Come October 3 and the country is likely to plunge into darkness as NTPC diverts the states’ share of power to New Delhi for the Common Wealth Games (CWG). Delhi will require 5,000 mw for the Games. Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC), Indira Gandhi Super Thermal Power Project, Pragati Power Corporation and NTPC’s Dadri Thermal Power Station were to meet the requirement, however, except NTPC’s Dadri unit (2x490mw), none of the project have come up to power the Games.
While only a 490-mw unit of NTPC’s newly commissioned Dadri unit was supposed to supply power for the Games, the entire 980 mw generated will have to be diverted to Delhi during the CWG, said an NTPC official. According to the formula agreed upon, Uttar Pradesh was to get 5% of the 980 mw generated and 50% would have been distributed across the country. Delhi was to get 45% of Dadri’s generation. Even after drawing the entire generation of Dadri project CWG would fall short of 4,020 mw, to be managed from the states’ share of NTPC generation. This would violate the Gadgil power sharing formula, overdrawing from the grid, also virtually breaking grid discipline.
According to a Power Grid Corporation official, there are already instructions that the uniformity of frequency for supplying the common pool power to the north, east, west and north east India has to be broken during the CWG and power to north should flow at a higher frequency. In fact the eastern, western, northern and north eastern power zones’ power evacuation is done through a synchronised grid maintaining a uniform frequency level. So while power would flow at higher frequency to the northern part of the country, the grid connecting National Capital Region would overdraw from the northern grid to power the games. Hence, heavy load shedding is expected across the country, especially in the east, north, north east and west India during the Games.
However, the Central Electricity Authority is more eager to look at western India for drawing maximum power since it has the highest installed capacity of 51,454 mw of the country’s total 1,64,509 mw.
Being a clear case of breaking grid discipline in powering the CWG, it would be most interesting to watch the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission act to punish the Delhi government, which in turn would try to shift the blame on to the Centre, said the Power Grid Corporation official.
Source : The Financial Express
Saturday, September 18, 2010
MMTC Seeks to Buy 1.3 Million Tons of Coal for India State-Run Utilities
MMTC Ltd., India’s largest state- owned trading company, is seeking bids for the supply of 1.3 million metric tons of coal to feed power plants run by NTPC Ltd. and other government utilities, an MMTC official said.
The fuel, which will be supplied from Indonesia over six months starting November, will have a calorific or heating value of 6,300 kilocalories, said the official, who declined to be identified because he isn’t authorized to speak to the media.
India’s thermal coal imports rose to 44 million tons in the year ended March 2010 from 38 million tons a year earlier, according to data from the nation’s coal ministry. The International Monetary Fund revised India’s 2010 economic growth forecast in July to 9.4 percent from its earlier prediction of 8.8 percent in April.
The coal will be used in power plants located in northern and central India, the official said.
MMTC has asked for 300,000 tons of coal for the Bhilai plant operated by a venture between NTPC, India’s largest power producer, and the Steel Authority of India Ltd., 360,000 tons for a venture between NTPC and the Haryana state utility in Jhajjar, 175,000 tons for the Haryana utility and 500,000 tons for the Uttar Pradesh state utility, the official said.
Tender documents for the two NTPC facilities will be opened on Sept. 23 and the rest on Sept. 28, the official said.
Source : Bloomberg
The fuel, which will be supplied from Indonesia over six months starting November, will have a calorific or heating value of 6,300 kilocalories, said the official, who declined to be identified because he isn’t authorized to speak to the media.
India’s thermal coal imports rose to 44 million tons in the year ended March 2010 from 38 million tons a year earlier, according to data from the nation’s coal ministry. The International Monetary Fund revised India’s 2010 economic growth forecast in July to 9.4 percent from its earlier prediction of 8.8 percent in April.
The coal will be used in power plants located in northern and central India, the official said.
MMTC has asked for 300,000 tons of coal for the Bhilai plant operated by a venture between NTPC, India’s largest power producer, and the Steel Authority of India Ltd., 360,000 tons for a venture between NTPC and the Haryana state utility in Jhajjar, 175,000 tons for the Haryana utility and 500,000 tons for the Uttar Pradesh state utility, the official said.
Tender documents for the two NTPC facilities will be opened on Sept. 23 and the rest on Sept. 28, the official said.
Source : Bloomberg
BHEL to invest Rs 1,200 cr in R&D by 2012
India's biggest power equipment manufacturer Bharat Heavy Electricals (Bhel) is revamping its production processes to develop low cost and more efficient equipment as it seeks to counter the threat of cheap imports from China. The company plans to increase its expenditure on research and development (R&D) by almost 50% to Rs 1,200 crore by 2011-12, said Bhel’s chairman and managing director B Prasada Rao at the 46th annual general meeting (AGM) of the company.
“The engineering & technology character of the organisation will be enhanced with increased focus on innovation and R&D,” he said. In 2009-10 Bhel invested `829 crore in R&D with prime focus on economical power equipment that have high efficiency.
With its R&D initiatives, Bhel has been able to expand the load on existing power equipment to generate more power without much additional cost. For instance, it has introduced rating sets of 600 mw in the sub-critical league that match Chinese 660-MW super critical sets in efficiency without escalating the cost of the equipment. The company has introduced new range of equipment and enhanced the rating of 500 mw sets to 525 mw and 250 mw to 270 mw. The company recorded a jump of 37% in profit-after-tax (PAT) to a record `4,311 crore for the fiscal ended March, 2010.
Its turnover during the fiscal also grew 22% to an all-time high of Rs 34,154 crore.
The company has secured orders worth Rs 59,037 crore from domestic and international clients in 2009-10, of which about 90% came from the private sector. The current order book of the company stands at Rs 1,44,000 crore. Mr Rao said that against the backdrop of climate change, there would be increased focus on low carbon path technologies such as Ultra Supercritical technology, IGCC and Solar Power.
“Bhel proposes to play a lead role in ‘development and deployment’ of advanced Ultra Supercritical Power Plants under the proposed National Mission for Clean Coal (Carbon) Technologies,” he said. The company also proposes to expand its global footprint by establishing manufacturing and service presence in all its major export markets.
Currently, Bhel has the capacity to manufacture power equipment with a cumulative generation capacity of 15,000 MW per annum, which the company plans to scale up to 20,000 MW by the end of the 2010-11 fiscal.
Source : Economic Times
“The engineering & technology character of the organisation will be enhanced with increased focus on innovation and R&D,” he said. In 2009-10 Bhel invested `829 crore in R&D with prime focus on economical power equipment that have high efficiency.
With its R&D initiatives, Bhel has been able to expand the load on existing power equipment to generate more power without much additional cost. For instance, it has introduced rating sets of 600 mw in the sub-critical league that match Chinese 660-MW super critical sets in efficiency without escalating the cost of the equipment. The company has introduced new range of equipment and enhanced the rating of 500 mw sets to 525 mw and 250 mw to 270 mw. The company recorded a jump of 37% in profit-after-tax (PAT) to a record `4,311 crore for the fiscal ended March, 2010.
Its turnover during the fiscal also grew 22% to an all-time high of Rs 34,154 crore.
The company has secured orders worth Rs 59,037 crore from domestic and international clients in 2009-10, of which about 90% came from the private sector. The current order book of the company stands at Rs 1,44,000 crore. Mr Rao said that against the backdrop of climate change, there would be increased focus on low carbon path technologies such as Ultra Supercritical technology, IGCC and Solar Power.
“Bhel proposes to play a lead role in ‘development and deployment’ of advanced Ultra Supercritical Power Plants under the proposed National Mission for Clean Coal (Carbon) Technologies,” he said. The company also proposes to expand its global footprint by establishing manufacturing and service presence in all its major export markets.
Currently, Bhel has the capacity to manufacture power equipment with a cumulative generation capacity of 15,000 MW per annum, which the company plans to scale up to 20,000 MW by the end of the 2010-11 fiscal.
Source : Economic Times
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Let’s understand what fair trade is
India is warming up to fair trade. But the concept remains a niche market as companies are hesitant about taking it to the masses.
Indian farmers have been selling their fair trade produce to developed markets for years by getting certified by the Fairtrade Labelling Organizations International (FLO). Now the FLO wants to invert that model. It will introduce a fair trade label for the Indian market next year. The Spice Board of India is looking to follow suit with a fair trade label for the domestic spice market.
First, let’s understand what fair trade is. Fair trade is an organised movement that helps producers in developing countries get a premium for their products if they follow better social, labour and environmental standards.
More than $4 billion worth of fair trade products were sold internationally in 2008, up 22 percent since the previous year. While sales of products like fair trade tea, coffee, flowers, wine and beer have grown in double digits for the last several years, cultivation has outpaced demand, according to reports.
If the fair trade movement is implemented in India, it could open up a huge new market for fair trade farmers, giving them stability against foreign exchange fluctuation.
For the movement to be successful, however, it requires the customers to be sensitive about this. “The size of the market is very small because Indians are not really concerned about this,” says Arvind Singhal, chief executive of retail consulting company KSA Technopak. “Companies are trying to create fair trade brands for their own reasons but if the customer is not sensitive then this will have only a limited impact.”
The Indian market and other domestic markets in producing countries are increasingly important for the fair trade movement because they could each be larger than the European market, which is the largest market for fair trade products. For instance, take Chetna Organic Farmers Association, which works with 9,000 cotton farmers in the Vidarbha region of Maharashtra, Telangana in Andhra Pradesh, and Koraput, Bolangir and Kalahandi region of Orissa. It sells most of its cotton in Europe at a premium of Rs. 320 a quintal. But even now it is able to sell only half the produce; the rest gets sold in India without any premium.
It is no wonder then that Seth Petchers, chief executive of Shop for Change, a marketing and labelling organisation for domestic fair trade products, is trying to launch this movement in India. Shop for Change launched a range of fair trade clothes along with designer Anita Dongre’s prêt label AND. The collection featured an ad campaign that starred fair trade cotton farmers along with former Miss India, Gul Panag.
This collection was made with fair trade cotton from Chetna’s farmers in Orissa, who were paid Rs. 35 per kilo of cotton rather than the market price of Rs. 30 per kilo. The FLO also fixes a fair trade price, which includes a minimum price for the product and a fair trade premium. Says Reykia Fick, external relations co-ordinator, FLO, “On top of stable prices (usually the fair trade minimum price), producer organisations are paid a fair trade premium — additional funds to invest in social or economic development projects.”
Farmer members of Chetna, in Andhra Pradesh’s Karimnagar district, have used this premium along with an international grant to build a storage warehouse for their cotton. During the off-season, they rent out the warehouse as a marriage hall and distribute earnings for the co-operative. Another farmer group in Maharashtra’s Akola district has used the premium to build a school. In Kerala’s Kannur district, the premium is used to create a fund for distressed farmers. It has also allowed the community to set up solar sensing technology as a benign blockade warding wild elephants off the cashew nut trees. Their cashew produce is labelled Jumbo Cashews in the European market.
All of this may or may not result in a price premium for a consumer depending on whether a retailer chooses to crunch its margins. Increasingly, retailers have started selling fair trade products without a price premium for consumers. Dongre’s fair trade collection sold at the same price as her other clothes. Cadbury’s launched a fair trade version of its Dairy Milk chocolate internationally at the same price as the rest of its Dairy Milk chocolates.
In case of fair trade products “it is the imagery which is different rather than a product differentiation,” says Shital Mehta, COO of premium menswear brand, Van Heusen. Right now fair trade numbers are small. Companies want to portray themselves as fair employers but are just experimenting with a small percentage of their products. Will they ever get all their products under the fair trade umbrella?
That change will come when it becomes a civil society movement as it has in the West, says Tomy Mathews, founder of Fair Trade Alliance of Kerala. Mathews’ alliance has been supplying through the FLO for years and he says, “Attempts to create independent labels diverting from the uniform global message on global trade justice is doing disservice to the philosophy of fair trade. I don’t look fairly on [the] Spice Board initiative or the Shop for Change initiative. The moment you confuse market with different logos you’re already losing the game before it begins.”
Retailers that have included more equitable conditions for artisans and weavers, such as Fabindia and Anokhi, have done well here already and this movement can get extended to farmers as well, says Roopa Mehta, president of the Fair Trade Forum of India.
But there may still be some distance between promise and scale in the market. Devangshu Dutta, CEO of retail consulting company, Third EyeSight, says he sees a market developing for fair trade products, albeit slowly. “Things will change. But that change will have to come from the customer side. Currently, it is a very limited market but it could be a business proposition for a few companies.”
by Saumya Roy, Shloka Nath
Source : www.business.in.com
Indian farmers have been selling their fair trade produce to developed markets for years by getting certified by the Fairtrade Labelling Organizations International (FLO). Now the FLO wants to invert that model. It will introduce a fair trade label for the Indian market next year. The Spice Board of India is looking to follow suit with a fair trade label for the domestic spice market.
First, let’s understand what fair trade is. Fair trade is an organised movement that helps producers in developing countries get a premium for their products if they follow better social, labour and environmental standards.
More than $4 billion worth of fair trade products were sold internationally in 2008, up 22 percent since the previous year. While sales of products like fair trade tea, coffee, flowers, wine and beer have grown in double digits for the last several years, cultivation has outpaced demand, according to reports.
If the fair trade movement is implemented in India, it could open up a huge new market for fair trade farmers, giving them stability against foreign exchange fluctuation.
For the movement to be successful, however, it requires the customers to be sensitive about this. “The size of the market is very small because Indians are not really concerned about this,” says Arvind Singhal, chief executive of retail consulting company KSA Technopak. “Companies are trying to create fair trade brands for their own reasons but if the customer is not sensitive then this will have only a limited impact.”
The Indian market and other domestic markets in producing countries are increasingly important for the fair trade movement because they could each be larger than the European market, which is the largest market for fair trade products. For instance, take Chetna Organic Farmers Association, which works with 9,000 cotton farmers in the Vidarbha region of Maharashtra, Telangana in Andhra Pradesh, and Koraput, Bolangir and Kalahandi region of Orissa. It sells most of its cotton in Europe at a premium of Rs. 320 a quintal. But even now it is able to sell only half the produce; the rest gets sold in India without any premium.
It is no wonder then that Seth Petchers, chief executive of Shop for Change, a marketing and labelling organisation for domestic fair trade products, is trying to launch this movement in India. Shop for Change launched a range of fair trade clothes along with designer Anita Dongre’s prêt label AND. The collection featured an ad campaign that starred fair trade cotton farmers along with former Miss India, Gul Panag.
This collection was made with fair trade cotton from Chetna’s farmers in Orissa, who were paid Rs. 35 per kilo of cotton rather than the market price of Rs. 30 per kilo. The FLO also fixes a fair trade price, which includes a minimum price for the product and a fair trade premium. Says Reykia Fick, external relations co-ordinator, FLO, “On top of stable prices (usually the fair trade minimum price), producer organisations are paid a fair trade premium — additional funds to invest in social or economic development projects.”
Farmer members of Chetna, in Andhra Pradesh’s Karimnagar district, have used this premium along with an international grant to build a storage warehouse for their cotton. During the off-season, they rent out the warehouse as a marriage hall and distribute earnings for the co-operative. Another farmer group in Maharashtra’s Akola district has used the premium to build a school. In Kerala’s Kannur district, the premium is used to create a fund for distressed farmers. It has also allowed the community to set up solar sensing technology as a benign blockade warding wild elephants off the cashew nut trees. Their cashew produce is labelled Jumbo Cashews in the European market.
All of this may or may not result in a price premium for a consumer depending on whether a retailer chooses to crunch its margins. Increasingly, retailers have started selling fair trade products without a price premium for consumers. Dongre’s fair trade collection sold at the same price as her other clothes. Cadbury’s launched a fair trade version of its Dairy Milk chocolate internationally at the same price as the rest of its Dairy Milk chocolates.
In case of fair trade products “it is the imagery which is different rather than a product differentiation,” says Shital Mehta, COO of premium menswear brand, Van Heusen. Right now fair trade numbers are small. Companies want to portray themselves as fair employers but are just experimenting with a small percentage of their products. Will they ever get all their products under the fair trade umbrella?
That change will come when it becomes a civil society movement as it has in the West, says Tomy Mathews, founder of Fair Trade Alliance of Kerala. Mathews’ alliance has been supplying through the FLO for years and he says, “Attempts to create independent labels diverting from the uniform global message on global trade justice is doing disservice to the philosophy of fair trade. I don’t look fairly on [the] Spice Board initiative or the Shop for Change initiative. The moment you confuse market with different logos you’re already losing the game before it begins.”
Retailers that have included more equitable conditions for artisans and weavers, such as Fabindia and Anokhi, have done well here already and this movement can get extended to farmers as well, says Roopa Mehta, president of the Fair Trade Forum of India.
But there may still be some distance between promise and scale in the market. Devangshu Dutta, CEO of retail consulting company, Third EyeSight, says he sees a market developing for fair trade products, albeit slowly. “Things will change. But that change will have to come from the customer side. Currently, it is a very limited market but it could be a business proposition for a few companies.”
by Saumya Roy, Shloka Nath
Source : www.business.in.com
Saturday, June 12, 2010
Start up Saturday Seminar on Social Media
Today I had the opportunity to attend a seminar on Social Media organized by Startup Saturday which is an initiative by Head Start Network to provide entrepreneurs in each city with a monthly community driven forum that is structured in agenda but open in discussions. A Startup Saturday provides a forum for entrepreneurs to discuss, present, network and learn from peers, prospective customers, adopters, partners and investors.
The fundamental idea is to have all parts of the innovation ecosystem interact with each other with high frequency and through rich conversation. We strongly believe that this would lead to faster evolution of the entire ecosystem.
The key not speakers were
Mr.Aditya Gupta from iGenero http://bit.ly/bSRkvG
Mr. Karthik from 84Ideas http://bit.ly/a9E4bP
Mr. Shameek Chakravarthy from Ohana Media. http://bit.ly/ddZ7OT
What fascinated me was the key note speakers were all below 30 years of age bracket and were very composed, main discussions revolved around various pros and cons of social media.
The first presentation by Karthik talked about “Why” there is a need for someone/organization to jump into the social media band wagon and social media is one latest tool in the arsenal of an effective brand promoter and is not a replacement of conventional brand building exercises. The presentation also talked about the various pitfalls to be avoided while increasing your reach to your customers / potential customers.
A second presentation was followed by Shameek which mostly talked about different evaluation metrics/analytics which could drive your brand marketing strategy and understanding the consumer patterns. How effectively one can analyze the data and fine tune their marketing strategies. The presentation also talked about the quality of the audience whom you try to reach through social media than the quantity. There were some detailed case studies presented.
Third presentation was done by Aditya Gupta of iGenero his emphasis was on the tools and the quality of the content marketed through various social media tools. His take on external tools like Twitter or Facebook were that these are the latest medium which might get outdated by time but the content on your website and the info on that should be more dynamic than static, and companies should design and develop content on their website's/blogs which would strike conversations rather than providing the normal info.
All in all the entire seminar was food for though, which has tinkered my brain cells to do social media differently.
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
.Net Technical Architect For a Global Product Development Company @ Chennai
My client is A Swiss company focused on innovation and quality, they design personal peripherals to help people enjoy a better experience with the digital world. They are a NASDAQ listed company and the are distributed in more than 100 countries worldwide through retail channels.
Position : . Net Technical Architect
Location : Chennai
Years of Exp : 8 to 12
Roles and Responsibility
My Client is looking for .Net Technical Architect who should be
Hands-on, ideally 50% or more of their time is writing code
Experienced in design patterns, scalability, security and designing maintainable solutions (SOA)
Guru level in .NET
Excellent communication skills
Up to date on the latest .NET framework and early adopter of new releases
Quick learner
Mail me a copy of your latest resume if this position is of interest to you @ abijith@optionsindia.com
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