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The Indian Express Power, railways, roads, urban irrigation, mobility and health would account for the bulk of projects announced as part of the National Infrastructure Pipeline. Finance Minister  Nirmala Sitharaman  Tuesday unveiled Rs 102 lakh crore of infrastructure projects that will be implemented between fiscal 2020 and 2025, with the central and state governments contributing 39 per cent each and the private sector contributing the remaining 22 per cent. Besides strengthening the municipal bond market, an aggressive push towards asset sales and regulatory mechanisms to levy user charges are among the reforms that have been recommended by government panel to aid the process of galvanising over Rs 100 lakh crore of investments in infrastructure sector in next five years. She said the government will pursue a series of reforms to facilitate these investments and an annual global investors’ meet, set to be organised to attract investors. Of the total project capit...

The Indian Express Department of Telecommunications (DoT) officials met telecom operators and equipment makers on Tuesday to discuss the details such as the circle and population areas that 5G trials could cover. In a meeting that lasted over an hour, all telecom operators as well as some equipment makers such as  Nokia , Zte, and  Huawei  made presentations about their preparedness in helping with the commencement of 5G trials, said people aware of the development.  DoT as well as company officials, however, declined to share other details from the meeting, which was chaired by Telecom Secretary   Anshu Prakash . The meeting on Tuesday was held barely 24 hours after the government decided to give all telcos and equipment vendors, including Huawei, the permission to participate in 5G trials in India. The decision to give the Chinese telecom equipment making giant the nod to participate in 5G trials assumes significance in the face of global scrutiny th...

The Telegraph Muzaffar Raina Jammu and Kashmir High Court on Tuesday withdrew an advertisement inviting outsiders to apply for judicial jobs, the first that was issued since the August 5 decision to scrap the former state’s special status. “The advertisement… whereby applications were invited for different posts in non-gazette category in the High Court of Jammu and Kashmir stands withdrawn with immediate effect,” an order issued by high court registrar-general Sanjay Dhar says. The order gave no reason for the withdrawal. The Hindu-majority districts of Jammu, which had supported the abrogation of special status, have been protesting vociferously against the advertisement.  The high court had on December 26 invited applications from all over the country to fill 33 vacancies in the district courts of the newly created Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh. The last date for submission of applications was January 31. The 33 vacant non-gazetted posts inc...

BusinessLine Amiti Sen To ensure goods exports post an overall growth in the on-going fiscal despite a small decline in the first eight months, the Commerce Ministry is trying to identify problems affecting commodity exports and take them up on priority for resolution with export promotion councils and the Customs Department, a government official has said. “Export promotion councils (EPCs) have been asked by the Commerce Ministry to target a minimum 15 per cent growth in exports in the current fiscal. Regular meetings with exporters, EPCs and SEZs are being conducted to expedite orders in the pipeline,” the official told  BusinessLine .   Exporters body FIEO has estimated exports to be around $330 billion-$340 billion in the current fiscal, which is almost at the same level as last year’s $331 billion. However, it is more positive about the next fiscal and expects exports to grow at 15 per cent if the global situation improves in the first half of 2020. “W...

Livemint Struggling Air India might be forced to shut down by June next year unless it finds a buyer as "piecemeal" arrangements cannot be sustained for long, according to a senior airline official. Amid continuing uncertainty over the fate of the national carrier, the official said there is also need for funds to restart operations of 12 grounded narrow-body planes. The airline has a debt burden of around ₹ 60,000 crore and the government is still working on the modalities for the disinvestment. Sounding alarm bells, the official said Air India might well go Jet Airways way if a prospective buyer does not come on board by June next year. With government leaving the debt-ridden airline to fend for itself by refusing to inject funds any more amid its privatisation plans, the airline is "some how" keeping it afloat with peace meal arrangements, which are unlikely to sustain for long, the official said. As per the government, it has infused fu...

BusinessLine S. Ronendra Singh Going forward, the Indian IT industry is expected to grow faster as part of the Industry 4.0 revolution. The year 2019 continued to take forward the trends in the world of Information Technology with increased usage of Artificial Intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT) and Machine Learning. But controversies also cropped up on the use of social media, impacting the industry and common man. Regulation The common man has started feeling the need to regulate the sector to ensure harmonious and progressive growth. It was in 2019 that people started thinking on these lines, especially after WhatsApp started spying on Indian journalists and human rights activists earlier this year. The Facebook-owned company also accepted that Indian journalists and human rights activists were among those globally that were spied on by unidentified entities using Pegasus, an Israeli spyware. Data Protection Act This was one of the main reaso...

BusinessLine V Rishi Kumar ICRA has revised the year-end outlook for the renewable energy (RE) sector, from stable to negative. The sector is facing headwinds because of the long delays in making payments by the state distribution utilities, execution delays for projects bid out over the past two years due to challenges in completion, land acquisition difficulties, securing transmission connectivity and; financing in a timely manner. Sabyasachi Majumdar, Group Head & Senior Vice President - Corporate ratings, ICRA, says, “The headwinds related to payment delays, uncertainty over resolution of tariff issue for projects in Andhra Pradesh, as well as execution and financing related challenges for under-construction projects have impacted investor sentiments in the sector. This is reflected from the slowdown in tendering of wind and solar PV projects by 37% to 10.6 GW in 9M CY2019 from 16.7 GW in the corresponding period of previous year. Moreover, many of bid...