New Delhi, July 6 (IANS) More large foreign manufacturers of heavy machinery used in the infrastructure sector figure in the list of more than 15,000 companies that have registered to set up units in the country during June, according to data compiled by the ministry of corporate affairs.

Senior officials see this as the outcome of the increasing demand for such machinery as the government is making massive investments in highways, ports, airports and railway projects.

It also reflects the success of the Government’s Make-in-India and Aatmanirbhar policy that encourages foreign companies to start operations in the country, an official said.

UK’s Auger Torque Europe Ltd, one of the foreign companies which has registered for starting operations in India, manufactures earth drills and attachments and is part of Germany’s Kinshofer Group which makes attachments for truck cranes and excavators.

Japan’s Tomoe Engineering Co Ltd, which is on the new list, manufactures machinery, equipment and chemicals.

Another Japanese company, Kawada Industries, Inc. is part of the KTI Kawada Group, which is the business of building, maintaining and preserving infrastructure.

Besides, a Russian heavy machinery manufacturer and a UAE-based energy company have also registered to set up operations in India.

Institut fuer Oekologie, Technik and Innovation Gmbh, also in the new list of foreign companies keen to set up base in India, provides testing and certification services for different industries.

These foreign companies are expected to bring in new technology and will complement the efforts of Indian companies that are operating in the infrastructure sector, a senior official pointed out.

Big-ticket infrastructure projects in the highways, railways and ports sector will continue to drive growth in the Indian economy as the Government has stepped up the outlay for these investments in the interim budget for 2024-25.

Government investments in large infrastructure projects create jobs and incomes that have a multiplier effect on the economy as demand for products such as steel and cement also goes up which leads to more private investments and employment. With the creation of additional jobs, the demand for consumer goods also increases leading to a further acceleration in the country’s economic growth rate.

To ramp up the virtuous cycle of investment and job creation, the budget for 2023-24 had ramped up the capital expenditure outlay on infrastructure projects by 37.4 per cent to a whopping Rs 10 lakh crore from Rs 7.28 lakh crore in 2022-23.

The interim budget presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has further enhanced by 11.1 per cent the allocation for infrastructure projects to a whopping Rs 11.11 lakh crore to spur growth. The increase that comes on top of a large base of the previous year will result in massive investments to spur growth. The finance minister pointed out that this will also attract big investments from the private sector which will accelerate the growth momentum.

The interim budget provides for a Rs 2.52 lakh crore capital expenditure for Railways in 2024-25. The finance minister has announced the implementation of three major economic railway corridor programmes namely energy, mineral and cement corridors; port connectivity corridors; and high traffic density corridors.

–IANS

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Mumbai, July 6 (IANS) The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said on Friday that it has imposed a penalty of Rs 1.32 crore on Punjab National Bank for non-compliance with regulations on ‘Loans and Advances – Statutory and Other Restrictions’ and breach of KYC norms.

The RBI has in its statutory inspection found that PNB “sanctioned working capital demand loans to two State Government-owned Corporations against amounts receivable from Government by way of subsidies/refunds/reimbursements.”

PNB also failed to preserve the records pertaining to the identification of customers and their addresses obtained during the course of business relationships in certain accounts.

The RBI also said that the action against PNB is based on deficiencies in regulatory compliance and is not intended to pronounce upon the validity of any transactions or agreement entered into by the bank with its customers.

–IANS

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New Delhi, July 6 (IANS) India’s major ride-hailing company Ola has exited Google Maps and has shifted to its own Ola Maps for cab operations.

Bhavish Aggarwal, co-founder and Chairman of the Ola group said that through this move, the company will save nearly Rs 100 crore per year.

Last month Aggarwal cut all his ties with Microsoft Azure and shifted his company’s entire workload to in-house Artificial Intelligence (AI) firm Krutrim.

In a social media post, he asked users to check Ola apps and update if required.

Aggarwal said on X, “After Azure exit last month, we’ve now fully exited Google Maps. We used to spend ₹100 cr a year but we’ve made that 0 this month by moving completely to our in-house Ola maps! Check your Ola app and update if needed.”

Aggarwal announced many more new features like street view, NERFs, indoor images, 3D maps, drone maps, etc will be integrated into Ola maps soon.

“Many more features coming soon – street view, NERFs, indoor images, 3D maps, drone maps, etc!” Aggarwal said in a social media post.

In October 2021, Ola acquired Pune-based geospatial services provider company GeoSpoc.

Currently, Ola Maps provides services to its flagship ride-hailing app Ola cabs.

At the time of the Krutrim AI launch, Ola announced that it would provide a mapping solution within its Cloud services.

Recently, Aggarwal said that “early next year is when you can see our own cells in our own products.”

Ola is building a battery cell gigafactory in Tamil Nadu’s Krishnagiri District.

–IANS

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New Delhi, July 6 (IANS) India’s electricity production went up by a robust 15.06 per cent to 167.55 billion units in May this year compared to 145.61 billion in the same month last year, as demand surged amid the scorching heat wave, according to the monthly report of Central Electricity Authority.

Thermal power, generated mainly from coal-and gas-based plants, contributed 127.87 billion units which represented a 14.67 per cent increase over the same month last year.

The demand for electricity peaked at a record high of 250GW on May 30 as an extended heat wave across North India kept electricity demand elevated in May and most of June. The peak power demand is projected to go up to 260GW in 2024-25.

With the monsoon gathering pace to cover the entire country ahead of schedule and temperatures coming down in the northern states, the peak demand is currently at around 200GW.

Hydropower generation is expected to increase with the reservoirs getting replenished during the monsoon. In May, electricity generation from large hydro projects rose 9.92 per cent to 11.62 billion units.

Renewable energy projects, excluding hydro, generated 22.50 billion units, 18.34 per cent more than the year-ago period.

The power ministry has directed domestic coal-based plants to blend 6 per cent imported coal till September in order to ensure that sufficient electricity is generated to meet demand.

With India clocking an economic growth of 8.2 per cent, the highest among the major economies, the demand for power has also shot up due to the increased economic activity.

The Government is also considering taking a relook at the power demand projections in order to plan for creating more generation capacity in the next five years.

–IANS

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New Delhi, July 5 (IANS) As the Indian stock market keeps touching new highs amid a record bull run, over 42.4 lakh new demat accounts were opened in the month of June, the highest account opening rate since February.

In May, 36 lakh new demat accounts were opened, according to data from the Central Depository Service and National Securities Depository. The total demat accounts are now at more than 16.2 crore.

This is the fourth time when new demat openings crossed 40 lakh in a single month. The feat was earlier achieved in December 2023, January 2024 and February this year.

On Thursday, Sensex and Nifty made a new all-time high of 80,392 and 24,401 respectively. According to market experts, the return of FIIs to the domestic market and the expectation of a rate cut in September are supporting market sentiment.

After a run-up of 7 per cent in the last month, analysts expect the market to consolidate at a higher zone. “In the coming week, we expect stock and sector-specific action as the market starts taking cues from Q1FY25 earnings. On the macro front, investors will look out for inflation data that will be released by India, the US, and China,” said Siddhartha Khemka, Head of Retail Research, Motilal Oswal Financial Services.

–IANS

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