HEARD ON THE STREET

After getting all the brickbats from the Apex Court on the subservient functioning of  the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and meddling by government in investigations entrusted to the agency, the Indian government is firm on no resignations by any member of political executive. Firstly because the government take instructions only from the court and the court has neither demanded any resignations nor pronounced any punishment. Secondly because all the powerful and mighty of the government must be applauded for carrying out an expose on the weak character of the CBI personnel to perfection and bringing out their unsuitability for holding positions in the prime investigation agency after having failed the acid test of conducting business in a fair, independent and impartial manner.

We should be proud of having such wonderful and innovative individuals at the helm of affairs who are totally wedded to their concern for the nation and its citizenry.

CENTRAL BUREAU Of INVESTIGATION - AN INDEPENDENT BODY ???

The government of India has always maintained that the Central Bureau of Investigation ( CBI ) an elite force which plays a major role in preservation of values in public life and in ensuring the health of the national economy  was a free and independent agency and there was no interference from the government in its functioning. These tall claims of no interference from the government came in for a rude shock in the recent developments in the investigations in the Coalgate scam which are being carried out under direct supervision of the supreme court of India. Strangely enough the CBI instead of reporting directly to the supreme court chose or was forced to choose the path of  getting its observations vetted or approved by the executive including legislative executive under shoddy pretexts of putting in dots and commas at the right places and legal advice. Two major lacunae in the whole set up of CBI come to a normal person's mind.

• Does the CBI lack such competence
• Can we ever have an organisation wedded to its glorious motto of Industry, Impartiality, Integrity particularly when money irrespective of its colour has gained so much prominence in India's social as well as political process.

With  many legal masters and innumerable illegal ones in the shape of  power centres in the bureaucracy and polity, expecting CBI to be free, fearless and impartial is expecting a little too much. Like all other government organs the CBI is also overburdened and its priorities depend on the whims and fancies of the ruling class. It is not for nothing that a parliament with fractured mandate, throws about strange bedfellows from time to time for ruling the country ( particularly during crisis ) and CBI seems to have emerged as the most potent tool in the art of governing/ruling the country.

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ON POLITICS AND POLITY IN INDIA

It has been said that politics is the second oldest profession. I have learned that it bears a striking resemblance to the first.  

These ominous words were penned by none other than Ronald Reagan, a man who spent his whole life in the politics and knew very well what he was talking about. He could never realize that all the key players involved in the oldest profession will feel slighted when compared to the polity. 

Majority of Indian polity is all the more worse for they have no respect for the law and even public servants. The common citizen in whose service they all claim to be in politics is just like an insect to be tramped on. The politicians are simple parasites who exist on the votes of citizenry of the country and suck its blood in return shamelessly.
There was a time when being a politician and donning Khadi was a matter of pride but today courtesy our present leaders the word politician is synonymous with the worst of the derogatory invectives. Politics only means an opportunity to milk the nation, its natural resources and realizing  all your lusts including lust for wine, woman, power and money.

100 Percent Renewable Energy is 100 Percent Possible

Posted April 23, 2013

Keywords: Electricity, Tech, Utilities, Green Business, Environment, Finance,Renewables, Energy and Economy, News, energy efficiency and renewable energy,technology deployment

The future is here -- it’s just unevenly distributed. This old quote found a new application at thePathways to 100% Renewable Energy conference in San Francisco last week. An international crowd of energy experts, financiers, clean energy advocates, elected officials, government employees, academics, and more gathered there to discuss how to bring the renewable energy future to all.

Even those in favor of renewable energy have been known to debate how much of our power it can provide. But at the conference, the question was not whether we can get to 100%. Instead, speakers asked, How do we get there? And how soon?

Answers vary, and multiple approaches are needed -- many of which were shared at this event. Out of all the details and perspectives, a few themes came to the fore.

Our thinking is out of date

What’s the biggest barrier to 100% renewables? According to keynote speaker Frances Moore Lappé, it’s all in our heads. That’s because it’s hard for us to see beyond our mental map and cultural filters. Instead of talking about scarcity and limits to growth, which are part of this mental map, she believes that to find solutions we need to reframe the issue.

An animated Frances Moore Lappé

Other speakers echoed this sentiment and urged us not to let what we see today cloud our vision of tomorrow. After all, the one given in the world of renewables is that a lot will change. We too need to change when it comes to how we approach the problems.

We need to look at things differently. For example, why not switch to driving electric vehicles? Is it just because we’ve internalized and accepted the reality of gas-powered cars?

The same principle can be applied to the power industry itself; the industry’s current reality isn’t the only one possible. It’s bound to change as renewables make more sense economically, climate change becomes harder to deny, and consumers gain more control of power generation. Some say the industry won’t be recognizable by 2050.

In moving beyond our set views, we may realize that more is possible than we think. People said it wasn’t technically possible to integrate as much renewable power into the grid as Germany has done -- and yet it was done, with no adverse effects.

Take up black money issue with government: Advani to President

By Express News Service - NEW DELHI

11th April 2013 07:40 AM

• “The success of an inclusive development strategy critically depends on the capacity of our society to root out the evil of corruption and black money from its very foundations," Advani wrote on his blog. (AP/File)

BJP leader L K Advani on Wednesday urged President Pranab Mukherjee to get the government to bring back black money as was promised in a white paper presented in Parliament over a year ago.

Writing on his blog, Advani expressed disappointment that since the white paper on black money was presented in May 2012 by Pranab, who was then the Union Finance Minister, no follow-up action had been taken.

“I wish to urge Pranab Mukherjee, who is today in a far more exalted position than he was when he presented his white paper, to ensure that the promise made to the people in this document is fulfilled by the government both in letter and spirit,” the BJP patriarch wrote.

Advani recalled that “Pranabda” had said in Parliament: “There is no doubt that manifestation of black money in social, economic and political space of our lives has a debilitating effect on the institutions of governance and conduct of public policy in the country. Governance failure and corruption in the system affect the poor disproportionately. 

“The success of an inclusive development strategy critically depends on the capacity of our society to root out the evil of corruption and black money from its very foundations.”

India's most important institutions are corrupted: The Darker Side of Black Money

New Delhi: Entire sections of public life have become corrupt in India, says a book by a former officer of the Indian Revenue Service (IRS).

"As of today, the most important institutions, the legislature, the executive and the judiciary, have been corrupted," B.V. Kumar says in the paperback edition of "The Darker Side of Black Money" (Konark).

"Corruption of these institutions has finally led to its institutionalization," he says.

Kumar quotes then prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee as saying that growing corruption had bred contempt for the law.

According to Kumar, Indian efforts to check corruption had failed because the guilty did not get punished. Quoting statistics, the author says conviction rate in Indian courts is dismally low compared to other countries.

The 350-page book says that although the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) did its best to complete probes, investigations were often slow and tardy. "The agency is under political leash," it said.

Kumar, who held many coveted posts in 35 years of service, identified lack of political will as one of the factors why India seems to be losing the war against corruption.

Corruption has become so all-pervasive that it has ceased to be an issue among political parties, he says.

Lack of respect for political ideology also means that politicians charged with corruption promptly join another party, where "they are not only welcomed but treated as heroes".

Kumar also blames the criminal justice system for the present mess.

He suggests that investigating agencies undertake 'sting' and undercover operations to unearth cases of systemic and chaotic corruption.

"It is also necessary to identity persons who are known to be corrupt and retire them from the civil service compulsorily.

"As far as politicians are concerned, nothing short of a social and political boycott may be necessary as most (of) them are thick skinned."

Condoning corruption, he warns, would amount to patronising organised crime, "and this will ultimately debilitate and destabilize governments, particularly in developing countries".

The book laments that many countries do not penalise corruption in the private sector.

INDIAN DREAMS Vs REALITY: WHAT AILS INDIA?: The whole world recognises the potential of India to become a global economic superpower in the next few decades  in the light of avai...

INDIAN DREAMS Vs REALITY: INDIA'S ENERGY SECURITY : RENEWABLE ENERGY SOURCES...: It was heartening to note that Indian government has finally seen  the reality of clean green energy and this was emphasized by none other...

Graph of the Day: Germany’s new solar power record by CleanTechnica

On Monday, the 15th of April, 2013, the approximate 1.3 million solar power systems in Germany set a new domestic/world record by reaching a peak power output of 22.68 GW at noon.

The New Normal

This new record is almost 0.5 GW above the “old” record of 22.2 GW, which was set on May 25th, 2012. Allthough I love celebrating all solar records, the biggest news might be that “just” 22.68 GW is apparently no longer newsworthy in Germany, because above 15-20 GW of solar have become a regularity.

During the first two weeks of April, solar surpassed the 20 GW mark on several occasions and made a meaningful contribution to the domestic power supply on every single day. For everybody remotely familiar with German or Central European weather conditions, it’s needless to say that it wasn’t all sunshine & cloudless skies in April.

Since solar panels last for 25+ years and have almost no marginal costs, I like to use the opportunity to mention the fact that whatever might happen in policy in the coming years, those yellow areas of the electricity market will remain liberated* from the external effects caused by conventional electricity production for at least one generation. (*To use a slightly more energy revolutionary sort of language)

So, lets celebrate the new solar world record of 22.68 GW of solar power on a national grid, despite its relative “mediocrity,” with a little infographic!

Renewable Germany: The very model of the new energy order

By Amory Lovins on 18 April 2013

Germany has doubled the renewable share of its total electricity consumption in the past six years to 23% in 2012. It forecasts nearly a redoubling by 2025, well ahead of the 50% target for 2030, and closing in on official goals of 65% in 2040 and 80% in 2050. Some areas are moving faster: in 2010, four German states were 43–52% windpowered for the whole year. And at times in spring 2012, half of all German electricity was renewable, nearing Spain’s 61% record set in April 2012.While the examples of Japan, China, and India show the promise of rapidly emerging energy economies built on efficiency and renewables, Germany—the world’s number four economy and Europe’s number one—has lately provided an impressive model of what a well-organized industrial society can achieve. To be sure, it’s not yet the world champion among countries with limited hydroelectricity: Denmark passed 40% renewable electricity in 2011 en route to a target of 100% by 2050, and Portugal, albeit with more hydropower, raised its renewable electricity fraction from 17% to 45% just during 2005–10 (while the U.S., though backed by a legacy of big hydro, crawled from 9% to 10%), reaching 70% in the rainy and windy first quarter of 2013. But these economies are not industrial giants like Germany, which remains the best disproof of claims that highly industrialized countries, let alone cold and cloudy ones, can do little with renewables.

Efficiency and Renewables Bolster Post-Fukushima Germany

To underscore the remarkable German case, let’s review what happened in 2011, right after Fukushima. The Bundestag—led by the most conservative and pro-nuclear party, with no party dissenting—overwhelmingly voted to close eight of the country’s nuclear plants immediately and the other nine by 2022. (In a double U-turn, a nuclear phase-out agreed in 2000 was first slowed and then reinstated; nuclear output has actually been falling since 2006.) Skeptics said this abrupt shutdown of 41% of nuclear output would make the lights go out, the economy crash, carbon emissions and electricity prices soar, and Germany need to import nuclear power from France. But none of that happened.

In fact, in 2011 the German economy grew three percent and remained Europe’s strongest, buoyed by a world-class renewables industry with 382,000 jobs (about 222,000 of them added since 2004, with net employment and net stimulus both positive). Chancellor Merkel won her bet that it would be smarter to spend energy money on German engineers, manufacturers, and installers than to send it to the Russian natural gas behemoth Gazprom. Germany’s lights stayed on. The nuclear shutdown was entirely displaced by year-end, three-fifths due to renewable growth. Do the math: simply repeating 2011’s renewable installations for three additional years, through 2014, would thus displace Germany’s entire pre-Fukushima nuclear output. Meanwhile, efficiency gains—plus a mild winter—cut total German energy use by 5.3%, electricity consumption by 1.4%, and carbon emissions by 2.8%. Wholesale electricity prices fell 10–15%. Germany remained a net exporter of electricity, and during a February 2012 cold snap, even exported nearly 3 GW to power-starved France, which remains a net importer of German electricity.

Was this just a flash in the pan? No. In 2012 vs. 2011, official data show that these trends broadly persisted.

Germany generated 617 TWh of electricity in 2012, up 0.3% from 2011. Nuclear generation fell below 100 TWh, the lowest in at least two decades. Gas prices spiked above coal, so gas-fired generation fell 13 TWh while coal-fired generation ticked up 14 TWh or 5%—still near modern lows, but boosted by a record 23 TWh of profitable power exports. Renewables added 15 TWh: they rose from 20% of electricity consumption in 2011 to 23% in 2012, passing every rival except brown coal (lignite, expected to recede in 2013). Renewable output has risen by one-third just in the past two years. And though Germany’s mix of solar, wind, biomass, hydro, etc. wouldn’t all run at the same time, its total end-of-2012 renewable generating capacity impressively rivaled the country’s 82 GW peak demand. Driven by renewables’ competition, wholesale electricity prices continued to plummet. Germany’s grid remained the most reliable in Europe. And while real GDP, damped by the Euro crisis, grew just 0.7%, electricity consumption fell 1.3%. Total carbon emissions rose 1.6%, boosted by an unusually cold winter, but emissions from industry plus power stations stayed constant, and weather-adjusted total emissions probably fell.

Silence on swiss banks must end -- Prof. R. Vaidyanathan

http://rvaidya2000.wordpress.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=1563&action=edit

Niti Central 10/04/2013

Is Congress serious about illegal money in tax havens? - Part 1

Prof. R.Vaidyanathan

Leaked documents reveal how the rich, crooks and politicians use offshore banking havens to protect their money, a journalism group in Washington said on Thursday.

The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists collaborated with The Guardian and the BBC in Britain, Le Monde in France, Suddeutsche Zeitung and Norddeutscher Rundfunk in Germany, The Washington Post, the Canadian Broadcasting Corp and 31 other news organisations to analyse the data from 2.5 million documents related to more than 120,000 offshore companies and trusts.

“The leaked files provide facts and figures – cash transfers, incorporation dates, links between companies and individuals – that illustrate how offshore financial secrecy has spread aggressively around the globe, allowing the wealthy and the well-connected to dodge taxes and fueling corruption and economic woes in rich and poor nations alike,” the ICIJ said in its report, “Secrecy for Sale: Inside the Global Money Maze.”

The major findings so far are,

» Government officials and their families and associates in Azerbaijan, Russia, Canada, Pakistan, the Philippines, Thailand, Mongolia and other countries have embraced the use of covert companies and bank accounts.

» The mega-rich use complex offshore structures to own mansions, yachts, art masterpieces and other assets, gaining tax advantages and anonymity not available to average people.

» Many of the world’s top’s banks – including UBS, Clariden and Deutsche Bank – have aggressively worked to provide their customers with secrecy-cloaked companies in the British Virgin Islands and other offshore hideaways.

» A well-paid industry of accountants, middlemen and other operatives has helped offshore patrons shroud their identities and business interests, providing shelter in many cases to money laundering or other misconduct.

» Ponzi schemers and other large-scale fraudsters routinely use offshore havens to pull off their shell games and move their ill-gotten gains. (Source: ICIJ)

There are “612 Indians in this list include two Members of Parliament — Lok Sabha Congress MP Vivekanand Gaddam and RS member Vijay Mallya — and several industrialists such as Ravikant Ruia, Samir Modi, Chetan Burman, Abhey Kumar Oswal, Rahul Mammen Mappillai, Teja Raju, Saurabh Mittal and Vinod Doshi.” (Source: Indian Express)

The list also includes businessmen who have had a brush with authorities such as the Income-Tax department and the CBI. Several of the offshore investments were made in possible violation of RBI and FEMA rules.

For instance that substantial amount of our money is stashed illegally in tax havens. For a long period of time there have been discussions on the black money stashed by Indians in Swiss banks. It is not only Swiss banks but various other off-shore banking centres like Lichtenstein, Luxemburg, and Channel Island etc. At the outset let us be clear that Swiss bank is only a generic name given to many such locations which are called tax havens. There are presumably more than 70 tax havens in the world. At least forty countries used to market themselves aggressively as tax havens — even on the internet.

The common characteristics of these tax havens are no or low taxes, not much of Know Your Customer (KYC) norms, no transparency and confidentiality about the account and in some cases these small countries give asylum in case the originating country goes after a customer. Tax havens do not consider tax evasion a crime.

Anywhere between $500 billion to $1.5 trillion of our money is stashed abroad. Most of this has gone abroad due to trade mispricing that is under invoicing and over invoicing of trade items and commissions on major contracts like Bofors stashed abroad.

President Pratibha Patil, in her address to the joint session of the 15th Lok Sabha on June 4, 2009, had clearly enunciated: My Government is fully seized of the issue of illegal money of Indian citizens outside the country in secret bank accounts. It will vigorously pursue all necessary steps in coordination with the countries concerned.

Even though the issue is not part of the agenda for the first 100 days of the new Government, it is refreshingly different from the election rhetoric of the ruling party which initially denied the existence of such illegal wealth stashed abroad. Later, it questioned the estimates and timing of the revelations etc. Fortunately, after the elections, the issue has not been brushed under the carpet.

Americans Want More Emphasis on Solar, Wind, Natural Gas

By Dennis Jacobe, Chief Economist, Gallup
April 9, 2013 

Oil, nuclear, and coal are more popular with Republicans and in the South.

 

No fewer than two in three Americans want the U.S. to put more emphasis on producing domestic energy using solar power (76%), wind (71%), and natural gas (65%). Far fewer want to emphasize the production of oil (46%) and the use of nuclear power (37%). Least favored is coal, with about one in three Americans wanting to prioritize its domestic production.

Democrats' and independents' top choice is solar power, while natural gas places first among Republicans. Republicans and Democrats disagree most on the priority that should be given to oil as a future energy source -- with 71% of Republicans wanting more emphasis placed on it, compared with 29% among Democrats. Republicans are also much more supportive than Democrats of coal (51% vs. 21%) and nuclear power (49% vs. 30%).
Where Americans live makes a difference in their views about which sources of domestic energy they want the U.S. to emphasize more. Those living in the South tend to be more supportive of traditional energy sources such as oil and coal than are those in other regions.
Still, for Americans in every region, including the South, solar power is the top choice, or is tied for the top spot, among the energy sources tested.

NRG Introducing Solar with Battery Storage for Homeowners

By Chris Meehan
April 9, 2013 

 

NRG Energy keeps making waves—in energy. The energy supplier, which owns gigawatts of electric generation, including solar, wind, natural gas and coal facilities across the U.S., recently started going a lot smaller, offering residential solar photovoltaic installations through its subsidiary, NRG Residential Solar. Now it plans to offer PV systems with battery backups, allowing consumers to use their own energy during blackouts—or even at night.
The new systems are being designed as pergolas, essentially easily deployable shade structures that can quickly start powering a home or small business.The systems can also be grid-tied. And, since they have all the other qualities and battery back-up, such systems could aid in disaster recovery from events, like Hurricane Sandy.
Earlier this week, Forbes reported that NRG Solar plans to introduce residential solar arrays with battery backup under a partnership with GCL-Poly Energy and Sunora Energy Solutions. NRG Solar CEO Tom Doyle discussed the upcoming pergola PV systems with battery backup with Forbes in San Francisco. Such free-standing structures can be prefabricated offsite to help reduce the cost of the system. Something Doyle and NRG may be banking on. “I’m excited about using the solar pergola to penetrate the residential space,” Doyle tells Forbes. “There are a lot of residential solar companies out there, and I’m trying to figure out what are their stories, what we can bring to the market.”
Solar leasing and power-purchase agreements, which allow homeowners to go solar without paying up-front costs, have exploded over the past few years, there aren’t many companies that offer such systems with batteries to go along with them, battery systems capable of powering a house remain cost-prohibitive. Currently, battery storage only makes sense for homes off the grid and far from transmission lines, and only a small handful of third-party ownership companies, like SolarCity, offer such options. 

Tap the potential of solar energy: expert - The Hindu

It can save the State from power crisis’

Tapping the enormous potential of solar energy by setting up solar power units on the roof-tops of residences as well as public institutions is the only way out to salvage the State from its present power crisis, energy expert and former president of the Kerala Sastra Sahithya Parishad (KSSP) R.V.G. Menon has said.

He was talking at a seminar on the ‘the alternative energy sources,’ organised as part of the golden jubilee celebrations of the Parishad at the Town hall here on Friday.

He threw light on the historical reasons on why the country lagged behind other nations in developing alternative energy sources, especially by tapping solar and wind energy sources.

He said that given the peculiar circumstances arising from the limited prospects of fossil fuels, all the states should expedite their process of switching over from the conventional energy sources to the renewable ones.

Mr. Menon said that though many developed countries including the U.S. and Germany were witnessing over 100 per cent growth in solar energy sector, India was very slow in adapting the new technology.

“Only states like Rajasthan and Gujarat are showing some encouraging signs,” he said. Stating that the effort by the State government to set up as many as 10,000 roof-top solar panels across the State at a subsidised rate was a welcome move, Mr. Menon said that the response from the residents however was not so positive.