IndusInd Bank Q4 net up by 25.25 percent

IndusInd Bank said on Thursday that it posted a rise of 25.25 percent in its standalone net profit for the quarter ending March 31, 2016, at Rs.620.35 crore against Rs.495.27 crore in the same period of 2014-15.

According to the audited financial results posted on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), the bank earned a total income of Rs.4,044.49 crore in Q4 2015-16 compared to Rs.3,278.06 crore clocked in corresponding quarter of last fiscal, while total expenditure increased from Rs.2,427.55 crore to Rs.2,893.30 crore.

Annually, IndusInd Bank’s net profit rose by 27.46 percent in 2015-16 to Rs.2,286.45crore from Rs.1,793.72 crore in 2014-15.

Total income rose to Rs.14,877.61crore in 2015-16 from Rs.12,239.97 crore in 2014-15.

Source : IndianMediaBook - Business

Call drop penalty least invasive, TRAI tells SC

Telecom regulator TRAI on Thursday defended, in the Supreme Court, its decision to impose call drop penalty on the telecom service providers (TSP) describing it as a “least invasive way to deal with the issue”.

Defending the Delhi High Court order upholding its call drop penalty order of October 16, 2015, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) told an apex court bench of Justice Kurian Joseph and Justice Rohinton Fali Nariman that telecom service providers (TSP) must enhance their investment in infrastructure as they were earning huge revenues.

The high court’s February 29 judgment had come as it dismissed the TSPs’ plea for the stay of TRAI’s compensation policy, under which a rupee would be credited to the mobile users’ account for every call drop (restricted to three per day) starting January 1, 2016.

Assailing the contentions raised by the TSPs, Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi told the court that there was huge gulf between the revenue being earned by the TSPs and the investments being made by them on augmenting the infrastructure.

If between 2010 to 2014, the revenue of TSPs has increased by 48 percent, the investment in infrastructure in wireless access service segment rose by only 4.6 percent from Rs.2,02,399crore in fiscal 2012-13 to Rs.2,11,691 crore in fiscal 2013-14, he said, adding that investment in telecom infrastructure in 2015 here was $5 billion where as in China it was $50 billion.

He noted that there was limited spectrum and it could not be that TSPs would go on adding to their subscriber base without making investments for improving the infrastructure. The attorney general quoted statistics showing that from 2010 to June 2015, the number of subscribers increased by 61.9 percent from 62.13 crore in 2010 to 100.6 crore in June 2015.

“You (TSPs) don’t spend on highway (spectrum) and you will not spend on infrastructure and cry far minuscule issue of call drop charge,” Rohatgi said meeting the contentions by the petitioner associations – Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) and the Association of Unified Service Provider of India (USPAI) – which had challenged the TRAI notification.

Telling the court that penalty for call drop was least invasive way to deal with the call drop issue, he said that the government could have done much more, citing the case of China where 25 percent of revenue must be invested in infrastructure.

Rebutting the contention of the TSPs as to how could it be decided whether the call drop was network-related or user-related, Rohatgi said: “System has the capability, and that capability has been demonstrated and it can’t be said that user-related call drop could not be separated from network-related call drop.”

He placed before the court documents to demonstrate that different kinds of call drops are identified and recorded by the system.

Contesting the TSPs claim that it would be a financial burden on them, he said that the total number of call drops (outgoing) in the entire network was 800 crore in a year and if TSPs are made to compensate for all of them, then it would amount to Rs.800 crore per annum.

But after exempting the user related call drops, the amount of compensation would come to Rs. 512 crore, and get further shrunk after the capping the penalty to three calls a day, the court was told.

Source : IndianMediaBook - Business

Government working wholeheartedly to revive economy: Minister

Union Minister for Communications and Information Technology Ravi Shankar Prasad on Thursday said the government was “wholeheartedly” working towards reviving the economy.

Speaking at the inaugural session of the 10th Mindmine Summit organised by Hero Corporate Services, he said: “India is changing and evolving for good every second. The government is working towards connecting nearly 2,50,000panchayats with optical fibres and very soon India will be home to 500 million smartphones. These initiatives are bringing people together for mutual growth.”

Citing numerous initiatives taken by the central government, he said: “One such initiative – virtual mobile networks – will help consumers not just get more choices for voice and data services, but also allow telecom companies to monetise the unused airwaves.”

The two-day summit will see participation of a mix of leaders from political, corporate and societal landscape.

NITI (National Institution for Transforming India) Aayog Chief Executive Officer Amitabh Kant spoke about the importance of building world-class infrastructure to achieve and sustain 9-10 percent gross domestic product growth over the next few decades.

“India needs to plan and invest in mega transportation hubs which will ensure greater, faster and more efficient transportation of goods and people across the country,” Kant said.

On the contrary, Congress leader Jairam Ramesh expressed concerns over safeguarding the environment while aiming for higher GDP growth.

“Environment and sustainability will play major factors in Indian economic growth. Vulnerability of climate change in India is maximum; we need to manage these issues while trying to be the leaders in consumption and production,” the former union minister said.

Mindmine Summit is organised annually by independent think tank Mindmine Institute set up by Hero Corporate Service.

Source : IndianMediaBook - Business

India will need ‘unparalleled’ $1 trillion in energy investments by 2030: Minister Piyush Goyal

India will need $250 billion in the next five to six years and $1 trillion by 2030, a scale of investment “unparalleled anywhere in the world,” to fuel its race to provide energy for its people and help lift masses out of poverty, according to Piyush Goyal, the Minister for Coal, Power and New and Renewable Energy.

Goyal, who is on a mission to drum up investments in the energy sector, told reporters here Thursday India will be the largest market for energy with its goal of quadrupling by 2030 the current consumption of 1,050 units per person. Savvy investors will see the opportunities India has to offer them in the energy as the United States, Europe and Japan are seeing an economic slowdown coupled with a lowering of demand because of greater efficiencies in consumption, he said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has set a goal of having 175 gigawatts (GW) of renewable energy by 2022, of which 100 GW is to come from solar, Goyal said. India has made strides towards achieving that target and 21 GW of solar energy is to come on line over the next seven to eight months, he said.

He said that he had met investors in Britain and visited the London Stock Exchange to showcase the investment opportunities and was to hold discussions with investors here.

While India sought investments in all energy spheres, its quest for energy efficiency – and through it cleaner environment and carbon emission reduction goals – opened up other areas, he said. As an example, he cited the program to replace the 20 million agricultural pumps, many of them run on diesel, with more efficient and less polluting models, which could save the equivalent of 70 billion units of electricity.

Besides solar energy, India was also developing hydropower, power generation using waste water and waste, and wind power Cutting off finance for coal plants will be counterproductive for the environment as coal will continue to play an important role in helping meet the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) of providing billions of people around the world needing access to power, Goyal said.

Despite the massive investments in renewable energy, India will also depend on coal especially for baseline needs to ensure power availability when other sources become unavailable, Goyal said.

If financing for newer plants are not available, developing countries will continue to run the old, inefficient and polluting power plants instead of upgrading to modern power generation plants that use use coal efficiently and cleanly, he said.

The World Bank and others providing development assistance to developing countries have announced policies that would stop funding coal and other fossil fuel-based electricity plants.

India was working with a university in Australia on clean coal projects, he said. New Delhi planned to collaborate with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology on research on clean coal, he added.

Goyal said that India was taking a leading role globally in helping spread solar technology among developing countries through the International Solar Alliance it is spearheading with France.

Many of the developing countries have not yet been able to take advantage of their solar bounties because they lack the technologies and financing, Goyal said. With its advances in harnessing solar power, India was in a position to help them overcome these hurdles and for this had set up with France the International Solar Alliance, he added.

In January French President Francois Hollande and Modi laid the foundation stone for the ISA headquarters at Gurgaon. About 120 countries are participating in it.

On Friday Goyal and French Environment and Energy Minister Segolene Royale will be hosting a high-level meeting on the ISA on the sidelines of the signing ceremony for the Paris Climate Change agreement.

Source : IndianMediaBook - Business

Volkswagen to buy back, fix cars hit by emissions scandal

German automaker Volkswagen has agreed to fix or buy back nearly half a million diesel cars sold in the US but fitted with illegal emissions software.

The settlement between Volkswagen and US Environmental Protection Agency, the state of California and consumers was announced on Thursday by US District Judge Charles Breyer at a hearing here, Xinhua news agency reported.

Breyer said the deal would allow consumers to sell their cars back to Volkswagen or get them repaired to meet the legally required emissions levels.

It also includes “substantial compensations” for consumers and investment on clean technologies to offset excess emissions.

The affected cars are VW’s 2-litre diesel passenger vehicles sold in the US between 2009 and 2015, during which the company used a “defeat device” to cheat on emissions tests and tried to cover it up.

Details of the settlement were not disclosed. Breyer set July 21 as the deadline for Volkswagen to settle with all the parties the specifics of the plan, including the amount of fines and compensations it should pay.

Hundreds of class-action lawsuits have been filed against the German automaker following its admission of emissions cheating last September. It also faces hefty US government penalties for violating pollution standards.

Analysts estimate that the cost of the final deal would far exceed the amount of money Volkswagen has set aside for the global costs from the scandal, which is $7.6 billion.

Worldwide about 11 million vehicles are involved in Volkswagen’s emissions cheating scandal and nearly 600,000 of them are in the US.

Earlier this year, the California Air Resources Board rejected the recall plan submitted by Volkswagen for 2-litre diesel cars sold in the state between 2009 and 2015.

Source : IndianMediaBook - Business

India sees big potential in bovine meat export to Indonesia

Bovine meat can be one of the prominent sectors which could help diversify exports from India, benefiting the government and people of Indonesia, Indian Ambassador to Indonesia Nengcha Lhouvum said here.

The Embassy of India in Jakarta in association with the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) and the All India Meat and Livestock Exporters Association (AIMLEA), organised a ‘Roadshow on Indian Bovine Meat’ here on Thursday.

“The Ministry of Agriculture had deputed a country audit team to India in September 2015 to inspect abattoirs and research institutions, which confirmed that India has excellent mechanism of meat processing and quarantine control,” said Muladno, Director General of Livestock and Animal Health.

India has more than 50 slaughter houses which are above international standards. Based on this, Indonesian President Joko Widodo had signed a decree allowing ‘zone-based’ meat imports in March 2016.

Muladno added the Indonesian government is making efforts to open its market for Indian bovine meat by the Ramadan period.

“India has been trying for market access for Indian bovine meat in Indonesia since 1999. With the recent decree signed by President of Indonesia allowing ‘zone-based’ meat imports, India is expected to get a significant share of the Indonesian meat market as the bovine meat will be very competitively priced,” the Indian Embassy in Jakarta said in a statement.

The roadshow included a presentation projecting the strength of India as a consistent and quality supplier of bovine meat to Indonesia.

“India has a track record of 46 years in the export of de-boned and de-glanded frozen buffalo meat to 64 countries worldwide. 100 percent of the meat exported from India is prepared strictly in compliance with Islamic requirements and is genuinely Halal,” the statement added.

Source : IndianMediaBook - Business

BlackBerry, Digitsecure tie up for secured money transfers in India

Canadian smartphone maker BlackBerry and Digitsecure, a mobility, identity and payments platform company, on Friday joined hands for secure digital money transfers in India.

HotRemit, a social wallet app developed by Digitsecure which simplifies money transfers, mobile top-up and DTH recharge using phone numbers, is available on BlackBerry Messenger from Friday.

HotRemit enables real-time, secure and seamless digital financial transactions.

Users can send money to any of their BBM contacts using HotRemit without the complications of traditional money transfer.

“There is a growing appetite for mobile payment solutions and supporting mobile wallets, and HotRemit is another great example of how we are developing the BBM ecosystem to successfully integrate chat, social and commerce,” Matthew Talbot, senior vice president (BBM) at BlackBerry, said in a statement.

“HotRemit is committed to social financial transactions and adding more social features that simplify day to day mundane tasks,” added Jay Krishna, founder director, DigitSecure.

The BBM-enabled HotRemit app is available as a free download at BlackBerry World, Google Play and Apple App Store.

Source : IndianMediaBook - Business

After growth, India elbows out China on foreign investment

After logging a higher growth, India has emerged as the top-ranked nation in the flow of foreign direct investment in 2015, beating China on the very turf it has dominated for a few decades, says the think tank of the Financial Times.

“After a long period of trailing behind China, India is now racing past its rival. India was the highest ranked country by capital investment in 2015, with $63-billion worth of foreign direct investment (FDI) projects announced,” says fDi Intelligence in its soon-to-be-released report.

“All this while China saw a 23 percent decline in capital investment and a 16 percent drop in FDI projects. India replaced China as the top destination for FDI by capital investments, following a year of high-value project announcements,” it said in a preview.

“For so long trailing in China’s wake, India is now the great global growth story.”

Yet, said the report, China’s new phase of development may well have the stronger global impact, since its highly ambitious initiative to revitalise the Silk Road and create bold new logistics to Europe can generate investment and boost connectivity betwen the two continents.

India replaced China as the top destination for foreign investment following a year of high-value project announcements and maintaining the current momentum will a monumental task faced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi government, said Courtney Fingar, editor-in-chief of fDi Magazine.

“Longer term challenges must also be faced head on, including improving India’s infrastructure, reducing bureaucracy and tackling inequality. How well these are addressed will have significant effect on future continued competitiveness of India as an investment destination.”

As regards China, she said, there were other concerns. Faced with plateauing growth and rising costs, the country is going through a transition to becoming a high-income country while at the same time solidifying its place as a world power.

“As befits its new status as a global goliath, China is looking outward to solve some of its problems such as excess capacity due to slowing demand and this will not be without consequence to the rest of the world,” she added.

The fDi report specifically mentioned the alleged dumping of Chinese steel distorting the global market, and countries such as the UK feeling the effects in a painful way. The report said many have blamed this for the Tatas’ plans to sell off their UK steel units.

As regards the global play, the report said greenfield investment were were on recovery phase.

“But it is a sketchy recovery and not an entirely a convincing one. The report reveals capital investment increased by 9 percent in 2015, to $713 billion, while the number of jobs created through foreign capital grew by 1 percent to 1.89 million,” Fingar said.

“But the big foreign direct investment story of the past year is undeniably India.”

Source : IndianMediaBook - Business

FBI paid over $1 million to crack San Bernardino iPhone

The Federal Bureau of Investigation paid more than $1 million to access San Bernardino attacker’s iPhone, the agency said on Thursday.

It is for the first time the agency has offered a possible price tag in the high-profile case, the Washington Post reported.

Director James Comey did not offer a precise dollar figure, saying it cost “a lot” to get into the phone.

Comey said the cost of the tool was “more than I will make in the remainder of this job, which is seven years and four months, for sure.”

Comey is paid at the rate set for Level II of the executive salary schedule. That means he makes $185,100 a year, under the pay schedules that went into effect this year.

As a result, Comey’s remarks strongly implied that the bureau paid at least $1.3 million to get onto Syed Rizwan Farook’s iPhone.

Farook, with his wife Tashfeen Malik, killed 14 people in the December 2 terror attack in San Bernardino.

“But it was, in my view, worth it,” the FBI director said of what it cost to access the phone’s data.

Federal authorities have not publicly revealed who helped the FBI unlock the iPhone, which was at the center of an extended fight between the government and iPhone maker Apple.

The Justice Department had maintained that only Apple could help it access the phone without erasing all of its data before abruptly saying it had gotten help from an outside party and no longer needed Apple’s assistance.

According to people familiar with the issue, the FBI cracked the phone with the help of professional hackers who were paid a one-time flat fee.

Law enforcement officials have said recently that the FBI has found no links to foreign terrorists on the phone, though they are still hoping that geolocation data on the device could help reveal what the attackers did during an 18-minute period after the shooting.

Earlier this month, Comey had said the government was considering telling Apple how it accessed the phone, though he acknowledged if that happened, the technology giant would fix the flaw and close off that avenue.

Comey said the tool would only work on a “narrow slice” of devices, saying he was “pretty confident” it would not work on newer models.

Comey conceded Thursday that the tool would work only on an iPhone 5c running iOS 9.

In part because of the price tag, Comey said he hoped the government could figure out a solution to access other, more current phones without having to make mass appeals to the tech industry for some kind of hack.

He noted that there were 18,000 law enforcement agencies across the US that might want to access phones and could not afford what the FBI paid to access the San Bernardino phone.

The FBI’s total budget for fiscal year 2016 was more than $8.7 billion, and the bureau requested more than $9.5 billion for fiscal year 2017.

Source : IndianMediaBook - Business

Vistara partners TCS for IT services

Vistara airline on Friday said it has signed a four year comprehensive agreement with Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) for availing a range of IT and digital services.

“As per the agreement, the global IT services company will provide a broad range of IT services in the area of IT management, application maintenance and development to help the airline achieve its goal in customer experience, operational excellence as well as cost leadership,” the carrier said in a statement.

The airline, which is a joint venture of Tata and Singapore Airlines, currently offers almost 400 weekly flights to 16 destinations in India.

“Since the start of airline’s journey, the global IT services provider has been assisting us in defining our IT strategy, launch innovation platform items, created dashboards and tracking mechanisms to increase transparency and compliance. Both parties will now see greater synergies as the expanded partnership,” said its CEO Phee Teik Yeoh.

TCS president (Asia Pacific) Girish Ramachandran said that the strategic partnership provided an opportunity to develop the next-generation of innovative digital and IT solutions.

Source : IndianMediaBook - Business

Odisha targets creation of 1 lakh acre land bank by June

The Odisha government has set a target to complete acquisition of one lakh acres of land under the proposed land bank for setting up industries without any hassle by June end this year, an official said.

Industries Secretary Sanjeev Chopra has urged all district collectors to direct the concerned tehsildars to complete the process by the end of June.

“It is pertinent to mention that the state government has mandated Idco for creation of land bank of at least one lakh acres by June 30, 2016 to attract investors for establishment of industries in the state. The chief minister is also reviewing the progress from time to time”, Chopra said in a letter to the district collectors recently.

Chopra, who is also the chairman of Odisha Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (Idco), said it has filed requisition for government land measuring 76,721.94 acres under Land Bank scheme in different districts.

“Accordingly, out of the total filed area, 12,698.93 acres has been prioritized as category ‘A’ for sanction of lease in favour of Idco and 64,023.01 acres as category ‘B’ to be kept as reserved at the district level for industrial purpose,” he said.

The state government has identified lands in these two categories for creation of the land bank. While lands identified under Category A would be leased out to Idco by the district collector on requisition for immediate use for establishment of industries, under Category B, land to be kept reserved at district level for industrial purposes.

Source : IndianMediaBook - Business

Committed to bringing Mallya back to India: Government

The central government was committed to bringing liquor baron Vijay Mallya back to India to face justice, the external affairs ministry said on Friday.

“The government is committed to bringing Vijay Mallya back to face justice. We are considering steps for Mallya’s deportation,” foreign ministry spokesman Vikas Swarup told the media here.

He said that the Enforcement Directorate (ED) had requested the ministry initiate the process of his deportation after a Mumbai court issued non-bailable warrant against him.

“We are currently consulting legal experts on the next steps in this particular matter,” Swarup said.

A special court in Mumbai issued an undated non-bailable arrest warrant against the beleaguered businessman on April 18 in response to a plea by the Enforcement Directorate on April 15 under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.

Mallya, who owes more than Rs.9,000crore to various Indian banks, have failed failed to honour ED summons for questioning in various cases pertaining to his loans and allegations of money laundering.

Source : IndianMediaBook - Business

Obama’s ‘back of the queue’ warning infuriates Brexit campaigners

Visiting US President Barack Obama set the EU referendum debate alight on Friday with a warning that Britain would “go to the back of the queue” to strike a trade deal with the US if the Brexit vote wins the June 23 referendum.

Standing alongside British Prime Minister David Cameron at the Foreign Office in London, Obama spoke of the impact of an “out” vote in Britain’s national referendum on continued membership of the European Union.

Hours earlier, Obama said in a message that he was speaking as “with candor as a friend of Britain”.

His joint press conference with Cameron hours later sparked a frenzy among politicians, campaigners and commentators.

Obama said: “I think it’s fair to say that maybe some point down the line there might be a UK-U.S. trade agreement, but it’s not going to happen any time soon because our focus is in negotiating with a big bloc, the European Union, to get a trade agreement done. The UK is going to be in the back of the queue.”

Cameron welcomed the president’s trade warning as a big moment in the debate, describing it “a clear statement.”

Some analysts even suggested that the words “had been written for Obama” as Americans use the word “line” instead of “queue”. The suggestion was that Obama was doing the bidding for the pro-Cameron stance to vote yes on June 23.

Some Brexit supporter accused the US president of being guilty of “wanton double-standards”,saying that he was asking the British people to do something he wouldn’t dream of asking Americans.

Ahead of the press conference, Obama and Cameron held private talks on a number of issues, including economy and the Middle East.

Emerging after the private talks to face the media, Obama said the special U.S.-British relationship is solid and will continue – – “hopefully eternally” even if Britain votes to leave the EU, adding that he had not journeyed to Britain to “fix votes”.

But he also added that leaving the EU would not be in Britain’s economic interests.

Obama said: “If, right now, I have got access to a massive market where I sell 44 percent of my exports and now I’m thinking about leaving the organisation that gives me access to that market and that is responsible for millions of jobs in my country and responsible for an enormous amount of commerce and upon which a lot of businesses depend — that’s not something I would probably do.”

Source : IndianMediaBook - Business

Investors can be convinced of future returns from green investments: Singhi

Investors and corporate boards can be convinced to make green investments by showing them the value of tangible and intangible future returns, industrialist Mahendra Singhi has said.

Singhi, Group CEO of Dalmia Cement, said here on Friday that many green initiatives – to reduce the carbon footprint of industries and make them environmentally sustainable – will not require much additional investments.

But some initiatives, like using waste for power generation or adopting certain low carbon technologies, do need larger investments, he said. Whenever there are such projects that may not produce “normal investment return”, the cost of the green initiative is noted.

“They may not be the right return today, but considering the problems of climate and the future benefits we do convince the board as well as the the investors to support those projects,” he said.

Singhi briefed the news media about the “Impact of the Paris Climate Agreement on Business and Investors”. In recognition of Indian businesses vigorously joining the climate change battle, he was one of the two Indian industrialists showcased by the UN at the Paris Agreement signing events. The other was Anand Mahindra, the CEO of Mahindra Group, who spoke on behalf of the corporate world at the opening ceremony.

Many green projects requiring large investments but low returns are beyond the reach of industries in developing countries and are not being implemented, Singhi said. “That is why there is the demand from developing countries for green funds,” he said. “Developed countries should support developing countries for achieving” environmental goals.

He said his company decided it would “walk the talk” on sustainable development and adopted voluntary targets. These were ensuring that its carbon footprint should be one of the lowest in the industry, which it has achieved, and becoming “water positive” so that more water is conserved, he said.

“We are also working in a big way on renewable power,” Singhi said. “Almost seven percent of our power consumption is from renewable resources and we will make it to 20 percent by 2019.”

The company has also started to convert the waste of other industries into power and projects its message of “waste to wealth”, he said. “We conserve the very important resources of our planet.”

“We have worked on corporate social responsibility for serving the poor part of society so that we don’t become an island of prosperity, but we create prosperity for all. We follow the philosophy of total prosperity shared with all stakeholders including the poor in our society.”

Source : IndianMediaBook - Business

Cab aggregator overcharges customers on toll, state tax

Even as the Delhi government has cracked down on app-based taxi aggregators for “surge pricing”, one such operator has been overcharging commuters — showing higher toll or state tax.

Ola has been overcharging on toll and state tax for a ride in the national capital region from Delhi to Noida or in the reverse direction.

While the actual toll charged by the Uttar Pradesh government for a taxi crossing over from Delhi is Rs.60, the cab operator has been charging higher, sometimes even double.

In reverse, while the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) toll for a taxi crossing into Delhi is Rs.100 the operator has charged some passengers a higher amount, as the bills generated by the aggregator show.

One complainant, who resides in east Delhi’s Mayur Vihar, said she has been overcharged since the beginning of April for the 4.2 km she travels to and from work in Noida.

“I am an occasional traveller by taxi and I prefer Ola cabs for commuting from Noida Sector 16 to Mayur Vihar or in reverse direction. A month back the bill used to be around Rs.170-180 for the 4.2 km distance; but on April 11, I had to pay Rs.286,” she told IANS, declining to be named.

“When I went through the bills of my ride, I found that Rs.165 was charged under the State Tax/MCD charges,” she added. There were two other occasions with the same amount.

When contacted the head of corporate communication for Ola, Aditia Bhalla, said they have a “transparent fare system”, where a commuter can check all the details of their ride on their website and also the bill.

When the invoice number of at least two instances of such overcharging were given to him, Bhalla said that if a commuter thinks he or she has been overcharged then they must register their complaint with the customer care service and the company will hear their grievances. He said he would get back to IANS, but till Saturday afternoon he had not.

North MCD spokesperson, Y.S. Mann told IANS: “MCD toll charges for private taxis in Delhi is Rs.100, and if they are charging more, then the passenger must take up the issue with the taxi operators as MCD receives only Rs.100 from them.”

Another passenger too complained of overcharging on tax by Ola during a ride from Mayur Vihar to Noida.

“I prefer Ola over other taxi operators, but I was surprised to see Rs 120 has been charged as state tax, which is actually Rs.60 for entering Uttar Pradesh from Delhi.”

The Ola website also says that a commuter needs to pay Rs.100 for entering Delhi from Noida, and Rs.60 to enter Uttar Pradesh from Delhi as MCD and state taxes.

The Delhi government which has warned taxi operators against surge pricing, said it hasn’t received such complaints so far, but it will take action if people provide them proof.

“We haven’t come across any such complaint as of now. If people have any proof or information about this then please give it to us, and we will look into the matter and take stern action,” Delhi Transport Minister Gopal Rai told IANS.

Source : IndianMediaBook - Business

‘Cross-country support for success of climate change projects’

International support through sharing expertise and experiences and by providing financial assistance is essential for climate change projects to succeed, said Ajay Mathur, director general of The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI).

Speaking on Friday at a high-level event on the sidelines of the ceremonies for signing the landmark Paris Climate Change Agreement, Mathur shared the lessons from India’s LED lighting initiative and the Perform Achieve & Trade (PAT) programme.

The cross-country support the programmes got has helped accelerate learning, and therefore helped achieve goals faster, he said.

Both these programmes, while unique, build on experiences from other regions and “shamelessly” utilise experience and expertise from those places, Mathur said.

The initiatives have also benefited from financial support for expertise and capacity building, he added.

In addition, the LED lighting programme was helped by lines of credit from bilateral development agencies, he added.

The theme of the session was “Taking Climate Action to the Next Level: Realizing the Vision of the Paris Agreement” and it looked at practical ways in which nations can help implement the just signed climate change agreement.

The LED programme aims to change all lights in India to the more energy efficient LED over the next three years leading to the elimination of nearly 25 million tons of carbon dioxide every year from lower power consumption, he explained.

Nearly 100 million bulbs have already been replaced by LED bulbs.

The PAT initiative is a regulatory programme mandating the most energy intensive industrial and energy supply plants to reduce their specific energy consumption, that is, the amount of energy they use to produce a ton of product, or a kw-hour of electricity over successive three-year cycles, he said.

Plants which achieve more savings than the target reductions get to keep the excess savings as certificates which can either be banked for use in the next cycle, or traded with other plants who can use them for compliance, Mathur said.

The first cycle covered plants that consumed about a third of all the fossil fuels used in India, and they exceeded the target resulting in the reduction of about 30 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions reductions every year.

TERI has played a historically important role in the climate change initiatives that led to the Paris summit last year and the framing of the agreement.

Mathur was the director-general of the power ministry’s Bureau of Energy Efficiency before taking over as the head of TERI earlier this year, succeeding R. K., Pachauri, who had also been the chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which provided the scientific backbone to the UN climate change programme and the Paris pact.

Mathur was one of India’s negotiators for hammering out the agreement at the Paris climate change summit last year.

The other important lesson from implementing the projects was that it was important to start small and build capacity and experience before scaling up once a “robust” institutional model has been achieved, Mathur said.

Getting real time data on performance was important, he said citing the example of the LED programme’s website delp.in, which shows the number of bulbs sold updated every 30 seconds.

Source : IndianMediaBook - Business