PM Modi reviews infra projects, wants early completion of Hyderabad Metro

Source: Business Today

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday pushed for early completion of the Hyderabad Metro Rail Project as he reviewed the progress of vital infrastructure projects in road, railway, metro rail, power and food processing sectors spread over various states.

The projects in the states like Delhi, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra and Telangana were reviewed by Modi at the eighth meeting of PRAGATI (Pro-Active Governance And Timely Implementation), an IT-based platform of tele-conferencing with top officials of states.

Reviewing the Hyderabad Metro Rail Project, the Prime Minister exhorted all authorities concerned to complete this PPP project at the earliest and with the best possible quality, a PMO statement said.

Among other significant projects reviewed were the Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor and the Delhi-Haryana-Uttar Pradesh Eastern Peripheral Highway, it said.

Reviewing the Food Park Scheme, he called for a comprehensive evaluation of the benefits from the Parks that have already been completed.

Modi also reviewed and pressed for early completion of the Kaladan Multi-Modal Transit Transport and Rih-Tedim Road Project in Myanmar, which he described as one of the corner stones of India's 'Act East' policy, the statement said.

He also took stock of the progress towards Direct Benefit Transfer under MNREGA, and end-to-end computerization of Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS) operations. PRAGATI meetings are held on last Wednesdays of every month. 

Infosys to open its biggest campus in Hyderabad in February next year

Source: I B Times

Infosys, India's second-largest IT firm, is planning to formally inaugurate its largest campus in Hyderabad at Pocharam in February next year, according to Telangana IT Minister K T Rama Rao.

"The seating capacity of the campus is 25,000. Currently, 12,000 employees are working there. They are planning to inaugurate the campus formally in February, after the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) elections," Rao told reporters on the sidelines of a programme at the T-Hub.

Infosys chief Vishal Sikka has visited startup incubator T-hub, a Telangana government initiative, on Monday. T-hub is located at the International Institute of Information Technology (IIIT) Hyderabad, and the state government has already invested Rs 40 crore in the 70,000-sq-ft campus.

"(Vishal) Sikka has invited us to inaugurate their largest campus at Pocharam in Hyderabad. We would request Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao to unveil the IT policy of the state also at that time," PTI quoted Rao as saying.

Infosys is spending Rs 1,250 crore to construct its Pocharam campus, which will be spread across over 447 acre, in Hyderabad.

Earlier this month, a top Telangana government official had said nearly 20 IT firms are expected to open offices in Hyderabad in the next 8-12 months. Hyderabad, the capital city of India's youngest state, is fast emerging as a favourite destination for big business firms to set up shop.

"They are in advanced stages of discussion with us. We expect formal announcements to be made by them on this pretty soon," Jayesh Ranjan, secretary (IT, electronics and communications), Telangana government, had said.

Search engine giant Google had said in May it would to set up its biggest development centre outside the US in Hyderabad, with an outlay of Rs 1,000 crore. The new campus would span over 2 million square feet and accommodate 13,000 employees.

The state government has already given its nod to the draft of the new IT policy, which would be announced after the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) elections in January next year, said the state ITE&C secretary.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella promises to promote start-ups in Hyderabad

Source: India today

A meeting with Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu over breakfast and a visit to T-Hub, the technology incubator developed by Telangana was all Microsoft chief executive officer Satya Nadella did on Monday during his private visit to Hyderabad.

On only his second visit to the city since he became CEO of the global tech giant last year, Nadella did a balancing act to keep both Telugu states happy and had an informal interaction with budding entrepreneurs.

On his first visit in September last year, he could not meet Naidu as the latter was away in Visakhaptnam but had called on Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao. This time, he met Naidu over breakfast and also visited T-Hub, billed as India's largest technology incubator.

While a MoU was signed between Microsoft India and Andhra Pradesh to harness cloud technology for the state's growth, at T-Hub Nadella responded positively to Telangana's request for setting up a startup ecosystem in Hyderabad.

During the meeting with Naidu, the 47-year-old promised to visit his native Anantapur district in Andhra Pradesh. Born in Anantapur, Nadella was brought up and studied in Hyderabad.

During the interaction with startups at T-Hub, he said that his energy comes from the interaction with entrepreneurs across the world.

"There are three points to success - concept, capability, culture. Learn more from day one... chase after your concept or idea. Improve your capability to chase the idea... Curate the culture," he told the entrepreneurs in an inspirational talk.

To a query, he said the importance of failure lies in learning from it.

During the meeting with Telangana's Information Technology Minister K.T. Rama Rao, Nadella said the tech giant under its initiative Microsoft Ventures would help develop accelerators and startups here.

He responded positively to a request by the Telanana government to build a startup ecosystem in Hyderabad in partnership with T-Hub.

"Indian talent in the area is dramatically growing and we can see their dominance in the field," the Microsoft CEO told budding entrepreneurs.

Nadella said Microsoft's goal and dream is to empower local entrepreneurs to solve last mile connectivity.

The minister later told reporters that it was one of the several avenues of collaboration they explored.

Rama Rao also requested him to preferably set up a cloud data centre in Hyderabad. Nadella promised that he would like to be enabler for cloud enablement of small and medium enterprises.

This public cloud for SMEs can help in building a sustainable business environment and other eco systems can also benefit from this.

The IT minister said Nadella also agreed to consider his request to implement its white spaces technology in Telangana. The Microsoft CEO said the company would like to work with some local entrepreneurs to bring about the last mile connectivity.

The state government also sought Microsoft's help in digitizing classrooms in government-run schools across the state. The minister said the government was focused on ensuring best education and wanted children to benefit from best technologies.

Microsoft has its India Development Centre here since 1998. It is the largest facility of Microsoft outside its headquarters in Redmond, US.

Earlier, Nadella met Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu over breakfast at the latter's residence.

On this occasion, Andhra Pradesh government signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Microsoft India to harness Microsoft cloud technology for the state's growth.

An earlier statement issued by the office of the advisor, communications, Andhra Pradesh, said said Nadella agreed to set up a centre of excellence in Visakhapatnam.

However, it later issued a revised release, according to which the government requested him to set up centre of excellence.

The meeting over breakfast at Naidu's residence lasted over an hour. It mainly centred on how Microsoft could help accelerate development process in Andhra Pradesh through deployment of IT.

Nadella showed interest in the ambitious Rs.2,500-crore e-pragathi project, an e-governance initiative, recently taken up by the state government.

The Microsoft CEO invited the state to send an IT team to Seattle to study how the technology giant's services could be utlilised for better implementation of this project.

Under the MoU, the state government would use technical knowledge provided by Microsoft India.

Microsoft India will support building of up to three proof-of-concept (POC) solutions to apply Microsoft Azure Machine Learning and Advanced Visualization in the fields of education, agriculture and eCitizen services.

Hyderabad Airport Becomes Country's First To Offer E-Boarding Facility

Source: PTI



HYDERABAD:  GMR group-run Rajiv Gandhi International Airport (RGIA) has become the first airport in the country to offer e-boarding facility to domestic fliers.

The seamless facility, inaugurated by Union Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju, covers all the boarding processes right from entry into the terminal building of the airport to boarding the aircraft, a release said today.

Fliers, however, would have flexibility to follow the traditional process of showing a photo-ID to gain entry into the airport in case the Aadhaar number is not available.

Developed in-house, the e-boarding Solution eliminates the need to manual stamping of boarding cards even for physical boarding cards issued by CUSS (Common Use Self Service) machines or the check-in counters, it said.

Besides, the facility also covers end-to-end all the key passenger processes including entry to terminal, check-in, security check, boarding gate and boarding bridge check before entering the aircraft.

With the implementation of E-boarding at RGIA, now a domestic passenger will need only a mobile e-boarding card and his Aadhaar Card number to gain entry into the airport, it said.

Fliers, however, would have flexibility to follow the traditional process of showing a photo-ID to gain entry into the airport in case the Aadhaar number is not available.

"We are happy to announce a comprehensive end-to-end E-boarding solution, first time at any Indian airport. After the successful pilot of the project and a go-ahead from Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS), we have used our internal capabilities to commence E-boarding (facility) in shortest possible time," GMR Hyderabad International Airport Ltd (GHIAL) Chief executive Officer SGK Kishore said.

The in-house built e-boarding solution is in line with the 'Digital India' programme envisioned by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he said.

GMR Hyderabad International Airport Limited (GHIAL) is a four-way joint venture with GMR Group holding 63 per cent stake, while Airports Authority of India and Telangana holding 13 per cent each. The rest 11 per cent stake is held by Malaysia Airports Holdings Berhad.
 

BRS and LRS: Three Documents Exempted for Now

Source: New India Express  Dec 25, 2015

HYDERABAD: Submission of Encumbrance Certificate, Market Value Certificate and Indemnity Bond is not mandatory while submitting the applications for building and layout regularisation in Greater Hyderabad in view of the difficulty in obtaining EC and MVC from the registration department on account of consecutive holidays till December 27.

The last date for filing of the applications is December 31.

Processing will be taken up only after the disposal of pending court case and as per the orders of the High Court.

Also, in some instances, it has been brought to Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation’s (GHMC)  notice that there are several difficulties in uploading the documents online due to technical snags and a number of mandatory documents needed for uploading.  In order to avail the facility for submission of applications and in view of the paucity of time for submission before  December 31, only the following documents may be asked for along with the initial payment. The facility of uploading the remaining documents will be made subsequently.

Earlier, the GHMC required 13 documents from applicants for uploading online.

The GHMC has introduced online filing of applications under both BRS and LRS. Till date, the corporation has received 26,628 applications under BRS and 11,843 under LRS.

Documents Now Needed for BRS

A copy of ownership document, title deed attested by a gazetted officer

Constructed building plan (site plan, location plan, detailed plan, floor plan, section plan, elevation plan) drawn and signed by licensed technical person and signed by the applicant

One photograph showing the elevation

One photograph showing the roof slab

Documents Now Needed for LRS

A copy of ownership document, title deed duly attested by a gazetted officer

Site location plan

Detailed layout plan showing the plot needing regularisation drawn and signed by a licensed technical person and signed by the applicant

Hyderabad most affordable for buying, renting a house: Report

Source: Livemint

Even as inventory levels are rising across the top cities in India, real estate prices are continuing to increase

Notwithstanding the cut in repo rates by the Reserve Bank of India making home loans cheaper, Mumbai continues to remain the most expensive city in India for both buying and renting a house, while Hyderabad is still the most affordable market across the top eight cities, according to a research report by full service robo adviser ArthaYantra.

Though the real estate market in Mumbai has had an upward trend, it is still beyond the reach of a middle-income household. Even someone with an annual income of Rs.25 lakh would not be able to buy a residential property, making it most suitable for renting a house, said the Buy Vs. Rent Report 2016.

For the research, data was captured from multiple sources, including National Housing Board (NHB) of India, available real estate reports and major real estate aggregators for eight cities—Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi-NCR (National Capital Region), Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mumbai and Pune.

According to the NHB’s Residential Index (NHB Residex), which tracks the movement of prices in the residential housing segment across India, Chennai remains unchanged with steepest rise in the index value by 264% from the base year (2007) and a 19.74% increase in index value over the past four years (from 2012). Pune comes next with a rise in index value by 151% since 2007 and a 38.67% increase since 2012.

Click here for enlarge

On the other hand, Hyderabad has seen de-growth in real estate prices by 3% since the base year 2007. Mumbai occupies the third position in real estate growth rate with index value rising 138% from the base year (2007).

Cities like Ahmedabad, Kolkata, Delhi and Bengaluru have seen a positive trend in real estate growth with rise in the index values by 115%, 112%, 90% and 15%, respectively, from the base year.

Mumbai (where average cost of buying a 1,000-sq. ft house is Rs.1.91 crore), Delhi-NCR (Rs.1.18 crore) and Chennai (Rs.75.6 lakh) have been expensive cities for buying, while rentals here have undergone only a marginal change in the past two years. Rising inventory levels in these cities indicate that supply is available, but it is unaffordable to many. So, people rent instead of buying.

In Bengaluru, inventory levels remained the same, but given that people prefer to rent than buy, rental values over the past four years have increased.

In Hyderabad and Ahmedabad, both property prices and rental values haven’t undergone any significant change in two years. Ahmedabad has, in fact, seen a negative growth in property rents since 2012, thus placing it high on the affordability-to-rent scale. Hyderabad has seen a fair increase in rental values despite a drop in property prices, which makes it affordable for buy a property in.

Cities such as Mumbai and Delhi-NCR stand to be very expensive both in terms of buying and renting a property, a trend that has been consistent year-on-year. Chennai continues to be at the sixth position like last year in the affordability-to-buy (ATB) ranking, while there is step-up in the affordability-to-rent (ATR) ranking from fifth to fourth position making it better placed for renting. Pune, over the past four years, has come down in its ranking due to a constant increase in property prices while it retains the thrid position for ATR ranking.

The current economic scenario, along with the ongoing trends in the realty market make the buy-versus-rent decision more complex for individuals. Among the top eight cities researched for this report, Mumbai and Delhi-NCR clearly stand out as places where buying a home has gone beyond the reach of many individuals.

Telangana Govt announces land, building regularisation scheme for Greater Hyderabad

Source: Business Line

HYDERABAD, NOVEMBER 2:  

In a major relief to land and building owners in the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation limits, the Telangana Government has today announced a scheme that enables people to regularise their land and buildings.

In an announcement made today, the Government has kept open the validity of the regularisation scheme for 60 days from November 2. Under the land regularisation Scheme (LRS) and Building Regularisation Scheme (BRS), all lands and buildings, the latter constructed as of October 28 are eligible to avail the provisions of the scheme.

As per the scheme, applicants under the LRS/BRS scheme can apply online by paying Rs. 10,000. After being examined at various departments, within six months it would be finalised.

The State Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, basing on a number of representations for land and building regularisation, had appointed a Committee headed by the State Minister Srinivas Yadav as Chairman to look into various aspects and come out with appropriate suggestion for regularisation.

Based on the suggestions by the Committee for Regularisation, the Chie Minister today formally approved the scheme.

The panel also decided to come down heavily on illegal constructions and layouts and cases would be filed against those who violate various provisions.  It is also proposed to set up a separate tribunal after consulting the law department.

In order to curb illegal construction, the committee suggested a separate enforcement wing. It is proposed to come out with a single window clearance for building and house approvals, which is aimed at expediting the process of clearance with least interference.

The Government has come out with a detailed table for regularisation of land starting from 100 sq.yards with a nominal amount of Rs. 15 and Rs. 30 for residential and commercial respectively and this goes up to Rs.200 and Rs. 400 for plots up to 1000 sq.yards.

In the case of apartments, it is proposed to lay penalty of Rs. 12,500 for 600 sq.ft and it goes up to Rs.60,000 for 2000 sq.ft.