An item in The Economic Times (Jul 27 2011) caught my interest. This was about the fact that the private sector power generation firms were having a much higher success in meetings their capacity addition targets than have public sector firms. So what’s the big surprise, you might ask. Granted, no surprises, but am glad [...]

Read an interesting article in the Business Line today on SAIL (Steel Authority of India Limited) exploring options to float joint ventures with “green” power producers to meet its renewable energy commitment. I guess you could replace the name SAIL with ONGC, BHEL, NTPC and more, and the news item could be true for all [...]

No, the title has nothing to do with Sonia Gandhi.  It is literally a more electrifying connection that Italy is keen to have with India. I spent the last week in the pleasant city of Milano (Milan), the financial capital of Italy. I was there because the nice folks from Agici Finanza d’Impresa (http://www.agici.it/ ), [...]

It was a few weeks back that I met the young and cheerful Zulfiqar Varawalla of NanoJoshXXL at his office at Navi Mumbai. I had been working with my team on an assignment for one of my clients where my job was to find out some interesting cleantech products in India. And one of the [...]

The government of India made it mandatory for companies to disclose their CSR activities and has released a set of guidelines for all companies – including MNCs – for disclosing the same. Observing these guidelines is however voluntary, it is reported. A bit confusing, I must say. Why make these guidelines voluntary? So what sort [...]

It’s yet again the tussle between the power ministry and the environment ministry, more specifically the environment minister Jairam Ramesh. The Mahan coal block was originally allocated to Essar Power and Hindalco industries to fuel their power projects. But the environment ministry has decided that allowing mining in this coal block. located in a biodiversity [...]

I recently read a post from the excellent Panchabuta blog about the government’s sudden realisation that in order for the thousands of Indian villages to get access electricity, extending the grid down there is not the answer, but use of renewables for distributed power generation is. Governments never cease to amaze the masses who elected [...]

Intersolar Europe is one of the World’s largest exhibitions that brings together several stakeholders of the global Solar industry. The exhibition is taking place during the period 8-10 June 2011 at Munich, Germany. A conference is also held parallel to the exhibition and takes place during the period 6-10 June 2011. EAI will be present [...]

The second EAI club meet of the year was held after a long hiatus on 8thMay, 2011 at the “Integree House”, Nungambakkam. People came together on a hot Sunday morning to create a very unique platform; to promote and catalyze clean renewable energy. The meet was represented widely by an eclectic mix of individuals coming [...]

The first EAI Club Meet of 2011 was held last week (31st January). This edition of the meet was quite different from the past Club Meets and had many firsts. The meet for the first time was held at a new place, Integree Projects Limited, Nungambakkam. Integree is one of the pioneers in the detail [...]

This is my second and final post on L’Attitude 13’05. The first post is available at (Link) After the inaugural address by Dr. Kalam was the CEO conclave. The CEOs shared their ideas and success stories of how they got the people together, how they created a sustained business model and charted they way to [...]

Some of us at EAI had a great opportunity to attend L’Attitude 13’05 which was organized by the Great Lakes Institute of Management. Great opportunity because it was not a run-of-the-mill festivity but a 2 day jamboree (Jan 6-7 2011) centering on the theme of SUSTAINABILITY. All the events where centered on the theme TRIPLE [...]

I was invited by the CII to be part of a panel discussion at the TN Solar Convention held on 21 Dec at Chennai ( here’s a detailed post on the same – http://panchabuta.wordpress.com/2010/12/21/cii-organized-first-tamil-nadu-solar-convention-2010-at-chennai-india/ ). The panel discussion’s theme was “Financing and Market Development for Solar in India”. The discussion was part of a larger [...]

I had the opportunity to be present at and be a moderator of yet another interesting conference, this one on financing of power projects. Held at Le Meridien, Mumbai, 15-16 Dec 2010, this was organized by theenergybusiness conferences, a division of UBM. It was held at the nice Le Meridien, Mumbai (see the event site [...]

Welcome to my fourth and final post on the Intersolar India conference and Exhibition held in Mumbai between 13 and 16 December, 2010. My blogs on the Day 1 and Day 2  of the conference is available at Day 1, Part 1: http://eai.in/blog/2010/12/intersolar-india-day-1-part-1.html Day 1, Part 2: http://eai.in/blog/2010/12/intersolar-day-1part-2.html Day 2: http://eai.in/blog/2010/12/intersolar-india-day-2.html Like Day 2, the [...]

The Fourth EAI Club Chennai Meet Was held at the EAI office in Nungambakkam High Road on Dec 12 2010. For perhaps the first time since we started having the EAI Club meets, we had a less than full house. Except for the regulars (myself, Abrar Ahmad, Prabhakar, Karthik), the audience was relatively thin. I [...]

The interSolar, the world’s leading exhibition of the solar industry, started its Indian leg on December 13,2010 at The Leela Kempinski in Mumbai. The opening session of the event had eminent personalities from the industry, education and research institutions, Ministry of New and Renewable Energy(MNRE), regulatory agencies and international financial institutions sharing their views on [...]

This is a season of International conferences for the Renewable Energy industry in India. If it was DIREC 2010 in New Delhi late October 2010, it is the turn of intersolar India now. Intersolar India started on December 13,2010. The conference takes place in The Leela Kempinski in Mumbai during December 13-15,2010 whereas the3-day Exhibition [...]

I was at Delhi last week two days. I spent two days last week at the TERI University in Delhi last week, attending an interesting conclave on renewable energy, part of an India-US research partnership. The event was organized by Marg Group (http://www.marggroup.com/ ), and had as its partners Great Lakes Institute of Management (http://www.greatlakes.edu.in/ [...]

I have been in Delhi last couple of days, and today I had to travel the length and breadth of Delhi for three meetings – from near the airport to Noida, to Oberoi hotel (Lodhi Road) and from there to Gurgaon, and back to the airport; and all within 7 hours. So was it any [...]

It’s not everyday I gallivant around my city…it’s not everyday (even during winter) that it rains heavily in Chennai…and it is a very rare day indeed when I see absolutely verdant localities with deers roaming right next to the road. And when all the three happen on the same day in the city we all [...]

Read an interesting article in today’s Financial Express (Nov 29) that the government of India is considering providing tax breaks to companies if they can prove that the total carbon content of their operations had been on the lower side. In this context, it is reported that the ministry of company affairs would direct the [...]

About a week back, I had gone to Coimbatore to present a brief lecture on green IT, at the VLB Janakiammal College of Engineering, on the outskirts of the city. The college itself is located in a pleasant setting, almost amid the hills, so I must say it was a wonderful experience being there. . [...]

Came across a news item in the Business Line that kind of woke me up to an important area of concern – losing productive soil to erosion. The news item says that “India is losing 5,334 millions tons of soil every year because of indiscreet and excess use of fertilizers, insecticides and pesticides over the [...]

Here’s a nice summary of DIREC. Published by the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) in collaboration with the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, Government of India.. For those who missed the actual event, I’m sure this will be good stuff Link