I think Reva is a cute car and I would like to own one of these electric contraptions. It seems like a lot of effort to manage the charging of the car though, especially even if one lives in an apartment on the outskirts of Delhi. And of course, there is hardly any “public” charging infrastructure.
I had recently written about what Shai Agassi’s Better Place (www.betterplace.com) is attempting to do to yank the world off oil for transportation and move into an electric mode. There is a small clip on the website on what an electric future would be like. I would put it in the must-watch category.
The latest issue of Harvard Business Review also discusses the Better Place model which will be a reality soon, in Israel at least.
One of the readers of my column on the electric future for transportation (publish some time ago) made a very good suggestion for ensuring public charging infrastructure –- install charge points at the new multi-level parkings being built across the country.
Even if the current population of electric vehicles does not justify large scale investment in charging infrastructure, there is certainly a good case for making the new parking lots that are coming up e-ready. In the long run, it will pay for itself.
Look around however, and you would see that electric transportation initiatives are being discussed –- if at all –- in individual silos and the sum of these parts is certainly going to be less than the whole !

Can a train service compete with an airline service?

The answer is yes.

In what has been described as one of the most lucrative air corridors in Spain — Madrid – Barcelona — the high speed bullet train has managed to grab traffic from the airlines.

This is because the high speed train is faster (partly because the entry and exit points are within the city rather than in distant airports) and provides services at par with airlines, according to a BBC report which quotes the director of Spain’s Alta Velocidad Espanola (AVE) high-speed service.

India is in the process of rolling out its basic metro service.

Should we be considering high speed rail lines instead of the basic bread and butter service?

Should we be considering a technology leap?

Remember, many Indians got a mobile phone, completely bypassing the landline phone phase.

They stepped directly into second generation mobile phones…and some may step directly into third generation (3G) phones.

Can we get to high speed rail in one direct leap?

It is a question worth considering!

“A King shall be diligent….,” you said, quoting Kautilya in your budget speech, and then decided to follow Kautilya’s advice.

But who is the king here, dear sir.

We are living in a democratic country where the government is of the people, and by the people.

It is elected to serve the people rather than rule them.

I thought that was elementary, dear sir.

Regards…
VG

What is the reason for India’s declining growth rate?
It is the ripple effect of the global financial crises and the follow-on global economic downturn.
(Read: We are not responsible).
What is the reason for the healthy growth in the first few years of this government?
Here is what finance minister Pranab Mukherjee said in his budget speech last month: “For the first four years of the UPA government, our policies ensured a dream run for the economy with GDP recording increase of 7.5 per cent, 9.5 per cent, 9.7 per cent and 9 per cent from fiscal year 2004-05 to 2007-08.
(Read: We are responsible).

What if we were just enjoying the fruits of the global economic boom in the first four years of this government and are now suffering the impact of the global economic slowdown!
(Read: Perhaps the impact of policy has been limited in either direction - upward or downward)

As every other industry clamours for a stimulus (read bailout) package and intensifies its lobbying efforts with the powers that be (read government), the question that arises is whether there is a superior way to allocate scarce resources.

There is.

How about putting some money back in the individual tax payer’s pocket. Instead of the government collecting the money and choosing which industry to shower it upon, depending on the industry’s power to please, let the tax payer decide whether he wants more cars (an automatic stimulus for the automobile industry), more houses (stimulus for the real estate) or more consumer durables (stimulus for the consumer durables industry).

There is a case for lining the pockets of the buyer, rather than the  seller to stimulate the economy.

This is already being put in place by the United States. Barrack Obama’s $787 billion stimulus package has two components –  tax cuts (36 per cent) and spending on social programmes (64 per cent) – which will ensure that Americans will have more money in their pockets as early as April.

It is a fact that tax cuts would be a challenging task for a fiscally constrained government. However, if such cuts manage to revive sagging demand, and, in turn, the economy, buoyancy would return to tax revenues.

If such a course were to be followed in a country like India, there would also be an efficiency dividend which comes to the fore with every reduction in the footprint of the government. This reduction was one of the reasons for the country’s high growth trajectory post 1991.

Let’s just do it!

A couple of years ago, I met Ramalinga Raju for an interview at a time when the company was going through a period of stress. The numbers were not too good as his costs had gone up in an attempt to try to bring Satyam’s wages in line with industry standards.

Through all the questions in the press conference, and subsequently in the one-on-one interaction in his office, I was intrigued to see that he did not frown even once. Not once did he struggle for the right word. He had a measured way of speaking, and he stuck to it no matter how loud or rude the questioner was.

I asked him how he managed to have no stress, and never to frown (he does not have a single frown line on his forhead) when I met him later.

His response: “I meditate”.

Today, as I read his shocking letter to the stock exchanges, admitting to inflated profits over the last several years, I wonder what it was that he meditated on….and about.

I wonder now if I can believe him when he says that “neither me nor the managing director took even one rupee/dollar from the company and have not benefitted in financial terms on account of the inflated results.” If he could lie with such a straight face earlier, what is the guarantee that he is not doing it now!