Mandatory voting bill

Gujarat being the first state in India where voting will become mandatory to all the registered voters of the state with the bill (Declaring voting compulsory) getting approved by the state assembly. Registered voters in Gujarat who are absent will be summoned by the local election officer to submit a valid reason for being absent with proof within a month, absentisum without a valid reason will result in voter being declared as defaulter.

This is a good initiative from the state government to strengthen the democratic process by brining all the registered voters to election booth. State government also plans to forward the same bill to the central government so that the same status quo can be implemented on a national level.

The reason for making voting mandatory might be many. There is a low the turnout of voters to discharge their duty in most of the election, because of which the true spirit of the will of the people is not reflected in the electoral mandate. It is mandatory public holiday whenever there is an election, but people hardly exercise there option; instead they sit at home and enjoy the holiday. Government spends a huge amount of money in conducting the election process and low turnaround of people result in higher expenditure of acquiring each vote.

People on the other side have there own reasons for not casting a vote. They feel that nothing is going to change by there vote and they can’t bring a change in the system. But imagine if there is 100% turnaround of people then the real picture of election process will emerge and the winning candidate will have a clear mandate from the people, fake voting will be a passé, expenditure per vote made by government will come down and a clear mandate from the people will help in forming a stable government at each level.

image source: scientificamerican.com

“Option” left me with no option.

Day Thursday 24th Dec-09, Market made a V shaped recovery in the second half, I saw nifty trading somewhere around 5150 and my sixth sense said that “it is overvalued” and it should see some corrections. Though I was very skeptical about taking a short position in nifty and was totally clueless about how and what to judge in the market.

I decided to use one more instrument of trading i.e. options “call and put” for the first time, as there was a long week end ahead and only three trading days left for the year closing and contract closure of December, I though that nifty will see some correction in those three trading days.

But as usual; the fate of my financial transaction; the instrument that I sell appreciates and the instrument I bought depreciates, I took a put of 5000 nifty December at certain premium and since then nifty has appreciated by almost 50 points and the premium for the put option has deprecated by 40%. Though this was my first transaction in the options and was purely based on speculation and what is called sixth sense “which seems dosen;t seems to be prudent in my financial decisions”; I was at minimum risk of losing the premium if nifty doesn’t approaches the opted price figure. Still 2 days to go I’m keeping my fingers crossed.


For those who want to understand the technical terms here is a brief description

Option

An option contract gives the buyer the right, but not the obligation to buy/sell an underlying asset at a pre-determined price on or before a specified time. The option buyer acquires a right, while the option seller takes on an obligation. It is the buyer’s prerogative to exercise the acquired right. If and when the right is exercised, the seller has to honour it. The underlying asset for option contracts may be stocks, indices, commodity futures, currency or interest rates

Types of options

Options can be classified as ‘call’ options and ‘put’ options. When you buy a ‘call’ option, on a stock, you acquire a right to buy the stock. And when you buy a ‘put’ option, you acquire a right to sell the stock. You can also sell a ‘call’ option, in which, you will acquire an obligation to deliver the stock. And when you sell a ‘put’ option, you acquire an obligation to buy the stock.

Option premium

Option premium is the consideration paid upfront by the option holder (buyer of the option) to the option writer (seller of the option). The option holder gets the right to buy / sell the underlying

Strike price or the exercise price of the option

The right or obligation to buy or sell the underlying asset is always at a pre-decided price known as the ‘strike price’ or ‘exercise price’, which is linked to the prevailing price of the underlying asset in the cash market.

Technical terms source: www.financialexpress.com
Image source: seekingalpha.com

We are not working today.

Have you ever been to bank on the last day of any quarter? You might have found that banks are not working to there fullest potential, clearance, withdrawal of big amounts and other processing either closed or very slow, The reason that is stated is “Quaterly Closing” and no transaction can be made.

I believe banking is a life time service and when i say life time it cannot be time bound. It has to be available 27X7X365 there should be limited holiday’s and offs, banks are as important as Emergency services. Probably this the bankers might have thought of and “ATM” might be an outcome of this.

Similarly for Share trading also there is a constraint of timings, the bourses trade between 9.55am to 3.30pm. But matters of fact, persons who are salaried/ businessman who knows/ understands the concept are not able to participate in the trading because they are engaged with his own assignments.

If the market is open 27X7X365 there might be a lot of participation from the retail investors. Working class people will be hooked to there terminals after reaching home and finishing off with there household chores, housewife’s can participate while watching there television soaps and what not can happen if there is an extension in timings. Foreign investment will increase as it will be easy for them to track the market at there timings.

Recently there was an announcement of extended timings but because the entire machinery of banking, clearance and clearing houses were not in sink with the extended timings the decision was rolled back. I feel that in this competitive world we need to work more and harder to increase the productivity. To progress and excel we need to multiply our efforts and commitments and we should come out of the “9 to 5” mentality.

That’s a well accepted fact that there will be an additional load on the entire machinery of banking, clearance clearing and broking houses but that is what they are meant for, they are getting a handsome commission from the transaction and its a service that they are offering and they cannot offer a “denial of services”.

No matter it’s a festival or any big event hospitals, emergency services are open 27X7X365 so why can’t India work in 27X7X365 mode. Services has to be at convenience of the customer and not at the convenience of the Service provider. Time demands that we should come of the barriers of timings and holidays and work beyond our limits and redefine our exisiting limits.

Image source: fahahm.wordpress.com

Story of Telangana

Telangana is in news with lot of agitation and political statement floating over the issue of a separate Telangana state. It was on Nov 29 that the five-decade-old problem heated up when Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) chief K. Chandrasekhara Rao was arrested by the police ahead of his fast unto death to achieve a Telangana state.

He continued his fast in jail and hospital for 11 days while Telangana was boiling with mass protests and violence. Rao’s deteriorating condition and the explosive situation in the region forced the centre to announce at midnight on Dec 9 that the process for forming a Telangana state would be initiated.

Mass resignations by legislators from coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema regions cutting across party lines to protest the centre’s move to bifurcate the state. Mass protests, shutdowns, hunger strikes, road and rail blockades began in 13 districts of the two regions from Dec 11 even as Telangana was celebrating Home Minister P. Chidambaram’s announcement.
Thirteen days of protests paralyzed normal life and the government was forced to alter the statement. On the evening of Dec 23, Chidambaram made the latest statement stressing the need to hold wide ranging consultations over the issue in view of the altered situation in the state
No sooner had Chidambaram finished his statement, protesters were on the streets in Hyderabad and the rest of Telangana - burning buses and government offices. Rising above political affiliations, MPs and legislators started submitting resignations. The 48-hour shutdown Thursday called by them has brought the focus back on the region even as protests ceased in coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema.

What I feel that one needs to have a clear plan to separate these two states, not just geographically but also administratively, to avoid chaos and implosion of administrative systems, which seems to be happening. The investors need confidence that the ongoing project commitments will be honored and an effective transitional arrangement will be made.

The question arises here is that what will be the Cental Goverment stand if every few cities come up with seperate state demand or rather few state demanding for a seperate country all together. This is a good example of "Divide and Rule" Strategy. We Indian should stand united above all cast, creed and religion and the only objective we should have is Progress. "Nation First" should be the thought process everyone should carry.

About Andhra Pradesh


Andhra Pradesh (AP) is the fifth largest State in the Indian Union having an area of 275,909 sq. kms and a population of about 75-80 million. AP is bound in the North by Orissa and Madhya Pradesh States, in the East by bay of Bengal with a 960 km long coast line, in the South by Tamilnadu State, and in the West by Karnataka and Maharashtra. AP forms a major link between the north and the south of India.


Andhra Pradesh consists of three distinct regions, namely, Andhra, Rayalaseema and Talangana. Andhra and Rayalaseema were part of Madras province of the British empire. For approximately 400 years, Telangana was part of Hyderabad State, an independent kingdom ruled by Muslim Qutub Shahi and Nizam dynasties. Thanks to the sacrifice of Sriramulu Potti, Andhra and Rayalaseema were separated from Madras State in 1953.

Andhra state (Andhra and Rayalaseema) was the first state that was formed purely on linguistic nationality, like many European states. Later Andhra merged with Telangana in 1956, based on their linguistic and national affinity, to form the present state of Andhra Pradesh, Hyderabad as the capital city. However, this has resulted in two major agitations: Jai Telangana in 1969 and Jai Andhra 1972, both for separate states.


Content Source:

vepachedu.org
sundayposts.blogspot.com
blog.taragana.com

Image source : topnews.in

Opportunities knocking.

Private sector was holding there investment until the conclusion of Copenhagen conference. As the future investment in clean technology was heavily dependent on the outcome of the 15th Conference of Parties (COP 15) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), private sector was anxious to hear the target world leaders would have committed to and the mitigation actions developing countries would have to take.

Prior to the conference major of the countries proposed plans and targets to further reduce their emissions; however, all of those plans were contingent on reaching an international agreement.

With no concrete conclusion deriving of the conference and many developing countries having an opinion that climate change is a moral issue, caused by developed countries and it should be solved at their cost, the counter argument was that developing countries are causing greater extend of damage to the climate due to faster industrialization and deforesting, so owners are with them.

Every one from the industrialist to governments might be relaxed as of now and relaxing on there chairs because if any concreate decision would have arrieved at Copenhagen conference then they could have been in trouble to comply with those commitments. But this is not the time to push back to our seats and relax, instead this is a time to make strategy, (What is strategy : Strategic is nothing but being different in the context one is operating).

This a opportunity knocking at the doorsteps for People/entrepreneurs who are interested in cleaner energy, people who are farsighted and can see the benefits of implementing a Cleaner energy project at this juncture, I Consider this as Value Investing and the investment made today will reap immense profit in the coming future.


Wind, not the sail determine the way we go…

Image source: farmersguardian.com

Value Investing

Value investing is all about spotting the areas/ players which can yield better results in the near future but as of now today those areas/ players are low valued. Based on the same priniciples I found Wind energy segment worth focusing.

Looking at the commitment we as a country have in terms of reducing the carbon emission, Wind power project are turning to be a lucrative investment avenues and to add more government is announcing more perks in terms of tax holidays, commitment of purchasing power generated and flexible tariff. (Refer Govt to give incentive to wind power producers.)

Fossil fuels are the source for 70% of 90,000 MW installed capacity for electricity generation, Hydro-electricity contributes about 25%, and the remaining is mostly from nuclear power plants (NPPs).

Current stocks of Fossil fuels in India are not sufficient enough to suffice our needs of power (about 70% oil is imported), with currency getting dearer and government imposing emission norms (It is accepted that Indian power plants are highly polluting Refer CO2 emission by Indian power plants increases) the cost of per unit of power generated through fossil fuel will be compatible with non-conventional energy.

So I believe this is the right time to do a Value Investing and initiate a Power project that is eco friendly having early breakeven and having subsidiary projects of livestock farming, organic farming and carbon credit trading.

Image source: http://www.cedarcapital.ie/

Incentives to wind power project

In my previous article “Copenhagen before and after” I have mentioned the perks Government will be taking in the immediate future to promote non conventional energy.

Today only I came across news in business standard stating that

Government will give 50 Paisa as incentive for a unit of electricity generated by wind power producers for 4-10 years, this sop will be given under the government's generation-based incentive (GBI) for grid interactive wind power project.As per the GBI scheme, incentive will be provided to wind power producers at 50 paise per unit of electricity fed into the grid for a period not less than four years and the maximum of 10 years.

In India the installed capacity of wind energy project is approximately 10000 MW and India is ranked 5th in terms of installed wind power capacity. There is still huge potential and far away from exhausted. According to Indian Wind Energy Association The unexploited resource availability has the potential to sustain the growth of wind energy sector in India in the years to come. During the financial Year 2008-2009 around 1465 MW has been added to the total Indian wind power. (Figures are rounded off)

India has a lot to do in terms of projecting the growth of non conventional energy and allowing entrepreneurs to set up wind power projects. On the other hand our neighbor, China has more than tripled its target for wind power capacity to 100 giga watts by 2020, likely making it the world's fastest growing market for wind energy technology.

The other problem entrepreneurs like me feel is about financing of the projects. I have a project report ready with me for a power project (non conventional) but not able to find a venture capitalist to fund the project. Any power project requires high power (money power) as an input to yield real power (electricity) & Profits. After the slowdown not a single VC’s have ventured in this sort of project because of the obvious reason “high investment”.

But I’m sure that I will be able to find a VC for my project as government is already working with lot of sops in terms of tax holiday’s, lower interest rate loans and fixing the tariff. These initiatives will open new avenues to VC’S and dreamer like me

Wind, not the sails determine the way we go..."