Delhi's Northern Peripheral Expressway

With the Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA) preparing the final proposal for the Northern Peripheral Expressway, the project has been put on the fast track. The eight-lane expressway will cost about Rs 120 crore. The road is an important part of Gurgaon-Manesar Master Plan 2021 and is aimed at providing the shortest alternative between the new growth centres of Delhi and Gurgaon. The 18-km stretch will connect Dwarka and National Highway 8. The 150-metre wide road, starting from Dwarka, will connect Palam Vihar and the upcoming big SEZs in Gurgaon to join the NH-8 near Kherki Dhaula. The road will cover at least 16 new residential sectors. This will touch a commercial corridor and the Harsaru dry port, besides providing direct connectivity to the largest SEZ to be developed by Reliance Industries and the Haryana government. The project will also have a railway overbridge at Garhi Harsaru. Dwarka is set to be a hub of activity with the development of a huge convention centre there. ‘‘The stretch will have 30 metres of green belt on both sides. The plan is to develop a model road. We are working hard to expedite the work on the Haryana stretch which starts from Bijwasan road. In the Delhi section, we have been given to understand that work can be initiated only after the zonal plan is approved and we hope that it will happen soon,’’ said a senior HUDA official. The officials said work on the project was delayed after several residents of Palam Vihar — whose houses were to be demolished — moved court and a final order is still awaited. A number of private colonisers have acquired licences from the state government to develop townships along the expressway that will connect the proposed Southern Peripheral Expressway on the other side of the Delhi-Gurgaon Expressway. The six-lane southern expressway will connect Delhi-Gurgaon Expressway with Mehrauli-Gurgaon Road and Gurgaon-Faridabad Road. Besides, a link road between Nelson Mandela Road in Vasant Kunj and DLF Phase II and a third link road from MG Road to the Gurgaon-Faridabad Road will also bring the capital closer to this satellite township.

Delhi Metro goes to Mundka

Come April 3 and Delhi Metro will add another colour to its palette. A sign of Metro’s expanding network across the city, a green line will also adorn the DMRC map along with the existing red, blue and yellow lines. This green line — from Inderlok to Mundka — brings hope and cheer to over one lakh residents of west Delhi localities such as Punjabi Bagh, Paschim Vihar, Multan Nagar, Peeragarhi and Nangloi. Residents can now bid goodbye to traffic jams as they can now zip to the heart of the city in just 30 minutes in an airconditioned Metro coach. As Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) engineers are working round the clock to complete finishing work on the 15.10-km long line, the first on standard guage in the country, locals residing in colonies dotting the line are euphoric. The travel time from Inderlok to Mundka — one-and-a-half hours by road — is 29 minutes. It will also provide a fast connect to residents of areas like Mundka which have very poor connectivity with the city. The new Metro line will be flagged off by CM Sheila Dikshit and Union urban development minister Jaipal Reddy on April 2. It will start for public from 6 am on April 3. In keeping with the mood, property prices too have shot up. The new line is also expected to reduce crowding on the existing system as it is expected to take some load off Line 3 as it has been developed as a parallel link to west Delhi. The new line branches out southwards from the existing Inderlok Metro station to hit the Rohtak Road from Punjabi Bagh via another Metro station at Ashok Park. Two existing Delhi Metro lines are being joined together in the middle for the first time to cut travel time. From Ashok Park, an extension of the line — which will be opened later this year — meets Line 3 at Kirti Nagar Metro station. This corridor, from Inderlok Metro station on Line 1 to Line 3’s Kirti Nagar Metro station, is expected to cut travel time by almost 45 minutes. At present, commuters need to travel 16 Metro stations before they can reach Kirti Nagar from Inderlok. For the link, two new stations will be constructed near the existing stations at Inderlok and Kirti Nagar. Two new station buildings have been constructed which will be connected at the platform and concourse levels for easy interchange. All stations on the fully elevated line will have toilet facilities and parking lots are being created at 10 of the 14 stations. The trains for the line are of different technical specifications and DMRC already has sufficient number of trains to start the new section. Like most other Metros in developed countries, the new line is coming up on standard gauge rails, as against broad gauge used for Phase 1. This means that the tracks will be narrower and speed of trains better. Also, the technology is on a par with what is being used the world over, so sharing will be easier. The Inderlok-Kirti Nagar cross-link will join two operational lines — Dwarka and Kashmere Gate — for the first time, reducing travel time for commuters, who change to either of the lines, by 45 minutes. One of Delhi’s four-tier crossings — an underpass, grade signalised crossing, flyover and now a Metro line — will come up at the Punjabi Bagh crossing .The DMRC has widened about 11 km of main Rohtak Road to a seven-lane stretch. The Inderlok-Mundka line will be the first railway line in the country to run on standard gauge, a global practice . All stations to have toilets .

Investors double money in FY10

Investors on Dalal Street have doubled their money during the financial year just ended while the BSE sensex gained 81% to its Wednesday close at 17,528 and the broad-based NSE nifty index was up 74% to 5,249. Investors’ wealth jumped from Rs 30.6 lakh crore on March 31, 2009 to Rs 61.5 lakh crore now as some of the frontline stocks more than quadrupled during the past fiscal year, BSE data showed. Interestingly, the gains came from a point of extreme pessimism, in March 2009, through a time of overt optimism, during May 2009, to the current situation of a wait-and-watch approach by most market players. A large part of the sensex’s gains came during May 2009, soon after the Congress-led UPA government came back to power without the support of the Left parties. On May 18, for the first time in its history, the sensex hit the upper circuit twice and in just about two minutes during which trading was possible, the index gained a record 2,111 points (17.3%) to go up from 12,173 to 14,284. During FY10, FIIs too played a stellar role, pumping in over $23 billion as net inflows into the stock market although the domestic fund houses took money off the table, worth a little over Rs 9,600 crore. Although domestic funds have mostly parked themselves on the sidelines and are booking profits, FIIs are still bullish on the Indian market, institutional dealers said. However, they warned that another year of 100% or more growth in majority of stocks might not be possible in FY11, which begins on Thursday. On the sectoral front, metal, auto and consumer durable stocks led the gainers with BSE indices for these setors spurting over 100% during FY10. On the other hand, FMCG, oil & gas and power sector stocks were the laggards, closing the year with gains 39%, 44% and 67%, respectively. Data also showed that small-cap stocks had performed better than the midcap players. While BSE’s Smallcap index rose 162%, the corresponding figure for the Midcap index was 130%.

Bharat IV rolls out

Maruti 800,the small car that changed the way Indians drove and helped put the Indian automobile market into the global big league will stop rolling out of showrooms in major cities from today. It has been driven off the roads by stringent emission laws that the original people’s car is unable to comply with any more. Powered by a Suzuki collaboration and steered by Sanjay Gandhi’s political ambitions, the Maruti 800 rolled out onto Indian roads 27 years ago. The last of the 27 lakh units were driven out of showrooms in 13 cities on Wednesday, the company having decided that it was not worth pushing for a large investment to upgrade the engine to meet the stricter Bharat Stage IV norms that become mandatory from April 1. BSIV emission standards come into play in major cities, including New Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Pune, Kanpur, Ahmedabad, Surat and even Agra. The Ford Ikon (1.3 petrol), Fiat Palio, Skoda Fabia (1.2 petrol) and Octavia (1.9 TDI engine) and Chevrolet Tavera (2.5DI), too, will no longer be sold in the 13 cities, which collectively account for almost half the total car sales in India. In 1983, anyone with a little more than Rs 50,000 to spare – car loans were hard to come by then – drove into the fast lane on the Maruti 800, leaving behind other affluent and middle-class families which continued to bundle themselves into Fiats and Ambassadors.The government on Wednesday decided to defer the stricter Bharat Stage III (BSIII) emission norms by six months to October 1, apparently due to the inability of oil companies to provide compatible fuel across the country. While 13 of the top cities of the country switch over to BS4 norms from tomorrow, the rest of the country was to move over to BS3 norms from the existing BS2. However, with the oil companies expressing doubts over supplying BS3 fuel, the ministry of road transport and highways decided to defer their implementation.

Exports surge 35% to $16 bn in February

Indicating a revival in demand in western countries, India’s exports in February surged by 35%, giving hopes to the government to make up for the loss in previous months. Commerce and industry minister Anand Sharma said on Wednesday that from April 1, the government would give special incentives on 200 items for their export to US and Europe to make them more competitive. The items are mostly from sectors like electronics, engineering, agro products and apparel that continue to be in the red. Director General of Foreign Trade R S Gujral said estimated exports for the current fiscal (2009-10) was likely to be around $169 billion compared to $185 billion in the last fiscal. He said shipments during the April-February period remained in the negative domain showing a decline by 11% at $153 billion compared to $172 billion in the same period last fiscal. Gujral said in February, total exports were worth $16.09 billion compared to $11.94 billion in the same period last year, showing a growth of 34.8%. The commerce minister said rise in imports was much sharper indicating a revival in the local economy. He said it showed Indian corporates were spending more due to rise in demand. Imports rose by 66% to $25 billion in February against $15 billion in the corresponding month last fiscal. “It shows that the economy is picking up,” Sharma said. However, like in the case of exports, imports in the April-February period showed a decline of 13% to $248 billion compared to $287 billion in the first 11 months of last fiscal. Sectors like engineering goods, textiles, jute, carpets, handicrafts and leather continued to display poor performance. After continued fall for 13 months in a row since October 2008, exports re-entered the positive zone in November 2009. Demand in apparel exports declined by about 14% at $62 million in January 2010. In April-January 2009-10, garments exports was at $7.91 billion compared to $8.81 billion in the same period in the previous fiscal.

RTE : Right to education snippets

India will take a big step forward today when the right to education becomes a justiciable fundamental right of all citizens. It will give a much needed push to what the people have been striving for—universalisation of education at the elementary stage—and is seen as a foundation for further expansion at the secondary and higher stages in future. The law is no doubt welcome, but what is needed is strong follow-up so that education actually becomes a right that is available to all, and does not remain another piece of paper. For this, the government needs to take up some key challenges. Although enrollment in elementary classes has increased tremendously in recent years, driven by the thirst for education as well as the incentive of mid day meals, there are still about 8.1 million children of school going age that remain out of school. The bigger problem is that of drop-outs. Latest official figures say about 50%—or a jaw-dropping 90 million—of all those who enroll in primary stages drop out by class 8. For the right to education to really mean anything, these children have to be kept in school at least till they turn 14, which is the outer limit for coverage under the law. Then there is the issue of teachers. There are about 250 million children in the 5-14 years age group, studying in classes 1 to 8. It is recommended to have one teacher for every 40 students, meaning over 6 million teachers till class 8 only. Latest District Information System for Education (DISE) figures say actual number of teachers in primary and middle schools was just over 5.7 million, about 3 lakh short at the primary and middle stage itself. It is estimated that about 6.5% teachers—3.7 lakh—will retire or leave each year. So, in the next five years, about 1.8 million teachers will leave. In all, there is a colossal shortfall of 2 million teachers staring at the country. Teachers training colleges are opening by the dozens, so quality of teaching is an obvious casualty. According to the National University of Educational Planning and Education, about a quarter of all teachers taking classes 1 to 8 have studied till secondary stage only. The only way the government can handle these tough challenges is by enhancing allocation for education at central and state levels. In 2006-07, total expenditure on education at all levels was nearly Rs.1.33 lakh crore, or 3.6% of GDP. If India is to really implement RTE, this needs to be hiked to at least 6% of GDP. The passing of the Act gives every child the right to a quality elementary education . All children aged 6-14 years shall have the right to free, compulsory elementary education at a neighbourhood school .No direct (school fees) or indirect cost (uniforms, textbooks, mid-day meals, transportation) need be borne by the child or his/her parents to obtain this elementary education

Nuclear liability bill will be reworked

The civil nuclear liability bill will be rewritten, with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh saying the government was ready to discuss deficiencies in the legislation that could not be introduced in Parliament because of the opposition’s protests. Talking to reporters on the sidelines of the Padma awards ceremony at Rashtrapati Bhavan, the PM also said the government had an open mind on the issue, strongly signalling the government’s desire to accommodate concerns about the bill, which has been portrayed as a means to help US nuclear suppliers. “It should go to the standing committee where all possible divergence of opinion can be resolved,” Singh said. His remarks tied in with strong indications that the government has veered around to appreciate the necessity to “fix” the bill which is now seen as full of ambiguities—an infirmity which has reinforced misgivings about the legislation. Sources indicated that one possible change could be revision of the formulation which gives the impression that all liabilities are to be paid by the operator. Since it will be a while before the private sector is let in to operate nuclear power plants, the draft has been interpreted as saddling the government with the entire liability, letting international suppliers off the hook. Another change in the offing will relate to the Rs 500 crore that has been proposed as the no-fault liability of the operator. The government recognises that the amount, thanks to weak drafting, has been misconstrued as cap on the operator’s obligation to the victims of nuclear accident, leading critics to accuse the government of putting a lower price on an Indian life. Sources were at pains to emphasise that the bill provides for no cap on liability and that the amount in question only represents the liability of operator at this point in time. They said it is up to Parliament to scale up the amount if it so wishes. However, to cushion the bill against criticism, the government is now ready—as suggested by former attorney general Soli J Sorabjee—to state so up front. The decision to re-work the bill comes in the wake of the opposition’s determination—partly motivated by partisan pique—to block the legislation, as well as the Congress leadership’s suggestion to “go slow” to dodge any perception of eagerness to help the US. Sources stressed that the bill was neither US-specific nor was it conceived because of pressure in the wake of the civil nuclear deal. Pointing out that it was conceived in 2000 under the NDA government and largely because of Russia’s concerns over liability in Kudankulam plants, sources argued that the legislation was necessary because of the absence of any law to deal with nuclear damage. The lacuna, felt after the Bhopal gas disaster, looks even glaring because of the decision to ramp up nuclear power production. As it plans to reach out to opposition parties for their consent to introduce the bill before it is sent to the standing committee, the government stresses that the bill enjoins the state to pay Rs 2,334 crore (300 million SDRs), in addition to Rs 500 crore by the operator straightaway to the victims, without making them go through the torment of cumbersome legal process and without having to establish negligence or guilt. It also allows victims to take legal recourse to seek compensation under civil or criminal justice. The operator can seek relief from its suppliers: in this case international nuclear companies.
PM Manmohan Singh on Wednesday said it was “too premature” to consider the dilution of the quantum of reservation in the women’s quota bill even as the government moved to call an all-party meeting on April 5 to discuss the law. The bill, which was passed in the Rajya Sabha in the midst of the marshalling out of seven MPs, has to be passed by the Lok Sabha as well. While Congress chief Sonia Gandhi is committed to its enactment and the bill is supported by the Left and the BJP, Congress managers are wary of stiff resistance from Yadav leaders Mulayam Singh and Lalu Prasad.