NHEV : FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTION
EoDB Services is the Piloting Agency of multiple such short-term and long-term pilots. This is one of those technical advancement ambition qualified to be piloted in mobility sector with emerging technologies. National Highways for Electric Vehicle is the technical name of the pilot, as the name suggests, it is about making highways ready at national level and technically capable to support electric vehicles.
The word national represents here its scale and categorisation in which national highways and expressways are considered for upgradation not state highways. Resembles are just technically identical, it has nothing to do with the name or identity of NHAI (National Highway Authority of India) Other than specific interdependencies and coherence explained further in land lease section.
Nov 2021 technical name NHEV was proposed to be replaced with a popular public name Atal Harit Vidyut Rashtriya Mahamarg (AHVRM) for the pilot project test route from Delhi towards Uttar Pradesh after its first successful technical trial completed on the 25 Dec 2020 birth anniversary of former PM Bharat Ratn Late Sri Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Information on the origin proposal from UP Govt or Central government is not available in public domain but it was scheduled to be announced by PM Modi on 25th Nov 2021 in Foundation Ceremony of Jewar Airport is widely known and reported.
EoDB services conduct rigorous ‘Need Assessment’ on various requests and areas of technical upgradation in various sectors, identified by experts and leadership, including emerging tech companies, ministries, bureaucrats and technocrat of subjected microeconomic sector. Prime qualification of such technical upgradation requests to qualify for a technical pilot under EoDB is to be an emerging tech adoption in the existing sector, must be outlined in a clarion call from the PM Modi as a national ambition. Due to limited bandwidth and resources available within EoDB services to conduct such pilots a detailed ‘Need Assessment’ is conducted to ensure un- debatable intent and availability of relevant content from corresponding government bodies and the ministries are examined by EoDB services from open source, media, union budget, state budgets initiatives, guidelines, intended to direct overall industry in the direction from relevant ministries, formation of councils, committees and panels to facilitate and direct over all sector to envisage such technical upgradations.
EODB Services does not create pilot projects as a consequence of Governmental or Government Departmental directives, Request for proposals or mandates, nor does it actively seek such direct mandates prior to creating relevant high impact pilots; rather as India’s premier piloting agency, it sees the identification & assessment of opportunities in the sectors that has national ambitions as its own primary mandate. Once a technical prospect for upgrade in a sector identified, evaluated and validated through Need Assessment – EODB acts as both proposer and a primary executor in the proposed pilots that demonstrate efficiencies and innovations and can be taken up for larger execution by mandated departments / agencies post successful completion of the pilots. This differentiates EoDB from being an advisory body, consultant or a think tank as instead of advising, it executes such pilots itself as a primary executor by raising initial support from interested partners.
The relatively high frequency with which pilots proposed by EODB find recognition, support and sanctions, from relevant authorities is a testament to the efficacy of its need assessment before conducting pilots, the quality of its results, the strength of its performance and its agility and ability in devising workable solutions as well as interfacing with relevant stakeholders to bring them to fruition. However, very few selected and well augmented need assessment and proposals are considered by EoDB to conduct pilot, NHEV, DIISHA, Drones Pilot, Climate Finance, Tech for Circular Economy, Cleantech for Swachh Bharat, AHEM, DHAM are few of them.
EoDB takes responsibility to illustrate overall ambition of the pilot in sectorial compartments to invite relevant and competent companies and stakeholders to examine their opportunities to propose their corresponding technologies, products, solutions (TPS) and services to be prototyped as a component to achieve ultimate goals to table such pilot models or prototypes for formal examinations by entities and bodies in authority to sanction or redirect. Depending on the claims from such partners and participants of EoDB pilots who submit their initial applications the agency evaluate their candidature, primarily on the basis of their merit, productivity and performance during the Pilot and from results of their value addition and capability to sustain their initial claim; to be prototyped as a corresponding partner and best available solution, technology or product provider for the problem statement identified, outlined and illustrated by EodB in its invitation with limited disclosers.
Since these upgradations hasn’t happened before hence expectations of a predefined pathway and existing rule-book of procedures are highly discouraged during selection. All possible degrees of careful disclosures made to distinguish any participants expectations to unanimously consent their understanding that if these pathways, standards, specifications, certifications, procedures would have pre existed this would have become a routine business and hardly any technical or commercial real word pilot should have required. Their understanding and intent to partner and participate in such ambitions that gives opportunity to collectively prototype their TPS for wider adoption and accelerated transition is highly required, agreed and documented.
EoDB doesn’t work in the interest of any individual company, neither it provides any private or one on one consulting on any technology, product or service for their launch, positioning, adoption, acceptance or deployment adoption or a scale. But it doesn’t restrict or control its partners to get ultimately benefited with such eventual benefits of participation, if they succeed in establishing their TPS as most reliable technical upgradation available in the market as successfully prototyped under these pilots. Piloting Agency exclusively intend to build new markets with emerging technologies by developing tech micro-economies within traditional sectors. In order to mobilise initial resources and services to conduct pilots of each components in various compartments it uniformly charge owners (of such technologies, products, services
{TPS} and solutions) and IP owners after careful examination on their merits, competence and intent in similar fields as sought in pilot procurement compartments. Since one partner can not be expected to pay for other partners subscription or services agency doesn’t allow partners to participate without uniform contributions or security deposit against their piloting services fee in the common pool for financing further technical and commercial evaluations from domain experts.
Piloting Agency is constituted as a profit making entity agility and ability of accelerated selection of ambitions. But it doesn’t intend to make profit from wider participation, application or fee collection; rather it believes in less but meaningful and dedicated participation from partners and participants. In order to focus on its ultimate goal of emerging tech commercialisation agency doesn’t enter into tailored, specific, categorised fee structure based on the value, volume, category, turnover, benefits of its participants and offers uniform fee structure calculated on the basis of overall expenditure needed in the pilot to build proof of concepts (PoC), conduct technical trials, commercial prototyping of financial instruments, test round, fault and bug testing, organise consultations, build inclusive structure to account stakeholders inputs and recommendations and ultimately run regulatory compliances to double sure eligibility, viability, bankability of final version before tabling it for commissioning or to obtain needed sanctions and approvals.
Right from a large entity to an early stage startup can be benefited with availability of such highly required piloting services on bare minimum subscription fee below Rs. 5000/- per month, charged annually to provide them 12 months of participation in such pilots aligned to their ambitions; to enable them to economically prototype their TPS for future adoptions. As on date a maximum expense of participants subscription fee paid for a 12 months piloting service pack sum up below INR 60 thousand including taxes is a testament of agency commitment to offer most economical package of expertise needed to be onboarded to examine applications from the merit perspectives and provide multiple opportunities to applications to re-submit their TPS and projected commercials for 12 months to qualify for further advance levels of submissions to obtain Letter of Recommendations (LoR) to be most suitable and qualified to prototype in the pilot commercially.
Similar to the absence of pre-existing pathway, rule-book, specifications and standards for such ongoing pilots; its most likely and anticipated by the piloting agency to, not find an exact match for the requirement sought in compartments of elements, components and categories for pilot. It would be unfair to delegate work or issue Letter of Award (LoA) without examining their productivity and value preposition. Hence, they are directed to participate in the prototyping of their offerings in the concurrent pilots, test-trial runs to establish their candidature and productivity grounds for selection after carefully examining their initial quotes drafted to run a financial feasible and alignment with overall pilot project budget.
Participants and partners are made aware about deviations, omissions and exceptions being practiced during pilot in order to primarily establish the upgradations, adoption and commercialisation pathways before shifting focus to build a micro detailed procurement process in subsequent stages of scale up beyond prototypes and pilots to meet necessary compliances. But it doesn’t mean absence of reasonable grounds of selection of participants from applicants. However, these hybrid selections based on the grounds of merits, productivity and performance are only limited to pilots and participants are given clarity at very early stage of application submission. In order to make such pathways for emerging tech among closely knitted projects with government entities, who are necessarily compliant and adherents of compliances justifying expenditure of public funds; Piloting agency ensures reasonable distance and severance from accepting any commercial support, funding, finance, or grant from government that require subsequent implementation of traditional rules in the prototyping and pilots stage.
EoDB Services ethos to extend maximum possible ease of doing business and build Public Private Partnership (PPP) funding models are guiding principles behind making each pilot project eventually eligible for funding and allocation in PPP mode. As an emerging Tech piloting agency, we believe in reasonable pricing approach & mechanism that a emerging-tech in its prototyping stage can’t be cheapest to qualify as level one competitive bidder as per traditional L1-L2, competitive bidding models. Before achieving its mass adoption and accelerated nationwide deployment in volumes. But, all other governmental compliances to maintain transparency and fair documentation are practiced from beginning to make project assets eligible for government commercial support, subsidies, incentives and to enable public undertakings, government entities comfortable to participate in PPP mode in subsequent allocations stages.
A uniform payment made by participants as initial security against actual piloting fee to be eventually calculated after summarising time, efforts and resources allocated to commercially and technically prototype their offering is necessary to ascertain following factors in order to ensure seamless piloting upto the stage for its submission for funding or sanctions in appropriate PPP or open market mode.
- Agency require to confirm serious participation as its rendering services for benefiting the partners too during the
- Non serious participants doesn’t enter piloting as they may utilise insights and exit without paying for their expenses.
- A secured procurement backed by securities & warranties are necessary to ensure stakeholders & investors confidence.
- An unsecured procurement may face subsequent stepping out of partners in performance and trial stages of pilot.
- Piloting agency can not straight away table project for funding, sanctions or allocation without prototyping
- Agency need partners to sponsor their prototyping financially at prototyping stage as they are based on their claims.
- Funding agencies & banks of piloting agency can not serve bank guarantee for project before sanctions and approvals.
- Agency need to fund and support pilot in pre-commissioning stage and make project eligible for funding on pilot
- Prototype once accepted for PPP funding allow agency to serve securities on behalf of participants for their ease.
Partners are exempted from repeatedly submitting securities and performance guarantees as they are baked by agency during commissioning & it enable partners with ease to focus on their offering instead of furnishing repeated securities.
Minimum order value unit should be 10 lac and maximum units can be clubbed together are 100 across assets in one round of procurement. Minimum performance guarantee, bank guarantee or Security against Rs 10 crore order value in traditional procurement model shall be 25 to 30 Lac INR. However in this hybrid mode it’s only Rs. 5 Lac security which also serves as security against piloting services subscription fee that participants only pay at end of successful piloting.
Yes. Any money or advance received as security deposit for the performance of contract for supply of goods or provision of services to be rendered will not be termed as deposits and would not attract violations of The Companies Act, 2013 and regulations of Reserve Bank of India that restrict the acceptance of deposit in a Private Limited Company. As money received in the ordinary course of business any amount received in the ordinary course of business will not be termed as deposits. The following are a few examples of money received in the ordinary course of business:
- Advance for supply of goods or services provided that the advance is appropriated against goods or services delivered within a period of 365
- Advance received in connection with property proprietary services under an arrangement or contract, provided the advance is adjusted against the property transaction in accordance with the terms and conditions.
- Advance received as security deposit for the performance of contract for supply of goods or provision of services.
Advanced received under long term projects for supply of capital goods.
The Companies Act, 2013 and regulations of Reserve Bank of India restrict the acceptance of public deposit in a Private Limited Company. The Companies Act, 2013 allows only banking companies, non-banking financial companies, housing finance company and company specified by the Central Government to accept invite, accept or renew deposits from the public. Therefore, private limited companies are strictly prohibited from accepting public deposits.
Piloting agency utilise the common pool of securities against piloting fee for piloting and its expenditure. In order to ensure uniformity regardless of higher or lower participation from the partners / applicants end its subsequently spent on various stages and made publicly, visibility available for partners to engage and participate as per their availability and requirement for 12 months subscription period. Depending on various opportunities and attempts required by partners to prototype their offerings, they may participate once or more than once in any tech- trial, POC, commercial modelling, pricing exercise, or regulatory or technical consultative rounds frequently organised by the agency. In case partners wish to extend their subscription beyond 12 month they may renew by paying same subscription fee to unlimited years and avail unlimited opportunities. Application fee and security against piloting fee are to be deposited with applicable taxes and GST on services. Payee participant can account this payment as expenditure in business promotion in their ledger and receiving piloting agency can account this receipt as piloting fee advance to be adjusted against final piloting fee as and when pilot concluded as above or lesser than the advance paid as security against piloting fee.
A security paid against filing fee is also being spent as an expenditure on procurement by the piloting agency. The agency may include this expenditure in the value of asset while pricing them for allocation before funding agency or final allottee. In the occasion, when the expenditure made by the piloting agency from the common pool of security security furnished by participants against their piloting fees, the agency has liberty to charge a procurement fee equivalent to the expenditure or above (depending on the merit and value addition it does to the asset) from the final allottee of the asset, who will eventually own the infrastructure. At the stage of such receipt or return of expenditure done by the piloting agency from its fee for the procurement, which was originally to be done or paid by the asset owner, the agency will revoke the same security amount furnished by participants against the piloting fee without any interest as mentioned in the application for obtaining services. This also serves the purpose of performance guarantee by the partner or Applicant furnished during the performance period. Since, the delivery of partners offerings solutions, technology, products and services shall be completed by the time asset is is allocated to its final allottee and all clearances, certification of completion and payments were made to the partner against their performance, according to the scope of work defined and mentioned in the final letter of award.
Since the furnished security against piloting fee is in duel utilisation here, and also serving the purpose to extend ease of doing business of participant’s performance guarantee and Earnest Money Deposit (EMD) before Agency in the piloting phase. Based on which the agency, conduct their prototyping and upon successful prototyping place it for funding, and allocation of asset. In given circumstances where the security is recorded and documented at multiple stages, cannot be clubbed with actual expenditure or the final piloting fee paid by the participant as it’s varied in nature from category to category volume two value. Henceforth at the time of revocation upon Upon receipt of the procurement fees by the agency, same amount, furnished as security against piloting fees shall be revoked and returned to the payee without interest or tax.
As all scope of work are on Capex purchase of offerings from participants turned partners upon successful prototyping at LoA stage and 100% payments are made to them at completion stage of allocation. Partners are expected to enter into another Annual Maintenance Contract (AMC) for their asset or service life cycle and eligible to raise annual AMC invoices and also subjected to furnish a minimum maintenance guarantee deposit for the period. At this stage partners can take credit note of this revoked security and pledge it back as minimum maintenance guarantee deposit. In case partners doesn’t have to enter into AMC contract; this receipt can be accounted as income from the project as its revoked as reward for successful completion of their work for which they can receive fee or income in their books or accounts.
