Govt. puts its money where its mouth is: Plan Exp in first 2 months of this fiscal highest in last 5 yrs. Pump-priming economy.

Government spending shoots up
In the wake of sluggish spending by private sector, the government has stepped up its spending. The Plan expenditure in the first couple of months of FY17 stood at Rs 90,000 crore. The expenditure for the full year is estimated at Rs 5.5 lakh crore, a 15.3% increase over the budgeted target of Rs 4.65 lakh crore last fiscal.

Attention to Irrigation: Rs 20,000 cr Irrigation Fund to be unveiled a month from now. Should set high scam-free execution standards.

Focus on irrigation fund
The government is all set to launch a mega irrigation fund through the special purpose vehicle (SPV) route—Water Resources Development Authority. Of the initial Rs 20,000 crore corpus, some of it will come from the budgetary allocation, Rs 12,000 crore will be raised through bonds by NABARD and Rs 6,300 crore as bonds to be repaid by the government.

After NIIF semi-sovereign funds for infra are the flavour of the season. ET reports that now Maharashtra contemplating $10 bill state fund.

State fund to ease infrastructure logjam
In a bid to raise funds for special infrastructure projects in rural Maharashtra and Mumbai, the state government is planning a $10 billion infrastructure fund. Since some countries have sought guarantees for the protection of their investment, the state is urging the Centre to provide a ‘comfort letter’ for certain projects.

CMIE Q1 data shows new projects at all time low of Rs 1.3 lac cr. Not surprising. New projects will happen as capacity utilisation picks up.

Slow growth on new projects
According to CMIE data, private investment has remained muted despite some improvement in investment sentiment and uptick noticed in some sectors. The value of stalled projects reportedly remained at the Rs 12 lakh crore level, even though the number of stalled projects did not increase during the quarter.

Sunshine on Make In India: Some tenders being floated by MNRE specify that only domestically made solar cells and modules r to be used.

Domestic solar panel manufacturing to get a boost
India has locked horns with the US at the WTO on India’s preference for local sourcing of solar equipment. While the initial WTO judgement has gone against India, the government is appealing against it. In the meantime, it is looking at ways to encourage domestic manufacture of solar panels.

If Govt convinced that Regional Air Connectivity policy will work, then why announce a new PSU airline to connect NE with Guwahati hub?

New north-east airline to take off
The government is all set to launch a subsidiary of Pawan Hans Helicopters Ltd that will operate flights out of Guwahati and connect all state capitals in the Northeast. The move is aimed at increasing regional connectivity.

“Moksha Dham” (crematorium constr) amongst 300 projects starting 2day for Ganga-cleaning + SewageTreatment, ghats, beautification. Grt!

River cleansing on war footing
With the aim of showcasing the first phase of Ganga cleaning project in October this year, the government has launched as many as 231 projects simultaneously at 104 locations across five states—Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal—and also along the Yamuna in Haryana and Delhi.

Well thought-through move to have @PiyushGoyal take charge of Mines Ministry. Fuel to generation aligned; & clear recognition of ability.

Goyal gets mines in Cabinet reshuffle
Power, coal and renewable energy minister Piyush Goyal has been given the additional charge of mining. Goyal’s objective is to increase the mining sector’s contribution to GDP by another 1 percentage point in the next 1-2 years.

—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