Realty firm M3M signs MoU with Swedish firm to develop smart city

Source: Business Standard, Dec 03, 2019

New Delhi: Realty firm M3M group on Tuesday signed an agreement with a Swedish company to develop a smart city project in Gurugram, Haryana, that has a potential to attract foreign investment of USD 2 billion.

The smart city project is being proposed on 165-acre land that M3M India bought in 2016 from Sahara group for Rs 1,211 crore.

M3M group, which is also developing Trump Tower project in Gurugram, proposes to invest around Rs 2,500 crore, which includes the land cost of entire 165 acre valued now at around Rs 2,000 crore and the construction cost of first phase of around 25 acre, its director Pankaj Bansal told reporters here.

M3M signed an agreement with Sweden-based Urban Systems urbs AB to develop smart city project in Gurugram.

The agreement signing took place during the India Sweden Business Leaders Roundtable and in the presence of King of Sweden, Carl XVI Gustaf.

Ibrahim Baylan, Minister of Enterprise, Sweden, Ann-SofiGaverstedt, Deputy Director Trade Promotion Policy and Sustainability, Teknikfretagen (The Association of Swedish Engineering Industries), Will Sibia, Chairman, Urban Systems urbs AB and Basant Bansal, chairman of M3M were also present.

India-Japan summit: Focus on Rs 13,000 cr investment in Northeast

Source: The Economic Times, Dec 04, 2019

New Delhi: The India-Japan summit in Guwahati on December 15-16, the first annual summit to be held in the Northeast, is expected to give a major push to the India-Japan Act East Forum as Japan plans to invest around Rs 13,000 cr in projects in the eight states of the region.

Japan has either invested or is planning to invest in a host of projects in Northeast India that include water supply project in Guwahati, road network in Assam-Meghalaya, forest management and agriculture projects in other states of the region, which serves as a gateway to Southeast Asia, said people aware of the matter. New proposals for the region may be announced by Japan at the annual summit, they said.

Japan’s involvement in Northeast India and its plans to expand its footprint in the region figured high at the ministerial dialogue held among the defence ministers and foreign ministers of the two countries on November 30. Japan prioritises connectivity-building projects in all of India, including the Northeast, said Atsushi Kaifu, deputy press secretary in Japan’s foreign affairs ministry. “Connectivity inside India, including the north-eastern part, is important for us,” Kaifu told media after the socalled 2+2 dialogue.

India, Germany to collaborate on Mumbai Metro, solar projects: Official

Source: Business Standard, Nov 27, 2019

New Delhi: India and Germany will collaborate on Mumbai Metro and solar energy projects as part of a bilateral cooperation in energy and urban development sectors, a senior official with the Germany’s Ministry of Economic Cooperation said on Wednesday. Talking to reporters here, Director General (Bilateral Cooperation) of the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development Claudia Warning said, “Government-to-government negotiations were held on Wednesday and it was decided that 25 concrete projects related to energy cooperation and urban development would be carried out between the two countries.

Cabinet approves signing of pact with Chile to avoid double taxation

Source: Business Standard, Nov 27, 2019

The government on Wednesday approved signing of a double taxation avoidance agreement (DTAA) with Chile for elimination of double taxation besides prevention of fiscal evasion and avoidance with respect to taxes on income.

The decision was taken at a meeting of the Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

“Clear allocation of taxing rights between contracting states through the agreement will provide tax certainty to investors and businesses of both countries while augmenting the flow of investment through fixing of tax rates in source state on interest, royalties and fees for technical services,” according to an official statement.

The agreement and protocol implement minimum standards and other recommendations of G-20 OECD Base Erosion Profit Shifting (BEPS) Project. “Inclusion of preamble text, a principal purpose test, a general anti-abuse provision in the agreement along with a simplified limitation of benefits clause as per BEPS Project will result in curbing of tax planning strategies which exploit gaps and mismatches in tax rules,” said the statement.

SpiceJet, Emirates sign codeshare agreement

Source: The Hindu Business Line, Nov 25, 2019

New Delhi: SpiceJet on Monday said it has signed a codeshare agreement with Emirates that will allow passengers of the Dubai-based airline to book tickets on the Indian budget carrier using Emirates’ ticketing system from early 2020.

“The codeshare agreement means travellers from across the globe can book a single ticket with attractive fares to any of Emirates’ nine points across India and connect onwards to 172 domestic routes that are part of SpiceJet’s network,” the Indian budget carrier said in a press release. While passengers of Emirates will be able to access the SpiceJet network first from early 2020, SpiceJet passengers travelling from India to Dubai will also be able to access Emirates’ expansive network later, opening up multiple international connections for them.

India and Japan ink pact for expeditious grant of patents

Source: Business Standard, Nov 21, 2019

New Delhi: The patent offices of India and Japan have inked an agreement for expeditious grant of patents to Indian entities and individuals, the commerce and industry ministry said on Thursday.

The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved a proposal for Bilateral Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) programme between the Indian Patent Office and patent offices of other interested countries.

“For the first time, the Indian Patent Office is entering into a pilot programme on PPH (Patent Prosecution Highway) with Japan Patent Office,” the ministry said in a statement.

“PPH will lead to benefits like reduction in disposal time and pendency of patent applications, consistency in quality of granted patents and an opportunity for Indian inventors including MSMEs and Start-ups of India to get accelerated examination of their patent applications in Japan,” it said.

The programme will initially commence between JPO and Indian Patent Office on pilot basis for a period of three years.

Under this pilot programme, Indian Patent Office may receive patent applications in certain specified technical fields only, like electrical, electronics, computer science, information technology, physics, civil, mechanical, textiles, automobiles and metallurgy, it said.

Japan Patent Office may receive applications in all fields of technology.

It said that Japanese inventors seeking patent protection in India will now be able to take the benefits of expedited examination in India under this pilot programme.

India Inc’s M&A deal value slips 45 pc to USD 1.5 bn in October: Report

Source: The Economic Times, Nov 21, 2019

NEW DELHI: Corporate India witnessed merger and acquisition deals worth USD 1.5 billion through 28 transactions in October, registering a 45 per cent decline over the same month last year, a report said on Thursday.

According to Grant Thornton’s latest M&A Dealtracker, there were 28 M&A deals worth USD 1.5 billion in October this year, while in the same period last year 47 such deals were announced worth USD 2.8 billion.

While the overall M&A deal value and volume in October declined as compared to the year-ago period, on a month-on-month basis, there was an increase, showing signs of improved sentiments.

“This was driven by the corporate tax cut, which has improved both investor sentiment and confidence. This also resulted in the average deal size more than doubling from USD 24 million in September 2019 to USD 55 million in October 2019,” the report said.

The energy sector dominated October’s M&A in terms of values with 64 per cent contribution to total M&A deals, driven by the largest bet on India’s clean energy with Total SA’s 37 per cent stake acquisition in Adani Gas for USD 0.9 billion.