News on Indian Economy
The government is looking to reduce imports of more than 350 “non-essential” items such as toys, textiles, footwear and electronic goods to give the Make in India initiative a push, a report in The Times of India has said.
Indian Railways all set to get ‘Make in India’ high-speed rails! The state-run steel manufacturing firm SAIL or Steel Authority of India Limited is planning to start manufacturing special quality rails for the high-speed train corridors and metro projects in the next two years. An official quoted in a recent PTI report said that the organisation could start manufacturing special rails at its Bhilai Steel Plant (BSP) in Chhattisgarh as well as the IISCO Steel Plant at Burnpur situated in West Bengal. Anirban Dasgupta, CEO, SAIL’s Bhilai Steel Plant was quoted in the report saying that they expect to commence head-hardened rail project in the next two years. However, the project is now in the planning stage and the capacity, as well as project investments, have not been finalized as yet.
The special quality rails which are being manufactured by SAIL hold significance to the Indian Railways network as the speciality product has more strength than the normal rails and will be utilized for metro rail projects and high speed train corridors. Dasgupta explained that the feasibility studies will be carried out at the BSP and Burnpur steel plants as only one facility’s set-up will not be enough for SAIL, given the existing demands of the projects. The rail project would also help for substituting imports.
According to Dasgupta, SAIL is in the process of hiring a consultant in order to carry out the feasibility studies. According to reports, the Indian Railways’ track modernisation programme will need at least one million tonnes of the head-hardened rails in the next four-five years. The new metro rail projects across the country alone will stimulate the demand for at least 500,000 tonnes of the special quality rails in the next couple of years. The capacity of the Bhilai steel plant has been increased, for producing two million tonnes of normal rails from 0.8 million tonnes per annum after the modernisation process. In the year 2019 -2020, the steel plant facility is expected to produce 1.3 million tonnes.
Drishti Transmissometer, the indigenous cost-effective visibility measuring system, has been developed at the workshop of National Aerospace Laboratories, Bengaluru. As the Drishti system is web-enabled, maintenance may be carried out from any location in the country. None of the Drishti systems, including the first one installed at Indira Gandhi International Airport, New Delhi, in 2011, has failed so far.
Helped by government stimulus measures, the Goods and Services Tax (GST) collection in November crossed Rs 1 lakh crore, after dropping below the Rs 1 lakh crore level for three consecutive months amid a deceleration of economic growth.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday said about 12 global companies have evinced interest to shift their base from China to India, taking advantage of a competitive tax rate of 15 per cent announced recently.
It is learnt that during the international conference organised by Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) and Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL), under the aegis of Homi Bhabha National Institute (HBNI) in Mumbai earlier this month, discussions were held over future utilisation of LWRs in India to supplement existing plans of construction of heavy water pressurised reactors.
The core innovations which makes PureFlyt a game changer is its ability to draw on both on-board and open-world data, such as weather information. By combining the integrity of the FMS and the agility and power of Electronic Flight Bag flight functionalities, aircraft trajectory can be permanently controlled, adapted and enhanced, resulting in optimised flight, decreased fuel consumption and improved passenger comfort.
The Department of Civil Aviation of India has confirmed that the standard design of the Mi-171A2 helicopter meets the requirements of the country’s civil aviation (CAR).
Shenzen-based BYD is also a leading manufacturer of electric buses, trucks and other vehicles. Its domestic arm was established in March 2007 in Chennai and has an office in New Delhi. The Indian subsidiary has two factories covering more than 140,000 square metres, with a cumulative investment of over $150 million.
“Providing loans to MSMEs is a priority of the government. PSBs [public sector banks] have been told to give loans to the sector according to the laid down prudential norms. E-invoicing will help banks to instantly verify order-books of these firms and help in faster sanctioning of loans. If required necessary directives will be issued [to PSBs],” one of the officials said.
