Mineral Production On The Decline

Mineral Production Declined During 11 Months FY14

Mineral production in the country has cumulatively declined during April- February, 2014, period as the index of mineral production and quarrying has gone down by 1.1 per cent, though it has also spurted 1.4 per cent during February 2014 period. As per the provisional figures, the total value of mineral production during February remained at `18118 crore, whereas coal contribution was at `6372 crore followed by petroleum, iron ore and natural gas at `5354 crore, `2762 and `1712 crore respectively.

In February total production of coal remained at 518 lakh tonne whereas petroleum, natural gas, bauxite and chromite remained at 29 lakh tonne, 2657 mcm, 1660 tons and 321 thousand tons respectively. On the growth sides iron ore, gold, chromite and diamond were among the minerals showing the best positive growth of 27.9 per cent, 23.4 per cent, 20.5 per cent and 14.9 per cent respectively, while coal production remained stagnant and gas production declined by 5 per cent.

Government All Set To Award 35 Port Projects

Government seems very serious about the development of port facilities across the country and in line with the development of new facilities on the port with the help of private sector, has prepared a plan for current fiscal also. As per reports, the government is all set to award another 35 port projects worth around `14000 crore for the development, connectivity and capacity addition at various ports. In the matter of priority 23 projects will be awarded much faster, whose worth stands at more than `5000 crore while other projects will be given on case to case basis. As per the plan, focus of these projects will be on giving connectivity and infrastructure of the ports and more rail-road linkages will be constructed. Important to note that government has prepared enough capacity on various ports, via its expansion plan in the past but there were complaints of absence of infrastructure and connectivity on the ports.

Government is planning to award 12 projects worth more than `10000 crore under public-private partnership mode which include Kolkata’s Diamond harbour, Paradip port and JNPT port for additional liquid terminal. During the last fiscal, government has allotted 20 projects under PPP model and still private sector remained bullish on the Indian ports business on the hope of decent growth of Indian economy and trade.

FDI inflow increases by 12 per cent in February

Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) into India increased consecutively during February and spurted by 12.29 per cent in the month. India received USD 2.01 billion during February 2014, but at the same time FDI for the 11 months period ending February 2014 dipped marginally by 0.6 per cent to USD 20.76 billion as against 20.89 billion received during same period last year. In terms of inflows highest FDI came in services at a level of USD 2.18 billion followed by automobiles, pharma and construction that received FDI inflows of USD 1.28 billion, USD 1.27 billion and USD 1.05 billion respectively.

As far as destinations are concerned till February, Mauritius remained the topmost country to send FDI inflows into India at USD 4.48 billion followed by Singapore and UK that invested USD 3.91billion and USD 3.21 billion respectively. FDI inflows are imperative for Indian economy and as per the 12th five year plan India would be requiring around 1 trillion of FDI till FY17 to fund infrastructure projects and to remain on course with respect to growth.

Citi Gas Distribution Bidding Date Extended

Petroleum and natural gas regulatory board (PNGRB) has extended the last date for bidding of piped cooking gas and retail CNG in 14 cities till July 10th, 2014. Earlier the last date was May 12. Last year board has invited bids for the development of natural gas distribution in various cities including Bengaluru, Pune, Saharanpur, Eranakulam, Nalgonda, Amritsar, Panipat and Thane. Earlier also board had extended the deadline from February to May.

PFC Consulting Sign MOU With PFC

PFC Consulting has signed Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for FY15 with its Holding Company Power Finance Corporation (PFC) for the performance targets and support. MOU was signed by M.K.Goel, CMD, PFC and C.Gangopadhyay, CEO, PFCCL in the presence of R Nagarajan, Director (Finance) and A K Agarwal Director (Projects), PFC. Performance of the company will be monitored by the board of directors of PFCCL on a quarterly basis and by PFC on a half-yearly basis.