Indian share markets lost some steam towards the end of the day to end today’s session only marginally higher. Losses were largely seen in the telecom sector and realty sector.

At the closing bell, the BSE Sensex stood higher by 31 points (up 0.1%) and the NSE Nifty closed higher by 15 points (up 0.2%). The BSE Mid Cap index ended the day down by 0.8%, while the BSE Small Cap index ended the day down by 0.6%.

Asian stock markets finished mixed as of the most recent closing prices. The Hang Seng gained 1.48% and the Nikkei gained 0.57%. The Shanghai Composite lost 0.29%. European markets are also trading mixed today. The FTSE 100 is down 0.77% while Germany’s DAX is up 0.19% and France’s CAC 40 is down 0.11%. The rupee was trading at 64.56 to the US$ at the time of writing.

As per a leading financial daily, the Union Tourism ministry has proposed to accord infrastructure status to hotel projects costing in excess of Rs 500 million.

The development is aimed at promoting small players to invest in the hotel industry.

The above proposal, if approved, would lower the threshold limit from the current Rs 2 billion for hotel projects to qualify for priority lending.

The above measure will also aid the tourism industry as well as infrastructure industry in India.

Speaking of infrastructure status, over the past decade and more, India has been grappling with the twin problems of project delays and cost overruns.

However, there has been some good news of late as the share of projects facing implementation delays has almost halved since 2013. This can be seen from the chart below:

Infrastructure Project Delays Witness a Significant Decline

Historically, the reasons for cost escalation were driven by high land acquisition costs and time overruns. However, the Modi government has tackled these issues, among others, to revive the infrastructure activity in India. From The 5 Minute WrapUp: