Credit rating: The agency problem

Credit rating agencies (CRA) in India suffer from chronic problems in multiple dimensions. They work towards maximizing CRA shareholder value by way of increasing revenues from issuers, while trying to provide independent ratings for the consumption of investors. As that may sound convoluted, let us take a step back and understand why rating agencies have…

Green Bonds – Financing the Future

The Government of India has set an ambitious target of generating 100GW of energy from solar and 60GW from wind energy sources by 2022. As of 31 March 2016, the corresponding figures stood at 6.76GW and 26.7GW respectively. Unfortunately, renewable energy is more capital intensive than coal and financing this push will require ~$160 billion…

The Rising Oil Price and Policy Response

Any explanations for why should Indian stock market indices should be positively correlated to global oil price? As Brent crosses $50 per barrel our NIFTY crosses 8,100. Oil prices are rising because of the decline in shale oil production in the US and the biggest drop in non-OPEC oil production since 1992. Thus it is…

SMEs in Defence Manufacturing and Procurement: Steps taken towards self-reliance in defence production

Defence procurement is conducted from three sources, foreign entities, defence public sectors undertakings (DPSUs) and the domestic private sector. The domestic private sector is comprised of large players (like Tata, Mahindra, Larsen and Tubro, Bharat Forge) and SMEs. Imports from abroad constitute almost 60% share of defence procurements. DPSUs and Ordnance Factories fulfil anywhere between…

Smelling a scam — supposedly

Potential: “If GSPC successfully pumps out even the 1.05 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, it will generate a revenue of $6.6 billion.” The KG basin. It is important to keep a hawk eye on government operations to prevent corruption and scams. However, it is destructive to try and generate a scam where there is…

Time To Change Focus And Approach

It is neither fair nor perhaps useful to evaluate a government at the end of two years of a five-year term. The ruling leadership could well have consciously initiated a spate of schemes and programs for two reasons. First, to galvanize a somnolent administration and shake it out of its lethargy and inertia. Second, the…