Saturday, September 08, 2012

How is a Medvedev mess-up like?

Quite similar to how he’s handling relations with Iran to appease the US

Is the well debated and documented Russo-Iranian bonhomie over? Well, the question became very relevant especially after Russian President Dmitry Medvedev signed agreements with the US government a few months back to impose a sweeping ban on trade of weapons with Iran. This was done as a part of “measures to implement the 1929 UN Security Council sanctions.” Russia also refused to sell S-300s to Iran, despite this not coming in the UN sanction list.

Such a step can prove to be self-defeating for Russia. The reasons are not hard to find. Russo-Iranian relations were antagonistic till as recently as the Iraq-Iran war, when Russia supplied weapons to secular leader Saddam Hussein of Iraq. But the collapse of USSR and the subsequent emergence of Iran prompted collaboration in defence trade and energy cooperation. Trade relations between the two increased from $1 billion in 2005 to $3.7 billion in 2008. Russia is also Iran’s seventh largest trading partner. Thanks to Medvedev, Russia’s agreements on energy cooperation with Iran could be affected. Worse, Iran is Russia’s third largest defence trade partner currently. Subsequently, if Ahmedinejad gets slighted, Russia could lose defence trade worth $13 billion by 2025.

Apparently, By imposing such sanctions on Iran, Russia aims to strengthen its shattered relations with the US and solicit some financial assistance from Uncle Sam. But such a move by Medvedev to appease US over Iran seems quite the more confusing, given the fact that Obama himself had a few weeks ago confirmed that the US does not view Iran anymore as a nuclear threat nation. And the ones who’d be most advantaged on this issue? China of course. With Russia losing brownie points, China would immediately dig itself into the second largest OPEC oil producer.


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.
For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
 
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Thursday, September 06, 2012

Mumbai, the host to the biggest slum in Asia

While Mumbai, the host to the biggest slum in Asia still has a long way to go before it can become slum free, there are momentous changes that hold the promise of transforming India. B&E meets up with slum Developers, PE investors and of course, the government for an update!

However, currently Mumbai International Airport Ltd (MIAL) slum development programme has been an eyesore for a long time and the delays are only making matters worse. Recently, even as Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh is reported to have sought details on the progress of the slum rehabilitation programme around the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport (CSIA), the company developing and operating the airport said it has not received any communication to that effect.”

In October 2007, realty firm Housing Development and Infrastructure Ltd (HDIL) had bagged the contract for rehabilitation of 276 acre of Mumbai airport slums. Under the contract, HDIL needs to resettle about 80,000 slum households. According to MIAL, the encroached area is important for the expansion of CSIA. At present, the airport has less than 2,000 acres of land for development of the airport, of which 276 acres is occupied by slums.

According to HDIL, Phase 1 of the project has already begun with 85% of the work complete where about 20,000 slum dwellers will be rehabilitated. The company said that the first 16,000 tenants are scheduled to be allotted shortly. Recently, HDIL has raised $250 million through sale of shares to qualified institutional investors to part-finance the second phase of the airport rehabilitation programme in Mumbai, among others. H P Pandey, Vice President (Finance), HDIL told B&E, “We have closed the qualified institutional placement (QIP) following huge response from the overseas institutional investors. In fact, we have received bids in excess of $350 million. Besides part-financing of the airport rehabilitation programme, HDIL would utilise the funds to meet working capital requirements.”

The Prime Minister’s concern comes at a time when Mumbai’s existing airport infrastructure is fast reaching saturation point and there is still no clarity over the second airport site. Few days ago, Maharashtra’s Chief Minister Ashok Chavan, along with a delegation of ministers met the PM in Delhi regarding the development of the second airport in Navi Mumbai. Post the meeting, Chavan said that the Prime Minister had assured that he would look into the matter soon and will hold meetings with the Environment Ministry and Ministry of Civil Aviation to remove obstacles in the way.

In essence, the war between ministries and bureaucratic delays are only delaying the much needed de-suffocating pills for the city of Mumbai.


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.
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Wednesday, September 05, 2012

Body heat could light up your home!

India’s population could solve its energy crisis. Here’s how...

‘Eureka!’ An exclamation that was made immortal by Archimedes when he discovered the methodology to calculate the volume of irregular objects, and in his eagerness to share his discovery, he’d run across city streets screaming ‘Eureka’! Since then, many researches and inventions have been made, and a research underway in France, might allow scientists to experience a ‘Eureka’ moment yet again. The idea of this research – of utilising heat energy from the body – was triggered from the railway station at Paris and Sweden. The Paris Metro hauls close to 4.5 million people on a daily basis, which sparked the idea that the huge amount of body heat generated by the commuters could be captured and re-used for other purposes. The devices for this breakthrough scientific experiment are proposed to be installed in rue Beaubourg, which is close to the Rambuteau station (in Paris) and The Stockholm Central Station (in Sweden), where the building would trap the heat energy of all travellers. The proposal for this experiment is still to be released and approved, but scientists are optimistic of the feasibility of the idea. Mr. Narasimhan, Director of Energy Alternatives (India) said, “This proposal is at a very nascent stage, so it’s not possible to comment on this, but the theory of using body heat as a renewable source of energy for other purposes can definitely be brought into practical use.” So, this is how it will work – the heat generated from people, which on an average is speculated to be about 100 watts of energy, would be trapped by the station building. The system would work on the principle of geothermal technology where this heat energy would be transferred to pipes with running water installed in the station building. This heat will warm the water, which will be pumped into a new building and thereby, generate heat in the building. With several kinds of efforts being made to combat global warming, this technology will support the purpose of generating renewable heat energy without damaging the environment. So, within a couple of years, the homes of people of France and Sweden might have heating facility attained from trapping and utilising body heat!


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.
For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
 
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Tuesday, September 04, 2012

Forced to go in for C-section deliveries by doctors, women are finding it safer to give birth at home...

Apart from being quite dangerous (study says women who undergo a C-section even when they don’t require it are ten times more likely to be admitted to the ICU) C-section surgeries are also much more expensive. These days, women afraid of being coerced by doctors to deliver through a surgery, are now seeking help from the traditional midwives, as they are beginning to feel that it is safer to give birth at home!

These midwives have been trained thoroughly about the process, have practiced for years, and there are institutes dedicated to the cause of teaching the art of midwifery too. Jeniffer Crasta from Birth & Midwifery, India tells us, “Mothers and babies do far better in a natural birth. It is a pity how these days women are being advised against a vaginal delivery. Even before hospitals came into existence, babies have been born, so why rush to a hospital when one can have the entire process done under the care and supervision of an expert at your own house? When there is a woman birthing at home, we ensure that all the routine antenatal checks are made. After the birth, our workers diligently carry out post-natal visits, and counsel the families about various vaccinations for the baby.”

“Many women opt for a C-section delivery because of the fear of going into labour,” says Dr. Monica Mahajan, who is working with a reputed hospital in New Delhi. On her views on birthing at home, “Home births are ideal in case of a normal pregnancy,” she says.

At a time when doctors are trying to make financial gains at the risk of putting the lives of naïve mothers in danger, birthing in the comfort of your house, under the supervision of a veteran is an option many would-be mothers, might want to consider. Could careless and callous doctors and hospitals have pushed us so far that it is time for us to cut the cord between birthing and hospitals?


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Monday, September 03, 2012

Gaga, the new ‘Tween’!

Lady Gaga, the reigning queen of pop, has now officially taken over Twitter, edging out competition from Britney Spears and even Barack Obama. With 5,839,507 followers at last count, Lady Gaga has caught up to the ex-Twitter queen, Britney, despite joining the site six months after her. Taking time out to thank her “beautiful little monsters”, her fans sure seemed delighted in taking their “mamma” to the top of the Twitter ladder!


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Saturday, September 01, 2012

SOLVING THE BACKLOG RIDDLE!

Mayank Pareek, Managing Executive Officer - Marketing & Sales, Maruti Suzuki India

CRITICS CLAIM THAT MARUTI WAS NOT PROACTIVE ABOUT PLANNING FOR THE HUGE RISE IN DEMAND FOR CARS IN INDIA. MAYANK PAREEK DEFENDS HIS CASE.


B&E: Can you throw some light on what kind of waiting period are buyers facing, as almost all your products are currently running with backlogs?
Mayank Pareek (MP): We are currently carrying close to 15-20% of out total average monthly sales as backlogs on our books. It is not because we want the consumers to wait, it is because the demand is very high from the consumers. We are producing as much as we can, but it is not enough. Be it the suppliers or the auto majors, no one was prepared for such a high demand growth.

B&E: But what about your capacity expansion plans? Doesn’t the company plan to add 250,000 units to the current annual production levels of 1 million?
MP: We are trying our level best. What has happened is that the industry was expected to grow at a pace of close to 13-15%. But over the past few months, it has grown by over 30%. Having said that, we are even producing close to 30% more than what we produced during the same period last year, by simply modifying our assembly lines. We are even trying to prepone the capacity expansion plan by close to 6 months. So, you can expect the company to produce an additional 250,000 units beginning some time in 2011. But till then, we will have to manage with our existing capacity and try and produce as many cars as possible.


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