What Am I

Chinese foreign exchange reserves stand at $3.65 trillion. US foreign exchange reserves stand at $113 bn! Chinese debt stands at ~$5.2 trillion. US debt is ~$18.3 trillion! Yet, China choses to devalue its currency by more than 2% w.r.t USD! The devaluation raises some questions. The WTO norms seek for gradual removal of subsidies and also the other economic barriers surrounding any trade between nations. But isn’t the currency devaluation a form of subsidy being extended by the Chinese Govt. to its industries. Subsidies are generally extended in the form of tax exemptions, lower credit or moratorium periods or relaxed accounting guidelines. But an exchange based subsidy (Currency manipulation subsidy) is something that the Chinese Govt. is exploring, if not the first time, to its full potential. Why Can’t other countries chose to do so. Because most of the other countries have a mix of imports and exports and by de-valuating their currencies they are risking the increase i

Any one who has basic understanding of power plants would know that every equipment and the power plant as a total requires how much power to run. For example: a standard 270 MW plant would require so much, a super critical 800 MW boiler would burn so much coal etc. One wonders though why would the total consumption for a power plant change so much. As usual, the ambiguities come from one of Reliance for one of the largest power plants in the world (Sasan UMPP) Here is a brief history of the estimates given by Reliance on its expected coal consumption: In 2007, when Sasan was awarded to Reliance it initially quoted that it would require 16 mtpa (million tonnes per annum) to run its plant In 2007, Reliance quoted that it can mine 25 mtpa of coal from the mines it was awarded. This was 9 mtpa more than the requirement. As per the approved mine plant, Reliance was allowed to use 4 mtpa beyond the requirement of the plant In 2014, NDA government cancelled the coal

When Obama was given Nobel peace prize in 2008, there were lot of critics who questioned it, for Obama has hardly done anything at that time. he was awarded the peace prize for his campaign and the quote of "We need change!".  That was 2008. Here comes 2015. Has there been a change. On the contrary, republicans continue to run the show in senate and continue to stop any bill that Obama is trying to pitch. And it has been doom for quite some time now. That said, here are a few deals that might tilt many  people towards Obama deserving the Nobel peace. One is the cuba deal.. by extending the lifeline and ending the embargo Obama has shown that if 60 years of embargo could change nothing, there is a need for change.  The second is the Iran deal.. In spite of Iran not bowing down a huge, Obama went ahead and has completed a deal (may be due to geo-political reasons), but the attempt to negate war with negotiations has been done with greater push. And

When Saudi Arabia decided to not decrease the production levels, the bears were really happy. Things became bearish. You must have understood whom am I referring to. Of course, the bears in stock market! If that is what you thought, sorry brother, the world is much bigger than just the bears in stock market. I am referring to the actual bears, the wildly beasty bears. Why would bears have fun when Saudi doesn't reduce its production. And, I meant not even the normal bears... the bigger and beastier Polar bears!! Bears were really happy that the oil prices reduced, thereby the production in Arctic circles would have not happened at the same pace. Hence the ecological balance would not have been disturbed beyond the already created ruffles. While the bears slept through the winters happily and were ready to come out and enjoy the spring, so did the oil prices. And suddenly the biggest predator of all time became active in the polar regions. Who can be bigger than

An enticing article written by Arundhati Roy in Outlook on Prof. Saibaba http://www.outlookindia.com/article/professor-pow/294265 Isn't it ironical that it's been an year that the person mentioned above has been in prison without bail and no charge sheet, whereas our beloved Salman Khan and of course the goddess of many, Ms. jayalalita are acquitted .. (Yeah, I got it .. Salman Khan isn't acquitted, but do you think he won't be!!) Oh, I forgot! Mr. Ramalingaraju is released on bail. ok, I will stop. I will not go down that route. I have no idea about Prof. Sai baba, but the way he is kept under prison is something that questions our ethos. But I also felt sad that I cannot stand up to him. I am also one amongst the millions, living and eventually dying in vain. I shouldn't be acquitted on my unbecoming attitude!! PS: Yes, I have started becoming conscious about my web foot print and hence the diplomatic undertone.

I am married, but am still a consultant :) Most of my friends have achieved greater heights and I do aspire to excel further. The zeal and enthusiasm haven't died, but yes age is catching up!! When I was diving into my MBA and even while doing the course, I'd think that it is so important to study, learn and contribute. (Not that I have done any of this .. but at-least that was the thought). Coming from a shy background, where lot of focus is on getting job (It sounds like getting laid ..rt ;) ) and very minimal on social skills, you shouldn't be surprised at my thoughts. Social skills are an anathema for all of us engineers and continued to remain so, in-spite of the MBA. People, who could communicate and reach out to others, were not considered among the most talented. And, may be it is so, in case of the roles where much of the activity continues to remain stuck to the screen of laptop. But, with decent number of years in consulting and a

All of us had a merry time. Enjoyed what all we got, as if there is no need to survive till tomorrow. And, now, when things are evolving and indicating that surviving tomorrow would in fact be a big thing, we are shrugging our shoulders and saying that it ain't us who has caused it. I am speaking about the Emissions and the recent senate vote within US, which rejected the resolution that humans are causing global warming (51-49 against the resolution!!). Is it funny or irony that we feel that the climate change is actually happening, but yet are not willing to accept it.  It is like the girl, who got gang raped, and yet in the court all the accused are vindicated. It is because the semen present inside the girl's vagina may be of the people who gang raped her, but the guilty cannot be charged for the presence of the semen. May be the girl herself willingly did it. We want all, but we don't want to own any. Even I am like this. I wonder, what proof is