Bharat Stage emission norms in India

The deadline for pan-India rollout of BS III emission norms which was originally set for April 2010, is now delayed to October this year. This is because the public sector refiners could not meet the deadline and planned a staggered roll-out in different cities.

This staggered schedule does not augur well for the automobile manufacturers as it will be a problem in launching new vehicles with improved engines. Thus, a draft amendment in Central Motor Vehicles Rules, 1989 in March 2010 was made which exempts vehicles manufactured between 1 April, 2010 and 30 September, 2010 from following the fuel standard norms under BS III.

What are BS norms?

Car Investment Projects

Car Projects Completed During 2009-10

Road projects under PPP rise to 1 lakh crore

It is estimated that the national exchequer loses over Rs 20,000 crore every year due to sub-standard and inadequate roads.

Kamal Nath, the road transport and highways minister, has repeatedly promised to achieve his target of building a road network of 20 km per day, 7,000 km each year and 35,000 km in the next five years.

Is sugar getting too sweet?

India is the largest consumer and the second largest producer of sugar (refer my post on Sugar Industry in India: Basics) in the world. Output of sugar in India does have an impact on the global sugar market. For the sugar year October 2009 to September 2010, demand was expected at 23 million tonnes compared to production expectation of 16 million tonnes together with carry-in stocks of 3 million tonnes. The expectation of a huge demand-supply mismatch resulted in prices rising sharply right from the beginning of the sugar year.

India’s Core Inflation

Inflation has been a key area of concern for policymakers in India. The RBI takes various policy measures keeping the inflation and its expectation in mind. Measures taken by the RBI also have an impact on the performance of the industries. 

RBI in its monetary policy has mentioned two types of inflation. One, is the headline inflation and the other is the core inflation. Mostly economics, a blog by my colleague gives an insight in to these concepts and their application.

EPC/ Turnkey Contracts in Highway Sector

Engineering procurement and construction (EPC) contracts are the most common form of contracts used to undertake construction works by the private sector on large-scale and complex infrastructure projects, such as power plants, petroleum and LNG terminals, steel mills, roads, etc. 

Under an EPC contract, a contractor is obliged to deliver a complete facility to a developer who need only turnkey to start operating the facility, hence EPC contracts are sometimes called turnkey construction in contracts. The price and date for delivery of the contract is fixed, failing which a contractor has to incur monetary liabilities.

Dr. Indrasen Singh, Dean, National Institute of Construction Management and Research in Goa has through his study tried to highlight the reasons why several road developers would choose the EPC route compared to the PPP route–which is being pushed by the government, in times of financial crisis.

Indian Industry News: Micromax becomes India’s third-largest mobile phone vendor

Micromax- this name reminds me of IPL (the Dhoni ad). That was probably the first time I saw the company marketing really hard. Was thinking of checking out that phone one of these days, but to my surprise I read that micromax has become the 3rd largest mobile phone vendor in India. It kept me wondering how and when did this happen, as not many of us have even used it??

Telecom subscribers are rising.. are revenues too??

India is one of the world’s fastest growing telecom markets. A sharp reduction in tariffs enabled the telecom companies add a record 20 million subscribers in the wireless segment during the month of March 2010. The addition has resulted in a wireless tele-density of 49.6%, which means nearly every second person in India has a mobile/wireless phone.

IMD releases its 1st forecast for 2010 South-west monsoon

After a drought in 2009, the Indian subcontinent is likely to witness a normal rainfall in 2010. The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has released its 2010 June-September rainfall forecast at 98% of the Long Period Average (LPA). The LPA of seasonal rainfall across India is 89 cm, which is the rainfall averaged during the monsoon seasons (June to September) during 1941-90.

Global Industry News: Chinese Property Market A House Of Cards

Read an interesting article on Chinese government initiating new measure to curb speculative demand for real estate.  The analyst feels that “If the Se Shang Property Index is anything to go by, real estate prices could be heading down rather quickly.”

Bloomberg defines  China Se Shang’s Property Index as a capitalization-weighted index that measuresthe performance of the property sector of the SHCOMP Index (Shanghai Composite Index). The index was developed on April 30, 1993 with a base value of 1358.78. The parent index is SHCOMP. 

http://www.riskwatchdog.com/2010/04/20/chinese-property-market-a-house-of-cards/