Finnish Firm Fortum to Invest Upto €400 Million in India's Solar Projects

Finnish utility firm Fortum said it will invest €200-400 million (around Rs 1,500- 3,000 crore) in solar power projects India.

India offers "one of the best solar resources and a sound government support for the development of solar sector. The country provides a good platform for Fortum to further develop its business in solar also elsewhere," the company said in a statement.

The government plans to jack up solar power generation capacity to 100 gigawatts by 2022, up from 5.25 gigawatts currently. India gets more than 300 days of sunshine a year across the seventh-largest land area in the world.

Fortum has 15 megawatts (mW) of solar capacity in India. In January this year, it won a reverse auction for a 70 mW project with a fixed tariff for 25 years.

In addition, Fortum on Tuesday "decided to bid for additional 100 mWs in India, with a fixed tariff for 25 years," the statement said. "Some large-scale greenfield development will be targeted to enable economies of scale."

In addition, the company will consider seeking "possible partnerships or other forms of cooperation, which would on long-term create a more asset-light structure."

"Fortum seeks to allocate of its planned growth capital in the range of 200-400 million euros in solar projects in India," said the statement.

Companies win solar projects if they offer to supply electricity at the lowest tariff in competitive auctions. The last auction in January saw rates reach an historic low of Rs 4.34 per kilowatt-hour (or unit).

Besides Fortum, other foreign firms investing in solar power projects in India include SunEdison Inc of US, Canada's SkyPower, Japan's SoftBank Group Corp and a local unit of France's Solairedirect SA.

Projects in India are to be selected from various central, state and public sectors undertaking (PSU) schemes, which would guarantee a long-term power purchase agreement (PPA), taking into account Fortum's Group financial targets.

The company said its solar strategy targets a wider geographic scope than its current business portfolio.

Rs 23,000 Crore Electronic Payments Likely Adopters are Young Generation of Micro Merchants

A new MasterCard study of micro merchants in India indicates that young merchants in the age group of 35-45 are most likely to adopt electronic payment systems, thus furthering the country’s vision for a less cash economy.

According to the MasterCard Micro Merchant Market Sizing & Profiling Report, young merchants owning large and medium sized businesses, primarily in auto accessories, building fittings, medical, private cabs, and food & beverage sectors form the high potential segment. 

The report identifies the number of merchants most inclined to trials of e-payments at 10 percent, that is, almost 5 million of the total 59.16 million known universe of micro merchants. Merchants cited potential increase in revenue (46 percent) as a strong driver for trials, followed by increased business efficiency (31 percent) and enhanced shop image (30 percent).

Unveiling the report findings, Porush Singh, Country Corporate Officer, India and Division President, South Asia, MasterCard, said, “At MasterCard, our vision is a world beyond cash as a less-cash financial system will benefit both merchants and customers by mitigating the costs and risks associated with cash while doing business, as well as enable merchants to target new customers and markets. As India moves towards digitization, we firmly believe that the country’s young population will be the drivers of technology adoption and transformation of the payments landscape, and the MasterCard study mirrors that belief.”

The MasterCard study interviewed micro merchants across India with a view to understand the market potential, key barriers to adoption of non-cash modes of payment and opportunities for enabling a less-cash society.

The study estimates the potential market size to be more than INR 23,000 crore weekly. Merchants acknowledged safety concerns and operational concerns related to a cash-driven business, with one-third (33 percent) admitting the need for presence of self or family member at the store to avoid pilferage. More than a quarter (29 percent) also agreed that they face operational efficiency issues related to cash such as time and effort to tally expenses and profits daily, and effort required to keep record of transactions. Close to a quarter of merchants (24 percent) admit to having lost customers due to inability to accept card payments.

The report finds that merchants who are familiar with and personally own e-payment formats showed a higher willingness to consider adopting them for business (70 percent), compared to merchants who are unaware of e-payment methods (8 percent) or are aware but have never used it (14 percent). This reflects a direct co-relation between knowledge and familiarity of e-payments with willingness to adopt them, thus indicating a need to educate merchants about the benefits of adopting non-cash methods of payment.

Praveen Khandewal, Secretary General, CAIT said, "India is on the cusp of a payments revolution as this has been pursued as a key policy objective by the Modi Government. A less cash economy will benefit our constituency of around 6 crore small merchants and traders in reaching out to newer markets and as outlined in the study. Digital technologies will provide opportunities for the young generation of merchants to further grow their businesses. Through our partnership with MasterCard we have successfully been able to reach out to more than 50,000 traders and smaller businesses across eight States and intend to cover many more this year, through our joint Master Your Card trainings.”

He further added, “Along with addressing traders directly, we are also training champions promoting this cause of less cash in each of the States and are proud of the fact that these champions continue to promote this message further actively in their constituency. This is one of the key resolutions we passed at the National Traders Conclave which was held in New Delhi from April 4^th -6^th with more than 5000 traders in attendance.”

The study identifies young merchants (age 35-45 years), owning medium sized businesses (6 to 10 employees) and large sized businesses (11 to 20 employees), based across Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Bareilly as high potential segments for adopting new technology and moving to a non-cash payment system.

To promote financial awareness and literacy amongst traders, MasterCard, CAIT and HDFC joined hands last year to launch a training program ‘Master Your Card’ organising educational training sessions for Indian traders across the country. Since its inception in 2015, more than 50,000 traders have participated in trainings conducted in cities including New Delhi, Pune, Chandigarh, Jaipur, Ahmedabad and many others. Additionally, e-Lala has been launched to support brick & mortar shops to embrace e-commerce as an additional platform to generate more business.

Report Methodology and Sample Size

The MasterCard Micro Merchant Market Sizing & Profiling Report is a study of 1653 merchants across nine cities – Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai, Chennai, Bengaluru, Bareilly, Ranchi, Nasik and Vijaywada, through face to face interactions.

The study examines micro merchants in India across verticals like kirana stores, medical stores, F&B stores, mobile phone & accessories, watches and accessories, garments, consumer Electronics, Building fittings, Automobile accessories and spare parts, Private Cab Services and Beauty Parlours/ Men's Salons/ Barber shops.

Tally Solutions Makes Deeper Inroads in Kenya with Over 3000 Customers

Tally Solutions Pvt. Limited (TSPL), a premier Indian software product company, has announced that it is seeing growing customer traction in Kenya, with a total installed customer base of over 3,000 customers in Kenya. The company recently rolled out the latest release of its flagship product Tally. ERP 9 for the Kenya market, and has been focusing on growth in Africa.

Since the last 16 years, Tally has been enabling large, medium and small enterprises in Africa to manage accounting, streamline operations, and achieve higher business efficiency, while remaining iTax compliant. There are over 10,000 enterprises in Africa who are currently using Tally software for a variety of accounting & business management functions. In Kenya, Tally Solutions caters to customers across industry verticals, including Manufacturing, Retail Trading and Construction. The company set up its overseas office at Nairobi in August 2014 supporting a robust network of 74 authorised Tally Partners in the region.

As a testimony of its deepening presence in the African market, Tally Solutions signed on another happy and proud customer in the Jotun Group, a global Norwegian chemicals major dealing mainly with paints and coatings. The company recently implemented Tally.ERP 9, for its regional operations in Kenya and reaped significant benefits in terms for greater business efficiency. Jotun has adorned several famous landmarks around the world, including the Eiffel Tower in Paris, Burj Khalifa in Dubai and Marina Bay Sands in Singapore.

“Our experience of implementing Tally.ERP 9 in Kenya has been fantastic. Tally.ERP 9 easily fitted our needs; it was an extremely easy-to-operate software and an economically viable solution,” said  K.R. Rao, Regional IT Manager (MEIA), Jotun UAE Limited. “Tally.ERP9 gave us the flexibility to adapt to the local and legal needs of the region. Also some of the existing employees in Jotun’s finance team were already aware of the product’s functionalities. This proved to be an additional asset to the company. Even the roll-out was extremely seamless and became operational as per plan,” he added further.

Jotun, with its presence in more than 90 countries and with 9500 employees, anticipated several business challenges when it made inroads into the African market. To address its local needs, Jotun was looking for a flexible ERP partner with a qualified solution that was flexible, easy to operate, and had minimal dependencies. The company adopted Tally.ERP 9 to manage the finance, logistics and supply chain operations of Jotun’s Kenya office, which was set up with the prompt help of Tally’s regional team at Dubai, and Infobit Computer Solutions, a Tally Partner in Dubai. Further to implementing Tally.ERP 9, Jotun could easily run both the Kenya and in-future Morocco sites remotely with their main server at Dubai. 

Semiconductor Foundry Market Grew Globally at 4.4% in 2015

Breaking a three-year double-digit-growth streak, the worldwide semiconductor foundry market grew 4.4 percent in 2015 to achieve $48.8 billion in revenue, according to final results by Gartner, Inc.

"In 2015, semiconductor device market revenue declined due to excess IC inventory, poor demand for mobile products and PCs, and slowing tablet sales," said Samuel Wang, research vice president at Gartner. "The slowdown in the device market has driven semiconductor producers to be conservative in placing wafer orders to foundries. Foundry growth was only possible from the high wafer demand by Apple and the revenue conversion of a few integrated device manufacturers (IDMs) to foundries."

Among the top players, the leader, TSMC, grew 5.5 percent in 2015, driven by the success of 20 nm planar and 16 nm Fin field-effect transistor (FinFET) technologies serving the need of application processors and baseband modem chips (see Table 1). Global foundries moved into the No. 2 position with 9.6 percent of the market. The No. 3 position went to UMC with $4.5 billion revenue, representing 9.3 percent of the market.

Price competition in advanced process technologies in 2015 was exceptionally strong, not only on the 28 nm node, as more foundry suppliers have started the production volume of 28 nm polySiON technology, but also on 65 nm and 40 nm. In contrast to the highly utilized 200 mm fabs from fingerprint ID chips and power management ICs, the low 300 mm fab utilization rates at some large foundries have triggered their willingness to run more 0.18-micron wafers in the 300 mm fabs.

"On a quarterly basis, foundry revenue changed quarter to quarter in 2015. The normal seasonal pattern of a very strong second quarter was not obvious, while most foundries continued to revise their business outlook during each quarter's earnings release," said Wang. "The peak inventory level for the semiconductor industry continued to push out during 2015, from the second quarter to the third quarter, and through the rest of the year."

Indian Government Intervention Essential for Tackling Hearing Disability

By Manu Sharma

Over 7 percent of India suffer from profound deafness. More than a million such children need either hearing aid or cochlear implant surgery to restore their hearing. However, what's scarier is the high cost of the equipment and the lack of government's aid to help those with hearing disabilities.

Cochlear Implants is a proven medical aid for individuals with severe to profound hearing loss. It gifts sound to the ears of a person with profound deafness and gives him a chance to lead a near to normal life once again. Since the first implant nearly 20 years ago, about 4500 cochlear implant surgery has been conducted at private health facilities in the country. 

Dr Shankar Medikere, Senior ENT Surgeon at the Medikeri’s Super Specialty ENT Centre says, “The cost of cochlear implants ranges from Rs 5.5 lakh to 12.5 lakh. Also I’m aware that the cost is beyond the affordability level for many and that where the government needs to intervene.”

The cost of this surgery is high as the implant device is not manufactured in India and it has to be imported from countries like Australia, USA and Austria. “So, we urge the government to extend assistance to the poor children suffering from the hearing impairment,” he said.

Dr Medikere highlights that in many states both the centre and the state have come together to drive this initiative. Like in Andhra Pradesh, several schemes like the Rajiv Aarogyasri, a program of the government of Andhra Pradesh has already taken off . It covers all those below the poverty line (BPL). The government issues an Aarogyasri card and the beneficiary can use it at any government and private hospitals to obtain services free of cost.

The good news is this scheme also covers cochlear implant surgery with auditory-verbal therapy for children below 6 years. “But it’s not enough if a few states like Andhra, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh and Kerala have a few scheme to aid the deserving. What about Karnataka? Where in more than 2.35 lakh patients exist and the state is yet to kick off any such scheme,” he adds. 

Now the ENT Hospitals will be the only government-run hospital in Andhra Pradesh to conduct this expensive surgery free of cost. The Andhra government is also considering to make cochlear implant surgery free for all hearing impaired children of BPL families across the state. 

Since the problem is off much greater magnitude and with one out of every 12 Indian suffering from some degree of impaired hearing, the Centre needs to intervene fast and help reduce the cost of the equipment.

Brett Lee Bats for Awareness of Cochlear Implants

The Australian world-renowned bowler will draw attention to the functional, social, emotional and economic impact of hearing loss on individuals and their families.

Lee’s son suffered from hearing loss because of a head injury. “Even though he recovered in a couple of months, at that point of time I was so disturbed,” he confided.

This incident got him to associate with the campaign as it could help millions who suffer from hearing loss.

“I want to make sure that everyone has the opportunity to experience what I hear — the sounds of everyday life or cricket, or the voices of loved ones,” Lee adds.

Lee is the global brand ambassador of Cochlear, an international firm that deals with implantable hearing solutions. He had unveiled the Indian leg of Sound of Cricket in Mumbai last year. Lee will interact with Christ University students on Tuesday. He will also participate in a cricket match on the campus, played by children with hearing disability.

BT to Help Panalpina Improve Collaboration and Unlock Value in the Supply Chain

BT has announced a contract with Panalpina, one of the world’s leading freight forwarding and logistics companies, to transform and manage its global communications infrastructure. The transformation will enable Panalpina’s 15,000 employees to better communicate and collaborate internally and with their customers. This supports the company’s vision to work closer with its clients to build smart and efficient end-to-end logistics solutions.

BT will overhaul Panalpina’s network infrastructure, currently sourced from more than a dozen domestic and regional providers, and migrate it into a single integrated platform, connecting 500 offices in more than 75 countries. BT will also provide services from its BT One Voice portfolio, to converge voice and data on a single platform.

The new network will be a hybrid infrastructure, based on BT’s IP Connect and Internet Connect services, combining the reliability and security of IP-based Virtual Private Networks (VPN) with the flexibility of Internet connections. BT’s services will underpin the continued implementation of Panalpina’s new global enterprise resource planning (ERP) and transportation management systems, which require optimal end-to-end control of the infrastructure.

Additional services, such as BT Connect Intelligence, will provide an application-aware network architecture designed to support strategic business applications.

“This agreement with BT is a major milestone on our way to becoming the most customer focused global provider of freight forwarding and logistics solutions,” said Ralf Morawietz, Chief Information Officer at Panalpina. “As our single point of contact for communication services, BT will take away the burden of managing a multitude of different suppliers, and will make it easier for us to implement new services and to support our employees and customers around the globe.”

Corrado Sciolla, President Europe & Global Telecom Markets at BT Global Services, said: “In the new digital world, customers and employees are becoming more demanding, ecosystems are evolving and the established rules are changing. We are very proud that a global leader such as Panalpina has chosen BT to manage their communication services in this changing environment. We will build on our long-standing expertise in serving the needs of the logistics sector to make sure that Panalpina’s employees and customers around the world can collaborate better and more easily. The intelligent features of our network services will also help Panalpina improve the performance of its business-critical applications and constantly adapt the whole communications infrastructure to its rapidly evolving digital needs.”

Adani Enterprises Enters Wind Energy Segment with 50 MW in Andhra Pradesh and 20 MW in Madhya Pradesh

Adani Enterprises, a leading conglomerates, has marked its entry into the wind energy segment by placing the company’s first orders for wind turbine generators with Inox Wind Limited.  Inox Wind, further strengthening its leading position in the Indian wind turbine industry, has inked two contracts for a cumulative capacity of 70 MW with Adani Green Energy Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of Adani Enterprises Limited and part of the Adani Group.  The orders bagged by Inox Wind represent Adani Group’s maiden foray into the wind energy segment and encompass a 50 MW turnkey project to be set up in Anantapur district in Andhra Pradesh and a 20 MW turnkey project at Inox Wind’s Lahori site in Madhya Pradesh. 

As part of the two turnkey orders, Inox Wind will deliver, install, and commission 35 units of Inox Wind’s 100 rotor diameter turbines and has also been contracted to undertake operations and maintenance services of the projects for a multi year period, post commissioning.  

Inox Wind provides its clients with end to end solutions including wind resource assessment, acquiring land, developing the entire site infrastructure, building the power evacuation system, supplying the WTGs, erection and commissioning services, long term operations and maintenance services as well as post-commissioning support. 

"Inox Wind is proud to be working with Adani Group, a global conglomerate and one of the country’s leading business houses.  These are the first orders placed by Adani in the wind power space and reaffirm customers’ faith in Inox’s ability to provide world class technological solutions to its clients.  We are delighted to partner with Adani in their endeavour to become leaders in renewable power technologies and in our joint commitment towards providing clean and green energy in India.” said Kailash Tarachandani, Chief Executive Officer of Inox Wind Limited in his statement.