Developing Countries
March 12, 2013
International Business After globalization becoming the buzzword in today’s world, international business has given a new shape and has also created a new dimension in the […]
May 14, 2012
Globalization refers to the increase in international trade & commerce amongst the different countries, through the reduction of geographic barriers. With the rapid innovation of smart […]
January 11, 2012
The rising income inequality throughout the world is sowing seeds of dystopia according to a report released by World Economic Forum. The biggest risk amongst the 50 risks listed is the increasing wealth gap between individuals in all countries. Gini's coefficient has risen in most countries developing as well as developed and this has a strong correlation to globalization. The global artitrage of labor has tilted the scales towards capital and increasingly made wages become stagnant. Developing countries with weak institutions are showing income inequality in horrific forms with $2 billion homes existing in the middle of millions surviving on less than $2 day. US has already seen the OWS movement as a result of this increasing income gap between the have and have nots. Middle Eastern countries have also seen revolutions brought upon by the massive riches of the elite compared to the rising poverty of the poor and even the middle classes.
January 3, 2012
Income Inequality is a Theme that is getting played across the world in developing as well as developed nations.Most of the turmoil in 2011 in the Middle East and the Occupy Wall Street Movement can be attributed to the growing Income Gap between the Have and Have -Nots.The Great Recession in 2008 can also be looked upon as a fallout of this.Gini's Coefficient which measures the income distribution gap has shown continued deterioration all over the world.The Middle Class is shrinking and growing poor by the day and it is not only the Poor Class that is getting affected.
July 7, 2011
Nuclear Energy has become a hugely contorversial topic after the Fukushima incident in Japan where a nuclear disaster took place because of the earthquake and tsunami.Both the pro and anti nuclear groups have come out with strident arguments for and against nuclear energy.However in some countries like Germany,Switzerland the anti nuclear sentiment has gained so much support that they have decided to permanently end nuclear electricity generation despite the high costs.Before this nuclear based power was gaining ascendancy leading many to call it a nuclear renaissance as countries like China and India made plans to increase their nuclear power plant capacities massively.But the nuclear accident has thrown a spanner in the works with huge protests being seen in India and China despite its authoritarianism also slowing down its nuclear expansion plans.
July 6, 2011
Nuclear Power like other forms of Energy cannot be defined by a single cost as nuclear power plants differ in their technology and sources of fuel.No two power plants can have the same cost of electricity production similarly nuclear energy plants cannot have the same kilowatt hour cost.However nuclear energy is known for its very low costs of 2-3c/kilowatt hour which can only be currently be met by coal.But nuclear energy cost is based on older nuclear power plants which have already been depreciated.This cost is also controversial as the costs of nuclear waste storage is generally not included.USA and Japan which are the largest nuclear power producers have not constructed permanent nuclear waste storage sites despite accumulating thousands of tons of nuclear waste.Also these days extra safety measures are being taken due to the Fukushima disaster which means that the costs of nuclear energy is going up.
July 5, 2011
Nuclear Power Plants around the globe are being closed at a furious rate particularly in Europe.The Fukushima Disaster has caused a nuclear winter in the nuclear power plant industry.Even Nuclear Power Plant Equipment Leaders like Toshiba are changing their strategy to concentrate on Renewable Energy.Even new Nuclear Power Plants being built in India and China are facing massive opposition.New Nuclear Power Plants being built at Jaitapur and Tamil Nadu have met massive organized protests by local citizens throwing the future of nuclear power plants in jeopary.The Communist Government in China too is going slow on the biggest rollout of nuclear power plants in the world.High Cost Escalation and long project delays had already made building new Nuclear Power Plants in the Developed World almost impossible.Japan and Germany which are two of the largest nuclear countries have decided to shut down all nuclear power plants.Switzerland and Belgium too have decided to kill the nuclear power industry in their countries.In this light it becomes very important to examine the pros and cons of nuclear power plants.A cost benefit analysis of nuclear energy is crucial as new plants cost billions of dollars and can cause massive costs if things go wrong as was the case with Chernobyl and Three Mile Island Disasters in the 1980s.
July 4, 2011
India has become the third country in the world to start a National Green Tribunal (NGT) which is a judicial body exclusively meant to judge environmental cases.Note Environment has become the one of the most important issues in the country affecting the broader society.Alongwith Land Acquisition,environment has become the most frequent conflict flashpoint.There have been numerous case where large industries have been confronted by local people fighting for the environement.Recent cases like the Vedanta Bauxite smelter in Orissa,Thermal Power Plants in Andhra Pradesh,the Jaitapur Nuclear Power Plant in Maharashtra have seen huge controversy and protests.Note Vedanta Resources has found itself in the centre of controversy over mining bauxite in Niyamgiri Hills which are held sacred by the Dongria Kondh tribal group.With powerful political and bureaucratic patrons,Vedanta has managed to ride roughshod over Tribal Rights.
Having a National Green Tribunal (NGT) has become essential for the country so that development can proceed with peace between various stakeholders .Note normal judges and courts don't have the expertise to understand the massive complexities and intricacies involved in billion dollar industrial projects and their impact on the environment.The NGT will have each judge having an environmental expert to guide him/her on the ecological issues so that they can come to an informed judgment.
May 31, 2011
Malaysia is one of the biggest hubs of solar manufacturing in the world through aggressive government support programs and tax holidays.It is home to the biggest manufacturing site for the world's most valued solar company First Solar and has been the preferred choice for solar investment from leading global solar companies .The Reasons behind Malaysia’s Success is government support in the forms of tax breaks,loans,simple regulation and low labor costs.While many of these subsidies have been given by other countries like Singapore,Malaysia has done it with a finesse and dedication that has made it a winner.Many world class companies have started solar manufacturing operations in Malaysia like Flextronics,Q-Cells,Sunpower and First Solar.The country has been planning to implement an ambitious Feed in Tariff program to subsidize Renewable Energy generation.The country has been inspired by Germany whose FIT policy has led it to become the largest solar generating country in the world despite its low solar radiation.
May 14, 2011
Electronic Waste is a massive problem in the Developed and Developing world with Thousands of Tons of Hazardous Electronic Waste being generated each year.With Electronics getting more ubiquitous and costs falling rapidly,Electronic Waste Problem is only going to increase.E-Waste is responsible not only for releasing dangerous substances into the environment it also causes deaths and injuries to poor in countries like India,China and Africa who are forced to work in extremely bad conditions.Electronic Waste Recycling is the need of the hour but the governments around the world have not pushed hard enough.Europe has been at the forefront with the WEEE directive passed in 2002 while USA has been a laggard as usual failing to prevent toxic waste from being dumped in landfills and shipped to poor countries with lax environmental regulations.Electronic Waste Recycling Act of 2003 has been passed in California which again as usual has been leading the federal government on clean technology legislation.
May 11, 2011
Nuclear Energy has been dealt a very heavy blow with Japan deciding to stop building any new nuclear plants from now onwards.PM Kan in a dramatic move announced that Japan's plan to build 14 new nuclear reactors which would increase the share of nuclear power to 50% from 30% has been canceled.The new energy plan of Japan will have more focus on renewable energy and energy efficiency.Note Germany had already shut down 7 of its old nuclear plants with immediate effect following the Fukushima disaster.These nuclear reactors have almost no chance of being started back as hundreds of thousands of German protested against nuclear energy and the Green Party won its first government in Germany.Italy and Switzerland too have put their nuclear power plants under review while other countries too are slowing down the approval process for new nuclear reactors.Nuclear Power in its current form seems to be dying in the developed world with other developed countries too facing opposition to nuclear plants.Note the effects of Nuclear Radiation are quite deadly and widespread even in lower doses or sieverts as was brought to the fore during the Fukushima disaster.It can lead to billions of dollars in lost economic activity.Already 3 major disasters have unfolded in the last 40 years in USA,Russia and Japan despite the safety touted by the Nuclear Industry.
May 2, 2011
Indian government seems not to have learned much from the Fukushima Nuclear Meltdown which has thrown millions of Japanese lives out of gear and caused massive disruption to the economy.The Jaitapur Nuclear Power Plant to be built by NPCIL using Areva's experimental nuclear reactors has got the federal government's environmental clearance.Note the protests against the plant had got a political color with local opposition parties getting involved.A number of villagers have already been killed by police firing and further protests are expected.Note India's activist environment minister Jairam Ramesh has proven to be selectively biased towards large industrial projects in Congress ruled states.After appearing to be hero stopping the Niyamgiri project from Vedanta,Ramesh has given the go ahead to politically favored projects.Not a surprise given the endemic corruption present in the ruling coalition which has given birth to a number of corruption scams and scandals.Like everything,even a project of this criticality has acquired a political cover with everyone sounding their party positions without worrying about the possibility of a nuclear meltdown in India.
April 25, 2011
India's Leather Industry worth more than $7 billion annually is heavily fragmented with small scale units accounting for almost 80% of the industry's revenues.The lack of scale has led to the leather industry not using the best technology and practises as a result it has been heavily polluting the surrounding water and air.The leather industry is present in clusters in many parts of the country like Kolkata,Kanpur,Punjab and other other places.The common theme running across these clusters is their uniforming polluting ways.Leather industry is a a typically developing country activity as the labor and low value add involved has made developed countries mostly outsource production to least developing countries where regulations are lax.However the environment unfriendly activities have become untenable with the major export markets imposing strict ecological regulations about production and sale.This has made it difficult for the industry to cope up as they lack the capital and technology to put in pollution control equipment.
March 28, 2011
Dangerous levels of radiation has been detected in the water around the reactors as the Japanese government says that a partial meltdown has occured.While there is no confirmation about cracks in the pressure and containment vessels around the reactors,the radiation in the water inside Unit 2 has tested at radiation levels some 100,000 times normal amounts.Workers also discovered radioactive water in the deep trenches outside three units, with the airborne radiation levels outside Unit 2 exceeding 1,000 millisieverts per hour _ more than four times the amount that the government considers safe for workers.TEPCO officials said Sunday that radiation in leaking water in Unit 2 was 10 million times above normal.TEPCO has been giving confusing figures for radiation making it all the more difficult in understanding the gravity of the nuclear crisis.Note this disaster is only second to Chernobyl in its scale of radiation destruction.Tokyo and other parts have reported intermittently about high radiation in water and air.A ship from Mitsui was recently turned back from a Chinese port because of high levels of radiation.
March 19, 2011
India's ambitious nuclear energy plan to add around 2G of Nuclear Plant Capacity is running into more and more hurdles each day.Nuclear Energy in India got a boost when India and USA signed a 123 agreeement which removed India's pariah position in the International Nuclear Community allowing transfer of nuclear equipment and material.However the Japanese Nuclear Disaster has thrown a spanner into the works.The Jaitapur Nuclear Power Plant in Maharashtra was already seeing huge protests from local villages and political parties.The news of the Nuclear Radiation from the Fukushima plant has added fuel to the Nuclear Fire it seems.Note only have the Jaitapur protests become more stringent but another planned plant in Kovvadu village in the south eastern state of Andhra Pradesh has run into trouble.Villagers from all 150 villages took out a rally demanding withdrawal of the proposed nuclear power plant in the wake of ongoing nuclear crisis in Japan.I had earlier written that the Biggest Fallout Effect of the Japanese Nuclear Accident would be the Not in My Backyard (NIMBY) opposition of all existing and proposed Nuclear Energy Reactors globally and this is exactly what is happening.
March 16, 2011
Japan's Nuclear Crisis has taken a turn for the worse as US Energy Sectratary CHU saying that a Partial Meltdown has occured.Even IAEA has said that the situation has turned very serious with 4 of the reactors suffering from core damage and 3 of the reactors have their spent fuel rods exposed to the atmosphere as cooling systems have failed.While Japan has almost imposed a news blackout,the damaging news comes from the US administration which has said that the crisis exceeds that of the Three Mile Island already.Japan has doubled the number of workers as the crisis continues to escalate.Authorities battling the nuclear disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant have doubled the number of workers on the site to 100.Helicopters have failed to cool the plant using water due to radioactive plumes and now the desperate Japanese are planning to use water cannons to spray the pools.
March 16, 2011
The situation at the Fukushima Dai-Ichi power plant continued to be desperate as new fires and explosions rocked the nuclear plant.The utility which owns and operates the Nuclear Reactors Tepco said that the containment structure may have been damaged as smoke was seen from top of one of the reactors.70% of the Fuel Rods at Nuclear Reactor 1 and 33% at Reactor 2 have been exposed.This means that these fuel rods are not being cooled and may be melting leading to increased radiation poisoning hazards.New Fire broke out on the morning of 16th March at Reactor No.4 and containment chamber at Reactor 2 is damaged from Reactor 2.The problems at the Nuclear Plant seems to be increasing with no solution in sight.What is worse is that the 2 reactors No.5 and 6 which have been dormant all this time have all seen their temperature .increasing.Temperatures in the spent fuel rod cooling pools of the shuttered No. 5 and No. 6 reactors were rising as of 7 a.m. today to about 60 degrees Celsius (140 degrees Fahrenheit)
March 15, 2011
The backlash against the new and existing Nuclear Power Plants has started in different places around the world despite defiant expressions by Nuclear Plant Owners and Operators.While China and Italian utility Enel have said that they will go ahead with their billion dollar investment plans,Switzerland and Germany have put nuclear plant extensions on hold.Note Germany had extended the life of Nuclear Plants in the country by 10 years after extensive lobbying by the Nuclear Industry.This had led to huge protests from the Opposition Greens but the government had gone ahead in order to reduce Power Costs.However Merkel has been forced to eat humble pie and has said that a 3 month review will be done to check the safety of the Nuclear Reactors.Switzerland has also come out and put the plans for new Nuclear Reactors on Freeze.
March 15, 2011
The explosion and fire at the Japanese Nuclear Plant in NorthEast of Japan has led to the release of a small nuclear plume above the reactors.The southern winds have caused this radiation to spread in many of the prefectures in Japan and cesium and other radioactivity has been detected in the capital of Tokyo.Note Radiation does not affect the human body in small doses as radiation is present in our everyday lives at well.However the increase in radiation concentration can lead to severe health hazards and in extreme cases even death.It is almost impossible to escape radiation effects unless one has special nuclear,biological warfare protective equipment.Note Radiation in Japan is still at quite mild levels and seems unlikely to cause any major health hazard.Radiation will need to increase about 1000 times from the current level for the situation to become serious as of now
March 15, 2011
Japan's Nuclear Disaster took a turn for the worse as another Fire and Blast in the Nuclear Reactor led to Severe Radiation Leak.Japan's PM warned people within 20 miles of the Plant to evacuate and within 30 miles to remain indoors.There is a high probability of the Nuclear Containment Vessel may get Damaged as Temperatures kept rising with the failure of the Cooling Systems.Radiation Levels at the reactor reached 965.5 micro sievert per hour, later jumping to 8,217 micro sievert at 8:31 p.m. The level would be more than eight times the 1,000 micro sievert limit to which people can be exposed in one year without effect, according to the report.The Wind was blowing south which implies that one of the highest population density cities in the world - Tokyo might feel the affects of Radiation.Prime Minister Naoto Kan urged calm in a national address Tuesday.
March 14, 2011
The Japanese Nuclear Plant Explosions would have sent shivers down the throats of everyone living near Nuclear Plants.Note Japanese Nuclear Plants are thought to be one […]
March 6, 2011
India has been trying to build tidal power plants in order to take advantage of around 8 GW of potential tidal wave power capacity potential in India.Note Gujarat has been at the forefront of these efforts with most of the tidal power capacity Gulf of Cambay and Gulf of Kutch.While there have been reports of the go-ahead for these tidal energy plants,nothing concrete has come out of it .Note Tidal Energy is in a very immature stage compared to other forms of Renewable Energy like Solar,Wind and Biomass Energy.Tidal Energy like Wave Energy is still in the demo stage even in developed countries of the West where technology innovation is much higher.
December 14, 2010
Marubeni on the other hand is looking to focus its energy on the crucial Water Service Sector be expanding its footprint in emerging markets.Water Service is a great growth sector due to numerous demand drivers like increasing population,larger per capita requirements,decreased supply.There is already a lot of theories floating around that the next big wars in the 21st century will be due to water shortages.Marubeni has plans to spend around $300 million in acquisitions in foreign markets as it looks to increase its customer base to 10 million.Note Marubeni will be helped by the Japanese government which gives considerable aid and soft loan for water infrastructure projects in developing countries.Note French companies Suez and Veolia are the biggest water service companies in the world.
December 7, 2010
Ragpicking is a developing and poor country concept alien to developed countries of the West busy bickering over responsibility over carbon emissions.Millions of people in India […]
November 20, 2010
Deflating Developed Countries are fueling Inflation in Developing Ones with ultra low interest rates.QE2 has been heavily criticized around the world due to the dangers of it creating asset bubbles in emerging markets as yield hungry investors look for growth at any price.With hundred of billions flooding emerging debt and equity markets,the situation has become volatile for a lot of countries.Brazil has already seen its currency skyrocket in the last 2-3 years due to the huge spread between its bond yields and the US interest rates.With carry investors able to make around 10%,Brazil remains a favorite market for the inflow of dollars.Other countries like Thailand,Malaysia,Indonesia have seen their stock markets rallying to all time highs as well.Many of these countries have already imposed capital controls earlier.Now they are increasing further,as monetary authorities rush to close the gates.
November 16, 2010
India's Relations with its Neighbours in South Asia has mostly been strained despite sharing a common history and culture.While China and Pakistan remains India's topmost concerns with 4 wars being fought with these 2 countries in the last 65 years,the other smaller neighbours have not always been too friendly.However things seem to be improving with Bangladesh which is completely encircled by India on 3 sides.Bangladesh has viewed Big Brother India with suspicion despite India playing a crucial role in Bangladesh's Liberation from Pakistan during 1971.However the Bonhomie since 1971 was lost as subsequent military rulers and the BNP ruled coalition viewed India as an adversary.However the coming back to power of Shiekh Hasina led AWP has put India and Bangladesh on a new level.The reasons behind India-Bangladesh closeness are due to
September 18, 2010
In our Financial linked world where Capital is Globalized while Regulation is not,Hot Money Flows are fueling inflation and asset based bubbles in Developing Countries.Some of the Emerging Markets are either close to or have surpassed the 2008 all time highs.Inflation is also hitting dangerous levels in some countries like Argentina,India and others.The depreciating dollar brought upon the the US Federal Reserve Printing of money has made it necessary that the Central Banks purchase Dollars.This has been done not only by Brazil and Singapore but also by Japan.With more Dollar Printing,these Purchases will increase the Liquidity in the Developing Countries.This is a sure shot recipe for high inflation which will be difficult to control.India has already raised Interest Rates 5 times this year in order to rein in the pernicious effects of high inflation on its largely poor population.
July 5, 2010
Effects of Globalization of Agriculture Globalization of Trade,Capital Flows and Labor has led to many desired and undesired effects.While the globalization of Services and Industry has […]