What Am I

I guess, even if I committed a gang rape I'd not have to worry. What will happen at max. let me see. First, the police, even if they catch me, will keep my identity safe and so I do not have to worry about my future reputation Second of all, some people and media will protest against me, but our bureaucrats and the politicians are very concerned about the law & order situation and hence the protests would be brutally crushed  So, I do not have to worry about the pressure from public Third, do you know what is the maximum punishment that I can get. 10 years or fine.  There are multiple ways to minimize the crime.  "Tujhe pata hai merae baap kaun hai" (Do you know who my father is?") .. need less to say anything else. If I prove that I did not plan for it and it was only in the heat of the moment because I was drunk, my punishment will be lessened since my intentions were never to hurt the person. Of-course, there are ways in which the corruption works

Fucked up is probably the least thing to say, about the mentioned title's status in India! With the latest rape victim case just proving the case once again. So many rapes, gang rapes, blatant violations of the basic human rights .. sorry, I guess the word "human" is no longer relevant to our society. We are animals in a human form... not sure if even that sentence is correct. Every one understands that this is another story line, which will die out soon. Time and again, they keep happening, and now we are looking at some solutions to hasten the punishment process or the so called justice.  What justice are we referring to. What are the cases which actually have given justice in time to the petitioners in India.  The biggest problem behind rapes, gang-rapes or any crimes is the devastation of the legal infrastructure in India. All contracts can be violated, all crimes can be exempted, all criminals can be pardoned.. then what justice and what legal system are

As usual we ran out of cylinder last week, and it took us two days to get a new one and for both the days we had to eat outside and also pay a heft amount to get our cylinder. Every one in India knows that getting a cylinder is such a bad experience. And moreover owning a cylinder has its own hazards coming along with it. Due to all the repercussions surrounding LPG based cylinder system, it is beneficial to have a system where natural gas is directly supplied through a pipe, called as city gas distribution network (CGD) Hence the Petrolem and Natural Gas Regulatory Board (PNGRB) has called for bids to setup city gas distribution systems across almost 200 cities/Towns in India, and as is the case with many grand schemes it is going at a very slow pace. It is important to understand that in the energy hungry society that we live in, having CGD pipelines help the society a lot. Imagine where every one of us can simply pay our gas bills online, and natural gas continues to flow unab

To both Palestine and UN. Palestine for the survival and hard fought battle, and UN for finally standing upto the motto it was initially conceived of. The ramifications are yet to be seen,  and how is it that, such a thing has happened inspite of the strong  lobbying against it.. Guess, the pressure is on India and pakistan to take things forward... I haven't tracked the voting and was surprisingly happy hearing about it.. I guess, it is similar to the response that Israel got in 1940s when it was founded and formally accepted. With differences resolved, one way or the other .. may be and for once, may be we can co-exist. Congratulations again!!

Another boring article on Coal Economics! :) While every one is clamoring for coal from Indonesia, Australia and South Africa, developments in the farther west might have shifted the overall paradigm of coal scenario. USA with its increasing Shale gas resources and the emphasis on cleaner coal has seen a decline in coal based electricity generation thereby leading to increased inventory of coal. (So far Cliched!!) With decreased coal consumption, it was inevitable that US starts exporting Coal from the power hungry countries like China and India. Till date the high prices and domestic consumption in USA were impediments. But they no longer are. Hence, as predicted Coal has slowly started moving out of USA.  To begin with its only a trickle, but the interesting thing is it has actually started moving out.  The below figure provides a snapshot of the coal moving out to the three of the largest consumers: As expected, with its proximity to USA and the hunger it has of Co

As has been the case always, India is only doing a catching up in terms of Shale oil & gas exploration. With USA already reeling under the excess gas production ever in its history, and China going ahead with its second round of bidding for Shale gas exploration. India finally woke up to the possibility of exploration options and hence has prepared a draft policy, which is available for comments on the Ministry of OIl's website. With the recent power crisis, brining the energy crisis into limelight the shale gas development becomes all the more significant and lot of eyes will remain glued to the way things shape up. The whole process in a very nascent stages, since at this time even the likes of "Yours sincerely" is also aspiring to bid for the shale gas, India has to be really cautious about the way forward. One of the most important aspects associated with Shale gas is the (the Nuclear related issue as well) is the long term liability of the deve

Wrote this couple of months ago, but was just not sure how to close it .. still Iam not..but here it goes. 28 years... this is what it took for an uncle of mine to establish, operate and sell a company. It is then that I realized how the total valuation process undermines the efforts and the journey involved in establishing the entity. After the company was sold, I sat with him and he started pouring out his emotions. It’s been quite a tumultuous journey for him to let go his company into the hands of other entity. He certainly appeared to be shaken, no doubt, but one thing for sure was evident. His desire to perform! Only a few people stuck with him throughout the journey, and as usual it was not the relatives and as predicted they were the friends and well wishers. In the times of depression, while some did pull him up, it was he who dedicated most of his life with a rigor matched only by his vision. During the journey, he fell down, lost many a battles, battered relatio

Recently was watching the "Save the Tiger" program which is attempting to create awareness about the reducing tiger count and so measures to ensure that the tigers are saved. I was wondering, why would people go ahead with killin tigers inspite of the fact that they are dying and would be extinct in the near future. Then it hit me, that the scarcier something is, the faster it will become extinct. To be more precise, scrcier an entity is, people will try to go illegal routes and ensure that the entity is consumed or not left in a state to be consumed by any one else. Let's take an example of Tigers themselves. While Tigers have always been a thing of precious value, the intrinsic value of their not having around was much higher. Since, Tigers were plenty and are a threat to the cattle & humans as well, people mercilessly killed them. Even at that time there was demand to wear tiger fingers as nechlace and to showcase tiger skin/head as a proof of the bravery. As

Even this is about Power sector in India. Let's say CompanyXYZ intends to setup power plant. Total Project Cost is Rs1,000 Cr.  They managed Rs300 cr and they got a debt of Rs 700 cr since they got all the clearances including Coal Linkage, PPA, EC etc. They went ahead and placed the BTG order and BoP order. Activity worth ~Rs 500 cr is executed. Suddenly one day the Coal Linkage is cancelled. And due to forex fluctuations the BTG cost increased by 20% leading to an overall cost increase of 15% for the project. Since the RoE from a power plant in itself is around 15%, the plant is no longer viable.  Now a Performing Asset (PA) has become an NPA. Now what are the options for lender? While Technically NPA happens only after a default, for the sake of discussion let's assume that any project which is no longer happening is an NPA. If the borrower is a Govt. entity, every lender has the support and cushion that Govt. body will pay back. But what if the borrower is a

Ever thought, if some one would actually say this. Of all the people, do you actually expect this coming from the largest Energy consumer in the world!!! Many companies in USA are suddenly fighting with a decrease of more than 25% in their total energy cost. All power utilities and major states which predicted revenue for the fiscal at a target price of $4 per gallon, are forced to work under less than $3 a gallonn. This has dented the profitability of all utilities and many states, especially in Texas and the Floridas ofthe world. Imagine a state whose primary soruce of revenue is gas. Now, gas prices have crashed by 25%, so this would decrease their revenue by 25%. This is precisely the reason that the stock prices of major utilities companies are down. Obviously the whole story is one-sided i.e. from the producers of energy. A country doesn't run by the producers of energy alone and hence overall the economy is bound to benefit ..  but Iam in the industry of energy pr

Monday blues, hangover blues, marriage blues and lot others!! Every one discusses about these normal things .. but the blues that none of us speak about are the No work blues.. All of us crave for days when there is no work, and all that we are expected to do is to come to office, surf, coffee, gossip and leave.. But, what if the same continues for an extended period of time.. especially when you actually love working and need something to keep the senses up and running.. Iam going through these patches, that for the past 10 days I hardly have any work.. Now these blues are actually making me sleepless since the mind is reluctant to allow me to go to sleep for having not used it for quite some time.. Iam only starting to realize what it means like not having any work or sitting on bench (IT parlance).. while I will be paid for my salary, for all the position and experience that I extend to the company, what is the point if all the experience is there only for CV sake..

“We, the willing, are doing the impossible for the ungrateful. We have done so much, with so little, for so long, we are now qualified to do anything, with nothing.” - Mother Teresa (Took it from the article written in Dawn ) Just been to some remote locations from Delhi for the long weekend. Quite an un-planned trip which did end on a good tone. Was in places, where there was no network, continuous vegetation, but still a human to be found. The road was not a proper one, with huge bumpy rides along the road, but the road was still visible and accessible Streams of water, cold, flowing across the landscape at different depth, at varied pace..but we could still take a dip in it and not be scared of getting washed away. Staring into the sky, clear sky, with a full moon, bright stars .. but still there was light that we could see coming from the closest neighborhood and we were sure that we are not lost in the woods. Add to that the scare due to the chance of bumping into a wild el

It was in 2005 that Reliance Industries made big news with the discovery of the largest gas deposits in that year. The gas deposits are found off-shore near the Eastern Coast of India. While the gas discovery was made, there were/are no major pipelines connecting the eastern coast of India with rest of the country. Hence there was a need to setup a major gas pipeline from Eastern Coast to the Western Coast and beyond (~1500 kms). So Reliance Industries with no prior experience in either of these two areas floated two companies: Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) owns the gas well. Reliance Gas Transportation Infrastructure Ltd. (RGTIL). Every one was gungho about the discovery of gas and the progress of the gas pipeline because the gas production was estimated to reach 80mmscmd by FY2013 and the pipeline also planned to extend by another 1500 kms towards South & North Eastern India. Investments by various players also ensured that RIL got a decent return on equity. Alas,

Either you have sex and get pregnant or not have sex at all. Interesting stance that the so called forthcoming religion in the world has. ( Religious views on Contraception ) “This is a direct attack on religious liberty and will not stand in a Romney presidency,”.. so says the spokeswoman of Mitt Romney - the Republican  presidential candidate in US. ( And the reason she says so is to appease the conservative catholic Christians.) Another statistic (Source; NY times) is that 50% of the pregnancies in US are unwanted. And among those 40% end up in abortion. Going by this the 3 million addition to US population last year would have meant ~2 million children unwanted!! So, guess people cannot experiment with this fantasies to without getting pregnant. Not that every time one has sex she will get pregnant, but without emergency contraception or birth control pills, the population explosion would be unstoppable.  Even in India no political party has the courage to say that birth contr

I could see that the gate opened into a small ground followed by two rooms with not even a concrete slab. We were waiting for some one to open the lock of the gate. Some guy came with keys. He looked alright..well built and decently dressed and with a badge in his neck. I appeared to be overly dressed up for the occasion in a suit and the laptop. He didn't bother to look into our eyes and was trying to unlock but it didn't happen. The person with me signaled him in some unfamiliar signs and the guy went in, brought another set of keys which opened the lock. I wondered what did the person tell the guy!!  The guy went away with no change of expression in his face as if he has ignored our presence and that he didn't care whether we came in or not. I was bemused at the least! I walked in and I met the lady of the place and the guy, who heads the center, invited me inside. For a place handling the students from Below poverty line, the place was well furnished. It had a