The 4th Annual Equipment India Awards and CEO Forum held on April 21, 2017 was accepted by the industry wholeheartedly with a full house presence. It was a great occasion for us to see participation from the entire cross-section of the infrastructure equipment industry, project contractors, consultants, and government agencies such as Indian Railways, NHAI and IRF. We are thankful to all participants to make this event an all-round success. It would be incomplete without thanking Apollo Tyres, sponsors of the event and the National Highway Builders Federation, the associate partner. Please turn to the section of Special Report to get the details of the event.

The figures cited by some of the infrastructure CEOs in the forum give us reason to believe that 2017-18 will be an orbit changing year. GST would make trade and logistics a dream run for the sector. Even though the real estate sector is yet to recover, the affordable housing scheme PMAY (Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana) has already launched 350 projects with two lakh houses of which one lakh houses are to be in Maharashtra and 44,000-odd in the National Capital Region (NCR) with private developers committing Rs 38,000 crores towards the same. This year on May 26, the Prime Minister completes three years in office and I believe this will be a landmark year for the industry.

Amid all the joy and elation, there was concern at the BS IV imposition which has caused a great deal of a financial hiccup as the guidelines have not clarified the stand for tractors and construction equipment, resulting in a huge blip in the production cycle. In any case equipment industry has to gear up for the next-gen systems.

Backhoe loaders constituting more than 60 per cent of the earthmoving and construction equipment category, is on the growth path, after a stagnant year before. Construction equipment segment in India recorded a whopping 40 per cent growth in sales during 2016 compared to the previous year, which has translated into the performance of backhoe loaders as well. OEMs are pretty confident about the business prospects of this popular equipment in the near future due to the government's focus on infrastructure and construction projects, be it roads, railways, rural infrastructure, waste management or urban development. Read our Cover Story to know more on the developments and outlook.

Skid Steer Loaders has graduated to a new level in the Indian infrastructure development activities with more and more urban development bodies and other government agencies are using this compact machine for various jobs. This machine?s ability to perform multiple jobs with the help of different attachments has attracted most of the user fraternity who look for productivity and efficiency in jobs. Our Feature section gives an overview of the market for this machine in India. Interviews and articles on Telehandlers and OTR Tyres provide an overall outlook of these segments. There are more to read and feel the industry developments in our other regular columns.

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