Congress is on backfoot this time, as the name of M. Karunanidhi’s daughter Kanimozhi is now out in the 2G scam. Congress spokesperson Jayanthi Natarajan’s statement that there is no strain in Congress-DMK alliance is a clear symbol that Congress is preventive to keep the alliance alive. After A. Raja, this is the second blame on DMK , which could possibly annoy DMK as well as Congress. Natarajan also said that Congress and DMK are together for last 7 years, and this storm won’t sink their boat.

In this period significant changes towards environment also arrived in outlook of individuals also. This is clear from from the report’s data that enunciates number of electric vehicles on road in United States to be less than 10,000 in 2000 and more than 1.4 million in 2010. In 2000 just two electric car modals were available in market, but in 2010 one was resourceful to pick from 30 products.

Economy of Clean Tech :

To make clean tech investor friendly to a greater extent, it must be able to enamour customers. Higher returns would no-doubt make investors fall in love with clean tech. But competition is another truth. Non-clean technologies are still giving tough competition making it to turn the focus of investors in emerging economies who are inure to conventional sources. It should be able to generate respectable number of jobs and reduced installation and operational costs to attract governments across globe to adopt it. High-end research and developments in clean technology sector invites the core enhancements in the power generation facilities utilizing natural resources. Such units are undoubtedly at an advantage with zero input cost. And far-flung effectuation is driving cost of implementation further down. In 2000, establishing and operational costs of clean energy units was much higher than conventional sources. But fossil fuel and oil went throughh a rapid accretion in ten years, assisted clean tech find its place in market.

allegorizin trend,lucrative prospective of clean technology sector encouraged investors during ending years of last century and early years of this century to invest in clean tech. This resulted in technological enhancement that invited more investors which resulted in more technological enhancements. These technological enhacements brought efficient employment of clean tech. With wide implementation, it invited more investors and the chain reaction goes on. Tracing current trend, its very likely, by the end of this decade, environmental friendliness of set-up will become a primary pre-requisite for establishing new units in almost every sector.

6Cs

Pernick and Wilder who also authored the Clean Energy Trends, called attention to 6 driving forces in 2007. In 2011, these Cs(6 driving forces were titled 6 C) are not only relevent , but now they fuel clean tech growth more then ever before. When this parameter was put forth , it was said that increasing cost of fossil fuels is encouraging the employment of the clean energy across sectors. That time (2007) coking coal was available at $91 and crude oil was in stock for $64 (double that what they were in 2000, coal $40 ton crude $27).

This appreciation of 100% from 2000 to 2007 made analysts attribute rising fossil fuel cost for widespread acceptance of clean technologies. In next three years, fossil fuels prices began seeing new highs. In 2010 coal price was $126/ton and crude prices doubled in these three years to see a $100+ prices.Consequence of these increased raw materials for energy generation are intitutive.Though current  high levels in coal and crude prices are thanked to Queensland flood and middle east political turmoil. But analysts believe maximum possible depreciation in prices is no more than 10% upon settling of issues.

Clean Energy Trend Report is seemingly inspired with the past growth of usage of  clean energy and projected a growth of nearly 100% for biofuels and windpower. Biofuels, which accounted for $56.4 billion globally in 2010, are expected to cover a market of $112.9 billion by 2020. Though growth of biofuels (from 23.6 billion in 2009 to 27.2 billion) is not very promising, but factoring recent innovations and crude prices, this growth is quite bankable.

Wind power (new installations capital costs) was $60.5 billion in 2010 and is projected to grow doubly in ten years from now and will be $122.9 billion by 2020. This projection is despite the fact that global wind power installation dropped from 37.5GW in 2009 to 35.2 GW in 2010. This projection can be ascribed to China (one of the 6 driving factors for clean tech). China is now a global leader in total cumulative installs of more than 42 GW. This data is very significance as it represents inclination of emerging economies for this low operational cost energy source. Emerging markets have huge potential of consumption as well.If they are focussing on clean resources, the future of clean tech can be prognosticated to be more promising. Reckoning the soaring consumption in China, Chinese committment for wind energy is favorable for investors as well as environment.

Clean Edge analysts are not seeing similar growth n solar photovoltaics. This industry is projected to be $113.6 billion by 2020 from $71.2 billion in 2010. Though new installations of solar PV doubling from 7.1% GW in 2009 to 15.6 GW world wide. Depreciation in prices of these equipments possibly led analysts to be conservative in their forecast.

As per IEA, China surpassed United States in 2009 in energy consumption measure with 2.265 billion tons of oil equivalent as compared to 2.16 billion tons of oil equivalent in US. But still there is one thing that would fade the excitement of an environmentalist is Organization of Economic Co-operation (OECD) forecast. According to OECD, contribution of renewables to the energy supply was 34% in India and 20.3% in China in 2000 which dropped to 29.2% and 12.3% in 2007 in India and China respectively. OECD projects renewable contribution in India and China energy supply will be 22.2% and in China it would be 9% by 2020. However United States figures are incremental with 4.8% in 200 to 5.3% in 2007 and projected to be 9% by 2020.

Transformation to consequences : Trends

Investors in United States are way ahead in apprehending the future. According the Clean Tech Trend report, in 2000 venture capital investment in clean tech was less than 1% in US, which is now more than 23% of the total investment.

During past decade, world witnessed development of an investor friendly environment of clean technology ventures. This decade is likely to exert the consequences of transformations arrived during last decade. As Clean Edge report canvassed clean tech revolution to that of internet, it can be safely assumed that now clean tech will influence energy trends. In 90s, internet sector absorbed huge risky investments, but eventually they proved fruitful in next decade (2000 to 2010). In latest version of annually published report, five trends are discussed.

First one emphasizes the the growth of LEDs. Incandescent and Compact Fluoroscnet Light (CFL ) are soon to be replaced by LEDS. With countries like US, Japan,China among others, planning to ban or already ostracized incandescent bulbs, will bring a new world enlightened with LEDs. Report says initially few market leaders can enjoy these government policies with their efficient products.One trend emerging of this trend is the Governments’ taking firm steps for fostering energy efficient products. Indeed such steps are a must for policy makers as its only them who are conceived responsible for meeting their country’s energy requirement. This is now trending that governments’ even from emerging economies are taking firm steps to promote energy efficient technologies.

Obama’s 80% clean energy dependency target by 2020 also includes power production using natural gas and nuclear sources. But risks associated with drilling natural gas and Fukushima disaster have raised security concerns. A new energy production mechanism which uses the natural gas to improve efficiency of wind and solar power generation plants, is in trends. Ain-Ben-Mather , Moracco is now world’s first under-operation Integrated Solar Combined Cycle (ISCC plant). Similar plants are under construction in Egypt and Algeria. These plants increase steam generation capacity by adding solar heat to the gas turbine waste heat.

Eco friendly civilian and military aviation is the next trend. Using biofuels for meeting energy desideratum is something leading airlines are focussing.Emerging economies like China and India are seeing big increase in travellers and number of aircrafts. So sustainable fueling researches will create a market for bio fuels in aviation too. Though aviation fuels require long and costly processing, if implemented successfully, bio fuels would find their place in aviation.

Environment friendly sustainable and energy saving residential and cmmercial constructions are next big wave of change. Green buildings are getting faster popularity than ever before. These low cost sustainable buildings offer natural light and ventillation, rain water collection and are made of locally available and recycled materials. This year, new innovations with low cost facilities are set to be introduced.

Fifth trend proposed in the report is the innovations in the rare earth metals. These metals found a variety of applications in nuclear,laser,aerospace,electrodes etc. They are requisite in several new clean technology solutions. But they are prone to imbalance in demand-supply and with increasing clean technology usages, their low cost and easy availability become mandatory to keep clean technologies as much independent as possible. China is the leading supplier of rare earth with 95% percent of total world production.  But as China is committed to reduce its exports by 11 percent ( part of 7% growth target set by premiere Wen Jiabao) in first six months of 2011, rare earth metal prices are billowing. Now clean technology companies are moving ahead from China dependency to alternatives. Nontech can possibly provide a solution in future. Currently automakers are flag bearers in finding these alternatives. Automakers require a permanent magnet, usually made of neodynium to convert electrical energy to mechnical energy in cars.  Recent advancements made it possible to develop a rare earth free induction motor.

A research paper selected for publication in journal Psychology Science analyses the significance of smarter people in incrementing per capita GDP. Study found that, with increase of one point in a country’s average IQ score, per capita GDP is found to be $229 higher. Considering a fact that every country hosts a pool of 5 percent most intelligent individuals who are positioned in high profile jobs, a research found the dominance of these smartest-in-country individuals. Idiosyncratic intelligence of policymakers also boosts economy of a country. It said, when there is an increase of 1 point in average IQ score of these 5 percent, there is an increase noted of $468 in country’s per capita GDP. This is quite intuitive as well as proved by research also. As these 5 percent people are likely to hail from sectors like administration, business, science and technology, so smarter people across sectors ameliorate economy. Data from 90 countries was analyzed by researchers. Analogizing excellence in science with intelligence, researchers gathered information of grandness in science of countries under observation. These parameters include number of patents per person, number of noble laureates etc.

Heiner Rindermann, Chemnitz University, who authored the study with James Thompson of University College London, said on human capital that it is a measure of problem solving skill of a person. Rindermann further said in a statement that their research reckons human capital as more important in economic growth than economic freedom of a country. This research is different from others in aspect that role of 5 percent intellects is described in detail.

Prior to this, a similar research was conducted in 2007 in Ohio State University’s Center for Human Resource Research. Research paper was published in journal Intelligence. It showed smart people (characterized by high IQ) does not show any variation in their wealth from people with less intelligence. By wealth, they meant net worth. This research mainly pointed the common human behavior for managing their finances. It proved that better management of the financial assets has nothing to do with the fast calculation ability; it’s rather an emotional matter. The variation for financial behavior of a human is more susceptible to habitat, family background, financial condition and past experience. It’s very obvious that one as genius as Einstein may miss bill payments, habitual of paying unwanted more interest on credit because of delayed payment etc.

Most discussed book inspecting relation between intelligence and wealth of nations is  ‘ IQ and the Wealth of Nations’. Book is authored by Dr. Richard Lynn, Professor Emeritus of Psychology at University of Ulster, Northern Ireland and Dr. Tatu Vanhanen, Professor Emeritus of Political Science at University of Tampere, Tampere, Finland. They published results based on their studies but later, theory proposed in it underwent controversial. Unlike recent research paper which deals with IQ of 5 percent, it made a generalized survey to determine context of average IQ in prosperity of a nation.

Lynn and Vanhanen suggested average IQ of a nation is the most dominating factor while deciding prosperity of a nation. IQ is most influential followed by economic system adopted by country (socialist or market economy). This theory began getting wide criticism from its very first avatar. The first reason to deny this hypothesis was the authenticity of data. It was said that averaging of IQ for different countries was ambiguous. Interestingly, critics also evince that consult any of the richest, you won’t find an eligibility criteria titled intelligent to be rich.

But it is equally true that smart people invariably give an opportunity to be at advantage to their respective countries. They do science and technology research, they manage huge business organizations; they manage administration and that too efficiently. They compete more effectively eventually making their nation a rich one. But this, at no point proves that they sustain a personal ginormous bank balance.

Lynn’s postulates are though flexible. There are some variation to rule (IQ is proportional to wealth). Lynn attributed the socialist economy system for high average IQ but lower prosperity. Few oil exporting countries have more per capita GDP but low IQ. He thanks huge oil reservoirs for this. In finance markets, it is said that money making is more about decision making than it is about great mathematical skills. In behavioral finance branch of economy, it is believed that, while making financial decisions emotions override mathematical ability of a person. And to make situation crummier for smart people, they tend to vindicate their financial decision, making it almost impossible for them to revert their decision. Psychologists also say smart people are more inclined to preserve their smartness rather than their investment, in range of cases. Smart people suffer from one another financial woe, they tend to be perfect. So instead of taking apparent favorable decisions, they chose to hunt for the best one, the perfect one. And things begin getting complicated.

It is a good practice that mind should be free of all speculations about result while doing work or making decision. Early researches have proved that one should be free from any kind of thoughts about results while working to get optimum results. One should give his/her best and that’s enough. But intelligent people calculate possible outcomes of any decision they make, any action they perform. They cogitate a lot about results which results in taking decision based on future speculation pretermiting current requirements. It’s a matter of fact that speculations have 50-50 chances of occurring in future as several unrealized factors decipher at later stages. When this smart man is at work, he does well. Smart people work efficiently and when they are at decision making position, they make good decision with their smartness (this includes meetings, consultations etc) rather than being emotional as they are while treating personal gifts as free money. In decision making positions, they are not in state to let their emotions surpass all requirements. So these smart people contribute to economy with their smart work but this doesn’t guarantee their personal status.

Analyzing studies on relationship between intelligence and financial status, we can safely state that one country should possess high IQ individuals as they are country’s best possible resource. And at individual level, one should be smart enough to make financial decision based on realistic calculations. No doubt smart people earn more than other counterparts, but this is not the lone requirement for being wealthy. Being wealthy is an art like singing, communication skill etc, where intelligence has influence but no control.

Service industries in  informal firms( unregistered and unorganized) are found to be less inclined towards the government programs as compared to informal manufacturing firms.  Note cites the reason for this as the cumbersome official procedures and variety of taxes being imposed after registration. The basic difference between service and manufacturing sector is the big size and costly machinery expenses beard by manufacturing unit. Investment needed in manufacturing unit is much larger than a service enterprise. What inspired a manufacturing unit to go unregistered is the constant attention of government officials. And other taxes based on their size play role of a stimulus to let entrepreneur decide not to register.
One notable aspect of the two kinds of firms is the role of women entrepreneurs.  It is found that women usually chose to go for service sector as getting loans for them in these countries is a tough measure.  Governments need to address the problem faced by women covered with better policies for them. Enterprise surveys clear the scenario statistically. As these are unregistered and unaccounted firms, so there can’t be any assurity of any slight divergence.
Data states that of the 201 surveyed manufacturing firms 29% belong to garment industry while 20% are from food industry. While talking about service firms, retail accounts 51% and hospitality accounts for 8%. Other firms are distributed in remaining.  This diversification explains why informal firms can’t be compared with formal sector in their financial management.
There are few key differences between manufacturing and service firms. It is an established fact that manufacturing units require lesser amount of man power as compared to service sector. In the survey, there is no exception to this rule. But the gap between two sectors is low. Average employment in service firm is 1.6 as compared to 1.5 in manufacturing firm. In efficiency calculation (sales per worker), service firms are way ahead of the manufacturing firms in Madagascar and Mauritius. Mauritius and Madagascar show more efficiency in service firms. M. Amin from Enterprise Surveys points to high level of energy consumption in manufacturing firms. In manufacturing firms, electricity dependency is 69 percent as compared to 53 percent in service firms.
Working of informal sector is also influenced by skills of key personals. Entrepreneurs with less than secondary education and necessity entrepreneurs perform better in service sector. 90 The reason for necessity entrepreneurs (who fail to get job elsewhere) is the low starting cost of services. This facilitates them to easily go for job whenever it is available.  Another difference between two is the integration of the service firms into the financial system. Of the 46 percent firms having a bank account, 65 percent have a separate business account. In manufacturing firms 33 percent have a bank account with 62 percent having a business account.
However majority of informal firms do not apply for any loan. More than 40 percent firms do not actually require loan for their operations. While for others, reason for not applying for loan is the complexity of application procedure, no collateral and their registration status.

Reason for remaining unregistered in informal sector is same for manufacturing and service firms. Lack of government efforts to educate people for registering their firms is one among few reasons. People do not have enough information of tough procedures to get registered. High fee of registration is also one reason, as firms consider them too high. Upon registration, taxes imposed by government are yet another reason an entrepreneur decides not to register firm. Though this is a survey report, ground conditions may vary in Mauritius, where government has done its best to have flexible taxes. Better access to financing, better exposure in market and more access to government programs are main reasons that should inspire firms to get registered. But as in majority of cases, access to finance is not the key challenge, they remain unregistered.

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More than 850 Air India pilots are on strike and this week Delhi High ruled that their strike is illegal , and all pilots should join duty.  Air India pilots have their own reason for the strike.  Indian Commercial Pilot Association (ICPA) General Secretary Rishabh Kapur said in an statement that 31,000 Air India staff, including non-pilot employees are committed to save their airline and are more than ready to go the jail. And this way, strike continued for the third consecutive day. Now it will be interesting to see, if Court rules to arrest them all for not respecting Court’s order or Court would call for another hearing.