Jakson Power to invest Rs 750 cr in solar solutions

Ahmedabad: Targeting a doubling of revenue to Rs 2,500 crore by March 2016, Jakson Power Solutions plans fresh investments of Rs 750 crore in in providing solar energy solutions across India in the next three to four years.

The company has so far invested Rs 200 crore on its 20 MW solar power plant set up near Jodhpur, Rajasthan, Sameer Gupta, Managing Director, told Business Line.

Now, the 66-year-old company is focusing on scaling up its solar power portfolio to 100 MW in the next three to four years. The Rs 750-crore investment will go to expand capacity, with the debt-equity ratio being 70:30. Jakson Power has tied up with Standard Chartered Bank, Singapore, for getting funds through the external commercial borrowing (ECB) route. Of the proposed float, it has got about Rs 70 crore through this route for its next 10 MW project in Uttar Pradesh, he said.

The privately-held, Noida-headquartered company has four manufacturing plants at Jammu, Daman, Kalsar (Gujarat) and Greater Noida, established with an investment of Rs 300 crore. The first three of these plants manufacture silent diesel and gas-based power generation sets, whose combined capacity is being increased from 9,000 to 15,000 sets per annum. The Greater Noida plant manufactures solar and power distribution products.

Gensets
The company recently started manufacturing generating sets at the Kalsar plant, India’s largest integrated DG set manufacturing facility. It will also focus on manufacturing special application gensets, such as those used in Defence-related areas.

The diesel generators range in capacity from 7.5 KVA to 3,000 KVA. The plants at Kalsar and Daman will make gensets up to 250 KVA capacity, while the Jammu unit will produce the higher capacity ones.

Jakson Power’s current order book is worth about Rs 300 crore for the next few months, he added.

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Flipkart nets Rs 1,200 crore in single-largest funding

Bangalore: Flipkart has raised $200 million from its existing investors including South African technology company Naspers Group and private equity firms Accel Partners and Tiger Global.

This marks the single-largest round of funding for an Indian e-commerce company.

The fifth round of investment adds to the $181 million that investors have already put into the in the Bangalore-based online retailer and will be used to build technology, an area that Flipkart has been grappling with in the past year. Additionally, the investments will help the company build on its supply chain and human resource.

Sachin Bansal, Co-founder and CEO, said Flipkart can now go to the next level by pioneering technology and supply-chain innovations; this also validates the potential of e-commerce in India. Mohit Bahl, Partner, Transaction Services, KPMG in India, said, “It is a reasonably large investment in the e-commerce space and should help bolster Flipkart’s ability to manage its working capital and make substantial investments in its supply chain and technology.” Industry watchers, however, feel that these three areas are challenging for e-commerce companies in India.

Flipkart, which is in its sixth year of operations with 96 lakh users, recently launched a marketplace (similar to eBay). It has also widened its catalogue with toys, apparels and accessories to compete with companies such as Myntra and Fashion & You. The latest funding comes at a time when the company had to take some tough decisions. In June, it shut down its Flyte service that enabled users pay and download songs online.

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Hyundai opens service training centre at Ulundurpet in TN

Chennai: Hyundai Motor India Foundation has opened an automobile servicing training centre at the Government Industrial Training Institute (ITI), Ulundurpet, Tamil Nadu.

Hyundai plans to set up ten more such centres at various ITIs in the State this year. The centre will expose trainees to modern automobile technology, thereby, increasing their chances of employability and career prospects, said a press release from the company.

The training centre was inaugurated by C. Ravichandran, Joint Director, Directorate of Employment and Training in the presence of B.W. Ryu, Executive Director, Administration, Hyundai Motor India.

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Massachusetts Institute of Technology buys into Shriram City Union Finance

Chennai: Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has picked up nearly 6 lakh shares of non-banking finance company (NBFC) Shriram City Union Finance for around Rs59 crore.

MIT, a renowned US-based educational institution, purchased 5,99,943 shares of Shriram City Union Finance through open market transactions on Tuesday, according to information available with the stock exchanges.

The shares were purchased at an average price of Rs984 valuing the transaction at Rs59 crore, data showed. Meanwhile, IIFL offloaded 4.80 lakh shares of Shriram City Union Finance for Rs47.23 crore. As of March quarter, IIFL held 20.07 lakh shares, amounting to 3.62% stake in the NBFC.

Shriram's Group firm Shriram Capital is among the 26 entities which have applied to Reserve Bank of India for grant of bank licences. Shares of Shriram City Union Finance closed at Rs997.55 on the BSE on Tuesday, up 0.97%.

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Foreign Exchange Earnings from tourism increases by Rs 551 crore in June 2013

Foreign Tourist Arrivals also Goes up by 2.5% During the Month
Foreign Exchange Earnings (FEEs) from tourism in Rupee terms in June, 2013 rose by Rs. 551 Crore in comparison to June, 2012. Foreign Tourist Arrivals ( FTAs) in June, 2013 was 4.44 lakh which was 4.33 Lakh in June, 2012 with a growth of 2.5%.

The following are some important highlights regarding FTAs and FEEs from tourism during the month of June, 2013:

Foreign Tourist Arrivals (FTAs):
FTAs during the Month of June 2013 were 4.44 lakh as compared to FTAs of 4.33 lakh during the month of June 2012 and 4.05 lakh in June 2011.
There has been a growth of 2.5% in June 2013 over June 2012 as compared to a growth of 6.9% registered in June 2012 over June 2011.
FTAs during the period January to June 2013 were 33.08 lakh with a growth of 2.6%, as compared to the FTAs of 32.24 lakh with a growth of 6.7% during January to June 2012 over the corresponding period of 2011.
Foreign Exchange Earnings (FEEs) from Tourism in rupee terms and US$ terms
FEEs during the month of June 2013 were `7,036 crore as compared to `6,485 crore in June 2012 and `5,440 crore in June 2011.
The growth rate in FEEs in rupee terms in June 2013 over June 2012 was 8.5% as compared to 19.2% in June 2012 over June 2011.
FEEs from tourism in rupee terms during January to June 2013 were `50,448 crore with a growth of 15.3%, as compared to the FEE of ` 43,760 crore with a growth of 24.4% during January to June 2012 over the corresponding period of 2011.
FEEs in US$ terms during the month of June 2013 were US$1.208 billion as compared to FEEs of US$1.158 billion during the month of June 2012 and US$1.213 billion in June 2011.
The growth rate in FEEs in US$ terms in June 2013 over June 2012 was 4.3% as compared to the negative growth of 4.5% in June 2012 over June 2011.
FEE from tourism in terms of US$ during January to June 2013 were US$9.201 billion with a growth of 8.8%, as compared to US$8.455 billion with a growth of 8.2% during January-June 2012 over the corresponding period of 2011.
Ministry of Tourism compiles monthly estimates of Foreign Tourist Arrivals (FTAs) on the basis of data received from major ports and Foreign Exchange Earnings (FEEs) from tourism on the basis of data received from Reserve Bank of India.

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India has €2-b market potential for high-voltage transmission lines: Alstom

Birmingham: India has a market potential of €2 billion for setting up high-voltage transmission lines by 2018, France-based Alstom believes. “The HVDC (high-voltage direct current) market is estimated at €50 billion in the next 10 years, and Alstom targets a 20 per cent market share,” the company said.

The multinational conglomerate, which is into power generation and transport, said the Americas, China, India and Europe had the greatest potential in this area.

The biggest challenge for India is to ensure efficient transfer of power over long distances, while maintaining the national electricity grid without any disturbance.

As of now, most of the electricity in India is generated in alternating current (AC) form. However, there are technical and commercial problems in ferrying AC over long distances. This is why AC is converted to direct current (DC) in converter stations and transmitted through the high-voltage network). The power is again converted to AC before supplying to consumers.

“It (HVDC) has a cost, but it stabilises the network and helps in preventing black-outs like India suffered last year,” Patrick Plas, Senior Vice-President (Power Electronics and Automation) at Alstom, told Business Line. At present, the French company is engaged in setting up HVDC projects for the 800 KV-3,000 MW transmission lines between Champa and Kurukshetra.

“We have started discussions for phase-II of this project,” said Plas.

India is the second country after China to develop and implement 800 KV DC projects. Alstom said it provides innovative HVDC technologies to meet the needs of mature and emerging markets. It has set up HVDC projects of nearly 30,000 MW across Sweden, India, Brazil and Germany, among others.

HVDC has emerged as the key technology for inter-connecting regions and countries for electricity transfer, as it helps transmit more power with less infrastructure.

The network also helps synchronise electricity generated from different sources. For example, renewable sources, such as wind or solar, generate power at a voltage different from conventional sources.

It is this varying voltage that creates disturbances in transmission networks. HVDC also helps connect power plants to distant load dispatch centres and facilitates development of energy highways to transfer large amounts of power over long distances.

“HVDC improves quality, stability and reliability of electricity,” said Claes Scheibe, Vice-President (Power Electronics Applications) at Alstom.

The global energy demand is estimated to grow over 30 per cent between now and 2035. As a result, grids need to adapt and integrate renewable energy sources in a sustainable way.

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Kumarakom to be world-class Model Responsible Tourism destination

Kochi: Kumarakom, the famed backwater tourism hotspot in Kerala, is fast moving forward to become an international Model Responsible Tourism (MRT) destination.

The Kerala Institute of Tourism and Travel Studies (KITTS) is providing equal importance to social, economic and environmental aspects at the four centres selected in the State for conversion into MRT destinations. Various local agencies such as panchayats, local community, tourism industry, NGOs will be actively involved in formulating strategies to promote RT initiatives in select areas.

S. Harikishore, Director of Kerala Tourism, said that the main strategy is to create a sustainable tourism destination with the support of tourism stakeholders. Each stakeholder will be given the responsibility in making tourism sustainable on the economic, socio-cultural and environmental fronts, he said. Four destinations in the State were identified for implementing the RT initiative. Wayanad, Thekkady and Kovalam are the other three. It was decided to elevate at least one destination into the level of international model and Kumarakom was chosen. The approval from the State Tourism Department has been received in this regard, he said.

The project has so far succeeded in creating visible benefit to the local community on economic and environmental fronts. However, efforts will be needed to promote local production, micro enterprises and value-added products that could be linked with the tourism industry so that the community can derive economic benefit out of it.

A production system was designed and implemented at Kumarakom, which will ensure regular supply of products needed by the hotels.

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