Category: Economy

South Africa has started a fund to help the government fast-track electricity-generation projects needed to end a crippling energy crisis.

The Energy One Stop Shop and Resilience Fund will aim to streamline regulatory processes needed for private investment in electricity production and help accelerate the approval of projects, said Trade, Industry and Competition Minister Ebrahim Patel at a virtual launch on July 27.

The Energy One-Stop Shop will start with dedicated personnel, a website, a registration portal for energy projects, and a mapped process showing where a project is in the approval process. The Energy Resilience Fund will mitigate the impact of the energy crisis.

South Africa has been facing blackouts, or load-shedding, since 2008 because the state power utility’s old coal-fired plants that supply more than 80 percent of the nation’s electricity regularly break down.

The Industrial Development Corp., the National Empowerment Fund and the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition have set aside funds to assist companies with energy-related challenges, and have so far approved disbursements of 294 million rand ($16 million), the department said. The Presidency is exploring ways to simplify these processes to address blockages, said Patel.

Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) has established the Saudi Tourism Investment Company, or Asfar, to support the growth of the Kingdom’s ​​tourism sector.

Asfar will invest in new tourism projects and develop destinations with hospitality, tourist attractions, retail, and food and beverage offerings in cities across the country, the PIF said in a statement on July 27.

In addition to offering co-investment opportunities to the private sector, the new company aims to create a supportive environment for local suppliers, contractors, and small and medium-sized enterprises. Another priority is to create a competitive environment that will boost the variety and quality of the hospitality and tourism sector.

Asfar will enable each Saudi Arabian city to make its tourism unique, diversifying and enriching their tourism and entertainment experience, the statement read.

Under the leadership of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi Arabia is implementing social reforms together with the economic agenda to help modernise its cities, such as by holding music concerts, opening cinemas, and allowing women to drive. The country’s economy rose 8.7 percent last year, growing 3.8 percent in the first quarter on an annual basis due to growth in the non-oil sector.

One of the world’s largest sovereign wealth funds, the PIF is at the core of the Saudi Vision 2030 initiative to diversify the country’s economy from hydrocarbons. Under the vision, the gulf nation is developing non-oil sectors such as entertainment, culture and sports to create jobs, boost quality of life, and attract skilled talent and tourists.

India has joined Switzerland and the United Kingdom in the number of companies with over $150 billion market capitalisation.

While the US tops the list with 51 companies, with market valuations of a minimum of $150 billion, China and France follow next with six and four companies, respectively.

In India, the merger of HDFC twins has created a third Indian company to have a market capitalisation of at least $150 billion. This feat till now was enjoyed by two companies — Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) and Tata Consultancy Services (TCS). Now, three nations — India, Switzerland, and the UK — each have three companies with a market capitalisation of greater than $150 billion, according to Bloomberg data.

On July 17, the bank’s market capitalisation crossed $150 billion, making it bigger than Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and Bank of China. Days after its merger with HDFC Ltd, HDFC Bank on Monday joined the exclusive club of companies with a market capitalisation of $100 billion. This makes it the seventh-largest lender globally.

Currently, JP Morgan is the largest bank, with a market cap of $438 million. It is followed by Bank of America ($232 billion) and China’s ICBC ($224 billion).

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on July 26 inaugurated the International Exhibition-cum-Convention Centre (IECC) complex at Pragati Maidan in New Delhi.  The redeveloped complex is the venue of the G20 Summit in September.

The Prime Minister also felicitated the ‘shramjeevis,’ who built the new complex and performed ‘puja’ ahead of the inauguration of the complex, which has been developed at a cost of about ₹2,700 crore. The facility, with a campus area of nearly 123 acres, has been built after an overhaul of the old and outdated structures in the area. Owned by India Trade Promotion Organisation, the Pragati Maidan project was executed by NBCC (India) Ltd and its contractor.

Bringing state-of-the-art facilities together with traditional art, the new IECC is set to be India’s largest MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conferences, and Exhibitions) destination. In terms of the covered space available for events, the complex finds its place among the top exhibitions and convention complexes in the world, the PMO statement said. It will be competing with the Hannover Exhibition Centre in Germany and the National Exhibition and Convention Center (NECC) in Shanghai.

The new complex has several state-of-the-art facilities such as the convention centre, exhibition halls and amphitheatres. The Level 3 of the convention centre can seat 7,000 individuals, making it even larger than the approximately 5,500 people who can be seated at the iconic Sydney Opera House in Australia.

German Minister of Labour and Social Affairs Hubertus Heil has said that he wants to encourage skilled professionals from India to come to Germany. In India for the G20 summit from July 17-22 , Heil added that Germany’s new immigration law makes it easier for students and professionals to move to the country, adding that they need “smart brains and helping hands” for their economy.

Heil called India an important partner for Germany and stressed that it is important for both countries to seek solutions together. “In the long term, we could achieve cross-national comparability and recognition of qualifications. At the same time, I use the trip to India to find out more about the potential for skilled workers and to promote Germany as an attractive location with good working and living conditions,” said the statement of Minister Hubertus Heil.

Germany and India are already cooperating in recruiting skilled workers, with the idea of such a move being beneficial for both the nations and avoiding brain drain. The German Federal Employment Agency and the German Society for International Cooperation have been recruiting nursing staff from the Indian state of Kerala since 2022. In February 2023, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said that the country wants to simplify the rules for Indian IT work experts who wish to obtain work visas.

A record 13.5 crore people moved out of multidimensional poverty between 2015-16 and 2019-21, said a report released by NITI Aayog on July 17.

According to the report, National Multidimensional Poverty Index: A Progress Review 2023, India registered a significant decline in the number of multi-dimensionally poor from 24.85 percent in 2015-16 to 14.96 percent in 2019-2021, the report said. During this period, rural areas witnessed the fastest decline in poverty from 32.59 percent to 19.28 percent, it added.

The National MPI measures simultaneous deprivations across the three equally weighted dimensions of health, education, and standard of living that are represented by 12 SDG-aligned indicators. These include nutrition, child and adolescent mortality, maternal health, years of schooling, school attendance, cooking fuel, sanitation, drinking water, electricity, housing, assets, and bank accounts. Marked improvement is witnessed across all the 12 indicators.

During the same period, the urban areas saw a reduction in poverty from 8.65 percent to 5.27 percent. Uttar Pradesh registered the highest decline in the number of poor with 3.43 crore, followed by Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, and Rajasthan.

The report provides multidimensional poverty estimates for the 36 States and Union Territories and 707 Administrative Districts.

Adani Group Chairman Gautam Adani has said that the redeveloped, new Dharavi – Asia’s largest slum cluster located in Central Mumbai – will produce “millionaires without the slumdog prefix.”

Adani Properties has been appointed by the Maharashtra government for the redevelopment of Dharavi. In an open letter on July 19, Adani expressed his commitment to creating a “state-of-the-art world-class city” that would reflect a resurgent and self-assured India “as the 21st century belongs to India”. He personally vowed that eligible residents of Dharavi would be relocated to their new homes as part of the redevelopment project.

“As we embark on this completely uncharted journey, I am aware of the colossal challenges ahead. Even in comparison with Singapore’s trailblazing project to resolve its housing crisis in the 1960s, Dharavi is a unique project in a league of its own,” Adani said in an open letter on July 19.

The redevelopment project of Dharavi will be unique for three reasons. It is one of the world’s largest urban resettlement and regeneration projects, where about a million people will be rehabilitated and resettled. It will resettle not only the residential units, but also diverse establishments of various sizes and scales dealing with trading, shopping and other business transactions. The project will also aim for comprehensive and holistic redevelopment, as it caters to the housing and rehabilitation needs of both eligible and ineligible residents, added Adani.

India and Japan have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on semiconductor development. The agreement was signed between Union Minister for Electronics and IT Ashwini Vaishnaw and Japan’s Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Yasutoshi Nishimura in New Delhi on July 20.

The MoU is on five fronts, namely semiconductor design, manufacturing, equipment research, talent development, and bringing resilience to the semiconductor supply chain, informed Ashwini Vaishnaw. He added that the agreements such as the US-India initiative on Critical and Emerging Technology (iCET) and the one with Japan provided clear directional support when industries from the respective nations engage in talks. The government’s strategy is now evidently focused on supporting industries in India, whether collaborating with the US or Japan, the minister said, adding that discussions were underway to sign a similar agreement with the Japanese company Rapidus.

Vaishnaw underlined that the semiconductor industry is witnessing rapid growth, surpassing $650 million and expected to reach $1 billion within the next five to six years. To meet the increasing demand, a substantial talent pool and significant growth at multiple locations are required. Japan sees India as a reliable partner with complementary strengths, making it an ideal collaboration prospect, he added.

India has extended approximately $32 billion in credit to 42 African nations in the last 10 years, accounting for 38 percent of India’s total credit distribution, according to Export-Import Bank of India Managing Director Harsha Bangari. In addition, India has opened 195 project-based lines of credit in Africa worth around $12.8 billion – triple the number in its own region.

This makes Africa the second-largest recipient of credit from India. In a media interview, Bangari said that credit extended by India in the last decade is just a few percentage points below its neighbours. She added that Africa has made good use of credit lines, extending for projects in the areas of healthcare, infrastructure, agriculture and irrigation.

While China’s loans to Africa have dipped since 2016, overall in the 10 years to 2020, it pledged $134.6 billion to African nations, says the data from Boston University’s Global Development Policy Center. The amount is almost 11 times more than what India has offered.

The Government of India, under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has pushed for deeper engagement with Africa, strengthening both diplomatic and economic ties. In the last nine years, 18 of the 25 new Indian embassies or consulates were opened in Africa. In February 2023, India hosted 48 African countries at the Voice of Global South summit. PM Modi has also been championing India as a representative of the Global South and using platforms such as the presidency of the Group of 20 nations to highlight the debt crises in developing economies.

Japan is assisting Bangladesh to turn its coast into an economic hub, say reports. Under the Bay of Bengal Industrial Growth Belt (BIG-B) initiative, Japan has been implementing projects for improving connectivity, developing infrastructure and accelerating industrial growth along the Dhaka-Chittagong-Cox’s Bazar belt area, say experts familiar with the development. The projects include a power plant, port and corporate parks.

The BIG-B initiative aims to boost connectivity between Bangladesh and its neighbouring countries Bhutan, Nepal and northeastern India, and make it the heart of the regional economy. Under this initiative, Japan is developing the Matarbari Deep Sea Port in Chattogram, coal and gas-based power plants, and a liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal in Matarbari, according to officials.

The Japanese projects will connect landlocked north-eastern India with the Bay of Bengal and at the same time tap into the local markets. China is also eyeing a permanent presence in the Bay of Bengal via Bangladesh and Myanmar.

Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) is implementing the Moheshkhali-Matarbari area project to facilitate smooth transportation of goods. It will be connected with Dhaka by rail, road and inland waterway.

Bangladesh, in cooperation with JICA, is also developing a Japanese EPZ in the suburbs of Dhaka at Araihazar in Narayanganj. The EPZ will house manufacturing units of agro-food, light engineering, chemical, automobile assembly, garments and pharmaceutical industries, among others.