India is urbanising at, what a Union Minister has termed, a very 'dramatic' clip. It today has 50 cities with a population of over one million. As per the 2011 Census, the total number of cities and towns in the country had increased to 7,936 from 5,161 in 2001.

Less than 20 per cent of the wastewater discharged by households, and 60 per cent of industrial wastewater, is treated in India. This situation has to change, say SHISHAM PRIYADARSHINI and AMISH SHROFF.

HDFC Bank has said that it will raise up to Rs 50,000 crore through debt securities and infrastructure bonds over the next 12 months. In a filing to the BSE, the institution said the Board has approved the issue of debt instruments, Tier-II bonds and long-term infrastructure bonds of up to Rs 50,000 crore.

Major Renewable Energy players have called for state-level policies and green corridors to achieve the national target of ‘175 GW by 2022’ at the 4th CII Renewable Energy Summit which was recently held at New Delhi.

JLL, India's largest and leading International Property Consultancy, has announced the elevation of Karan Singh Sodi to Managing Director – Mumbai (MMR).

With 89 Smart Cities having initiated the credit rating process for municipal bonds, and instruments worth Rs.3,000 crore on the issue horizon, the fiscal future looks ideal for these prime urban spaces.

Just as with PPP projects, HAM contracts too are finding financial closure to be a challenge. Banks, especially, are wary of putting their money on developers with weak financials and lack of adequate experience. Industry insiders, however, beg to differ.

Rating agency ICRA Ltd has announced the country’s new credit rating system for the infrastructure sector, in line with the announcement made in the Budget 2016 document.

The Ministry of Power has signed an MoU for Ujwal DISCOM Assurance Yojana (UDAY) with Tamil Nadu in New Delhi, on 9 January, 2017. With the signing of the ‘24x7 Power For All (PFA)’ roadmap document with the state, the roadmap for all the 28 states, except one, and all the seven Union Territories in the country has now been finalised and is under implementation.