ONGC´s CMD Sudhir Vasudeva is a man in demand even ministers would like him to stay awhile in his chair. In a freewheeling interview with Shashidhar Nanjundaiah, Vasudeva looks back in satisfaction at the accomplishments of his top-ranked PSU, and tells us what to expect.

It seems controllable and uncontrollable factors have converged on the infrastructure sector, causing lenders and investors to step back in their plans. Ranjit Manjarekar, COO Infrastructure Finance, Tata Capital, tells Infrastructure Today that lack of visibility of returns, stemming from uncertainties, is a big dampener, but tells us how his firm is manoeuvring around the roadblocks to identify the right segments to go after.

How do you organise a largely unorganised industry? India´s storage industry has lagged behind the transportation industry that it so heavily depends on. With cold chains now being an industry and FDI in retail entailing huge investments in storage, can we expect some movement?

Union Minister of Civil Aviation Ajit Singh on December 2 said that India is readying to become the third biggest aviation market in the world by 2020. As per the growth projections, the air passenger traffic is estimated to double by 2019-20, the Minister hoped.

As the government prepares to divest PSUs and raise Rs 54,000 crore, it will simultaneously urge PSUs to invest in infrastructure projects. While this is a smart move to reinvigorate the stranded sector, the irony of public sector investment in private side of equity is not lost. While they stare at a disappointing year for PSUs on the stock exchanges, what has galvanised many of these mammoth organisations that have transformed these custodians of public money into vibrant, corporate and profit

Lending to the infrastructure sector expanded at a decent pace of 37 per cent CAGR during FY03-13. Lending to infrastructure sector as a part of overall industrial bank credit rose to 32.7 per cent of in FY13 from 10.6 per cent of FY03. Over the past five years, lending to power sector grew by a faster clip of 34 per cent CAGR.

Tata Technologies, which started as a provider of specialised IT-enabled consulting, services and products to leading manufacturers, has now diversified into areas like infrastructure, industrial, heavy machinery and construction equipment verticals.

Slow evacuation of cargo from ports is only one of many operational hiccups that Indian ports are up against. Unsurprisingly, a majority of Indian ports have not invested sufficiently in mechanised material handling like its global peers.

From a modest beginning, it is now a name to reckon with among ports in India. With a massive 48 per cent profit in Q1, a port and five terminals to operationalise in the next year, the company expects to continue doing well for a second consecutive quarter (ended September). Sumantra Das writes on the emergence of Essar Ports.