered as two pillars of economic growth in any society or country. While innovation deals with redefining the process for achieving the same outcome with higher efficiency, less consumption of energy, at cheaper rate in environmental and user-friendly way, research generally deals with creating something new, something which did not exist at least in that society and country. Perhaps, the endeavor starts with innovation and transits to research. While enough stress has been laid in India on innovation in recent times, research was given thrust by the country’s leadership right at the start of the republic.

With this vision, organizations like Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Indian Council of Agriculture Research (ICAR), Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO), Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), etc were established focusing on the country’s immediate needs and perceived requirements of the future.

It may be worth appreciating that most of these research organizations have done wonderfully well in bringing out new technologies and bridging technological gaps even when the funding on research and development in India is a pale shadow of that in European, American and even some Asian countries. Indian green revolution, white revolution, Chandrayan, Mangalyan, PSLV, GSLV, Mission Shakti-ASAT, Agni, Arjun MBT, Tejas fighter aircraft, Arihant submarine, world’s longest range artillery gun ATAGS, Brahmos supersonic missile, hypersonic technology demonstrator and a large variety of indigenous missiles, sonars, radars, torpedoes and other weapons platforms all speak volumes of the prowess of Indian scientists and engineers engaged in the technical academic, R&D and industrial institutions.

Let us now look at the kind of research work being done by our research organizations and contribution of academic institutions and industry to such research activities. A quick look at the above success stories brings out very clearly that the impact is seen only when the disruptive or transformational research fructifies. ISRO had been firing various types of rockets in 1960s-70s. But the impact was understood by the public at large when ‘Aryabhatta’ satellite was launched or when India achieved the capability of satellite launch.

The public is actually not aware of a large number of technologies developed for engines, materials, electronics, etc. to meet these challenges. Similarly, as long as DRDO was more in indigenizing military hardware thill about 1980s, the impact of defence research was not felt. Only when transformational R&D on missiles, aircraft, underwater platforms and sensors started maturing, the general public became aware of DRDO. As in case of ISRO, even in DRDO’s endeavor, the success of these mega programmes was based on advances made in various technologies ranging materials to explosives, from electronics to photonics and from microwave to ultraviolet waves.

Clearly, for an organization to make it’s presence felt, research in transformational or disruptive technologies has become an imperative across the world. Defence Advance Research Project Agency (DARPA) of USA is a case in point. DARPA has become a household name not only in USA but also in India and is considered as epitome of success. DARPA, as its own documents say, focuses only on disruptive research. However, less unknown is the fact that DARPA’s disruptive or transformational achievements are built on long term envisaged goals with incremental research undertaken in phased manner.

Not all endeavors of DARPA succeed. And even those that succeed, take long time to find application and sometimes with political interference. Basic technologies of internet, for example, were demonstrated in the 1960. But it was not until 1990s that internet saw it commercial applications. Another example is the demonstration of stealth technology which needed more than twenty years and political will to find military application in USA. Research is a long-term engagement with science, often coming out with the findings as to what cannot be achieved through a particular process than what can certainly be.

Till not very recent past, the successes of Indian science, scientific organizations and scientists had often got ignored in favour of foreign technologies and systems. For long, as country, we depended on foreign imports for anything and everything needing modern technology. Thus, we imported technologies and license produced battle tanks, artillery, small arms, vehicles, fighter aircraft, underwater and surface platforms, trains, technical fabric, yarn, generators, motors, telephones, mobiles, drugs, soaps, toothpastes and a host of items in the country. While this route may have helped in establishing industry in the country and faster availability of items, it was a miserable failure for it made us perpetually dependent on foreign countries for technology.

India became world’s largest importer of arms, thus bleeding the economy of precious foreign exchange, reducing the scope of indigenous R&D and continuing influence of foreign powers in matters related to security of the nation. We bought technology for T-72 (named ‘Ajeya’) tank to be produced in the country and then we bought again the technology of T-90 (named ‘Bhishma’) tank. We bought the technology of MiG-21 and again bought the technology of MiG-29 and Su-30.

For effecting even a small upgrade or customization in any of the subsystems, we remained perpetually dependent on foreign technology majors and subject to international diplomatic pulls and pressures. It may also be interesting to note that even though India bought most of its military hardware from private companies in Europe or America, Indian private sector was seldom involved in the production of any military hardware with foreign technology in the name of security. The technology transfers remained solely in the domains of defence public sector undertakings (DPSUs) or the erstwhile Ordnance Factory Board (OFB).

The DPSUs and OFB factories did involve private sector companies as part of their supply chain and indigenization plans, but that was too little an effort for the capability and capacity of Indian intellect. It is the to the credit of DRDO and ISRO that both these organizations, even though they are strategic departments of the Government of India, involved private sector extensively in their research and development activities. However, their efforts faced challenges. ISROs’ total production requirements have never been too large. DRDO developed equipment have to undergo long cycles of third-party evaluation in hot weather, cold weather, high altitude, accelerated trials, quality assurance trials, maintainability trials and general staff evaluation. For a minor failure or a degraded performance observed in trials, the whole trial cycles gets repeated, many a times by another trial team.

Notwithstanding these facts, the efforts of DRDO and ISRO enabled private sector industry to develop modern state of art infrastructure, skill and capability to undertake development, limited series production and large scale production of advanced technology products, whenever the induction of such technology and products got approval.

Perpetual dependence of license production mode of technology induction in the country was realized by the present political leadership which laid emphasis on ‘Atmnirbharata’ in all fields. The recent pronouncements of the government, progressive increase of indigenous military systems in armed forces, whole of nation approach in R&D, proposals to set up special purpose vehicles (SPVs) with private industry for major military weapons and platforms and skill up India, Startup India etc. have all been designed to fast-track self-reliance in all critical fields. In a short period, the results have started showing up. The country has developed its own metro coaches and fast speed trains, so far imported from Japan and China. India has its own aircraft carrier, so far imported from Russia. India is now exporting supersonic missiles to Philippines and Tejas is likely to get export orders from multiple countries. India has even proposed to set up manufacturing plant of Tejas in Egypt. The leap in technology is all visible.

With Government of India being the major funding agency for R&D in the country, the major research efforts have been led by Government research laboratories so far. This is not unique to India. Research has been initially funded by Governments and primarily conducted in Government institutions across the world. Later on, as the countries progressed economically, privately funded research institutions have also come up. The day is not far when India’s private sector will start contributing to R&D even financially to reap in the fruits of advanced technologies and opened up global market, as has been the trend elsewhere.

The author is Director-General (SAM and TM), DRDO, Government of India; views are personal.

17. Tollywood vs Bollywood: South is ruling the box-office. Is aversion to multi-starrers costing Hindi?

ET, 13 Aug. 2022

The recent top-grossing Indian movies are from the south, and most are multi-starrers. Having multiple actors helps in targeting different age groups and fandoms. But many feel they limit an actor’s growth and divide the audience’s attention. Are Bollywood actors losing out to their southern peers in terms of star power and box-office collection?

Film producer and Bollywood biggie Karan Johar’s talk show, Koffee with Karan, is famous for its celebrity guests spilling the beans on love, work, and everything in-between. While the show has been at the centre of several controversies, from nepotism to taking a shot at fellow actors, it does give a sneak peek on the trends of Indian film industry.

The current season’s favourites are actors from the South Indian film industry. In fact, in its third episode featuring Akshay Kumar and Samantha Ruth Prabhu, Johar shared an interesting statistic sourced from Ormax Media. In its survey titled Ormax Stars India Loves: Most popular male film stars in India (June 2022), no Hindi film actor, except Akshay Kumar, features that too at No.5. However, the female actors’ list fares better with Alia Bhatt, Deepika Padukone and Katrina Kaif making into the top 10.

Are Bollywood actors losing out to their southern peers in star power and box-office collection?

Death of multi-starrers

According to Akshay Kumar, male actors in Hindi films prefer to do solo movies. In fact, they refuse to work in a multi-starrer. But the box-office collections say otherwise. With a few exceptions, most recent blockbusters, both in Hindi and south Indian languages, are multi-starrers. For example, KGF-2, RRR and Vikram.

One of the reasons to opt for multiple actors can be the age. The average age of the top Bollywood actor is now way above 50, whereas the median age of an Indian male movie viewer is around 28. This means, he is not able to identify with the ageing actors. Even the content or stories are not relevant to his life or times.

“Multi-starrer films allow producers and directors to tap into different fandoms. If actors are from different age groups, the creators can reach out to different target audience,” says a film analyst.

Interestingly, these movies appeal to the hyper-male fantasies. Take for example the films from the Marvel Cinematic Universe. They are big-screen entertainers with top saleable actors coming together.

Let’s look at another example, Top Gun: Maverick– Tom Cruise’s lifetime hit. It is also a multi-starrer with actors like Val Kilmer, Jennifer Connelly, and Miles Teller. The film collected USD1.2 billion or (INR9,600 crore) globally.

According to film trade analyst Taran Adarsh, “Multi-starrer films have great impact on box-office collection. Imagine the weightage of the star power it brings on big screens. In 1960s and 70s we had Amitabh Bachchan, Shatrughan Sinha, Dilip Kumar, they were so many multi-starrer films like Namak Haram, Kranti, Parvarish, Sholay, Shaan and Rajput amongst others. But I think in Bollywood, over a period of time this multi-starrer concept has died a natural death.”

Many feel multi-starrers limit the growth as the audience’s attention gets divided. New actors trying to find a footing in the industry are apprehensive about this idea. They crave for solo movies to showcase their potential.

Adarsh states that one of the reasons for it to fizzle out from Bollywood was the insecurity of actors as they wanted to do solo films and concentrate on themselves.

“Whereas now, in the south, it is happening with Vikram or RRR. But in Bollywood, seeing Salman and Shah Rukh or Shah Rukh and Aamir in same film, is a rarity today,” he adds.

It is like the south Indian approach to their thalis. Every item is a hero in itself, and when they come together, they make for a great flavour profile. “So if you are tasting the chutney, then at that point in time chutney is the big hero. When you are tasting the sambar, then sambar takes chutney’s taste. It is same with their movies,” says a cinema lover from Mumbai.

During the episode, Kumar quoted a personal experience. He spoke about producing a multi-starrer where he approached various actors (he did not name them) to choose the role of their liking opposite him but was unable to convince them. He also said that female actors are better placed and don’t mind working as a team. He spoke of Mission Mangal where he had shared screen space with big names like Vidya Balan, Sonakshi Sinha and Taapsee Pannu, amongst others.

Kumar feels the reluctance to star in multi-starrers is one of the reasons why Hindi film actors are lagging. And he has a point.

If we look at Kumar’s career graph, from Khiladi (1992) to his last box-office hit Good Newwz in 2019, most of his successful films have been multi-starrer projects.

Not just Kumar, if we look at the cinema history it is the multi-starrers that have fared better on box office – Sholay, Mughal-e-Azamand Mother India.

There were times when Dev Anand or Shammi Kapoor would carry a movie on their shoulders. But we can still argue that they were aided by a brilliant set of supporting cast which included Mehmood, Johnny Walker and Pran.

So, was there ever an era of solo superstar in the Hindi film industry? Yes, of course.

Rise of super-heroes

For people from the 1970s there was no bigger star than Rajesh Khanna. He was called the Caesar of the Hindi film industry with 48 platinum jubilees and 100 all-time blockbusters to his credit. He has delivered hits on his name, including movies like KatiPatang, Aradhana and Bawarchi. But he has had a fair share of success from multi-starrers with Anand and Namak Haram amongst others.

Rajendra Kumar ruled in the 1960s and was popularly known as 'Jubilee Kumar' as he starred in several commercially successful films like Sangam and Mother India amongst others.

Then, there’s Amitabh Bachchan. The Shahenshah of Bollywood is a complete entertainer and is the only active actor from the yesteryears. And most of his biggest movies weren’t solo. In fact, he has shared screen space with actors across age group. He has done multi-starrers with contemporaries like Shashi Kapoor in Deewar, and Rishi Kapoor and Vinod Khanna in Amar, Akbar Anthony. He has worked with veterans like Dilip Kumar in Shakti and youngsters like Hrithik Roshan and Shah Rukh Khan in Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham.

Later, Salman Khan, Aamir Khan and Shah Rukh Khan became bankable stars delivering solo hits.

Every decade there have been one or two stars that reset the trend. But it is not a norm. There are very few actors who can carry a movie on their shoulder. Even the all-time hit Godfather was a multi-starrer. Same goes for many western films, though John Wayne or Clint Eastwood were icons of their times. The highest-grossing Western films were multi-starrers. The biggest blockbuster Western at USD450 million is Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained, starring Leonardo Di Caprio, Jamie Foxx, Samuel L. Jackson and Christoph Waltz.

Adarsh believes it has a lot to do with the faith of directors and writers. “When you have faith, you don’t try to tap into other person's territory, or try to dictate terms because you are so comfortable that you're going by the book, and not going to change a single word. So, when that faith is established, actors go with the flow. In today's times, how many makers are there to bring three heroes in one project?” he comments.

The ego of actors also come in the play. Factors like – quantity and quality of dialogues, length of the role and remuneration take prominence. And to keep them at ease there is a need for director who can handle multiple actors.

Adarsh believes that today there are only handfuls of them like Sanjay Leela Bhansali, Mani Ratam, Karan Johar, Aditya Chopra and SS Rajamouli. Not just that even actors’ availability is important.

“Once I asked Manoj Kumar, how did you convince Dilip Kumar to do Kranti, which starred Shatrughan Sinha, Hema Malini and Parveen Babi as well? He said I just narrated him the story gist for 5-10 mins and he was on board. I don’t see that happening in today’s generation,” Adarsh comments.

The southern spice

Multi-starrers are creating new records in south India. For example, RRR has NTR Jr. and Ram Charan, Ajay Devgn and Alia Bhatt. It is helmed by SS Rajamouli, the creator of the epic saga Baahubali, a multi-starrer with Prabhas and Rana Daggubati. With a worldwide box-office collection of INR600 crore - INR650 crore (approx. USD101 million), it was 2015’s highest-grossing film in India.

South Indian actors are following the old Bollywood model – the era of multi-starrers -- to make money and there is no looking back.

In an interview with Film Companion, Karan Johar had stated that era of superstardom is over. “This generation doesn’t have the magic of Amitabh Bachchan or Shah Rukh Khan.” However, he clarified that it is not in the context of performance but more about the aura and the mystery around Bachchan Sr. and SRK, which is lost today.

However, one can argue that Bachchan Sr. and SRK belonged to the time where the media was less intrusive, and films were templated. Today’s generation doesn’t shy away from extreme experimentation.

While the era of superstars is considered to be over in Bollywood, the same isn’t true in south. Rajnikanth is revered as God, Kamal Haasan has a massive following, and Prabhas and Surya can pull the audience to the theatre. Surya’s fans came for Vikram only to catch the 5-minute cameo of their favourite star. That’s a rare sight for Hindi films.

A sexist divide

So far, we have discussed about male actors at great length, but skipped female actors, who do not have reservations in being cast in multi-starrers. Why? That’s because while audiences don’t mind seeing a 55-year-old ‘hero’ fighting or romancing a much younger actress, the shelf life of female actors are limited.

Even today, female actors are seen as the arm candy, and women-centric stories are few and far between.

In another Koffee with Karan episode featuring Jahnvi Kapoor and Sara Ali Khan, the latter shared her main concern during the pandemic was how the important years of her career are passing away, and whether she can make up for the lost time.

For actresses, age does matter. While 60-year-old Tom Cruise was retained as the lead for Top Gun: Maverick, Kelly McGills wasn’t even approached. There are exceptions like Angelina Jolie (47) or Meryl Streep (73) who bag lead roles in films and series like Eternals and Babylon, respectively. Back home, Tabu (51), Neena Gupta (63) and Sushmita Sen (46) have been doing meaningful roles.

Age vs. hits

Interestingly, hits have no relationship with age. Tiger Shroff was only 28 in War. The movie was a multi-starrer and collected INR300 crore. Aamir Khan’s Dangal is his biggest hit at the age of 51. He was the single male lead. Similarly, Ranbir Kapoor delivered Sanju at the age of 36. The film collected INR340 crore. But these single-lead heroes are few and to a large extent the movies were biopic which kept the audience interest high.

Coming back to Koffee with Karan, another interesting observation came to light -- the diminishing divide between Bollywood and south Indian films. There is a shift in attitude of viewers as they are ready to explore good content, irrespective of the language.

The analyst quoted above feels that it has a lot to do with exposure to different content through digital platforms.

“During the pandemic, the audience was able to explore different types of content through OTT platforms. They were exposed to rich storytelling that wasn't conformed to lead actors. This attitude is now transcending to cinemas. Since movie goers are spending huge sums of money on tickets, and food and beverage, they are expecting quality content. It is no longer limited to actors of the films,” the analyst says.

The bottom line

For Bollywood to shine on box office, it needs to focus on the script. Content is king, if that’s done right, it doesn’t matter whether the film is solo lead or multi-starrer. Dangal and Sanju are two examples. With technology and craft at its disposal, the industry needs to get out of its comfort zone and experiment with newer models and forms of storytelling.

Viewers want clear black and white characters. And south Indian films have understood this for many years. Today, they have the technology, and the budget to deliver simple yet stylish films and are setting the box office ringing.

In Koffee with Karan’s recent episode, Aamir Khan says the need of the hour is to create great stories that are relevant to people.

"I am not saying make action films or crude films. Make good films with great stories but choose topics that are relevant to most people. Every filmmaker has the freedom to make what they want. But when you are picking something that the bulk of India is not really interested in... There are niche people who are interested, which most of us don't realise. That's what I feel is the difference," he adds.

18. Many Malls to Open in 2022 as Retail Sector Picks up Pace

The Economic Times, 1 Aug. 2022

As per the data, about 15 new malls will enter the market in 2022 spread across 12 tier 1, 2 and 3 cities. Chennai will see the highest supply this year-- four new malls spread over an area of 2.55 million sq ft.

Nearly 10.15 million sq ft of new mall space is set to be available in the country this year--almost double compared with 2021--as demand for retail space in grade-A malls pushes developers to expedite construction, according to property consultant Anarock.

“As consumers return to more normal shopping and socialising patterns and populate malls again, India’s retail real estate market is responding to significantly improved footfalls. Malls are again seeing high occupancy levels, and the requirement for more organised retail space is pronounced,” said Pankaj Renjhen, COO of Anarock Retail.

Another 7.25 million sq ft of retail space is expected to get operational in 2023.

The other tier-1 cities which will get new mall supply include Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Pune and Ghaziabad in NCR, aggregating 5.1 million sq ft area. Tier 2 and 3 cities include Vadodara, Budaun, Indore, Nagpur and Udaipur, with a total area of about 2.5 million sq ft.

In 2020, Covid-19 had hit the economy, and retail in particular. Brick-and-mortar stores in malls and high streets were hit hard, and a quick recovery seemed improbable.

"In the course of two severe waves that saw massive restrictions forced on malls, operators had to rethink their business plans and strategies," said Renjhen.

Going by the high leasing volumes by occupiers across categories and the momentum witnessed in the tier 2 and 3 cities, mall developers are finishing their projects and rapidly adding new inventory.

“Mall occupancy levels have returned to pre-pandemic highs. New shopping malls are coming up, and the existing ones are looking for ways to expand, with consumer sentiment on the rise and malls witnessing increased footfalls,” said Rohtas Goel, chairman, Omaxe.

19.1. AI to Bring Back 10 Grounded Wide-body Aircraft to Service

Economic Times, 8 Aug. 2022

Air India on Sunday said it will bring back its 10 grounded wide-body aircraft to service by early 2023. A wide-body aircraft has a bigger fuel tank that allows it to travel on long-haul international routes like India-US and India-Canada.

Air India on Sunday said it will bring back its 10 grounded wide-body aircraft to service by early 2023.

A wide-body aircraft has a bigger fuel tank that allows it to travel on long-haul international routes like India-US and India-Canada.

"Air India's wide-body fleet currently stands at 43 aircraft, of which 33 are operational. This is a significant improvement from 28 aircraft that the airline was operating till recently," its statement said.

The remaining aircraft will be progressively returned to service by early 2023, it added.

The carrier on Sunday announced that it will operate daily flight between Delhi in India and Vancouver in Canada from August 31 onwards. Currently, it operates Delhi-Vancouver service three times per week.

This enhancement in frequency on Delhi-Vancouver route caters to growing traffic between India and Canada, and has been enabled by the return to service of the wide-body Boeing 777-300 ER aircraft, the carrier noted.

It said Boeing has been working closely with Air India following its acquisition by Tata Group to restore aircraft that had been grounded for prolonged periods due to the COVID-19 pandemic and other reasons.

"The progressive restoration of these aircraft has already allowed Air India to increase schedule resilience and will allow further frequency and network increases over the coming months," it added.

The Tata Group took control of Air India on January 27 after successfully winning the bid for the airline on October 8 last year.

Air India's newly appointed CMD Campbell Wilson had in the last week of July asked the airline's integrated operations control centre (IOCC), which is the "nerve centre" of any carrier, to report directly to him and give recommendations on how to improve the on-time performance.

On Sunday, Wilson said in a statement that the increase of frequency on Delhi-Vancouver route marks the first step in restoring Air India's fleet and international network.

19.2. Attrition Is Not All That Bad For Indian IT

The Economic Times, 7 Aug. 2022

Indian IT firms are hiring more freshers to combat higher attrition rates, but the result has been lower utilisation levels. While this may seem bad at face value, the flip side is that lower utilisation helps contain falling operating margins.

Indian IT service providers are facing a peculiar situation these days. While attrition rates and travel costs are trending higher unlike in the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic, utilization levels are falling.

Employee utilization levels, or the percentage of total workforce employed in projects while the rest are benched or undergo training, are typically higher when fresher intake is low.

But a heavy influx of freshers of late has meant that software services exporters are using the addition of freshers and lower utilization levels to solve two issues – improve margins and reduce subcontracting costs.

IT firms consciously make use of lower utilization levels to avoid making desperate offers that give the illusion of higher market salaries and thereby shore up attrition rates, saidRavi Menon, IT and tech analyst, Macquarie Group.

The utilization levels, including trainees, have been one of the lowest in the case of Infosys and close to the lowest seen in recent history for cross-town rival Wipro, he said. IT firms would not want to increase utilization levels till attrition rates normalize, he added.

“Utilization’s impact on margins is complicated, as it depends on whether this is onsite or offshore and the level of employees who are on the bench,” Menon said. “Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has the longest planning horizon and that is evident from its sustained hiring of trainees across quarters that seems to lead that of other firms.”

NUMBERS DOWN, BUT NO WORRIES

In the April-June quarter, Infosys’ utilization number, including trainees, was 77.6%, its lowest since the January-March quarter of financial year 2016-17. Wipro’s gross utilization levels were 72.7%, the lowest since the third quarter of the financial year ended March 31, 2020.

“We have hired a lot of freshers last year, and many of them have also gone into the training pipeline… if you see our utilization, there’s a 2% gap between the excluding trainees and including trainee number on a year-on-year basis as well,” said Nilanjan Roy, chief financial officer, Infosys. “We continue to deploy them into projects.”

Typically, freshers undergo 3-4 months of training before being put on client projects.

TCS, India’s largest software services exporter by revenue, and HCL Technologies do not disclose their utilization numbers. They have, however, said that their utilization levels have fallen due to a higher influx of freshers over the past year. The gap between its revenue and employee addition indicates that TCS has been gradually lowering utilization levels ahead of peers, Menon said.

“If you look at it from a cost management perspective, through the last year, we started hiring trainees at scale at a very early stage and that helped in multiple perspectives. It’s not just cost management,” TCS chief financial officer Samir Seksaria told ET.

In short, increasing utilization levels will be a key margin lever as operating margins have taken a hit due to higher wages, return of travel expenses and other costs, according to the top IT companies such as TCS, Infosys, Tech Mahindra and HCL Technologies.

“Fresh talent needs to be trained on specific technologies and specific client environments and expectations. That takes some time. So, we continue to drive all the levers that we have to be competitive and deliver the guided margins,” said C Vijayakumar, chief executive of HCL Technologies. Out of the six levers to improve margins, the first is “clearly” utilization, added Wipro chief financial officer Jatin Dalal.

“It is visible in the data sheet. Before including freshers or excluding freshers, you will see (utilization) around 5% away from what our peak utilization was,” he said during the company’s post-earnings analyst call recently. Infosys’ Roy said freshers cannot be deployed on all projects “overnight” and it is important to build the pipeline in advance. Freshers must undergo training, get into the production bench, and then move on to projects, he added.

“So, that benefit will come in and we are seeing that slowly coming in (in terms of margin improvement),” Roy said during the Bengaluru-based company’s post-earnings conference call. IT companies require about 80-85% utilization to perform at an optimum level and the industry, at the current rate, will take at least 18 months (till 2023) to reach that due to the high influx of freshers seen lately, said DD Mishra, senior director analyst at technology forecaster Gartner.

“It is true that freshers take time to build experience. However, it is important to note that productivity levels today are much higher on average compared to what it was 3-4 years back, thanks to better use of productivity tools and automation. Previously, it would take up to three years for freshers to come up to speed with the required experience; this has now been reduced to about 1.5 years,” Mishra said.

MID-SIZED APPROACH

Mid-tier companies such as Mindtree reported 83.1% utilisation levels, while Persistent Systems’ number was 79.5% for the recently concluded quarter. Mindtree chief executive Debashis Chatterjee said the company did not have a strong fresher training programme earlier but is now scaling that up to improve utilization metrics. “It comes down to disciplined execution and how you manage the pyramid. Over the last one year, we have put in a very robust programme and our intake is at least 1,500 freshers every quarter.

But we are doing that keeping in mind that they need to get absorbed and trained,” Chatterjee said. Mid-cap firms such as Sonata Software have seen flat utilization levels sequentially and a slight uptick on a yearly basis, as the company believes it is “unnecessary” to hold benched employees beyond a point as demand for talent in the market remains high.

“The current quarter numbers are where we like to be around. There could be variations based on the fresher intake for one-two quarters. At 91%, we are trying to hold it (utilization level) up as demand is so high and we have to make sure the bar of quality is not lowered,” said chief executive Samir Dhir. Top IT companies are, however, flagging the current utilization levels as a one-off drop since they have been reporting record deal wins. They say it may not impact project delivery as the IT industry has always worked with freshers. Mphasis onboarded around 5,500 freshers during the second half of the previous fiscal year, almost 2.5x their historical trend.

“The metric to watch for us internally is utilization. As the metric trends up, we will decide on further fresher addition to balance utilization,” said Mphasis chief executive Nitin Rakesh.

20. After hitting 10-yr low, engineering seats go up as AICTE approves 142 new technical institutes

Print, 12 Aug. 2022, Kritika Sharma

New Delhi: The total number of engineering seats in the country has gone up this year after falling to the lowest in the last ten years, last year, ThePrint has learnt. As per the data accessed by ThePrint, the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has given approval to 52 new Engineering and Technology colleges this year, which takes up the total number of seats in engineering to 23,93,820. This is slightly higher than last year’s 23,66,656, which was the lowest number of engineering seats in the country in the last 10 years.

A total of 142 new technical institutions including Engineering and Technology, Management, and Master of Computer Application (MCA) have been given the approval to start. As per the sources in AICTE, the approval process for new technical institutions has been completed and the institutions have been informed about the addition of seats.

The data shows that due to addition of new colleges, the total number of technical education seats in the country has also gone up this year and will be 35,27,422, which includes Engineering and Technology, MCA, and Management seats. The total number of seats offered across the country in various technical courses last year was nearly 30 lakh, which has considerably gone up this year. Out of the total seats in technical courses, the maximum are from Engineering and Technology streams.

The approval bureau of the AICTE had received 172 applications from new institutes offering Engineering and Technology, Management, and MCA courses. Out of those, 142 colleges have been granted permission to start. The number of new Management institutions that have been given the approval is also high at 80, out of the 96 institutions that had applied.

Sources informed that there was a huge demand for opening Management institutions this year. Two years ago, AICTE had decided not to give permission to any new Engineering college, citing low intake in engineering seats. However, this clause came with a caveat of allowing colleges that offer courses in new disciplines like Artificial Intelligence, Data Science and Machine Learning to go ahead. Officials in AICTE said the colleges that have been given permission this year fall under the category of offering courses in new disciplines.

(Edited by Siddarth Muralidharan)

India and the World

21. Big Pink Diamond Discovered in Angola, Largest in 300 Years

The Economic Times, 28 Jul. 2022

A big pink diamond of 170 carats has been discovered in Angola and is claimed to be the largest such gemstone found in 300 years.

Called the “Lulo Rose," the diamond was found at the Lulo alluvial diamond mine, the mine's owner, the Lucapa Diamond Company, announced Wednesday on its website.

“Only one in 10,000 diamonds is colored pink. So you're certainly looking at a very rare article when you find a very large pink diamond,” Lucapa CEO Stephen Wetherall told The Associated Press.

The pink gemstone is expected to fetch a high value when auctioned, but Wetherall said he doesn’t know what kind of premium will be paid because of its color.

Lulo is an alluvial mine which means the stones are recovered from a river bed. The Lucapa company is searching for the underground deposits, known as kimberlite pipes, which would be the main source of the diamonds, said Wetherall, speaking from the company's headquarters in Australia.

“We're looking for the kimberlite pipes that brought these diamonds to the surface," Wetherall said. "When you find these high-value large diamonds ... it certainly elevates the excitement from our perspective in our hunt for the primary source.”

About 400 staff are employed at the Lulo mine which has already produced the two largest diamonds ever found in Angola, including a 404-carat clear diamond, he said.

The pink gemstone is the fifth largest diamond found at the mine where 27 diamonds of 100 carats or more have been found, according to Lucapa.

The pink diamond will be sold by international tender by the Angolan state diamond marketing company, Sodiam. Angola's mines make it one of the world's top 10 producers of diamonds.

“This record and spectacular pink diamond recovered from Lulo continues to showcase Angola as an important player on the world stage for diamond mining and demonstrates the potential and rewards for commitment and investment in our growing diamond mining industry,” Diamantino Azevedo, Angola’s Minister of Mineral Resources, Petroleum and Gas said, according to the Lucapa website.

The pink diamond is an impressive size but many clear diamonds are larger than 1,000 carats. The Cullinan diamond found in South Africa in 1905 tips the scales at 3,106 carats and it's in the British Sovereign's Scepter.

22. Indian Companies Eye New Trade Channels in US Amid Erosion of Generic Prices

ET, 12 Aug, 2022

Indian drug makers struggling with trade channel consolidation and rapid erosion of generic drugs prices in the US, are exploring platforms such as Amazon, American billionaire Mark Cuban's CostPlus Drug Company and other specialty and white-label e-pharmacies to sell generic medicines.

While these platforms are nascent and have limited scale at the moment, as they mostly sell out-of-pocket over-the-counter (OTC) medications and a limited portfolio of prescription drugs, executives at Indian companies see them as potential alternatives to heavily concentrated trade channel where three big buying consortiums, AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal Health, and McKesson Corporation, account for over 90% of the market, and have assumed greater bargaining power over suppliers to drive down prices and extract heft discounts on drugs.

“More and more channels will help and we will work with anyone that’s going to buy our products,” said Erez Israeli, CEO of Dr Reddy’s to ET.

Dr Reddy’s has begun tapping some of those platforms. While the company calls Amazon as its primary partner, it is also working with other e-commerce platforms such as Thirty Madison, Click Therapeutics, Truepill to sell over-the-counter (OTC) medications. Currently sales through e-commerce constitutes about 10% of its OTC business, but it is growing fast. In Q1, this channel grew in the range of 40-50%. Dr Reddy's OTC sales was $150 million in FY22. It also started shipping about 10 prescription generics (Rx) products to Mark Cuban's CostPlus Drug Company.

Launched in January, CostPlus Drug Company is an online D2C (direct-to-consumer) platform that sells about over 100 generic prescription drugs at cost plus a fixed 15% margin and $3 charge for labor. Cuban's decision to get into pharmacy is to bring transparency and lower prices of generic drugs, a major concern in the US.

Another drug maker Cipla said there have been talks with these platforms. “I don't think the mechanics of whether this will result in increased price erosion or less price erosion will arise, but these are options to the existing channel. which probably is in some way you know is more diversification of the channel, as against the concentration that we've seen in the past couple of years," said Umang Vohra. MD & Global CEO.

Pranav Amin, MD of Alembic Pharma echoes the same. “Historically there were 8 big buyers and then about 10-15 small buyers, everyone had enough share to get into, right now the buying groups are consolidated, the more buyers come it is better for the pharmaceutical industry," Amin said.

23.1. India receives a record high FDI inflow of Rs. 631,050 crore (US$ 79.58 billion) in FY22

IBEF, Aug. 1, 2022

FDI inflows into India reached a record high of Rs. 631,050 crore (US$ 79.58 billion) in FY 2021-22, said Mr. Som Parkash, Minister of State in the Ministry of Commerce and Industry. In FY 2021-22, FDI equity in the manufacturing sectors increased by 76 % to Rs. 158,332 crore (US$ 19.97 billion) from Rs. 89,766 crore (US$ 11.32 billion) in FY 2020-21.

The government's reforms in its FDI policy is what led to an increase in FDI inflows. A liberal and an open policy was implemented in order to attract foreign direct investment.

Measures undertaken by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to enhance foreign exchange inflows include exemption of incremental Foreign Currency Non-Resident (Bank) and Non-Resident (External) Rupee deposits from Cash Reserve Ratio and Statutory Liquidity Ratio and allowing of Foreign Portfolio Investment in commercial paper and non-convertible debentures with an original maturity of up to one year, amongst others.

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

23.2. Nissan achieves milestone of shipping out one million 'Made in India' cars

IBEF, Aug. 1, 2022

Nissan Motor India, an automobiles manufacturer, achieved a milestone of shipping one million vehicles to various international markets. The Nissan cars are made at Renault-Nissan Automotive India Private Ltd's (RNAIPL) plant which is a joint venture between Japan's Nissan and French automobile company Renault.

Since 2010, Nissan Motor India has shipped their vehicles to around 108 nations and has switched from Europe to Middle Eastern nations like Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain, and Kuwait as its main export markets.

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

24.1. Delhi Gate To Alexandria

The Economic Times, 7 Aug. 2022

Delhi Metro is throwing its hat in the ring for consultancy and construction projects across the world — from Egypt to Vietnam — to ramp up its revenue from non-ticketing sources.

Agla station Alexandria hain (Next station is Alexandria). That’s a possibility. After running metro trains in the national capital for the last two decades, Delhi Metro has embarked on a global journey, aggressively scouting for consultancy and construction projects abroad, including in the port city of Alexandria in Egypt.

Last month, India’s first and biggest metro rail company submitted bidding documents to procure consultancy jobs for a metro rail project in Alexandria. Earlier this week, it bid to build an entire metro line in Mauritius. Three more metro networks — in Tel Aviv in Israel, Manama in Bahrain and Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam — are also on its radar. In neighbouring Dhaka, where Delhi Metro has been engaged as a consultant in three routes since 2013, it is gearing up to bid for a new line.

Having been hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic and a massive loss of revenue , Delhi Metro is looking to bolster its revenue streams from non-ticketing sources by throwing its hat in the ring for lucrative projects across the world. According to people aware of the shift in Delhi Metro’s strategy, this is just the beginning.

Delhi Metro’s global ride won’t be easy. In Bahrain, for instance, it may lock horns with Chinese peers, whereas in Mauritius, India’s private construction heavyweights such as L&T could be its key challengers, according to metro officials who are privy to the matter.

Vikas Kumar, MD of Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC), confirms to ET that the urban transporter has been vying for new metro projects in five countries, adding that the pandemic has played a role in its new approach of exploring projects globally. “We want to increase our share of revenue from consultancy business, in particular. So we decided we must expand our business outside India by using our core competence. That will fetch us some extra revenue,” he says.

A senior Delhi Metro official says on condition of anonymity that the transporter, owned equally by the Centre and the government of Delhi, has taken a call to augment its share from consultancy business to 30% of total revenue. In pre-Covid 2019-20, DMRC earned `505 crore from non-ticketing business, including real estate, advertisement and consultancy work, as against Rs 3,391 crore from ticketing. The non-ticketing revenue was just 13%, and the consultancy portion of it was miniscule, says an officer.

In India, the company is providing consultancies to two projects — in Mumbai and Patna.

Delhi Metro is taking different routes for its foreign projects. In the Mauritius project, it has decided to go solo while for the Bahrain Metro’s 29-km Phase 1 work, it is partnering with Virtue Global Holding Ltd with an arrangement that it would execute the EPC (engineering, procurement and construction) contract if the Dubai-headquartered financial company, which has already qualified in the pre-bid stage, manages to win the bid. The final bidding is expected to take place in November. A Delhi Metro official camping in Bahrain tells ET over the phone that it has a fair chance as 70% weightage is given for credentials and only 30% for the financial bid. This means, the winner won’t necessarily be the lowest bidder.

For the Tel Aviv project, Delhi Metro has partnered with a local company, Poran Shrem Engineering and Appraisal, as well as Indian Railways-owned company, RITES, to obtain some consultancy jobs. The consortium has pre-qualified for bidding. Financial bidding is expected by year-end. According to a June 2 report in The Times of Israel, the government of Israel allocated $1.8 billion for the project so far and select municipalities were also expected to contribute some funds. In addition, property owners near the proposed metro lines may be asked to pay higher taxes to meet the expenses.

In Alexandria, Delhi Metro is partnering with RITES and an Egypt-based company, CEG. For an 11-km-long metro section in Ho Chi Minh City, it has inked a JV with RITES and another company called ICT. The bid is expected to be submitted by the end of this month, according to Kumar.

NVS Reddy, MD of Hyderabad Metro, says some of India’s experienced metro companies such as DMRC, Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation, Mauritius project are not readily available. As far as the Bahrain project is concerned, at least three Chinese companies — China Harbour Engineering Co, China Railway Group and CRRC (Hong Kong) Co — qualified in the pre-bid stage. In the upcoming Dhaka metro projects, which also include operation and maintenance of trains, Delhi Metro’s challenger is not a Chinese company. It could be Japanese.

An officer says that Delhi Metro, in a recent informal talk with the ministry of external affairs, has proposed that metro projects should be tied to India’s assistance to African nations just like the Japanese ODA (official development assistance), which has such in-built provisions while offering cheaper loans. The officer adds that Delhi Metro is contemplating to get engaged in the proposed Dublin metro project in Ireland. “It’s only an early-stage deliberation,” he clarifies. It will take time to know its winning percentage but Delhi Metro is leaving no stone unturned to give its business a global footprint.

24.2. "DMRC Is Bidding In Bahrain, Mauritius, Tel Aviv, Alexandria & Ho Chi Minh City"

The Economic Times, 7 Aug. 2022

Vikas Kumar, MD of Delhi Metro Rail Corporation, speaks to Shantanu Nandan Sharma on why the urban transporter is aggressively bidding for metro projects abroad.

What is the rationale behind Delhi Metro’s chasing a number of foreign metro projects all of a sudden?

Delhi Metro now has a network of 390 km. Once Phase 4 is completed (65 of 105 km has been sanctioned so far), we will be overtaking the metros of London and Moscow in terms of size. With about 500 km, we will then be the third largest metro in the world (after Beijing and Shanghai).

We have lots of expertise in construction, consultancy and O&M (operation and maintenance). We have been running the metro with safety and reliability since 2002. We want to increase our share of revenue from consultancy business in particular. So we decided we must expand our business outside India by using our core competence. That will fetch us some extra revenue.

Did the revenue loss during peak Covid prompt you to adopt this new strategy?

Yes, the pandemic has a role in it. Usually, we don’t ask for resources from the government for our day-to-day operations. The Covid period has been an exception. A mass transit system can’t be a profit-making venture as the goal is always to provide transportation at an affordable cost. There is a limit to which a metro rail system can raise fares.

Where will DMRC be bidding? Will you provide only consultancy or construction as well? DMRC is bidding for metros in Bahrain, Mauritius, Tel Aviv (Israel), Alexandria (Egypt) and Ho Chi Minh City (Vietnam). We are already in Dhaka (Bangladesh) but we will be bidding for one more line there. In Mauritius, we have just placed our bids. We are going solo in that project whereas in Tel Aviv, Alexandria and Ho Chi Minh City, we are part of consortiums. In some metro projects, we are bidding for consultancy work only. Once the design and development part is over, we will try to get engaged in operation too. In some projects, for instance the one in Mauritius, we are bidding to build an entire metro line.

Are you planning to run the Dhaka Metro, a part of which is supposed to be operational by year-end?

In Dhaka, we are part of a consortium that is providing consultancy for three lines, all under construction. An 11-km portion of one of these lines is expected to be ready by the end of this year. DMRC is ready if our services for operation and maintenance are asked for. As we speak, 50 of our experts, including engineers and architects, are stationed in Dhaka. Two of our train operators are engaged in a trial. Our advantage lies in the fact that Delhi Metro’s safety and reliability has been 99.99%. And compared with any Japanese company, we are way more competitive in pricing too.

25. Basmati rice exports increase by 26% in Q1 to $1.15 bn: Commerce Ministry

IBEF, Aug. 8, 2022

Basmati rice exports increased by 25.54% to US$ 1.15 billion in April-June 2022-23, according to the commerce ministry on Saturday. In the previous year, exports totalled US$ 922 million. Non-basmati rice exports increased by 5% to US$ 1.56 billion in the June quarter, according to the report. In the third quarter, agricultural and processed food exports increased by 31% to US$ 7.4 billion. The Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) has set an export target of US$ 23.56 billion for the agricultural and processed food products basket for fiscal year 2022-23. Fresh fruits and vegetables, as well as cereals, were among the products that experienced growth during the period under review.

According to Dr. Madhaiyaan Angamuthu, Chairman of APEDA, "we aim to sustain the growth in India's agricultural and processed food exports in the current fiscal as well" by creating a necessary export ecosystem and collaborating with key stakeholders in the agri-exports value chains.

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

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Thursday 18 August 2022

NEWSLETTER, 20-VIII-2022

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NEWSLETTER, 20-VIII-2022

– GENERAL POLICY, INFRASTRUCTURES, COUNTRY FINANCES, ETC.

- AGRICULTURE, FISHING & RURAL DEVELOPMENT

- INDUSTRY & MANUFACTURE

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

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