The Tables have Turned Again

Magnus Carlsen winning the FIDE championship earmarks a key structural change in the pecking order of World Chess. It all boiled down to a fight of experience and nonchalant genius. The Infographic explains all:

A singular pattern emerges. All leading game-changers were very young (24-Karpov, 22-Kasparov, 25-Kramnik and Carlsen-22) with an exception of Anand who first entered the arena with a bang at 31. He was a hesitant champion and had an Elo Rating lesser than most other greats. Still, it is his perseverance stole all the European shine. With another Grandmaster having the highest Elo Rating ever, Carlsen seems to go a long way.

Hmm..Some geeky stuff (power sector).

A Three Pronged Approach for Power Sector

Current News:

Economic Times (08-07-2013): Power plants’ capacity utilisation at record low 

Economic Times (05-07-2013): Coal Ministry agrees to sign fuel-supply pacts for 11 power projects, 122 power     projects waiting for clearances. 

Business Standard (23-06-2013): Coal cost pass-through to impact consumers by Rs 10,560 cr.

Business Standard (15-06-2013): Discom debt worth 6144 cr restructuring takes off with TN issuing bonds.

Business Today (27-06-2013): Govt approves doubling of natural gas price.

Business Standard (27-04-2013): Avoid exposure to power stocks.

With an installed capacity of nearly 225GW, around 300 million Indians still do not have an access to electricity. Moreover, the ones who have are marred by blackouts and load shedding. It is evident that India has not been able to reduce the deficit, rather the peak deficit hovers at around 11.5% whereby the CAGR of power demand is more than 8%. In spite of the inherent demand, the power utilities are bleeding.

The govt. had displayed vision by enacting Electricity Act, 2003 and laying out a promising Integrated Energy Policy. But many clauses of the act are still difficult to implement even after 10 years. A three-pronged approach is devised below to address the present situation.

Prong I (Generation): Open sourcing and grid charging can be encouraged if integrated grid connectivity with smart meters is established. Grids and utilities should have realistic targets of replacing the obsolete meters with smart ones. Privatize the Mining Sector so that miners can extract coal by paying appropriate royalty. It will not only increase the productivity but also put rest to the favoritism in arranging FSAs with CIL as the market would become competitive. Also, distributing captive blocks reduces the efficiency as many mines are operational simultaneously and demarcated for some particular project for a long period. For example – demarcating 4 coal blocks for three power plants is inefficient when they can be catered by a single block for next five years.

Majority of the Indian contracts lack the clause regarding compensatory tariff. As the imported coal prices have increased by nearly 80% in last three years, the power units depending on foreign coal are unable to sell at present costs. Even under legal purview of a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA), govt controlled power utilities do not pay on time leading to cash flow crisis for the GENCOs (Generation Companies). Also, regulations are lax when steel manufacturers shut down their shops to sell electricity in the open market (as merchants). Practices like these distort the market and can be done away with by introducing strict legal measures by either CERC (Central Electricity Regulatory Commission).

Prong II (Transmission): Grid efficiency and resilience can be increased by connecting the Southern Grid with the other five grids. Introducing higher voltage lines, like 1110KV and replacing old 220/440KV with 765KV are essential for transmission efficiency.

Prong III (Distribution): The root of all the inefficiency is the distribution and theft losses that stem from undue favour by politicians and slacking power utilities that are govt controlled. Under Electricity Act, 2003, it was directed to unbundle the state Vidyut Boards. The states like Delhi, Orissa, Gujarat, etc have been successful in doing so and have reduced their aggregate technical and commercial (AT&C) losses by more than 30%. The other states should be forced to follow the suit because the unpaid amount gets restructured as a large loan that is paid off by the tax-payers’ money.

Fig1: Role of ESCOs in Power Sector                Fig2: Incentive of DSM V/s Generation.

Efficiency in distribution can be increased by introducing:

Ø  Legislative Measures

Ø  Administrative Measures

Ø  New Technology

Ø  Awareness

Mandatory implementation of Energy Conservation and Building Code for new buildings, mandatory energy audits in six months for industrial customers and introduction of Energy Services Companies (ESCOs) by Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) are some legislative measures that can improve the energy efficiency of a state. ESCOs are the allowed energy auditors that give implementable guidelines after the audit. (See the diagram below for functioning of ESCOs.) Administrative measures like Consumer Indexing System (CIS), implementation of Minimum Energy Performance Standards (MEPS) in industry, Solar Subsidies and Time of Day (ToD) metering using smart meters are implementable given some forethought by the DISCOMs (Distribution Companies). These measures backed by new technology like intelligent meters, AC Outage, Zero Energy Buildings, Star Rated appliances, etc can induce efficiency into the system. Also, rewards like “Golden Carrot” and “20-20” have been successful in USA that can be followed in India too.

 Source: Bureau of Energy Efficiency

Hence, the three pronged approach focuses on improving the fuel supplies and improving government contracts (Generation), upgrading the grid for lower losses (Transmission) and introducing a score of measures to improve Demand Side Management (DSM) to reduce AT&C losses and curb inefficiency (Distribution).

Courtesy: Shivraj Singh Negi, PGP-2, IIMB.

The MBA Ride: How IIMA happened?

It was a sultry afternoon in Gurgaon and I was unknowingly immune to it. I was already ashamed of my IIMB interview and didn't want to repeat the performance in IIMA. All you can tell yourself before the interviewee gets revoked in the room with dim lights where life comes to stir, theory of relativity gets justified, small pauses seem like a lifetime and you are devoured by two or three witty pair of eyes.

Like almost everybody I was expecting almost anything and had tried to prepare for it. The location was relaxing and I had reached quite early. I tried to interact with a wonderful personality but my mind was still hovering around the process that started abruptly leading all of us to some big sighs and large gulps of water. The process was briefed by the admission committee and two professors led us to our respective panels. The old eyes again screened us and the professors delightfully explained the process.

The topic was like:  Loneliness is an epidemic. (Dont remember it exactly). I wrote three small paragraphs in 7 minutes and revised them and scrutinized it to the point of no grammatical error. Interviews started within no time and I was waiting out the room in almost no moments. The professor called my name that just brought me to my senses. The play:

Part I:

(greetngs exchanged)

P1: Paras, what do you do?

Me: Told. ( I am a civil engineer. Details will make some of you yawn.)

P1: What is a super thermal power plant?

Me: Told about super critical and large capacities and about the technology...

P1: OK..Tell me which is the largest power plant in India?

Me: Adani Mundra..4200MW (checked 4600 it was..oops)

P1: Are all its units working?

Me: As far as I have heard, yes sir.

P1: Hmm..(Taking long breaks in between)Where is the world power market going?

Me: If we talk about India..(interrupted...No no no...world)...Sir...large markets are going for solar and wind and developing ones are being pressurized to adopt renewable energy like wind..So trend is towards wind energy...

P1: Why wind energy now?

Me: Talked about Kyoto and environment...

Part II:

P1: Okay, so tell me three ways to tackle contractors better?

Me: Told (with stopping in between to think).

P1: Tell me

one more?

Me: Told.

Part III: (Non-Engineers may avoid)

P2: As an engineer, tell me what is common between this building and what you build? Tell me three things?

Me: I told only one. Then started thinking and he interrupted with the technical questions.

P2: How can you test whether the structure is sound after concreting?

Me: Ultrasound testing. Next two questions were revolving around this only and we had a small discussion that resulted in my answer.

P2: Asked a technical question about a cantilever beam with a hole in it and asked whether it will fail.

Me: I said it would. He disagreed and said it would not. I tried to justify by drawing BMD and he was not convinced. Our non-concurrence broke us into a laugh and he tricked me into committing a mistake that I realized after I got out.

P2: OK. Leave it. Optimized the beam for me.

Me: I did it and he said I am done.

Part IV:

P1: How do you see Modi as a prime-ministerial candidate?

Me: Sir, we have three probable candidates. Nitish Kumar. As we know, no candidate from the third front/left would say that he wants to become a PM. Rahul Gandhi has the promise of inclusiveness but has no delivery record as we saw in UP elections also and Modi who has excellent governance skills but has a cloud of communalism over his head. I see him as a bright candidate for the position sir.

P1: Hmm..OK..Tell me whether you will vote for Modi or not?

Me: Sir, I will.

P1: Why?

Me: Because I would like to see India grow like Gujarat.

P1: OK..What are India's 3 biggest post-independence achievements?

Me: (Thinking hard now)..Sir, green revolution..and white revolution if we can club them into one..The food revolution..Second would be the accidental reforms of 1991...accidental because it was forced upon us but that brought a continuous growth for next twenty years....And, third would be the space and science..India has been able to launch satellites that even developed countries have not been able to launch...eg PSLV 2...SO Space revolution would be the third...

P1: Who was the pioneer of Green Revolution?

Me: Dr. MS Swaminathan

P1: White Revolution?

Me: Dr. Verghese Kurien

P1: Space Revolution?

Me: Dr. Vikram Sarabhai

P1: OK...You may go...

Me: Thanks sir...

(No maths..I had prepared for that actually...technical was a bumpy ride..So was quite unsure about it..)

Verdict: Converted..OMG..couldnt believe it for two to three days...

The MBA Ride: IIMB

Sometimes, it all boils down to an instant where everything is going wrong and a small spark of performance helps you just touch the bay. I was being pounded with simple questions with not so simple face expressions. IIMB gives a lot of stress on SOP and they will pick a simple word and revolve your whole interview around it. Mine was 'project development plan'. They asked me the same question may be six to seven times. In the end frustrated I blurted everything I knew about it and still got a 'Leave it'. 

A heated discussion on 'How can we improve power crisis in India?' subjugated me to admit that prices should be lowered in India and make them praise one of my solutions. An IIM interview is most of the times 'Can't say affair' but I didn't feel so good about it.

May be I did very good in WAT that was based on a daily problem: 'Instant things like noodles are eroding our age-old values and degrading our society and lifestyle'.

Verdict: Converted. (A Pursuit of Happyness Moment)

Caution: While checking results, kindly fill both 'S' and 'R' of SR12345 in capitals else you may sulk for one day realizing that you could not make it to the 'Place to B'.

The MBA Ride: IIM Lucknow

I thought I had a very good interview but the results proved something else. The questions asked varied from technical (am a civil engineer) to jokes. It started with them asking me to recite a 'veg-joke' that I somehow averted coz the only jokes coming to my mind at that time were 'non-veg'.

A lot of technical questions and then questioned me to judge my GD performance about which I was satisfied so confidently stuck to my judgement. May be they stuck to theirs too much.

Anyways, GD topic was something like 'The more you study, the more you read' and we had to write an essay also that I could not justify. In nutshell,

Verdict: Not Selected. Lessons learnt but it came as a shock because this was the only interview after IITB that I was sure of. 

The MBA Ride: IIM Shillong

One of the best interview takers covering a range of topics. Though candidates grudge about the technical part but no IIM leaves that part, the silver lining is the GD. But an awful amount of stress on academics plays a spoilsport.

If you have written chess as a hobby in the form, they will ask everything about latest events, their locations, etc. It is quite a linked affair, the next question depending on the answer you give. My breakup is as follows:

Though I had converted it last time also, but a fair interview is what everyone looks for. For example: in the ethics part, professor asked whether the bribe to the policeman is justified if we pay the waiter a tip in the same vein.

Caution: Hotel Amaltas, New Delhi has a swimming pool constructed in a way to deceit the candidates into falling. So please beware. :)

The MBA Ride: NMIMS

NMIMS has a huge location advantage, located just in the middle of all the big banks. The process starts with a case study discussion and ends with an interview mine was at the last. Large GD group stalls everyone's performance. A panel of 4 experienced faculty and alumni does make a good image. Interview was crisp and went well. Verdict: Converted.