Planning of Investment in Bharat

1. Indian Railways’ private train project on fast track as 23 firms including Bombardier, Alstom show interest

Key points:

1. The Indian Railways’ plan to run private trains in the country is getting the attention of both domestic and international players like Alston, Bombardier, GMR and L&T.
2. As many as 23 companies participated in an official pre-application online conference for running private trains on 12 clusters. 
3. Among international players Bombardier, Alstom, Siemens attended a conference while among domestic players which showed interest include BEML, IRCTC, Sterlite, GMR Infra, Medha Group, JKB Infrastructure, Bharat Forge, BEML, L&T Infra and Titagarh Wagons.
4. The Railways ministry organized its first pre-application conference on private train project Tuesday which was attended by around 16 prospective applicants.
5. For the first time, ever private players will be allowed to run passenger train services on 109 routes through induction of 151 trains. The project would entail an investment of Rs 30,000 crore and is expected to boost domestic manufacturing inline with the government’s ‘Make in India’ pitch.

(Times Now, 12 August 2020) News Link

As many as 13 investors put in EoIs for acquiring Reliance Commercial Finance
Key points:

As many as 13 global and domestic investors have submitted expressions of interest for acquiring Reliance Commercial Finance Ltd (RCFL)

Lenders led by Bank of Baroda had invited bids for RCFL to recover unpaid loans and the last date of submitting the EoI was August 11.

Capri Global, India RF, JM Finance ARC, Edelweiss ARC, UV ARC, Urgo Capital, ARCIL, Authum Investment & Infra Ltd, Assets Care and Reconstruction Enterprise, CFM ARC, Invest ARC, Rare ARC and International Asset Reconstruction Company submitted expressions of interest (EoIs).

The bid process is being run by Deloitte as the resolution advisor, and interested parties were to submit an expression of interest (EoI) by August 11, according to the notice.
(Economic Times, 12 august 2020) News Link

NHAI to build 22 expressways with Rs 3.3 lakh crore investment, forms SPVs to meet fund requirement

Key points:

1. The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has finalised a plan to build 22 expressways with an investment of Rs 3.3 lakh crore.
2. The authority has also decided to form Special Purpose Vehicles (SPVs) to meet this huge fund requirement, according to sources.
3. Under this mega plan, the NHAI board has approved the first SPV for Delhi-Mumbai Expressway, which will be wholly owned by the highways authority
4. The Expressway projects of shorter lengths, in the range of 50-150 km, will be clubbed as one and a single SPV will be formed for Expressway projects having shorter lengths.
5. For bigger length expressways of 300- 400 km and more will have dedicated SPV.
6. In the first SPV formed for Delhi-Mumbai Expressway worth Rs 45,000 crore, the NHAI will infuse Rs 5000 crore while the rest Rs 40,000 crore will be taken as loan from market.

(Zee News, 12 August 2020) News Link

Investment in Bharat by Other countries

Deutsche Bank infuses Rs 2,700 crore into India branches
Key points:

Germany’s largest lender Deutsche Bank has infused Rs 2,700 crore into its India branch operations, taking its total investment into Indian branches to Rs 18,200 crore.

This is the second infusion by the Frankfurt based bank in less than two years. It put Rs 3,800 crore into India in early 2019.

The fresh capital will be used to support further expansion of Deutsche India, the bank said. The German lender operates 17 branches across India
(Economic Times, 12 August 2020) News Link

Startup in Bharat by bhartiya

This Delhi-based IoT startup is fighting COVID-19 with Made in India ‘Go Corona’ bags
Key points:

Started by serial entrepreneurs Arpit Chhabra, Sushant Taneja, Shashank Saxena, and Shivam Dikshit in 2017, IoTfy is a chip-to-cloud startup that helps consumer durable brands add internet of things (IoT) capability to their device categories.

IoTfy also takes pride in the fact that the company fits Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s clarion call for ‘Vocal for Local’ and Aatmanirbhar Bharat, as it contributes to this vision.

To support its scale and development, IoTfy is also planning to raise external funding by this year or early next year to bring in more talent and add more categories and continue its line of business.

(Your Story, 12 August 2020) News Link

Investment in Bharat by US companies

Equinix acquires GPX’s India data centres for 1.2k crore
Key points:

NYSE-listed data centre company Equinix has acquired the India operations of GPX Global Systems for $161 million (1,200 crore) in cash. The deal is expected to close in the first quarter of 2021.

The acquisition will help extend Equinix’s presence to India with two data-centre campuses in Mumbai.

Equinix will get access to customers such as Google Cloud, Oracle Cloud and Amazon Direct Connect and another over 200 international and local companies .
(Economic times, 12 August 2020) News Link