Trackpad

Finally Navi Mumbai Airport May Soon Be A Reality

GVK Power and Infrastructure has won the project to develop an airport in Navi Mumbai. worth Rs 16,000 crore, The Navi Mumbai airport project bid is worth Rs 16,000 crore and the proposed airport is expected to ease the congestion at the Mumbai airport.

In 2007, the government had approved building the Navi Mumbai airport. However, the project was delayed due to environmental concerns and land acquisition problems. GVK-led company Mumbai International Airport Ltd. (MIAL) beat GMR Infrastructure to win the bid. GVK operates the Mumbai international airport, while GMR operates the Delhi tnternational airport. 

The two companies had earlier submitted their bids to the City and Industrial Development Corporation (CIDCO) Maharashtra Limited, after the authority granted two extensions. CIDCO is Navi Mumbai’s nodal town planning authority. CIDCO had failed to attract any bidders for the project at the earlier two occasions, and was forced to alter the project conditions to make it attractive for developers. The project will be carried out on public-private partnership (PPP) basis, and CIDCO will incur the cost of pre-development work, which it will later recover from GVK.

Major airports in India, including Mumbai and Chennai, are bursting at the seams with the domestic passenger traffic growing at over 23 per cent year-on-year. India's domestic passenger air traffic is estimated to have grown well above 10 crore passengers in a year.

Wipro plans to reboot to deal with US backlash

Wipro, the Indian IT services company headquartered in Bangalore, is seeking to re-position itself as a holistic brand identity to reflect the rapid shifts in the industry, market, technology and competitive landscape of its various businesses.

According to media reports, Wipro is planning to rebrand itself as a group that is not just focused on IT, but also on consumer goods and other businesses. The move comes in the wake of backlash in the US over Indian IT firms and will likely involve rebranding the positioning, tagline and logo. 

In the context of Wipro's rebranding move, Prathish Nair, the chief business architect at brand consulting firm Transcend, said that it is important for brands to address the need to rebrand in order to be cohesive and relevant to their target markets.

The Wipro brand is used both by Wipro Limited and Wipro Enterprises, which includes Wipro Consumer Care and Lighting, and Wipro Infrastructure Engineering. In the past seven decades, the company has diversified into businesses such as technology, healthcare, energy, soaps, talcum powder and lighting. Wipro's consumer care and lighting business includes brands such as Santoor and Chandrika soaps, Yardley fragrances, Safewash liquid detergent, fabric conditioner and Glucovita glucose lozenges. As a matter of fact, the group's consumer care business generates close to 51 per cent of its overall revenues from international markets and may touch revenues of USD 1 billion in 2017. 

The rebranding of Wipro is expected to be concluded in the next quarter. However, the company has not taken any final decision on this matter.

Dassault Aviation inks JV with Reliance Defence

Dassault Aviation, a subsidiary of Dassault Group and the French aircraft manufacturer of military, regional and business jets, has signed a joint venture with Reliance Defence for Rafale offset obligations. The joint venture will help both India and France develop their relationship further. 

In January, Competition Commission of India (CCI) had approved the proposed joint venture between Anil Ambani-led group firm Reliance Aerostructure and Rafale-maker Dassault Aviation. The proposed JV company will be named as 'Dassault Reliance Aerospace Limited' (DRAL). Reliance Aerostructure Ltd. (RAL) will have 51 per cent stake in the JV, while Dassault Aviation (DA) will hold 49 per cent.

Dassault Aviation was in talks with other companies as well, but chose to have a footprint in India with Reliance. According to media reports, Eric Trappier, the CEO of Dassault Aviation, said that joint ventures with Indian companies is sure to boost defence research and development.

The detailed schedule of offset obligations will be known in the coming months, but they are likely to start delivery of components by 2018.

Reliance Communications (RCom) expects to complete three proposed deals, including a merger with Aircel, by mid-2017. 

Reliance Communications entered into a merger deal with Chennai-based telecom operator Aircel in September last year in order to reduce RCom's overall debt by Rs 20,000 crore, which is nearly 40 per cent of the company's total debt. Punit Garg, the head of strategy and regulatory affairs of RCom, said the ongoing litigation on Aircel will not have any impact on the merger process.

In the backdrop of this, the Anil Ambani-led telecom company also agreed to sell a 51 per cent stake in the company's tower unit-Reliance Infratel to Canada's Brookfield Group for Rs 11,000 crore. The telecom towers will be demerged into a separate new entity that will be 100 per cent owned and independently managed by the Canadian company. 

Gurdeep Singh, the co-CEO of RCom, emphasised on consolidation, saying that it is the only way forward in the industry and Reliance Communication is playing an upfront running role in it. Meanwhile, RCom is also looking forward to a merger with Sistema Shyam Teleservices by the end of March 2017. 

The sale of the tower unit and a plan by RCom & Aircel has been initiated with an objective to merge their wireless businesses by mid-2017. The Brookfield and Aircel transactions will also help RCom reduce debt by 70 per cent by 2018. RCom's debt stood at Rs 42,800 crore as of December 31, 2016. 

The country’s foodgrain production is set to touch record high of 272 million tonnes for the crop year ending June 2016-17. The strong set of foodgrain production numbers have been boosted by good monsoons in the country after two consecutive draught years.

According to the advance estimates of production of major crops, 8 out of 9 foodgrains are set to touch record high production figures for the season. The total production of rice, wheat, coarse cereals and pulses is estimated at record 108.86; 96.64, 44.34 and 22.14 million tonnes, respectively.

Oilseed production is also pegged at a record 33.60 million tonnes this year with soyabean output likely to be 14.13 million tonnes, groundnut 8.47 million tonnes and castor seed 1.74 million tonnes.

Production of sugarcane is estimated at 309.98 million tonnes, which is lower by 38.46 million tonnes than last year’s production of 348.45 million tonnes.

Among cash crops, cotton output is estimated at 32.51 million bales (of 170 kg each) in 2016-17, as against 30 million bales previous year.

The advance estimates released by Department of Agriculture is indicative of government's initiatives yielding results, supported by the rain gods.