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Guest Article: The Market Scope of Renewable Energy Business in India

India is country that is most recognized for its deep cultural roots, and its significant contributions to the history of the world. In terms of modernity, India is not necessarily the first country that comes to mind. This way of viewing India is changing however; with India making great strides and going through one of the most significant economic boom periods in modern history. One surprising area where India is actually a leader among nations, is that of India’s commitment to renewable energy.

Conventional wisdom says that emerging nations can’t afford to focus on renewable energy initiatives. The old model says that countries that want to succeed must grow their economies by any means necessary, and worry about the environmental impacts later. India has turned this notion on its ear; using the renewable energy business as a method of boosting its economy significantly. This home-grown Indian ingenuity has shocked the world; with so-called “modern” nations now looking to the Indian model for inspiration in solving their own environmental (and economic) concerns.

One of the most remarkable things about the Indian renewable energy market is that the country of India is as much a producer of renewable energy products as it is a consumer. The net effect of this unique situation is that both the production and consumption of renewable provide benefit to the Indian economy. This enviable situation is one that other nations would love to match.

India entered the renewable sector early. At a time when renewable energy was largely an untested niche-sector, with more emotional attraction than economic promise; India gambled that this sector was one worth making a substantial commitment to. In the early 1980’s, India established a government ministry for the purpose of developing non-conventional energy resources, including renewable. Currently, renewable energy concerns fall under the purview of India’s Ministry of New and Renewable Energy.

Among the earliest renewable energy sources that India committed its resources to developing was that of solar energy. Working with the United Nations, India established a loan program enabling home owners to purchase solar power generators and related materials. The program served to bring viable energy options to far-flung corners of the nation, with tens of thousands people signing up. Of course, the program spurred a solar power, and solar power support services, industry that is still thriving in India today.

In the 90’s, India began to seriously develop its wind power capabilities. This sector of the Indian renewable energy market has experienced a ramp-up effort in recent years. Today, India has the fifth largest wind power generation capacity of any nation on earth. With plenty of land that is ideal for the generation of wind power, it is reasonable to expect wind energy development to expand there.

Another sector that India is making great inroads into is that of waste-to-energy. By converting sewage and industrial waste into fuel products, India reduces its consumption of fossil fuels. This lowers the amount of environmental damage caused by the use of conventional fuel usage in the country. As the Indian population continues to expand, waste-to-energy will become an increasingly more important part of India’s overall energy and environmental portfolios.

Renewable energy sector output growth in India fuels the need for greater expansion of the sector. An Indian worker who receives a high paying job in the sector suddenly has access to financial products such as a home mortgage, or an auto loan. Taking out that auto loan and purchasing a car, means more greenhouse emissions, and the possibility of greater pollution. This in turn motivates the Indian government to pursue more effective methods of reducing environmental pollution nationwide, for the good of the entire country.

Guest Post: India Looks toward Renewable Energy Future

At the same time, the central government announced on Aug. 10 that it plans to make changes in national solar energy regulation in order to encourage faster expansion in this specific sector.

OPIC likes India’s potential

India is one of the world’s fast-growing economies with a billion people and rapidly growing energy needs. The nation has grappled on how to best supply the power requirements in both the short and long term.

Recent events in Japan have made nuclear energy a much less attractive option and nations around the world have been scrambling for safer renewable energy options.

The OPIC deal was arranged by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as part of the US–India Partnership to Advance Clean Energy, Energy Security and Climate Change (PACE) Initiative. India is well-positioned geographically for solar energy projects and it also has excellent potential in other sustainable energy areas like hydropower, wind and biomass.

Significant spending at the end of 2011

The new OPIC plan entails spending about $600 million in the entire Asian region with about $360 million allotted specifically for India to fund renewable energy projects. In addition, another $520 million will be spent for Indian solar power project financing and insurance before the close of the year.

As part of the agreement, the US Department of Energy (DOE) will set up a bilateral Joint Clean Energy Research and Development Centre, costing $25 million, to coordinate research and development in the fields of solar power production, structural energy efficiency and biofuel production.

The United States is convinced that the Indian renewable energy market has a bright future as manifested recently by the rapid growth in the related equity market. In response, the country is looking to take advantage of the fast growth by brokering deals like PACE.

With America showing so much confidence in the Indian sustainable energy sector, it is almost a certainty that other countries will also want to position themselves to capitalize on this opportunity. For India this should translate into a flood of new investments as different players vie for a place in the energy market.

Government to ease solar rules

In the other outstanding development on the green energy front, the government in New Delhi plans to encourage growth in the solar energy industry by loosening up existing regulation.

Specifically, the rules on timelines and project size will be relaxed with the idea of luring in bigger investors in the solar energy market. An earlier program sought to do the same thing by lowering tariffs and narrowing margins, but it was not very successful.

The fact that the government is not giving up on boosting investment in this sector is definitely a good sign. Current plans call for increasing solar energy generation up to at least 20,000 megawatts by 2022. The first part of this plan entails some 620 MW projects that will be granted in December of this year. In addition, there are plans to call bids later in August for some 300 MW worth of projects.

Growing opposition to nuclear power

The recent nuclear disaster in Fukushima, Japan, has energized the Indian anti-nuclear movement. While New Delhi remains steadfast in pursuing current nuclear plans, there appears to be a growing realization in government on the limits of nuclear power that bode well for the renewable energy industry.

The Fukushima events are expected to drive up the costs of opening and running nuclear plants while increasing the amount of downtime due to maintenance. At the same time, public opposition is expected to continue growing increasing pressure on the government to seek safer renewable energy options.

Internet marketing for your budding business

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ENTREPRENUER – A buzzing word in today’s competitive scenario. What is he? What does he do?

According to the dictionary definition, an entrepreneur is one who organizes and manages any entreprise, esp. a business, usually with considerable initiative and risk. To become an entrepreneur, you must make business risks and investments. An entrepreneur opens new businesses and creates their own ideas! You need to be able to take risks and make investments! Apply for a loan to get started, along with a business license. You will need to be creative and innovative to be a successful entrepreneur!

To start with, If you’re a small business owner, you need a website that generates leads. That means ever-increasing knowledge about social media, branding, link-building and more, all this has to be done while you’re setting up your business. You have to sustain a balance between brand building, media, advertising and your service.

For this you need to design your website first. For this you can hire a professional or outsource it. If you have clear understanding of how it is designed, you can give a try yourself. Many free templates, source codes are available on internet these days. Can use any of them. At the same time it’s not just enough for a website to simply look great. It also needs to perform. That means you have to incorporate elements into your design that generate leads, boost your search engine ranking, and capture more attention your readers.

The next thing you have to consider about your website is its copy. That means your website should be free of poor grammar and spelling errors because you’re sending a message that is definitely costing you business! It should look professional then only your clients will have greater confidence in you and your business.

Apart from the website, a blog can reach far more readers and is search engine friendly. Do you know that about one third of active internet users read blogs. Blogs are a great way to build community around your brand, turning visitors into loyal fans who will share your content and help spread the word about your business.

Plus, search engines love frequently updated content. An active blog will help move your website higher up the list and display it multiple times when readers search for content that’s related to your business.

Use social media sites as exhaustively as you can. You need not use each and every social media site. Its better you integrate your website with three major social media sites viz. LINKED IN, TWITTER and FACEBOOK. A strategic use of these networks helps you stay connected with prospects, clients and colleagues, while keeping you up-to-date on trends and conversations in your industry.

You can save time by linking the three so when you post on one, it updates the others. Don’t forget to create “Follow Me” and “Fan” buttons customized to your website!

Use maximum searched keywords in your website. When your target market searches online, they’ll find your site when the words they’re using to conduct the search match up with the copy on your website. The trick is to discover the keywords and phrases your market uses the most, and put those words in your copy.

Follow your readers/visitors by using Opt-In Forms, Newsletters, E-mail Campaigns, and Tracking. By this you can even turn anonymous visitors into prospects and clients. Staying in touch with new visitors reminds them of your business and how it can help them. It also allows you to develop ongoing relationships with clients, creating repeat business and referrals.

With this essential communication feature, you can:

• Add signup forms to your website to turn anonymous visitors into prospects.
• Strengthen relationships with a sequence of personalized follow-up emails.
• Have unlimited subscribers.

Do website analysis from time to time. It will give you direct feedback on which pages of your site are most compelling! You can improve on it. It will let you know how your readers are moving through your site so you can give your most important information the best spots, and therefore, the greatest impact. Of course, it will also let you know how many people are viewing your site, and how they’re finding you.

For this you can create Google Analytics account and integrate it into your website so you can start collecting critical information from your market.

So, keep all the above points while building a website. It will give you more satisfaction that your reach has gone GLOBALLY !!!

Sireesha Murali- About the Author:

Masters in Organic Chemistry, MBA in Human resources, Internet Entrepreneur and Blogger, technical columnist,

Co-founded and managing two electric vehicle portals

http://www.evhub.in: B2B portal for electric vehicles

http://www.evhub.biz: Information & Media portal for electric vehicles

Contact the author at mail@evhub.biz

Positive impacts of job changing

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out an mba human resources ***

One person has worked as a door-to-door salesman, a receptionist, an administrator, a PR, and an account handler. He has moved between industries including shipping, events, architecture, catering and law. So does this have a negative impact on his CV? Or it gives him a wide range of experience?

Candidates with several jobs, Know about the different work cultures followed in different companies.  Also, employers know candidates who have had different jobs can work in a variety of environments and cultures so will fit in easily.

So, you need not worry about being called fickle minded or a job hopper. Switching jobs is perfectly fine as long as it’s done sensibly and with justifiable reasons. Just choose wisely where you want yourself to see in future. Job change should be a case when current job is boredom, low paying, less satisfying, lack of advancement, lack of appreciation, personal conflicts with a supervisor or co-worker, unfair treatment, unchallenged, no improvement seems in sight and many other reasons.

So, if you change job and move to another company, do it for more logical reasons like:

• Better opportunity with more responsibilities
• Higher designation with clearly defined roles
• Good salary hike
• Excitement and the desire to learn new things
• Relocation to a better city/ country

In contrast to many beliefs, job changing may be as good due to following reasons:

• By shifting jobs, you can build a strong network of people. This can be your key to earn more professional respect and secure a job, whenever you need. Keep your contacts alive and don’t burn your bridges.
• You can build different skills for your career enhancement.
• If you want to try something else after a long stint at a particular job, hopping can make the transition easy.

While switching between one professional position and another can give you more skills, constant hopping will begin to ring alarm bells for recruiters. A job change might be beneficial if you’re unhappy, bored, and unchallenged, and no improvement seems in sight.

It might be good if there’s no prospect for advancement at the particular company where you work.  It might be good if you want to completely break out of your current career.

Whatever be the reason for changing jobs, the decision should be a rational decision – not an emotional one.  And money alone, unless it’s a great deal of money, shouldn’t be the sole factor for leaving a job.

If you do decide to make a change, you might first want to look at job opportunities within your current company.  Sometimes it’s easier to make a lateral move inside the company than to leave the company altogether.  Some companies actually prefer hiring workers they know from within rather than gambling on outside applicants they don’t know.

If you decide to move out of the organization, then be thorough with the following points:

• Company’s work culture: Try to find out all the possible facts about the company and the working environment. Find out whether you can grow financially and technically rather than make you dependent or make you search for another job right after certain period.

• Salary Packages: Check out what salary package they are offering you and out of which, how much money you will be getting in hand (after deduction of certain taxes on the salary). You also need to think if your current salary is better than the one you have been offered.
• Future Increments in Salary: Even if your current salary is less than what you are going to get in the new company, just check out if you are due for your next salary increment?
  If YES, then how soon will you get it?
  Along with this, you also need to check out, how long it will take for the salary rise in your new company. This will really help you in making it sure that after certain period in future, you will get a proper salary.

Keeping all the above points in mind, decide about your future plans. Remember, stability is when you have a life where you can do what you love, during your life.

About the Author

Sireesha Murali - Social media savvy, Technical columnist, article marketer, masters in chemistry, an MBA in Human resources

Contact author at mail@evhub.biz