AUS COURT DISMISSES CASE AGAINST ADANI MINE APPROVAL
MELBOURNE: Indian mining giant Adani’s plan to build one of the world’s largest coal mines in Australia cleared another legal hurdle Monday after a top court dismissed an environmental group’s plea for overturning the government’s approval to the controversy-hit A$21.7 billion project.
The Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF) had argued in the Federal Court that the former environment minister Greg Hunt failed to consider if the impact of burning coal and climate pollution was in line with global obligations to protect the Great Barrier Reef.
Welcoming the decision, the Adani company said the ruling had once again reinforced the stringency of the strict, science and evidence-based federal environmental approval process governing its planned mine at Carmichael in Queensland’s Galilee Basin.
“Over six years, there have been multiple approval processes, some two years of cumulative community consultation and submissions as part of those processes, and over ten appeals and judicial processes brought on by activists,” Adani said, adding that, “there can be no question that there has been more than ample opportunity for consultation, input and appeal and for activists to have their say”.
Clearly, the time has come for the will of communities who are crying out for these projects to proceed to have their voices heard not just those of activists from out of town, it said. NEW DELHI: Taiwanese chipset maker Mediatek is making its maiden investment of $60 million (₹403 crore) in Indian mobile payment company Paytm, which is in the process of raising $300 million (just over ₹2,010) at a valuation of $5 billion.
Paytm’s app will come bundled with new handsets powered by Mediatek chips. “The Mediatek relationship will give Paytm a strong hardware partner, which none of the other payment companies have,” a source aware of the development said.
“This will allow Paytm to pass on the customer acquisition cost to the consumer in form of offers or discounts,” said Sanchit Vir Gogia, CEO and chief analyst at Greyhound Research.
The alliance gives Paytm direct access to a whole host of smartphones from Sony and HTC. It also has a long relationship with Amazon, as it Kindle tablets are powered by Mediatek ships. In 2015, Mediatek’s chips were installed in 35% of the mobiles sold in India.
Mediatek was not available for comments, but a source said that the investment is a strategic one. The source further elaborated that Paytm will invest the money in payments banks, digital services and mobile wallet business.
In March 2015, Mediatek had said that it will put $300 million – taken from its own balance sheet – in companies dealing in semiconductor-systems and devices, internet infrastructure, services and internet of things to have a strong presence in the future of technology.
Reports said that it is bringing a host of 4G handsets to the country. With the entry of Reliance Jio, 4G internet services are expected to take-off in the country. Paytm already has a strong software partner with its relationships with Ant Financial and Alibaba. NEWDELHI: The bidding process for the Navi Mumbai airport, which the government hopes would be operational by 2019, is set to be delayed with the consortium of Volputas Developers (Hiranan dani Group) and Zurich airport getting the security clearance .
The security clearance makes Volputas eligible, along with GMR, GVK and MIA Infrastruc ture, a consortium of Tata Realty and Vinci Airports Internationa SA, to bid for the project.
“The September deadline for submission of request of proposa documents will now have to be revised,” said a civil aviation ministry official.
The City and Industrial Devel opment Corporation (CIDCO) is the nodal agency for the airport project, originally planned to be completed by 2014. CIDCO was expected to award the contract for the green field airport project by the end of this year, which too may be delayed now.
The Mumbai airport is faced with severe capacity constraint adding to the urgency for a sec ond airport in the city.
The aviation ministry wants the redevelopment plan of the Juhu airport fast-tracked, as reported by HT on June 7. The plan includes extending the Juhu airport runway 650 meters into the sea .
The Navi Mumbai airport wil initially handle 10 million passen gers rising to 60 million by 2030. It will be able to host new-genera tion aircraft like the A380 and Boeing 747-8.