S&P says India need to cut fiscal deficit

Rating agency Standard & Poor's said India must boost growth, cut its fiscal deficit and fulfill promises of financial and fiscal reforms in order to justify an upgrade in a credit rating, currently lodged one rung above junk bond territory.

The agency, in a news release issued listed what it needed to see to upgrade India's sovereign debt credit rating from 'BBB-minus'.

"Crucial factors include higher growth in real per capita GDP, stronger fiscal and debt metrics, and a stronger external position or improved monetary policy setting, and the government's ability to fulfil its promises on key reforms will be critical to the country's success," S&P said.

S&P said it did not expect swift progress on fiscal consolidation, and if this was the sole consideration India would have to wait several years before an upgrade.

"Improvements in India's weak fiscal balance sheet are likely to be gradual and are thus unlikely to lead to a rating upgrade in the next three to five years," S&P said, adding that the country's fiscal and debt indicators are the weakest among peers like Brazil and Indonesia.

First Budget of the Modi government will be closely watched for pro-growth measures, reforms for the power sector and other areas of infrastructure, as well as fiscal consolidation.

S&P raised India's credit rating outlook to 'stable' from 'negative' in September, citing the prospect of reforms.

China to Roll Out Large Passenger Aircraft Soon

China’s answer to Boeing and Airbus, the C919 large passenger aircraft will roll off assembly lines this year, the manufacturer announced.

The Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China has completed basic assembly of the aircraft. The company has secured orders for 450 C919 planes from 18 customers.

With 168-seat and 156-seat layouts, the C919 will compete with Boeing and Airbus in the medium-range aircraft sector. The C919's first test flight is planned for this year.

Earlier, an Airbus forecast said China will become the world's largest domestic aviation market in the next decade.

According to the forecast, the country will need more than 5,300 new passenger aircraft and freighters between 2014 and 2033, with a total market value of US$820 billion or 17 percent of total global demand, in the next 20 years.

Air India, IndiGo Most Hit By Flight Delays in Jan

Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) said passengers of Air India and no-frill carrier IndiGo were most affected due to delays of flights by over two hours in January.

The number of Air India passengers affected due to flight delays beyond two hours stood at 96,232 in January and that  of IndiGo, which has best on-time performance record among the domestic airliners, stood at 75,034, according to  DGCA monthly domestic air traffic report.

Also, as many as 11,666 passengers of private carriers Jet Airways and its subsidiary JetLite were also affected after their flights were reported late by more than two hours.

The DGCA norms make it mandatory for the airlines to submit data on number of cases of denied boarding, cancellations and delays along with the status on a monthly basis.

As per the report, while Air India provided facilities such as refreshments, refunds (where passenger desired), rescheduling of flights besides giving a compensation of Rs 1.04 crore to the aggrieved flyers, IndiGo provided only refreshments to the passengers of the delayed flights.

It may be noted here that the domestic passenger traffic grew by 21.33 per cent in January this year as compared to figures in the same month a year ago. In January 2015, all Indian carriers ferried a total of 62.45 lakh passengers as compared to 57.47 lakh in January 2014.

In all, a total number of 2,11,326 passengers of various airlines suffered at the airports in the country on account of denied boarding, cancellations and delays, the report said.

Of these, as many as 1,89,497 passengers were affected due to the delays of more than two hours, while those affected due to the flight cancellations by various airlines stood at 19,869 in January 2015.

Also, Jet Airways combined with JetLite, and state-run Air India were the only two carriers whose passengers were denied boarding in January 2015, with 1,082 and 878 passengers respectively.

SEBI to Crackdown on Unlawful Traders

India’s stock market regulator, Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) said it will look into recent crackdown on the alleged leak of classified official documents at the behest of corporate groups to ensure that such leaks were not used to push up or pull down the share prices of listed companies.

A senior SEBI official said depending on the progress of the inspection, which involves analyzing trading and share price trends in a host of energy companies including some large firms from private as well as public sector, further action would be initiated by the regulator.

Those found to have traded on the basis of stolen information from government offices could be probed under insider trading and prevention of fraudulent and unfair trade regulations. They would be subjected to stern penal action by SEBI, he added.

Delhi Metro Opens ‘Exact Change’ Counters

In order to ease rush at ticket counters, the Delhi Metro opened 'exact change counters' at 20 stations for passengers who bring the exact ticket amount.It has also installed point of sale (POS) machines to facilitate cashless transactions at 73 stations.

"At the exact change counters, only those passengers who bring exact change for purchasing token for their destination station will be entertained. This will avoid any queuing or waiting time for these passengers," a Delhi Metro statement said.

These 20 stations are: New Delhi, Chandni Chowk, Rajiv Chowk, Anand Vihar, Shahdara, HUDA City Centre, Jahangirpuri, Uttam Nagar East, Saket, Dilshad Garden, Kashmere Gate, Badarpur, AIIMS, Vaishali, Karol Bagh, Seelampur, MG Road, NOIDA City Centre, RK Ashram and Dwarka Mor.

The statement said Delhi Metro on an average faces a demand of coins worth approximately Rs 7 lakh per day, and to supply this to passengers, it tries to ensure that enough change is available at the stations.

"However, despite all efforts, only about Rs 4-4.5 lakh coins can be made available to the stations on a daily basis. These exact change counters, therefore, are a step towards encouraging passengers to bring exact change for buying tokens," the statement added.

Additionally, the POS machines at 73 stations, including all stations of the Airport Express Line, aim to facilitate cashless transaction for passengers, who wish to recharge their smart cards by using credit or debit cards.

These stations also include Rithala, Rajiv Chowk, Huda City Centre, Saket, Pragati Maidan, Nawada, Akshardham, NOIDA City Centre, Vaishali, Rajouri Garden and Nehru Place.

"These machines are available at the customer care centre of these metro stations and passengers can easily get their smart cards recharged by using their credit/debit cards," the statement said.

At present, about 70 per cent of Metro passengers are smart card users.

India to Build Smart Cities in 12 Major Ports

In an ambitious plan, the Indian government plans to build one smart city each at the country's 12 major ports, at an estimated total investment of Rs. 50,000 crore.

According to Nitin Gadkari, Minister for Road Transport, Highways, each port will construct one smart city and each city will be built with an expenditure of about Rs. 3,000-4,000 crore.

"These will be green smart cities. We are starting work on these in four to six months. You will see all these complete in five years," he said.

The 12 major ports under central government's control have between them an estimated 2.64 lakh acres of land which is being mapped through satellites and are major resources with Shipping Ministry.

Mumbai Port Trust alone has about 753 hectares of land with it, valued at about Rs. 46,000 crore.

"We are identifying our property through GPS system. We do not want to sell land to builders and developers. We will develop these," Gadkari said, adding that companies will be invited to construct houses there and private investment will be roped in.

Detailing the concept, he said these cities will be built as per international standards and have wide roads, green energy, advanced townships and greenery.

In addition, these smart cities and ports will have e-governance links, international standard facilities, special economic zones, ship breaking and ship building centres besides allied things, he said.

“Port water will be recycled. Port wastes will be turned into bio gas. Vehicles will run on bio fuel. Solar energy and wind power will be generated at ports. These cities will be pollution-free and very green smart cities. We are starting these," Gadkari said.

Besides, electric vehicles will run here and these smart cities would house schools, commercial complexes and other amenities, he added.

The 12 major ports in the country -- Kandla, Mumbai, KEPT, Marmugao, New Managlore, Cochin, Chennai, Ennore, V O Chidambarnar, Visakhapatnam, Paradip and Kolkata (including Haldia) -- handle approximately 61 per cent of cargo traffic.

Gadkari said his ministry has plans to encourage setting up of some bio diesel plants at these ports, including Haldia, where bio diesel will be made from palm oil residue.

"India imports edible oil worth Rs. 1 lakh crore annually and maximum oil is imported from Malaysia," he added.

As part of its plan to revamp the country's top 12 ports, the Centre has already asked the ports to prepare land data base and development plans to achieve international operating standards.

The ports have also been asked to come up with a shelf of projects to augment their capacity to 1,600 million tonnes from the present about 800 million tonnes.

India Toughens Measures on Ponzi Schemes

India has constituted a high-powered committee to recommend steps to strengthen the existing legislative and administrative framework for curbing the menace of Ponzi schemes.

Inter-ministerial Group comprising senior officials of finance, home and law ministries as well as the investigative agencies will study the existing statutory framework for dealing with unauthorized deposit taking activities and suggest ways to plug the loopholes and beef up the system.

Besides identifying legislative and administrative changes needed to plug loopholes in the system, the group has also been mandated to lay down a standard operating procedure (SOP) for processes to be followed by the lead agency and authorities which are investigating such cases.

The SOP, sources said, will ensure that prosecutors are able to nail culprits in courts without delay.

The detailed, written instructions will also help agencies achieve uniformity in their performance while investigating such cases across various jurisdictions.

Many entities are exploiting legal loopholes to cheat the public with Ponzi schemes and recommendations of the group would help government arm state and Central regulators and agencies to check such activities.

With regulatory loopholes and multiple agencies, it has been difficult to curb the menace of Ponzi, or illegal money pooling schemes.

While chit funds are regulated by state governments, collective investment schemes come under the ambit of the Securities and Exchange Board of India.

Non-banking financial companies are under Reserve Bank of India (RBI) regulations whereas companies in general fall in the regulatory framework of the corporate affairs ministry.

RBI figures show that there are more than 700 companies spread across different states against which complaints of non-payment of investors' money have been received.