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

IPOs, Lies and Videotape (Yes, Lies, All Lies!) Ganga Prasad G. Rao http://myprofile.cos.com/gangar Ever so often, the media draws our attention to the zooming stock markets and what the sky-high PE multiples portend for valuation and future course of the market. In developed economies, the stock market is so large and so mature, that practically no IPO, no matter what size, dents the market. The story is very different in emerging economies like China and India where large state-run enterprises, fed with government protection and subsidy, are privatised by offering them in IPOs to the stock market. The relative size of these IPOs in relation to the market capitalization, though small, is significant enough to induce market volatility as investors pull out of their existing holdings to subscribe. In developed nations, these decisions are unnecessary, even illegal. Entrepreneurs take their enterprise to the market at a time they judge convenient or optimal. That brings to the fore many ...

Auto Loans! Dime a Thousand Dollars! Ganga Prasad G. Rao http://myprofile.cos.com/gangar 7 years after returning to India, I am still getting used to the way in which policies are set in this country. Recently, I read that the Honorable FM exhorted PSU banks to find ways to lower the interest rate on loans. Specifically, he sought lower interest rates to stimulate the auto sector growing at less than the 'target' rate. That got my old moth-balled brain whirring. Isn't that what the doctor ordered for our beleaguered transport sector? Apparently, what we need is not investment in good roads, road-widening and flyovers, more buses, an MRTS or a better traffic management, but more vehicles on the road. More vehicles for urban traffic that moves at a snail's pace negotiating congestion and snarls. More cars, more smoke-belching RAVs, more vans and more trucks on narrow roads getting narrower by the day. Wonder what motivated the FM's request. Does the Government's I...

Rate (C/G)ut the Earth! Ganga Prasad G. Rao http://myprofile.cos.com/gangar I am no macro-economist, at least not with the credentials of Greenspan, Bernanke or Dr. Reddy. But I do know that lower inter-bank interest rate set by the Fed cascades down as lower interest rates on home loans and credit card loans on one hand, and to easier credit for businesses on the other. A surprise decision to lower interest rate ultimately means more real disposable income in the hands of the working class and induces higher consumption which in turn spurs production and investment, not to mention a spurt in stock markets globally. Not surprisingly, the boost in consumer confidence and higher economic activity augurs well for the incumbent party that seeks to 'soft-launch' the economy in its campaign to retain power. So what could be wrong with this tried and tested strategy? Nothing, if one did not care beyond the boundaries of one's nation and this generation. But in today's global e...

Trade Your Personal GHG Emissions Rights Ganga Prasad G. Rao http://myprofile.cos.com/gangar These days, with the cacophony of words, ads and noises from people and machines, one is not sure whether a certain thought is 'original', smoked out and fed back in with a minor suggestion, transmitted by 'telepathy', heard around or 'stimulated' as part of an IPR test (or is merely a regurgitation of what has already been published). Yet, these considerations should not matter when an idea is in the interest of global commons. So, hear ye, hear one, hear all! We are already in an era where one could buy in to emissions offsets to pay for the environmental excesses of our actions. Those environmentally conscious buy emissions offsets, ie, reductions in emissions elsewhere, for their business or leisure activities, for example, flying. As an economist, I have mixed reactions. Emissions offsets are an interesting means of obtaining voluntarily participation from the popul...

Public (Sector) and Private (Equity) Hallucinations Ganga Prasad G. Rao http://myprofile.cos.com/gangar Living in a socialist country with government-sponsored 'public sector' enterprises, it is easy to forget what the objectives of these entities are. In truth, they are oriented more to the nation's cause of infrastructure development, to a less-endorsed extent employment generation, and, as I would like to (mis)believe, to raise the per-capita consumption of various goods and services (why else would they compare inter-country per-capita figures in Planning Commission documents?). With government appointed board members who take their orders from their political masters at the Ministry, these entities also serve to control investment, prices and inventories in the market, not to mention stock up goods meant for subsidized distribution. I half-suspect, the government plays a strategic 'duopolistic' game with the private players – the government's interpretation...

Pollute Not the Oceans Ganga Prasad G. Rao http://myprofile.cos.com/gangar It was, with Africa, the Arctics and the Antarctic, one of the ultimate unknowns, the ultimate expanse, the fear of many a mariner in the centuries gone by. No longer. Today, practically every inch of the ocean is mapped. No sea, strait or island has escaped the marauding humans. It is perhaps an unwritten law of nature that destruction follows where man sets foot. After turning the atmosphere and land in to the toilet of the industry, overrunning lakes, and polluting rivers, it is now our hallowed duty to commit the ultimate insult to God's world. Let's exploit the purity of the oceans as well! Not that it has escaped our attention. Honestly, if the oceans are yet sought after, it is not because we haven't tried to despoil it. Those ignorant or otherwise not informed may wonder if human activity has left any mark on the ocean systems. For one, the ocean waters are noticeably warmer, thanks to human ...