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Indians prefer Second Hand properties over New!

Kaushambi — Mon, 14 May 2012 14:41:14 +0000

A survey by Track2Realty has found that Indian home buyers are more interested in buying ready-to-move in properties rather than new and incomplete projects. The survey targeted the upper and middle class home buyers in 10 cities including Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Calcutta, Ahmedabad, Chennai, Pune, Kochi, Patna and Chandigarh. Most of these buyers were educated professionals and were trying to buy property for the first time.

The survey pointed out that 74% of buyers would rather buy a property that was ready-to-move in, rather than a project which was still under development.

Some of the reasons given by the buyers included things like ease of projecting appreciation, reasonability of rates and charges levied by the builder, instant access to tax benefits, etc. More than half of the respondents who were home buyers also mentioned that they would prefer a ready property just because they can make a good decision based on the type of neighborhood and overall profile of a property.

So why is there a negative sentiment towards new projects and developments that have not been completed? Why would 7 out of 10 prospective home buyers in India negotiate a deal for an existing and ready-to-move in property rather than an unfinished project?

One of the first concerns seems to be delays. Construction may not happen as planned and there may be delays beyond the home buyer’s or the builder’s control. In the survey, 82% of buyers who bought properties in new projects are now regretting their decision because of delays in completion of the project.

An apparent ‘Over promising’ is also scaring away first home buyers from new developments. 72% of home buyers who did not prefer to buy new and unfinished projects complained about the lack of non-functioning amenities like club houses, swimming pools and under-equipped gyms. The buyers also show a lack of trust in builders as faulty construction and poor design were a major issue.

Benefits of buying Second Hand properties

Let’s drill into the psyche of the average property buyer who is an urban professional and is in the middle to upper class segment. Some of the obvious benefits of buying a ready-to-move in property align with the findings of the Track2Realty survey.

Buyers can see for themselves the kind of construction and design they are paying money for.
Home buyers can also survey the already functioning amenities that exist in the development.
Municipal and builder levied charges are also clear to the buyer and there are little chances of surprises.
There is virtually no chance of delays as the property has already been constructed.
Buyers can see what the neighbourhood is like and the type of environment in the apartment complex or society development. It is easier to answer questions like "Will the children enjoy it here?", "Will it be a peaceful environment?" etc.
As the property has already been owned and possibly lived in before, there are lesser chances of fraudulent paperwork.
Appreciation of property prices is one of the top things on the mind of a property buyer. In case of completed and ready-to-move in properties, buyers get a good feel of the area, surroundings and infrastructure within and outside the development premises. It seems that the satisfaction of ‘what you see is what you get’ trumps over unknown certainties of buying properties that have not been fully constructed yet.

However it should be noted that first home buyers should not shy away from purchasing new developments. There may be inherent risks of buying a project which is under construction, but such purchases can reap big rewards and can be life-changing from a monetary perspective.

One of the basic precautions that home buyers can take is to buy from reputed builders. There are no guarantees that even India’s best construction company will deliver 100%. But buying a property in a development which is under the banner of a well known builder reduces the risk factor. Reputed builders survive on branding and delivering what they promise in terms of construction quality, amenities, etc as bad publicity can harm sales in future projects.

How to Brand Yourself on Linkedin

guest — Mon, 14 May 2012 05:00:51 +0000

Am I a Brand or Am I a Brand?

Well, Friends, as of today, EACH one of You regardless of the Industry you are into, YOU are a BRAND. You might not be aware of it, or might not want to acknowledge it, or yet haven’t realized the importance of your Personal Brand in this cluttered Industry. But, Believe You, Me; fast approaches a time, when every professional in every industry will be evaluated on the basis of his Personal Brand Worth.

Often the next question is "To Brand ME or not To Brand ME?" And if your answer is YES; the next endless list of questions follow suit:

a) How to brand myself?

b) What am I suppose to brand?

c) Where am I suppose to brand?

d) How to express my brand? or

e) The most common question: WHY am I suppose to brand myself?

For now, we are going to focus on HOW TO brand yourself, starting with the most visible and credible place on the social media-Linkedin.

I personally believe that Linkedin has been a much worthy of an innovation vis-a-vis Facebook. Not that I love Facebook any less than Linkedin; but for the ruling corporate citizens of today, Linkedin has been the biggest boon since maybe the Wheel! (alright, I might have exaggerated a bit, for the dramatic effect!)

So let’s enumerate the answers to these questions:

1. HOW to Brand Yourself:

Discover your Unique Brand Value Proposition, that differentiates you from the herd, and Voice it: meaning Express it. The more dedicated protocol is to Discover & Conceive your Personal Brand, under the aegis of a Personal Brand Strategist; who will empower you to Discover Your Personal Brand and Communicate it effectively to your target audience.

But nonetheless, if you are confident of your distinguishing personal brand proposition and can express it without professional guidance, explore your personal brand, yourself. You can also discover the Values of your Personal Brand in 5 Simple Steps to start your journey of Personal Branding.

2. WHAT To Brand About Yourself:

We just answered it- Your Brand Value Proposition; but not in its raw, in your face kind of positioning, but a more strategically crafted positioning that expresses your unique promise of value. For example, if you are an honest to the core, independent stock broker who uses this factor to differentiate himself from the galaxy of opportunists; instead of saying that you are ‘the honest, sincere and true to your client broker’ you may want to position yourself like this: “The noble broker who cares more than he craves!” Or for example, if you are an adventurous IT professional who explores every challenge like an adventure, and emerges as a more wise & enriched being; instead of simply saying, ‘I am an adventure loving IT Professional’ you can position yourself more impressively as follows: “An Adventurous IT PRO who loves challenging challenges.”

And yes, if you are now thinking that ‘This is absolutely absurd or unconventional or radically different’, DON’T be afraid to be different; As William Arruda sums it brilliantly: "What makes you different, makes you successful!"

3. WHERE to Focus:

At least in your linked in profile, every possible window of opportunity. Your headline, your summary and your work experience. Weave an impressive and a credible story line that expresses how you have enriched your employers/clients etc and most importantly yourself, and come to become what you are today.

4. HOW to Communicate Your Brand:

DO NOT reiterate your brand message; meaning, do not repeat it blatantly. Use the power of the aforementioned 3 windows of opportunity-Headline, Summary and Experience-to present a different dimension of your brand to your audience. You can

a) Brand Your URL: By default, LinkedIn gives your profile a non-descript URL with a bunch of numbers and letters. But, You can BRAND Your URL by choosing a custom URL for your public profile. HOW: To change your URL, go to your edit profile page and scroll to the "Public Profile" section. Click "Edit" next to the URL to choose a new one. For eg: You can use your name(if available) to get a Self Branded URL like this: http://www.linkedin.com/in/tanvibhatt

b) Use the headline to declare your BRAND STAND- your unique positioning (as exemplified above);

c) Express your BRAND VALUE- your unique value of professional promise or your brand proposition with a hint of personal touch in your brand summary;

d) Engage your audience with an impressive account of your BRAND STORY- your brand’s achievements through your chronological work experience exhibit.

e) Request for Recommendations from the Key Influencers of your Industry; as this is the best way of showing the world, what people really think about your Brand.

f) Enrich your community with regular updates from your Blog (GET one if you don’t have one yet!); as this builds a favorable image as a thought leader and boosts your career karma as well!

And coming to the last question; WHY do I need to Brand myself-well, that’s a whole new post coming up for you, soon.

In the meanwhile, BRAND YOURSELF on Linkedin Today, before someone else Brands You: Insignificant

[About Author: Tanvi Bhatt is India’s Leading Personal Brand Strategist and the First Reach Certified Personal Brand Strategist across the Indian Sub-Continent, which is a humble addition to the repertoire of expertise that she offers: she is a Celebrated Corporate Grooming & Image Consultant, an Engaging Etiquette Coach and an Eloquent Speaker. Being the Pioneer of Personal Branding in India, Tanvi has founded ‘Panache Studio’ which is India’s Premier Personal Branding Studio; with the sole purpose of empowering a distinguished league of Iconic Individuals, who manifest the essence of Signature Personal Brands, that Inspire the world to come! She maintains a blog at personalbrandingindia.com]

Smartphone usage by Indians: Women love to Chat, Men love Apps

Kaushambi — Thu, 10 May 2012 12:43:29 +0000

Last week, Google did a survey with Ipsos which showed that percentage wise there were more active smartphone users in India than in US. Now, information and media giant Nielsen used ‘smartphone metering technology’ to survey smartphone usage habits of Indian men and women. Nielsen Informate Mobile Insights throws light on how men and women respondents in India are using their smartphones.

While it may be hard to believe, the average smartphone user in India clocked 81 hours of smartphone usage in March 2012. That’s more than two and a half hours daily in a 31 day month.

It is also noted that women and men spend the same amount of time on their smartphones. So the notion that Indian men are more gadget friendly than their female counterparts is definitely a thing of the past.

However the difference between the usage trends of Indian men and women is quite evident. Men spend 50% more time than women to surf the internet via their smart phones. This may very well be a blaring cue to online advertisers, hinting at the higher probability of smartphone using males looking at their advertisements on websites than females.

Men are also more likely to install and download apps. In the survey, men respondents downloaded an average of 16 apps during the month while the women downloaded 11. A characteristic male trait is to refrain from asking for directions. Apparently to avoid doing the same, men seem to prefer using the Google Maps app to look for directions. So much so, 45% of men accessed the app as compared to 32% of women.

At 29% of total usage, women spent most of their time using smartphones to access online apps.

On the contrary, men only spent 16% of their time using online apps. Aptly titled gossip queens, Indian women spent 4 times the time men spent on Instant Messaging (IM) apps.

So much so, women respondents spent on an average of 32 minutes per day using IM apps as compared to 8 for men. These apps include but are not limited to WhatsApp Messenger and Google Talk. Social Networking apps came in at second place but their usage in terms of time spent per day was nowhere near to IM apps.

A finding that didn’t come across as very surprising was that women spent 3 hours more on calls during the month than men. From 81 hours, women spent 20 hours on calls as compared to approximately 15 for men. This means that 25% of the total smartphone usage during the month by women is for calls and messages as compared to 19% for men.

It would be fair to draw a conclusion from Nielsen’s survey that men are more likely to use their smartphones to surf the internet and use utility driven apps like Google Maps. On the other hand, women are more likely to use their smartphones to communicate, use IM and social networking apps, and spend more time talking on the phone. So, women like to chat, what’s new?

Why Retailers and Manufacturers are jumping into the services game?

Dr Vikram Venkateswaran — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 05:11:00 +0000

During my stay in US, I had gone into Best Buy one day to buy a laptop. After selecting the laptop when I went to the cashier, he was telling me about an interesting value add service provided by Best Buy called “The Geek Squad”. Though I did not avail of the service, I started wondering why was Best Buy interested in selling me Laptop security and identity protection services while selling me the laptop.

In the last couple of years many retailers and even some manufacturers have gotten into services. A good example in India is Fabric Spa, the services arm of Jyothy Laboratories.

Fabric Spa offers cleaning and dry cleaning laundry services and has a very good tie up with most corporate offices and apartments blocks. In Bangalore their services are very popular as they offer door to door pick up and drop services.

So why is this happening? I can think of three reasons why.

Reason 1

Typically the margins in the services business are much higher than the products business. As more and more products get commoditized the margin on them is lower. This is true of electronics as well as FMCG products hence the need for Best Buy and Jyothy Laboratories to diversify into services.

Reason 2

The services businesses that they have entered into are more annuitized repeatable businesses. The purchasing cycle is either contractual that is it lasts for a year or are more frequent in case of a laundry. So in both cases the cash flows are more regular.

Reason 3

This helps them to do a related diversification and reduces the risk of depending on just one kind of business. Let us look at Lakme Saloons from Unilever or Kaya Skin Clinic from Marico. In both cases this is just a brand extension into a related area that diversifies their risk.

There could be other reasons but these are the three of the most prominent ones.

On another front most Automobile manufacturers have started paying a lot of attention to their service centers. For example both Maruti-Suzuki and Hyundai give me regular calls reminding me of the service schedule. Maruti even offers a free pick up and drop for the care and in my three years of servicing the vehicle I am yet to visit the service station.

Again the Auto margins are so low that dealerships have now turned to services to ensure that they make money on the automobile.

So does every manufacturer have a good experience in services? The answer is NO.

Reliance have learnt the hard way. It has been years since they have been running services business like Java Green without making much headway. Similarly Tata Tea launched the “Chai-Unchai” tea parlors but has been forced to scale down due to its non-viability.

In conclusion services are a very different ball game, something that Manufacturing behemoths like Reliance and Tata have found out. But this is a great business to be in if you can manage the customers who are getting more and more demanding by the day.

I welcome your views and comments. Do you think this is a viable business model for manufacturers and retailers? Or is it just applicable to some segments and industries. Please do let us know.

Asia’s largest solar park opens in Gujarat today

Kaushambi — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 15:28:48 +0000

What do you say to a state which is on a dream run? The state’s tourism is promoted by Amitabh Bachchan, its infrastructure for the automobile industry is geared towards making it the Detroit of India and now the state has launched Asia’a largest solar park. Yes, we’re talking about Gujarat.

As a part of the Swarnim Gujarat celebrations, the Solar Park has been launched at Charanka village, Santalpur taluka in Patan district. This patch of desert was hitherto unutilized and completely barren has now been adorned with the solar park which will yield invaluable benefits to the state, the nations and the coming generations.

The park spread over 3000 acres of wasteland, is expected to produce 600 MW of valuable energy is being expected to be generated. The Modi Government sees lots of indirect benefits of this park. In addition to solar energy, the park will also manufacture solar power plant panels and other related equipment. And secondly, local people of Gujarat will be trained to work at solar parks. An area that no one was ready to visit before is now attracting big companies to set up base.

The good news is that the solar park will produce 214 MW of photovoltaic solar capacity, making it larger than Golmud Solar Park in China that has a capacity of 200 MW, ET reported. Narendra Modi, CM of Gujarat proudly announced via his Twitter account "Gujarat dedicates 600 MW of solar power to the nation today. We are celebrating the launch of Agni V & dedication of 600 MW solar power park in Gujarat."

Here are some mind boggling statistics about the Solar Park of Gujarat:

It is expected to generate two thirds of India’s total 900 MW solar power production.
It is expected to reduce carbon dioxide emissions to 8 million tonnes and save 900,000 tonnes of natural gas annually.
By 2013, India aims for solar power to account for 3 percent of total national capacity and the nation wants renewable sources of energy to rise from the current 6 percent capacity to a whopping 15 percent of capacity by 2020.
The Modi Government had signed MoUs for the generation of 968.5 MW of solar power by the end of 2012, under its Solar Power Policy.

The Modi Government has stated that it will be developing other such projects at towns like Anand, Banaskantha, Jamnangar, Junagadh, Kutch, Porbandar, Rajkot, Surat and Surendranagar within Gujarat. The Daily Bhaskar reported way back in 2010 that the Gujarat Government had already given land allotment letters to 15 companies which include Azure Power, GMR Energy and GSPC Pipavav Power Company. These companies will be setting up solar power plants in the park. Similarly, the State Government wants to promote solar installations for which it has allocated developed land to project developers.

Back in 2010, CM Modi had expressed his intentions of developing Charanka as the Swarnim Surya Tirth (Golden Sun Pilgrimage), owing to the abundance of solar energy available there. He had also expressed his wish for a Sun Temple to be built in the area, along with a lake. International media have viewed this step as ‘a serious boost’ to India’s renewable energy ambitions, Washington Post stated.

So while other states bicker amongst themselves for natural resources, is Gujarat on its way to fast track progress?

With Ahmadabad being pegged as the newly booming metro of Gujarat and the state generating highly congenial atmosphere for industry and employment, chances are the Narendra Modi will leave no stone unturned to make Gujarat amongst the most developed states in India.

Other states need to step up… Don’t they?

Maruti Suzuki on a promotion blitz: Innovative marketing in rural areas

Kaushambi — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 12:16:44 +0000

Most of India still hasn’t forgotten how there was a time when everyone was vying to buy the Maruti Suzuki 800 or the Fronty as it was lovingly called. Fronty may have been bid goodbye after its memorable run spanning a couple of decades, but Maruti Suzuki hasn’t stopped churning super hit set of wheels – from Alto to Swift to Omni to Zen to Gypsy to Estilo to Wagon R to Ritz and now the newly launched LUV Ertiga. With a continuous churn out of successful car models suiting Indian families, Indian roads and Indian sensibilities, Maruti has also stuck to its Indian roots when it comes to marketing and promotions.

The rural market share of Maruti increased from 3.5 percent of total sales five years ago to 26 percent in 2012. Alto clinched 36 percent of rural sales in 2011, Omni hit 13.6 percent and the Wagon R accounted for 12 percent rural sales. So what magic has Maruti been yielding on the farmer clan of India and how? Let’s find out.

Maruti’s rural connection since 2008-09

In 2009, Shashank Srivastava, Chief General Manager, Marketing told Hindu Business Line states that Maruti Suzuki started paying more attention to rural markets after the economic meltdown when they realized that the recession had affected bigger cities badly. At that time, the ‘Ghar Ghar Mein Maruti’ and ‘Mera Sapna Meri Maruti’ campaigns were already afloat to target the rural segment.

Additionally, 3000 local villagers who were well versed with rural languages and behaviors were nominated as resident dealer sales executives of Maruti Suzuki, whose main job was to promote sales in their respective villages. They were further supported by over 186 extension counters. Maruti has gone the extra mile by taking villagers for factory visits, conducting detailed profiling of the villagers, their consumption patterns and their choices and capturing the attention of decision makers of the village like Sarpanch. From regular rural sporting events to sales fairs (Grameen Mahotsavs) to SMS campaigns for Gram Panchayat Members, Maruti Suzuki has done it all.

So, what’s the latest strategy up Maruti’s sleeve to lure its agrarian customers?

Video on Wheels

Off late, Maruti has been organizing road shows with film screenings. This is much like a travelling cinema that rural India is already quite familiar and fascinated with. The only difference being that the film is not set up in a tent, but inside a TATA truck fitted a Samsung LCD TV, an air conditioner and reclining seats. The film strikes a chord with the villagers because it tells a simple story of an average villager who buys a Wagon R after being persuaded by a friend who also bought a Wagon R.

The film has names that real villagers can relate to – Hari Prasad, Bimla and Duggal Ji. The host conducting the proceedings inside the truck too carries forth the experience of entertainment by mimicking Hindi film celebrities. And villagers are not allowed to leave without a brand recall mechanism. The host conducts a quiz based on the film shown and gives winners Maruti Suzuki memorabilia like caps, pens and wall clocks.

Win-Win for Maruti

Maruti has been taking advantage of a combination of change factors that rural India is witnessing. Credit finance and banking facilities are more accessible to villagers, word of mouth is stronger and they are moneyed folks. Parshu Narayanan, Creative Head and Managing Partner, Publicis Capital, the agency responsible for Maruti’s ad film aptly states "Today a rural consumer is much younger, far more exposed (to contemporary trends) and is getting more affluent".

Here’s an interesting snapshot of the kind of people that Maruti Suzuki is selling to.

Orange farmers in Nagpur
Turmeric growers in Tiruchengode, Tamil Nadu
Granite polishers in Hyderabad
Blue pottery makers in Jaipur
Madhubani painters in Madhubani, Bihar
Potato growers in West Bengal
Apple and fruit growers in Himachal Pradesh
Fishermen in Howrah
Alphonso mango growers in Ratnagiri

The future of rural marketing

Around 2 percent of the 100,000 cars that Maruti’s sells on a monthly basis sales in rural India come from very small villages (population of less than 1000 people). While that is fascinating, competitors are not lagging behind. Hyundai cashed in 32 percent of its sales in non urban markets and GM sells 30 percent of its cars in villages. On the other hand, some farmers who have become rich overnight by selling their land, are on an Audi buying rampage. They call it the car with bangles, referring to Audi’s logo!

If every automaker in India is now looking at going rural, aren’t the rural markets going to saturate soon? While automobile giants make hay while the sun shines, they’ll have to simultaneously think of new strategies and discover more niches that help them up sales in the future.

Designer Designations: Indian companies giving innovative titles to their key executives

Kaushambi — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 07:30:41 +0000

Hindu mythology expert Devdutt Pattnaik is the Chief Belief Officer (CBO) of the retail giant Future Group. What do you think that title means? When quizzed by the media, Pattnaik stated that this designation was created to align the objectives and culture of the company and to form relevant strategy to drive sales. This was owing to India’s myriad nature of customers – both behaviorally and culturally.

On his website/blog Pattnaik says "Belief is subjective truth and is the cornerstone of mythology, and plays a key role in business. Belief can be religious as well as secular. My role is to draw attention to this invisible cultural lever that shapes our decision." Future Group has similarly converted the posts of the HR Head into Chief People’s Officer and Store Manager into Store Guru. If you are already pulling your hair out, read ahead.

Following suit is MindTree, a mid tier IT firm, headed by Subroto Bagchi. In 2007, he officially became the ex Vice chairman of MindTree. No, he didn’t quit the organization, he only felt that this bland designation didn’t suit his role which aimed to nurture the growth of the company. From then on, he was officially titled Gardner. Bagchi supports these designer designations whole heartedly. He told ET that the changing economic climate, pace of innovations, changing consumer patterns and paradigm shifts brought in by technology are forcing companies to adapt their designations too.

He says "Today’s idea of structure, command and control and departmentalization are brought forward from the last century; they are extensions of a factory economy." In 2012, MindTree went on to create the post of an Agile Evangelist for its existing title of Chief Architect for product engineering and IT services.

So has India taken a cue from the West where the heads of Monster.com, Rovio and Google were christened Chief Monster, Mighty Eagle and Chief Internet Evangelist respectively?

The exact time period when this phenomenon started is difficult to trace. ET further reported that the BPOs brought this trend with them when they came to India in the 2000s. Let’s take a look at what impact these tailor made designations may have on the Indian ecosystem of business.

Advantages:

Fetches the company some curious publicity and attention.
Allows the company to create a culture of open mindedness, flexibility and innovation.
Empowers employees as customized title may add to their social status.
The employee has a defined role and targets to follow.
It is a conversation starter amongst stakeholders and for business networking.
Reduces hierarchy amongst employees and creates the foundation for flatter organizations.
Makes senior management more approachable.
Helps in looking at the workforce as a team made of individuals with unique strengths rather than a mass of people blindly working for a company.
PR and publicity material for the company becomes richer as designations become more glamorous.

Disadvantages:

May create confusion for third parties to exchange official communication.
The business may lose credibility for other conservative businesses.
Dilutes the importance and seriousness attached with traditional titles.
May gives rise to ethical and legal dilemmas in case of a serious public error made on the part of an employee.
May not attract talent in senior management.

Here is a glimpse of a few Indian companies, small to large, that have included designer nomenclatures in their company culture:

COMPANY	DESIGNER DESIGNATION
Godrej Industries	General Manager of Culture Lab
	President Human Capital and Innovation
	Chief Strategy Officer
PepsiCo India	Executive Director-Innovation
	Director-Go to Market Transformation
	Director-Sustainability
	Director-Go To Market Solutions
Beyond Squarefeet Advisory Pvt. Ltd	Chief Mall Mechanic
The Advisory	Chief Explorer
GlobalHunt	Chief Growth Officer
	Cost Kill Analyst
Teleradiology Solutions	Chief Listening Officer
	Chief Enabler
	Chief Pusher
	Chief Dreamer
Wipro	Chief Learning Officer
Games2win India Pvt. Ltd	Chief Trafficker
2win Group	Serial Entrepreneur
Alia Group	Growth Catalyst

(References: ET and Mint)

And here’s one last designer designation that will leave you absolutely dumbfounded. Chirag Patel is the Chief Nut Officer at Ahmedabad based Net4Nuts, a value added mobile service provider. All the heads in Patel’s company have the suffix Nut after their title. Eventually, the company’s venture capitalist asked Patel to get back a more acceptable title like CEO for market reputation. Although Patel agreed, he never fails to generate a warm response when he mentions his ‘real’ designation.

India Inc will definitely need more time before it can willingly accept whacky and fun titles. Startups and innovative ventures may be able to take the liberty of adapting designer designations and adding a little more panache factor to the mundane. But other sectors like banking, manufacturing and service industries may take some more time in doing so, or may not do so at all. Organizations too will have to tread this path carefully. They need to make sure that there is just a right mix of practicality and wackiness in a title and that they don’t make the company’s reputation seem flippant and preposterous.

Chief Time-Out Officer anyone?

Clean Energy Economies: India ranks 6th!

Kaushambi — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 16:02:40 +0000

India Inc is on a roll. After claiming the second spot in the Regus Business Confidentiality Index 2012, the Pew Energy report recently announced that private investment in clean energy in India increased by 54 percent in 2011, which amounts to 10.2 billion dollars.

This places India at the sixth spot amongst the Group of Twenty (G-20) nations. Clean energy is another name for renewable or alternate energy.

What places India amongst the top clean energy economies of the world?

The Pew report stated that India is the one of the top performing clean energy economies in the 21st century. The report recorded the fifth highest 5 year rate of investment growth and eighth highest installed renewable energy capacity in India amongst G-20 nations.

So, what made India tick? The report stated that India’s National Solar Mission led to a 7 times increase in solar energy investments. The aim of this mission is to generate 20 gigawatts of solar power 2020. This led to an increase worth of 4.2 billion dollars.

India received 4.6 billion dollars as private investment and an additional 2.8 gigawatts worth of capacity was installed through 2011. The report noted that India is now richer with 22.4 gigawatts of installed clean energy generating capacity.

US claimed the top spot, having attracted a whopping 48 billion dollars worth of investment for the clean energy sector. China followed the top league by having the largest amount of wind energy investments and solar manufacturing. Germany ranked third with a total of 30.6 billion dollars of investment.

The report gave an interesting insight on the difference in which both America and China attracted investment. China attracts investment by its green energy policies to reassure investors, by deploying renewables, manufacturing them and exporting them, BBC News reported. On the other, United States offers tax breaks. The report also went on to confirm that Germany officially obtains more energy from renewable sources than it does from nuclear power, coal or natural gas.

The report further stated a few reasons that could be determinants of accelerating installation of clean energy generating capacity worldwide. Falling prices of photovoltaic modules was stated as being the most important of them.

If India continues its competitive spirit of increasing the use of alternative and renewable energy, it could easily join the ranks of nations like Germany who are now replacing their use of traditional energy with alternative sources of energy. But just like every other change takes time to percolate within the Indian economy, the use of renewable and clean energy too, may take a while to reach the common man.

Here’s hoping that more projects like the National Solar Mission are sanctioned and implemented by the Government. And the aim should be to not just enter the top league of a ranking or a report, but to truly make a difference to the environment.

Government to make payments directly to Bank Accounts to curb corruption!

Arun Prabhudesai — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 06:28:55 +0000

I am sure you are well aware that, in India, to get any work done from any government department is a nightmare. In most cases you have to bribe every person in the chain – From peon to the top boss. This is especially true if you are contractor or agency or a supplier working for a Government department. You will never get paid for the work you have done unless you pay the bribe.

However, going forward these harassed souls may breathe a little easy. Ministry of Finance has amended the rules to enable all the Ministries and Departments to facilitate payments by direct credit to the bank accounts of the payees.

Controller General of Accounts(CGA) have released a notification that, with effect from 1st April 2012, all payments above Rs. 25,000 to suppliers, contractors, grantee and loanee institutions shall be directly credited to their bank accounts.

This will definitely help put brakes on corruption to a certain extent which is happening in Government offices, especially where payment to contractors and suppliers is concerned.

The CGA notification also states that – All government servants shall continue to have the option to receive their salaries by cash or cheques, they could also opt to receive their salaries by direct credit to their bank accounts. However, all other payments to government servants of the amount of above Rs.25,000 shall be credited directly to their bank accounts. Further, all payments towards the settlement of retirement / terminal benefits of the government servants shall also be directly credited to their bank accounts.

The payments will be made using “Government e-payment gateway” which was recently setup by Controller General of Accounts(CGA) to facilitate payments in government departments.

All in all, a great step forward by Finance Ministry of India which is sure to bring down amount of corruption taking place in government departments