Blog

August 5, 2010

Poor Island Nations Most Vulnerable to Climate Change highlight Rich Nations Duplicity

Poor Island Nations like Maldives are most vulnerable to Climate Change with their very existence at stake as rising sea levels threaten to sink them completely […]
August 5, 2010

Real Life Example of Stock Manipulation playing out in Indian Capital Markets – Aster Silicates

It is a microcap stock with only $12 million being sold to the public making it easily susceptible to manipulation because of its small float size.Its fundamentals could not in any way justify Rs 199 as even at Rs 118 it looked twice overvalued to me.But the stock kept climbing without any news probably sucking in naive investors out to gamble on the "greater fool" theory until the greatest fools were left holding out the can
August 5, 2010

Well Designed Feed in Tariffs leads to Mini Solar Energy Boom in United Kingdom

United Kingdom has been a laggard in climate change and global warming issues especially compared to its European neighbours.While countries like Italy,Germany and Spain have installed […]
August 5, 2010

Software Powerhouse India to finally acquire cyberwarfare capabilities

USA's NSA possesses formidable strengths in this area using American information technology which is the best in the world.USA has denied the export of critical encryption technology in order to safeguard its lead in the cyber security area.India is taking a leaf from these countries albeit in a late manner.India's plan will involve recruiting hackers and software professionals under the aegis of its intelligence agencies.A new law also will be passed to prevent exiting Indian laws from prosecuting these recruits.
August 4, 2010

AUO's Gigawatt Solar Ambitions hit an Environmental Bump over Manufacturing in Taiwan

Taiwan and South Korean Companies have been making massive investments in the Solar Energy Space through both greenfield and brownfield expansion.South Korean Hanhwa has used the […]
August 4, 2010

China to create Green Vehicle National Champions with a 100 Billion Yuan Subsidy

China's Green Stimulus policies has been massively biased towards the growth of domestic industries.Electric Vehicles is no different with China recently introducing Fuel Efficiency Subsidies in Auto Industry exclusively for Domestic Firms.Now the new announcement by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology to subsidize energy efficiency in Transportation with a 100 Billion Yuan Subsidy over the next 10 years further explicitly supports domestic firms
August 4, 2010

India not to impose Capital Controls like other Asian countries as Economy's absorbing capacity increases

India looks unlikely to impose capital or currency controls like Asian countries to stem the increasing capital inflows from developed nations.The Indian government and the Central […]
August 4, 2010

Guest Post : Guide to successful VC investments

Paul Kedrosky’s research had pointed out, it takes a VC to invest $50 million and be in the industry for seven years to make a good […]
August 3, 2010

Prakash Steelage IPO – Indian IPO market in sorry state as Management convicted for tax evasion files for offering

The Indian Market has seen a slew of junk Initial Public Offerings (IPOs) which have led to large losses for investors.The fundamentals of these companies are […]
August 3, 2010

South Korean Conglomerate Hanwha follows LG,Samsung into Solar Energy;Acquires controlling stake in 4th Largest Chinese Solar company Solarfun cheaply

South Korean Conglomerate Hanwha subsidiary Hanwha Chemicals has taken a controlling 49.99% stake buying 36 million shares fro m Solarfun at $10.72 (4.6% premium) and the complete shareholding of promoters Good Energies (controls German Q-Cells as well ) and Chairman Mr. Yonghua Lu .Solarfun is the 4th largest Chinese company which has been executing well on a vertical integration strategy.
August 3, 2010

Global Wheat and Rice Prices increase faster than 2008 Commodity Boom due to Record Drought In Russia and Floods in China

A  Record Drought in Russia and Worst Floods in China since 1998 are driving up wheat and rice prices up more steeply than in the commodity […]
August 3, 2010

Sharp becomes an Independent Power Producer (IPP) through JV with Enel to build utility scale solar plants

a-Si technology has much lower efficiency in the range of 7-9% compared to the mainstream crystalline solar technology.a-Si cost advantages over the c-Si technology has also disappeared with falling polysilicon costs.This makes a-Si only feasible for utility sized plants as a-Si's larger area requirements makes unsuitable for residental and commercial segments.The IPP JV is a good move as it will provide captive demand for Sharp's a-Si modules.
August 3, 2010

Huawei fails to win US Telecom Assets once again despite higher bids

Huawei faces blacklisting from India on Security Concerns Huawei has been blacklisted by the Indian government from supplying telecom equipment due to security concerns.Despite strong lobbying […]
August 3, 2010

Green Energy in India gets unexpected boost as Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) mandates 6% Renewable Energy generation

India’s Green Energy Sector got an unexpected boost when the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) mandated that utilities all over India will have to compulsorily generate […]
August 2, 2010

Bajaj Corp (BCCL) IPO review reveals it to be a one trick pony trying to diversify;would give it a miss

The FMCG industry in India is currently trading mostly in the 25-35x range so the company is pricing itself at 25x which makes sense considering that it is a small company with just 1 product.The success of its new products is still open to question and most of the money will be spent of promoting these products.At 25x,the company is not leaving much on the table for investors considering that its new product ventures are risky considering the strong competition in the Indian FMCG market.Though the stock is much better than the junk being offering in the Indian market,I would still give this IPO a miss as their are better options available in the Indian FMCG sector
August 2, 2010

Spain's new Solar Feed in Tariff Policy to shift the market towards small residential installations like Germany

Spain has been in the media spotlight for its proposed retroactive solar subsidy cuts which were strongly opposed by the Solar Industry Association in Spain.These Feed […]
July 29, 2010

TSMC decides to focus on Solar CIGs technology instead of mainstream c-Si

SMC seems to have made a strategic call to focus on the thin film Cadmium Indium Gallium Selenide (CIGs) Technology instead of the mainstream crystalline silicon (c-Si) technology.Note CIGs technology is the most promising thin film technology with yields much higher than the other technologies like Cadmium Tellurium (CdTe) used by First Solar and amorphous Silicon (a-Si) which was used by AMAT's Subfab division.
July 29, 2010

Bangladesh doubles textile worker's Minimum Wage but Pay still below Poverty Line level

Bangladesh recently witnessed violent protests by textile workers who are being forced to work for wages below $1/day even as inflation rages at more than 10% […]
July 29, 2010

Rare Earth Mineral IPO looks risky – Molycorp seeks to raise upto $478 million to build Mojave Desert mine

Rare  Earth Minerals have been in the news because of their necessity in production of Clean Technology products and a virtual Chinese monopoly which controls almost […]
July 29, 2010

Suzuki sucks dry the shareholders of its India subsidiary Maruti through massive royalty payments

Suzuki which is a global Tier 2 automaker is the biggest automobile company in India through its Indian subsidiary Maruti.The company which was formed in the […]
July 28, 2010

Is the Aster Silicates stock being Pumped to be Dumped

India’s primary market for stock issues has seen a lot of junk offerings in the recent past.They have led to big losses for investors naive enough […]
July 28, 2010

Germany adds as much Solar Energy in just 1 month as USA's entire Installed Solar capacity

According to the German Federal Agency,Germany added 1.7 GW of Solar Energy in the month of June.This bring the cumulative installed capacity for 2010 to 3.4 GW capacity compared to the 3.8 GW capacity installed in the entire 2009.The reduction in Feed in Tariffs in July 2010 has propelled the developers to finish all the projects by June 30 in order to qualify for the much higher electricity rates.
July 28, 2010

Engineers India FPO Review – Analysis shows it to be a good safe play leveraging India's infrastructure growth

Engineers India Follow on Offering (FPO) is a sequel to the government PSU divestment through stake sales in companies with low public float.EIL FPO is going […]
July 22, 2010

Security and Piracy concerns over Huawei increase with Motorola filing case for IP theft

Huawei and ZTE,the two Chinese telecom equipment makers keep making headlines for all the wrong reasons.These 2 firms have won over a large amount of marketshare […]
July 22, 2010

Glaring Lack of Human Rights in China as Leader's Wife gets beaten by Police on Mistaken Identity

China’s Communist Government is notorious for suppressing any note of dissent to its authoritarian rule.Its vice like grip over Internet is already well known by the […]
July 21, 2010

Applied Materials conducts euthanasia on its long suffering Amorphous Silicon thin film Sunfab division

Applied Materials has finally shut down its SunFab Thin Film division after continuous losses in the last couple of years.The Solar Thin Film Technology has seen […]
July 21, 2010

Is Google's Investment in Wind Energy Greenwashing

Google’s paltry $39mm investment in a Wind Farm was puzzling as it really seemed to meet no goals.The investment would not lead to any significant advancement […]
July 21, 2010

More Empty Rhetoric over Climate Change and Renewable Energy by World Leaders

Climate Change Mitigation and Global Warming have been put in cold storage by world’s major countries like USA and China.While Europe and Japan are pushing initiatives […]
July 21, 2010

India's leading corporate group Tata sues Greenpeace over a Turtle game

Tata Group is the most respected Indian Industrial Group,however that seems to be changing India’s Tata Group of companies is the most respected corporate group in […]
July 20, 2010

Honda bets on the success of Hybrid Vehicles instead of Electric Vehicles

Honda is betting more on the success of  Hybrid Vehicles than on Electric Vehicles.It seems that the Japanese auto giant thinks that Hybrid Vehicles will get […]