Tweet: After Land, 2 new Ordinances for commercial disputes. Amends Arbitration & Conciliation Act & brings in provisions of Commercial Courts.

Appreciate Govt’s earnestness in bringing 2 new Ordinances for speedier dispute resolution. India at 186rank / 189 on ‘Enforcing Contracts’.

‘Ease of doing business’ gets a boost 

In a move to make India more business-friendly, the government has cleared two ordinances for speedy resolution of disputes. Under the proposed amendments, an arbitrator will have to settle a case within 18 months.

Tweet: Credit Suisse ‘House of Debt’ Report ~ says combined debt of burdened corporates s7 times in last 8 years. Asset sales have not helped.

Corporate indebtedness bites 

The Credit Suisse report estimates that 17% of loans held by banks are stressed compared with RBI’s figure of 11%. The debt position of the top 10 heavily indebted conglomerates is expected to worsen given high commodity and forex exposure.

Tweet: Central Pollution Control Board gets aggressive with Civic Authorities on solid waste management. Threaten legal action under various Acts.

CPCB gets tough

The Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) has served notices to civic authorities of 184 cities to set up sewage treatment plants and submit time-bound action plans for proper collection, treatment and disposal of sewage.

Tweet: Assocham study ~ “75% of 3540 live Real Estate projects with investment >R14 lac cr remained non-starters in 14-15.” As serious as core infra.

Realty sector’s reality check

The Assocham study reveals that over 2,300 real estate projects have been non-starters and over 1,000 others are facing significant delays in completion. On an average, projects are delayed by 33 months.

Tweet: Competitive Internationalism: Japan steals edge over China by offering to finance India’s $ 15 billion Bullet Train at interest rate < 1%.

Japan makes an unbeatable offer

In a bid to steal a march over other contenders for India’s bullet train project, Japan has made an offer of virtually free financing. However, there are apprehensions that this may come with a large commitment of tied procurement from Japan.

Tweet: Domestic air traffic grew 15% in Sept. All signs point to a review of airport capacities for next 10 years in all major towns and cities.

Air traffic growth: Reaching for the skies

Airlines carried 6.67 million passengers in September this year compared to 5.82 million in September last year. During January-September 2015, air traffic grew by 20% with 59 million passengers flying as against 49 million during the same period in 2014.

Tweet: Coal Imports dropped 27% this Sept due to scoal prodn & Coalt PLFs (thanks to discom woes). Coal imported in 2014-15 was a whopping 212 MT.

Sharp decline in coal imports

Coal imports reduced to 12.6 million tonnes last month as against 17.3 million tonnes in September 2014. Coal India, which accounts for over 80% of the domestic coal production, is targeting one billion tonnes of coal production by financial year 2020.

Tweet: New trend to beat Discoms into shape. UP Elec Reg slaps R50,000 fine on Discom MD for not tline losses. Lesser fines too on next level.

Discom officials fined for failure to curb line losses

The UPERC has slapped fines on officials of the electricity distribution company, Purvanchal Vidyut Vitaran Nigam, a subsidiary of the Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation (UPPCL). Line losses have been hovering in the range of 40-45%.

—Vinayak Chatterjee is Chairman of Feedback Infra
His Twitter handle: @Infra_VinayakCh
A weekly selection of the author’s tweets—
with a brief backgrounder—in the infra space, by Adite Banerjie