'There has been a decline in poverty in India'

In Toronto recently, Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission, was quite a wanted man. He keynoted the Canada-India Foundation's Energy Forum, attended the dinner where the CIF Chanchlani Global Award was presented to Tulsi Tanti, founder, Suzlon group of companies; was invited by the University of Toronto to speak on the G-20; and was the keynote speaker at a Canada-India Business Council breakfast meeting.

Amid his packed schedule, Ahluwalia, a key member of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's economic team, spoke to Rediff India Abroad's Ajit Jain.

Has India's growth reached all its people?

Our strategy has always been growth alone is not enough. It has to be an inclusive growth. Usually, people look at the evidence in terms of what's its impact on poverty. Poverty numbers come out every five years. The last available numbers for poverty are for 2004-2005.

There's no official indication of what has happened to poverty since this government came to power -- that you will get a couple of years later. I am pretty sure that it will show that there has definitely been a decline in poverty in India.

The evidence suggests the effect of growth do reach down, may not reach down as much as we would like. We have taken a number of steps that would increase the inclusiveness. How effective those steps are, next poverty estimates would show.

What are those steps?

Before this government came to power, a very important weakness in the Indian economy was that agriculture was not doing very well. The (agricultural) growth was 1.8 per cent during the previous government and we wanted to raise it to about 4 per cent. In the last three years, we have achieved about 3.5 or 3.6 per cent agricultural growth.

One reason I believe the growth is more inclusive is that agriculture growth during these five years will be much higher than during the previous five years. In addition, we have taken a number of steps which would provide more income support to the lower end of the spectrum.

Probably the single largest scheme from that point of view is the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, which basically ensures people who need work are assured of 100 days of employment per family annually at the minimum wage.

Minimum wage for different purposes is different and the minimum wage for agricultural labour varies from state to state. It varies from Rs 70 to Rs 100-plus. In Kerala, it is very high. This is for completely unskilled manual work.

So, basically, if you live in a rural area and you are otherwise able to work, you will get work at least for 100 days just for the scheme. Other work you will find in normal ways in rural areas.

Since the agricultural growth has been better than in the previous years, on the whole the rural population should have been able to put in a better performance.

We have launched major schemes to improve the rural population's access to health and education. The welfare of an individual is not just the function of income but also the function of whether you are getting basic services. In our kind of society, these services have to be provided by the public sector for the common man. That's what we have done.

Take the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, the primary school education programme aimed at achieving universal coverage -- every child must be in school. The latest numbers show that 97 per cent of children are now in a school -- they are registered in a school.

Attendance has gone up very sharply, partly because we have midday meal program. About 150 million children within the age group of 6 to 14 are being given food every day. So, that's quite a substantial benefit that goes to poor people.

We have launched the National Rural Health Mission, which provides much improved health services through the public health system in rural areas. There are other schemes, like rural sanitation, rural road development to link the rural areas to urban areas and improved market linkages, and things like that.

These schemes taken together, combined with the fact that higher growth would mean there has to be some trickling down of benefits, would make the system much more inclusive than it was.

We would know the results when we see the numbers at the end of the 11th Plan period.

Why is India then importing wheat and other food grains? Why do farmers commit suicide? In Vidarbha, 1,600 farmers committed suicide last year.

On the suicide front, first of all, that's a figure of three years ago. There was a period when there was a lot of distress. Those numbers have come down. If you look at those numbers these are not higher than the peak three years ago. It is not that before this government came to power there was no suicide.

There are suicides in every group in the country every year. So, I just do not believe that the evidence of suicide suggests rural distress compared to the situation that existed earlier.

Import of food is not a sign that agriculture is not doing well. We are importing food and we are exporting food. In years of plenty we exported food. When there's shortage we import food.

Food import took place last year and actually we wanted to be absolutely sure that there won't be any food shortage. The last two years, including this year, we are running record food crops, granaries are over full. So, the import of food is not at all an indication that agriculture is not doing well.

We banned the export of food last year. We are banning export and encouraging import just because we wanted to keep adequate stocks within the country. Had we not banned export, cheap food would have been imported and expensive food would have been exported.

I don't think importing food is a sign of agriculture weakness at all. It is only a sign that there's adequate food available in all categories. For example, we didn't restrict the export of Basmati rice. If you are freely going to allow export of Basmati rice, there's no harm in importing cheaper rice that poor people need.

If you don't import cheaper rice and simply ban the export of Basmati rice, the poor people are worse off and also the farmers are worse off because the farmers get lower price for Basmati rice and the poor can't afford that price anyway.

So, it is far more sensible to let a superior product be exported so farmers benefit and import what the poor man needs by importing cheaper rice from abroad.

What I am trying to say is that successful agriculture involves farmers switching to Basmati earning three times and price and poor farmers importing Vietnamese rice. You shouldn't look at the import and say agriculture is not doing well.

Agriculture would be doing very well in net terms even though we are importing some food.

India imports 70 per cent of its oil needs. It is costing the country -- at the present rate of $50 a barrel -- up to $28 billion. What if that price increases to $100 a barrel?

As long as recession continues there's no chance of oil going to $100 a barrel. We are suffering because of a decline in demand for our export but we are benefiting from oil price. If the world economy recovers, the price of oil will also rise. If the price of oil does increase, in my view, domestic oil prices should adjust accordingly.

We shouldn't, under any circumstances, subsidise oil. Unfortunately, it is difficult to implement. In my view, if you want to subsidise your consumers, give them the money but charge them the market price of oil. Then you are really helping the poor.

In the integrated energy policy this is very clear -- in the longer term the only sustainable policy is that the price of oil should reflect its global price.

That's what happened last year also. We adjusted oil prices and then we lowered oil prices because we didn't raise to the full extent.

Will India phase out coal-fired power plants and emphasize more on renewable sources of energy?

I don't see any phasing out of coal plants in the next 20 years. The total use of coal in India would only increase. What we should do is more of an increase in the renewable energy than in this category, but both will have to increase.

Second, we have to experiment as to how we can make the use of coal clean. That's a major technological challenge but obviously we should try to develop that technology to the extent we can or bio(fuel) to the extent which we can.

Emission of carbon dioxide is 1.2 tons per capita in India. Does it have a significant environmental impact?

The emission per capita in the United States is 20 tons, in Europe it is 12 to 14 tons and in China it is 4 tons. So, I think the rest of the world should pass a motion of thanks to India for keeping its emission at a level which actually is below the level required to achieve climate sustainability -- because most people say the world has to reduce its emission per capita to 2 tons per capita.

Dr Manmohan Singh has said in the G-8 Summit in 2006, he has made a categorical promise that we will never exceed your (industrial countries') per capita emission. Today these fellows are averaging 12 tons per capita. We are at 1.2. If they want to save the planet, they better reduce their emission.

India's sugar industry and $100 bn CERs

About 930 carbon credit projects are resting in Indian carbon trade basket, while 160-180 such projects are likely to be added every year. India has the capacity of earning a whooping US$100 billion by the trade of CERs, while CERs worth US$ 300 million has been already sold globally by India. Given the scale of sugar enterprises in India, the industry should come up in a big way to en-cash the potential of CER trading, said Dr. S N Dash, Secretary, Ministry of Heavy Industry& Public Enterprises.

He was speaking at a National seminar on Indian Sugar Machinery Industry organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), here today. He pointed out that the industry can make significant contribution in meeting the national power requirements. In 2008, 10% ethanol blending to petrol was permitted and the affects are being studied. Sugar industry can therefore supplement ethanol production and reduce nation's dependence on petrochemicals.

Dash highlighted that sugar machinery exports have been showing a steady growth of 35% per annum over the last five years. By virtue of its quality, the industry has established its credentials overseas. On the domestic front, the Indian sugar industry has a turnover of Rs. 700 billion per annum and contributes almost 22.5 billion to central and state exchequer every year.

Urging the government to liberate the sugar industry, Mr. Samir S Somaiya, President, Indian Sugar Mills Association said, that the part of Indian industry liberated by the government of India has made a mark globally, the IT & Telecom sectors. Sugar industry can also be a case of successful liberalization in India. The demands made by the industry 50 years ago have not seen any major policy initiative. We need to have a drastic relook at the sector and examine the way forward by liberalising.

Sidharth Shriram, Chairman, Mawana Sugars Ltd said that the industry has potential for CER trading, energy efficiency, exports and imports and reaching capacities. Therefore the industry should come-up with a 20-25 years roadmap and get all the stakeholders subscribe to it. This will see active participation from the Industry and government to achieve greater global heights.

K B Pranesh, Managing Director, Fives Cail - KCP Ltd shared a SWOT analysis of the sector. According to him India holds edge over China in terms of quality and competitive cost advantage of Sugar Machinery. However the industry needs to have IPR protection in place. While an open market will decide the economics of the industry, uniting effort in quality standards amongst small and micro enterprises should be undertaken.

Vivek Verma, Managing Director, Spray Engineering Devices Ltd., said that the focus of industry should be to lead a de-controlled regime. The government of India has always lend its ears and industry should make right proposals pertaining to policy framework, state-of the art technology, energy efficiency, and the likes for attaining globally competitive status.

Earlier in the welcome remarks, Aditya Puri, Chairman Sugar Machinery Division of CII & Managing Director ISGEC, said that the suppliers should be well acquainted with the technological advancements in this field. The Indian industry has to keep upgrading to manufacture products better than the best in the world.

How to make money with Silver?

By Eric Gruber
Recently, I met the owner of a well-known precious metals web site and I popped this question to him: “What do you think about investing in silver?”

His reply was both profound and accurate. “David,” he said, "The smart money is moving into gold, but the SMARTEST money is moving into silver!"

Investing in silver is a great way to make money, especially if you are looking to secure your future or your retirement. But of course, just like any type of investing, there are no guarantees. You need to know what you are doing and what the silver market is all about before you can get too involved. This is the only way to make sure that you give yourself every possible advantage to benefit from silver investing.

That’s the ONE and ONLY reason that I am here today. I want to share with you some tips that will give you direction when you start investing in silver so you can make the most money possible.

1. Take a close look at the market before you decide that silver investing is right for you. Investing is silver is different than investing in stocks and bonds.

2. Educate yourself. If you are not sure how investing in silver works, touch base with a professional who can help you with the buying and selling process.

3. Complete effective online research. Be careful of the information you find. There’s so much information online about silver investing, but a lot of it is misinformation. You want to learn from experts who are in the trenches tracking the silver market and making investments every day. For example, the information that you will find on http://www.silver-investor.com is based on my experiences and knowledge from following the silver market daily for more than thirty years.

4. Get familiar with the many different ways that you can invest in silver. You can invest in silver mining companies, silver ETFs, silver futures, silver bullion and silver coins. The sure-fire way to invest in silver without the worry is to invest in bullion or coins. This is the place to start-- real metal for your future. You don’t have to pay for a mining company’s energy costs. And you don’t have to buy 1000 to 5000 ounces in a futures contract that carries too much risk for a beginning silver investor.

5. If you are looking to invest in silver coins and silver bars then you need to know this trick -- Find sellers who are actually selling as near the spot price of silver as possible (spot plus a reasonable fee). A general rule is that the more silver you are buying the less percentage of fees you should be expected to pay. When buying coins to invest in their silver content be certain you are not buying coins for their numismatic value (the value to a collector of rare coins).

6. Before you invest in silver, make sure you calculate how much you can invest between your IRA rollover funds, cash on hand and other assets that you wish to turn into silver. Be sure to keep your emergency fund mostly in cash for unforeseen expenses. You don’t want to bite off (invest) more than you can chew (afford).

7. Stay on top of the market. There are times to buy. And, there are times to sell. Yes, at some point, it may be better to sell some or perhaps even all of your silver holdings for currency, depending on the bull market and your personal investment goals. But the only way you know when to buy or sell is if you have current silver market investing information at your fingertips.

'Indian gold prices may fall in June'

Gold prices in India are likely to fall in June-end following the expected recovery of world markets in the middle of the year, said a Reuters poll.

The survey said the third and fourth quarters of 2009 may witness hardening of gold prices as inflationary expectations build up due to a slew of government spending measures.

The Reuters poll of 15 banks and brokerages showed that gold may fall to Rs 13,995 per 10 gm by June-end, Rs 15,000 by September-end and Rs 15,830 by December-end.

According to the survey, Karvy Comtrade said the recent economic measures are likely to support the economy from moving deep in to recession thereby taking off the sheen from gold.

A world-wide credit crunch in mid-September has plunged key economies across the globe into deep recession, prompting central banks to execute co-ordinated rate cuts and governments to step up spending to stimulate demand and boost output and jobs.

Gold prices are down about 10 per cent from their all-time high of Rs 16,040 per 10 grams on February 20.

Recent spending initiatives by governments such as the $787 million stimulus package in US and the two-year 4 trillion yuan plan by China may fuel inflation expectations, spurring demand for gold, which is used by investors are a hedge against rising prices, the survey said.

Analysts said for a medium term perspective, investors are recommended to buy gold at the value area.

The prevailing correction will continue and the area of Rs 13,500-13,700 can be denoted as “value area” as it is stuffed with two distinct technical supports.

Will Robots venture into commodity trading?

Computers have already beaten grandmasters in chess, robots have replaced human labour in critical manufacturing areas, super computers have proven its talent in diverse scientific computation and calculation skills beyond the skills of ordinary mortals.

Commodity traders especially those who go beyond Futures and deal with options, credit default swaps, hedging are known to use sophisticated computer systems to calculate the daily mark to market, profit or loss margins as the value of the underlier and the derivative continues to change from day to day.

Even with rudimentary calculus it would be difficult to handle the computation required for cost of carry, forward price, value, opportunity cost of holding a derivative not to speak of technical analysis and other technical paraphernalia. Still we expect the average farmer who should be more bothered with the crop to come earnestly into futures trading or trust their money with a brokerage and simply look at the terminals as details about bid, ask and open interest scroll about.

When writing about options, Michael Durbin writes in his book, All About Derivatives, that “It’s tempting to think one can cook up some brand new strategy to crank out money like a machine no matter where prices go, but all strategies are bound by the laws of arbitrage, so the prospect of creating a money machine becomes remote each day. There are beaucoup well-healed traders out there, with plenty of money to spend on impressive computer systems, allowing them to respond to opportunities at nearly the speed of light.”

A Forex Robot
I read somewhere that forex veterans employ robots with aritificial intelligence to do forex trades which may appear simple conceptually in text books but quite difficult to make or minimize loses in practice.
A new breed of Forex robot , Forex Conquerer was launched on April 22. The company, Forex Trading System says the system has been devised by Brad Cullen, a Forex veteran, which will give decent results to whoever has the money and the inclination to use it.

Created by the combination of a battle-tested mechanical trading system and neuro-fuzzy approaches, this robot virtually ‘thinks’. It is a self-evolving robot and the most advanced in the market.That’s why it’s highly profitable, the company claims in its website. The results are staggering : $17,695.80 in 5 weeks…$63,416.50 in only 3 months… Simply by using a Forex robot such as the Forex Conqueror, the advertisement claims.

Automated FOREX trading is exactly what it sounds like. A highly sophisticated and complicated computer program uses mathematical algorithms to determine when to buy and sell currency, and it makes the trades for you. You put an initial investment into the account, and then let the system do all the work for you.

But the benefits of automated FOREX trading could be great. Whereas manual trading requires an investor to study the market intensely before jumping in to it, automated trading requires no training at all. Learn the very basics of how the market works so you can tell what your automated system is doing for you, and that’s it. Sit back and let it make your money work for you, according to Forex Trading Systems

Automated trading is also useful for companies and other institutions that want to diversify their assets but don’t have the time or resources to devote to FOREX trading. If a computer program can do it for you, there’s no need to have one of your employees handle it, right?

Sure, commodity trading does appear much more complicated than Forex trading in view of the variety of contracts, diversity of commodities, strategies required in different exchanges and markets that it may not be possible for one robot to handle it all. Perhaps we may need an oil robot, a gold robot, a base metals robot with specialized functions to handle the complexity of it all.

Where does the simpleton with a rudimentary calculator or much less a farmer with only his farming skills or the average equity investor who just looks at daily price index movements and takes a decision? Forward Markets Commission (FMC) or any other regulator knows that there is much more to commodities Futures than just volumes or discovering a Futures price. Understanding the complexity of the market is the first important lesson they need to teach prospective stake holders in this segement.

Ten great environmental disasters to recall

By Jeff Biggers, Alternet
Ten tragic lessons in our nation's environmental history that should never be forgotten. And one climate destabilization tragedy in the making that needs our urgent help.

1. Extinction: Three Species Per Hour
According to a United Nations report released in 2007, our planet is at risk of losing three species per hour. Ahmed Djoghlaf, the head of the U.N. Convention on Biological Diversity, declared: "We are indeed experiencing the greatest wave of extinctions since the disappearance of the dinosaurs. Extinction rates are rising by a factor of up to 1,000 above natural rates. Every hour, three species disappear. Every day, up to 150 species are lost. Every year, between 18,000 and 55,000 species become extinct."

For John J. Audubon, the extinction of the Passenger Pigeon, the great American wild pigeon, would have ranked high: "The multitudes of Wild Pigeons in our woods are astonishing," Audubon wrote. "Indeed, after having viewed them so often, and under so many circumstances, I even now feel inclined to pause, and assure myself that what I am going to relate is fact. Yet I have seen it all, and that too in the company of persons who, like myself, were struck with amazement." A victim of hunting and industrial abuses, the last Passenger Pigeon died in an Ohio zoo in 1914.

2. Everything in Its Path: Mountaintop Removal
Imagine a quarter-mile strip of land stretching from Washington, DC until San Francisco: An estimated 800-1000 square miles of mountains and valleys have been eliminated from the American landscape since the launch of mountaintop removal strip mining operations in central Appalachia in 1970. Using explosives and heavy machinery, over 500 mountains in the oldest and one of the most diverse ranges on earth, have been clear cut, blown to bits and then toppled into valleys and streams with their waste since President Jimmy Carter signed the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act in 1977, which shamefully recognized mountaintop removal as an approved mining technique.

Mountaintop removal has not only destroyed the natural heritage; it has ripped out the roots of the Appalachian culture and depopulated the historic mountain communities in the process. It continues today as one of the most egregious human rights and environmental violations in the nation.

3. Donora Smog: Worst Air Pollution Disaster
With a severe temperature inversion, poisonous gases such as sulfuric acid and nitrogen dioxide were trapped in the stagnant air of the Donora mill town in the Monongahela River Valley in Pennsylvania. Released from various steel works and a zinc plant, whose sulfuric emissions had wiped out most vegetation within a half-mile, 20 people were killed and thousands stricken with respiratory and heart problems by the smog in the fall of 1948.

4. Don't Call Them Accidents: The TVA Coal Ash, Martin County Coal Slurry and Buffalo Creek Disasters
When the dike broke at the TVA Kingston Fossil Plant coal fly ash pond on December 22, 2008, and over 1.1 billion gallons of toxic sludge eased its way into tributaries and watersheds of the Tennessee River, former MSHA investigator Tony Oppegard had flashbacks to the largely overlooked Martin County, Kentucky coal slurry impoundment that broke on October 11, 2000, and dumped over 306 million gallons of toxic sludge into the tributaries of the Tug Fork River. Both dirty coal incidents and negligent handling wiped out aquatic life and contaminated the drinking water for thousands of residents.

As the worst environmental disasters in the eastern states in modern times, the two incidents didn't rank as "accidents" to Oppegard, a veteran Kentucky mine safety lawyer and investigator. "A spill implies something benign ("I spilled my milk"), and many folks won't read past the headline. It also implies that it was "just an accident" --that is, that it wasn't foreseeable and that gross negligence or criminal conduct didn't occur, which I certainly would not assume at this point. To the contrary, I assume that there was gross negligence in this case."

The TVA disaster came as a wakeup call that nearly half the American population (and their watersheds) live within an hour's drive of a coal ash pond or slurry impoundment. It also reminded the nation that the coal ash pond had yet to be classified or regulated as hazardous waste sites.

Residents in the Buffalo Creek Hollow were not so fortunate. On February 26, 1972, over 132 million gallons of sludge broke past a coal slurry impoundment, flooded 16 townships, and took 125 lives and left thousands of people homeless in Logan County, West Virginia.

5. Love Canal: The Origins of the Superfund
In a quiet neighborhood in Niagara Falls, New York, over 21,000 tons of toxic waste were buried in the 1940s, covered with dirt and a plot of grass. Twenty-five years later, recognizing the extraordinary rates of birth defects, miscarriages, cancer and nervous disorders in the area -- along with the construction of a school near the contaminated site -- Love Canal resident Lois Gibbs led a campaign to uncover the environmental disaster. According to one survey, 56% of the children born in the 1970s suffered from some form of a birth defect. An EPA study estimated that one out of three residents in the area had undergone chromosomal damage.

Eventually, 800 families were relocated from the area. Their tragedy led to the passing of the Comprehensive Environmental Response Compensation and Liability Act, or Superfund Act, which granted federal authorities the funds to clean up contaminated sites and hold polluters accountable.

6. Exxon Valdez Oil Spill
On March 24, 1989, the Exxon Valdez oil tanker struck a reef in the Prince William Sound and poured 10.8 million gallons of crude oil into the sea. Wiping out the marine life in the area, the oil spill eventually stretched over 11,000 square miles.

Twenty years later, the Exxon disaster is not a story of naval impairment and workplace negligence, or an indicator of the toxic levels of oil. As Meg White writes: "Beyond the environmental massacre precipitated by the spill itself, Exxon is guilty of extreme negligence. Alaskan fishing towns such as Cordova and Valdez are shadows of their former selves due to the environmental, economic, and social repercussions of the spill. Despite corporate promises, the communities torn asunder by the disaster were never made whole again. It's a sad state of affairs when people who have been hurting for two decades are still waiting for the situation they've been trapped in to be resolved. That is, in itself, an important reason to go back to this story on its 20th anniversary."7. Black Mesa: Removing the Liver of the Earth
The site of one of the largest strip mines in the country since 1966, Black Mesa remains like a scar on our nation's conscience for the scandalous machinations of Peabody Energy on the Dine/Navajo and Hopi reservations. As part of a 273-mile slurry line, billions of gallons of water were also siphoned from the Navajo aquifer for decades. As the main water source for the native farmers and ranchers in the area, this caused wells and springs to dry up, groundwater levels to plummet and native vegetation to vanish.

As investigative journalist Judith Nies reported in 1998: "Thirty years after the strip mining for coal began, the cities have the energy they were promised, but the Hopi and Navajo nations are not rich-that part of the plan proved ephemeral. Instead, Black Mesa has suffered human rights abuses and ecological devastation; the Hopi water supply is drying up; thousands of archeological sites have been destroyed; and, unbeknownst to most Americans, twelve thousand Navajos have been removed from their lands-the largest removal of Indians in the United States since the 1880s."

The nightmare of Black Mesa is not over. In an 11th hour ploy, the Bush administration gave the green light for an expansion of strip mining at Black Mesa in December, 2008. "Black Mesa is the female mountain, coal is her liver, water is her lifeblood, and we need to leave it in the ground," says Marie Gladue Dine from Black Mesa. "Taking coal out of the earth is a dirty business, and it's time to move toward a clean energy future that respects indigenous communities and our future generations."

8. Hurricane Katrina: A Failure of Initiative
On August 29th, 2005, Hurricane Katrina, the third major hurricane of the 2005 season, hit the Gulf Coast of the United States. The Category 4 hurricane took over 1,300 lives and displaced hundreds of thousands of residents. It devastated marine habitats over 217 square miles of coastline.

Finding that the levees protecting New Orleans were not built for the most severe hurricanes and lacked a warning system for breaches and repairs to the levees, the Bipartisan Congressional Report concluded: "The failure of local, state, and federal governments to respond more effectively to Katrina -- which had been predicted in theory for many years, and forecast with startling accuracy for five days -- demonstrates that whatever improvements have been made to our capacity to respond to natural or man-made disasters, four and half years after 9/11, we are still not fully prepared."

9. The Worst Hard Time: The Making of the Great Dust Bowl
As a combination of over-grazing, over-cultivation, and unwise agricultural practices and abuses that led to massive erosion and destruction of the natural grasslands, extraordinary drought conditions in the 1930s whipped up massive dust storms across 100 million acres of Oklahoma and Texas and parts of the Great Plains.

Author Timothy Egan noted: "There are so many echoes of what happened in the 1930s and Hurricane Katrina on the Gulf Coast in the summer of 2005. For starters, there were ample warnings that a large part of the United States could be rendered uninhabitable if people continued to live as they did - in this case, ripping up all the grass that held the earth in place. In one sense, the prairie grass was like the levees around New Orleans; the grass protected the land against ferocious winds, cycles of drought, and storms. Then after the big dusters hit, you had a massive exodus: more than a quarter million people left their homes and fled. Never before or since had so many Americans been on the move because of a single weather event - until Hurricane Katrina."

10. Bhopal: How Union Carbide Made the World Flat
It didn't take place in the United States, but it deserves a spot on any list of American-sponsored environmental disasters: On the night of December 3, 1984, a Union Carbide pesticide plant leak exposed over 500,000 people to toxic methyl isocyanate gases in Bhopal, India. A village awoke to the mayhem of terror and burning lungs; an estimated 8,000 people died, though the numbers have never been confirmed and are assumed to be much greater. Union Carbide had disregarded warnings about potential leaks and improper safety conditions for years.

The Future Earth Day is Now: Kivalina Vs. ExxonMobil
The native Inupiat villagers in Kivalina and Shishmaref, along a six-mile barrier island between the Chukchi Sea and the Kivalina River on the Northwest Arctic coast, are on the frontlines of climate change. With the sea ice melting, their coastline community has experienced massive erosion and devastation. The villagers have sued ExxonMobil and a host of oil companies, power companies and one coal company for the destruction of their way of life from unchecked CO2 emissions. (Courtesy: www.alternet.org)

Who holds the highest gold reserves?

China becoming the fifth biggest holder of gold reserves with 1054 tonnes and it has already hit the headlines on Friday leading to a marginal rise in gold prices in major trading centres.

The world leader in gold reserves is United States with 8133 tonnes as on September 2008 that accounts for 76.5% of its foreign exchange reserves. Germany has the second highest gold reserves at 3412.6 tonnes while IMF has 3217, France has 2508 tonnes constituting 58.7% of its forex assets.

Italy has 2451.8 tonnes constituting 61.9% of forex reserves followed by Switzerland at 1040 constituting 23.8% of total forex reserves.

India is way down at 14th position with gold reserves of 357.7 tonnes representing 3% of total forex reseres.

China Agency Xinhua reported that China’s additional gold acquistion represents an increase of 454 tonnes from 600 tonnes in 2003, the last time China announced an adjustment of its gold holdings. The country adjusted its holding of gold reserves twice this century. It raised its holding from 394 tonnes to 500 tonnes in 2001, and to 600 tonnes in 2003, Hu said.

The link between meat eating and global warming

Nicholas Kristof's column on Wednesday (New York Times, April 8) discusses the recent work by animal activists on behalf of chickens and pigs, and the degree to which "animal rights are now firmly on the mainstream ethical agenda" in the United States, as they have been for some years in Europe. I am delighted to see from Mr. Kristof yet another thoughtful essay about a moral issue that is, until recently, not widely discussed, and even more pleased that in discussing the cruelties of modern intensive farms, he is focusing on birds.

You see, people often tell me that they've given up eating red meat out of concern for animals, the environment, or their health (or all three). Of course all efforts to make the world a kinder and less polluted place should be applauded. But here's the thing: cutting out red meat while still eating chicken doesn't address the whole problem.

Here's why: Both choices -- beef and chicken -- badly damage the environment, so choosing one or the other is sort of like the difference between driving a huge SUV and a Hummer. That's also why I'm a little baffled when some environmental organizations say that cutting out beef is advisable, but eating other meats is "relatively" ok. It's really not.

On the issue of global warming, all animal agriculture is a nightmare, relative to producing grains and beans. In a 400 page report from the United Nation's Food and Agricultural Organization, Livestock's Long Shadow, scientists conclude that the business of raising animals for food is responsible for about 18 percent of all warming -- in fact meat causes about 40 percent more warming than all cars, trucks, and planes combined.

That is in part because turning animals into meat requires many stages of (energy intensive and polluting) production (i.e., transporting feed, animals, and meat; running feed mills, factory farms, and slaughterhouses; refrigerating carcasses during transport and in grocery stores -- chickens are at least as energy consumptive as cattle for all these stages), compared to plant foods.

Environmental Defense calculated that if every American skipped one meal of chicken per week and substituted vegetarian foods instead, the carbon dioxide savings would be the same as taking more than half a million cars off of U.S. roads. Imagine if we dropped all meat from our diets altogether.

And it's not just global warming, of course: In a story about chicken waste pollution, the New York Times reported in November that "[a]lthough the dairy and hog industry in states near the bay produce more pounds of manure, poultry waste has more than twice the concentration of pollutants per pound." I assume that's in part because poultry are given a lot more drugs than pigs and cattle -- because they're kept in even worse conditions and thus require more drugs.

When you have the attorney general of a state like Oklahoma battling poultry producers over the industry "wreak[ing] havoc in the 1-million-acre Illinois River watershed, turning it into a murky, sludgy mess," it seems pretty clear (to me) that environmentalists might want to think again about putting that product into even a "relatively" favorable category.So it makes more sense to cut down on meat altogether, in favor of a more plant based diet, rather than trying to sort out which meats are relatively better or worse. And we can do so in stages.

For example, after looking at the health and environmental problems associated with chicken, beef, and pork, New York Times food writer Mark Bittman (in his superb new book Food Matters) suggests eating exclusively plant-based foods until 6 p.m., and then eating whatever you want for dinner. I know people who have tried this sort of plan, and they find -- quickly -- that they're eating more and more vegetarian food, even during the times when they eat whatever they want. Writes Bittman, "By reducing the amount of meat we eat, we can grow and kill fewer animals. That means less environmental damage, including climate change; fewer antibiotics in the water and food supplies; fewer pesticides and herbicides; reduced cruelty; and so on. It also means better health for you."

Similarly, the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Health leads the "Meatless Mondays" campaign, which is supported by 28 other public health schools. Their goal is to cut Americans' meat-consumption, in order to lessen our risk for heart disease, cancer, diabetes, obesity, and so on. And of course, they rightly impugn all meat, not just "red" meat.

Although he vigorously advocates vegetarianism, the much adored Buddhist monk and Zen master, Thich Nhat Hanh, writes in his latest book that "[i]f you're not able to entirely stop eating meat, you can still decide to make an effort to cut back. By cutting meat out of your diet ten or even five days a month, you will already be performing a miracle -- a miracle that will help solve the problem of hunger in the developing world and dramatically reduce greenhouse gases."

These suggestions from Bittman, Johns Hopkins, and Thich Nhat Hanh strike me as much better half-measure alternatives to picking between various meats.

For those who want to do well by the environment, have more robust health, and consider the welfare of animals, the solution is not to just give up eating red meat, but rather lean away from eating animal products - chicken included - altogether.

A few things to remember:
for animals the poultry industry is much worse than the beef or pork industries; for your health, it's a toss up at best;
and for the environment, the poultry industry may not be quite as bad on global warming, but it's still bad, and it appears to be even worse in categories like water and air pollution. For people who want help cutting back on meat or transitioning toward a vegetarian diet, please check out my previous post, "One Bite at a Time: A Beginners Guide to Conscious Eating." (Courtesy: www.alternet.org)

MCX adds ten agri commodities for futures trading

In an attempt to boost agri commodities trading, India’s leading commodity exchange, MCX, on Thursday launched futures contracts in ten more farm commodities.

In a circular issued here the MCX said Futures contracts in cashew kernel, coriander, crude palm oil, jeera, maize, mentha oil, potato, red chilli, rubber and sesame seed will be effective from Thursday.

The agri-futures contracts will mature in June, July and August, it added.

According to the circular, cashew kernel, jeera, maize, red chilli and sesame seed contracts will expire in June.

Crude palm oil and potato both Agra and Tarkeshwar variety will mature in July, while coriander, mentha oil and rubber contracts in August.

The MCX already have twenty six farm commodities for trading.

2000-10: The Decade of Gold

NO FOOLING! It doesn't matter which currency you earn, spend or invest, gold bullion has been the best-performing asset class bar none this decade. That fact bears repeating, so you'll have to forgive me:Gold has dominated the last nine years for investors, smacking everything else in the nose and pulling their ears, too.

So when finance advisors and hacks finally come to glance back at this decade, they'll see it - in fact - as the "decade of gold". Just as US tech stocks ruled the 1990s, rising 11-fold on the Nasdaq. Just as Japanese exporters owned the 1980s, up more than six times over on the Nikkei-225. Just as gold itself dominated the 1970s.
Of course, this is hardly a unique insight amongst contrarian (i.e. bloody-minded and history-guided) investors.

Hell's teeth, at least one tech-stock heretic - Bill Bonner of The Daily Reckoning - called gold the "Trade of the Decade" just as the decade began. But even though Bill's call has come good (and come good better even than his blushes would hint), the mainstream investment industry still refuses to notice the cold, hard fact of gold's decade-beating performance.

Take the out-performance of gold for US investors, for instance. Go on - take it! Because nobody in the financial media wants to acknowledge it. Yet this decade, only residential real estate managed to beat gold consistently (excluding costs as well as rentals), right up until granite-n-plasterboard began to flatten and crater in spring 2006.

Housing has since fallen so hard, it barely matches the risk-free return offered by cash since the start of the decade. Yet that risk-free return in itself stands one-third below the previous five-decade average, with the 10-year Treasury yield paying just 4.6% per annum before tax and inflation.

And as for equities, re-investing every red cent of your dividends for the last 111 months would have added only 15% to the capital value of holding the S&P index today. Sadly for buyers of the Big Double Top in US equities, however, 15% hardly makes up for the index halving in price so far this decade.

Whereas Gold Bullion...? We need to be clear: Its historic reign throughout the Noughties is much more than a matter of "Dollar Decline". The deathless, unyielding metal has beaten all other assets for investors worldwide, whether in Euros, Yen, Swiss Francs, Chinese Yuan, Indian Rupees and the erstwhile "Two-Dollar" Pound.

So, Buying Gold nine years ago now looks a very smart move. (Almost as smart as slashing interest rates to all-time historic lows, while in fact stuffing your own retirement fund with inflation-linked bonds - a trick pulled off by the Bank of England's Pension Fund, as it happens...)

But what happens next? With the decade's last summer now peeping across the horizon, is that it for Gold Investment?
Could be. After peaking just shy of 40,000 points in late 1989, the Tokyo Nikkei sank by more than four-fifths over the next 14 years, retreating towards those 2004 lows just last month. Following its spring 2000 top, the tech-heavy Nasdaq sank by three-quarters inside 31 months, reclaiming only half its peak at the bounce and standing two-thirds down in April 20'09.

As for gold, a little over 29 years ago it began a two-decade descent...dropping more than 70% from its infamous peak above $800 an ounce - a level breached for just two, short winter days in January 1980.

Over the previous ten years - the last decade of gold - its price had shot 17 times higher versus the Dollar. Gold ended the bell-bottomed Seventies some 13 times more valuable in terms of business assets, as well, shooting higher as the US stock market was crushed by record-high interest rates sparked by yet higher inflation.
If this is the top - or damn near it - therefore, the current decade of gold looks a poor (if not late) performer.

During the 2000s, gold has risen 5-fold in terms of equities, and gained some 250% in nominal dollars. So far, gold remains well shy of previous decade-destroying returns. (Courtesy: Daily Reckoning, Australia)

Gold ETFs brought in 27% returns in last one year

Global media is full of stories hailing how safe is investments in gold and gold-related funds. But, even as the world is going gaga over the impeccable track record of gold as a safe haven during calamities and recession, there are sceptics who argue that this may be just a bubble waiting to burst soon.

Last week, global research firm GFMS waxed eloquent on the prospects of gold soaring to $1,100 per ounce and it forecast a solid gain for gold prices.

And, investors, after reading the robust gold rise, are putting more and more money into gold hoping to reap rich dividends at a time when the world is undergoing sever recession.

Such a situation is not at all surprising considering the fact that the gold is selling above $900 per ounce now. Remember around six years ago gold was at $325 per ounce.

But, one thing all the investors should remember is that the gold prices are soaring because of the presence of gold exchange traded funds (ETFs) and gold stock funds.

If you track the record of gold ETFs, you can see that during the past one year from April 1, 2008 to April 2 2009, gold ETFs brought in around 27 per cent returns while the equity fund category returned -36.76 per cent.

To add to that, across the globe equity market is down and in the recent weeks only the stocks started moving up. In India, Sensex started showing the rising trend while in US Wall Street also started climbing up following the stimulus packages announced by the Obama administration and G20.

Even when you are attracted to the allure of gold, there are certain worrying factors. The important issue isn’t whether an investor should consider investing in gold, but rather the logic behind it. Gold has been historically viewed as a safe haven. But that bit of wisdom does not seem to hold ground anymore. Due to the flooding of gold ETFs, the metal is now more of a paper asset whose value is increasingly driven by the demand and supply of paper gold on financial markets.

In March 2009, NASDAQ Dubai launched the region’s first Sharia-compliant tradable security backed by gold. Named Dubai Gold, it is the first ETF to list on NASDAQ Dubai.

In the first six weeks of the year, the buying by gold chasers drove more than 200 tonnes of gold bullion into SPDR Gold Shares, the world’s largest gold-backed ETF representing more than 1,000 tonnes of gold.

Gold ETFs have driven up investment demand because of the ease with which individuals may invest in the commodity. As a result, gold is now clearly subject to the same volatility as other financial assets, as investors’ interest flows in and out.

Again, according to experts, gold did not appear to be a great hedge against falling stock prices. When the global financial panic was at its peak in October 2008, gold prices were at their recent lows. International gold prices peaked in March 2008 and, from then till the end of October, gold fell by about 25 per cent.

Gold bull run for ninth consecutive year: GFMS

Positive investor sentiments will drive the bull market for gold into the ninth consecutive year. The factors favouring such a run could be the sustained concerns over the global economy, health of the financial system fuelling safe haven interest, according to Gold Report 2009 recently released by GFMS Ltd.

GFMS expect interest in gold as a hedge against rising prices and a potential run on the dollar to increase as America’s aggressive fiscal stimulus, coupled with the Federal Reserve’s plans to buy longer term US treasuries, effectively monetising government debt, signal a growing long term risk to investors.

Review of 2008
GFMS report comments on how gold investment experienced a dramatic surge in 2008 although the market experienced wide fluctuations in investment activity, including an eventual sharp divergence between that in ‘paper’ products and in gold’s physical investment markets. The report noted that robust speculative inflows in the futures and OTC markets earlier in the year later gave way to an explosive rise in demand for physical investment products. Overall, 2008 saw a growing interest from smaller retail investors, high net worth individuals and, perhaps most importantly, increased participation by a broader group of institutional players in the gold market.

According to GFMS’ Executive Chairman, Philip Klapwijk, speculative inflows into commodities, soaring energy prices, fresh lows in the dollar, inflationary threats and the ongoing credit crisis drove the gold price to record highs in the first quarter, as investors were lured by positive price expectations as well as gold’s appeal as a safe haven and dollar/inflation hedge.

The report highlights how thereafter, short term investors largely liquidated positions in the months following the spike in prices. Perhaps more interestingly, a dramatic shift took place in the second half, not only in the type of investor active in the market, but also between gold’s variousinvestment arenas. Klapwijk noted how the change in the composition of gold investment chiefly began in September, with one of the most important catalysts being the collapse of Lehman Brothers. This, along with plummeting global asset prices and the ongoing deleveraging, resulted in a sharp pull back by the market’s more speculative players, particularly from ‘paper’ gold products.

In sharp contrast, retail investment demand for physical bullion bars and coins exploded in the final third of the year. Despite high price volatility and several savage corrections in the price, physical investment demand proved to be almost wholly unaffected, as capital preservation remained paramount for this growing segment of the market. GFMS also note that, similarly, gold ETFs markedly benefited from investors’ more defensive mindset, with combined volumes rising to all time highs over the year.

Global warming? It’s global cooling dear

Imagine a situation where you are faced with a famine like situation. Grains are simply not available. Needless to say if there are no enough food grains to eat, there cannot be any trading either.

So what prompts this scenario? As Gandhiji once famously said, there is enough for every one’s need but not greed – is now becoming prophetic. One reason is obviously population explosion and the cascading effect is climate change.

Each one of you may be thinking that climate change will affect this world after your life is over. Your fathers and fore fathers thought so and your children will think so in future. The only difference is that your children will think this in a much regrettable way than what your forefathers have thought.

So where are we headed? Merely buying and selling carbon through exchanges help? That doesn’t reduce the carbon that emitted, but just makes a business sense. But carbon trading scenario has benefitted the climate change lobbying as more and more people are realizing how important it is to preserve this earth from decaying.

Some three million people, in freezing temperatures, listened to President Barack Obama on January 20 as he said ‘each day brings further evidence that the ways we use energy strengthen our adversaries and threaten our planet’.

“Though the government supports the theory of warming, critics believe this theory represents a gross misrepresentation of data, and that the world may instead be at the start of an extended period of global cooling,” he added.

Wait, what is this global cooling? It is not a new concept but buried under a more alarming warming propositions. A group that propagates global cooling suggests that temperatures will go down in the coming decades to such a level that the Earth may be headed for a new ice age.

Cooling theory is related to Milankovitch cycles which create successions of warm and cool periods that may last for 100,000 years causing shorter climate shifts converting the earth into an ice field lasting as many as 15,000 years.

This is on contrast to the common and established assessment that increasing levels of atmospheric carbon will have a global warming.

Where warming theory is directly proportional to carbon dioxide, cooling theory is all about natural variations in the earth’s axial tilt, orbital shape (eccentricity) and axial direction (precession).

But the cooling theory has few takers compared to its opposite. Experts also believe that the earth will crumble if two different theories contradicting each other surfaces and the governments will be confused to grant funds to which cause.

“Between two theories lies a truth. When two different theories on the same subject collide with each other, truth is the causality. In this case life is truth and that should be the focal point of any theory,” said a scientist involved with a green house gas emission programme in Switzerland.

Some lobbies have also found a middle path between these two. They have presented papers which satisfies both parties. This paper states that the next twenty years will have a cooler period with a large warming trend.

Analysts believe this is the height of killing a cause. “How can you deny that there is carbon dioxide around us that is changing the entire cycle of our life?” one of them asked.

There is no doubt, he continued, that the temperatures will rise by at least 13 degrees in the next 80 years bringing changes to the pattern. Expect more droughts, floods, storms and other weather related events will rise.

“We will have to then study what caused them and how it can be prevented. But for that we have to bring the climate to a level of experimentation,” he said.

(Courtesy: www.earthcalling.in)

Carbon Micro Credit system, Kenya shows the way

SAN DIEGO, CA: Very soon families in Kenya who use less-carbon emitting ways of cooking at home will earn carbon offsets on a weekly or monthly basis by just sending an SMS and thereby contributing to the fight against global warming.

Carbon Manna Unlimited has announced the initiation of a worldwide strategic-partnering campaign to support the world's first roll-out of its cell-phone-based Carbon Micro Credit system in Kenya, to include the town of Kogelo, Kenya, U.S. President Barack Obama's ancestral home town.

The cell-phone-based Carbon Micro Credit system employs SMS (simple message service) and unique identifiers to allow millions of families in the Developing World to claim on a bi-weekly or monthly basis the carbon offsets they produce by using more efficient cooking methods such as a modern charcoal stove or solar cooker, instead of an inefficient open-pit fire burning biomass. As a result, each family is able to monetize directly its own contribution to mitigating global warming, while also reducing nationwide rates of deforestation and desertification.

Each family that cooks more efficiently may claim approximately 3 tons of CO2 offsets/year, which is worth about US$ 20 - 35 when sold in Europe on a regulated or voluntary carbon-offset market. The family also saves far more on fuel -- from US$ 70 - 150/year. For individuals living on less than US$ 1 - 2/day, these earnings and savings are very significant.

Pre-selling tens or hundreds of thousands of tons of bundled Carbon Micro Credits provides the start-up capital needed to buy stoves and cell phones for the participating families, thus making the system self-funding and markets-based. Later the offsets are crowd-sourced by the tens of thousands of families participating in the program. Lastly, validation and auditing protocols will ensure that the offsets were indeed produced.

Invented in April 2008, Carbon Micro Credits are NOT a form of debt-based microfinance; rather, they provide immediate micro profits to the poor and are therefore similar in concept to frequent flyer miles. They are an asset, not a liability. And like frequent flyer miles, they are a fungible, universal currency and non-inflatable store-of-value.

Carbon Micro Credits may be easily converted to e-money, e-gold, cell-phone minutes, or any other non-inflatable store of value.

Carbon Manna Unlimited has sought the co-operation of several potential stake holders interested in expanding their business in Kenya. East Africa, and later in South & West Africa.. Such companies would include:

-- cell-phone handset manufacturers

-- wireless carriers doing business in Africa

-- manufacturers of wireless transmission equipment

-- cell-phone accessory suppliers

-- providers of cell-phone-based information services or software

-- consumer product companies interested in co-promotion campaigns;
and

-- companies from any industry interested in expanding their presence in Kenya via this highly-visible nationwide effort to reduce deforestation and carbon emissions.

Later this year and in 2010, the Carbon Micro Credits system will be rolled out in other East African countries, and subsequently in multiple West and Southern African countries. For major philanthropies that wish to extend their reach in Africa, or
companies with Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) or Triple Bottom Line (TBL) programs, the Carbon Micro Credits system provides a novel, rapidly-scalable paradigm for enriching the livelihoods of tens of millions of poor families anywhere in the Developing World.
(Source: Marketwire)

Eco-friendly computing with Bamboo Notebook

Bamboo has been used in construction, interior decoration and furniture. Now a leading IT hardware firm Asus Technology (India) has found a novel use for this age-old eco-friendly commodity—to make notebooks.

The Bamboo series Notebooks are exquisitely designed with real bamboo to give a personalized and exclusive feel to each notebook.

The end-to-end eco-friendly Bamboo Notebook is a revolutionary innovation in Green Computing. It is ‘green’ throughout its life cycle – from its conception, production to its recycling and disposal. It totally complies with RoHS* and WEEE Standard and in fact it exceeds the benchmarks of these standards.

ASUS is the first company to come up with a revolutionary concept of using bamboo casing for Notebooks. The Bamboo Series notebooks are ultimate celebration of the versatility of bamboo combined with the most advanced computing technology. It is an extremely fashionable Notebook with exquisite craftsmanship design that exudes unique and personalized user experience.

Stanley Wu, Country Manager for Notebook business, ASUS India, said, “The launch of Bamboo Series Notebook will usher in a new era of green computing. It will mark a paradigm shift in the way computers are used and manufactured. With the ever increasing concern over global warming and the ecological imbalance, we find it necessary to innovate products that are not only eco-friendly but also commercially viable.”

The ASUS Bamboo Series Notebook uses Super Hybrid Engine that reduces the yearly CO2 emission by 12.3kg per notebook. Given that ASUS ships approximately 6 million notebooks per year, this works out to a massive 73.8 million kilograms of CO2 emission reduced per year, which equates to saving 36 million trees annually.

The first thing about the ASUS Bamboo Series notebook that commands immediate and unfailing attention is its artisan-grade Moso bamboo paneling, which is crafted with the precision and care typically associated with bamboo instruments and arts and crafts.

The organic tactility, refreshing scent and minimalist aesthetics of bamboo lend the ASUS Bamboo Series notebook an arresting aura of spirituality, warmth and old world charm that synthetic material and cold, impersonal metals will struggle to replicate. With every touch, users will be able to feel the difference – the bamboo gives an instant sense of familiarity, just like the sensation one would get from running one’s fingertips across furniture.

The sensation of being close to nature is even conveyed when users use the touch pad. The genuine bamboo fiber patterns on the touch pad create the sensation of touching live bamboo. Furthermore – like any piece of original art – every ASUS Bamboo Series notebook is unique, each with its own natural patterning that is brought out beautifully by ASUS’ proprietary manufacturing process. The air of individuality of each piece can be further enhanced by several treatments that yield different colors, or by laser etching distinctive designs onto the ASUS Bamboo Series notebook’s bamboo-clad cover.

All of the ASUS Bamboo Series notebook’s power does not come at the expense of the environment. On the contrary, the ASUS Bamboo Series notebook – as with the new generation of ASUS notebooks released to market from the second half of 2008 – is remarkably energy-efficient, thanks to the implementation of ASUS’ exclusive Super Hybrid Engine technology, which is the product of a comprehensive redesigning of the hardware, software and BIOS on the part of ASUS’ engineers.

The most remarkable breakthrough of Super Hybrid Engine is that it accords users the control they need to obtain their desired level of performance – either improving power efficiency or boosting performance by the same technology core. In terms of power efficiency improvement, Super Hybrid Engine can extend battery life between 35% and 70% as compared to notebooks with the same specifications but without the technology, and yet enable users to boost their systems’ performance by up to 23%.
It achieves this by intelligently monitoring the power requirements of the notebook’s components and automatically adjusting the power levels in real-time to match the current consumption needs, thus optimizing both system performance and power efficiency. Users are also given the option of selecting from a number of presets manually to ensure that the notebook conforms to the owner’s usage demands.

Bamboo as an Alternative Material: The Natural Choice
ASUS has achieved international renown for its research into, and inspired use of, biodegradable materials such as leather in its products, but its decision to embrace bamboo is nothing short of ingenious. Through the use of bamboo which has an immense tensile strength that rivals that of many metal alloys, the ASUS Bamboo Series notebook is highly resilient – an attribute proven conclusively by the fact that it is the first notebook to have survived the unforgiving conditions of snow-capped Qomolangma Peak, which stands at a staggering height of 8,848 meters (29,028 feet). Bamboo also has a renewal rate that no other plant can match. It has been known to grow 60cm in just 24 hours, reaching its maximum height in several years. Bamboo is also capable of regenerating itself upon harvesting without necessitating replanting, making it possibly the perfect renewable resource.

It’s Easy Being Green
The crux of the message borne by the ASUS Bamboo Series notebook is that “it’s easy being green”. This message resonates at both the consumer and solution provider strata. For consumers, being green is a simple matter of making smart, environmentally-conscious purchasing decisions. Choosing the ASUS Bamboo Series notebook – or any of ASUS’ notebooks, all of which were designed and manufactured in strict adherence to the same rigorous green policies and standards that governed the development of the ASUS Bamboo Series notebook – over less green alternatives, will help to preserve the Earth in no small measure.

For solution providers, the key to going green entails looking beyond mere legal compliance and proactively inculcating green values among staff. ASUS is the beacon of success for this approach. In relation to the ASUS Bamboo Series notebook for instance, staff spanning the research and development, strategy development, manufacturing, procurement, quality control, sales and marketing and even administrative departments rallied behind a common raft of green principles set by a steering committee headed by the Chairman of ASUSTek Computer Inc., Jonney Shih. This was only made possible by the company-wide green design, manufacturing and procurement systems that ASUS has in place, as well as its considerable investment into green-oriented e-learning platforms and staff education programs. (Courtesy: IndiaPRWire)

Can SEBI do to stocks what RBI did for banks?

Though Reserve Bank of India (RBI), through monetary instruments succeeded in protecting Indian commercial banks from global financial crisis, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) did not succeed as much to protect the stock markets.

From January to September 2008, the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) and the National Stock Exchange (NSE) jointly lost Rs. 56,47,685 crores in terms of market capitalization which amounted to more than Gross Domestic Product or Aggregate Liquidity Stock of India. The regulators of stock market presumably did not pay enough attention to this loss, probably because it is not a debt based entity and they saw no need to bail it out.

During 2006-07 to 2007-08, the growth rate in financial sector has been higher than other reality sector growth rates. We have now reduced demand of credit and RBI Governor opines that it is due to slow down of economic growth whereas practically the higher cost of credit during global recession has restricted growth in credit demand.

Unable to attract even 10% of national domestic household savings form less than 2% Indians, with liberalization of capital account, the Indian stock market has been mostly heated up with portfolio investments by Foreign Institutional Investments (FIIs).

After liberalization of capital accounts in 2004-05, with increased foreign inflow the stock indices started picking up new heights due to increased trade volumes; but after sense of global financial crisis, the decline in indices is also noticed at faster rate with rapid outflow of capital from stock markets.

The stock markets are now more exposed to international capital market, thus the global financial boom and crisis considerably affected the Indian stock market. Now any appreciation or deflation in stock market indices up to 5% in a single day is a normal rate of fluctuation.

When the Market was moving upward, during nine months period Market Capitalization at BSE increased by 102.25% (from Rs. 35,45,041 crores in March 2007 to Rs. 71,69,985 crores in December 2007) and by 94.32% in NSE (from Rs. 33,67,350 crores in March 2007 to Rs. 65,43,272 crores in December 2007); financial experts were quite happy to cite the growth rate in stock indices.

Pity to observe that this tremendous increase in stock Market Capitalization has not helped the GDP growth rate to move north, instead during this period, the GDP growth rate has declined from 9.2 in the first quarter to 8.8 in the third quarter during 2007-08.

Since this considerable increase in Stock Market Capitalization was not chanalized to productive system, rather restricted to speculative trade only which could not last long without real economic growth, by January 2008 onwards the Stock Market started falling and during a period of nine months, Stock Market Capitalization of BSE declined by 41.91% (amounted as Rs. 41,65,384 Crores by September 2008) and NSE by 40.39% (amounted as Rs. 39,00,185 crores by September 2008).

During growth of market capitalization at BSE and NSE, unprecedented amount of money been invested in stock derivatives. These trades and investments in stock and derivatives did not helped GDP growth, rather created inflationary pressures in India.

Since the real economy could not grow by speculations and derivatives businesses, with global recession and fall in GDP growth rate, the stock market started falling. While empirically it is proved that screen touch price mechanism of stocks could allow growth of speculative business only, and not the real business, the regulators have to think about means to convert the stock market capitals into real assets for production units instead of paper assets.

With monetary instruments we may handle liquidity pressure for shorter period, but cannot avoid consequences of recession without policy initiative to allow interest free or equity based banking and finance which is meant to counter problems like higher input costs, default in lease finances and gap in transacted and transferred traded values.

The focus of SEBI to promote stock market trading should now be shifted to arrange FDI on project basis instead of encouraging share trading. The investments should be canalized into genuine project finances on medium and long term basis instated of short term investments on equities. For short term investors arrangements could be made for investments in short term trade finances. And the derivatives have to be purified from business of speculation and shifted to real term business.

Climate change to impact India severely

India’s vulnerability to climate change is far more serious than that of US, Europe or even China says a report by the South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers & People in a critique of the India’s National Action Plan on Climate change (NAPCC).

Titled, “There is little Hope here”, it says the poor within India, whose contribution to the climate change is the least, are the most vulnerable, considering their dependence on natural resources.

The report, which includes recommendations of several civil society consultations, concludes that the NAPCC has been formulated through a most non transparent process; it will help neither the poor, nor the climate.

The report criticizes NAPCC saying the directly affected sectors have been completely left out of the process, planning and indeed the vision of the NAPCC and the missions like the National Water Mission of NAPCC.

The National Plan, it further says is designed to work only to the advantage of the privileged elite, with all the adverse impacts impacting the disadvantaged sections.

It points to Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) projects the benefits of which is seen by central and state governments as free gifts and are not bothered to ascertain if these projects are indeed helping reduce greenhouse gas emissions, are sustainable, do not have significant social and environmental footprints or the local communities are benefiting from the credits or even participant in the project planning and decision making.

Look for Gold/Oil ratio before investing in gold

Crude oil prices have come downt o $120 per barrel levels while Gold has sunk below $900 levels, however, the Gold/Oil ratio is at all time lows which means that gold is now undervalued, according to Quantum Gold Fund.

Gold / Oil ratio refers to how much crude oil can be bought with one ounce of Gold. With gold at $863 per ounce and oil at $117 per barrel, the Gold/Oil ratio is at 7.31. The average for the last 40 years has been around 15.

“But does this mean gold prices are too low, or perhaps that crude oil prices are unsustainable at current levels and have to come down sharply and quickly. Your viewpoint depends on which side of the fence you are sitting on,” Quantum Fund said in a communiqué to investors.

If one were to take a pragmatic view, it seems likely that the future scenario could be something in between the two viewpoints. Given the number of factors influencing crude prices one can’t be really sure of the trend of crude oil prices in the future.

However one can be reasonably sure that the long term relationship of Gold to Crude oil will revert back to its historical average of around 1: 14.5 versus 1: 7.4 currently. This can happen either by a big fall in crude oil prices or gold prices moving up much higher.

Short term price movements of gold cannot be easily predicted, however, analysts and traders are bullish on on gold for medium term and predicted it could go to S2000 per ounce.

Crude oil is expected to slide below $ 100 per barrel mark, if some analysts predictions come true.

If Crude Oil prices fall further what will happen to gold prices? Crude Oil prices and gold prices move in tandem, if crude falls gold also comes tumbling down. Therefore a correction in Crude Oil prices led to a correction in Gold prices.

International crude oil prices increased by more than 47% this year when it reached its all time high of around $145 whereas international gold prices went up by only 14% during the same time frame. This shows that record crude oil prices were not followed by record gold prices.

“We believe that the gold / oil ratio will align with the long term average i.e 14.5. Even if crude oil prices correct to $100 levels which experts say could be the new floor price, then gold has to rise to $1450 to get back to its historical average. There are various forecasts of crude boiling to $150 levels and above. In such ascenario, to adjust to the historical average, gold prices will have to rise above $2100,” Quantum Gold Fund said

Commodity Trends: India's Futures go rural

India’s inflation fell to near zero levels although it may take some time for it to get reflected in the prices of essential commodities. Even as the BSE Sensex is moving in a narrow range unable to break the 9000 mark, India’s largest commodity bourse created a record by as its turnover touched Rs 32016 crore on a single day the previous highest being Rs 29,887 crore in September 18, 2008. Angel Commodities, one of the leading commodity brokerages also announced the crossing of a major milestone of Rs 1000 crore turnover. What ever gains in BSE in recent days has been attributed to growth in commodity stocks.

Commodity market regulator, Forward Markets Commission (FMC) will install at least 180 display boards at locations such as rural post offices, Krishi Vigyan Kendras and APMCs across the country in the next 10 days to provide prices of farm com modity futures to farmers. Meanwhile gold and crude oil continue to generate more volumes in India’s commodity bourses.

Precious Metals
Gold prices recovered strongly from its lows during last week and almost touched a high of $970/oz., as the Federal Reserve's plans to purchase as much as $1.15 trillion in U.S. bonds and mortgage-backed securities sparked worries of inflation ahead, raising gold's appeal as a hedge against rising prices. This is the most aggressive plan taken by Fed since the early 1960. Demand from gold ETF also increased during this week. Holdings in SPDR Gold Trust, world’s largest gold ETF, touched an all time high of 1103.29 tons.

The volatility in prices in the Bullion pack has increased greatly over the past few months with 19 March being a highly volatile trading day. Spot Gold is finding excellent support in the zone of $880-$890 levels which is viewed as value buying zone by investors. Whereas major resistance zone is seen between $960-$970. The demand for the safe-haven asset is still prevalent with the USD weakening consistently over the past few trading sessions. Also, the increased volatility in the Rupee is playing its role in determining domestic bullion prices. In coming weeks & months, the state of the overall global economic scenario will play a key role in determining bullion prices as investors evaluate various asset classes to channel their funds. Still gold remains the best bet under current market scenario. MCX April Gold can face resistance around Rs.15600 levels, whereas support is seen at Rs. 14850 per 10 gram.

Crude Oil
crude Oil prices traded higher amidst high amount of volatility in the last week. Oil prices surged to a three month high on account of weak dollar and rally in global equity markets. Despite bearish inventory data, prices rebounded from its lows, after US Federal Reserve decided to buy Treasury bonds worth $300bn to ease credit market. Steps taken by Fed rekindled hopes for economic recovery and rise in energy demand. Crude Oil prices have increased by more than 20% this year, on account of strict implementation of production cuts by OPEC to reduce excess supply and weak dollar against major currencies. Volatility in oil prices has increased sharply in past few trading sessions. We expect that oil prices can witness fierce tussle between bulls and bears in coming weeks. Factors like falling demand and weak economic data are favoring bears, but weak dollar, rise in risk appetite amidst strong equity markets are giving bulls a reason to come back in to market. After last week’s rally, oil prices can witness profit booking. During this week, NYMEX May Crude Oil prices are expected to trade in the range of $42.50 and $53.50. MCX April Crude Oil futures have support at Rs. 2390/2175 and resistance is seen at Rs. 2740/2870 per barrel.

Rubber
Rubber prices in domestic and global markets were on a recovery mode this week. In the weekend covering groups lifted the prices to further highs driven by possibly a speculative interest. However, 2009 as predicted by many analysts is not going to be a good year for rubber with consumption to fall 5.5 percent across the globe mainly due to falling automobile sales. Rubber prices have slumped 50 percent in a year as the global recession slashed tire demand. Europe’s car market shrank 7.8 percent in 2008, while U.S. sales contracted 18 percent to a 16-year low

In TOCOM and Shanghai, benchmark natural rubber futures climbed to the highest in more than two weeks as producers restated proposed output cuts and on speculation China, the world’s largest consumer, is adding the commodity to state stockpiles.

Spot rubber flared up on Friday. Sheet rubber RSS 4 moved up to Rs 76.50 from Rs.75.50 a kg, while the market made all-round improvement even in the absence of enquires from the major manufacturers. The volumes were comparatively better.
The April futures for RSS 4 firmed up to Rs 77.99 (Rs 77.50), May to Rs 79 (Rs 78.56), June to Rs 79.99 (Rs 79.67) and July to Rs 79.95 (Rs 79.80) a kg on National Multi Commodity Exchange (NMCE).

Towards weekend in global markets, RSS 3 slipped further to Rs 73.37 (Rs 73.81) a kg on Singapore Commodity Exchange. The grade’s spot weakened to Rs 73.68 (Rs 74.43) a kg at Bangkok. The physical rubber rates were: RSS-4: 76.50 (75.50), RSS-5: 75 (74), Ungraded: 73.50 (73), ISNR 20: 74 (73.50), and Latex 60%: 57.50 (57).
Meanwhile, India’s Rubber Board has raised alarm against the rapid growth in tyre imports mainly from China. A steady trend with an slight upward bias could be expected for rubber next week.

Base metals
Base metal prices are moving higher on the back of a weaker dollar and stable equities as both these factors have improved market sentiments. A weaker dollar makes base metals look attractive for holders of other currencies. This is providing a strong support to base metal prices but the upside could be capped as LME inventories have touched a 15-year high. The base metals market is in an oversupply situation and fundamentals look bearish. However, the current rise in base metal prices is mainly due to technical buying and short-covering. In the coming week, base metal prices are expected to remain volatile as the US is expected to announce economic data like existing home sales, new home sales, 4Q GDP, personal income and spending.

Soybean
Refined soy oil futures fell sharply during the last week as government of India scrapped import duty on soy oil to reduce premium over palm oil. Government of India extended ban on exports of edible oil. Last year, Govt. of India had banned export soy oil in March to control rise in price. According to the Solvent Extractor’s Association of India, India‘s import of edible oil increased to 7,30,094 metric tonnes in February, 2009, up 69.40% as compared to last year during the same period. Edible oil imports in the first four months of oil marketing year (November to February) was 28,24,941 metric tonnes, up 87% as compared to 15,12,695 metric tonnes during the same period last year. PEC Ltd. has floated two separate tenders for the local sales of 3161 metric tonnes of crude soy oil. PEC is authorized by the government of India to import edible oils and sales the local market. Global vegetable oil prices may still fall due to ample global supply. In the coming week, prices are expected to move lower on account of higher import of edible oil and scrapped import duty on soybean oil. NCDEX April Refined Soy Oil has support at 430/422 and resistance is seen at 452/460 levels in this week.

Other Edible Oil
India’s edible oil and oilseeds Futures recovered from their lower level tracking the global markets. The Bursa Malaysia Derivative making decent gains in the past few days and CBOT’s projection aided market sentiments. It was a firm trend in crude palm oil that lend support to the oil seeds complex. The June Contract closed at 1985 a gain of 74. Nymex Crude Oil has support at US $51 per barrel.
Mustard Seed and castor seed tracked the gains in soybean and ended on a mixed to higher note in physical, Futures markets

Turmeric
Spot prices at Erode and Nizamabad over the past couple of days are being quoted at higher rates due to better offtakes at the domestic market. Prices in the previous week were quoted in the range of Rs. 4,200-4,350/qtl. Even though the arrivals are more offtakes are equally better due to domestic buying. Arrivals on an average in the previous week were around 25,000 bags daily in both the major mandis of Nizamabad and Erode. Fear of lower availability of Turmeric in 2009 is supporting the prices to strengthen. Demand from the domestic market especially from local stockists is present but the overseas demand has reduced as the prices are at higher levels. Farmers are hoarding the stocks and not bringing in fresh turmeric to the market in good quantity in order to reap maximum profits. Turmeric Futures April 09 contract touched a high of Rs.5,090/qtl tracking spot prices. Prices are ruling at higher levels thus cautious trading is advisable at futures. Prices have initial support at Rs.4,840/qtl and thereafter at Rs.4,700/qtl. Resistance could be seen at Rs.5,205/qtl and thereafter at Rs. 5,395/qtl.

Sugar
Sugar market declined sharply by 15% in the last 3-4 weeks as the Indian government has adopted various measures to curb spiraling Sugar prices. Besides imposition of stock limits and duty free impost of Raw Sugar, Government is now considering a proposal to let state-run trading companies import refined sugar at zero duty to bridge the widening gap between demand and supply. Final decision by the cabinet regarding the duty free imports of refined Sugar is expected in the coming week. India will have to import 3 million tonnes of Sugar to meet its domestic consumption of 22.5-23 million tonne. But imported sugar is much more expensive than local sweeteners at present, making the imports unviable. Thus, despite government’s effort to ease import norms, we don’t expect imports to take place in the coming months. Any significant decline in the prices should be treated as a good buying opportunity as Overall, fundamentals remain supportive for the prices with lower output forecast in India and a global deficit of more than 4.3 million tonnes. April Sugar futures are currently trading at around Rs. 2035 levels. Prices are having initial support at Rs. 1995 and then 1953. Resistance could be seen at Rs. 2080/qtl and thereafter Rs. 2120/qtl.

Black Pepper
The undertone in the Black Pepper spot and futures counter this week was steady due to increased buying interest and aided by a tight supply position. Indian parity in the international market was at $2,225-2,325 a tonne (c&f) as the rupee has strengthened against the dollar on Wednesday. Overseas reports on Wednesday said that Brazil was firmer and exporters appeared to reluctant to offer. B Asta was said to have been offered at $2,000 a tonne while B1 at $1,900 a tonne (fob).

Vietnam was reportedly steady at $1,800 a tonne for faq 500 GL. More buying interest was seen for black and white pepper from industry albeit for nearby deliveries. Lasta was being offered on replacement basis at $2,200-2,250 a tonne (fob). New Indonesian crop is said to be lower at 15,000 tonne against an estimated 30,000 tonnes last season. However, some substantial quantity of carry over stock is reportedly available therein the hands of middlemen and exporters.

In the weekend the physical counter traded steady amidst good underlying buying interest. The domestic as well as the overseas buyers from Europe were active. The stock availability remained low inducing the Indian traders to purchase from other cheaper origin like Indonesia at $2100/tonne fob. At the benchmark Kochi markets berries were offered at Rs.10300/qtl for the ungarbled variety and 10800/qtl for the garbled variety, steady as that of prior trading session. Around 33.5 tonnes were sold for the arrivals of 25 tonnes. Strengthening rupee against dollar pushed up Indian parity to $2300/tonne f.o.b while VASTA was offered at $2150/tonne and BASTA at $1950/tonne f.o.b. Pepper is likely to trade weak during early hours with the possibility of late recovery.

Trade green equities, commodities on Greendaq

Global warming, climate change and the need to support new investments to counter pollution have provided the perfect setting for the lauch of GREENDAQ, world's first truly global equity and commodities exchange exclusively for the green sector.

The private exchange will feature five companies in the next two months and twenty companies in an year’s time. The first company to be listed in the exchange will be Carbon Credited Farming Plc, a British producer of jatropha-based biofuels. Green technology start-ups got a major boost yesterday with the launch of GREENDAQ.

GREENDAQ will debut what it calls "new classes of commodities", including green oil, green energy, green carbon, and green lumber. The minimum investment for equity offerings will be $100,000. GREENDAQ hopes to have 10,000 investors registered for the exchange by the end of its first year.

GREENDAQ is just the latest in a series of boosts for clean technology start-ups. President Obama recently announced plans to invest $150 billion in green energy projects to create 5 million new 'Green Collar' jobs. The United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP), meanwhile, has called for a Green New Deal, and proposed a $750 billion initiative to revive the world economy by investing in Green globally.

The uniqueness of GREENDAQ lies in providing start-ups an opportunity get funding without asking for government hand-outs. Investors who might otherwise be wary of investing in certain companies can trade shares on the GREENDAQ, allowing for liquidity. In other words, the GREENDAQ gives promising, below-the-radar companies their chance in the sun. Sounds like an encouraging development for an industry that is expected to grow 4000% by 2030. According to a report by Morgan Stanley, Green Energy will be a US$ 1 Trillion market by 2030, up nearly 4,000% from today.

"GREENDAQ was created to provide a missing mechanism in the marketplace. Our goal is to fund compelling -- and qualified - innovative Green Companies while providing qualified investors' access to the first global green centric exchange, including creating new classes of Green commodities," said Andrew McLean, CEO and Founder of GREENDAQ.
The Green Commodities in Greendaq

Green Oil Investment Units
The GOIU is based on a fixed area of biomass producing green oil dated to the time of planting. Both capital appreciation curves and revenue predictions are available as a guideline for these units. The market will set the capital appreciation value that is ultimately related to energy and oil demand. These units are also designed to allow liquidity for institutional portfolios as well as retail.

GLU or Green Lumber Units
These units represent an area of lumber, species specific, within a managed and audited environment. These commodity units provide an asset-backed opportunity with considerable end of term revenues.

Greendaq carbon units
GREENDA's own carbon credits. GREENDAQ has the exclusive right to market significant quantities of carbon credits with a variety of certifications.

Green Energy Investment Units
These represent a unit of Green Energy production, be it Bio-diesel, Solar, Wind, or other alternatives. They should be considered as unit trust style investments with likely little capital appreciation but with revenues attached to them.

"A historic shift in public awareness and concern over environmental issues coupled with a spiraling economic meltdown has set the stage for the marketplace to provide solutions rather than afford more debate," said Andrew McLean. "Frankly, the cost to the global economy is too great for us not to act promptly." (Courtesy: PRWeb)