1,000 Hy-Fi hotspots launched in Hyderabad

Source: The Hindu 20.6.2017

Hyderabad: The Net-savvy people in the twin cities of Hyderabad and Secunderabad city are going to have a city-wide Wi-Fi connectivity soon. The Telangana government has launched 1,000 Wi-Fi hotspots in the capital and would have 2,000 more in the next few months. The government has tied up with BSNL, Airtel, ACT Fibernet and other ISPs to set up the Wi-Fi network, called Hy-Fi or Hyderabad City Wi-Fi Project’.

The COAI (Cellular Operators Association of India) is the technical advisor to the government in implementing the project. People can use the service free for 30 minutes with broadband speeds in the range of 5-10 Mbps. They can continue to use the service by joining a tariff package offered by different service providers.

Launching the 1,000 hotspots here on Tuesday, Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) Mayor Bonthu Rammohan said the city would have a total of 3,000 hotspots, making available the Wi-Fi services across the city.

The project is expected to cost ₹300 crore for various service providers. The government will support the providers by getting the relevant permissions and in the identification of locations.

The State government launched a pilot in 2015 by offering the services in about 100 public locations such as malls, tourist spots, offices and police stations. Th number has more than doubled to 250 locations. “We have brought a GO to enable smooth execution of the programme by Internet Service Providers. At present, over 1,000 hotspots are being installed with an assured bandwidth of 5-10 Mbps offering 30 minutes of free Wi-Fi,” a government official said at the launch.

Real estate prices to rise with GST

The real estate prices in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh are set to rise ranging from six per cent to about 10 per cent or more.

Source: Telangana Today, Dt: 03.06.17

Hyderabad: With GST, the real estate prices in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh are set to rise ranging from six per cent to about 10 per cent or more (depending on the specifications, locations, height). Currently, the tax incidence is 11.85 per cent including service tax of 4.5 per cent and VAT of 1.25 per cent and registration charges of 6.1 per cent.

With GST, the first two- service tax and VAT- will be subsumed and the new rate will be 12 per cent from the existing 5.75 per cent. The registration charge, which is a State subject, remains the same taking the total tax to 18.1 per cent. This apart, the rationalisation of taxes for building materials will add to the costs. With RERA also, the compliance costs will go up, which will be passed on to the customers.

According to C Shekar Reddy, real estate lobby body Credai former national president proposed GST is a double taxation on real estate segment. Under the GST, there will be a need to pay registration charges on land, apartment built-up area and undivided share of land. “The cascading effect of the registration charges will increase the tax burden to the customer.

To understand the increase in prices, consider a flat measuring 1,800 sft and priced Rs 4,000 per sft. The cost will be Rs 72 lakh. On this a service tax of 4.5 per cent is levied- Rs 3.2 lakh (or Rs 180 per sqft more than the base price). Then, it attracts a VAT of 1.25 per cent (Rs 90,000 or Rs 50 more per sft). The registration charges are 6.1 per cent (Rs 4.64 lakh or Rs 258 more per sft). The total tax is 11.85 per cent and Rs 488 is added per sft to the base price.

With all these, the net payable amount is Rs 80.78 lakh. The same property in the post-GST scenario will cost Rs 1.69 lakh more. The base price will come down Rs 3856 per sft instead of Rs 4,000 per sft and the total cost will be Rs 69.4 lakh now instead of Rs 72 lakh earlier. This fall in the base price is due less to less input tax credit which the builders get. With 12 per cent GST (Rs 8.32 lakh) and the same registration changes of 6.1 per cent (Rs 4.74 lakh), the total cost of the unit will be Rs 82.47 lakh, making its 2.1 per cent costlier than Rs 80.78 lakh in the pre-GST regime. “As the cost of per sft increases, the tax will increase,” he said.

To keep the price in check, the lobby body has been asking to subsume the registration in the GST or provide an abatement compensating the land value or reduce the proposed 12 per cent GST to five per cent. There would be no loss to the exchequer as a majority of the goods for construction suffer 28 per cent.

The real estate developers also want tax on cement and pre-fabricated structures, which are proposed to be put under 28 per cent, be reduced.

“In case of part payments, those made till June 30, will be collected as per the old rates and for those that will be made from July 1, will be as per the new GST rates,” said Jakka Venkat Reddy, general secretary, Telangana Builders Federation.

Developers used to purchase materials from other States and claim a benefit through the ‘C-Form’, the facility which has been withdrawn now. This will also add to the costs of the end-users, he said.

“The purchasing power of buyers in the real estate will come down. We are requesting the State government to reduce the registration charges,” said S Ram Reddy, Credai Hyderabad president.

“The prices in some States will come down as they were earlier paying 18 per cent and now need to pay 12 per cent. Also, the respective States have kept the registration charges lower. In Telangana and AP, the earlier taxes were 5.75 per cent, which increased to 12 per cent. The registration charges remain unchanged at 6.1 per cent,” said P Rama Krishna Rao, general secretary, Credai Hyderabad.

One more Inorbit Mall in Hyderabad (near Shamshabad) city soon

Raheja Corp is all set to build the Mall and is keen on spreading its wings in Hyderabad.

Source: telanganatoday.news      Dt: 6.5.2017

Hyderabad: After redefining the mall culture in the city with Inorbit Mall at Madhapur, Raheja Corp is now all set to come up with similar shopping and leisure facilities in other parts of the city.

The focus now is on the eastern part, where one more Inorbit Mall is being contemplated and the developers are also keen on spreading their wings more in the city. Kishore Bhatija, Managing Director – Real Estate Development, Raheja Corp describes Hyderabad as a real growth city after Mumbai and Pune.

The advantages of Hyderabad are several apart from better infrastructure when compared to other cities, he says. The city has good social infrastructure and qualified manpower, which is what the IT companies prefer most, he further said. Affordability is yet another USP for the city which makes it easy to accommodate migratory population with quality education. “There is good value for money here and quality of education is high and a good crop of professionals come into the market,” Kishore Bhatija points out.

Almost 14 years in the city and a large development under its belt, Raheja Corp has other projects coming up at Nacharam and Shamshabad. On a question to how much built space is expected to be added, he said, “It will depend on our estimation of what market can absorb. It is a capital intensive model. We don’t sell our real estate and since we don’t sell, lot of capital is required to hold. Depending on the volumes picking up, we will construct more,” he explains.

Raheja is also scouting for land in Cyberabad area and bidding for construction of TSIIC’s Image Tower project, which is expected to be an iconic structure.

At Shamshabad, the developer has own space is working on that area and trying to push clientele, who are more value driven. “We are trying to create market for different kind of clientele and they will be mostly low rise units like campus type. One million square feet will be created in the next five to six years,” reveals Kishore Bhatija. On plans for housing projects, he says “IT is bigger priority for us. We do have a housing project in Nacharam. We have already completed 200 units and people have occupied the apartments and another 100 units we will be delivered by December. One more tower of 100 units will be launched shortly and will be completed in 24 months”.

Last year, the off take in terms of space occupancy, particularly IT companies renting space in Hyderabad, has been good. “It has been tremendous and I think it is highest in the history of Hyderabad. The quantum of IT companies off take was highest. Generally, it is around three to four million square feet space across the year but it had increased to six and half million last year,” he said.

Hyderabad has lot more potential waiting to be tapped including availability of land and lot of government lands are coming up for auction. Stating this, Kishore Bhatija adds, “In Bangalore, lands are very difficult to get, besides there are title issues”.

ORBCOMM Moves India Operations to New Technology Center of Excellence in Hyderabad, India

Source: ORBCOMM.com/news

Serves as Company’s hub for software application development and customer care supporting its comprehensive IoT solution portfolio

Rochelle Park, NJ, and Hyderabad, India, March 22, 2017 - ORBCOMM Inc. (Nasdaq: ORBC), a leading global provider of Machine-to-Machine (M2M) and Internet of Things (IoT) solutions, announced today that it has moved its India operations to a new technology center of excellence for software application development and Tier One customer care in Hyderabad, India. ORBCOMM will host a ribbon-cutting ceremony performed by Mr. K.T. Ramarao, Cabinet Minister for IT of the state of Telangana, Mr. Jayesh Ranjan, IT Secretary of the state of Telangana, and Mr. Craig Malone, ORBCOMM’s Executive Vice President of Product Development, to mark the official opening of its new office today at 10:45 am IST.

ORBCOMM’s Hyderabad office is the company’s largest software development site and houses web and mobile application developers and customer service representatives, who are part of the company’s global team of technical experts focused on the delivery of its IoT products, services and solutions. In addition to supporting ORBCOMM’s continued technological innovation, the office will supplement the company’s North America-based customer care team, which provides 24x7 customer service throughout the full solution delivery lifecycle for over 1.72 million end-user IoT devices on its global satellite and cellular networks.

“We opened our new state-of-the-art facility in Hyderabad, India to accommodate the continued growth and expansion of ORBCOMM’s business in the global industrial IoT market,” said Craig Malone, ORBCOMM’s Executive Vice President of Product Development. “This office will serve as ORBCOMM’s center of excellence for software development and customer care to support our broad portfolio of IoT solutions and deliver the highest level of service to our global customers. We also look forward to collaborating with local technology partners and integrators to deliver ORBCOMM’s advanced technology solutions to government and commercial customers throughout India.”

For more information about ORBCOMM’s ribbon-cutting ceremony, please contact Latha Sirigiri, ORBCOMM’s Director of Human Resources, for the Hyderabad, India, office, at +91 (40) 40021258 or sirigiri.latha@orbcomm.com.

Hyderabad emerges as the city with the best quality of living

Source: Times of India  Dt: 15.3.2017

Hyderabad has been ranked as the top Indian city in the quality of living ranking, for the third year in a row, as per Mercer's Quality of Living rankings 2017. For the second year in a row, according to the study, New Delhi continues to be ranked lowest, with scores remaining constant.
 

Both Hyderabad and Pune cities rank higher for quality of living than the country's more traditional business centres, Mumbai and New Delhi ranked at 154 and 161, respectively, as per the report.
 

Globally, Vienna occupies first place for overall quality of living for the 8th year running, with the rest of the top-ten list mostly filled by European cities -- Zurich (2), Munich (4), Dusseldorf (6), Frankfurt (7), Geneva (8), Copenhagen (9), and Basel (10).

The only non-European cities in the top ten are Auckland (3) and Vancouver (5). The highest ranking cities in Asia and Latin America are Singapore (25) and Montevideo (79), respectively.

"The survey highlights that Indian cities that have been part of the survey haven't made much progress on the quality of living scale since last year ", noted Ruchika Pal, Principal and India Practice Leader, Global Mobility. The report said the only exception is Chennai, whose score has marginall y improved mainly on account of public transport, including buses and a recently expanded two-line metro system, and improved availability of expat housing.

Interestingly, Hyderabad has slipped five ranks from 139 last year to 144, on account of decreased power supply and water availability. On the positive side, the city continues to score high, in comparison with other surveyed Indian cities, on account of lower crime rate.

On the other hand, while New Delhi scores well on account of its airport facility, availability of international schools and low probability of natural disasters, the positives are outweighed by a variety of negatives including a 'notorious' crime rate, air pollution and water availability.

"Delhi continues to be challenged with increasing air pollution, contributed by growing traffic and industrialization in the city. Delhi's air is the worst among world megacities, even the World Health Organisation (WHO) confirmed recently. Unfortunately, there has been no improvement in air quality" said Pal.

Hyderabad International Airport Is World No.1 In Service Quality!

Source: Business Standard, Dt: 7.3.2017

Unless you’re one of the few people who’re afraid of flying and row your own raft from place to place, your first impression of a new country must be its airport. You notice the building, its architecture, the amenities and the service. Basically, your first impression of a country comes from its airport. So having an impressive airport is paramount.

In India, we adore our metropolitan city airports in Mumbai and Delhi. However, Hyderabad isn’t the first city to come to mind for having an impressive airport.

Well, most recently, Hyderabad’s Rajiv Gandhi International Airport bagged the award for best airport service quality in the world. 

The airport was selected based on a survey of 5-15 million travellers.

“WHILE THE RECOGNITION HAS DEFINITELY MADE ALL OF US PROUD, BUT WE HAVE STILL MILES TO GO.”

I think that’s the right attitude to have. Enjoy the achievement but remember it’s not the end of the road.

So many of us talk about the exemplary quality of airports abroad. We’re impressed with the scale of Heathrow in London, the efficiency of Schoenfeld in Berlin, or the shopping opportunities of the International Airport in Dubai. However, we fail to realise we’ve got many such impressive airports back home.

The win for Hyderabad is further testament to the fact that when it comes to international airports, India has arrived.

Telangana logs in Google to reboot digital plan

Source: Times of  India, Dt: 4.3.17.

HYDERABAD: In a major boost to Telangana's digitisation efforts, the state on Friday inked an MoU with Google India after a meeting between IT minister KT Rama Rao and company representatives.

Google India will provide Google Cloud credits and access to all cloud platform to start-ups in T-hub as well as provide technical mentors to Making government sites mobile-friendly, helping local businesses get online, android courses for students to skill them in app development and, as part of Google Cultural Institute project, creating a digital repository of architectural and cultural heritage of the state is part of the plan.

The state also intends to train rural women through the 'Internet Saathi' programme. It will train women from Self-Help Groups and women's federations overseen by Tata Trusts. These master trainers (Saathis) will then train other women.

Thanking the state government for its support, Google India director (public policy) Chetan Krishnaswamy said: "We are delighted to support the government in its vision of a digitally empowered state. We look forward to working with the state government to create an enabling environment and ecosystem to help the people."

Praising Google, KTR said: "Google is a valuable partner. Our mission is to digitise Telangana and a partnership with Google will go a long way in ensuring our plans are achieved."