The present is very happening. There are so many things happening around us, that one is overwhelmed, add to that, the momentum and quantum of such happenings are increasing day by day. It all started way back in the mid of 2007 when Rupee was going too strong versus US dollar and the export industries started panicking. Before long, the repercussions of that were being felt in IT sector also. Cutting down on freebies, demanding more hours per week, these were some of the steps taken by most of the companies. I do not believe in "luck" but hoping that my readers do believe in that, I would say that I was very lucky to be placed where I was and where I am now. While most of my peers were burning extra oil to help their employers save profit margins, I was just continuing as it was without much pressure. I was continuing with the workload, focusing more on Sensex; not only because of its good and quick returns but also because of my burgeoning interest in finance and stock market.
The strengthening of rupee did not worry me much apart from the fact that it was eating up on my IT equities. Very soon, came down the US housing market. At first it was interesting to see financial giants acknowledging their mistakes and at the same time reading articles about de-coupling of Indian market. But that was a naive theory; that was an Ostrich Syndrome - burying its head under sand and feeling safe. As the saying goes "When US sneezed, the world caught cold", that's truer than never before. With the unraveling of the US housing fiasco, the market in India caught not cold but pneumonia.
The concurrent event was the rise in oil price. I clearly remember the discussions with my friend, when the price of crude crossed the all time high and touched $80 a barrel mark. I was a bit more concerned than him as I thought that would result in higher price in petrol, for my bike, which happened quite late but for greater good. But that was just the beginning of crude oil price rise. Soon, it scaled higher marks and it's still doing so. Today the numbers are playing around 143 marks, and it's expected to raise more, probably $200 a barrel by this year end.
All these resulted in higher and higher inflation and lower and lower Sensex. First, all these factors accumulated against our economy and resulted in an inflation figure which is highest in past 13 years; 11.4% for the first week of June '08 . And yes, no body wants high inflation figures, and that too when the growth is less than that. Everything is costlier; starting from your daily usage commodities to sparsely used stuff like Air-travel, everything under the sun is costlier. Second, the Sensex got beaten up very badly; most of the FII's pulling out their money from Indian market, and this is giving nightmares to investors. Everyday a change of 2-3% on downside is expected and the expected happens too. The situation is definitely not very uplifting.
Last week, I got the appraisal letter of the year and all these factors were zooming past my mind as I opened the appraisal letter. The figures in that letter was also not at all satisfactory but at the same time not unexpected too. Despite being lesser than the current inflation figure, the consolation for me was that it was a two digit number. When I consider the current inflation rate and my hike percentage, I found my salary depreciating but when country's GDP growth for the fiscal year 2007-08, which is less than 9%, is considered, I can boast that my salary hike is more than average (pun intended). On a serious note, the only thing I can show and expect, from all those guys like me pondering about their future, is optimism. India has a long way to go and things are going to change for good, hopefully soon. A note to my readers, first to those who always wanted to enter stock market but never made it, the time to enter a bright future market is coming soon; and second to those who are happy to stay away from market, this is time to take control of your future and make it more resilient, keep yourself prepared!
Monday, June 30, 2008
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Go Hybrid Go Green
Last week Honda launched the hybrid version of its popular car model Civic. It's priced at around 21.5 lakh. Unless you are an avid climate watcher and have lakhs of surplus money to spill out for this little monster, it hardly makes any sense for you to get this car, when you can get the standard version in less than 12 lakh. Why such a substantial difference in price? That's because of 104% tax which our government levies for any imported items like luxury cars or watches. Because Honda doesn't has any manufacturing unit to produce hybrids here in India, it has to import the completely built units(CBU's) from Japan. I believe that, our government should look again into the taxation policy, specifically for hybrid cars and its ilk.
There should be minimal taxation and more promotion for an eco-friendly option like hybrid automobiles. Currently, India is annually producing 2 million units of automobiles and considering good economic growth in coming years, it can be predicted that the rise in usage of passenger car is going to be quite spiky. It makes a very good sense to promote automobiles which are powered by non-conventional energy or are hybrid. This will be not only a step towards oil-independence but also help reduce the emissions and hope for a better environment for the future generations. It's is a known fact that India's R&D is quite lagging in this kind of field and needs to put in more money; and definitely it's is going to take some time to build a good knowhow. At the same time, India should be promoting greener options like hybrid cars, non-conventional energy technologies etc. Last year government took a very wise and good decision in this line, there was a proposal to subsidise CFL's (Compact Fluorescent Lamp) and make it available in market at a price range of Rs 10-12. The main idea behind this proposal is to replace conventional lamps, which consumes more energy and has bigger carbon footprints, by CFL and currently the plan to roll this put is being chalked out. The amount of energy saved by these CFL's and the benefits from Carbon trading would take care of the subsidised money, which comes from exchequer. Now, the government should look beyond CFL's and carry forward the same zeal in every other possible scenario. Keeping full throttle on non-conventional fuel R&D, government should also provide incentives to those who opt for greener option. Say lesser insurance premium charges for hybrid vehicles insurance, or probably good tax benefits for opting for green. People respond better when they have some fair amount of positive incentives associated with the change. Hence, good incentives will drive people to these newer technologies and which will help uproot the market of conventionals, by cutting down the demand. These type of measures will definitely pull more crowd and hence less carbon emission.
Going for non-conventionals is imperative, if we don't act now oil-cartel will keep on kicking global economy under the belt, even in future. Moreover we won't be providing any healthy environment to our future generations, which is more important and which is more shameful.
There should be minimal taxation and more promotion for an eco-friendly option like hybrid automobiles. Currently, India is annually producing 2 million units of automobiles and considering good economic growth in coming years, it can be predicted that the rise in usage of passenger car is going to be quite spiky. It makes a very good sense to promote automobiles which are powered by non-conventional energy or are hybrid. This will be not only a step towards oil-independence but also help reduce the emissions and hope for a better environment for the future generations. It's is a known fact that India's R&D is quite lagging in this kind of field and needs to put in more money; and definitely it's is going to take some time to build a good knowhow. At the same time, India should be promoting greener options like hybrid cars, non-conventional energy technologies etc. Last year government took a very wise and good decision in this line, there was a proposal to subsidise CFL's (Compact Fluorescent Lamp) and make it available in market at a price range of Rs 10-12. The main idea behind this proposal is to replace conventional lamps, which consumes more energy and has bigger carbon footprints, by CFL and currently the plan to roll this put is being chalked out. The amount of energy saved by these CFL's and the benefits from Carbon trading would take care of the subsidised money, which comes from exchequer. Now, the government should look beyond CFL's and carry forward the same zeal in every other possible scenario. Keeping full throttle on non-conventional fuel R&D, government should also provide incentives to those who opt for greener option. Say lesser insurance premium charges for hybrid vehicles insurance, or probably good tax benefits for opting for green. People respond better when they have some fair amount of positive incentives associated with the change. Hence, good incentives will drive people to these newer technologies and which will help uproot the market of conventionals, by cutting down the demand. These type of measures will definitely pull more crowd and hence less carbon emission.
Going for non-conventionals is imperative, if we don't act now oil-cartel will keep on kicking global economy under the belt, even in future. Moreover we won't be providing any healthy environment to our future generations, which is more important and which is more shameful.
Monday, June 16, 2008
Generally Speaking
Hollywood action flicks are really something. Be it Neo from Matrix or John from Rambo; they are unique in their own aspects and are incredibly potent to knock-out viewers off the couch. But sometimes the action scenes are so much exaggerated that Hollywood directors seems to forget that every action movie is not Matrix. If you are making a movie, whose character's actions are bound by the law (probably expectation) of "generality", unlike the Matix Trilogy, in which Neo is capable of performing anything under the sun. Law of generality is stated as: "Every action which can be conceived in a general sequence under general circumstances is expected to remain general". Sounds Confusing? don't blame yourself. Well, what I want to say is that, action scenes should be more inclined to reality, but sometimes that doesn't happens and we even do not notice due to lack of knowledge. The following might help you to grasp this law further.
If you happen to be an avid Hollywood action flick lover, then chances are high that not before long you have watched Die-Hard 5, Oceans Twelve, Entrapment; and probably you have liked the action sequences too. Each of the three movies have something which is exaggerated and situations over-exploited by directors, but at the same time you must have enjoyed a lot, not your fault. Let's take them one by one:
1. Die-Hard 5: It has a sequence in which our oldie Hunk Bruce Willis, crawls through the air-duct of Air-Conditioning system. Well generally, air ducts are not that large enough to accommodate a full grown man, it's the insulation around the duct which makes it look large.
2. Ocean's Twelve: we see George Clooney, another oldie hunk, maneuvering in the lift shaft. Generally, lift shafts are made for accommodating lifts only and it will not have any surplus of holdings which can help a man maneuver through the shaft. So one would really need a pair of spidey gloves to do so.
3. Entrapment: It has Mrs. Zoro, hottie Zeta Jones, bending and arching through an array of laser beams. Nothing wrong in doing so, in fact that scene was a beauty. The point is, if you use fog or smoke to locate the beams then you actually raise the alarm (otherwise why on earth would anyone install such a system to guard one's treasure).
And am sure that these action scenes are not new contraptions in movies. We must have seen 'n' number of such movies and every time applauded the shrinkability, dexterity, ingenuity and agility of our hunks and hotties. Next time you see such a cliched action movie sequence, don't forget to roll your eyes; not just because of it being morbidly cliched but also because it fails the Law of "generality".
If you happen to be an avid Hollywood action flick lover, then chances are high that not before long you have watched Die-Hard 5, Oceans Twelve, Entrapment; and probably you have liked the action sequences too. Each of the three movies have something which is exaggerated and situations over-exploited by directors, but at the same time you must have enjoyed a lot, not your fault. Let's take them one by one:
1. Die-Hard 5: It has a sequence in which our oldie Hunk Bruce Willis, crawls through the air-duct of Air-Conditioning system. Well generally, air ducts are not that large enough to accommodate a full grown man, it's the insulation around the duct which makes it look large.
2. Ocean's Twelve: we see George Clooney, another oldie hunk, maneuvering in the lift shaft. Generally, lift shafts are made for accommodating lifts only and it will not have any surplus of holdings which can help a man maneuver through the shaft. So one would really need a pair of spidey gloves to do so.
3. Entrapment: It has Mrs. Zoro, hottie Zeta Jones, bending and arching through an array of laser beams. Nothing wrong in doing so, in fact that scene was a beauty. The point is, if you use fog or smoke to locate the beams then you actually raise the alarm (otherwise why on earth would anyone install such a system to guard one's treasure).
And am sure that these action scenes are not new contraptions in movies. We must have seen 'n' number of such movies and every time applauded the shrinkability, dexterity, ingenuity and agility of our hunks and hotties. Next time you see such a cliched action movie sequence, don't forget to roll your eyes; not just because of it being morbidly cliched but also because it fails the Law of "generality".
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