There's a very informative seminar* [1 hr. 42 min.] available on GoogleVideo regarding the science and policy related to climate change.
"[Dr. Stephen Schneider and Thomas C. Heller] have helped steer the international course of policy, scientific verifications and the overall consensus on the existence of climate change. They both have plenty to say about what the failures and successes have been along the way, and what their predictions for the future of climate change policy will be."

The March 24 issue of Science magazine also has a lot of articles focussed on climate change. For a quick summary, see here [\\Ars Technica\Nobel Intent]

*The seminar is a part of the TechTalks at Google. A whole bunch of these TechTalks are available at Google video.

- Chinmay

Categories - ~Environment~ ~Money~ ~World~

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In intriguing interview with Lester R. Brown in Wired Magazine. Definitely worth reading.

Interesting snippets -

• "Socialism collapsed because it did not allow the market to tell the economic truth. Capitalism may collapse because it does not allow the market to tell the ecological truth." - Oystein Dahle
• China justified a 1999 blanket ban on tree cutting in the upper reaches of all river basins in economic terms - the flood-control services provided by those forests were three times as valuable to society as the timber in those trees.
• It is no longer true that the US consumes 25% of global resources. China has now overtaken the US in this regard. Which raises the question - what happens if China catches up to the US in consumption per person? The Western economic model -- fossil-fuel-based, automobile-centered, throwaway economy -- is not going to work for China, or India, or for the other three billion people in developing countries.

Brown's book - Plan B 2.0: Rescuing a Planet Under Stress and a Civilization in Trouble should prove an interesting read fon anyone concerned about these matters.

Another book on a similar subject, but with a more retrospective approach is Collapse : How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed [I haven't read this one either.. yet]

Meanwhile, here are some soundbites from IBM's Global Innovation Outlook 2.0. ["For GIO 2.0, 248 thought leaders from nearly three dozen countries and regions, representing 178 organizations, gathered on four continents for 15 “deep dive” sessions to discuss three focus areas and the emerging trends, challenges and opportunities that affect business and society - The future of the enterprise, Energy and the environment and Transportation and mobility"]

Whether all this thinking and talking is going to have a meaningful impact on the survival of our civilization is still up for grabs. In my opinion, we have very likely passed a point of no return in terms of ecological change, and there will be some pretty dramatic and destructive changes to the global order before the end of this century.

- Chinmay

Categories - ~Environment~ ~Money~

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Just acouple of days back I was thinking about the need for unlimited economic growth - in the context of a world with limited resources - that human (western?) civilizations feel ; and what would happen if we all decide to bump down 'growth' on the priority list for a few years and pay attention to shoring up the rear.

(On a related note, I remember reading somewhere that the ideal inflation rate is not zero, but around 2% - if inflation dips much below that, it can trigger deflation and recession).

In any case, since I'm not that smart in Global economics (nor did I have too much time to think about it :), I didn't figure out the answer to the original question. Serendipitously though, I came across an interview with Jared Diamond* in which he raises some very thought provoking (although not entirely novel) points about the issue.


*Faculty at UCLA, and the author of 'Collapse : How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed'; 'Guns, Germs, and Steel : The Fates of Human Societies' and 'The Third Chimpanzee : The Evolution and Future of the Human Animal'

- Chinmay

Categories - ~Environment~ ~Money~ ~World~

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Haven't blogged in a while... I was busy with several things - end of the semester grading, setting up a new yahoogroup, reading, and of course, research....

I'll try and work on the nanotech hype/potential piece I promised Anya a long time ago...

Meanwhile, chek out The Dead Parrot Society. They are saying a lot of things I want to say, but am too lazy to...

- Chinmay

Categories - ~GeekStuff~ ~Money~ ~Science~

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Ask the experts: how to get hired in NatureJobs - Tips by leaders in academia and industry for people looking for research based jobs.

The gourmet food market expands [NYTimes].

- Chinmay

Categories - ~Money~ ~Science~

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The question of money has been hanging over my head for the past couple of years... Thorough Rich Dad Poor Dad, Real estate investing, and other stuff, I'm at a stage currently where I get significant number of email newsletters regarding money and all sorts of stuff to do with it...

Value investing in particular has caught my eye for the past few months. I've been reading Warren Buffett's letters to shareholders quasi-regularly, and there's more on my reading list that I hope to get to soon. In the past couple of days, I also saw a couple of articles about a man who might be the next Warren Buffett.

In general the setup seems to be this -
1)Do a lot of hard work to get into a business that givea a steady positive cashflow.
2)Do a lot more hard work to invest in promising businesses that are undervalued.
3)Profit!

Planning to talk to Shekhar soon and develope these ideas...

- Chinmay

Categories - ~Money~

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After a long time, I saw a really engaging program on TV. The Persuaders was on Frontline on PBS, talking about the advertisement industry, how it's changing, how it's permeating every facet of our life. One of the most intersting aspects was that there's more and more shift towards appealing to the buyer's core emotions - "the reptilian brain" [SUVs are getting bigger because SUVs are subconsciously related to dominence] and using words that are more effective for the intended effect [Death tax instead of Estate tax, Climate change instead of Global warming].

Then there's Narrowcasting [customized ads on your TV sometime in the near future?] and product placement so integrated into entertainment, that products are almost characters.

The most frightening part of all this, is that this is all being applied to politics, electioneering, and selling policy to the public. The very areas we should think rationally before making any decisions, we're being subtly steered to abandon reason, disregard facts, and be lead only by the feel.

- Chinmay

Categories - ~Money~

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Chalk up one more for the Tata's - now the owner of "more than 60,000 km of an under-sea fibre optic cable network, spanning three continents..."

Meanwhile, the US dollar continues its downward tumble [and is expected to continue for a while!]

The Incredibles is incredible, and Saw seems to be a rough draft of a good movie.

My blog becomes a collection of random links.

- Chinmay

Categories - ~India~ ~Money~

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Bush is back [with all the implications and more], the ice caps are melting fast, Rupee and the Indian stock market have surged [my mock portfolio is up 10.4% in little over a month, but my real Rupee worth is down!]

I guess I won't be buying any beach-front properties anytime soon.

- Chinmay

Categories - ~Environment~ ~Money~ ~USA~

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So I made up a mock portfolio using the portfolio tracker on Yahoo! India Finance and it (the portfolio) goes up 6% in as many days! Beginner's luck huh? Too bad I blew it on a mock portfolio!

Meanwhile, if you want to learn about investing in the stock market, the Sharekhan School is a great place to start. If you want the articles on the site in a collected form, drop me a line.

- Chinmay

Categories - ~Fun~ ~Money~

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More dark comedy - A bizzare theft in Pune - since the link won't be stable due to Sakal's serving scheme, I'll summarize...

Six thugs enter a home [in Karve Nagar...] forcibly, terrorize the poeple with choppers and such, and take a cheque for 5 lakhs from the folks! Two thugs leave and find out how much money the bank account has - turns out it's only 3 lakhs. So they come back, take a cheque for 3 lakhs, return to the bank and withdraw the money. Then they call the four that are still in the house to tell them that the job is done. [I guess then they rode off into the sunset or something...]!!!!!

What The Aitch man! I can understand that they could have taken a cashiers check, but how could they verify the amount? [Maybe the cashier told them that they would be overdrawing.. hmmm...] The police are investigating, of course... :-|

I suppose the morale of the story is not to keep a lot of money in a bank account... and not open the door to strangers...

Since now you don't want to keep your money in the bank, better educate yourself about mutual funds, or take a 10 day email course... :->

- Chinmay

Categories - ~Fun~ ~Money~

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Check this out! We who came to US in August 2002 paid the absolute maximum price for our dollars, ever!
Price then ~ Rs. 49/$. Price now ~ Rs. 43/$. A difference of Rs 6000/1000 $!!! Argh!

Meanwhile, although I haven't read any analysis of the current strengthening of the rupee, I won't be surprised if is somebody's [illegal] way of making a lot of money.... The jump is rather anomalous in recent past....

- Chinmay

Categories - ~India~ ~Money~ ~USA~
Edited on: Wednesday, April 14, 2004 1:28 PM
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There was a news article in IndianExpress about the Rothschilds visiting India, which set me thinking, we all hear their name as 'The Intenational Bankers' but I've never heard anything more about them! So did a little search. Here are some of the better results -
A Wikipedia article.
An official Rothschild Archive. [which pretty much does not tell you anything...]
A conspiracy theory type description of "THE ROTHSCHILD DYNASTY"
A BusinessWeek piece, on the other hand, gives a radically different picture [from the conspiracy theory]

Interesting...

- Chinmay

Categories - ~Money~ ~World~
Edited on: Friday, April 09, 2004 2:08 PM
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Parts one - Charge of the Indian brigade, two - From socialist rags to competitive riches and three - Required: a new form of governance for a new economy of Arun Shourie's series on our 'Brave new Industry'. Worth a read...

In Passing: They are playing 'knock knock' jokes on board the ISS.

- Chinmay

Categories - ~India~ ~Money~
Edited on: Sunday, April 04, 2004 2:32 PM
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An excerpt from Tour of Duty: John Kerry and the Vietnam War
and
Interview with the auther of the same.

And, The Wal-Mart You Don't Know, on how the world's largest company is driving US manufacturers [not to mention other retailers] out of business.

- Chinmay

Categories - ~Money~ ~USA~ ~World~

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With the Sula Vineyards producing five lakh bottles a year, and Chateau Indage producing three million litres, one of my major concerns about going back to India seems to be alleviated ! ;-) Check the news here.

The future is litered with wine?!?

Update:
A Wine Spectator article gives a pretty good review to Samant's efforts, although it does not expressly taste the wines! Incidentally, I got four issues of Wine Spectator last semester, for free!

Do I drink so much wine that everybody knows? ;-)

- Chinmay

Categories - ~Fun~ ~India~ ~Money~
Edited on: Monday, December 01, 2003 4:15 PM
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"China believes foreign direct investment is the fastest route to economic development. But India’s reliance on homegrown entrepreneurship may put that country in a position to catch up with, and possibly surpass, its northern neighbor. India, not China, is the rising economic power to watch." That's the conclusion drawn by Yasheng Huang [associate professor at the Sloan School of Management at MIT] and Tarun Khanna [professor at Harvard Business School.] In interesting read with a 'Want to know more?' linkie.

- Chinmay

Categories - ~India~ ~Money~

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Some interesting developements on the India Inc wave. I had a talk yesterday on the subject with KB, and we agreed [I think ;-)] that the major share of the progress should come through developement of new intellectual property. Here's someone who has already started working in that direction. IndiaCo is an investment firm that's supporting web/tech/biomed people to start their own businesses. IndiaNano is their Nanotech arm. Also, a piece in Business Today [Aug-Sept '03] in which Indiaco 'chief' Rahul Patwardhan and my previous advisor - Dr. Murali Sastry - have their say on Venture Capitalism and future of Nano in India. Interesting. Very interesting.

More India Inc. news digest on GoodNewsIndia

- Chinmay

Categories - ~India~ ~Money~ ~Science~
Edited on: Sunday, October 26, 2003 7:06 PM
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Some interesting articles about the future of India. Anya brough to attention this Rediff article/summary of a Goldman Sachs report[pdf] about the BRIC economies overtaking the G6 in the next 40 years. And another rediff article that examines various factors of economic growth predicted by Glodman Sachs. However, I think they're considering the conventional market development [almost a half of the world's population to sell more detergent to!] Although their official markers of growth are -Growth in employment, Growth in the capital stock and Technical progress (or total-factor productivity(TFP) growth). I'll read the document and see if I understand what they mean by that.

My view is that there's another kind of growth that is harder to predict, and that's the more important one. This is the type of growth that makes a population change the world by it's innovation and by pushing the limits of what is possible. It's the kind of growth fueld by anger and by self-confidence bordering on arrogance. Most everybody has read the recent article series by Arun Shouri, and Dr. Mashelkar's speech at Dehli U. both of which mainly talk about how we are well on that path, or at least not as bad as all the pessimists would highlight. Mostly goody-goody pat yourself on the back stuff - though it IS required at this stage. Here though, Arindam Banerji talks about ways to make India Inc. the new powerhouse. The parts of his 5 point plan that are concerned with increasing innovation are - 1. Bring back the educators and 2. Corporate-academia nexus. The article itself is worth reading, and thinking about.

There are many such articles being published these days, perhaps a mark of the Indian potential/willpower/vision reaching a critical mass. Haven't read Kalam's Vision 2020 yet. Must see what he says about this thing.

If you remember - and believe - the adage about prosperity moving westwards, it's time progress reaches back to India [after ~1000 AD?] And considering it's moving across the globe faster and faster, I hope we'll soon [as in one lifetime] see global prosperity.

duritAnche timir jAwo | wishwa swadharmasUrye pAho
jo je wAnchhIl to te lAho | prAnijAt

In passing: Sagar's realizations Interesting....

- Chinmay

Categories - ~India~ ~Money~ ~World~
Edited on: Sunday, October 26, 2003 12:17 PM
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