New Delhi, June 28: The Centre on Saturday said it has released revised guidelines for the waste-to-energy programme under the National Bioenergy Programme., which aims to foster a more efficient, transparent, and performance-oriented ecosystem for bio-waste to energy deployment in India.

By simplifying procedures, expediting financial assistance, and aligning support with plant performance, the updated guidelines are designed to significantly enhance the ease of doing business for private as well as public sector, said the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE).

Under the new framework, the ministry has simplified several processes, such as cutting down on paperwork and easing approval requirements, which will enable the industry especially MSMEs to enhance their production of CBG, Biogas and Power.

These changes align well with improvement of waste management including stubble, industrial waste, and India’s broader goal of reaching net-zero emissions by 2070.

A key highlight of the revised guidelines is the improved system for releasing Central Financial Assistance (CFA).

“Considering the challenges faced by the developers to achieve 80 per cent generation, flexible provisions have been made in the scheme for release of CFA based on plant performance,” said a ministry statement.

Previously, companies had to wait until the entire Waste-to-Energy project attains 80 per cent generation to receive support.

Moreover, as per the revised guidelines, there is a provision to release the CFA in two stages. Based on performance of the projects, 50 per cent of total CFA will be released after obtaining the consent to Operate certificate from State Pollution Control Board, against the bank guarantee, while the balance CFA would be released after achieving the 80 per cent of the rated capacity or the maximum CFA eligible capacity, whichever is lesser.

“In notably, even if a plant does not achieve 80 per cent generation for above both conditions during performance inspection, provision is made for pro-rata based disbursement based on the percentage output. However, no CFA will be given if the PLF is less than 50 per cent,” according to the government.

This change acknowledges real-world challenges and supports developers by offering financial flexibility and viability during operations.

The revision introduced provides the flexibility to the project developers in claiming CFA either within 18 months from the date of commissioning, or from the date of In-principle approval of CFA, whichever is later.

New Delhi, June 27: GIFT International Financial Services Centre (IFSC) should be developed as a prominent gateway for global capital flows into India to feed the needs of high-growth sectors over the next two decades, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has stressed.

She underscored the importance of developing GIFT City into a dynamic smart city, equipped with integrated, modern, and sustainable living infrastructure, and stated that establishing such world-class amenities is essential to attracting top-tier talent from both domestic and international markets.

During her visit to IFSC at GIFT City in Gandhinagar, the Finance Minister reviewed the progress and interacted with key market participants.

While commending the GIFT IFSC’s role in enhancing India’s global financial standing and acknowledging its impact on reshaping international financial engagement by Indian companies and individuals, she stressed on fast-tracking the reforms in next few years itself, to enable growth to align with the vision of ‘Viksit Bharat’ by 2047

Reiterating GIFT IFSC’s core mandate for focussing on bringing foreign capital into India through structured and well-regulated channels, FM Sitharaman also laid emphasis on the importance of Indian financial sector regulators to take initiatives for identifying aspirational needs of GIFT IFSC in this direction.

The Finance Minister indicated that the twin advantages of India pertaining to technology and availability of a very large domestic market and its financing needs must be leveraged to gain competitive advantage.

Given India’s status as a major gold importer, she stressed on the need to scale up operations at the India International Bullion Exchange (IIBX) by expanding stakeholder participation and strengthening price discovery, thereby positioning GIFT IFSC as a global bullion hub.

She also interacted with MDs and CEOs, chairpersons, founders and CFOs from banking, insurance, capital markets, funds industry, finance companies, payment services providers, aircraft and ship leasing firms, fintech firms, ITFS platform providers and foreign universities.

Mumbai, June 27: The Indian benchmark indices opened higher on Friday amid a ‘great’ India-US trade deal possibility, as buying was seen in the PSU bank and IT sectors in the early trade.

At around 9.15 am, Sensex was trading 150.40 points or 0.18 per cent up at 83,906.27 while the Nifty added 54.50 points or 0.21 per cent at 25,603.

US President Donald Trump has hinted at a “very big” trade deal with India, weeks after a team of negotiators from the two countries held four-day closed-door talks on the agreement. Addressing the ‘Big Beautiful Event’ at the White House, Trump said he has a “great deal” with India.

According to analysts, reports that the July 9th US tariff deadline is likely to be extended are also positive for the market sentiment.

“High inflation, aggressive monetary tightening by the central banks, geopolitical events including some wars and conflicts, and unprecedented tariff threats, did pose some threats to the rally, but the bull market climbed all these walls of worries. It appears that the rally is unlikely to be impacted by the approaching July 9th tariff deadline,” said Dr. VK Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Investments Ltd.

Nifty Bank was down 80.25 points or 0.14 per cent at 57,126.45 in early trade. The Nifty Midcap 100 index was trading at 59,505.65 after adding 278.25 points or 0.47 per cent. Nifty Smallcap 100 index was at 18,920.30 after climbing 114.70 points or 0.61 per cent.

“Technically, the inside day pattern from two days ago was proof that a trending move was coming, and we got one yesterday with more than 5 stocks advancing for every stock that fell in the Nifty,” said Akshay Chinchalkar, Head of Research, Axis Securities.

The thrust may have more to go though, with the 25,700-25,800 zone the next immediate upside hurdle, and while tactical support at 25,000 is holding, bulls will be optimistic about getting there and beyond sooner than later, he added.

Meanwhile, in the Sensex pack, L&T, Tata Steel, SBI, Tata Motors, NTPC and HCL Tech were the top gainers. While, HDFC Bank, Bajaj Finserv, Kotak Mahindra Bank and Bajaj Finance were the top losers.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) were net buyers on June 26, purchasing equities worth Rs 12,594.38 crore. Meanwhile, domestic institutional investors (DIIs) remained sellers, selling equities worth Rs 195.23 crore.

In the Asian markets, China, Bangkok, Seoul and Hong Kong were trading in red, whereas only Japan was trading in green.

In the last trading session, Dow Jones in the US closed at 43,386.84, up 404.41 points, or 0.94 per cent. The S&P 500 ended with a gain of 48.86 points, or 0.80 per cent at 6,141.02 and the Nasdaq closed at 20,167.91, up 194.36 points, or 0.97 per cent.