Russia Greenlights HSR Between Moscow, St. Petersburg

10 Jun 2024 CW Team

In a major infrastructure move, Russia has approved the construction of its first high-speed passenger railway between Moscow and St. Petersburg. The project, announced during the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, will be funded with billions of dollars from the state budget.

The 679 km railway, set to cost over 2.3 trillion roubles ($25.97 billion), aims to reduce travel time between the two cities from 4-5 hours to just 2-2.5 hours. Russian-made trains traveling at 360 km/h will operate on this route.

The project will be developed by VSM Two Capitals, a Russian company, using both state and private funds. The government plans to allocate at least 300 billion roubles in loans from the National Welfare Fund at 1% interest in 2025 and provide about 328 billion roubles in subsidies between 2024 and 2038.

Former Transport Minister Vitaly Savelyev highlighted that the National Welfare Fund will contribute over 580 billion roubles, with additional funding from Russian state-owned banks VTB, Sberbank, and Gazprombank. Sberbank's head, German Gref, confirmed the bank's participation in financing the project.

This initiative comes as Russia considers raising taxes on companies and the wealthy to increase next year's budget revenues by an additional $30 billion, potentially boosting spending on infrastructure and its military efforts in Ukraine.

Real Estate

02 Apr 2026

Indian real estate attracts USD 1.4 bn institutional investments in Q1 2026: Vestian

Institutional investments in India’s real estate sector touched USD 1.4 billion in Q1 2026, marking the highest first-quarter inflow since 2022, according to Vestian. While investments fell 62 per cent quarter-on-quarter due to an exceptionally high base in the previous quarter, they rose 74 per cent compared to the same period last year, reflecting sustained investor confidence despite rising geopolitical and macroeconomic challenges.Commercial real estate remained the key driver of investment activity during the quarter, accounting for 80 per cent of total inflows, sharply higher than 38 p..

VECV crosses 1 lakh annual vehicle sales milestone in FY26

VE Commercial Vehicles (VECV), a joint venture between Volvo Group and Eicher Motors, has surpassed the 1 lakh annual sales mark in FY 2025–26, recording its highest-ever commercial vehicle sales performance. The company said it sold more than 100,000 vehicles during the year, marking a major milestone aligned with the original vision of the Volvo–Eicher joint venture.The strong performance was supported by demand across categories. Light and Medium Duty (LMD) trucks contributed 47,789 units, accounting for 46.1 per cent of total sales. Heavy Duty (HD) trucks recorded 26,867 units (25.9 pe..

Rodic Digital & Advisory partners SatSure to deploy EO intelligence in public sector

Rodic Digital & Advisory (RDA), the strategic advisory and digital transformation arm of Rodic Consultants, has signed a strategic cooperation Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with SatSure to jointly pursue opportunities in India’s public sector. The collaboration aims to integrate high-resolution Earth Observation (EO) data and geospatial AI into government workflows to strengthen monitoring, compliance, and operational decision-making across key sectors.The partnership combines SatSure’s Earth intelligence capabilities with RDA’s expertise in government digital transformation and ..