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

A Deposit-Refund Population Control Policy - Private or Public? Ganga Prasad Rao http://myprofile.cos.com/gangar It has turned in to a quaint political ritual of its own. Procrastinate on those environmental issues for weeks, even months at a time, but back down just a bit and just in time for the World Environment Day. Yes, it is politically astute to recognize that ‘green’ too is part of the ‘VIBGYOR’ we seek! Now, population isn’t exactly ‘environment’; it is a bigger, all-encompassing issue that straddles the environment, the economy, and all future generations – in fact the future of the nation. It is a lesson in history and socio-economics that almost every populous nation continues, to this day, to be a ‘developing’ third-world nation. Population growth is ‘numero-uno’ of the various problems that bedevil social scientists. So, when it is World Population Day, our democratically-elected leaders give pause and faithfully mouth policy statements meant to assuage the voting public ...

Do You Have an Idling Timer? Ganga Prasad Rao http://myprofile.cos.com/gangar I have been awaiting the UID enumerator to show up at my door if for nothing else but to wail my angst at the system that seems to have targeted, engulfed and victimized the ‘green-class’ in our society. But wait as I might, the enumerator gives the slip daily leaving me fuming from breathing diesel soot and benzene from vehicles passing by our dusty potholed street. Must I choke to death with ‘PAHcancer’ and turn a ‘statistic’ before I find a place in the Gobarnment database of Sheikh-subsidized citizens? Talking of Sheikh subsidies, the other day, my hired autorickshaw lined up at the gas station behind a SUV. And while we waited, I wondered at the incongruity of the SUV revving up and leaving us in a pall of subsidized diesel soot. Vehicles that gas the immediate neighbourhood with soot or the green orb with ‘excess’CO2 for the same mile on road in fact pay less than those other clean and efficient vehicle...

Choke out River Pollution – a la Robin Hood! Ganga Prasad G. Rao gprasadrao@hotmail.com http://myprofile.cos.com/gangar What does a 'Green Robin Hood' do for a living? Rob the rich-right to feed the poor on the left? Not exactly, but not far from the truth either! So, what will a 'Green Robin Hood' propose if he is handed charge of controlling pollution in the infamous Cooum river? We're all aware of how rivers run across jurisdictional boundaries and how upstream pollution affects downstream water quality. But what do we do about it – beyond giving a couple of billion rupees to a Singaporean firm to clean it up? What's the prescription? The Green Robin Hood, as it turns out, also has a modicum of economics. So, he proposes a property-rights solution to solve river pollution. Consider the river basin as the unit, and 'hack' it in to 5 or 10 kilometer cross-sections, or better yet, in to cross-sections each representing a twentieth of the river-length. (T...

Closed-Cycle Economy - Miracle or Myth? Ganga Prasad Rao http://myprofile.cos.com/gangar If the 9/11s of the world have taught us anything, it is that the human society, ultimately fails not for lack of technology or efficiency, but for equity and enviromental sustainability. Not that economists or sociologists did not anticipate it. Infact, and to the contrary, many have espoused such concepts as a 'closed cycle economy' or a 'technology-driven rama rajya'. So what stands between our egalitarian dreams and the wretched reality - the veritable 'closed-cycle cup and leap'? Greed-based economic systems coupled to 'beggar-thy-neighbor' competition? 'Subsidy-based satisfice-the-voter' economies coupled to 'feed-on-the-growth, forage on the recession' stock markets? or 'Foul the commons and pass the buck' syndrome? Ace, YES, and Sssshhh! Industrial economists have long espoused the 'closed-cycle economy' - an ideal system in wh...

GP Two-Part Vote ? What's that? A curse? No, in fact, and to the contrary, perhaps deliverance, though not the divine kind! Don't get it? Read on! Just today, as has happened innumerable times before, the people of Jharkhand gave a fractured mandate with seats split three-, even four-ways. In doing so, they have brought upon themselves the likelihood of a coalition - a result none of them voted for, and a result that, I suspect, many parties were eagerly awaiting for (so much for 'independent platforms and manifestos'), and not for the opportunities to congratulate one another! And that is the crux of this blog. Our voting system, as I have pointed out earlier, does not permit the voter to distinguish between his choice of candidate for his constituency and the choice of the party to form the government. Is that a problem? Clearly. Every constituency has its popular faces. While many candidates turned popular because they were supported by political parties, there are a...

Hail Mary Pass!!!! Ganga Prasad Rao http://myprofile.cos.com/gangar For once, I am glad I didn't graduate in finance! Why, I'd be burned with flame-mail for the sacrilege I am about to commit! Much attention has been devoted to the study of volatility in equity markets. Many have reached the conclusion it is the search for short-term 'rents' - overnight profits from 'get-rich quick' derivatives - that is to blame. But greed being what it is, it is inconceivable to mandate the elimination of short-term trading opportunities (though, and at a tangent, I can see why speculators are no longer necessary in 'mature' commodity markets). Many also subscribe to the viewpoint markets should reward those 'enterprising' investors who pay to acquire superior information and do their 'homework' over less agile or less alert investors. So, how do we go about designing a solution that rewards 'good' investment behavior over 'bad'? Read on...