Infrastructure Planning and Management

Infrastructure in West Bengal

2011-11-28T06:42:00.001+05:30

West Bengal is one state that is running both ways. There has been lots of improvement in the last few years in the state. Be it IT, Incubation Centers & Venture Capital Funding, on road & off road communications, Real Estate development ; name and it is there. The New Town concept in Rajarhat area has shaped up really well. Hundreds of new constructions, new investments, new business developments have taken place in the last few years.

Though a late-starter, the state has achieved a lot in the field of IT and electronics in the last couple of years. The proactive policies of the state government—a dedicated department for IT, state-of-the-art facilities, world-class connectivity, uninterrupted power supply, physical and social infrastructure and a large pool of trained manpower—have hastened the growth of the IT sector in the state. Kolkata is also well connected to international destinations in Asia, Europe and the US.

The high investments in power generation over the last ten years have made West Bengal one of the few power-surplus states in India. In fact, in their recent surveys, both Nasscom and Gartner have ranked West Bengal as the best state in the country in terms of power supply. The high percentage of thermal power ensures that supply is not adversely affected during the dry season. In addition, the state government ensures the existing low-cost power plants in West Bengal feed all new IT units on a priority basis. Kolkata is well connected to prime locations overseas and in India. These include the prime Asian hubs of Bangkok and Singapore, as well as key Western locations like London, Amsterdam, San Francisco and New York. The city is also well connected to important locations within the country.

Apart from world-class infrastructure, connectivity and social infrastructure, the state has the largest pool of human resources. The city houses some of the most reputed schools and colleges in the country. Both Calcutta and Jadavpur Universities have been accorded a 5-star status by NAAC. Several private engineering colleges have been set up in the city, churning out engineers and technocrats.

But despite the changes, the perception about the ‘laid back attitude’ of the state still remains a major hurdle in attracting fresh investments. While it is partly due to its history, lack of information about the progressive work being undertaken in the state also adds to this negative image. Bengal has a lot of active politics going on. Everyday rallies and meetings, the very often bandhs (which WB is famous for) and many other factors add up to a lot of congestion in town. The city to have the first metro rail in India is definitely top notch when it comes to communication linkages but ask any resident of Kolkata and they would tell you - which traffic jams, shabby traffic structure & cleanliness are some of the major everyday problems which add on to the already laid back attitude and rigid bureaucracies of the state. It is these factors that are marring the fabulous infrastructure plans that WB started with a decade ago. There is a lot that people everywhere complain about; be it any state. In this case, it is not only the facilities which have failed to entice, but also the new name – Pochimbongo J

- - Ayush Nalotia

References:

Planning Commission, Express Computer Online

Telecom Revolution and the Customer

2011-11-27T17:35:00.000+05:30

Telecom revolution was the next big thing that India could foresee back in the late 90s. And surely; it has been one without fail. From pagers to huge bulky mobile handsets to sleeker models; we have seen it all. Today it is impossible to imagine a life without a phone and a 24x7 network coverage responding to it. Kaizen in communication technologies & the never ending plans, schemes and offers by the telecom companies have literally made it to saturation levels. We have come a long way from incoming calls being chargeable on networks to now even roaming charges being wavered off (proposed TRAI regulation; yet to be implemented).

In short, infrastructure has done it once again – handset technologies (advent and mass use of smartphones – Nokia / Samsung / BlackBerry phones ) , networking softwares like Android , companies like RIM – all have hoarded the ever brimming telecommunications market. Yet, this is one area that is yet to hit the DECLINE stage on the PLC curve. The market just doesn’t saturate because every moment there are millions of people buying new cellphones and connections. As such, stalwarts like Bharti Airtel, Vodafone, Tata Docomo, Reliance etc are raking in moolahs. Then where is it going wrong ?

True internet at your beck and call is a great thing to have. But then, we cannot forgo the downside of things. Privacy gets compromised upon, ethicalities go for a six. The telecom infrastructure revolution has a bred a generation of people who are too tech savvy to see beyond their mobile phones. Try listening to a few jokes about BB addicts J … And, the telecomm companies are banking on these addictions. That is where there revenue comes from. That is where malpractices breed. Even the best of these companies have a horde of utterly dissatisfied customers because; somewhere during this evolution, the customer satisfaction orientation got left behind. Today these telecom companies have good names. But when we go talk to a few customers, the truth stands bare.

Airtel’s latest campaign “Har ek friend zaroori hota hai” was an instant hit among the teenage India; the reason being - teenage India is more obsessed with friendships than family ties. Yes, Airtel hit the bull’s eye with the campaign. No matter what kind of customer service they provide, people will shift to Airtel via MNP because ‘may be every customer is not important but every friend is important’. Talk to a Docomo user – all he will say is “All talk; no content” … these companies are on the right track when it comes to marketing themselves (remember Vodafone zoo zoos ) . but when it comes to technology upgradation, there seems to be a lacuna somewhere. All these customer issues are not a result of any other problem but technical problems – an area where the infrastructure sector needs to buckle up.

The bottom line for all this is – infrastructure should be there to make our lives easy. Inefficiency in the name of competition, blowhorn type advertising and no commitment/ content – telecoms are doomed to fail. Telecom is a growing market since ages, not nearing saturation as of now. It would be a worthy fight if they put in efforts at making themselves better rather than merely showing themselves to be better & ahead in the race. Because, newsflash – your customer knows the truth!

-Ayush Nalotia

References:

www.marketinginternet.com

TOI, The Hindu

Labour Industry of India

2011-11-11T18:23:00.002+05:30

This is my first blog entry so please excuse me if there are any mistakes.Recently a lot of articles are making headlines in the newspaper on the issue of Labour Shortage, which is becoming headache for players in Infrastructure & Real Estate Sector. It is truly said that sometimes good things also bring in with them new set of problems. Same is true with India's Growth Story, factors like pool of cheap labour & untapped demand attracted many people within and outside the country post liberalization which has led to development in country.

Migrant Labour from Bihar contributes 50% of the Unskilled workers Nationally but this economic development has created peculiar problem for the Infrastructure & Real Estate Sector. According to Bihar Institute of Economics sciences, migration of labour has decreased by around 30% in the last few years and led to higher wages. Experts Says reasons behind this recent trend are private investment inflows after Nitish Kumar's entry in bihar government in 2005 & Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme. They believe that scheme is luring away labour from work.

Development is good thing for the country and India was bound to loose advantage of cheap labour some or other day, but through this blog i want to pose this question whether Subsidiary/ Scheme are effective measures which are floated by the government of India. Some people in the government are in favour of it while others are against it. Agriculture Minister Sharad Powar has suggested to avoid applicability of above scheme in the peak agricultural season but the rural Ministry is against it. I would like to hear comments from the readers of blog

For Reference:

Labour Shortage, wage hike hits Indian industry hard: FICCI, Economic Times [Oct 9, 2011]

Bihar's Economic Growth causing Labour Shortages, Higher wages in other parts of Country, Economic Times [ Nov 8th 2011]

Nikhil Agrawal [CE08B055]

Infrastructure Debt Fund

2011-11-01T17:51:00.002+05:30

The Infrastructure Debt Fund (IDF) is yet another effort by the finance ministry to acquire foreign funds and domestic insurance money into Indian infrastructure projects. The idea is that, Banks and NBFC will set up either mutual funds or another NBFC, which will sell either mutual fund (MF) units to foreign funds or insurance companies and raise money.

This money will be used to buy out infrastructure loans from banks and the loans should have to be for a PPP project. Also, the banks can sell these loans to the IDF’s only after one-year of commencement of the project, i.e., when they become commercially feasible.

Now the question is: Will banks set up such mutual funds or NBFC? Will foreign funds find it attractive to buy the bonds floated by the IDF's?

Check the answers given by Santosh Nair, deputy managing director of State Bank of India; Prabhakar, executive director of Bank of India and Vikram Limaye, executive director of IDFC in a discussion on CNBC-TV18 on:

http://www.moneycontrol.com/news/business/infrastructure-debt-fund-willfund%28a%29-work-_592872.html

-Bharath M

Social Groups influence on Infrastructure projects

2011-10-11T20:16:00.000+05:30

The Conoco case study clearly proves that Social and Environmental Groups can influence major infrastructure projects at any point of time and will cause huge economical lose and ends with significant impact on future developments in the particular region. The Koodangulam Nuclear project is a lively example where now local village people went on indefinite hunger strike to stop the plant construction after Fukushima incident.

In order to promote better and knowledgeable social and environmental groups, the Planning Commission of India started a NGO partnership system in consultation with the various ministries and departments of Govt of India. According to the system, the Voluntary Organisations and NGOs are requested to register with the NGO partnership system to assess information on various schemes of the participating ministries open for grants. This scheme will really motivate the NGOs for a meaningful participation in Govt. Schemes and this can be further extended to all sectors particularly infrastructure development sector for having good relationship with voluntary organisations and for faster, better transparency, efficiency and accountability of infrastructure developments in the country.

Reference: http://ngo.india.gov.in/auth/default.php

K. Narayanaperumal

The Economic Hit Man in Congo

2011-09-25T23:46:00.001+05:30

With relevance to our readings on Confessions of an Economic Hit Man and The Chad-Cameroon pipeline is another instance of private opportunism in the proposed Grand Inga Project in Congo. This booklet traces the project details, context and development of the world's largest dam in a rather persuasive and interesting format.

Conrad's Nightmare: The World's Biggest Dam and Development's Heart of Darkness

(I hope it loads, otherwise please google it)

Excerpts:

"PPPs have become notorious among activists in recent years for two reasons: they have a track record of massively inflating project costs, and they place the cost burden firmly on governments while retaining the profits, and very often the ownership of the project itself, for the private sector."

"Grand Inga is the perfect lens to bring many of the key elements of development capitalism into focus—the absurdity and inapplicability to local needs of the great white elephants the IFIs build; the unfulfilled promises to local people, and the social and environmental misery the projects inflict; the sinecure of subsidies, contracts and markets for Western multinationals, a scheme often described as ‘corporate welfare’; and the passing of the responsibilities and costs for the projects onto the hapless ‘developing’ country, while keeping the profits closer to home (what Chomsky describes as the essence of modern capitalism: the socialisation of risk combined with the privatisation of profit)."

Samyuktha

Does TEA is an active stakeholder in the Tirupur water supply project?

2011-09-13T00:12:00.000+05:30

K. Narayanaperumal,

The active and meaningful participation of stakeholders are very much important for successful implementation of any PPP project. In the Tirupur water supply and sewerage system project, TEA is one of the important stakeholders. The project was designed for the benefits of both domestic and industrial consumers specifically textile exporters. Out of the total designed quantity of 185MLD, 85MLD would be supplied for the municipality and balance 100MLD would be supplied to industrial units. As such, the requirement of TEA would have been fulfilled.

But all efforts were gone on vain; as the actual demand from the industrial units is (40MLD) far lower than the estimated demand (100MLD). The door-to-door survey shows that the industrial units are unwilling to draw water from the new facilities for various reasons like Ground water is free though it is illegal; the quality of water supply is not good; Global recession; technology and monsoon is good etc.

The above reasons spelled out are more artificial. The main reasons for the failure of financial model of the Tirupur water supply project could be due to the following;

Ø The industrial units are not much committed to the project. Since their contribution to the investment is very low.

Ø The industrial units are not much bothered about the environment. Large scale violations of environmental regulations are more common and these resulted with closure of 750nos of dyeing unit until zero discharge was achieved as per the Madras High Court order for polluting Noyyal river. This requires huge amount of investment.

Ø Global recession is not a fact as it is no way affected the growth of the Tirupur garment export industry except a slight fall in the year 2008; Refer Figure: 1.

Ø Claiming good monsoon is not a valid reason, as the garment industrial units would be required plenty of water; this could not be met with few days of rain water harvesting.

The following are the few possible remedies to redirect the project into success path;

Ø Expand the water supply network to the nearby areas.

Ø Strict enforcement of environmental laws

Ø Government should assist the dyeing units for achieving zero discharge.

Ø Government should work out a special discounted water tariff for the large industrial consumers which are obtained zero discharge.

Noyyal river before and after pollution

2011-09-09T11:54:00.003+05:30

I had the opportunity to meet Dr. Isher Ahluwahlia yesterday and learnt that she has written a series of very interesting articles on infrastructure in the Indian Express, along with Ranesh Nair who is currently with IDFC. The first article can be found here and if you are interested, you can google and read the other articles as well. They are excellent and provide a good overview of some very interesting infrastructure projects undertaken in India,

Status Quo of the Road Projects in India

2011-08-05T23:25:00.002+05:30

Was browsing through Economic Times and found two really good articles which I think would be relevant to what we have covered in the class on “Transportation Infrastructure in India”.

The first article states the present Road Projects ongoing in Bihar and the other article outlines an overview of the current private sector participation in the domain.

I would briefly summarize what I read which I think would give a good picture of the ongoing road projects in the country.

Of course, thanks to group 1 and Prof. Ashwin Mahalingam for easing the understanding and now I think we can relate to the topic and understand the jargon even better.

One story which I think many of us know and must know is that of Satyendra Dubey an IIT-Kanpur Civil Engineering student who was working with National Highway Authorities Of India and was assigned the famous Golden Quadrilateral Project. While being posted at Koderma in Jharkand he exposed the corruption and other inadequate practices in the section by writing a letter directly to the prime minister’s office. More so, he clearly stated even the names of the companies involved. Thus to protect himself he asked for anonymity but no-one actually gave any sort of heed for his anonymity request and circulated the letter among themselves.

What do you think might have really happened after this?

He was murdered an year later at Gaya, Bihar. I respect and ofcourse everyone respects for what he had done but no one actually dares to go against the authorities involved. Well, you may ask what happened to the murderers? One of the three accused in the case escaped from police custody and the rest is history. Its all crony capitalism and I believe corporations are even more grievous and selfish than mafias.

I think India at this stage where we are hardly 65years post-independence is going through a very high amount of corruption, fraud and malpractices. Well we must not forget that all developed countries went through such a phase including US but some major reforms and policy changes took place after that which actually made them what they are today. I think it’s high time we also raise our voices against corruption and reject strongly the fact that someone’s life in India is considered so cheap. A little out of the way but I think “Jan Lokpal Bill” is a onetime opportunity which we all have and hence we all must support if we agree to it. To support Lokpal or not is ofcourse subjective and debatable.

The Satyendra Dubey story took place like around 8 years back but one good thing is that the situation in terms of “development” in Bihar now has turned around. Two of the projects are toll road projects in which the operator needs to be assured of returns by collecting tolls. And now we can see this spirit and confidence among corporations of taking up such projects. Bihar has become one of the first states in the country to use mobile tech for keeping a track on the progress of the projects.

The private sector participation is being seen not only in Bihar but also elsewhere in the country. The private sector is bidding aggressively for projects even which government is financially skeptical about. You may wonder what happened suddenly? Well, the changes in the bidding norms has led to an increase in participation of private players. Some even say it is because of the few offerings from the government. GMR infra won a 5700 crore national highway project connecting Rajasthan and Ahemadabad. Eight similar offer have been received by NHAI recently.

As discussed in class, the government offers upto 40% of the project cost viability gap funding to support projects in areas where returns may not be that fruitful.

So the summary of some of the key-points could be as follows:

1. Bidders are now ready to pay a premium for the road projects
2. Roads have put out a good policy helping it attract more and more investments
3. Road traffic is expected to grow at 7-8% growth.

I have purposefully skipped the details of the project because I think the learnings behind the project are more important than the project itself.

Mayur

PPPs AND THE RURAL EDUCATION SECTOR

2010-11-17T23:26:00.005+05:30

I had discussed this in one of my journal entries but I thought this could be discussed amongst the other classmates as well.Kindly post your comments on the same, especially on the issue of attracting private players in the rural sector.

Education ,I believe is one among the decisive factors that determine the technological progress of a nation. Eventhough there are other priorities at the rural sector, education ,I believe is a fundamental right and is something that no one should be denied. Not very surprisingly, in the rural scenario, the scene is very bad.Be it, roads, building infrastructure, electricity, water supply , the rural education sector requires a certain upliftment from its current status.

The primary facility requirement for a school or an education centre is a building to house the numerous children. Be it, classrooms, office rooms, or other complexes, building infrastructure forms the backbone of the education sector in general. A recent survey tells us that 62% primary schools in Assam, 34% in Andhra Pradesh and 30% in Meghalaya have just one classroom. Most of the schools at the rural sector, today lack such basic facilities. In many cases, schools are made out of thatched roof or temporary structures which wait for a small drizzle or a light wind to collapse down.

Most of the families are reluctant to send their children to the nearby schools because they are far away and it’s both difficult and costly, to ply to and fro. Thus transportation infrastructure, primarily roads find its need here.

According to data available from the MoP, in India, out of an estimated 587,556 villages about 150,000 are yet to be electrified. A general issue with schools in the rural sector is the lack of power supply.Electricity and power are essential right from performing routine activities to running machines and equipments. Its absence would therefore mean inefficiency and zero productivity.An interesting survey shows that among teachers who were paid to teach, absence rates ranged from 15% in Maharashtra to 71% in Bihar.

Lack of teaching staff in most of the rural areas is a major problem. A solution that lies ahead to this can be achieved through the telecom sector. With modern teleconferencing and internet facilities a rural area could be taught through online or virtual teaching methods. Similarly, computer literature, and setting up of internet facilities or telephone connections becomes inevitable for technological development, and all of these depend on the telecom infrastructure.

Health, sanitation and water supply also form a basic requisite for an educational institute. A study of 188 government-run primary schools found that 59% of the schools had no drinking water and 89% had no toilets.With the lack of all these, rural schools, are in many cases worse than a poultry farm.

Definitely what the government must do is to strategically include Private participation in this sector. As from the cases we have seen and with our knowledge on a PPP project , we know that with their involvement comes efficiency and faster project completion rates . Now as it is obvious, the private sector has not shown interest because they see very low returns here. Incentivizing them is the actual question.

Here what I propose is to include a rural education project also as a bidding criterion in huge urban infrastructure projects. Thus ,the bidders will have to take up these projects and complete them on time so as to continue with their urban initiatives .Also to incentivize them the revenues obtained from the rural projects could be tax exempted

.Be it, Roads, buildings, health and sanitation systems, telecommunication facilities, definitely, with our relatively lower rate of progress from the government’s initiatives, I believe that Private penetration is required so as to uplift the case of the rural education sector and until then, an educated Rural India shall stay, an unfulfilled dream.

Crazy infrastructure proposals - Floating cities

2010-11-13T07:57:00.002+05:30

This time Japan has certainly stretched their imagination bordering on science fiction. They have come up with this crazy idea where people will be living on gigantic cities in the ocean. And not just cities, whole districts and even countries can be formed.

The concept is known as green float & they even want to try for zero waste & negative carbon emissions by incorporating all sorts of "green technologies" such as complete recycling of all waste and building enormous artificial ecosystems.

While right now no one has any plan or the money and all this is still science fiction, I feel that if people do some serious research on these concepts, they may actually come up with solutions that are also very relevant to current issues. Work on such concepts can result in spin-offs that can be of great use for tackling many current infrastructure problems like waste recycling, water treatment & desalination, zero emission policy, "green & sustainable development", use of alternative energy (like solar, etc..), vertical farming, transport systems, lower maintenance systems, and many more.

There are other crazy ideas like Tokyo Pyramid, which also try to tackle the issue of space in future living and other proposals. This Japanese firm is known for coming up with really ambitious proposals. Whether we can actually invest in such schemes is very questionable, but some of their technological proposals are certainly worth putting some research into as they can be pertinent to improvement of current infrastructure.

This is from a newspaper article : -

"...Green Float: The futuristic concept that sees humans live in giant skyscrapers on floating water lilies in the middle of the Pacific.

Humans in the future could live in mini floating cities that drift across the Pacific as if on giant water lilies.

The startling new concept has been dreamed up by Japanese technology firm Shimizu and is designed to be a way of harnessing green technologies and creating carbon-neutral cities.

The Green Float concept involves a number of cells, each one kilometre wide, that house between 10,000 and 50,000 people.

The majority of people on the cells would live in huge towers 1km high surrounded by lush green fields

Each individual cell would be free to float on the Pacific Ocean near the equator but could also be joined together with other cells to form larger towns and even cities.

A group or modules, a collection of cells, would become a country in its own right.

Most people in this brave new world would live in a 1 kilometre-high ‘City in the Sky’ at the centre of each cell. More people would live in residential areas around the edge of the cell.

The central towers would be surrounded by grassland and forests and be self-sufficient in terms of food, while livestock and other farming would take place in 'plains' also surrounding the tower - all built on a lattice of 7,000-tonne honeycomb pontoons.

The towers would be built from super-light alloys with the metal deriving from magnesium in seawater.

The imaginative plan is designed to create a future carbon-neutral society and the Shimizu developers claim that living on cells in this way would cut carbon emissions by 40 per cent.

The floating cells, each with a City in the Sky structure at its centre, can join together to form larger modules

The City in the Sky skscrapers are designed to be carbon negative with extensive environmental technologies and recycling facilities built in

The cells would create zero waste and recycle every product and covert waste into energy using new green technologies. Islands of waste would drift around the ocean and could be ‘harvested’ to provide energy

The location of the islands is key to their success too, the designers claim.

Each group of cells would be near the equator where the climate is at its most stable and a range of technologies would be used to protect the floating cities from tidal waves and extreme weather.

To protect the inhabitants from large waves, strong elastic membranes would be attached to the lagoons around the outer edge of the cells, with the shallows above the membranes standing 30 feet above sea level.

Shimizu scientists calculate that the water pressure difference between the lagoons and the ocean would limit the movement of the membranes and buffer the force of the open sea waves.

Seawalls as high as 100 feet could also be constructed. And tsunamis in the open sea are far less dangerous than those that hit coastal areas, the designers say.

Enlarge

A country consisting of one million people would be formed after modules joined together one by one

Lightning rods would be fitted around the circumference of the towers and mesh lightning conductors will be placed on the exterior walls to protect against lightning strikes.

Shimizu wants to develop the first cells by 2025 and is concentrating on developing the technologies to make it happen. The concept was displayed at a recent Japanese university conference.

This is the not the first outlandish idea that Shimizu has come up with. The firm also proposes encircling the moon in a belt of solar collectors that would collect solar energy and transmit it to Earth....."

There is also a video on that link.

Investing in Solar Power for India

2010-11-12T07:41:00.002+05:30

India's tropical location makes it naturally favoured to make use of huge amounts of solar energy. Right now there is a 35000 sq. km area in the Thar Desert that is allocated for any proposed large solar projects, and the estimate is that they could harness anywhere upto 700 to 2100 GW depending on efficiency.

Note : As a reference for comparison, the installed power generation capacity as of now 162 GW (June 2010) and the demand is likely to cross 1 GW in the next 20-30 years. We can in theory extract more energy than we'll ever need for the next several decades. As a statistic the total energy available is so great that even with 10% efficiency of harnessing, we still have more than 1000x the energy demand in 2015 (Wiki Reference)

The problem here though is the cost of investment. Right now this would require huge areas of land and the problems of land acquisition and the associated cost is very prohibitive. A better way of using the available space is to go 3-D and try for rooftop systems. However to make this feasible requires the technology to become substantially cheaper.

Right now the cost of production ranges from 15 to 30 per unit compared to around 5 to 8 per unit for conventional thermal energy. (Aside : For thermal energy, that's far more than our EB bill rates even with the revised tariff -- profitability vs affordability issues.)

Even the best solar cells are only about 25% efficient which is close to the theoretical limit, and that's as good as we can go. However they are very robust and can last for 30 yrs + at maximum capacity.

At present the renewable energy scenario stands at just 16 GW most of which is due to wind energy.

The Govt. has taken up a major initiative in this regard with the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission, which though is still in planning phase. You can check this out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jawaharlal_Nehru_National_Solar_Mission

If we could sustainably get into solar power production then over several years our import bill (most of it on oil) can also be drastically reduced.

We have to accept that with the limits on coal and petroleum reserves, solar energy is the future. But still there is a lot of ground that needs to be covered.

References : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_power_in_India

To Lead By Example!

2010-11-12T02:36:00.001+05:30

India, on the verge of a double digit GDP growth needs to capitalize on the Obama factor if it has to meet its needs in almost all sectors. A rather overly regulated economy preventing FDI in the infra sector was communicated by the U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke, calling for further policy shifts. But the U.S no longer seems to be the driving force in the South Asian economies and now, more than ever, they seem reliant on these economies towards providing jobs / opportunities for the Americans themselves. There is probably no better opportunity than this for India to capitalize upon. But, like all bureaucratic initiatives, time seems a defining factor which brings us back to the need of direction. This direction stems from the need of strong leadership.

On whether Manmohan Singh paints a picture of sound leadership, is a very debatable topic in itself, however, the lack of leadership in the state of Maharashtra is something unheard of. In a people-rich country, presence of leaders, or better said as, presence of politicians with a majority behind them, seems lacking. How can a multi-crore project function sans leadership? Well, at least there will be fewer ‘Adarsh’ like scams that can add to the public budget. Forget the concept of good and pro-active leaders, going against all vigilant odds to satisfy private-partnership, here, we have no leadership, nobody!

But however the issue of political instability does not seem to be nascent in India alone, the U.S is seeing turmoil as well and as a result, economic policies will get more attention and probably get diluted before their actual implementation with India. Under the backdrop of a successful $10 billion deal we seem to forget the lack of direction in the political set-up of the U.S which may cause otherwise.

The required sense of direction is more than just plain leadership; it is to follow by example. Consider the recent bilateral agreement between Russia and Norway on settling their border disputes over the North Sea, it was carried out very smoothly, in a very novel and diplomatic manner which now becomes a model that the world can replicate (especially when it comes to such volatile issues). However, in our case of establishing PPP’s as a norm, we are in need of a similar example in all states. We have a framework in place, but a successful PPP with NO limitations needs to be set as an exemplar.

Bottom-line, as Vikram Kapur had mentioned, we need funds from wherever we can garner them, for which we need FDI, for which we need the US, for which we need to woo Obama! But as the NPM goes, most of this FDI should fulfill the operational directives of the services rather than controlling the strategic administration of resources, for which Manmohan needs to think beyond his bleak chance of a second term in office!

All you can get on PPPs in India

2010-11-11T20:48:00.002+05:30

I know that some of you would be familiar with this link -- but this site has a lot of information with news and updates on PPP projects in India. Do check it out if you didn't know.

http://www.pppinindia.com/

The Big Fight -- CWG or no CWG?

2010-11-11T18:53:00.002+05:30

Hey everyone, CEA's debate for tomorrow is on the subject of the Commonwealth Games. It will be nice if everyone will attend this as I am sure a lot of pertinent points will be raised on all the botch-ups that were made and it is very relevant to what we study as well.

I also think they will take up the Olympics Hosting issue at the end. For a point :- The paragraph below is from Wiki.

Costs

The initial total budget estimated by Indian Olympic Association in 2003 for hosting the Games was 16.2 billion (US$364.5 million) but escalated official total budget estimation in 2010 became 115 bn ($2.6 B), which excludes non-sports-related infrastructure development in the city such as airports, city beautification and roads.^[18] Business Today magazine estimated that the Games cost 300 bn ($6.8 bn).^[19] The 2010 Commonwealth Games are the most expensive Gaming event ever.

There was an article once in the Hindu which had a big list of incomplete infrastructure when the commonwealth games was inagurated. I can't find it, but when I do, I'll post it in the comments.

Srinath

Water Woes in Chennai

2010-11-10T12:07:00.006+05:30

India, in many ways is reeling under an acute shortage of water.The main reason cited,which was highlighted during the class, was the need for more efficient use of the available resources through the construction of appropriate infrastructure.

South India is blessed with the presence of numerous rivers but the situation in a state such as Tamilnadu has reached new levels of desperation.Chennai meets a significant portion of its demand from its Desalination Plant located at Minjur,35km north from the city,which has been in operation since 2009.The success of the project has raised many eyebrows and a second Desalination plant at the cost of 1000 Crore is to come up at Nemmeli in a couple of years.The move towards Desalination has been rather nonchalant since the first plant had come up.

Chennai city draws about 600 million litres of water per day from lakes and reservoirs surrounding the city.The present Desalination Plant provides 100 million litres of water per day,making it a very vital component of the water supply chain.However,there have been no initiatives towards replenishment of existing sources or even to repair the losses that occur due to leaks. The need for a new plant can be avoided by stemming up measures in this front.

Water from a Desalination Plant is naturally more expensive and at present,it is priced at Rs 49 per kiloliter,which is nearly four times the normal price of getting water from lakes and reservoirs.Moreover,the 600 Crore Plant at Minjur is based on a DEBOOT (design-build own-operate-transfer) plan,due to which price fluctuations can occur after the firstyear of operation.The Government saw this in positive light as after the first year of operation, elections are due and there is no sense of incumbency among the people when their water demands have been met at a relatively lower price.This issue has escalated to the extent of M.K Stalin,one of the forerunners for the CM position, promising 100 Desalination Plants along the entire south-east coast if his party is re-elected.

Another neglected viewpoint is the environmental damage that a Desalination Plant could cause.There is a need to dispose the highly salty water that is creates by the process of reverse-osmosis.This is normally taken to a distant part in the ocean and dumped.But since its density is much higher than the surrounding sea-water,it settles at the bottom of the ocean floor without mixing with the surrounding water.The high concentrated salt content on the ocean floor is harmful to any source of life and a long term problem in this regards can easily be cited as well.The proposal of 100 Desalination Plants would go miles in fuelling the long term problems mentioned.

Going for Desalination becomes a prerequisite only in the Gulf Countries where,there is no
water source on land.Moreover,Mumbai has four times the population of Chennai and it still has a much better water supply network.The Government needs to recoup all its resources towards the re-engineering of its existing resources to maximize throughput which entails minimal investment as well.The only positive is that the opposing party has not come out with a bigger number of Desalination Plants as an election promise!

Role of women in Civil Construction Industry

2010-10-22T22:56:00.003+05:30

From the starting of the course, i wish to see and analyze the problems faced by the labours in the construction industry, especially those face by the women and try to have a solution to them. But we couldn't have it in our portion, so i thought of having a discussion in here on this topic. I read many publications on this issue but only very few of them were good at explaining the real problems faced by them. Here is one of the very best article. It is a kind of survey and view of the real women workers in the industry.

National Commission for Women
Status of Women Construction Workers
http://images.photogallery.indiatimes.com/photo.cms?msid=2876543

Although organizations like National Association of Women in Construction (NAWIC), but how much extend they solve the problems. A lot of public hearing of women construction workers have been held in various cities under the National Commission for Women, but i really doubt whether it is being implemented properly or not. The main reason for the negligence of this problem is may be due to the less percentage of their constituency in the industry.

---Sai Chaitanya (mcs)

CWG- Good or Bad?

2010-09-08T20:06:00.002+05:30

Recently, CWG have hogged the limelight for a variety of reasons. The former sports minister himself acknowledges the fact that a lot of money which could have been otherwise used for other important avenues has been spent wastefully on these games. But the question myself and a lot of other Indians ask is, " Is investing thousands of crores of rupees in sporting events that bad? Then why do countries fight for hosting such events? Are their any benefits?". Luckily I have a come across an article in The Times of India which gives us a decent explanation to the questions posed.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/opinion/edit-page/Worst-Foot-Forward/articleshow/6507516.cms

By reading this article it is clear that hosting CWG is not necessarily bad but, it is the planning which we lack that made it into a fiasco that is.

Ravi Kesav S.P

United We Stand!

2010-08-28T23:13:00.011+05:30

In a very glad move, the Tamil Nadu government is all set to initiate the Chennai Unified Metropolitan Transport Authority (CUMTA) Bill. Finally, it seems, the government has realized that simply building flyovers and widening roads on every congested route is not going to relieve it permanently from the traffic woes. The government's effort of addressing the issue in urban transportation on a larger scale is certainly commendable.

Basically, the prime function of CUMTA will be, but not restricted to, the integration of all the modes of transport- buses, suburban trains & MRTS.

This means that all the transport infrastructure development in the city will be overseen by this agency by developing a Comprehensive Transportation Plan (CTP) for the same. The bureaucratic delays and lack of coordination between the various agencies like MTC, Southern Railways, Chennai Corporation, Suburban Municipalities etc. which had hindered the implementation of projects in the past would no longer be a problem.

The main objective of the CTP is to promote the public transport sytem in the city, which has consistently been losing its share against private mode. Between 1992 and 2008, the percentage trips made in buses fell from 39% to 26% (source: CMDA). Although, CMDA in it's Second Master Plan, being highly optimistic, has aimed to increase the public-private share to 55-45, the intermittent survey conducted in 2005, showed an underwhelming 28-72 split. To address this issue, CMDA has come up with Bus Rapid Transit Ways(BRTW) project along 7 routes, one of which is the IT corridor. These routes will have a dedicated corridor for buses, and in conjunction with the ITS, the bus transport would be made faster, safer, reliable and comfortable.

The major advantage to the commuters by the integrated mode, is 'single ticket travel'. To illustrate: If a person residing in Medavakkam(suburb in south Chennai) wants to go to, say, Parry Corner (CBD), the most convinient option is to take a bus from Medavakkam to Velachery MRTS station and then take a train to Parry Corner. This is more convenient than to take a direct bus to Parry Corner because the city limits starts from Velachery, and the journey time of bus drastically increases as it moves towards the CBD, while the MRTS is much faster and mostly run under-capacity. With the introduction of single ticketing system, the commuter can do away with the standing in queue at the railway station. With the introduction of BRTW, which are designed to act as a feeder to other modes, the travel would be unperturbed by the traffic congestion, which would will attract significant patronage towards public transport. This is bound to relieve congestion to a considerable extent, cause reduction in road accidents, reduce vehicle emission.

Having said that, the practical implications will only be known after the actual implementation of the system. Hopefully, it turns out to be a success and other Metropolises would follow the suite very soon.

Reference:

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chennai/Seamless-commuting-to-be-reality-soon-in-Chennai/articleshow/6448633.cms

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chennai_RBTW

PS: I agree that the title was a bit cheesy!

2010-08-28T17:42:00.004+05:30

Where are the civil engineers???

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/26/business/global/26engineer.html?_r=1

The above article might not be related to Infrastructure engineering but rather more towards Infrastructure engineers.

Indians have always had the pride to boast the IT sector, IT boom, white-collared job and so on. But unfortunately even such elites have to confront the grim reality of the Indian Infrastructure. A world bank studies says, India would need to train three times as many civil engineers as it does now to meet its infrastructure needs. There is an alarming dearth of civil/infrastructure engineers. The scenario has completely changed since 1990, when Civil outperformed IT.

Lack of right expertise/infrastructure engineers in this sector have led to whopping losses in the country. Faulty designs by the incompetent engineers have led to catastrophic failures. Rickety bridges crumbling under heavy rains, unfathomable potholes in roads, daily power cuts, water shortage, poor sanitation have all lowered the comfort zones of the users.

You find big projects successfully running in other parts of the world like Dubai. They use their potential human resources very wisely. The irony is that most of these workers/engineers migrate from India in lure of high salary.

So I feel that, it's the responsiblity of our government and other companies in this sector to stop this civil-brain drain by incentivizing these engineers in every aspects possible. A lot of trust and security have to be built around this sector for people to join and continue in this field.

Kadambari

Expensive solar power can mean other Enron

2010-08-10T21:49:00.004+05:30

Hi Guys,

I came across an interesting article in the Sunday edition of the Times of India. One can read the article here,

http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Swaminomics/entry/expensive-solar-power-can-mean

I believe it is one of the countless instances where the government tries to mislead the public by introducing the so called "targets" without necessarily examining the feasibility of them.

Regards,

Ravi Kesav S.P

May be we can still cash the check..

2010-08-04T19:17:00.006+05:30

- Vinayak

Courtesy: Data for the Graph "Infrastructure Development in India and China—A Comparative Analysis" M. Julie Kim and Rita Nangia August 2008.

If we are to look at Indian and Chinese decisions on infrastructure development from the point of view of "to where/which sector" the money was put in, as against "how"; a strikingly different part of the game reveals itself, or so I believe. For instance take a look at the much higher growth in the Telephone sector in China as against that in India during the period of 1980-90 and 1990-2005. Did you notice some other parameter that shows a similar trend? Yes , Annual GDP Growth? We are again back at the question as to 'does greater GDP growth leads to more telephone lines or vice-versa?'

Lets deviate a little, look at Sardar Patel Road congestion issue that has come up; the proposal is a 145 cr (114 cr for land acquisition) grade separator. Imagine decongestion is feasible, at least for a few years, through the implementation of, say, congestion pricing, or for that matter any other Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) for a reasonable investment of 20 cr. Looks like a saving of 125 cr isn't it? ; can't this be suitably used elsewhere, perhaps as research funding for stimulating the needed technological development which in turn will catalyze rapid economic development.

So compare now, for the sake, telephone and ITS; and you will see that they are/rely on the telecommunication backbone of the country. So essentially telecommunication, though indirectly, hypothetically helped us to postpone the congestion in Sardar Patel Road and help us find new technologies.

So could this logic explain why China overtook India in the economic race? So can we apply the same and cash in?, entering the virtuous circle, apply technology(which is by all means a part of infrastructure)>fund research>develop the economy>more research>better infrastructure>all kinds of development...

Before we set the ball rolling, lets reflect for a moment; are we at the right time and going in the right direction? 50% of our population is below 25 years of age where as 80% of Chinese population is above 15; We are at a better position of 79 in Failed States Index where as China stands at 62. Will our policy of promoting equality right from the start turn the tides in our favor? Or will, like China, accepting initial income inequality as an inevitable effect of economic development be the only way out? Will China's 10 point growth sustain? If so for how long?

Are we to shoot for the stars, with the hope that even if we miss we will land in the moon?

Reference:

"India’s Economic Growth and Market Potential: Benchmarked Against China" G.K. Kalyanaram GK Associates
"Is China's Economic Growth Sustainable?" Ali Wyne
"Infrastructure Development in India and China—A Comparative Analysis" M. Julie Kim and Rita Nangia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_the_People%27s_Republic_of_China
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_India
http://www.hindu.com/2010/08/04/stories/2010080458790100.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_Failed_States_Index

Rs 3.5 bn for Delhi's infrastructure ahead of Commonwealth games

2009-11-02T00:19:00.003+05:30

I think it will be interesting to see how the infrastructure of Delhi is geared up for the Commonwealth games. With our national pride at stake, given the grandeur with which China put up their Olympics, it is an extremely important event for the country and the government seems to have realized this. Here's a small article on Economic Times: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/economy/infrastructure/Rs-35-bn-for-Delhis-infrastructure-ahead-of-Commonwealth-games/articleshow/5153640.cms

We have spoken about political will at many points in the course. A stimulus like the Commonwealth games forces the country to develop infrastructure on a fast-track basis. The SAF Games in Chennai, for instance, triggered rapid infrastructure development. After the games, the residential facilities built for the sportspersons were converted into housing facility for government employees, and the swimming pool, etc. are open to the public for use.

On the one hand, while the government imposes on itself deadlines like Sonia Gandhi's birthday, I think hosting such events of international importance could be a potential area for fast-track world class infrastructure development in urban cities.

Private firms may invest $150bn in infrastructure

2009-10-24T19:17:00.002+05:30

Hello Everybody,

Did you notice this news article in today's 'The Hindu -24.10.09'.

Planning Commission adviser says the Government has set a target to spend around $518bn for infrastructure facilities by 2012. Well, we knew it, isn't it - Our Advisor said so! Accordingly, 30% is expected from private sector (aiming at PPP model) which is around $150bn, another 30% from budgetary resources and the rest of 40% from commercialized budgets of NTPC and power grid (Well, is this feasible? Can NTPC and Power grid aide this much amount?). The Adviser, Mr. Gajendra Haldea, planning commission, also states that they expect a quantum leap in the infrastructure development during the 11th FYP from 5% to 9% (Is our present rate only 5%?). they also expect PPP model from developed countries...Because markets in India offer huge opportunities (always quoted statement) and returns on capital would be higher than in a developed country (Ok...facts here). How does all this sound?

A new Indian Public Sector

2009-10-16T15:23:00.003+05:30

Following Professor Sitaram's lecture highlighting the importance of heroes and how even public companies can also succeed, here's an interesting story which I came across some time ago.

http://www.indiatogether.org/2009/jul/eco-bridge.htm

The Bihar Rajya Pul Nirman Nigam, which was on the verge of being liquidated, has now turned the corner and built over 330 bridges in three years. The cause has been championed by Mr. Pratyaya Amrit ( :-) ) , an IAS officer of the batch of 1991.

The best part about this story is that it was effected in Bihar. Presently, the company is looking at expanding beyond Bihar and building bridges in other states!

The takeaways from this story are multifold. For instance, Mr Amrit came up with the idea of the “Mobile Inspector” system where all Executive Engineers have a GPRS enabled sim card in their phones. They can go to the site, photograph the bridge, take out their pencil stylus and fill in details like the name of the bridge, its location and status. It is then directly sent to the chairman who sees it on his computer in his office. Everyday, the Chairman monitors the progress. There is thus, a new sense of accountability.

The story is a great read and was shared to me by Vikas. I felt it has a lot of importance for this class. Comments please?

Regards,

Amrit Acharya

Hogenakkal Water Supply Project

2009-10-07T20:47:00.002+05:30

Page 13 of today's Hindu has a tender for Hogenakkal Water Supply and Flurosis Mitigation Project. Some interesting observations:

It says "Re-Invitation", presumably implying that no one responded the first time around. What could be the reasons? Has anything changed this time around?
The GoTN has recieved financial assistance from the Japan International Cooperation Agency.
The contract is for construction and maintenance for a period of five years, and is unit-rate based.
The pre-qualification documents are available for free, possibly to encourage more small time contractors.

Any comments/observations?

Harsha

Public-private partnership deals no longer confidential

2009-09-22T10:30:00.002+05:30

The Central Information Commission has ruled that the information in a PPP deal is not confidential and is open to public scrutiny. Link at http://www.hindustantimes.com/Public-private-partnership-deals-no-longer-confidential/H1-Article1-456228.aspx .The argument being made that the deal involves a public good and therefore the deal should be treated as an agreement between the public (but not the beurocracy) and the private company. But this might have a potential damage implications for the private sector companies with regards to their competency etc. The debate is quite open ended. I think this issue will roll out a series of discussions in the coming time. Will this boil down the ongoing debate whether people really have confidence that the government they elected is actually working for their own good. At it also raises the question that if I am a partner to the agreement (indirectly as government is just a representative of people) Why cant I know the deal I am actually entering into?

PPP's - long term private capital involvement.

2009-09-13T09:59:00.003+05:30

We discussed issues related to public private partnerships, their pros and cons in class. It is clear that ultimately it is the taxpayer's money that goes into building or maintaining any kind of public service. PPP's can be seen as a means to involve private capital in infrastructure building for a long time. In traditional contract based projects also, it is private player that builds the infrastructure and hand it to government. It was only short term induction of private capital. In a project where private player retrieves his investment from tariffs, government is not getting that revenue in future but the effective benefit to the govt is that much needed infrastructure is getting built in advance which improves the general well being.
Since it is believed that private operator is better at providing quality, instead of a PPP we can go for other types of contract where private player operates(maintenance of a facility) for a fixed fee. But it only means direct investment by the government all the time. So, a PPP effectively involves private capital for long time. Apart from problems that arise in initial stages of PPP's such as procuring permits, land acquisition, many problems with PPP's arise because they are longterm. some of them are Political uncertainities, Inflation, apparent complete privatization(perception of general public) of basic provisions by the government and foreign exchange risks if global players are involved.
Another difficult or perhaps the most important challenge is to bring institutional change in general public about government has responsibility to provide all amenities absolutely free. With the advent of the PPP, the problem became more pronounced since public is reluctant to pay more tariffs(example : water). Is it reasonable to conclude that many problems faced by PPP projects are because they are longterm?

Cultural Diversity in Project World - Can it be celebrated?

2009-09-08T11:42:00.000+05:30

Cultural influences are ofcourse nothing new. Any of us who have traveled to another country, the least to say to another state in our land of diversity, would have encountered some form of cultural differences in life.
In a mobile project world, it is quite a possibility that the project managers would end up working in a variety of cultures or work with people who reflect an array of multi-cultural perspectives. Projects around the world are found to showcase similar kinds of threats and opportunities that are non-technical and quite often identified as cultural.To name a few, some cultures invite very direct speech, while others abstain from it. Some cultures follow a very formal chain-of-command in terms of project communications, while other cultures promote a more horizontal flow of information.
A Project Manager working within a particular cultural environment will necessarily reflect that culture, both explicitly and implicitly. Now, is this a good reason to learn to value and celebrate the cultural diversity in one's project world?

Bandra-Worli Sea Link

2009-09-05T16:28:00.006+05:30

Lessons to learn from

The Bandra-Worli Sea Link presents an interesting case-study of infrastructure planning and management issues, in line with our discussion on the Montreal Olympic Stadium. The sea-link was originally conceived of in 1960s, but received a green signal only in 1999, after studies were conducted by the Central Road Research Institute and the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA). The Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) was appointed as the nodal agency for the project in 1999. The MSRDC awarded the project to the Hindustan Construction Company (HCC), but only to see a series of failure in meeting deadlines. The initial deadline was December 2004 which was later revised to December 2007 and then to December 2008. Actual work, however, did not commence until January 2005 when the Supreme Court gave the project go-ahead. The consequences of haphazard planning and scheduling, as was evident in the Montreal case, are reflected in this example as well.

The MSRDC changed consultants in 2003 and gave entry to Egypt-based Dar Consultants. The new party brought in tremendous design changes which escalated the costs by four times (Rs 4.4 billion to Rs 16.34 billion). HCC is said to have lost about Rs 4 billion due to these changes. Thus we see the role of designing and its crucial place in the overall implementation of an infrastructure project.

In April 2009, days before the completion of the project, three sets of sub-contractors threatened to pull out due to issues with the consultants. One of them, the Roman Tarmant Ltd., was about to obtain a contract for Polymer Modified Bitumen (PMB) surfacing to provide a water-proof road. However, the company backed out due to unreasonable conditions on warranty period. The wide spectrum of players involved in an infrastructure project and the corresponding human management that the size of such projects calls for is evident in this case.

A part of the rise in costs was due to the interests on borrowings and payment to the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai for a casting yard, an instance that shows how economic factors can equally inflect a project just as any other. Also to be noted is the fact that around 4000 workers and 150 engineers from India as well as China, Egypt, Canada, Switzerland and Britain are said to have participated in the project, which would have demanded micro-level cultural integration, a pointed that was highlighted in the class.

A few local issues like environmental concerns and issues pertaining to the fishermen, also surfaced during construction, which, though parochial, could have impeded the completion of the project. The Bandra-Worli sea-link, however, managed to brush such concerns aside with active political support from the state. To epilogue, this project presents many of the nuances involved in infrastructure planning and shows the amount of meticulousness that the task calls for.

Sources:
Indian Infrastructure, July 2009
"Bandra-Worli Sea Link: A Traveller's Delight", The Economic Times, June 30, 2009
(http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/News/Economy/Infrastructure/Bandra-Worli-sea-link-A-travellers-delight-/articleshow/4718082.cms)
Official Website (http://www.bandraworlisealink.com/)

Planning Infrastructure projects

2009-09-05T15:42:00.000+05:30

In continuation to the discussion we had with regard to the planning problems pertaining to the Montreal olympic complex Case study, I would like to make a point regarding the time duration allocated to a project. Usually when we bid for a project, the successful bidder is the one who quotes the lowest. So, its basically the cost (or the expertise of the bidding company in certain cases) that we are looking into and the time constraints are not given emphasis while awarding a project. The contractor is basically bound to accept the time line given to him to execute the project. With so many projects going off track, isnt it high time we gave enough emphasis on time constraints too while bidding? Should we not give due importance to submitting the tentaive schedule for the project too while bidding.. which could probably throw light onto whetehr the contractor has done his Home work well enough..??

Augmenting Supply vs. Increasing the efficiency of use

2009-09-04T13:42:00.002+05:30

In class, we spoke about how most power sector reforms were targeted at increasing the supply of power (i.e installing more power plants etc) and how the actual power supplied to users could also be increased by reducing transmission and distribution losses. The same is true of water. One way of solving a water scarcity problem is to treat, recycle and re-use wastewater. This way we reduce our dependency and our impact on the natural environment. The following article by Dr. R.K. Pachauri of TERI is an interesting read, and talks about the same issue.

Delhi Metro - Some Interesting Facts.

2009-09-01T22:59:00.003+05:30

I found out an interesting article on Delhi Metro in Live Mint "Off the record" column. The link is at http://www.livemint.com/articles/2009/08/30220005/Delhi-Metro-what-counts-what.html

I sensed a tinge of bias against Delhi Metro in general, and Sreedharan in particular, in the whole article.Nevertheless, it discusses some very interesting points, on lines of what we discussed about the urban metros in our class. I am jotting some points that i felt were interesting.

Presence of a champion figure in E. Sreedharan.
Some form of reduction in Vigilance and audit has helped the decision making to become a lot quicker.
Huge tax exemptions and soft loans provided are a critical factor for the success.
Land acquisition was done under emergency clause of Land Acquisition act ! (I do not know whether we can acquire land under emergency clause for metros anymore.)
He also makes a point towards the end about replicability and development of second string of leadership.

It is interesting to note a lot need to be done to create a facilitating environment for such projects. Such things may not have been possible if the project was done PPP way. We will have to see how the other metros handle these issues, where Delhi Metro was benefited by some extra-ordinary privileges.

National Sanitation Policy 2008

2009-08-19T16:01:00.003+05:30

In continuation of the discussion in today's class on Urban Infrastructure, I wish to mention the National Sanitation Policy 2008.

The GoI announced the National Urban Sanitation Policy 2008 with the vision that “all Indian cities and towns become totally sanitized, healthy and liveable and ensure and sustain good public health and environmental outcomes for all their citizens with a special focus on hygienic and affordable sanitation facilities for the urban poor and women".

The institutional arrangements encourages the local urban bodies to come up with a City Sanitation Plan involving the multiple stakeholders of the city. The policy also envisages constitution of a City Sanitation Task Force, headed by the Mayor (does one exist?? :P) involving the key stakeholders including representatives from the civil societies. In addition, the policy also announced a National Award Scheme for Sanitation for Indian Cities with a proposed methodology on the rating and categorization of cities on 100 points scale based on their performance.

You can find a nice summary of the policy here.

You can also download the policy (PDF) here.

Harshavardhan R.

PPPs in Infrastructure

2009-08-10T12:21:00.002+05:30

The Confederation of Indian Industries, Southern Region (CII-SR) organized a conference called Suminfra on Public-Private-Partnerships (PPPs) in Infrastructure in Chennai last week. Several speakers spoke about very relevant issues that affect PPPs in India, most of which we will also discuss in our course. Dr. A. Ramakrishna, who was the president of L&T and is now an adjunct professor at IIT-M spoke of the need to re-define contractor procurement procedures, Mr. Venkatesh of L&T spoke about bringing in more flexibility into contracting mechanisms, a speaker from CRISIL described the creation of an overall project-rating system to evaluate PPP opportunities and so on. There was also an interesting presentation on PPPs in water treatment and supply by Tata Projects.

We might reflect on this later in the semester, but there seems to be a gradual shift in the ways infrastructure is being viewed, moving from being transaction or deal-focused to a more holistic integration of long-term sustainability goals. This certainly seems to be the right approach to follow. However, it remains to be seen as to how we actually implement such strategies in practice, outside conferences.

Financial Crisis

2008-11-24T20:21:00.007+05:30

Hi all,

I have one issue to discuss...I know all the classes are over now! And even Exam too...!

But had one issue for discussion so posting my thoughts on the blog...

Well, As we all know about the financial meltdown across the Globe leaving the finance giants and banking sectors in a HUGE HUGE trouble.

Most of the construction companies and infrastructure developers are indirectly affected from this Financial Meltdown, since they get their finances for the project from these finance and bank sectors....

So now the issue is:

“What can we (Infrastructure Developer/Government) do to come out of this FINANCIAL DEPRESSION?”

Putting in simpler terms what strategies can be thought of, so as to ease the fund flow?

To minimize the effect our Finance Minister has come up with a strategy to lower the Interest Rate and try to boost the present financial condition...[Source: Business Line]

What can be the other mechanisms to avoid/minimize the effect of Financial Crisis?

I know that this problem is not so easy to solve...

One option would be to give a pause to the development/improvement programs for the time being!

Another option would be to take small projects, which involves lesser capital and can be borne by the developer himself.

Another (Strange & Out of Hat) option would be to do every development/improvement project on CREDIT!!!

Can you suggest some of the strategies??? Since the thoughts what I mentioned above are not the right solutions!!!

- Jeetu

PPPs for affordable housing

2008-10-08T10:50:00.003+05:30

Very recently, my research has moved in the direction of figuring out whether PPPs can be used to develop affordable housing in Tamil Nadu for the Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) and Low Income Groups (LIG) in society. There has also been a lot of talk recently on building 'nano homes' and the last edition of Infrastructure Today had several articles related to this.

The second master plan for the Chennai Metropolitan area estimates housing demand for the EWS and LIG segments to be 8,00,000 by 2026. Informal estimates seem to suggest that we are currently building at the rate of a mere 2000 houses per year! This seems to be a clear case for PPP where private sector efficiencies might have to be harnessed to deliver 8,00,000 houses by 2026. The catch is that by definition, affordable housing (300 sq ft pirced at Rs 3,00,000, say). is not very profitable and therefore might not be very attractive to the private sector.

So how do we solve this conundrum? I have some thoughts but would like to see suggestions that you guys come up with.

Stanford Blog on Infrastructure

2008-10-08T10:49:00.002+05:30

Stanford University's Collaboratory for Research on Global Projects (CRGP) also hosts a blog that contains several infrastructure-related articles from an international perspective. All of you might consider browsing through this at some point.

Only Central & State Government must handle future metro projects...

2008-09-23T21:04:00.003+05:30

This is the essence of an article in a news paper (23rd sep) written by E.Sreedharan (managing director of Delhi Metro Rail Corporation Ltd) to Montek Singh Ahluwalia (Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission, Government of India).

Already news came (on 30th Aug) in Economic Times that govt is willing to construct all future metro projects through BOT process. If this is true, private companies are the owners. The central Govt is just there to release funds. So there is a chance that they can extend the railway network thereby their properties near the project may increase to 2 to 3 folds.

Govt tries to charge less fares for the prosperity of the society and the private companies are not interested to take up the project unless they get high package amount. this may some times leads to losses for the Govt.

BOT projects are difficult to extend or repairs as each private company has their own way of constructing.

There is a chance of grabbing the valuable Govt lands for the construction. These all can be saved if govt involves, thereby ticket fares can be decreased so that purpose is served. In one Sentence, Govt have to handle large govt lands to private companies in the future if they nod for BOT projects as the private companies are the owners.

Conclusion: Only central & State Govt are the owners of future metro projects as BOT projects leads to more trouble in the future.

Both Central & State Govt s must involve in the metro projects. Only State Govt ownership also doesn't help much as it lacks the uniformity among the states.

This also helps to encourage the manufactures and producers in India.

BTO

2008-09-15T10:18:00.002+05:30

I would like to add on the issue of What Rajesh told in class.
in context with doing a BTO.to go about doing a BTO , Build-Transfer-Operate. Building a infrastructure by the private sector and transferring it to public sector and the operation through the same private sector.
one thing when the Govt.raises the tax during transfer , can hold good, instead of private players raising the tax and getting vast opposition.
Also giving the operations and maintenance to the same private sector will be more efficient, than giving to another private player who might complain about the standards of the infrastructure and quality issues. also such a move would ensure quality standards, or other wise when two players one for building and another for operation might subsidize the quality at the cost of other.

PPPs in the USA

2008-09-08T13:39:00.002+05:30

I recently read this article in the New York Times that talks about the perception of PPPs in the USA. The article makes for very interesting reading because almost all the issues mentioned are identical to those currently faced in India. For instance the article talks about opposition to private ownership of roads, reservations about government "selling out" to private companies and so on. Yet, the USA also seems to face the same problems with respect to crumbling infrastructure and lack of financial resources. Developed or developing country, PPP issues seem to be quite similar!

SEZ BY GVK IN TAMIL NADU

2008-08-20T16:44:00.002+05:30

This is article from times of india (20/8/08) . IT shows interest of TIDCO in development of SEZ.
Gvk company offered six times of actual value of land and also training and job opportunities for those who sold the land. I think these offers made people to sell land voluntarily. One more interesting aspect is pondicherry govt promised to supply power to the SEZ. If govt provides support in all aspects i think India will be on par with China in few years.

Problems in Power

2008-08-14T11:35:00.002+05:30

I read a very interesting article this morning in the Hindu Business line on States going back on power contracts that they signed with private power providers.

We will talk about this a lot more when we get into PPPs, particularly when we discuss the Dabhol example. However it might be interesting for all of you to see the political dimensions of the infrastructure problem. The article says that the new Meghalaya government cancelled a contract entered into by the old government on the grounds that it was a "violation of the states policy"! The moral of the story is that you might have demand (a need for, or a lack of power), and you might have supply (private power providers), but other social/political/legal/environmental issues can easily scuttle the project!

Comments?

PPP in IRRIGATION

2008-08-10T23:40:00.002+05:30

We have seen in one of the classes that in India there has been 0% PPP till now in irrigation. But its interesting to see that the worlds first PPP irrigation project started in Morocco in 2004. Here is the article.

World's first PPP irrigation project for Morocco

Available online 7 October 2004.

The Moroccan government has chosen a private partner for the planned public private partnership (PPP) irrigation project in the citrus-growing area of Guerdane, Taroudant province.

This Guerdane project is the first PPP irrigation project in the world.

Surface water is urgently needed for irrigated citrus farming in the 10 000 hectare Guerdane perimeter, which currently depends largely on the extraction of rapidly diminishing groundwater supplies drawn up from the Souss basin.

The bid for the Guerdane PPP irrigation project was won by a consortium led by Omnium Nord-Africain (ONA), a Moroccan industrial conglomerate. As part of its contractual obligations, the ONA-led consortium will enter into a 30-year concession for the construction, co-financing, and management of an irrigation network. The network will channel water from a dam complex, located 60 miles from Guerdane, to 600 citrus farmers. The Guerdane irrigation project will cost an estimated US$85 million to build.

Reference: science direct doi:10.1016/S1359-6128(04)00448-3
Also a good pdf on PPP in Irrigation is available here :http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/30/0/37739223.pdf

Banks & Indian Infrastructure Projects

2007-10-29T11:50:00.000+05:30

Recently, the India Infrastructure Company Ltd (IIFCL) has bagged sovereign guarantees for raising Rs 5,000 crore for funding big-ticket projects in the country and some MoUs were signed by IIFCL with the three public sector banks — Canara Bank, Vijaya Bank and Syndicate Bank, with an option of raising the funds either from the domestic or international markets.

This will be also done though several global venture capital funds by extending the funds to the IIFCL either direct debt or in the form of equity.

IIFCL's funding for projects would be in the form of direct participation in project loan syndications along with the banks or in the form of refinancing support to the lending institutions. This was because bank finance for infrastructure was likely to face asset liability mismatch problems in view of the long lending tenures. The MoUs with the three banks involved providing IIFCL's support in their project lending efforts. This included participation in big-ticket loan syndications. IIFCL would function on the basis of the credit appraisal and due diligence reports of the banks.

Till date, Canara Bank was lead bank in 13 projects, Syndicate Bank was the lead in four projects and Vijaya Bank was the syndicate leader in two projects. So far, IIFCL had signed 10 MoUs with banks and financial institutions. Banks such as Canara Bank and Vijaya Bank already have substantial exposures in infrastructure projects that include power, roads, telecommunication and urban projects. as for instance, Canara Bank now has an exposure of Rs 12,000 crore in the sector and it intended pushing up this figure to Rs 20,000 crore by this year end. Vijaya Bank's exposure is Rs 3,500 crore in the sector.

Some concerns like assets liability mismatches (ALM), other lending risks, risks in project financing, the risks involved interest, liquidity and credit risks etc. could be eliminated with the participation of IIFCL, as ther would be no fixed rate lending for projects. Lending would be on commercial terms, that could involve floating or periodic resets in loan covenants.

The curent statistics reveal that funding requirements for infrastructure was estimated at $360 billion or about Rs 3 lakh crore per annum. Even assuming a conservative debt equity ratio of 3:1, bank funding would have to be at least Rs 2.25 lakh crore each year. As per reports, these investments in infrastructure were necessary to sustain the high GDP growth of 9 per cent.

Hence, I feel that there is no risk associated with the funding source since as mentioned above, small capped players will play their role safely with the aid of big players like IIFCL.

Explicitly modern concession agreements speak about the significant role played by lenders in deciding the flow of funds and ensuring their right and timely utilization. Effective implementation of 'Equador Principles' in Indian Infrastructure would fetch long term benefits. Lenders ofcourse would be able to contribute to streamline the projects since they are a fundamental part of Project building. The Government has also realized these facts and would be keen to keep up with the pace of FDIs and hence should encourage more participation of International + National Financial Institutions in Indian Infrastructure Projects.

It is upto the Policy Makers and Decision Imposers to take an advantage of this current scenario before the fruits are ripped off!!!!

Negotiations....

2007-10-28T22:30:00.001+05:30

There is no doubt that pre-planning and indepth analysis will definitely lead to making project a success. When we deal with construction Projects, we may encounter 'N' no. of parties with their 'N' different opinions. Its very difficult to come to conclusive terms. So often disputes arises and 'negotiations' become a very deterministic tool to approach the problem / difference of opinions.

Time is the essence of any project but as long as time is utilized effectively in resolving the issues, the project success can still be guaranteed. The main theme behind negotiations lie in understanding the issue at the root level rather than simply blabbering about issues. Most of the times issues arise due to miscommunication, false information, misconceptions, incomplete data, etc. that could be exemplified by our case studies. Conoco and NGOs could have used efficient and fair negotiations with the indegenous people to come at consensus. At times, the absence of regulatory or mediatory agency could help in sorting out the matter. It can be stated from the "Game" that was demonstrated last week.

People should be really aware about their requirements and they should consult the right people in right way by means of right negotiations at the right time.

Some of the organizational behaviour qualities like attitude, leadership, teams, cross functional groups, can highly influence the 'tactics of negotiation', which if utilized in proper direction, could fetch successful results.

The successful married life of couples who understand and adjust with each other and negotiate clearly to resolve their problems, can be a paradigm for the success of negotiations on construction projects.

multi cultural projects

2007-10-15T10:48:00.000+05:30

hi all,
There's an interesting article about the risks faced in a multi-cultural venture in an infratructural project. There has been a rise of multicultural project teams, widely separated by geography with team members from different cultures and backgrounds working together to achieve a common objective, in past few years. The key factors affect the success of these projects can be as follows:

The lack of physical proximity is the first key factor. The geographical separation of a project team poses difficulties of communication.
For the project manager of a multicultural project, there can be difficulties in assessing the skills and competencies of team players. Training and education standards and the relative value of qualifications can be very different in different parts of the world. Job methods vary and can be different because of specific local conditions such as working in heat, earthquake risk or local trade practices.
Mobility can be a problem that affects competence: it can be difficult to find people who can work effectively away from their home environment.
Another key issue affecting multicultural project teams is language. A project must have a common language to ensure a common understanding. In many situations, this means that non-native speakers are working in their second or third language with a consequential loss of effectiveness, as well as increased risk of mistakes or misunderstanding. In situations where interpreters or translators are required, this has the effect of significantly slowing down the whole communication process and is very costly. Even where team members of different nationalities speak the same language, there can be difficulties. Words in American English can have totally different meanings to English in the UK, whilst conventions and abbreviations can often be very different.
Risk is present in all projects but becomes more pronounced in global projects where there are often new risks, particularly if the project is being built in a part of the world where security is an issue. In some countries, contract law is not well established and other local laws may not be well understood by other nationalities.
Risks in communications and risks arising from misunderstandings and misinterpretation are much greater.
Risks in communications and risks arising from misunderstandings and misinterpretation are much greater.
There are differences of standards in many countries that can extend to attitudes towards health and safety. Design standards can vary and local factors such as climate, topography and infrastructure can dramatically affect a project. Local customs can also be bewildering, especially for staff living overseas where there might be different attitudes towards gifts, entertainment and hours of work.
In many countries of the world, different ethical standards apply. This affects attitudes towards the law and, indeed, national laws can be very different in different territories. In some countries, bribery and corruption have become institutionalised and are the only means by which some local officials can earn a living.

PPPs in US infrastructure

2007-10-08T12:07:00.000+05:30

This months issue of the Journal of Construction Engineering and Management brought out by the American Society of Civil Engineers has an interesting article on the use of Public Private Partnerships (PPP) in US infrastructure projects.

As we all know, most infrastructure in the US is quite old and is in great need of renewal and replacement. PPP is an efficient way of mobilizing resources and achieving optimal project performance. So how many of the infrastructure projects in the US are done through the PPP mode?

The authors conduct a survey and find out that only 12% of the organizations surveyed have used BOTs or PPPs to build infrastructure!! The authors then attempt to understand why the other 88% continue to use conventional modes of public finance and come up with several explanations. A common thread that runs through these explanations is a lack of capacity within public agencies and a lack of exposure to PPP's, thereby making the implementing agencies a little skeptical of the overall potential of PPPs. In addition, the US also has no laws on PPPs unlike the Model Concession Agreements in India.

The research done in this paper is not very rigorous - the method of analysis is merely a straight aggregation and averaging of survey data. However, what is interesting is that the lack of capacity (i.e. understanding, know-how of fundamentals) as regards PPP leads to an over-reliance on public procurement even in developed countries. Many of the same arguments explain why there is a lot of rhetoric on PPPs in India, but relatively few projects that are actually implemented in this fashion.

What can we do to improve the situation? Comments?

The bujagali project: what is happening?

2007-10-05T08:51:00.000+05:30

The bujagali project is spreading its success among the locals. The locals started to eek out a living by setting up food-stalls near the site.The landlords have started to rent their lands near the site. People are going for loans to set up businesses and improve their living standards.The article below explains it! http://allafrica.com/stories/200710031232.html

another related article i found regarding the project financing were
http://allafrica.com/stories/200710021168.html
http://allafrica.com/stories/200710030062.html

This project is just taking shape! hope there is a lot in it for the Ugandans!!!

Setusamudram Ship Canal Project

2007-10-04T12:22:00.000+05:30

Hello all.
If you remember, sir talked about the viability of the Setu Samudram project in terms of reducing the time of navigation in the last class. I think this makes a good case study for IPM course!
Here is my understanding of the project.

The project does not serve the very purpose it is being done! It will reduce the travel distance by only 120 nautical miles. And usually the ships travel at 12-13 knot speed. But when it enters setu samudram waters, they have to slow down to half of the speed. This ultimately means saving of only around 1 hr 30 mins of travel time, if the same ship had gone via normal route around Sri Lanka. Now the question is, is it worth spending Rs. 2400 crores on this project just to save 1.5 hrs? and remember, no ship will pay a huge toll and use this shipping canal. The project, if realized, will be an economic disaster.
Next worst thing is the effect on the marine ecology. The coral reef will be completely destroyed by dredging of the sea bed. These are the coral reefs that slowed down the Tsunami waves and lessened the effect of it on to the other side of Indian coast. Not only that. The water surrounding the island nation of Sri Lanka is the habitat for very rare species of whale which is on the verge of extinction. Their habitat will be severely affected by this project.
Now onto the social impact of the project. Thousands of fishermen have to quit fishing and also the place, which is their habitat for hundreds of years. There is absolutely no rehabilitation plan so far being thought of for them. And the govt is hardly listening to their woes.
There is also zero planning on the part of the parties involved in the dredging as to where to dump the excavated soil. The contract document says, it will be dumped in some safe place. But what is that place? where it is? how to transport the soil to that place? what are the aftermaths of dumping those thousands of tonnes of soil from sea bed on to the land? No answer what so ever.
In terms of strategic gains, India is gaining only 1 out of 10 or even less. The Setusamudram area on to the Lanka side has a lethal sea-bourne marine unit of LTTE. The consequence of any friction with LTTE - I need not tell it!

In fact, an issue like this shows how poorly we are managing our strategies. China has already built naval control points all around India. Pakistan has been of great support and help to China. China is building an ultra modern naval point off the Karachi shore, to control West part of India. It already has one such base in one of the Myanmar islands, and is closely watching the activities at Chandipur, the missile karma-bhoomi of India. And it is no secret many of the LTTE weapons are China made!!

It is a nonsense argument that the project will bring economic prosperity to Tamil Nadu. It will only bring disasters!

one China friendly 'National Newspaper of India' along with its buddy blind politicians of Tamil Nadu is supporting the project so much as if without this there wont be any progress in Tamil Nadu! how to stop this misguidance?
where are the NGOs, Arundhati Roy and Medha Pathkar?!
why are the govts silent on these aspects? what are the possible solutions to the socio - economic - environmental issues?

2007-09-14T21:48:00.001+05:30

Wonder what happened to the Stockton case? The activists won, after all. A couple of months back, the Stockton City Council voted to end the Privatization Contract. Previously, two court rulings found that the deal 'violated the law'. Somehow, I'm not surprised, I had a feeling that they would pull it off eventually.

The end of the contract:

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/08/05/EDC2RA7OG1.DTL

The first ruling:

http://www.arena.org.nz/water38.htm

The second one:

http://www.polarisinstitute.org/usa_judge_rejects_stockton_water_privatization_project

"Eligible" Suicides.....

2007-09-08T01:06:00.001+05:30

A few days back, an article got featured in "The Hindu" about the agrarian crisis in Vidarbha. The article was about Prime Minister's visit to Vidarbha last year where he announced relief packages for heavily indebted farmers. This resulted in farmers breathing a sigh of relief which unfortunately didn't stay for a long time. Suicides toll rose from 2,425 in 2005 to 2,832 in 2006.

And after 1 full year when PM arrived in Mumbai to review the situation, he was greeted with success stories. We should appreciate the Government's work as they are mentioning that only 836 suicides cases of "eligible" are being registered. If a whole family commits suicide, the suicide count would be increased by 1, no matter how many dependents were there in that family. If a farm was registered over a person's name during ancient times, and now if descendant of that person who is farming the land commits suicide would not be considered as a "genuine" suicide. In a district in Vidarbha, there were 30 suicides in July this year but not a single one was "genuine".

We cannot pinpoint the blame on one single individual or organization for the crisis. Leaving the protagonists apart, which include indebtedness, no monsoon, social evils, etc, an important role was played by lack of implementation of tons of planned/unplanned strategies.

The situation started aggravating in 2004 when the State Government cut down the prices of cotton by Rs 500 per 100 Kg which resulted in nothing but a huge increase in the no. of suicides.

I am ending this by a few suggestions which could upturn the crisis. The Govt should take some action to reduce the debt of the farmers, if can not make it zero, so that they would at least get relieved from the distressful present situation. Secondly, proper allocation of resources which includes distribution of money from relief packages, irrigation water, electricity, etc. Thirdly, proper implementable planning should be done to avoid such situations in future.

Microfinance and Infrastructure

2007-09-07T14:35:00.000+05:30

A short while back, Debopam had made a post on microfinance. In a recent issue of "Infrastructure Today", there was an interesting article on how microfinance had been used for a water supply project in Tirupathi.

There were 4 organizations involved - the government, microfinance institutions (MFIs), NGO's and the people in that area. The NGO's helped the people organize themselves into a SHG. The people then took a loan from the MFIs to build the project and the government provided skills training on construction, operation and maintenance.

Overall it was an interesting case on how microfinance could be successfully used to provide rural infrastructure. However, it can only work when the community has the resources to pay back the loan to the MFIs and therefore there should be an ability and a willingness to pay.

Criticise or Privatize???

2007-09-07T12:47:00.000+05:30

Since privatization seems to be the current hot topic, i thought i would share some of my HUMAN ideas here, in my first blog. What i mean is......no figures and analysis here, not yet...just opinions and feelings. I would then like to progress to actual analysis based on facts and figures in my future blogs. Any criticisms( especially negative) will be appreciated since i really want to understand this better.
The need for privatization was discussed at large in class. To summarize(just a few of them) had been:
1) the govt doesnt have enough funds to finance a lot of the infrastructure projects.
2)the govt has taken quite a sum as loans from financial institutions and,as such, is finding it difficult to repay the loans without taking on additional debts.
3)the already existing infrastructure requires maintenance...which in turn needs money.

No matter how we play it around, it all finally comes down to money. Its a lack of money thats making the govt think about bringing private players on to the field. In spite of the fact that it makes the govt look inefficient, the willingness of the govt to accept that such a situation does exist is credit worthy. Maybe experience, which can indeed be a bitter teacher, is what has made people wary of privatization. Most people equate privatization with economic divide. As most things,even though there is some truth in this, I personally believe that thats not entirely true.
Let me explain. We all agree that private players' motive(for the large part) is profit( money again). Now if I were to open my own establishment I would try to do 2 things(once the establishment is running smoothly):
Build a reputation and Expand my clientele.

Building a reputation is important only in the case of competition. Which is pretty obvious. Monopoly implies i dont have to work to build my clientele. They have no choice but me.
Expanding my clientele is important to me for the reason that, assuming man is a creature of habits, once he has decided on whose service he will use, my only option to make more
(of course) money is to make sure more people know of the service I am providing. This means I will try to reach the far reaches of the nation before my competitor does. Think telecom Given the competition is right, the service I provide will be cheap(if the technology is so widespread) which means that more people will be able to use telecom and because I want to reach them before my competitor the speed at which things progress will also increase. This technology would improve their business, bringing in...thats right....more money and so improve their lifestyle for the better. Given they have more money now(relatively) they can get choosy and that will make me improve my quality of service so that my clientele doesnt look for other options. In their own way both should be satisfied. This is a classic example of "you scratch my back and I scratch yours". Which, I believe, gives both the parties relief.And is not that what we wanted in the first place ...... greater good to more number of people???

Monopoly can mean 2 things
One that I have no competition, in which case, I am the only choice they have (whether my service is good or bad).The other is the time period for which I own the infrastructure in which case even if I have competition but the government has given me the ownership for a long period of time, I might just slack off. And in this case legally nothing can be done(unless the govt was intelligent enough to have an escape clause). In almost all the cases they do(cos believe it or not, the govt has intelligent people for the most part) and thats why all those legal papers have sooooo many sheets.

Ideally one would wish for no private participations. And that would mean to have an extremely efficient government. Given that the ideal situation does not exist what is the next best thing? privatization?? personally, i believe, its the best choice we have(next to only maybe PPP).

I feel its really selfish and narrow-minded if you feel that you cant handle the thought of few 'private' people making money out of doing something that would help society in some way, in any way. Do not forget its not easy and cheap controlling something as huge as infrastructure. So if some 'private' people(who are working their heads off) actually makes a little profit out of the whole thing along with making the life of some person (who was until then just a figure ..a number ...in one of the government papers) comfortable.... then please just think of their profit as their fee.

And if you dont like THAT idea....then the best thing instead of holding rallies and shouting and complaining would be to tell the govt a way( a feasible way) to get the country out of this rut.
P.S Dont forget the govt has done its homework much better than you or me since they have been around far longer than us.

Privatization :only solution

2007-09-03T23:37:00.000+05:30

Hi everyone,
Following the discussion in class about pros and cons of privatization and public undertakings,I think some excerpts from an article by Naira Yakoob are worth mentioning.

Privatization means transfer of risk by the government or public sector to the private sector by giving up management control and usually ownership (at least majority shares) in an enterprise. It differs from commercialization as in this case the government retains business risk and ownership but makes changes in the way the company operates so that it runs on business principles. Privatization or de-nationalization helps to establish a capitalist economic system, competition, readily available products and services, high quality, more exports, better services, more opportunities, growth, etc. The primary objective of privatization should be to find the private owner who is most likely to improve the performance of the company. Due to the poor performances of our government-be it in the field of political governance, education, industry, etc., it becomes very important to resort to privatization of these institutions and systems. An example to support would be privatization of many companies producing consumer goods. People had to queue, sometimes for days, to get cement, rice, sugar, milk, etc. Now it’s readily available and at times maybe cheaper where competition prevails. Many of the improvements we take for granted now are the result of privatization.
In a set up or environment with a strong tradition of socialism and bureaucracy, the government's privatization program has always had its impediments. Generally, the government adopts, if it does, a very complicated privatization policy. They then use complicated procedure for selecting the owner, impose conditions on the management of the company, sell only part of the company to retain partial control or to intervene in management, restrict or prohibit foreign investment, sell the company shares to small domestic investors who have little ability to manage and so on. Special interest groups such as wealthy businessmen and ruling politicians usually pressure the government to keep the undertakings running that ought to be liquidated. Thus a large share of the State’s productive assets and work force remains locked up in inefficient and unprofitable companies. The reviving and awakening of the governmental units and institutions to the modern practices and modus operandi seems difficult or impossible. Efforts to improve the functioning of these institutions by the government may not be effective for many years. The point that even the private organizations in this State are not very well established or performing is genuine. But the blame can be placed mostly on the political governance- laws, policies, and institutions created by governments. What is needed is a change in the administration and management of the sick and bad-performing units. The reins should be handed over to the private organizations or individuals with competent and ethical management skills. A fresh approach is required- enterprise restructuring, privatization, and liquidation of non-performing and sick units or even commercialization for a start. What is important is that they should deal with competition and quality issues. The non-performing or sick companies can either be restructured or commercialized. However, at times selling organizational assets can be a better decision and hence liquidation can be resorted to. The best way to improve the performance of private business is to eliminate government barriers to competition like tariffs, licensing, legalities, and other restrictions. With the initiative to start up privatization in all government sectors, it will start a drive towards quality, competitiveness and high standards.

Advances in Transportation Infrastructure

2007-08-28T19:22:00.000+05:30

There is a magazine called Infrastructure Today that contains articles and information on Indian infrastructure. Its a pretty good magazine and I urge you to pick up a copy and browse if you get a chance.

The latest issue had an article on road transportation infrastructure and brought out a couple of points that were not really discussed in class.

First, for a truck traveling large distances over a tolled national highway, it is likely that there would be 5-6 toll stations in between. Stopping at each of these stations could add an extra 30 mins - 1 hr for the trucks journey. Intelligent systems that could detect and simplify/automate this process of toll collection (by reading information off bar codes present in the truck or by being able to weigh/identify the vehicle) is an area that is currently the center of a lot of attention.

Second, one of the challenges faced by developers is that the Government takes an inordinately long time to process bid documents. Developers assets are often frozen for this period and they incur some financial loss. Streamlining the approval procedure is therefore something that is required in this context.

Some facts regarding Special economic zones

2007-08-25T21:59:00.001+05:30

Hi!
Lot of discussions are going on regarding SEZs. Just go through this as this might help people to clear their doubts.
http://www.rediff.com/money/2007/aug/25sez.htm

how microfinance can help in upliftment of rural economy -- the story of grameen

2007-08-24T22:04:00.000+05:30

As we were discussing the concept of microfinance and how it can help in upgrading rural living standard in general, and infrastructure in particular, i thought of sharing some more details about grameen, the most famous success story in this field.
Mohammed Yunus, Nobel Laureate, started this venture in Bangladesh, one of the poorest countries of the world, back in 1974, 3 years after the country's independance, by giving a loan of 27US$ to 42 families to create small items for sale The bank began as a research project by Yunus to test his method for providing credit and banking services to the rural poor in order to reduce the rampant rural poverty in Bangladesh. It was a huge success and in 1983 it was transformed into an independent bank
Grameen is best known for its system of solidarity lending.The system is the basis for the microcredit and the self help group system now at work in over 43 countries. Although each borrower must belong to a five-member group, the group is not required to give any guarantee for a loan to its member. Repayment responsibility solely rests on the individual borrower, while the group and the centre oversee that everyone behaves in a responsible way and none gets into repayment problem. There is no form of joint liability.
Grameen's track record has also been notable, with very high payback rates—over 98 percent of 5.72 billion US$.More than half of Grameen borrowers in Bangladesh (close to 50 million) have risen out of acute poverty thanks to their loan, as measured by such standards as having all children of school age in school, all household members eating three meals a day, a sanitary toilet, a rainproof house, clean drinking water and the ability to repay a 8 US$ a week.
Another accomplishment is that among the 6.67 million borrowers, 97% are women. Thus grameen has also been effective in bringing in sort of a social reform movement.
At present Grameen has grown a family of enterprises including Grameen Trust, Grameen Fund, Grameen Communications, Grameen Shakti(Grameen Energy), Grameen Telecom, Grameen Shikkha (Grameen Education), Grameen Mothsho (Grameen Fisheries), Grameen Baybosa Bikash (Grameen Business Development), Grameen Phone, Grameen Software Limited, Grameen CyberNet Limited, Grameen Knitwear Limited, and Grameen Uddog which are all working in different sectors of rural infrastructure developement. In 2005, it went public with Grameen mutual fund one. The model is also being replicated in other countries by Grameen foundation.

for more, visit
http://www.grameen-info.org/

Japan looks to treble trade with India

2007-08-22T21:15:00.000+05:30

In today's class professor Ashwin was discussing about the financial institutions funding infrastructure projects , of which Japanese investment in India was discussed. I have come across this article which tells about Japan investments increasing in India, almost treble and that certainly is going to pace the existing and the incomplete projects to completion. Article speaks specifically about energy sector apart from the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor .

Heres the entire article :

source : http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/Japan_looks_to_treble_trade_with_India/rssarticleshow/2301509.cms

where Buddhism remains the most famous import from India, aims to treble trade with the sub-continent nation to USD 20 billion by 2010 for which it has sought early conclusion of an economic partnership pact.

Addressing MPs in Parliament, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe favoured signing of the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) soon to firm up relations and raise volume of bilateral trade three-fold. Trade between the two countries in 2006 was about USD 6.5 billion.

"I likewise urge the Indian side to give their support to enable the early conclusion of this high quality agreement," he said on the second day of his three day visit to the country.

He said bilateral relations are blessed with the "largest potential" for development, adding that a strong India is in the best interest of Japan and a strong Japan is in the best interest of India.

Outlining various fields in which the two countries can cooperate closely, he promised to help India in the field of energy by providing technology. But, he did not mention nuclear power.

Japan, which has been one of largest economic assistance providers to India through ODA, also wants to partner India in mega projects like the Delhi-Mumbai industrial corridor being funded by it now.

a small prognosis

2007-08-20T23:31:00.000+05:30

Well , this is ajay. This is no excerpt from any article or journal, its the discussion of the present urban scenarioor rather the urban prognosis. With the IT boom, industrialisation,clustering of educational institutions and ofcourse lucrative careers offered by the urban india are drawing the rural india to the cities and it is envisaged that nearly 40% of the urban population would live in citiesby 2017.Even right now we are encountering the problem of traffic congestion, water and sanitation problems blah blah blah..which apparently would show some adverse effects on the next generations, for example: the traffic congestion results in increase in travel time which indeed represents excessive usage of fuel which in turn results in the depletion of the resources and the similar things with the water and sanitation etc. , though the govt. is really trying to solve the problem by developing tier 2 cities etc .,most of the industries are really reluctant to adopt to the suggested habitat, may be because of the transportation facilities and its brethren. In a word we could say that government is on a wild goose chase . But i think development of SEZ's with the residential quarters for its employees is a very good step in terms of the urbanisation issue apart from the obvious economic positive outcomes.I think its time for the strategy players to play the role in facing the crisis, they some how got to show that the further influx of either industries or the population into the cities is goint to create a real mayhem either by creating the artificial local inflation or the similar steps. Before we go for these startegies , it better we do a little goal programming as such priortising the constraints, goalsand trying to optimize them.I firmly belive that if the government approaches some good consultancy before giving their permits , making policies etc we're going to see some pleasant outcomes. Infact our stock exchange has hired Meryll lynch to do their risk analysis and accounting then why not the government hire one than just making policies and giving permits to the industry holders in an obsequious manner without foreseeing all the ramifications.

Sea link project in trouble

2007-08-20T15:24:00.000+05:30

Hi all.
The ambitious sealink project in Mumbai seems to have ran into trouble with the differences between the parties increasing day by day. The work has been completely halted and the price escalation is more than 100% with delay in the completion by two years.
Read the full story at
http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?newsid=1116550

Which one to choose - A Private Builder or The State Development Authority??

2007-08-19T11:52:00.000+05:30

Hello everyone,

This is Aditya. This articles deals with the issue that "The restrictions implemented by Supreme Court on the builders and the inefficiency of MHADA have done the damage in the redevelopment process." Have a look at this.

Cessed and dangerous, bldgs crumble as they await redevelopment

There have been around 5,000 incidents in the last five years in which buildings or parts of buildings have crumbled in Mumbai. But only 1,000 buildings have been taken up for redevelopment till date, highlighting the authorities’ apathy and residents’ and owners’ unwillingness in pushing for redevelopment.
Portions of two buildings have crashed in less than 16 hours since Friday evening, killing five and injuring a few others. The two mishaps have served to put the spotlight back on the reasons why those living precariously in the buildings choose to go on doing so despite the obvious risk to life.
Few among the occupants and the landlords of these buildings have been interested in their redevelopment but things have worsened since April 2006. The Supreme Court effectively put a cap on the profit that builders could make out of redeveloping property by decreeing they could not be given a floorspace index of more than 4 as incentive.
“Builders before that were allowed to sell 50 per cent of the redeveloped property. This limit on their profits has come as a huge disincentive,’’ Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority cessed buildings resident executive engineer V G Wani said.
Not a single building in the city has been put up for redevelopment since the SC verdict.
The reasons for occupants’ and landlords’ unwillingness to redevelop property according to MHADA rules are far simpler to understand. “Redevelopment often takes years when residents have to move elsewhere, to transit camps in the suburbs, dozens of kilometres from their workplace, school or college. This disturbs a whole way of life,’’ Mumbadevi BJP MLA Raj Purohit said.
Occupants also pay a pittance as rent (compared to the prevailing market rates) to stay in the best areas of Mumbai; so they often tend to ignore the very real risk to their own life and limb.
The reason for landlords’ apathy is even more obvious; they stand to gain the least from redeveloped properties, say Mhada officials.
A few instances will put things in clearer perspective. It is almost two years since Nagpada’s Sadaf Manzil crashed, killing 11 persons and injuring 29; 17 of the injured have been disabled permanently. Residents initially thought of redeveloping their building through the Mhada but then realised that it would be a futile wait and even the second generation might not see the redevelopment. So they decided to approach a private builder.
Residents of adjoining Patel Mansion, which was in a similarly dilapidated condition, agreed to a cluster redevelopment. “We appointed Abid Rizvi and Associates to carry out the redevelopment. We got a no-objection certificate from the Mhada and permission from the BMC to carry out construction. But now the builder is hesitant because of the FSI cap of 4,’’ Sheikh Latif Gaffar, a resident, said.
The hesitation stems from the fact that the builder may not be able to recover the cost of construction.
“There are 31 residents and seven commercial shops. The builder says that with an FSI of 4 he can construct upto 11 floors. So, after rehabilitating the tenants, he will be left with around six flats and these will not fetch him what he wants,’’ Gaffar said. The residents are at present living in transit camps at Wadala, Bandra and Malad.
Congress corporator from Nagpada Amin Patel points out there are 530 cessed buildings in his ward extending from Tank Street to Shuklaji Street. One hundred and eighty have been demolished but have not been taken up for redevelopment.

CESSED BUILDINGS
Old buildings in the island city are called cessed buildings because tenants pay monthly charges (known as cess) to the Repair Board for carrying out repairs; this cess is higher than the rent.
There are 16,372 cessed buildings in the city.
Vacation notices were served on residents of 71 buildings this year.

Articly Courtesy : Times of India, 19th August 2007, Mumbai edition, Page 3

factfile about SEZ

2007-08-18T14:25:00.000+05:30

Hi all,
Here's a link to some facts about SEZs that I think might be interesting to note.
http://sezindia.nic.in/HTMLS/Fact_sheet_on_SEZs_as_on_31-07-2007.pdf

Aditi

land acquisition procedure

2007-08-16T22:16:00.000+05:30

Hi everybody
This is Debopam Roy. As we had discussed in class, land acquisition is often the single most important risk in private financed transportation infrastructure. To emphasis how cumbersome the process is, I thought of sharing with you all the procedure for land acquisition as per the National Highways Act. the different steps of land acquisition are described in the different sections of the act, as follows:

3A(1) Notification in official gazette

3A(3) Notification in 2 local newspapers, 1 of which will be in vernacular language

3B Obtaining power to enter land for survey

3C Hearing of objections

3D Final & binding declaration of acquisition by notification in official gazette {has to be done within 1 year of 3A(1) excluding period of court injunctions}

3E Take possession within 60 days of service of notice

3F Right to enter land and do any act

3G Determination of amount payable as compensation after giving notice in 2 newspaper, inviting claims of persons with interest and resolving disputes if any through arbitration

3H Deposit of money to person entitled

So now you know why more often than not, our infrastructure projects are behind schedule.......

Special Economic Zones (SEZs)

2007-08-16T19:31:00.000+05:30

I'm sure you would have enjoyed and learnt a lot from Vijay Sarma's guest lecture today. For those of you who are still thinking of SEZ's this website provides more information at the policy level. Of course you could just google SEZ's to get many more websites with pertinent information.

In particular, several of you were wondering as to what the envisaged benefits of SEZ's were. Here is what this website has to say about this:

"(a) generation of additional economic activity
(b) promotion of exports of goods and services;
(c) promotion of investment from domestic and foreign sources;
(d) creation of employment opportunities;
(e) development of infrastructure facilities;

It is expected that this will trigger a large flow of foreign and domestic investment in SEZs, in infrastructure and productive capacity, leading to generation of additional economic activity and creation of employment opportunities."

As you can see, theoretically SEZ's can potentially confer a multitude of benefits - I think Vijay raised most of these benefits in class today. However the reality can be different. Comments?

Reg. the infrastructure crisis

2007-08-14T10:17:00.001+05:30

Hello, everybody,

This is Sachi Chander. I was just reading through the comments left by Thejas to my previous note and discovered two very informative links given by Thejas. Seeing how they were languishing like a lost puppy in the comments box, I felt that they ought to be hightlighted. Go through the links below.

They present in-depth information regarding the infrastructure crisis. Good find, Thejas.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/03/09/national/main678939.shtml
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7137894/

“Pension fund could be used to develop infrastructure”

2007-08-14T00:27:00.000+05:30

Hey junta! I have read this article in today's new paper. Just go trough it.
Here is the link
http://www.hindu.com/2007/08/13/stories/2007081352220500.htm

Regional airlines to boost local connectivity

2007-08-13T17:20:00.000+05:30

Hello everybody,

This is C.S.Janardhan . Here is a very interesting policy Undertaken by the government to boost the local connectivity through airways and bring up better ways of private sector participation in airlines in the nation. The government on Thursday introduced a new category of schedule carriers — regional airlines.

These airlines would primarily provide local connectivity in the north, west, south and east/northeast by using one metro in their regions as the base for flying to other smaller towns either in the region or anywhere in India.

For starting a regional airline, the company would have to acquire at least three aircraft within a year and at the end of two years, it would be required to operate with a minimum of five planes.

"I see 200 aircraft operating with regional airlines in next five years. Currently about 80 places get flights regularly and another 100 more places can be added on this list," the minister said.

Now airlines can begin as regional carriers and if they increase their fleet size to three and five aircraft in one and two years, respectively, they can aspire to become national carriers on their performance. Moreover, Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel said this will lead to states reviving unused airstrips or opening new airports in private participation to link them to the country.

Following are few links for more details related to the article….

http://www.hindu.com/2007/08/11/stories/2007081156661600.htm

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India_Business/Now_regional_airlines_to_boost_local_connectivity/articleshow/2269573.cms

http://www.indiaprwire.com/businessnews/20070809/23830.htm

UMPP need PPPAC approval

2007-08-13T11:38:00.000+05:30

This is sriram siddhartha. Call it the Sasan effect. All future ultra mega projects may have to get Public-Private Partnership Appraisal Committee’s (PPPAC) approval before being bid out if the finance ministry has its way.

The finance ministry has conveyed its views to the power ministry that considering the good track record of PPPAC, it should also be involved in the approval process of the ultra mega power scheme, an official source said.

The proposal for involving PPPAC in the ultra mega power scheme is aimed at strengthening its vetting process. The scheme got almost derailed over the Sasan project controversy where the first winning bidder Lanco-Globeleq had to be declared invalid after the completion of the bidding process.

Both Sasan Power, the special purpose vehicle of Power Finance Corp (PFC) overseeing the project, and Ernst & Young failed to identify problems in the bid document of Lanco-Globeleq for the Sasan project till the project was awarded to the consortium. It is now felt PPPAC with experience in handling large infrastructure projects would strengthen the vigilance mechanism, preventing Sasan-like lapse.

At present, the bids are invited and scrutinised by PFC, appointed as the nodal agency to implement the scheme. After the proposed changes are implemented, PPPAC may evaluate future projects for deviation from rules and regulations before giving its nod. The body may also evaluate the projects at the inception stage when a site is identified and other linkages are given to it.

source - Economic Times

India may change power equation in Lanka

2007-08-13T11:05:00.000+05:30

Hello everybody,

This is C.S.Janardhan , writing about a very interesting article on the indo – lankan submarine cable link. According to this article power deficit India may soon become a major energy supplier to neighbouring Sri Lanka. It is expected that the project could be completed in just few months. Once commissioned, this line could transmit seasonal surpluses existing in the country which at times could not find domestic buyers. Well the trade does seem to bring out some serious troubles within our power deficit nation but it seems that PTC expects a win-win situation for both the nations as the submarine cable link could also be used for transmitting any power surplus existing in Sri Lanka in future to power deficit India. Following is the link for the article. Just check it out for detailed information.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/India_may_change_power_equation_in_Lanka/rssarticleshow/2269882.cms

Reg. the infrastructure crisis

2007-08-11T10:03:00.000+05:30

Hello, everybody,

This is Sachi "GC" Chander, writing about the collapse of the Mississippi bridge ( the M-bridge, henceforth ). We were told by Dr. Ashwin about this when he mentioned the infrastructure crisis that has gripped America. A day after the Hindu reported the incident, the newspaper carried another interesting piece that cited official sources declaring that more than 70,000 bridges are just as structurally deficient as the M-bridge. The costs of maintenance and repair are expected to reach nearly 200 billion dollars (!) . Further statistics and comments can be read here .

http://www.hindu.com/2007/08/04/stories/2007080456111600.htm

This gives an insight into the widespread nature of this crisis. However ,less than a day after the incident, preventive measures are being taken in the preliminary form of assessing and estimating the level of risk with other structures. One has to appreciate the damage assessment as well as damage control measures taken by the nation.

Transmission & Distribution

2007-08-08T21:58:00.000+05:30

As thejas had already posted the details of installed power capacity and additions, I would like to talk about transmission and distribution.

Unification of regional grids has been envisioned by engineers from long time. The idea has come to lime light only few years back i.e, Indian Government initiated activities recently. Integrated National grid shall evacuate additional 1, 00,000 MW by the year 2012 and carry 60% of the power generated in the country. The existing inter-regional power transfer capacity is 9,000 MW, which is to be further enhanced to 30,000 MW by 2012 through creation of “Transmission Super Highways”. For creation of such a grid, an investment of Rs. 71,000 Crore is envisaged. Out of this, Rs. 50,000 Crore is planned to be mobilised by POWERGRID and remaining Rs. 21000 Crore is envisaged through private sector participation.

The T & D losses have been consistently on the higher side, and are presently in the range of 18% to 62% in various states. The aggregate technical & commercial (AT&C) losses are in the range of 50% (half of the power goes waste!!). Unplanned extensions of the distribution lines, overloading of the system elements shot back in terms of huge losses. All these problems had to be foreseen and proper investments if made earlier wouldn’t have resulted in this bad scenario. The commercial losses are mainly due to low metering efficiency, theft.

Coming to transmission, The Government of India has an ambitious mission of ‘POWER FOR ALL BY 2012’. To be able to reach this power to the entire country an expansion of the regional transmission network and inter regional capacity to transmit power would be essential. The latter is required because resources are unevenly distributed in the country and power needs to be carried great distances to areas where load centres exist.

http://powermin.nic.in/ would give you more details.

The story of an IIT prof

2007-08-08T19:36:00.000+05:30

Regarding the Telecom network that we will soon discuss in the class i found a article that we can be proud of !
kindly read this
http://specials.rediff.com//money/2007/aug/08jhun1.htm

Hydel power - the best option ?

2007-08-08T16:12:00.000+05:30

Hi all.

According to the latest facts [June 20th, 2007] of Power ministry of Govt. of India, the country has 1,34,716 MW of installed power generation facility, out of which 52% is state sector, 34% is central and 14% is private.
Also, 65% is thermal and 25% is hydel. This is where we need to look at.
India is harnessing only 17 % of it's potential hydel power, whereas countries like Norway [58%], Canada [50%] and Brazil [ 31%] are way ahead.
The Indus basin has 20000 MW potential, yet to be harnessed, Ganga basin has 11000 MW and the Brahmaputra has 35000 MW. Fortunately the previous central government realised the importance of this and came out with a plan of 50,000 MW power generation by 2017. This initiative has started with the preparation of feasibility report and detailed project report. 162 hydroelectric schemes have been identified with an aggregate installed capacity of 50,560 MW. They are located in sixteen States of the country. Of these, 106 schemes aggregating to about 39,000 MW are located in only four States namely Arunachal Pradesh, Uttaranchal, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu & Kashmir. These projects under this Initiative are proposed to be taken up for execution during 11th & 12th Plans i.e. between 2007-2017.
And there is a whole set of budgetary and infrastructural and governmental initiatives being taken to exploit the hydel resources.

But the social issues keep haunting with people like Medha Patkar and Arundhati Roy [ Aamir Khan being the latest addition] staging protests every other day against such massive projects. Also, one major strategic fear with the Government of India is China's claim every now and then [ the latest being last month] that Arunachal is theirs. [ remember, Arunachal is the biggest contributor in hydel sector ].

Every developmental project in this country is so, a political, social, environmental, diplomatic, strategical, regionally chauvinistic and deadly opposed by the Left.

Tidal Power

2007-08-08T16:11:00.000+05:30

Someone (Silesh) had mentioned Tidal Power in class. We aren't really concerned with the technology, but we're more concerned about the economics of generation. Wikipedia has this to say about the economics: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tidal_power#Economics

From the article:

"Tidal power schemes have a high capital cost and a very low running cost. As a result, a tidal power scheme may not produce returns for years, and investors are thus reluctant to participate in such projects."

As it is, our SEBs are running under huge losses and power sector in India is not in a very good financial position. To spend a large amount of money on establishing Tidal power schemes is hardly feasible. Also, the largest Tidal Power Plant has an installed peak power of 240 MW with an annual production of 600 GWh which is hardly a lot. To set up many such plants for our requirement of power would involve a huge amount of money.

Unless we come up with new technology, tidal power is not feasible, and we are better off looking at conventional methods of power generation.

Resources on Indian Infrastructure

2007-08-05T11:01:00.000+05:30

Hello and Welcome to this blog. For those of you who are interested in knowing more about the infrastructure scenario in India, I would recommend reading the India Infrastructure Report - brought out by the 3i Network . The 3i's are IIM Ahmedabad, IIT Kanpur and IDFC. This is an annual publication that contains a good review of policies and actions that were initiated in the infrastructure sector over the recent past, as well as several thematic, thought provoking articles.

Another good resource on Indian infrastructure and India's growth trajectory in general, is the website of the Indian Planning Commission which contains several draft reports and copies of India's 5-year plans. A particularly interesting read is the Approach paper to the Eleventh Five Year Plan 2007-2012 which outlines the Indian governments preferred areas of focus for the next five years.