Saturday, December 17, 2016

Creating loopholes - an Appeasement Strategy

To days  ( 17th Dec 2016) Headlines :



To Quote..  ( click this to read full article)
“Dekhiye, if it is a deposit in  the account of political parties, they are exempt. Lekin agar individual ke account mein, kisi ke bhi account mein jama ho raha hai, toh woh toh definitely the information will come on our radar (See, if it is a deposit in the account of political parties, they are exempt. But if it is deposited in any individual account, in anyone’s account, that information will definitely come on our radar.)
Unquote

NaMO must have faced heavy opposition not only from Mamta didi and Rahul Gandhi but from his own party men  " Are there no elections to come ?"  ( Mr. Modi quoted Mrs Gandhi  discouraged YB Chavan  when he suggested demonetization )

The result is the new announcement about political parties being exempted from tax deposits made till 30th December. Others have to pay 50%  tax.

An official route is created for all black money holders : Now they can safely deposit their money in the name of some political party, however insignificant it is and draw the amount later under some context  or other for their intended use not necessarily in the interest of public.

Thus they can not only avoid tax but also safely convert the Black to White

The gullible Indian voters are once again taken for ride.

Correct me if I am wrong. 

Friday, December 9, 2016

Cashless- prepaid cards-No Mobile phones

Government of India is announcing  many incentives to encourage cashless transactions.

What surprises me is that I could not find a prepaid card procurement and transacting it through point of sales outlets. It looks simple to implement.

In the present card transactions the main deterent seem to be the  2% transaction fee which VISA or MASTERCARD or PAYTM charges from the vendor.

 Government of India can step in here and make it less than 0.5% as the volume is high. This can be collected even when the card is purchased so that the the vendor is not charged anything at the time of payment.

This arrangement should be gladly acceptable to every one.

Now POS machines have become very affordable -less than  Rs.5000 - by any shop owner.
The whole scheme will work as shown below:


I am sure the day is not far as our country is full of financial geniuses.

For more FAQ watch this slideshare






Monday, November 28, 2016

Are you going for a second car ?... think !

Have you  installed your roof top electric generation ?
I could have afforded a luxury car. I never plan a second car as I consider it is improper ISR ( Individual's Social Responsibility) particularly under city's choked roads and pollution. Now a days there is so much talk on CSR -Corporate Social Responsibility. In my opinion there is equally an ISR where every citizen demonstrates that he (or she) does contribute by adding value to the way of life.  
Coming back to the decision of  car purchase,  I decided to settle down for a more fuel efficient car  partly and  invest  in a roof top 2 KW solar power generation unit. I did not go for net metering  to export power to grid due to reports of  long queue of applications  and  ‘unofficial extras’ for approval.  
After installation it is generating 6.5 Kwh to 7.2 kwh per day and totally independent of grid supply.
Our electricity bill has come down by Rs 900 per month since july 2016. We are paying grid the minimum of Rs 120 to 140 to keep a standby system. We retain this for heavy duty appliances like air conditioner, microwave oven etc


A few well wishers and neighbors  wanted to question the wisdom by way of ROR –rate of return. In their point of view annual saving of Rs 10800 for an investment of Rs 2.7 lakhs is just about 4% simple interest. An investment in FD or NCD or Gold ( if not Equity) would be more than double !!
My counter question to them is, does it make them independent of grid for electricity ?
 Look it this way. A solar installation has more than 20 years of life with positive contribution of energy and saving GHG ( green house gases). A luxury car only depreciates with contribution to GHG over the same number of years.  The former makes you self reliant but the latter is subjected to market vagaries like international crude prices and in turn rise in running cost.
Another fundamental question rises when we think of real estate and housing sector. People are willing to invest anywhere between 60 lakhs to several crores for a residential villa or apartment  particularly in metros. Is it too much to expect them to invest in Rs. 3 or 4  lakhs in solar electricity so that they do not become a burden to the power grid ?

The public wealth (or savings) is grossly stored in unproductive ways. What is meant by ‘unproductive’ is that wealth not being utilized for generating more food or water or energy. It is lying in equity share markets, Fixed Deposits  and Gold. To make it productive some government legislation or incentives may be necessary. Now in Karnataka every newly built house should mandatorily install a solar water heater.

As of now there is no incentive for volunteered installations of power generation for self use while the Solar water heaters get Rs 50 reduction in monthly electricity bills.
Energy is more valuable than gold as it is in constant demand by every strata of the society. If governments come forward to acknowledge the savings on investment in power plants by encouraging Roof-top units.This  can be done by subsidizing the battery replacement required once in four years and make the scheme more investor friendly.

This is a good beneficial  way in making people use their wealth in productive self sustaining (public) cause rather than demanding complaining citizens about governments’ inefficiency for lack of power. One can compare the ways of investment as shown below. 


Basis  12000 Km/ year
The car : what I desired
The car  I bought + 2KW Solar panel
Investment requirement
Rs 7.8 lakhs
3.1 Lakhs+ 2.7 Lakhs=  5.8 Lakhs
Petrol consumption
  667 lit (18 lit/km)
521 Lit ( 23 lit/km)
Contribution to GHG#
 1600 Kg CO2
1250 Kg CO2
Power saving ( per year)
  Nil (-2555 kwh from grid)
2555 kwh
GHG by use of electricity
 5360   Kg CO2    
 - 5360 Kg of CO2**
Net  GHG generation
6960CO2
-5710  (6960-1250)
#   Every litre of petrol  releases  2.4 Kg of CO2 in to atmosphere
**Every kwh power generation through thermal power releases 2.1 Kg of CO2

In other words I contribute directly  a Carbon Credit of 5.7 tons per year which can also be a basis for incentive calculation.

Economically looking, any car or vehicle would have lost more than 80% of their value in 10 Years while  the solar panels continue to generate power for another ten years. With inflation, the power tariff  will be higher and the savings will be much larger than what is perceived today. To give example, as per simple inflationary trend of 10% , in 2026 the tariff will be  around Rs 15 per kwh as against the present Rs 6.90 per Kwh. 


What makes me happy is, albeit in a small way, that  I could  avoid  about 5360 Kg CO2 generation through solar electricity and further 350  Kg of CO2 release in vehicle emission  apart from becoming self reliant in my energy need.


Friday, May 20, 2016

Solar Energy and Electric Vehicles

It is quite sometime I wrote in this blog. The main reason is, now a days for some reason, I am reluctant to make critical comments about other's creativity. Creativity is a thing of evolution.

For every original creation there may be ten pseudo creations, akin to trend in movies or music. The originals survive the test of time. Some creations are ahead of time only to be recognized several years later like 'barcode'  inventions

However sharing our views and concern regarding what is happening around us need not stop. Hence I decided to share things -though they are not blog specific - with one and all.

In this issue I wish to share the power point presentation I made regarding electric vehicles which are environmental friendly. The summer temperatures of Bangalore  touching 39 degree Celsius is hitherto unheard of.

The obvious reason is increase in traffic on roads emitting smoke and heat. Not only Bangalore all towns and cities face a similar situation.  The picture shows the news item how two wheelers dominate the Indian roads.

Any true solution can emerge only if we understand the root cause of the problem. The pollution caused by vehicles on Indian roads  is mainly from  scooters and motor cycles,

Please go through the following presentation and  inform what comes to your mind. Your feedback will be valuable for other readers also.