Infra sector has suffered in India due to under-investment: Amitabh Kant
The Dollar Business Bureau NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant said on Thursday that the infrastructure sector in India has suffered on account of under-investment for a long time. Kant pitched for channelling pension and insurance funds to finance infrastructure projects and also to completely re-examine the scheme of Viability Gap Funding (VGF). “We need to build up environment to tap pension and insurance funds for investments in infrastructure projects. VGF scheme needs a complete re-examination,” he said at CRISIL India Infrastructure Conclave in New Delhi. Launched in 2004, VGF scheme meant to support infrastructure projects that come under the public-private-partnerships (PPPs). VGF means a one-time or deferred grant to support the projects that are economically viable but are not financially ...
Airfares to be revised on quarterly basis, under UDAN
The Dollar Business Bureau Airfares and subsidy by the government to airlines under UDAN scheme will be reviewed on quarterly basis depending on the inflation. The UDAN (Ude Desh ka Aam Naagrik) scheme, which seeks to connect under-served and un-served airports, provides for a limit on prices of air tickets and viability gap funding (VGF) for the airlines. The Ministry of Civil Aviation has said that VGF and caps on the prices of air tickets under the UDAN scheme would be revised every three months. The airfares would be associated with inflation, while VGF would be considered on the basis of inflation, aviation turbine fuel cost and dollar-rupee exchange rates. The first flight, under the UDAN scheme, took off from Shimla to New Delhi, last month. “Both airfare and ...
