Summary: The recent circular published by the Ministry of Road Transport & Highways in respect of dispute resolution process under the EPC, BoT and HAM projects, marks a significant policy shift with clear and direct implications for road developers and investors in the infrastructure sector developing road projects.
Continue Reading NHAI’s Move to End Arbitration for Major Disputes: Reform or Reversal?
Summary: This article introduces India’s first national geothermal energy policy, marking a strategic leap in diversifying renewable energy sources. The policy adds immense value by unlocking geothermal’s potential for power, heating, cooling, and industrial use, with support from global standards, fiscal incentives, and oil-gas sector synergies.
Continue Reading Turning Up The Heat: India’s First National Geothermal Energy Policy Unveiled
Summary: This article examines the recent amendment to the approval framework for pumped storage hydro projects in India, analyses applicable current policies and incentives, and provides an overview of such projects in other key jurisdictions. It is critical for developers, investors, and other stakeholders in the renewable energy sector to apprise themselves of this regulatory change for achieving renewable energy targets.
Continue Reading Accelerating Renewable Integration: A New Era for Pumped Storage Projects
Summary: The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) has ushered in a new era for India’s wind energy sector with its notification on July 31, 2025, which rebrands the Revised List of Models and Manufacturers (RLMM) as the Approved List of Models and Manufacturers (Wind), or ALMM (Wind). Beyond a simple name change, the notification represents a comprehensive policy overhaul designed to address critical issues of quality control, national security, and domestic industrial growth.
Continue Reading Winds of Change: MNRE Prioritises Quality and Security with New ALMM Rules
India is making bold strides towards becoming a global semiconductor and electronics manufacturing leader. The aggregate valuation of the semiconductor market here stood at USD 53.2 billion in 2024 and is poised to expand at a compounded annual growth rate of 12.45% to reach USD 161 billion by 2033[1]. Recognising the sector’s ambition and potential, the Ministry of Commerce and Industry introduced significant amendments to the Special Economic Zones (SEZ) Rules in June 2025, a pivotal milestone in this journey.
Continue Reading India’s semiconductor surge: SEZ reforms set the stage for global leadership
Semiconductors play a crucial role in modern technology, from enabling cell phones, to electric vehicles, to defence equipment and medical devices. The rising need for Internet of Things (IoT), AI integration, data and wireless communication has sparked increased demand for semiconductors worldwide, the market for which is expected to exceed $1 trillion by 2030 globally. India is taking strategic steps to become a major player in the semiconductor sector and has introduced ambitious schemes and incentive programmes to draw investment into semiconductor manufacturing in India. This article briefly discusses India’s semiconductor policy landscape and explores key considerations in setting up of semiconductor fabs in India.
Continue Reading Semiconductor Revolution: Setting up Semiconductor fabs in India
Environmental attributes represent the characteristics of electric power generation that have an intrinsic value (excluding the energy output), arising from perceived environmental benefits of electricity generation from renewable sources, that result in the avoidance of adverse impact on the environment. For renewable energy generators (RE Generators) to realise tangible benefits from environmental attributes, various renewable energy tracking systems have evolved. These help RE Generators to monetise the green component of electricity, by selling environmental attributes to various entities (both obligated and voluntary), thereby creating much required liquidity. RE Generators in India have been realising the benefits of environmental attributes by registering their projects under the renewable energy certificate (RECs) mechanism, and various other international programmes, as outlined below.Continue Reading Evolution of Environmental Attributes in India
A move that may prove to be a game-changer but the proof lies in the pudding
A government procurement contract (GPC) for goods and/ or services usually requires the elected counterparty (Contractor) to furnish a bank guarantee (BG) of upto 5-10% of the contract value as performance security, as per General Financial Rules 2017. Rising non-performing assets, in recent years, have prompted banks to exercise greater caution while issuing BGs, due to which, the cost of procuring a BG has gone up from 20-40 basis points to 50-130 basis points and the cash margin required for securing a BG has also increased from 15-20% to 40-100% of the amount of the BG. Owing to these factors, the procurement of a BG has become increasingly cumbersome for Contractors and they have been long-advocating the need for an alternative to BGs.Continue Reading Replacement of bank guarantees with surety bonds in government procurement: A welcome relief?
Cost and time overruns have long since plagued India’s infrastructure sector and given a bad name to public projects being executed in the country. According to a report[1] published by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, as on November 1, 2021, 438 out of 1,681 central sector infrastructure projects have been affected by cost overruns, aggregating to Rs 4.34 lakh crore, and 539 projects are running behind their respective schedules. Such delays take a toll on the viability of projects. To mitigate this problem, the Central Vigilance Commission (“CVC”), Comptroller and Auditor General of India and NITI Aayog have long-advocated the need to revamp the procurement and project management procedures in India. The efforts of these premier institutions have culminated in the Ministry of Finance issuing the General Instructions on Procurement and Project Management on October 29, 2021 (“General Instructions”). By introducing provisions pertaining to additional methods of procurement, timely payment to contractors and reforms in the dispute resolution process, the General Instructions attempt to overhaul the manner in which projects are awarded and implemented by public authorities and project executing agencies (“PEA”).
Continue Reading Ushering a New Wave of Reforms in Public Procurement and Project Management
The global race to augment capabilities of artificial intelligence (AI) is intensifying in both advanced and emerging economies. From optimising power generation and transmission, diagnosis and drug discovery, improving learning environment, enhancing design and functionality, to automation in logistics, AI will not only continue to evolve but possibly surpass human intelligence in the near future. Today’s digital age is overflowing with valuable data which if appropriately analyzed can predict results, making data analytics an indispensable tool for any corporate to sustain in the economy.
Continue Reading Tomorrow’s Technology in Today’s Infrastructure: Interplay of Data Analytics, AI and Infrastructure Investment