World Investment Report 2018

India has moved up a notch to enter the top 10 FDI host economies in 2017 despite the challenging condition of global foreign direct investment flows.

According to the World Investment Report 2018, global flows of FDI fell by 23% in 2017, largely due to contraction across developed economies. FDI flows across developing economies, especially in Asia have remained stable, even though the growth has been flat, according to the commerce ministry.

“2018 is slated to be a tough year with the slowing pace of international production and stagnation of growth in GVCs. Having said that, the Ministry of Commerce & Industry working on critical aspects such as modernising existing bilateral, multilateral and plurilateral treaties, and releasing the new industrial policy focussed on making the Indian industry future ready,” a statement from the ministry said.

Data released showed FDI inflows into India rose 3% to $62 billion during 2017-18, the slowest pace of expansion since the Modi government came to office four years ago. FDI inflows during the previous fiscal were estimated at a shade over $60 billion. 

NCR's RRTS Corridor

The high-speed Regional Rapid Transit System corridor that will link Delhi and Meerut will have aerodynamic, state-of-the-art trains that will offer business class luxury to commuters, apart from a reserved coach for women. The 82-km distance between the two cities will be covered in around an hour.

The RRTS project, which is scheduled to be completed by 2024, has already got the nod of Uttar Pradesh government and is awaiting the approval of Delhi government. It is being executed by the National Capital Region Transport Corporation. The service will start at Delhi’s Sarai Kale Khan and stop at Meerut’s Modipuram, going via New Ashok Nagar, Anand Vihar, Ghaziabad and Modinagar. The line will have 24 stations, three of them in Delhi.

The train has a designed speed of 180 kmph, but the average speed is expected to be kept at 100 kmph. Initially there will be six coaches to each train, with one business class coach and another reserved for women. Unlike the Delhi Metro trains, RRTS will have transverse seating as in aircraft. While the general coaches will have more standing space, the business class coach will provide a comfortable and luxurious ride for a higher fee. The charges, however, are yet to be decided.

The trains will have all the facilities of universal access, which means differently abled people should have no problem entering or leaving the coaches. Also, keeping the issue of safety in mind, the stations will have platform screen doors and the trains will have inherent safety features even at high speed, including CCTV cameras.

The starting point of the Delhi-Meerut corridor, the Sarai Kale Khan station, would become a transit hub with the existing inter-state bus terminal, Hazrat Nizamuddin railway station and the upcoming Delhi Metro station of the Pink Line. The following two stops of the train in Delhi, New Ashok Nagar and Anand Vihar, are also connected with the Delhi Metro network. In fact, Anand Vihar will act as another transit hub with the presence of an ISBT and railway station there.

Apart from the Delhi-Ghaziabad-Meerut corridor, work on which will start first, NCRTC is also working on two other RRTS corridors, the Delhi-Panipat and Delhi-Alwar lines. All the three corridors will originate at the RRTS station to be constructed at Sarai Kale Khan. The three corridors will be connected, so that a person coming from Meerut can change trains at Sarai Kale Khan and go to Gurgaon or Sonepat.

3% growth in FDI slowest in four years

Foreign direct inflows into India rose 3% to $62 billion during 2017-18, the slowest pace of expansion since the Narendra Modi government came to office four years ago. FDI inflows during the previous financial year were estimated at a shade over $60 billion.

The slowdown in growth in FDI flows comes even as domestic private investment has remained muted, which commerce and industry minister Suresh Prabhu said was on account of surplus production capacity now getting used up.

He said that during the four years of the Modi government, foreign inflows jumped to $223 billion from $152 billion in the previous four-year period.

India discovers new planet

For the first time, India joined a select group of countries which have found planets around stars with the discovery of what is known as a sub-Saturn or super-Neptune sized planet having a radius that is six times that of earth, Isro announced.

The path-breaking discovery was made by a team led by Abhijit Chakraborty of the Ahmedabadbased Physical Research Laboratory. The newly discovered planet was found around a Sun-like star, according to Isro. It goes around the star in about 19.5 days.

The discovery was made by measuring the mass of the planet using the indigenously designed ‘PRL Advance Radial-velocity Abu-sky Search’ spectrograph, integrated with a 1.2 m telescope at PRL’s Gurushikhar Observatory in Mount Abu. This is the first of its kind spectrograph in the country, which can measure the mass of a planet going around a star.

Isro said very few such spectrographs exist around the world (mostly in the US and Europe) that can do such precise measurements.

Chakraborty said the new planet, which is 600 light years away from Earth, was between the size of Saturn and Neptune. “It is closer to Neptune,” he said, pointing out that the new planet had 27 times the mass of Earth and six times its radius.

The surface temperature of the new planet is around 600°C as it is very close to the host star. This might make it uninhabitable, but such a discovery is of importance for understanding the formation mechanism of such super-Neptune or sub-Saturn kind of planets that are too close to the host star.

Pranab bats for pluralism

In his much-anticipated address to the RSS cadres in Nagpur, Pranab Mukherjee delivered a strong message about “hatred, intolerance and the need to uphold pluralism and dialogues” that perhaps can not only make the Sangh squirm, but also those who had criticised his decision to visit the Right-wing organisation’s headquarters, including his own partymen and daughter.

“In India, we derive our strength from tolerance, and respect our pluralism. We celebrate our diversity... Any attempt at defining our nationhood in terms of dogmas and identities of religion, region, hatred and intolerance will only lead to dilution of our national identity,” said the former President and Congress veteran, whose decision to attend the Nagpur programme was seen by his party and others as an endorsement of the RSS’s views.

“I am here to share my understanding on nation, nationalism and patriotism about our country which is Bharat,” said Mukherjee, 82, while addressing the RSS’s Tritiya Varsha Varg or Third-Year Graduate Course.

Mukherjee, who had served as the President of India between 2012 and 2017, reminded all about the universalism that India stands for. “Our nationhood is not one language, one religion or one common enemy, but it is perennial universalism of 1.3 billion, who use more than 122 languages, practise seven religions and belong to three major ethnic groups,” he said.

Speaking about his decision to participate in the RSS function, Mukherjee stressed on the dialogue process. “In democracy, it is important to have informed and reasoned public engagements on all issues of national importance. A dialogue is necessary, not only to balance the competing interests but also to reconcile them. We should argue, we may agree, or disagree but we cannot deny essential prevalence of multiplicity of opinion. Only through dialogue, can we develop understanding to solve complex problems of the nation.”

His remarks on how the Indian nation was an ancient idea and different from European nations perhaps came as music to the RSS’s ears.

“Western nationalism is based on one language, one religion, one enemy and came into being only in 17th century. However, the Indian model of nationalism is based on the concept of universal brotherhood or principle of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam (the world is one family),” Mukherjee said.

He told the RSS cadres that since they were trained and disciplined like soldiers, they should try to make the national discourse free of both physical and verbal violence.

To ensure that Mukherjee had the last word at the programme, the RSS deviated from its over-70-year-old tradition of the outfit’s chief speaking after the chief guest and scheduled Mukherjee’s speech at the end.

Speaking ahead of Mukherjee, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat said the debate over Mukherjee’s decision to attend the RSS event was “meaningless” and no one is an outsider for his organisation. Mukherjee will remain what he is and the Sangh will remain the Sangh even after the event, he added.

Bhagwat said his organisation wants to unify the entire society. “Even if there are differences of opinion, good people can bury it and come together in national interest. Differences are no obstacles for them,” he added.

Those present at the event included former Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri’s son Sunil Shastri, as also Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose’s nephew Ardhendu Bose along with his wife and son.

The Tritiya Shiksha Varg is one of the most important milestones in the life of an RSS cadre.

Only the third-year graduates in the Sangh can become RSS pracharaks or full-timers. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is one such pracharak “loaned to the BJP”.

Desi MFs Help Indian Markets Stay Near All-Time Highs

It could perhaps be a sign of maturity for the Indian markets. Despite one of the sharpest foreign fund outflows on record, the sensex and the Nifty — the two leading benchmarks — are still near their all-time high levels. Mid- and small-cap indices, however, are down substantially, but foreign funds mostly stay away from such stocks.

So far in 2018, net outflow by foreign portfolio investors from stocks and bonds together was $4.2 billion (Rs.30,351 crore), compared to almost $4 billion (Rs.17,025 crore) recorded during the comparable period of 2008. A decade ago, strong selling by foreign funds had pulled the sensex down nearly 27% in about six months from its then all-time high of 21,207 points to 15,573. But this year, supported largely by strong domestic fund inflows, the sensex is down less than 3% from its all time high of 36,444 points to 35,463 now.

According to Kotak Mutual Fund MD Nilesh Shah, the fact that India managed bigger foreign outflows from debt and equity markets together so far in 2018 than at the time of the US subprime crisis in 2008 shows the maturity of the Indian economy over a decade.

Both 2016 and 2017 were also bad years to invest in real estate and gold. Earlier, real estate thrived in large part due to informal cash transactions. So, demonetisation dealt a hard blow to the sector, from which it took 16-18 months to recover.

This was reflected in strong inflows into mutual funds and insurance plans, through which a large number of retail investors entered the stock market.

There are, however, some who feel the heavy MF inflows are cyclical in nature and do not point to a structural shift, and hence the Indian market may not be as resilient as it is being thought to be. Emkay Global head of research Dhananjay Sinha said, “I wouldn’t say the Indian market has matured as investment in the markets as percentage of total household savings continues to remain low, at 3.5%. In comparison, the historic high level seen in the 1990s was at about 6%. While the contribution of MFs is significant, FPIs still hold a dominant position in the secondary market.”

Axle load of heavy vehicles to be hiked by 20-25%

After a gap of three decades, the government will increase the maximum axle load of heavy vehicles by 20-25% to bring it on a par with international norms. This will be a big boost to logistics and trucking industry and is likely to reduce the transportation cost of goods.

At present, a two-axle truck (two wheels in the front axle and four wheels in the rear) is allowed to carry 16.2 tonnes including the vehicle weight. This would be increased to 19 tonnes. Similarly, there would be about 25% increase in the load for each additional axle in heavy vehicles, which is at present nine tonnes.

Allowed load of an axle is the maximum pressure between tyre and the road.

Road transport minister Nitin Gadkari discussed this issue with all the private highway developers to bring them on board to avoid future arbitrations.

Sources said that most of the road builders admitted the construction quality has improved and overloading up to 100% is common.

They added truckers often avoid stretches where road builders collect 10-fold toll from overloaded trucks. Officials said the transport ministry would introduce graded penalty linked to the scale of overloading as a deterrence.