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This alone is quite a significant signal even if the deal is, on a macro level, rather minor. Vodafone was at the forefront of the counter-productive taxation policies the UPA-2 had tried to implement that had done HUGE damage to India's image in the investor community. The fact that Vodofone are now pumping in their own capital back into India is an incredibly positive signal and does show that the NDA is successfully making India a more attractive place to invest.

The GoI deserves quite a bit of credit for what they have managed to achieve in a short span os time especially considering that I had seen a remark by one investment analyst calling the investment environment in India "toxic" back in 2013.



£3.2 bllion is not chump change at all, and yet the subsequent wording is incredibly wishy washy. There is clearly something big here (a megaproject or two) but the details are not apparent right now.
30:00 onwards
 
30:00 onwards
Good to get some firm details, the energy deal equates to 3GW solar energy projects for India.


Other than that this was a good speech by Modi (not usually a fan of his grandiose speeches) plenty of tangibles and performances matrixes backing his comments. With hims as PM India is certainly headed in the right direction- If only the political class could go on sabbatical for a decade or so for him to implement his vision. The fear of him being whittled down and thrown out in 2019 is nightmare-invoking.
 
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Seeking to give a boost to the railway infrastructure, government today gave its nod to four rail line projects in Odisha, Andhra Pradesh and Chhattisgarh at a cost of around Rs 8351 crore.

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi today gave its approval for the doubling of 189.278 km Kottavalasa-Koraput railway line with a completion cost of Rs 2977.64 crore.

Cabinet nod to four rail line projects worth Rs 8351 crore - The Economic Times
 
I'm back guys! (to this section :P)

India Reforms Are Gathering Pace

India Reforms Are Gathering Pace

November 16, 2015

A comprehensive note from Jupiter Investment Management's Avinash Vazirani (Manager of the Jupiter India Fund) highlights how Prime Minister Modi's recent high profile visit to the UK shines a light on Anglo/India relations, and the potential for closer ties between the two countries on issues such as climate change and defence. While this is very interesting for politicians and general observers, Modi's comments on the attractiveness of India as an investment destination should be a focal point for investors, he says. As a long term investor in the Indian market, the background changes discussed below, and which are receiving little or no publicity, are setting the scene for a transformation of the Indian economy the likes of which we have not seen in recent history.

Indian stocks have been an isolated area of relative calm amid the storm that has raged across global emerging markets in recent months. Vazirani believes the game-changing reforms that have helped drive growth in India are continuing to gain momentum, and together with strongly positive business conditions, will help power the next leg of Indian economic growth. Meetings with government have also left him confident that the government will do whatever it takes to ensure fiscal and monetary policy are aligned to protect India's low-inflation, rate-cutting cycle.

One of the flagship reforms of the Modi government has been its introduction of a programme of universal social security designed to help lift hundreds of millions out of poverty, for the first time establishing minimum living standards and bringing vast swathes of the population out of the shadow economy and into the formal banking system. A system of biometric identity records, linked to bank accounts and mobile phone accounts will provide basic health and life insurance and social security benefits. This should dramatically reduce the waste and inefficiency of the state's payment of subsidies.

The speed and success of this scheme has been breath-taking. Since its launch in September 2014, 190m bank accounts have been opened and 165 million debit cards issued. Shared ownership of bank accounts means that this figure already covers a large portion of the estimated 600,000 Indians who did not have access to bank accounts before the programme was rolled out. With around 2 million new accounts opening per week, the remaining pool of 200-300 million people without access to a bank account is decreasing fast.

It's easy to overlook the amount of job creation that's happening in India as a result of other government initiatives, he says. The ‘Make in India' scheme aimed at persuading foreign companies to manufacture in India has already seen Taiwanese electronics giant Foxconn sign up to spend US$5 billion building its factories in Maharashtra State, while the ‘Skill India' programme aims to give 4 million Indians the skills that should help fuel India's burgeoning economy. Meanwhile the MUDRA programme of microenterprise funding that seemed to be in its planning stages just months ago has already disbursed $3.5 billion dollars in loans to small businesses. Under the scheme, banks make loans to small businesses, laying off this risk to this to a government agency. According to government sources, at least half a million jobs have been created, while the boost to GDP (gross domestic product) of the extra economic activity from these newly-funded businesses is clear.

The government's focus on agricultural productivity is another area of major change. It's being pursued in a number of ways, he says. The first is a plan to ensure every field is irrigated (hitherto farmers have relied on unpredictable rainfall), funded through the agricultural credit bank (NABARD). Next, crop insurance has been trialled in pilot schemes across India and will be rolled out across the country next year. Under the scheme, farmers can insure crops so that in the event of drought or infestation, they are reimbursed. Then there is the farmers' Soil ID card system, which will help farmers understand which fertiliser to use, and has seen a 60 percent uptake already. All of these initiatives are bringing another (rural) section of the population into the formal banking and social security network and into the formal economy. As well as delivering a boost to the safety of their livelihoods, from an investors' point of view, it constitutes a huge secular increase in business for banks and insurance companies and we continue to watch this space.

After years of stagnation, India's infrastructure build-out got back into gear under Narendra Modi's government. Today in India, new highways are being built at a rate of 18 kilometres per day. A previously-stalled project to redevelop India's ports has re-started, with new contracts being given out to developers. And the largest piece of India's transport infrastructure project is its railways. Here, the government has earmarked a massive 8.5 trillion rupees (around $150 billion) and for the first time that figure constitutes a guaranteed allocation from budget resources – a first in India. Contracts for the build-out have been awarded, and the process of upgrading India's transport system is underway.

On the fiscal side, the new government has vowed to devolve spending budgets to the states that make up the Indian federation. As a result of new laws, some 42 percent of central taxes now go directly to state governments (up from 32 percent). The new Goods and Services Tax (GST) legislation, which promises to harmonize what is currently a patchwork of sales tax regimes across the Indian states, in favour of a single national sales tax, and should produce a major boost to revenues by reducing the cost of business, is currently stalled in parliament amid dogged resistance from parliamentary opposition. Here, again, Vazirani says he gets the sense that this is a reform whose benefits are so clear compelling that both sides of the argument – even those currently delaying its progress through parliament – know it has to happen. While there has been some confusion around the amount that individual states can add to the tax for themselves (in fact they may apply an extra 1 percent for a limited period of two years), there is no question that this is another move that will be hugely beneficial to state finances, which in turn will help reduce inflation.

And while the government has no real scope to affect monetary policy change or set the independent central bank's inflation targets, recent conversations with government have reassured him that the government will do whatever needs to be done to align fiscal with monetary policy and ensure that any threats to India's new low-inflation, rate-cutting environment are dealt with adequately and promptly.

However, one reform the government has been able to implement within the monetary sphere has been a shake-up of India's banking sector. The 21 new licenses issued since the beginning of this initiative – 11 to payment banks and 10 to small finance banks – are part of the transformation of a sector that has been open to accusations of risk-averse lending, inaction on non-performing loans and insufficiently autonomous board and executive appointments. "The new entrants to the banking sector are a good sign, a new bankruptcy code will give its existing members the means to recover bad loans in a way they couldn't previously and there is even talk of a special situations fund which could take on some of these assets," he says.

The final piece, on board appointments, is part of the government's wider plan to beat corruption at board level and improve the corporate governance not just of banks, but of state-owned companies too. Here, the new administration is making huge strides, sending a message to government-controlled companies by refusing to appoint non-executive board members who will not comply with its new corporate governance standards. "These are measures will take some time to show through, but the message is clear: in my view, the outlook for Indian businesses has never been brighter."

@Dungeness : To keep you updated on the overall scenario ;)
 

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