More transparency in real estate buying
The credit ratings agency CRISIL recently launched real estate ratings in India, which would help common buyers make informed purchases and is expected to bring in more transparency in real estate buying the system will work on a project-specific cialis how it works basis and rate it on a on a scale of one to seven stars after comparing with other alternatives available in the same city….. Read More.
Explaining the mechanism CRISIL’s Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Roopa Kudva said: “A developer commissions the agency and gives us access to various details needed for assessment. We take into account our parameters and rate the project. Once the developer accepts the rating, we go public with the rating and project analysis which will be given to common buyers for free.” The parameters include the past record of the developer, the infrastructure he is erecting, finishing, timely completion, cost overruns, after-sales service, legal issues like title and project innovations such as green buildings. The rating will be given mid-way through the project and will be under surveillance till project completion, during which it can be revised. In fact many rating agencies are coming up with real estate rating systems. On the international level Fitch has been rating real estate projects for quite some years. Speaking about the need for such ratings and their viability, Samujjwal Ghosh, Senior General Manager, Marketing, Lodha Developers says, “I believe that an all-round assessment of real estate projects will help buyers benchmark and identify quality projects within a city. Such ratings should ideally provide a comprehensive evaluation of all project specific risks which could impact the quality of the project. Such ratings, if done with thoroughness, definitely discount cialis bring greater transparency in the system enabling the consumer to take a more informed decision. It also works in favour of the developers who focus on quality and gives them an opportunity to be seen in a differentiated light. At an independent level, consumers face paucity of adequate information when acquiring property and such objective ratings does definitely make life easier for the consumer.”
Ashok Kumar, MD and Principal Partner, Cresa Partners, an international property consultant company also thinks it is a very good idea and a positive move towards bringing professionalism in real estate.“ In fact I remember CRISIL starting this almost ten years back. But it was not as successful then as I guess the industry was not mature enough to actually aspire for professionalism and global recognition. Now things are different and developers are going abroad and picking up projects elsewhere in the world too. In that case they would actually welcome it,” he says, adding, “All over the world we do have a third party rating system and many years back Citi Bank had developed an elaborate rating system, which was very comprehensive. The government too is to come up with a regulatory body and all these would be good for the health of the industry.” However, Kaizad Hateria, GM-Sales and Customer Relations, Rustomjee, is a little doubtful about the viability of such a product. He asks, “Do they have the expertise in real estate? How scientifically evolved are their systems, what kind of research are they doing? It needs a whole department of experts, are they employing them? How authentic are their methods? How are they going to assess the risk factors? How are they going to keep track of the projects? How will they foresee the shortage of cement, steel and other material?” Gulam Zia, National Director, Research & Advisory Services, Knight Frank India, also expresses his doubt as he feels that rating a product in a white goods category like a car or financial instruments, is easier, as there are some standard parameters and the expectations are more or less uniform. However in the case of real estate, every project is unique and no two products can fall into a single category. This would colour the objectivity aspect.” Playing a devil’s advocate, one would wonder if these ratings could be fudged using muscle power. ”In another case a developer may go for it in case he has too many foreign investors who want the project rated. Since most rating agencies are now global agencies, there must be reasons for the investors to insist on ratings done by them. Most agree that this may a good starting point in the effort to bring in transparency.
Source: Economic Times
India Aims to Triple Port Capacity
India, Asia’s third-biggest economy, plans to triple port capacity within a decade, as it tackles infrastructure deficiencies that threaten to slow growth. The country needs “urgent action” to ensure that it has sufficient seaport capacity, Secretary of Shipping K. Mohandas said. “Ports are very important to India’s economic growth.”….. Read More.
The government intends to open new harbors and sell stakes in ports to help annual capacity reach 3.2 billion tons under a 10-year plan that will be released next month, Mohandas said. The nation is also building highways, railways and airports to ease transport bottlenecks that could cost 1.1 percentage points of growth in fiscal 2017, according to McKinsey & Co. Indian ports will likely handle more than 2.5 billion tons of cargo a year by 2020, Mohandas said. Throughput in the year ended cialis online no prescription March rose 14 percent to 844.9 million tons. Nationwide capacity is about 996 million tons, said Rakesh Srivastava, joint secretary for ports at the shipping ministry.
The government also intends to award concessions for two new terminals at Mumbai’s Jawaharlal Nehru Port this fiscal year, including one for a facility able to cialis generic vs brand handle more shipments than the harbor’s three existing terminals, Mohandas said. The state-controlled operator of Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s busiest container harbor, will likely be turned into a corporation by the end of March, paving the way for an eventual share sale, Mohandas said.“Jawaharlal Nehru Port is the first possible candidate for corporatization,” he said. “A final decision has not been taken but hopefully it will happen this year.”Mohandas declined to comment on what size stake the government may sell in the port operator and on when a sale could happen. Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust, Dubai-based DP World Ltd., and an AP Moeller-Maersk A/S-Container Corp. of India Ltd. venture currently run terminals at the port.
Source: Bloom Berg
Foreign telecom vendors, an unhappy lot
Telecommunication, in the last one decade has emerged as a potent tool for economic development and integrating trade and commerce in the world. The pace with which telecommunications has expanded all across the world has raised serious concerns before regulators and law makers. …. Read More.
In India, the telecommunication revolution started in 1995 and currently, India has close to 700 million mobile connections, with 10 to 15 million subscribers being added every month. Every jurisdiction has its own reasons and concerns including security, interconnect ability, taxability etc in relation with telecommunication. The dilemma for the governments is to balance their concerns with free trade in telecommunication so as to increase its economic activities resulting in creation of all around development and value in business, commerce and society. The four major aspects of World Trade Organization in relation with telecommunication are; be transparent, don’t discriminate, increase competition and regulate reasonably. India, currently, has heavy dependence on foreign telecom infrastructure companies and till date an arrangement, where Indian telecom service providers have been assisted by foreign companies in setting up network infrastructure, operating and managing telecom services, has worked very well. In fact, telecom infrastructure and telecom services shared by various telecom service has resulted in reduction in capital as well as the operational cost of the telcos, which in turn has benefited the consumers in terms of low call rates. India, like many other countries, has faced security threats in different proportions and dimensions, where technology and telecommunication play a vital role. Keeping in mind security concerns, the Indian buying cialis without a prescription Government through Ministry of Home and Ministry of Telecommunication has proposed certain serious modifications in its licensing for vendors providing physical telecom infrastructure and telecommunication services.
The changes suggested have posed certain serious commercial, technological, legal and regulatory hurdles for the smooth functioning of telecom sector in India. In the name of security concerns, Government of India has overstretched its authority by asking for sensitive proprietary information, which is at core of any company in the world. In the changed scenario, Government of India has not only suggested a mandatory signing of an agreement called “Security and Business Continuity Agreement” but has added an obligation of certification and reporting at vendor’s own cost. The other oppressive suggestions made cialis 2.5mg by the Government of India are; minimal dependence on foreign engineers, location details of mobile customer, network audit, organizational policy on security and security management. The telecom vendors and their respective governments have shown serious concerns in implementing the instructions issued by Government of India and have asked for a debate and discussion in relation to India’s security concerns. They have offered assistance in addressing the security concerns without hampering the growth of telecommunications in India. As per news reports Indian Ministry of Home has agreed to consider the representations.
Source: Money Control
The BlackBerry problem
“The discussions are still going on. We are not in the business of shutting down services. I am hopeful we will come up with some solution concerns of the security agencies. The deadline for Research In Motion (RIM) to comply with the security requirement is August 31.” the Minister of State for Communications, Mr Sachin Pilot, said on the sidelines of an e-governance seminar…. Read More.
“I think these concerns have been addressed in other parts of the world. I see no reason why the Indian Government should take any risk at all as far as technology is concerned,” Mr Pilot added. The final decision on this will be taken by the Ministry of Home Affairs in the first otc cialis week of September. Meanwhile, RIM and the Government are discussing technical ways to give access to data flowing through BlackBerry devices to security agencies. If this solution is found to be acceptable then the Government may extend the deadline for the company to implement the system. RIM said that it was myth that it has the keys to decode or decrypt the encrypted data that flows through the BlackBerry Enterprise Solution. It also said that locating a server or BlackBerry infrastructure within India will not aid the Government’s access to encrypted information.
RIM said the use of strong encryption in wireless technology is not unique to the BlackBerry platform. “It is unquestionably an industry-wide matter. Strong encryption has become a mandatory requirement for all enterprise-class wireless email services today and is also a fundamental commercial requirement for any country to attract and maintain international business. Singling out and banning one solution, such as the BlackBerry solution, would be ineffective and counter-productive,” RIM said in a statement. “The BlackBerry Enterprise Server security architecture was also purposefully designed to perform as a global system independent of geography. The location of infrastructure cialis wholesale and the customer’s choice of wireless network are irrelevant factors from a security perspective where end-to-end encryption is employed,” RIM said.
Source: The Hindu
Corporates in Banking
The much-awaited discussion paper of the Reserve Bank cheap cialis soft of India (RBI) on the entry of new banks in the private sector has thrown many interesting proposals, suggestions and ideas, including a higher capital of Rs 1,000 crore, a 50 per cent ceiling on foreign holding and the possibility of allowing industrial houses and finance companies….. Read More.
Interestingly, the RBI paper has not made any firm proposals, but preferred to offer pros and cons of various parameters and the past international experience on banking licences. “Industrial and business acheter cialis original houses have a long history of building and nurturing new businesses in highly regulated sectors such as telecom, power, automobiles, defence, infrastructure projects like airports, highways, dams and ports,” the discussion paper said.
Several industrial houses like the ADAG, the Mahindras, the Aditya Birla group, the Tatas and the Bajajs are likely to apply for new licences. Many of them had evinced interest in getting into banking after Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee announced the plan to give more private bank licences in the last union budget. However, the RBI has expressed reservations about giving banking licences to business groups with interests in real estate. The paper has also highlighted the potential risks of involving them.
Source: Indian Express
SBI Macquarie Invests $304 million
A SBI Macquarie-led consortium today said it had picked up around 11 per cent stake in telecom infrastructure company Viom Networks, previously known as Quippo-WTTIL, for Rs 1,400 crore ($304 million). …..Read More.
SBI Macquarie made the investment from its $1-billion Macquarie SBI Infrastructure Fund (MSIF). MSIF bought the stake from Quippo Telecom. MSIF is a joint venture between Macquarie Capital and State Bank of India (SBI). “This is the largest and first investment made by MSIF in the sector. Other investments are being evaluated and we expect this acquisition to be one of the number of investments that MSIF will complete in near future,” said Varun Bajpai, chief executive officer, SBI Macquarie Infrastructure Management.
Viom is an independent telecom infrastructure company, with over 37,000 towers, and hosts around 80,000 tenants on its towers, taking its tenancy ratio to 2.2x. Viom plans to add another 20,000-25,000 telecom towers to its portfolio, at an investment of around Rs 8,000 cialis 5 mg daily crore, in the next two years. It has an enterprise value of Rs 20,000 crore. Each of the Quippo-led private equity investors have diluted generic cialis fast delivery their stake to make SBI Macquarie the second largest stakeholder among Quippo-led investors in Viom Networks.
Source: Business Standards
FDI in multi-brand retail
Government of India floated a discussion paper on the entry of FDI (Foreign Direct Investment) in the country. The discussion intends to gather opinions of the stakeholders regarding the feasibility of the proposal before any step in the direction is buy cialis online usa taken…..Read More.
FDI in multi-brand retailing is prohibited in India. Government floated the idea of FDI in multi-brand retail to streamline the supply chain system which lacks transparency and efficiency. The opposition to FDI is the claim that millions of small retailers will be cornered by the foreign selling brands. However there has been a lack of investment in the logistics of the retail chain, leading to an inefficient market mechanism.
The commerce ministry is keen to permit FDI in retail of food grain as well as other essential commodities to create a parallel network to the public. The government will have cialis sales online to keep a close watch on the impact on employment especially in the small retail sector. If FDI contributes towards the infrastructure development through polished foreign technology the decision may prove to be a boon to the trade of India.
Source: FNB news
Pitroda to head National Innovation Council
Filed under: Leadership & Entrepreneurship, Uncategorized
Sam Pitroda, the Prime Minister’s adviser on infrastructure, is set to be appointed head of the National Innovation Council. He holds over 100 patents and is widely credited with laying the foundation for India’s telecom revolution……Read More.
Having cialis effectiveness worked in the US in the 1970s, Pitroda came to India during Rajiv Gandhi’s term and set up the Centre for Development of Telematics thus laying the foundation for India’s telecom revolution. He later returned to the US. He made a comeback to India after the United Progressive Alliance came to power in 2004.
Sam Pitroda was appointed as the chairman of the National Knowledge Commission and then headed a committee for suggesting changes at state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. Last year, the government also asked him to advise the Indian Railways on the use of information and communication technologies.
Source: Business cialis c10 Standards