Motown :April 2014

The sluggish Indian passenger vehicle market has started the new fiscal year on a bad note. Despite the low base of April 2013, the passenger vehicle market is estimated to have declined 2-2.5% in April 2014. The overall market was pulled down by strong double digit decline posted by three of the top five passenger vehicle makers — Maruti Suzuki, Mahindra & Mahindra and Tata Motors.
The estimated sales of passenger vehicles in April this year stood at 1.95 lakh units against 2.01 lakh units in the same period last year.
Given the low base, the market was expected to recover, say experts. Several players, faced with an uncertain future, tough macro-economic environment and high interest rates and fuel prices, are witnessing sales numbers of 2009-10. New launches helped the likes of Hyundai, Honda Motor and Ford India to remain in a positive territory for April 2014. Much like the last fiscal, the two-wheeler market was better off than passenger vehicle space. Three of the top five two wheeler makers posted double digit growth in April.
The top two players Hero MotoCorp and Honda Motorcycle & Scooters had a strong showing in April 2014. Strong demand for scooters and sustained offtake of motorcycles in rural areas meant the two wheeler market posted a strong growth in April.

NOIDA Metro update

The long-awaited Metro rail link between Noida and Greater Noida has got a green signal from the urban development ministry. In a board meeting, the ministry approved Delhi Metro Rail Corporation’s (DMRC) appointment as a consultant for the project on a turnkey basis, sources said. The 30 km link will be built at a cost of about Rs.5,000 crore.
Construction work on the new link will commence after a memorandum of understanding (is signed between the Noida Authority and the DMRC, sources said. Terms of the MoU have already been approved and submitted to the UP government in Lucknow for its approval.According to officials of the Noida Authority, the MoU is likely to be signed after the general elections while work could begin in the next two months.
Since former Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit was opposed to the DMRC working outside the capital, the Authority had last year decided to form the Noida Metro Rail Company (NMRC) to construct this 30 km line. Officials said that in view of the enormous passenger pressure on the Delhi-Noida route and a projected population of over 15 lakh in Noida and around 12 lakh in Greater Noida by 2031, a clean and efficient public transport facility, matching the transport infrastructure of Delhi, is urgently needed in the region.
A total 22 stations are proposed on the route — 13 on ground and seven elevated. Two stations at Knowledge Park-I and sector Delta-1 in Greater Noida are planned for future expansion. Starting from Noida City Centre in Sector 32, the proposed Metro corridor will head towards Greater Noida through stations in sectors 50, 51, 78, 101, 81, 83, 85, 137, 142, 143, 144, 147, 149 and 153. It enters Greater Noida through Knowledge Park-II and cross Pari Chowk and sectors Alpha-1 and 2 before terminating at a station proposed near Knowledge Park-IV in Greater Noida. The entire route will be an elevated track. The project is expected to be completed by 2017, officials said.

Terror strikes @ Chennai Central

Terror struck Chennai on Thursday morning with simultaneous blasts on the Guwahati Express killing a 24-year-old woman passenger and injuring 14, two grievously. The explosions occurred shortly after the train arrived from Bangalore and halted at the Chennai Central Railway Station.
No outfit claimed responsibility for the blasts that were set off on a day when the BJP’s PM pick Narendra Modi addressed a series of public meetings in southern Andhra Pradesh which shares a border with Tamil Nadu. The strike also came within 48 hours of the city police arresting a suspected ISI agent from Sri Lanka.
The explosives went off at 7.15 am in compartments S4 and S5 of the train (No. 12509), 10 minutes after it pulled into Platform 9 at Chennai Central. The train had arrived around 90 minutes behind schedule. An investigator with a central agency said two individuals who boarded the train without tickets had alighted before the train reached Chennai, but local investigators refused to confirm this.
The blasts killed Swathi Paruchuri (24), a TCS employee in Bangalore, who was heading home to Guntur, and left Sadan Chandan Dharman (64) from Tripura, and an unidentified man critically injured. The Railway police admitted the two men and 12 others to the Government General Hospital near the railway station.
One of the blasts blew open a 30-cm-wide hole in the floor of the S4 coach and a similar hole in the S5 bogie and damaged seats nearby. Blood spatter covered parts of the compartments where bombs appeared to have been planted.
Modi on Thursday addressed rallies at Madanapalli, Nellore, Guntur, Bhimavaram and Visakhapatnam, all venues except Bhimavaram on the route of the Guwahati Express. Modi was also scheduled to visit the Srikalahasti Temple, 118 km from the city, later in the day.

Somewhere in Aurangabad....

The five villages in the Bidkin area of Aurangabad are set to be transformed as farmers have started receiving money for the land they gave up for the ambitious Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC) project. The first installment of Rs.75 crore was disbursed to 100 farmers on Wednesday.
Bharat Dharpale, a farmer from Bidkin, got a cheque for Rs 1.5 crore from the Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) for his land.
The DMIC project in Maharashtra covers Mumbai, Thane, Raigad, Nashik, Aurangabad, Ahmednagar, Pune, Dhule and Nandurbar districts and influences about 18% of the total area of the state. Aurangabad was included in the DMIC Early Bird project with the Shendra-Bidkin Industrial Park and the International Convention Centre proposed to come up on 8,340 hectares.
The state government had sanctioned Rs.1,314 crore in all for the farmers of Bidkin, Banni Tanda, Bangal Tanda, Nilajgaon and Nandalgaon villages. The next instalment of Rs.500 crore is expected in a couple of days.On Wednesday, the mood in the village was upbeat as news of the disbursement by the Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC) spread. Of the 2,351 hectares of land to be acquired for the project, 1,478 hectares of land is owned by 1,783 farmers in Bidkin. The farmers were promised a rate of Rs.23 lakh per acre for their land.
Thus, Bidikin farmers would get Rs.850 crore. The compensation for each farmer in the village will range between Rs.23 lakh and Rs.10 crore.
District land acquisition officer Sambhaji Adkune said that the second phase of land acquisition of 2,320 hectares of land at Bidkin for DMIC project was completed last month. “About 4,000-5,000 farmers have given their consent for the acquisition of 2,320 hectares of land for DMIC project in Bidkin. The acquisition of 555 hectares of land at Karmad was completed in the first phase of DMIC project in October 2012, in which the beneficiaries were offered Rs 23 lakh per acre,” Adkune said.
After completing the first phase of land acquisition, the district had started the process of second phase in five villages in Bidkin area.

MAJOR INDUSTRIAL PROJECT
The Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC) Trust approved nine projects entailing investment of Rs.1.2 lakh crore in September 2013. The 100 billion USD project, being executed with the assistance of the Japanese government, is the largest industrial project to be undertaken in the country. The project aims at putting in place mega industrial infrastructure that will boost the manufacturing sector growth in the country. The Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor Development Corporation (DMICDC) envisages creating 24 new cities in four phases in the country by 2040. The 1,483 km project will run through seven states — Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Maharashtra, alongside the proposed Delhi-Mumbai dedicated rail freight corridor

Somewhere in Gandhinagar....

Hiraben, the mother of BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, arrives at a polling booth in Gandhinagar to cast her vote in the Lok Sabha election. 

Infra growth slows to 2.5%

Core sector growth slowed to 2.5% in March from 7% in the same month a year ago as output of crude oil, natural gas and fertiliser declined.
The eight core industries — fertilisers, cement, steel, electricity, crude oil, coal, petroleum refinery products and natural gas — have a combined weight of about 38% in the Index of Industrial Production.
For 2013-14, core sector growth slowed to 2.6% from 6.5% in 2012-13, according to data released by the ministry of commerce and industry.

#Elections2014, Phase 7 snippets

After seven phases, one thing is absolutely clear: there is a voter wave this election. The aggregate turnout so far is 66.2%, compared with 57.41% in 2009.
And the state leading the spike in voter turnout is Gujarat, where 62% cast their votes compared with 47.89% in 2009, a 14 percentage point jump. This was Gujarat’s highest turnout in the past 47 years, second only to 63.77% the state recorded in the 1967 LS polls.
In Gujarat, it was Narendra Modi’s constituency, Vadodara, which recorded one of the highest turnouts in the state: at 72%, it was a 23 percentage point jump over the lacklustre 49% it logged in 2009. This surge in voter enthusiasm could well be because Modi is BJP’s PM pick.
The filing of an FIR against Modi over his televised statement and his flashing of BJP’s ‘lotus’ symbol just after voting in Ahmedabad seem to have made little difference to voter enthusiasm given the 62.3% turnout in the city. Adjoining Gandhinagar, from where senior BJP leader L K Advani is seeking a re-election, witnessed 62% polling.
Interestingly, Priyanka Gandhi’s high-voltage campaign in her mother Sonia Gandhi’s constituency Rae Bareli did not really enthuse voters to come out in large numbers. According to the figure put out by the EC on Wednesday evening, Rae Bareli recorded 51.85% polling, which was just a modest improvement over the 48.32% turnout in 2009.
All over Uttar Pradesh, where 14 seats went to polls, the turnout improved to 57.1% from 47.99%, but this was lower than the turnout in the earlier phases of this election, possibly due to soaring temperatures. Lucknow, where BJP president Rajnath Singh is pitted against Congress’s Rita Bahuguna Joshi, saw 55.22% turnout, while Jhansi, from where firebrand BJP leader Uma Bharati is in the fray, recorded a much higher turnout of 62.88%.
Polling in West Bengal for nine seats saw a high turnout of 81.35%, which is expected to go up further to 83%. In 2009, the state had witnessed 81.91% polling.
Punjab, where the ruling SAD is battling anti-incumbency, saw a 73% turnout, the highest ever. Bihar’s seven seats saw 60% turnout, a big jump over the 45% in 2009. In Telangana, where simultaneous polls to 17 Lok Sabha seats and 119 assembly seats were held, the turnout hit 70%, as against 67.71% in 2009.
However, polling in militancy-hit Srinagar remained low at 25.62% compared with 25.49% in 2009.