Welcome to the Proposals Library of AltKuznets Advisors Pvt Ltd., Your Sustainability Nirvana !

Capture the Regulator! (Caution! Reading this drivel may bring the mafia to your door) Ganga Prasad G. Rao http://myprofile.cos.com/gangar Having myself been a victim of a long-drawn conspiracy involving regulations on the industry, I have over the years developed what has been described as an acerbic tongue, not to mention, an acerbic style of writing. After all, after years of mail and email fraud, not to mention gassing at office, and murderous mobikes whizzing past at 2.9 mach, and perhaps having been declared 'dead' a thousand times over, I have learnt not to rub the shoulders of the powers that be. NNNOOOTTT! So,for a change, here are some absolutely frivolous regulatory wisecracks to chew on. Mind you, they are rather unbecoming of my credentials. No, not all regulators are treated like spies. Just this past weekend I played golf with the ....well, never mind! That puncturing of new car tyres, that was not us. And that camera you lost on your way back. That too. ...No, n...

Public Utilities, Private Angst Ganga Prasad G. Rao http://myprofile.cos.com/gangar When I was young, India was very much a poor country. Though many industries dotted the country, the Government was by far the primary provider of many essentials of living – electricity, water, kerosene, buses, even milk. Things have changed and changed a lot. Yet, the past continues to hold on to the present, and I am afraid, the future too. While the private sector has grown by leaps and bounds, the Government, especially the local administration and public utilities, continue in their moribund traditions of inefficiency and gargantuan waste. Consider drinking water. Practically every city and town has a public water supply network maintained by the Corporation or the Municipality. Crores were invested in building it; crores are spent renovating and maintaining it, yet, when it comes to using it, many residents back away and rely instead on packaged or bottled water. Those who don't, often use a ...

Have a Smoke? Ganga Prasad G. Rao http://myprofile.cos.com/gangar No, thank you. I don't smoke. God knows I have cursed smokers, especially those who choose to exercise their right in parks around infants and children or on cool, windy mornings on vacation in the mountains. In fact, I hate smoke, and not just from cigarettes, beedis or cigars. And there is no dearth of smoke and odors around, thanks to kitchen fires, garbage fire, 'dry leaves in the garden' fire, 'bhogi' fire, 'tar for cable repair' fire, and last but not least, 'keep me warm' fires on cold mornings that are fast disappearing from many parts of the country (any guesses why?). There was a time when I wondered incredulously at the stupidity of smokers who did themselves in by inhaling proven carcinogenic tars. I also had less than complementary words to say about governments that permitted import of foreign cigarettes or the operation of cigarette factories at home. As I grew up though...

Highway to He...ll! Ganga Prasad G. Rao http://myprofile.cos.com/gangar Tar vs Concrete roads. The ultimate slugfest! $100 for ringside tickets! Won't last an hour! Buy it now! ......Well, may be not quite, but an interesting matter nonetheless, particularly so, if you happen to be a car owner or following the economy. It's not something weighs heavily on the mind of either the refiner or the cement firm CEO. After all, the moolah comes not directly from roads, but from auto fuels in the case of refiner and from building construction activity in the case of cement companies. But, at the rate tar roads turn in to martian surface – what with global warming increasing rainfall intensity and traffic density following an upward trend inexorably – the competition may heat up for tar roads in the not too distant future. It's not that one is inherently superior to the other. Properly laid, a tar road could last years. But, in the Indian context, where contractors and employees, mor...

TSUNAMICONOMICS - Stupidity or Conspiracy? Ganga Prasad G. Rao http://myprofile.cos.com/gangar Who doesn't remember the carnage wrought by nature as the rest of the world basked in the afterglow of Christmas? Unlike the criminal indifference that accompanied the Bosnian massacres, the entire world responded with aid for tsunami victims. While much of that aid has been distributed, some has been directed toward constructing a tsunami warning system. My worry however, is that, as well-meaning as it is, the tsunami warning system may fall short, and is certainly not the best way to combat the risk from tsunamis. First, tsunamis travel at great speeds, necessitating speedy detection and response. Even if tsunami detectors are placed many miles offshore of the coast at risk, that still leaves too little time for the authorities to broadcast it and enable the coastal population to seek higher ground. (I have my suspicions and doubts about the detection technology but defer it to experts ...

Once Too Often and No One Cares! Ganga Prasad Rao http://myprofile.cos.com/gangar We Indians are habituated to many things – crowd, pollution, floods, noise, filth – to name a few. And yes, to fatal incidents - accidents and killings - as well. Not a day passes without the newspaper reporting a murder here, a shooting there and accidents on- and off-road. Living in a city with a population in the millions, any event with a diurnal probability of greater than one in a million is played out in real life and reported in the newspapers. If it is not death in the abyss of a bore hole, then it is asphyxiation in a sewage tank; if it is not a pile-up at a level-crossing or an overcrowded boat overturning, it is a bus that rolled off the hill or an accident at the neighborhood intersection on account of a faulty signal and hasty drivers. Nothing deadens attention and alertness as much as repetition. And if these incidents do not occupy the headlines on the front page, it just might totally esc...

The Long Run is But a Series of Short-Runs (and Elections are Tomorrow!) Ganga Prasad Rao http://myprofile.cos.com/gangar The other day, I was pondering about the impact of the policy interventions of the government in cement, iron ore, and milk on my portfolio of stocks. I concluded they were decidedly unnecessary, meant to contain inflation or worse, change the balance of competition in the industry between domestic and international producers. That got me thinking about the incentives facing the ruling party. The ruling political party sets the long-term course of nation and affects the destiny of millions with policies crafted with a decidedly short-term, even self-serving perspective. Elected on forgotten promises, put together as a hodge-podge coalition, cabinets re-shuffled thrice since elections, and 'fighting fire' from one no-confidence vote to another even as they plan their finances and strategy for the 'surprise' election, these parties are ill-suited to gi...