Life's Like That!

Chinese cleantech companies forcing US counterparts to shut shop

2012-01-05T04:19:00.000-08:00

Solyndra (Silicon Valley's poster child for clean technology) has gone bankrupt, since it was unable to compete with low cost Chinese manufacturers. A good take on the reality behind the doors by Forbes'Todd Woody.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/toddwoody/2011/08/31/what-solyndras-bankruptcy-means-for-silicon-valley-solar-startups/

Can there even be a comparison?

2012-01-01T21:36:00.000-08:00

Country Size: India x, China 3x
Population: India 1.2 billion, China 1.3 billion
Installed Electricity Generation Capacity: India 185 GW, China 860 GW

Do you think we should compare further? Does the last data (coupled with second pointer) not explain why they can produce more? Think.

Economics of renewable energy power plants

2011-12-26T03:19:00.000-08:00

Economics of renewable energy power plants

My artcile on "Developing Entrepreneurial Ecosystem in India" - published in Business Review India

2011-12-22T21:02:00.000-08:00

It is a fact that India is home to some of the best known outsourcing service companies, which have created jobs for thousands of engineers and have fuelled the outbreak of a young middle-class working population. However it is also a fact that in today's world of fast emerging technology, where innovation, creativity and entrepreneurship are the buzz words - we as a society are seen as 'job-doers' and not 'job-creators'. The society and the economy, have supported and nurtured a working population, but have failed to create enough entrepreneurs. Rather the whole idea of entrepreneurship, till about a decade back, was mostly associated with family-run businesses. And others from non-business background, who tried to diverge in these unknown territories of no fixed income (read salary), were not looked up to.

But things have changed in the recent past and entrepreneurship has slowly become 'cool' in our part of the world. We now need an entrepreneurship ecosystem to keep the momentum going and benefit from the trend. Some positive steps have been taken. For instance the decision of IIT Mumbai to allow final year students a chance to re-appear in the regular placement process, even after two years of passing out from the college, and in case where the student tried but was not successful in making her venture work out.

So what exactly is an entrepreneurship ecosystem and who (and why) will be its elements? According to Daniel J. Isenberg, professor of management practice at Babson College and executive director of the Babson Entrepreneurship Ecosystem Project, entrepreneurs are most successful when they have access to the human, financial and professional resources they need, and operate in an environment in which government policies encourage and safeguard entrepreneurs. This network is described as the entrepreneurship ecosystem. He even terms this ecosystem as the 'holy grail' for federal governments, which stand to flourish from these entrepreneurs.

A proxy measure to understand where we as a country stand today, in terms of a developed ecosystem, is our ranking on the ease of doing business index. A higher ranking for a country indicates that starting and doing business there is easy and which could also mean that the entrepreneurship ecosystem is supportive. According to the World Bank's latest disclosed index rankings on July 2011, India stands at 132 (out of 183 nations). The country stands particularly low on two measures which are, dealing with construction permits and enforcing contracts. It is evident that we lack on various parameters and which means that we should try to improve. Improvement measures can be taken across three key facets, which are – institutional, policy and social support systems.

Institutional level measures: The previous point of the IIT Mumbai initiative is an excellent example of institutional level support. Globally some of the highly recognized universities have focused centers for developing and nurturing budding entrepreneurs. One of the most notable ones include the MIT Entrepreneurship Center, which was founded with the objective of commercializing technologies invented by MIT faculty and student labs. The centre has produced lots of success stories in the past and every year MIT graduates establish more than 200 companies. From inception till date the centre has been able to produce 25,800 active companies, creating employment for 33 lakh people! Another case in point is a non-profit organization SCORE, which is a resources partner for the U.S. Small Business Administration and provides free of cost mentoring & advisory services to entrepreneurs.

Policy level measures: Policy is a pretty wide word and can encompass such government actions that can lead to attracting and retaining more entrepreneurial talent in the country. This could mean fiscal benefits such as tax concessions, procedural ease in terms of guidelines and laws to be followed by a fresh startup and or other measures such as change in laws and business rules. A case in point here is the Startup Visa Act of 2011, which was introduced in March 2011, and which proposes amendment to the U.S. immigration law. This Act is primarily being supported by investors who fund startup companies across the globe and are therefore pitching for such immigration rules that instead of such startups being residing in other parts of the world, should permanently be moved to the US, thereby creating jobs and Intellectual Property rights.

Social support measures: And last but not the least we as a society need to promote entrepreneurship culture. We should try building some sort of a social support for the youngsters and others who are trying to break free, have ideas and the ability to take risks and try out new things. It is ok even if they fail; at least they would come out more enriched with an experience of running things firsthand and managing all aspects of a business. Forums like the TED can provide the necessary emotional support and guidance for our budding entrepreneurs. TED was started in 1984 as a conference to bring people together from Technology, Entertainment and Design, to discuss and share new business ideas and connect the ‘thinkers’ with the ‘doers’.

While some of these measures such as institutional support can be implemented pretty fast, others like policy and cultural support may take some more time. In the meanwhile it is great to see that entrepreneurship is slowly getting acceptance as an alternate career choice. The bottom-line here is that the country today needs more and more entrepreneurs who could create jobs and spearhead innovations in technology and business. After all entrepreneurial activity acts as an antibody for the growing economy.

http://www.businessreviewindia.in/business_leaders/developing-entrepreneurship-ecosystem-in-india

Top 10 startps in India (my article on Chillibreeze)

2011-12-03T22:20:00.001-08:00

http://www.chillibreeze.com/articles_various/top-10-startup-companies-in-india-1011.asp

TechCrunch - Business & Controversy

2011-12-01T10:47:00.003-08:00

In the web parlance, ‘TechCrunch’ is (was? Read full story ahead to know more) the Google for anyone associated with technology startup companies.

Ok, but what do they actually do? As per the company’s website “TechCrunch is a leading technology media property, dedicated to obsessively profiling startups, reviewing new internet products, and breaking tech news.” So, basically it is a one-stop shop (or rather café) where fellow and wannabe entrepreneurs can meet, share and learn, while the investors can track and follow worthy business ideas. As of today, the company’s website, including its network sites, boasts of about 37 million page views per month, and regularly reaches out to more than 12 million subscribers. TechCrunch also hosts the popular startup event – Disrupt Series; and The Crunchies Award.

Forty-one year old Mr. Michael Arrington is the brain behind ‘TechCrunch’, which he founded on June 11, 2005. Michael, a Stanford Law graduate, practiced as a corporate and securities lawyer with a couple of law firms, followed by trying his hands on web-based startups, before hitting it big with what essentially what was his personal blog. Honest views, opinions and an ability to break news first became some of the success mantras for the blog. Michael was able to grow the spread by hiring the right kind of people, and allied services such as virtual and real meeting places for entrepreneurs. Soon TechCrunch grew to a stature that investors started relying on the site for taking investment decisions. In May 2008, the Time Magazine named Michael as one of the world’s 100 most influential people.

Michael became the poster boy of success for the blogger community. He was famous for his straight from the heart comments. One of his famous quotes and inspiration for the startup guys was at his speech at the 2010 UC Berkeley Distinguished Innovator Lecture Series, where he told the students that - “the best thing in the world is to go to Harvard for a year and drop out. Everyone knows you were smart enough to get in.” And he proved it when he managed to sell TechCrunch to AOL for a handsome USD 30 million, in around September 2010.

However, there aren’t happy endings to all fairy tale stories. Post sale to AOL, differences were reported in the editorial style and process followed by Michael till now, and the way AOL wanted to run the show. Meanwhile Michael announced his plans of starting a venture capital fund to invest in web startups, named “CrunchFund”, to which AOL agreed to invest in USD 10 million. This was taken skeptically by the media who hinted at a possible collusion whereby Michael and his TechCrunch team would propagate only such companies, in which CrunchFund has or would be investing. Even people close to Michael, like contributing author Paul Carr strongly condemned the venture capital business idea, stating that it would hurt TechCrunch’s editorial credibility. The NY Times in its story (dated September 4, 2011) summed it up as – “If insiders can trade on the news they publish, readers may become an adjunct to a business that is less about public information than private gain.”

AOL, which some say was anyways waiting to take some action against Michael, did not let go off this opportunity. According to last news on the issue, it is evident that Michael was shown the doors by AOL management. He is now managing the fund and has also started a new blog – ‘Uncrunched’ & the millions of ardent followers are waiting to read him again, afresh!

Public Private Partnerships: What and How?

2011-12-01T05:31:00.000-08:00

Public Private Partnership (also referred to as ‘PPP’, P3) is a mutually agreed business relation between the government and one or more private owned companies, to deliver a public project. Typically under the PPP route, the government conceptualizes a particular project, decides on the risk and reward sharing mechanism between itself and the private company, followed by bid process for selection of such private partner. The project is often done through a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) route, where both the partners share investments.

From the days of World War II to about 1970s, governments across the globe had spend a significant amount of resources in creating public infrastructure services, such as roads, power plants, water distribution systems etc. Also by this time the notion that people at large should get these services for free – was slowly changing. Therefore new models for creation of large infrastructure projects were been analyzed, which would take some burden off from the governments as well as result in people paying a rational price for use of such services.

PPPs thus came into fashion. The novel idea behind a PPP is that such a partnership should bring the best of its partners. While the government’s role is seen as the one who provides for capital, use of assets, and responsibility for social and environmental concerns; the private company is expected to bring in efficiencies in the form of better project management, speedy and on-time delivery, and innovation in execution and operation.

PPP is today successfully tried in almost all of the developed and majority of the developing countries. International donor agencies, such as the World Bank, Asian Development Bank and the Japan Bank for International Cooperation have been the key proponents of PPP and its spread to the rest of the nations. The sectors / industries where by and large PPP projects have been widely used are:
· Roads and Highways
· Gas Pipelines
· Electricity Generation and Distribution
· Water Distribution and Treatment
· Stadiums

PPPs have got their share of failure stories as well. At some of the instances projects have gone completely off-scale due to differences between the government and the chosen private company. Often these differences arise from the deviation in return on investment expectations of the private company. However a well devised PPP project is worth its try as it helps in bringing benefits to the public at large.

For more on PPPs and Popular PPP Models, please see the link below:
http://gorasika.hubpages.com/hub/Popular-Models-for-Public-Private-Partnership

comparing startup culture...

2011-11-26T09:18:00.000-08:00

Startups: Silicon Valley Vs. The Emerging World (source: http://www.techcrunch.com/)

Editor’s Note: Omar Koudsi is a co-founder and CEO of Amman, Jordan-based Jeeran, the largest review site in the Middle East and North Africa. You can follow him on twitter here @omarfk
On my way to attending an Endeavor Summit this summer, I had the following conversation with a customs officer upon arriving in the U.S.:

Immigration officer: What do you do for a living?
Me: I work at a startup, and I’m here to meet people from my industry.
Immigration officer: Ok. How long have you been at your current job?
Me: We started around five years ago.
Immigration officer: Five years! And you still call yourself a startup?!

This interaction has stayed with me because it seems to me to be a great example of the discrepancy between the reality distortion field that is Silicon Valley — and the reality almost everywhere else. Even the immigration officer at the San Francisco airport was of the opinion that five years is too long for a company to consider itself startup.
Being from Jordan and having visited Silicon Valley on a number of occasions, this visit (along with others) continue to show how the realities of the Valley stand in stark contrast with what an emerging world founder, particularly in the Middle East and North Africa, face to start and scale a Web business.
I believe the lack of a well-developed ecosystem (funding, mentoring, risk culture, lawyers, human resources) puts the burden tenfold on the entrepreneur in the emerging world. In many cases, foreign entrepreneurs have to do ten times the lifting of an American startup — for a much longer period of time to boot — in order to succeed.
My company (Jeeran) was lucky to find a VC firm called IV Holdings that had emerged in 2006 — way before entrepreneurship became cool in our part of the world — and it changed everything. Of course, it still took us a whole year to close our first round of funding, and really, throughout that period, there wasn’t any negotiation of terms — it was all just pushing papers.
In the Middle East, few had done this kind of transaction before; we (founders, VC partners, lawyers, gov. departments) were all flying by the seats of our pants, figuring things out as they happened. Not to mention, before we were able to find a VC firm and secure our first round of funding, we had worked full-time on Jeeran for a full three years, bootstrapping, relying on what revenue we created, and additional generosity from our mom/brother/cousin investors. This is true for the majority of startups in the region.
But, back to my trip to Silicon Valley: I attended a workshop at Stanford University given by a well-known human resources expert on the best ways for startups to find top tier talent. One of the tips he gave us was to interview at least 10 people for each position before choosing the right candidate — to take your time and be selective.
I found it humorous, since we barely find a handful of people with enough expertise to make a difference, let alone 10 people lined for the database, UX, and product management jobs we (and so many others) are hiring for. Founders in the emerging world are mostly occupied with building-up talent as it comes along in bits and pieces, not recruiting it.
Like most startups, we wanted our team to feel ownership over what we were building, so we sought to create a stock option pool. We worked with the top lawyers in the region and it took us around eight months to have it ready. In the valley, I got the feedback that such paper work (term sheets, share holder agreements, etc) are template-based and get pushed along by administrative assistants.
Some of this much-sought-after legal framework is so popular they get published on Techcrunch! Of course, I forwarded this link to our legal counsel who found it quite useful.
I found it comforting that many founders in Europe and even the East Coast complain about many of the same issues: Lack of venture funding, lack of talent, and an ecosystem that penalizes risk takers. Of course, this situation has much improved for them and for us, but it made me feel less lonely when I hear tales of East Coast founders trying to convince Wall Street talent to join a startup. We still lack that kind of talent pool (thankfully I guess, right?) to recruit from, but clearly the cultural challenge of jumping ship to a startup is shared.
My team and I will continue to make pilgrimage to the valley and soak in experiences. We will happily put up with the mocking of how long it takes startups to shift to second gear for us to learn as much as we can.
However, here is an invite for the Valley to go out and see how the startups of the world are solving problems in ecosystems void of the many resources taken for granted by the Y Combinator-accelerated generation.

Lost Winter in Mumbai

2011-11-10T02:40:00.000-08:00

It’s almost mid-November and longings and anxiety for winter are hitting my nerves. Of course who doesn’t want to welcome cold with closed arms!

But for various reasons Mumbai is still as hot as possible. My list of culprits include global warming, population on planet earth (blame on the 1 minus seven billion - others), geography design which marks Mumbai not very far from the Tropic of Cancer. Anyways in my endeavor to not take things on face value and put a good fight, this time around I have decided to fight for my right to experience the cool weather. And therefore was on lookout for some innovative ways to keep my house cool. Below is a list of few unique methods, which I came across while researching on Google. I hope to benefit my FB friends and public in general from these.

1) Put a vessel filled with water under the curtains, such that the curtain cloth is in constant touch with the water. The lesser the density of fabric, the more will be the fluid flow. You can infact do experiments on various fabrics and then recall memories of engineering labs.

2) Keep a bowl of ice cubes under the ceiling fan. This will ensure that the circulated air gets cooled off and in-turn cools your home.

3) Don’t eat large quantities in one sitting. Eating more will lead to rise in body temperature, which is required to burn the food intake.

4) Before sleeping at night, slip one or two ice cubes between bed sheets. This will take away the discomfort completely.

5) Smart planning. Instead of work from home, go to office; go for shopping, watch the latest Bollywood 3D movie, go to galleries – during the hottest time of the day.

And don’t forget to tell me which method worked the best for you, along with my fees in lieu of this advice. After all I have to foot my air conditioner bill.

Bend in the Back - dimal performance of PFC stock

2011-11-10T00:36:00.000-08:00

The Power Finance Corporation, also termed as the 'financial backbone of the Indian Power Sector' has come up with a weak Q2 performance for FY12. Net Profit is down by about 40%, from Rs. 41933.70 lacs for the quarter ending on 30-SEP-2011, as against Rs. 70083.74 lacs for the same quarter ending in last year.

The company has reported that this sudden drop is on account of forex losses, given the company did not have enough time to take action with a rapidly sliding rupee. While the same can be a one-off incident, reduction in share price has to be seen more closely. The second quarter results of most of the power sector scrips are not heartening. To top-up the gloom are the constant feed of news on mounting losses of the State Distribution Utilities. In such a scenario it is evident that if the State Discoms are not able to turn the coluor of their balance sheet, the whole sector and participant companies could go for a toss.

We need some quick fix solutions to the financial problems of the state companies.

Mumbai Metro One - Patronage questionable

2011-11-09T02:11:00.000-08:00

Even before the start of the prestigous new infrastructure facility in the Mumbai suburban area - the Mumbai Metro One Project (Link 1 from Versova to Ghatkopar) - it seems the forecasted ridership/ patronage is under question.

This is because of the MMRDA's last minute planning with the Traffic Department over the issues of traffic jams on the Andheri Kurla Raod - which is expected once the metro is up and running. The Traffic Department has long tried to pull attention to the fact, that given the spacing of stations on the metro line (every 1 km) and naroow stretch of roads, it is expected that commuter traffic plying into and out of the metro will cause a huge traffic problem on the main road as well as artillery roads. Imagine a huge rush of autorickshaws which will line up in all directions from these metro stations.

MMRDA's solution to this problem is to keep some sort of a control over the autorickshaws and to make them end/ start off from artillery roads, instead of from the Andheri Kurla road. While this may solve the traffic problem, the thing to be noted here is that the same then would not be comfortable to commuters. Say for example, if I have to travel from Powai to Andheri, I will have to go over the artillery road of Andheri Saki Vihar to reach the Saki Naka station of metro. This 3 km journey itself will take me a hell lot of time, given the rush of traffic on the artillery road. Instead of that a direct autorickshaw/ bus from Powai to Andheri via SEEPZ makes a lot more sense - both in terms of money as well as time.

To my knowledge the best utility of the metro is to those people who need to travel farther from Andheri (on the western line) and Ghatkopar (on the central line) via the Suburban Railways (i.e. Mumbai Locals).

Guide to Management PhD Applications

2011-11-08T03:40:00.000-08:00

Wondering where to find information about the 'why' and 'how' of Management PhD admissions? Pl see the shared pdf - authored by Abhishek Nagaraj (Doctoral student at MIT), for an exhaustive guide on basics, do's and dont's of PhD applications, along with an insight on careers in academia.

Happy reading!

web.mit.edu/nagaraj/files/phdguide.pdf
A Guide to Business PhD Applications

Mass Market Hypocrisy & Economics

2011-11-06T21:30:00.000-08:00

Case 1: Many people admire PG Woodhouse; if I fail to like his novels – there is something wrong in my understanding. Therefore, to hell with my likes, when in public, I am going to say that PG is my favorite author.

Case 2: I remember my father’s yearly bank audit closure parties, where we children were forced to watch some vintage cricket world cup series – how long and boring those were. IPL 20-20 is so much fun!

I am sure thoughts like these have cross many of us. Even if they haven’t, would appreciate if you read through my thoughts on the subject. Essentially the point I am trying to make is that a) one should respect every other individual’s choice and b) change is good and should be welcome. So what if some of us think that Chetan Bhagat’s writing is trash – there are a million fans who adore him. And these million people have a right of freedom to like/ dislike an author, just as we have. So what if my dad feels that cricket is no longer what it used to be – there is a new generation who just do not have time to watch a one-day match and is happy with the new format.

I agree that reaching to masses or ‘democratization’ reduces value – but that is true for anything. A mass product will never command premium. But the truth is that it is neither meant to and nor is it positioned in that way. This is simple economics. I am sure we experience this in our business; there are always some clients who will just not look beyond a Mckinsey or a BCG and then there are some who give others a try! Do I hear someone saying “…expert advice/ assistance has become much more affordable with many consulting firms around, however the true value of what is served to the client has reduced”

Coal shortage and Power crisis

2011-10-19T02:33:00.000-07:00

Many parts of western & southern India were plunged into darkness over the last couple of weeks which resulted on account of lower generation at the power stations. By far the reason for lower generation has been attributed to a drastic shortfall of coal –primary fuel used by thermal power plants.

So who is at fault – the power generation company, which didn’t stock enough coal so as to tide over exigencies, OR the coal production companies, which failed to produce enough coal, OR may be the Indian Railways, who provide the necessary backbone for transportation of coal from mines to power stations. Let us try to understand and tick cross each of these possibilities.

Majority of power plants in India operate on a cost-plus basis, which means that the power companies detail out their expenditures and get the same approved from the Electricity Regulatory Commissions. The ERCs do so based on Terms & Conditions of Tariff Regulations, which provide a detailed account of expenditure limits. Under the said regulations, a generation company is allowed to include the costs for two months of coal stock under its working capital calculation. What this means is that, if a generation company stocks coal required for running its plants for two months, then the expenditure incurred in maintaining this stock is pass-through to the buyers, which is the Distribution companies.

However, in reality generation companies do not maintain this quantum of stock, for various reasons. Primarily the reason is attributed to delays in supply by the coal companies. Another reason is to lower the chances of coal wastage – either through theft, or poor maintenance, while the coal is sitting at the power plants.

This brings us to the next problem possibility, which is reduced production by the coal companies. A quick look at CIL production statistics reveal that the company has missed on three dimensions – (a) ability to ramp up coal production in-line with the growing demand, (b) ability to maintain production levels at the existing mines and secure them from factors such as flooding etc., and (c) ability to beneficiate low quality coal. While coal consumption has increased from 504 MT in FY 08 to 611 MT in FY 11 which is a 21% increase, the supply of coal has increased by only 16% over this period.

The third possibility which is reduced transportation by Indian Railways could be ruled out for the present crisis, based on its public information disclosure. The IR has maintained that there has been neither shortage of wagons nor any issues regarding derailment of tracks. In fact according to the IR their open wagons have been lying idle in the absence of any coal loading.

The problem therefore squarely lays on account of default by coal production companies. Government officials, industry experts and academia have talked a lot about solutions to this problem, including reforms in the coal sector. It is high time these words get converted into actions which could lead to tangible results. Till that time, it’s a wait and watch for consumers – in darkness.

of Karva Chauth and sacrifices.....

2011-10-14T23:06:00.000-07:00

Though I hate to admit, but at times I really like the 'sati savitri' types bahu, who would go to any length to fulfill her duties for her family (here 'family' invariably means only the other side - i.e. husband and in-laws; wonder where and how does the ex-family completely goes out of picture post marriage). Let me be more precise. What I LIKE is - the costumes (sari, bangles, bindi etc.etc.), the festivities, food, home decor and so on. That is the reason why I really wanted to keep the Karva Chauth fast, today. I almost imagined myself keeping a day-long fast sans any food and water - and at the end of the fast getting a beautiful (read expensive) gift from hubby dear! I also took some notes on how to survive without these essentials from my friends. I tried watching some more saas-bahu serials to learn the do's and dont's.
But alas, a morning bed tea, served by my husband, was good enough for me to simply forgo these sacrifices and also the gifts. Afterall, where is the time to fast, when there is so little time to eat-drink-together:-)

Stretch your limits

2008-07-05T21:38:00.000-07:00

Why is it that everytime when I become complacent, or feel thoroughly content with what I have got; I come across something which makes me feel that there is more to be seen. to be read, to be thought and yes to be done.

Not that I am cribbing about this "constantly on the move" attitude as a pain. But yes, this feeling does leaves me with a certain sadness that is beyond explanation. It's like taking away the feeling of joy about one's achievemnets and yearning for more; that "thoda aur".

The only solution which makes sense is that this is what is human, so accept it and may be use this as a wonderful opportunity to Stretch Your Limits!

2008-07-05T21:21:00.000-07:00

Welcome to my Sunday Blog:)

After more than 2 years of home cooking, I really really admire my mother for dishing out those lovely breakfasts, lunhces and dinners (and snacks in between:) to me for a whole lot of 22 years. That's really incredible. Coz I have already ran short of receipes and cannot think of making any good dish for myself (leave aside the lovely husband who eagerly waits for some cool dishes to churn out from the kitchen!)

Hats off to you mom.

Book Review "I too had a dream"

2008-06-23T23:03:00.000-07:00

“I too had a dream” is an inspiring autobiography of Dr.Verghese Kurien, popularly known as the man behind Operation Flood. Dr.Kurien has in the past served as the Chairman of the NDDB (National Dairy Development Board) and the GCMMF (Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation) the orgainsation that owns the “Amul” brand. He was instrumental in foundation of the IRMA (Institute of Rural Management, Anand) and currently works as its Chairman. The book presents his life journey as an ambitious young man to an “employee of the farmers” framing the largest dairy development programme in the world.

Mr.Kurien who is the nephew of the late Mr.John Mathai, the former Finance Minister of India, worked with Telco before joining the Michigan State University course on Dairy Technology, which he saw as an escape route to foreign lands. Thereafter he was forced to work with the Gujurat Government’s cremeary at Anand, where he met his future mentor “Tribhuvandas Patel” and was introduced to the Kiara Milk Cooperative Society. One can find in the book elaborate details on the hurdles that he faced and the methodologies adopted in making the milk cooperatives a success story.

Pages of interest and ofcourse learnings are his takes on the importance of branding and advertising. Also of interest are his views on social development, which according to him is possible in a democratic institution only if “people are involved in the development process from grass root level”. The book also presents learnings on how to run and manage cooperatives. Last but not the least Dr.Kuriens’s life is a live example of what a person can achieve if stood by own dreams!

Debate over IFC's funding of Tata's Mundra UMPP (from Carma blog)

2008-06-17T02:09:00.000-07:00

Tata Ultra Mega Mistake: The IFC Should Not Get Burned by Coal
Posted: Thu, 13 Mar 2008 13:39:36 +0000
[This post originally appeared on the Center for Global Development’s “Views from the Center” blog.]
During the last week of March, the Board of the World Bank Group’s International Finance Corporation (IFC) will consider the proposed Tata Ultra Mega project, which will construct a huge (4,000 MW) coal-fired power plant at Mundra in India’s Gujarat State. According to the IFC’s own estimate, this plant will emit 25.7 million tons of CO2 per year for at least 25 years, adding another 643 million tons to an atmospheric carbon load that is already driving us toward an environmental catastrophe.

This project no longer makes any sense. In fact, it is obsolete by the IFC’s own standards. Here’s the rationale provided by the IFC, along with the current reality.

1. Claim: The IFC should use scarce international resources for the Mundra project because its efficient, supercritical coal-combustion technology will provide a model for India. According to the IFC: “The project is the first private sector power project in India to be based on the energy efficient supercritical technology.”

Reality: Wrong on both counts. No model is needed, because several other private- and public-sector supercritical plants are already under construction or planned. These include Sipat and Akaltara (Chattisgarh State), Sasan (Madhya Pradesh), and Shahapur (Maharashtra). Figure 1, drawn from our CARMA database, shows the percentage of planned Indian power capacity other than Mundra that will employ supercritical technology during the next five years. For the public and private sectors combined, supercritical capacity without Mundra will be around 60% of new capacity in 2013. For the private sector, it will be over 70%.

Conclusion: The rationale for Mundra is obsolete. India’s public and private sectors are moving to supercritical technology anyway, without IFC subsidies. A big driver is the rapidly-rising price of coal, which puts a premium on combustion efficiency.

2. Claim: The IFC must support Mundra, because India has no scalable, economically-feasible alternative for baseload power. And in any case, India has a lot of cheap coal and should exploit it.

Reality: Wrong again. India does have a scalable, economically feasible alternative to coal. As Figure 2 shows, the region near Mundra has huge solar potential and is one of the most sparsely-settled areas in India. Baseload solar power with thermal storage for 24-hour operation is now technically feasible, as I have noted in a recent paper and blog. As for exploiting Indian coal, Mundra will use coal imported from Indonesia and other countries at rapidly-rising cost.

For the IFC, solar thermal power is also financially feasible for two major reasons.

Coal’s previous cost advantage has largely vanished. Fuel and construction costs for supercritical coal-fired power plants have been escalating rapidly. Both costs have at least doubled since 2005, nearly eliminating coal’s cost advantage over solar thermal power. Since completing my previously-cited paper, I have incorporated these changes into new production cost estimates for supercritical coal and solar thermal power. The gap is now less than one penny per kilowatt hour (8.23 cents for solar thermal vs. 7.65 cents for supercritical coal (up from 4.20 cents two years ago). Power from Mundra will never be sold at the rate advertised on IFC’s website (5.6 cents/kWh), because this would guarantee bankruptcy in short order.
Financing from international clean technology funds can fill the remaining cost gap. Since a solar thermal plant emits no carbon, it qualifies for European Union offset payments under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). The current CDM payment rate is about $15 per ton of CO2 averted, and solar thermal capacity equivalent to Mundra’s (4,000 MW) would annually avert 29.7 million tons of CO2 produced by the CDM’s “baseline case” (a low-efficiency subcritical plant). This would qualify the solar thermal plant for $445 million/year in CDM payments — enough to recover most of the total cost difference between solar thermal and supercritical coal before the current CDM arrangement expires in 2012. The rest can easily be covered by the World Bank Group’s new Clean Technology Fund, financed by donor-country taxpayers.
In short, IFC’s proposed Tata Ultra Mega project is obsolete, unnecessary, ultra-dangerous for the planet, and mega-dangerous for the environmental reputations of the IFC and the World Bank Group. Does anyone really believe that donor-country taxpayers will continue supporting the Bank Group if it takes billions for the Clean Technology Fund with one hand and invests billions in coal-fired monsters with the other? Let’s get serious here. The IFC’s Board should take Ban Ki-Moon’s Bali declaration of a planetary emergency seriously, vote no on Tata Ultra Mega, leave coal-fired power behind, and commit to renewable power. They will find a willing partner in the Indian Government, which has already begun piloting solar thermal power and would undoubtedly welcome a big push on renewables.

Figure 1: Planned Supercritical Coal Capacity in India Without Tata Mundra
(% of Total Planned Annual Capacity Installation, Private and Total)
Back to text

Figure 2: Solar Power Potential in the Region Near Mundra
Back to text

World Bank - Private Sector Development Blog

2008-06-13T01:19:00.000-07:00

While searching for popular blogs on "Developmental Economics" I came through the blog maintained by the World Bank Group on the relevant topic, with more stress on realising the benefits of Public Private Partnership.

Read through my comments on stories; as I am figuring out how I can contribute articles on the post.

2008-06-12T00:41:00.000-07:00

"Possession" is a dreadful word. It creates more agony than pride, the primary reason for creating possessions!

I am though basking in the pride of now owning a home, but nevertheless paying the price for it by way of long (and dirty) commute to and from from my work place.

God help!

Indian Wedding: Another Opportunity lies ahead!

2007-04-24T03:43:00.001-07:00

We wonder whether the movies are a reflection of the society or the society emulates what is shown on the celluloid screen. The recent exorbitantly hyped wedding of the Bollywood's power couple has once again raised the question. As a newspaper today read "Abhiash wedding video rights bags 5 Cr from an entertainment company", I wonder whether the power couple or the more powerful couple folks have recently gone through the 2005 Juhi Chawala starrer "7 1/2 phare" wherein the pretty lady who plays a newspaper reporter convinces a middle class Delhi family to broadcast the Shaddi in their house for publicity and some easy bucks in return. The Bachhans are supposedly doing the same though still describing the whole show as a "private and family affair". This is a sheer gesture of ultimate hypocricy or may be the stars have become so larger than life that nothing about them has the right to be "private".

The great Indian Wedding story has been selling around for the last may be generations, be it in the Barjatya films or the grand Balaji sets. Therefore, this is bound to open up a big untouched market and the Bachhans should have possibly patented the business model because even if it is replicated for n number of times, it will still succeed. So in times to come we will track how much our neighbours, colleagues, friends weddings attract. The impact could be huge considering the sheer amount of rivarly the weddings will attract given the fact people alredy tend to compare a lot about services and goods used in each others marriages. I wonder why the big shaddi happened so late because I have lost the opportunity to cash in on my marriage which took place in 2005 and has made it a NPA by now. Oops!!!

Birthday Boy

2007-04-23T03:48:00.000-07:00

Read this one on some random blog page...and liked a lot.....to share with whoever reads

______________________________________________
Late night. A glass of rum-coke by my side. Surfing the net when all of a sudden my ICQ window pops up. There’s a message:

From BirthdayBoy_at_20: Hi. I know this sounds kind of weird. I am you ,when you were 20. I just wanted to see if you are online….had some questions to ask you.

Yeah right. This has got to be a practical joke. A few of my friends—the very few I have know its my 30th birthday on the 30th of December and this must be their idea of a joke. Very funny.
I type back. Yes BirthdayBoy_at_20 , this is BirthdayBoy_at_30. Nice joke. Now which clown is this?

From BirthdayBoy_at_20: As I said, BirthdayBoy_at_30 this is going to sound weird. I am actually “you” 10 years ago. I don’t know how this is happening but somehow we are being able to communicate through chat—-and I want to ask you basically—-how did I turn out?

Some people take the gag so far that it becomes unfunny.

BirthdayBoy_at_30: Okay smart guy, I may be a bit drunk but not that sloshed. Buzz off.

BirthdayBoy_at_20: Wait wait. I have proof. I am sending you a picture—-no-one else is going to have this picture, at least none of your friends . It feels strange saying “yours” because these friends are mine too. Or will be. See this picture. Recognize the guy?

Holy moly. That’s me at 20. I could not believe it. How the hell did this guy…………………..

BirthdayBoy_at_30: Okay I don’t know how you did this. Or what in the name of Mithun is happening. But it seems you are me at 20. How creepy meeting you again, like this, just when I am going to turn 30. So what do you want to know?

BirthdayBoy_at_20: First up, am I a MBA from Columbia making 7 figures a year, driving a Lamborghini and jetting around the world first-class?

BirthdayBoy_at_30: No you are not. Listen to yourself. What expectations baah !

BirthdayBoy_at_20: Sooo….what am I then? You mean I am not an MBA? Dont joke man…..I gotta be an MBA from somewhere……

BirthdayBoy_at_30: No you aren’t an MBA. The only thing your car will have in common with a Lamborghini is that both of them will have innovative doors—the Lam’s open upwards, your passenger side door will be frequently jammed. It’s a 94 Honda Civic, for your information.

BirthdayBoy_at_20: Cool at least a new car. Ooh wait I forgot. You are in 2005 right?

BirthdayBoy_at_30: Yes I am. Very clever of you to realize.

BirthdayBoy_at_20: So if I am not an MBA what am I ?

BirthdayBoy_at_30: I am sorry to have to break this bit of news to you dude. But you are a PhD working in a R&D lab.

BirthdayBoy_at_20: Haha now you are pulling my leg. You know me better than anyone else and you know I have always wanted to be like Banerjee uncle upstairs with the company car, the Calcutta Club membership and the masseur who comes in on Sundays.

BirthdayBoy_at_30: Immature. Of course I forget you are only 20. You see at the age of 30 I have come to the conclusion that I am, in the final analysis, way too much like my father. I value my freedom and I am willing to make a financial compromise for it. It was tough coming to terms with this realization but it is true.
And this epiphany didn’t come all of a sudden—it was a lesson acquired by walking the path between 1995 and 2005. So straight off the bat, this may be a bit too much for you to understand right now but trust me on this one—-maybe we did not set out to be a PhD but it’s a rather good place to be. Considering the type of person we are and what we value in life.

BirthdayBoy_at_20: Please don’t mind but you are kind of sounding like Dad. Change of topic: have I traveled the world? Have I been to all the places I wanted to go?

BirthdayBoy_at_30: Well quite a few of them as a matter of fact. You have been to Copenhagen, Switzerland, Barcelona , Vienna and around USA and Canada and all the European countries you have visited has been on funding money (ie not out of your pocket). So you see a PhD is not without its corporeal benefits also. And the thrill of publication, presenting original work in front of peers and interacting with some of the best minds in the world is a heady experience—-something a twenty year old might not value but I have come to love.

BirthdayBoy_at_20: Ooh good. Sounds fine. So I do my PhD in US…mm…feels kinda uncomfortable asking someone who is so much older than I am….but since you are me after all….do I turn out to be the super-rocking stud I always wanted to be? You know chick-magnet, party animal, bohemian hedonist without a care in the world. Do you remember how constricted you used to feel at 20 in an all-guys engineering college, growing up in a middle-class Bengali milieu, wanting to break free—total social and ethical anarchy. Do you remember, BirthdayBoy_at_30 ?

BirthdayBoy_at_30: Yes BirthdayBoy_at_20 I remember. Only too well. I am sorry to have to break it to you—but things didn’t quite turn out that way. Again what you cannot accept right now is that you have your limitations. As a matter of fact, turning 30 is possibly the stage when you truly realize the magnitude of all the things you cannot do. Its a sobering thought and one which, even though it comes at the cost of heartbreak and much sadness, makes your life that much easier.

BirthdayBoy_at_20: Excuse me but could you repeat that in plain English?

BirthdayBoy_at_30: It means “No”. You won’t have that lifestyle because your background and your upbringing and your sensibilities (the ones you are still not aware of) will pre-program you to take a different path. Plus lets face it—-you wont cut a dashing figure in a club, you wont have the cash nor the style. Your time will be spent better staying at home, reading a book, doing creative writing…..”

BirthdayBoy_at_20: In other words, no Ecstasy-induced sandwich dance, no bumping and grinding.

BirthdayBoy_at_30: Well there will be a lot of ham sandwiches. And burgers. Which will bring in a lot of pounds. The bad kind of pounds….not the currency.
There will be grinding work and a few bumps along the way. And oh a factoid: Do you know that Tiger Woods was born same day same year as us? Somebody born that day sure achieved a lot.

BirthdayBoy_at_20: So I let myself go and become fat. Not good. Will I get married?

BirthdayBoy_at_30: Yes you shall. To a lovely person who is exactly right for the type of person you will grow up to be.

BirthdayBoy_at_20: Oh ! That’s good…..So summing up, how do you feel now?

BirthdayBoy_at_30: A bit sad. The sadness from knocks sustained, trusts broken and overall cynicism about the institutions I once worshipped. The sadness from seeing ideals break and idols cracking. The sadness from knowing the things you can and cannot do. At 20, the world lay before me—I could be anything I wanted to be. I am not so sure anymore.
A bit afraid. More responsibilities. More thinking of others and less about myself. More aware of my own mortality and those others whom I love.
And finally more than a bit glad. Things could really have been much worse.

BirthdayBoy_at_20: Boy you do sound old. I cannot believe I shall grow up to be you. In any case, thanks for all the crap old-timer. I have to go and start watching the cricket match—my favorite cricketer Azhar …Don’t want to miss his batting.

BirthdayBoy_at_30: I am sorrry again to tell you this but Azhar fixes matches—he has put money on the other side.

BirthdayBoy_at_20: Get lost….ewwwwww…….I am better off not knowing.

I sit head in hand. Did I dream that all up? Was it the alcohol? Perhaps.

Feeling emotional and light-headed, I think of the innocence , hopes and the aspirations of the person I talked to right now—so familiar and yet so strange, so present and yet so lost. Caught in the twilight haze of rational thought and hopeless dreams, my hand moves to the keyboard :

To BirthdayBoy_at_40: Hi. I know this sounds kind of weird. I am you , when you were 30. I just wanted to see if you are online….had some questions to ask you.

2007-02-02T05:15:00.000-08:00

MvKinsey Survey: Mapping the global capital markets

2007-01-18T03:10:00.000-08:00

On reading the fact that the the value of the world’s financial assets now exceeds global GDP by a factor of three which shows an unprecedented degree of financial depth, i was a bit confused of how's that possible?

Well, i got the naswer in the same article which says that Financial depth can exceed GDP since the former reflects predicted future returns and growth, while the latter current economic activity.

Fresh beginings

2007-01-18T02:58:00.000-08:00

lost n found

2007-01-18T02:50:00.000-08:00

Ya true, had lost my bog somewhere in the cyber space, and got back through some serious google search. Meanwhile have read many blogs on GMAT prepration ways and firmed my view on the same.

Last few months was busy filling the PA forms as the appraisal time has come close. Also have made some progress on passport application. Lets see.

2006-10-16T05:54:00.000-07:00

This interesting piece i got from a very old book (purchased for Rs.10 only) . This particluar chapter is labelled "Spoon Feeding" and there are many more featuring daily life.

From “Lay Thoughts of a Dean” by William Ralph Inge

At the season when the British paterfamilias sending his children on their Christmas visit to the dentist it must occur to wonder why the noble savage never has any trouble with his teeth. It is said that they are kept healthy by the hard work they have to do in tearing tough meat without the help of knife and fork. These implements, and the art of cookery, are reducing man to a toothless animal, and are, perhaps, responsible for such evils as appendicitis and cancer, from which savages hardly suffer at all.

This is only a sample of what civilization is doing to us, and civilization, for the majority in every nation, is not yet a hundred years old. Until quiet lately the housewife used to bake her own bread, make her own jam, and offer her friends home-brewed wine. Now she can do none of these things. The labourer, before the industrial revolution, was a handy man, almost self-sufficing. Now he understands only one thing – perhaps how to punch out biscuits from a slab of pulp without making the circles intersect. Mr. Austin Freeman, whose observations of savage peoples have made him keenly alive to the evils of machinery, describes how his caravan was overtaken by a storm in Central Africa. The natives set to work in the forest, and in a few hours a row of serviceable waterproof huts had been constructed. The despised savage would no more ask the Government to spend a thousand pounds in building a house for him than he would ask it to comb his hair.

Every year we invent machines to do something new for us. Handwriting used to be an art, and a pretty one. Now an increasing number of people rely entirely on the typewriter, and advertisers assure us that “you cannot afford to do your writing in the old way.” When the typewriter has been introduced into schools we may have a generation who cannot write at all.

Walking and riding, two delightful and health-giving exercises are becoming extinct. Two hundred years ago the roads were full of riders, and of pedestrians who thought nothing of thirty miles a day. The joys of a long country walk, either solitary or with a friend, are unknown to the younger generation, although there is no more delightful way of spending a spring or summer day.

The changes that have come over reading are less obvious, but equally great. An ancient manuscript fills us with wonder that men ever had eyesight and patience enough for such reading. It must have been a slow process – not altogether a disadvantage when the book is a good one. Medieval manuscripts and early printed books are sometimes clear, but often so minute as to try the strongest modern eyes. And spectacles, probably poor ones at first, are said to have been discovered about 1300 A.D. No wonder, we think, that the Greeks disliked old age, when they had neither spectacles, nor false teeth. But they got on without them fairly well, though they were a long-lived race. Sophocles wrote his last play, without spectacles, when he was ninety.

The Germans too, until very recently, made reading a painful exercise. They still like large and closely printed pages, but when to this was added the black-letter type, peculiarly trying to the eyes, and the contorted German sentence, sprawling over half a page, with the verbs, or parts of them, in a bunch at the end, we cannot say that the path of learning was made easy for the most diligent and plodding of nations. Even in English, if we compare the prose of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries with that which is written to-day, we shall find that the earlier prose demands real mental exercise on the part of the reader. Modern prose, even when written quickly for ephemeral purposes, may not be beautiful or dignified, but is generally clear. There is no difficulty in understanding what any sentence means, and writers are careful not to jolt the minds of their readers by anything obscure or ambiguous. Our books are now printed in good plain type.

Reading in these circumstances is purely receptive; it is not able to work at all. For most people it is an agreeable way of killing time, and obviating the painful necessity of thinking, when we have nothing else to do. Our journeyman fiction is evidently a means of getting away from real life, a mild anodyne, or a stimulus to day-dreaming. Newspaper-reading seems to be very largely the result of interest in vicarious athletics and in betting, topics which make no demand on the intellect whatever. There is also a wide desire for general information, but it is only the results, not the method by which they are arrived at, which interest the public. The newspapers are full of snippets, often very well written and illustrated, which give their readers the latest science in tabloid form. The pictures are all photographs; here again, we are watching the death of a fine art, that of drawing and engraving.

Education except where the pupils are encouraged to make things with their own hands is mainly spoon-feeding. Fifty years ago the editions of the classics were so bad that the student had to puzzle out difficulties for himself. Now he sits luxuriously before a crib, two commentaries, and a book of lecture-notes which have been slowly dictated in class. He need not use his brains at all. The battle between Greeks and Trojans in education has raged for many years; but the truth is that the conscientious tutor and the conscientious editor between them have killed the valuable part of a classical training.

The same process of making things easy is discernible even in games. Half a century ago the cricket coaches at Eton and Harrow used to bowl to the elevens down a slope, to teach them how to stop the famous Lord’s shooters. Now if a ball shoots at Lord’s, which it hardly ever does, it always gets a wicket, and the aggrieved batsman complains of the ground-man. The modern mountaineer leaves it to others to “climb the steep ascent of heaven in peril, toil and pain”; he prefers a more comfortable way of getting to the top – he “follows by the train.”

Everywhere we find the same demand to make life easy, safe and fool-proof. The fine trees in our public parks are periodically mangled and reduced to the condition of clothes-props by our urban and country-councils, because boughs have known to be blown down in a a high-wind, or eve, in the case of elm-trees, to fall suddenly, and once in two hundred years some fool might be standing under the tree at the moment. Every workman must be insured against every variety of accident, even when it is caused by his own negligence. If a traveler slips on a piece of orange-peel, which he ought to have seen, in a railway station, or allows his coat to be stolen under his eyes in a carriage, he brings an action against the railway company, and wins it. We now demand to be personally conducted through life, all risk to be taken by someone else. After a century or two of this regime we shall be as helpless as Lord Avebury’s ants, who starved to death in sight of food because they were used to having it put into their mouths by their slaves.

All this may be right, or it may only be inevitable. But do not let us deceive ourselves. Nature will make us pay for it. Nature takes away any faculty that is not used. She is taking away our natural defenses, and has probably added nothing, since the beginning of the historical period, to our mental powers. The power of grappling with difficulties, and finding our way out of labyrinths, will soon be lost if we no longer need it. And after any derangement of our social order we might come to need it very badly. Besides, we can look with satisfaction at the completed product of civilization, a creature unable to masticate, or write, or to walk, a mere parasite on the machines that enable him to live? Many would prefer to be savages if they could have the magnificent physique of the Zulus or some South Sea Islanders.

There is a general slackness and dislike of unnecessary exertion among our younger people. It affects their religion, which they like to have given them, like everything else, in tabloid form, and without any irksome demands upon their energies. This is certainly not the way of the Cross, and it compares badly with Michael Angelo’s words: “Nothing makes the soul so pure, so religious, as the endeavor to create something perfect; for God is perfection, and whoever strives for perfection strives for something that is godlike”; or with Newton’s “Genius is patience”.

But I refrain; for I hear my young friends saying to me: “My venerable sir, when I am your age I shall talk just like that, and I suppose I shall find somebody to print it.”

2006-10-16T05:50:00.000-07:00

Wanted to share this one......liked the idea of Mirabai drawn & painted in such fashion and would experiment with such style for other things also.

Mom that was u two decades before!!

2006-10-16T05:49:00.000-07:00

Imagine a day when my child sitting in front of laptop shouting......mom, i caught u as u were two decades before on the net! u were so sexy!!....ofcourse he must have been able to trace back my bolg which as teenager i had written with great enthusiasm....hmmm can this happen? I mean will "they" store all such trivial info, pages, blogs for all so many years? I just fail to understand and would like to know whether my daughter will be able to view my profile when she enters her teens? And if yes, shouldn't I be more careful of what i am going to write.....especially if it's about her dad!

Its only words....

2006-10-16T05:45:00.000-07:00

So its done ultimately.....after being introduced to this wonderful world of bolgging community more than 2 years before (by one of the best colleuges Tulika).....i have finally created my own space in this exciting world. And what's the source of this sudden motivation?....nothing but the age old dream ....i can't disclose that here ..but yes Kiran Desai's victory in grabbing that Booker is truly inspiring me more....so here i take off...with words.....and more words......because that's what all i have