2010 Agenda.

This year I believe that as a country we have certain agenda’s which we need to address so that we can grow as individual and as a nation. Country first, growth and golden future for all the Indians should be our agenda for the years to come; Growth should be spreading equally across all the social-economical level and should be visible. The issues that are hampering our growth as a nation and as an individual, there are some issues which are prevailing from last many years and some are the new entrants.

1. Terrorism: Terrorism has been a set back factor for so many years and not resolved till date there must be some way out to solve the issue, I don’t know but probably it can be solved through dialogues and an amicable solution can be derived.
   
2. Employment: After the downturn major of the working professional suffered an economic set back in terms of increments, package and growth and some of them even lost there jobs. The professionals who lost there job are still not able to grab a good job till date. It’s time to create new employment opportunities for the people especially for the people in unorganized sectors for which no one have a clear picture of the level of un-employment.
   
3. Poverty: “A country is poor because it is poor” Vicious circle. We as a country should work for eradicating the poverty by promoting entrepreneurship, creating ample employment opportunities, improving public distribution system etc. Given a statistics of some percentage of India not having even one full course meal, how can we take this country to the next level?
   
4. Inflation: We all Indians has never felt the heat of inflation as badly as we are facing now a days and on top of it we already have un-employment and poverty as major issue. If the children (who are our future) are not having a nutritious diet then the future is at stake.
   
5. Student’s safety: We treat our tourist with respect because we believe that “athithi devo bhavo” a guest is like a god. But our students and citizens are getting a step brother treatment in other nations. The people there are for study or business and directly/ indirectly adding to India’s bottom line growth. Assault/ ill- treatment to Indians outside, is Assault to India and is an national issue and need to be addressed immediately.
   
6. Go Green: We as a country have grown a lot and still we have inspirations for growth and industrial revolution. We all did this at a cost of something, and that something is nothing but the nature. We need to preserve the environment for the generations and should adopt and promote all the ways and means to “Go Green”.
   
7. Exam fever: Exam fever is taking a toll on students, not able to digest there failure or bear the pressure of exams, suicides are common among the students. There should be some way out to encourage students; counseling by parents, teachers and children welfare organization can help to ease out the examination pressure.
   
8. Deep penetration: Schemes meant for upliftment for poor, needy and targeted audience doesn’t reach to them but the middlemen get benefited, some methodology should be devised, so that the needy should be benefited and should reach/ availed by the targeted audience.
   
9. Natural Calamities: India being agriculture based economy; our attitude and seriousness towards agriculture is a concern, we all have an understanding that excess or deficit of water is devastating but the actions we have taken to address this issue are not sufficient enough.
   
10. Sex ratio: According to the Census of India, 2001, the sex ratio of India stands at 933 which is an marginal improvement from the 1991 Census (927 females for every 1000 males) “Woman Empowerment” should be an important agenda in development efforts

image source: 2010calendar.org

Now, See the wind!

In conventional wind turbine wind forces the blades to spin which in turn spins the generator as a result of which electricity is product. Though the mechanism seems to be very simple but it is not that easy. To commission a Wind generators the location need to have powerful winds almost through out the year and If they are not properly angled towards the more howling of these gales, they can be damaged or destroyed. Tweaking and adjusting turbines so that their blades can harness the strongest air currents rather than be harmed by them is a normal part of turbine management

Now there is an development in early detecting the wind speed. The basic technology, called lidar (short for light detection and ranging) has been around since the 1970s. It is similar to radar in that it sends out electromagnetic waves and then analyses those waves that bounce back, to determine what they bounced off. The difference is that radar depends on radio waves. These have long wavelengths and therefore bounce only off large things.

Lidar uses light waves. Light has a much shorter wavelength and is readily reflected from small objects—one reason that human vision relies on it. Crucially, the light waves used in wind lidar are reflected by tiny, naturally occurring particles like water droplets, dust, pollen and salt crystals that drift along at the precise speed of the wind

Experimentally lidar is being used to scan incoming wind and determine how it was behaving before it struck the turbine by Dr Mikkelsen and his colleagues. The lidars scanned the approaching winds with a laser that produced infra-red light with a wavelength of 1.55 microns. Reflected light was detected by a device so sensitive that it could pick up one returning photon (the quantum-mechanical particles of which light is composed) out of every thousand billion fired by the laser. The computer which analyses the lidar data can be connected to the motors that adjust the pitch of the turbine blades, in order to maximize energy production and reduce damage

The concept is under test stage and not sure whether it is commerically available.

Information source: economist.com
Image source: codeproject.com

Rethink, Redesign, Rebuild

After reversing a 4 day losing streak, European stocks may once again edge lower on Wednesday, sparked by China fears and weakness in Asia.

American market were trading red after new guidelines being issued to the banking and financial institutes. Hong Kong was all trading in red from last 4-5 trading session, Japan was trading in negative territory following the global clues and news of JAL filing for bankruptcy pulled down the sentiments. Indian markets were also not an exception with the indexes falling nearly 6% from 20th January.

Big news to the global economy is that the top business leaders and politicians from around the world are coming to the Swiss mountain resort Davos for a five-day forum (World Economic Forum) , which kicks starts off from today.

The official theme of this year's Davos is "Rethink, Redesign, Rebuild". Debate on how best to reform the global financial system is set to be the dominating agenda in the event - the 40th of its kind. Bankers and regulators are expected to clash on where to draw the line when it comes to financial reform.

Most Asian stocks traded in the red near two-month lows on Wednesday, hurt by lower commodity prices and lackluster cues from Wall Street overnight amid concerns about the pace of economic recovery. Investors looked forward to the conclusion of a two-day policy meeting by the U.S Federal Reserve, for clues on the health of the world's largest economy.

On Wall Street, stocks declined by modest margins on Tuesday, unable to hold onto their earlier gains despite some positive news on consumer confidence. The day's optimism was overshadowed by concerns regarding prospective policies to be presented by President Barack Obama in his State of the Union address on Wednesday


Information source: rttnews.com

Growth Concerns

China GDP grew by 10.7% year on year in the fourth quarter. Industrial production registered a jump of 18.5% in the year to December, while retail sales registered the growith of 17.5% and the rise in retail sales last year was the biggest for over two decades.

Economists are now worrying that the Chinese economy is overheating and inflation is taking off , the 12-month rate of consumer-price inflation rose to 1.9% in December. The recent rise in inflation was caused mainly by higher food prices as a result of severe winter weather in northern China. In many cities, fresh-vegetable prices have more than doubled in the past two months. Analyst suggest that it is not just food prices that risk pushing up inflation: the economy is starting to exceed its speed limit.

If the economy growes, then the extraordinarily rapid growth in money and credit over the past year could quickly spill into inflation. The growth in bank credit slowed to 32% in the year to December, but that is still far too fast. The central bank has started to drain liquidity by lifting banks’ reserve requirements, and some banks have been told to reduce their lending. The bank will probably not raise official interest rates until inflation breaches 3%, but that could be as soon as February.

Information source: economist.com

Sugar and milk conspire to make my tea dearer!

Few months back no one has ever thought of, that sugar will be touching 45-50 Rupees/ kg. But what was never though, happened and to our surprise costing of one kilogram of sugar today is equal to half a kilogram of sweets a few days ago.

The reason for steep increase in price is due to high demand and low supply, There is low supply of sugarcane because of the bad monsoon. After we tasted the costliest sugar of our life (hope that it does not cross this level in my life at least) we are going to face the heat of rising milk prices especially in north India. There is a sudden deficit between the demand and supply as a result of which prices are supposed to be heading north.

To abridge the gap between demand and supply there is a probability of price rise; also milk from other parts of India will be routed to north India market as a result of which there can be short supply of milk in the remaining country. And as we all understand a little bit of economy and demand supply rule “Short supply result to price increase”

Image source: blogs.phillyburbs.com

What is humanity

Every Religion talks about humanity, helping out poor and needy।
Instinct of all religion remains same but people have lot of disparity।

Religion says to serve him, serve human beings/His people।
Mad rush for serving him, ignoring human being/his people.


चलो आज हम इक और शीश महल बनायेंगे, जाने कितने ही लोग आज आसमान के निचे सो जायेंगे
चलो आज हम शीश महल में भोज मनेयेंगे, जाने कितने ही बच्चे आज भूखे सो जायेंगे
चलो आज हम शीश महल को वस्त्रो से सजायेंगे, जाने कितने अध्- नंगे और नंगे हो जाएँगे
चलो आज हम पैसा देकर अपने पाप मिटेंगे, जाने कितने लोगो के घर लूट ले आयेंगे
चलो आज हम एक और शीश महल बनायेंगे

Are subsidiary helpful?

Economic policies in India are govern by the myths and prejudices and are not helpful/ favorable to the common man. Government has taken various steps to support the poorer people and announced many incentives but whether this support system and incentive reach to the target people, is a debatable question and needs to be quantified.

Government has increased the Minimum Support Price (MSP’S) for the food grains but this incentive is good for powerful and minority of farmers who have a sizable marketable surplus and have access to government program but majority of farmers are poor marginal farmers and are hurt by higher food prices, because they are the net buyers of food grains. There are millions of landless laborers who are the net buyers of food grains, are directly affected by higher food prices. With inflation figures with a historic high, higher food grain prices are badly affecting each and every common man of the country.

Government has provided subsidiaries on food, fuel and electricity to help the poorer class and to the people living below poverty level. But these subsidiaries help only few people in few states where there is a strong public distribution system. Majority of the India’s poor do not have access to the public distribution system and are deprived from the subsidized food and power. Subsidy on electricity is utilized by handful of farmers who are rich and have electricity driven equipments for farming, but major of the farmers neither have tube wells nor power connections at there homes, so cheap electricity does not make any meaning to them.

image souce: mrm.org

Addressing core problem

With Indian railways leaving no stone unturned to facilitate its customer in booking railway ticket the million dollar question remains unanswered. Are there sufficient allocations available to book.

There were days when railway reservation was all manual and every booking counter was having a specific quota to book, but with the advent of computerized booking the quota got abolished, booking process became more transparent and making reservation became few clicks job thanks to online reservation facility. The next revolution in reservation is sought to be happening from cell phone, mobile vans and retail outlets which will be authorized to Book the railway ticket.

Latest buzz in the same league is The “Mushkil Aassan” mobile van which has been introduced with the idea of taking the issuance of computerized tickets both reserved and un-reserved to the grass roots. It will work from 10.30 am to 4.30 pm from Monday to Saturday at different locations every day, while Sunday will be utilized for its maintenance. The cost of the ticket will be the same as that of tickets purchased from the usual Passenger Reservation System counters.

All steps whether online reservation, retail ticket selling, mobile reservation or “Mushkil Aassan” are taken to give the customer an ease for getting reservation but the core Problem remains unattended that “Are there enough seats available for booking ?” There is always a low availability of accommodation (seat reservation) to tackle this there are selected numbers of trains available to ferry between any of the prominent cities causing a long waiting for reservation throughout the year.

The basic observation I had is all those cities who have air connectivity between them are important cities in some or other context (Airlines companies always operate on profitable route) and getting railway reservation between such cities is always a luck affair, One has to content himself with Waiting list or Reservation against cancellation tickets provided he is lucky enough to get even those confirmations.

The Core problem of railway passenger is to get confirm reservation and not in applying for reservation, Until and unless we work for solving the core problem the facilitation is a mere showoff.

Image source: www.paklinks.com

Gold Loan

Loan on phone, loan on any immovable, movable belongings is a passé the new buzz word is loan on gold.

“Indians are having a passion for gold” and this is obvious from the figures stating that India is one of the largest consumers of gold in the world. Our purchase or passion for gold is not because we consider gold as a safe investment, contrary our major gold purchase is in the form of jewellery and that’s the reason that 90 percent of the gold in India lies with individuals and not with the banks.

Even after purchasing so much of gold in the form of jewellery only 10 percent of it is worn on a regular basis. The rest of it idle, locked up in safes. Companies have spotted the potential and are offerings loans on the gold deposits. Pledging gold is similar to pledging your shares with the bankers and availing a loan on that. But in case if prices of shares pledged goes down, one need to submit additional security for the outstanding loan.

Arguments apart there are no reason of gold price falling drastically in the near future unlike in equity market when nobody imagined the downturn. Still there are equal number of analyst who see a price tag of 2000$ an ounce with equal number supporting a price tag of 800$ an ounce. Read why

With gold price breaking all time high records, there is sudden spurt in the commercials on television and Radio by the companies who are into the business of lending money on gold deposited, as they wanted to mobilize the concept of Gold loan and capitalize on the rising gold price.

This is lucrative business because the default rate is much lower for gold loans as Indians do not want to risk losing their family jewelry. And unlike traditional personal loans, no credit checks are needed for gold loans as a result of which the benefits customer derives is faster processing and lower interest rates. Whatever might be the benefit, but I believe that gold can be pledged for a short term loan or smart decision.

image source: woodlawnpost.ning.com

Carbon price predictions

European Union carbon emissions futures rose on Monday, as a cold weather snap across Europe continued, if the cold weather lasts into next week and energy demand remains high, prices could break a key resistance level of 13.55 euros.

Market analyst, Point Carbon has published a report predicting that Europe’s Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS) is likely to raise the price of carbon in the EU from around €15 per tonne today to €30 in 2013 and €40 by 2016. If we go with the predictions and wish they come true, will bring a pressure globally to reduce the carbon emission and will create awareness among the people and manufacturers as to what products and services use more carbon and what are the substitutes available. High carbon price will give more incentive to the inventors and innovators to develop and introduce low carbon products.

What is carbon credit: Carbon credits create a market for reducing greenhouse emissions by giving a monetary value to the cost of polluting the air. Emissions become an internal cost of doing business and are visible on the balance sheet alongside raw materials and other liabilities or assets. Carbon credits are a key component of national and international attempts to mitigate the growth in concentrations of greenhouse gases with One Carbon Credit is equal to one ton of Carbon Dioxide or in some markets Carbon Dioxide equivalent gases.

There are also many companies that sell carbon credits to commercial and individual customers who are interested in lowering their carbon footprint on a voluntary basis. There are two distinct types of Carbon Credits: Carbon Offset Credits (COC's) and Carbon Reduction Credits (CRC's). Carbon Offset Credits consist of clean forms of energy production, wind, solar, hydro and biofuels. Carbon Reduction Credits consists of the collection and storage of Carbon from our atmosphere through biosequestration (reforestation, forestation), ocean and soil collection and storage efforts. Both approaches are recognized as effective ways to reduce the Global Carbon Emissions.

Information Sources: reuters.com
Knowledge Source: Wikipedia.org

Image source: philsbackupsite.wordpress.com

Death of humanity.

An incident that shook my heart & soul and I couldn’t sleep the entire night, thinking about the incident that I watched on television as I felt like humanity dying in front of me. An on duty policeman in his uniform lying in pool of blood, struggling for life and begging for help, but didn’t got any help from the spectators. Among many spectators there were even ministers of tamilnadu state. The two ministers were traveling in a convoy when they saw the injured and bleeding policeman crying out for help. The convoy did stop but failed to provide any real assistance until it was just too late.

People were watching, but none of them came forward to help him, to offer a helping hand, console him and by the time they reacted it was too late and the policeman died. I was forced to think that whether the people watching the whole incident were human or someone else? Has humanity died out? Why didn’t people help the policeman who was bleeding profusely and struggling for life? Or the people were fools to understand that over bleeding can cause loss of life?

I don’t know whom should we blame, but it’s true that everybody present over there are responsible for his death and they all are the culprit. Ministers present over there (so called public representative) are at greater fault, they have everything at there disposal (by the virtue of there power) and they could have easily arranged for a medical assistance for the bleeding policeman; which in fact they could have done if someone of them or there near ones might have gone through the same tragedy.

There is nationwide debate going on, on the creditability and the attitude of those ministers and people present at the incident, but again this will be discussed for few days, people will forget within few days and we will see humanity dying in front of us, everywhere and anywhere (as in most of the cases it happen)

But I think that its time for people to unite together and surface a voice for such in-human act. I have deliberately not posted any images with this article as the images are disturbing and not even suitable for brave hearts like me


More coverage can be seen at
http://www.ndtv.com/news/india/cop_begged_for_help_but_no_one_cared.php

Discussion comments
http://www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/new/forums/readforum.aspx?trdid=2999

Image source: NDTV.COM

Clueless…

The week (4th Jan-2010 to 8th –Jan-2010) Indian stock market were steady as there were no clear clues, no events to watch and no new happenings. The indexes are having strong support of certain levels and strong resistance at the other. Global clues in between were also not very clear.

With rupee appreciating from last 4 consecutive days there is a pressure on technology stocks and most of the technology stocks are trading in red though the rupee's weakned, after touching a 15-month high on the previous day. Auto stocks are having a rally might be because of auto expo in Delhi wherein they have showcased new products and plans for year 2010. The Y-O-Y sales of all the auto major have registered a jump of at least 40% this bringing more cheer and rally to auto stocks. Metal stocks were also not impressive throughout the week; the early days gains have been lost in last 2-3 trading session. Real estate is showing a spurt with the stocks gaining 3-4%.

image source: pamelapomelo.wordpress.com

Extended trading time

Year 2010 started with a cheer to the investor and people, having interest in stock market with news of extended trading timings of the bourses. “4th January” “First trading session” “After a long week end” started at 9.00 am, though the volume/ turnover was approximately the same to that of the previous trading day but still traders/ investors were having the zeal to book there orders from 9.00 am.

Extend Trading timing will allow more number of investors to participate in the market. People who are salaried/ businessmen who know/ understand the concept and are not able to participate because they are engaged with there own assignments during the market timings. There might be a lot of participation from the retail investors. Apart from increased participation our markets will be more aligned with the global markets and the global sentiments will help in fair valuation of the companies

People in Gujarat are starting there day a bit early. Morning walkers, Jim- club members are not finding there partners, (if there partner is invloved in the market) as there partners are finishing off there routine a bit early. It seems that life is moving in a top gear and speed.

Image source: istockphoto.com

CSR

Businesses do have there impact of their activities on the environment, consumers, employees, communities, stakeholders and all other members of the public sphere. That’s the reason that CSR is the deliberate inclusion of public interest into corporate decision-making, and the honoring of a triple bottom line: i.e. People, Planet and Profit.

Practicing CSR has been always a debatable agenda. Supporters of CSR argue that there is a strong business case for CSR. Critics argue that CSR distracts from the fundamental economic role of businesses; some argue that it is nothing more than superficial window-dressing; others yet argue that it is an attempt to pre-empt the role of governments as a watchdog over powerful multinational corporations. Corporate Social Responsibility has been redefined throughout the years.

Companies across the globe are taking initiative in accepting there “social responsibilities” and spending heavily on Healthcare, Environment, Social rehabilitation and rural up-liftment, Learning and education and Art and culture. Companies have formed foundation with deep pockets working on different agendas and leaving no stone unturned to serve the community. But I found some missing link in the entire approach because of which the objective of companies in terms of CSR will not fulfilled.

Companies are doing there best but they are not able to promote this concept among its own employee. There have been several cases of Child abuse, child labor registered with employees working in top IT companies in India and the astonishing part is that those companies boast on highest CSR and are spending heavily on the same.

Recently there were news of professional (From top IT Companies) employing child labour at there home for household chores and ill treating them, not giving enough food, clothing and beating them every now and then. I can’t think, the level of punishment such people should have but the fact is there is only noise from the companies of serving the community and there employees making a mockery of there commitments.

image source: ebbf.org

How fast is fast?

I’m getting into a complex the way china is reveling its cards whether it’s the GDP figures, non conventional energy forecast, reduction in carbon emission or gold reserves, and my complex was at peak with the latest buzz of “World fastest train” running in China. The train ferry between Wuhan in central China and Guangzhou in the country’s south which is approximately 1,068 kms at the average speed of 350 km/hour. This distance will be covered by the high-speed train in two hours forty five minutes. I can’t digest these figures and forced me to think that “Mere Desh ka number kab ayega” when my country will have such trains.

If we take into consideration the Indian Railways figures, the figures are impressive but the speed and availability of accommodation is disappointing. Indian Railways has one of the largest and busiest rail networks in the world, transporting over 18 million passengers and more than 2 million tones of freight daily. It is one of the world's largest commercial or utility employers, with more than 1.4 million employees. The railways traverse the length and breadth of the country, covering 6,909 stations over a total route length of more than 63,327 kilometers.

Having said this there is low availability of accommodation (seat reservation) and average speed of trains are not more than 50 km/ hour. There are selected numbers of trains available to ferry between any of the prominent cities causing a long waiting for reservation throughout the year. A reason for Low number of passenger trains might be because Indian railways earn more revenue from freight as compared to passenger’s earnings. According to a statistics 65 paise out of every rupee earned comes from freight earnings, Passenger earnings accounted for 26 paise while other coaching earnings, sundry earnings and miscellaneous receipts gave three paise each.

This made me think that why can’t the two things club together, passenger and freight coaches, this will increase the frequency of number of passenger trains available between cities and will also speed up the freight movement and will save a lot of time (remember time is money). Additionally it will put the resources (infrastructure) to an optimum use by making use of it throughout the day. Increasing number of frequency will also boost the revenue of passenger and freight.

The fastest train in India (Shatabdi express) was announced approximately 11 years ago and since then there is no announcement of any new train which is at a better speed than this. Does it take so many years to Increase in terms of speed and infrastructure?

But I know these are thoughts and it doesn’t cost me to think and suggest, on the other side officials might have thought of this a long back but there might be some practical and technical problems because of which they have not implemented this system.

Statistical figures of earning: livemint.com
Network strength: wikipedia.org
Image source: gerryriskin.com