RailTel to create 'Edge Data Centres' at 102 locations across India

1. RailTel, a Central Government PSU, said on Wednesday it will create 'edge data centres' at Railway premises across 102 locations, especially Tier-2 and Tier-3 towns in the country.

2. The 'edge data centres' will be set up by RailTel jointly with partners.

3. The prospective Business Associates/partners should be a company registered in India. This activity will entail an investment opportunity of around Rs 500 crore, RailTel said in a statement

4. The process to establish the edge data centres has been set in motion with the floating of Expression of Interest (EOI) inviting the industry to partner in this exercise, it said.

5. Edge data centres are small data centres located at the edge of the network, where they are closer to end-users and devices. Having such kind of facility at the edge would enable faster performance and lower latency as organisations will not have to move the data to far-flung data centres to process it.

Cambodia punches above its weight in attracting FDI

1. Cambodia, a lesser known FDI location in South East Asia, must compete against the likes of Singapore and Vietnam to attract inward investment. Despite stiff competition it has managed to win more than its fair share of greenfield projects.

2. Cambodia performs impressively in Investment Monitor’s 2022 Inward FDI Performance Index. The index measures a country’s inward investment levels against its gross domestic product (GDP) using GlobalData’s FDI Projects Database, which tracks greenfield projects. 

3. This means that Cambodia, with a score of 3.26, received more than three times its fair share of inward greenfield foreign direct investment (FDI) compared with what could be expected given its level of GDP. In that regard, Cambodia is punching well above its weight in FDI terms. Cambodia places third for FDI into Asia-Pacific based on the aforementioned index, attracting 15 projects in 2021. Singapore ranks first with an index score of 4.9 while New Zealand places second scoring 3.31.

Inflation Reduction Act changes the game for energy transformation

1. Following many months of negotiation between branches of the United States government, on 16 August 2022, President Joe Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) into law. Although, as the name suggests, it includes measures that aim to reduce inflation, it also contains a significant package of tax incentives and benefits designed to support the US in tackling climate change. These cover how it produces energy and other measures, such as encouraging decarbonization through carbon capture and promoting the use of electric vehicles. In September, President Biden described the IRA as “the most aggressive action ever… to confront the climate crisis and increase our energy security.” 

2. The Act’s energy industry measures are numerous and, in several cases, innovative, with new mechanisms that allow tax credits to be sold to unrelated third parties or settled through direct payments from the government. Some tax incentives are linked to the location of projects and suppliers, workers’ pay and the development of apprenticeship programs. This article will focus on a small number of tax changes that create opportunities and challenges for energy companies with US operations.

Malaysia Industrial production index growth at 6.9% in 2022

1. Industrial Production Index (IPI) is a measure of the rate of change in the production of industrial commodities in real terms over time for Manufacturing, Mining and Electricity Sectors. 

2. It is measured based on volume changes in production.  IPI are the overall index from the Index of Mining, Manufacturing and Electricity. IPI give the overview of the current trend of industrial activities and used for economic analysis.

3. Industrial production and capacity levels are expressed as an index level relative to a base year. Within the overall IPI, there are a number of sub-indices providing a detailed look at the output of highly specific industries. 

4. Industry-level data are useful for managers and investors within specific lines of business, while the composite index is an important macroeconomic indicator for economists and investors—fluctuations within the industrial sector account for most of the variation in overall economic growth.