Energy Sector: Nepal India Co-operation

I have presented two news here. Both I have copied from a Indian Business News Paper THE BUSINESS LINE. One was published today and one seems to be bit old but very much related to the one which was published today. Let's see how far they can work together. From the interests of both countries, I see these projects as a path breaking events and if we can tap the India's economic boom by tieing friendly relations, then, I do not see why Nepal can not gain within short time. Hope that political rivalry and inconfidence does not hinder the economic ties.

Indian cos keen to tap Nepal's hydel potential'

Rahul Wadke

Nepal seeks a revival for the sector

Mumbai Feb. 18 Nepal has an estimated hydropower potential of 1,00,000 MW but practically nothing is harnessed. The sector remains untapped, as the Nepalese Government has limited resources. Recently, the sector was opened to private participation and a number of Indian companies have also shown keen interest in developing the hydropower sector, said Dr Ram Sharan Mahat, the Finance Minister of Nepal.

Dr Mahat was talking to Business Line on the sidelines of the Second SAARC Business Leaders Conclave. He said that the bids for Upper Karnali, Arun-III and Budhi Gandaki projects have already been called.

The bids would be opened in a few weeks. Companies like Reliance, GMR Group, Tata, L&T and the J P Group have shown interest in developing these projects, which have the capacity to generate 300 to 600 MW, he said.

Source: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2007/02/19/stories/2007021904360100.htm

India, Nepal to co-operate in hydropower sector

New Delhi, Nov. 8

India and Nepal have expressed their eagerness to cooperate in the development of Nepal's hydroelectric potential.

At a luncheon meeting in honour of the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Nepal, Mr K.P. Sharma Oli, organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), it emerged that several Indian companies are keen to invest in the development of Nepal's hydroelectric sector.

"Nepal hopes to forge synergistic partnerships with Indian companies, especially in developing its water resources, infrastructure, roads, and power and agri-business sectors. Hydro-power is of special interest to India to assist in its own development," said Mr Oli.

Peace is a prerequisite for attracting investment and Nepal has witnessed a decade-long insurgency, he said. "Now, we expect an end to the armed conflict very shortly. The Maoists are expected to surrender their arms. We expect this to improve the investment climate in Nepal even further," he said.

Underlining the importance of hydro-power development, the Ambassador of India to Nepal, Mr Shivashankar Mukherjee, said there was great interest by several Indian companies to enter this sector in Nepal at the Bilateral Power Summit held in Kathmandu in September. The two countries will shortly set up cross-border transmission highways that will spur a new trade in power.

"The renewal of the Indo-Nepal trade treaty in March 2007 will address non-tariff and para-tariff barriers to imports from Nepal, services, manufacturing, education, health, tourism and IT and ITES," Mr Mukherjee said. Since the agreement was signed in 1996, bilateral trade has grown to $2 billion and 40 per cent of the tourists who visit Nepal by air come from India. There has been a 40 per cent jump in investments from India into Nepal.

Source: http://www.blonnet.com/2006/11/09/stories/2006110904601000.htm

Silly Concept of Gross National Happiness

Hi, I found this Article in one of the Blog pages. It is very old but still found very interesting to read. I generally do not copy the stuffs from another blog but for my beloved readers, I am copying this materials. Being a law student, I am very sensible about Copyright Laws. So, I want to clarify here that the copyright is entirely vested on the original writer whosoever he may be. This is copied here just as a fair use for critical reporting of the silly trend that one of the tiny nations in the world, The Kingdom of Bhutan, is using to fool the world. No Readers may copy this Article from here and I suggest you to follow the proper instructions to publish as may be mentioned by the Original Writer in the Blog. I suggest you to read the last comment of this Entry in the original blog where it has been published if you happened to visit that Blog as well.

Here it goes:
"

What is happiness? In the United States and in many other industrialized countries, it is often equated with money.

Economists measure consumer confidence on the assumption that the resulting figure says something about progress and public welfare. The gross domestic product, or G.D.P., is routinely used as shorthand for the well-being of a nation.

But the small Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan has been trying out a different idea.

In 1972, concerned about the problems afflicting other developing countries that focused only on economic growth, Bhutan’s newly crowned leader, King Jigme Singye Wangchuck, decided to make his nation’s priority not its G.D.P. but its G.N.H., or gross national happiness.

When thinking about GDP and GNH, one has to be very careful about what one is aggregating. GDP is an accurate measure of what it measures: aggregate annual production of final goods and services in an economy denominated in monetary terms.

GDP does not aggregate cows, or beauty or whatever one may mistakenly think it does. Thus saying that the GDP does not accurately tell me anything about how many cows are in the economy, or complaining that GDP does not tell me anything about “the total amount of beauty is in an economy,” is as silly as saying that GDP does not tell me whether the people in the country are happy or not.

So those who make that complain are complaining that the tape measure is flawed because it does not help in figuring out the temperature of a liquid. It is not meant to do so in the first place.

Now there is something called happiness or satisfaction. A person can be said to be happy or satisfied. That is a feeling, a subjective experience. I can say that “I am happy” just like I can say “I am rich.” Those two look similar but the statements are qualitatively different. There is an objective validity to the statement “I am rich” because my wealth can be measured and verified externally. But happiness is subjective and does not allow interpersonal comparisons, while richness does. We can definitely say how A’s wealth compares to B’s wealth but cannot say how A’s happiness compares to B’s happiness.

If even interpersonal comparisons of happiness is mostly meaningless, attempting to define a measure which aggregates the “happiness” of millions of people clearly leaps over the bounds of the silly and lands somewhere in idiotic stupidity land.

I have never considered the GDP to be the end-all and be-all of an economy, any more than I consider the monthly income of a person to be the only relevant characteristic of a person. Perhaps some do, but then people believe in all sorts of silly stuff. Some economists do mess around with GDP growth rates and that is important, just like your tax accountant messes around with your income statements and your investments. Just because your income does not fully define you does not mean that your tax accountant is a myopic narrowminded individual or that the job of preparing your financial statement is meaningless.

I think that those who complain that GDP is not all that matters are making a valid but rather trivial complaint. I have yet to meet a single intelligent mature person–and most economists I have met fit that bill–who believes that GDP is anything more than a measure of economic activity and that too narrowly defined economic activity.

What I don’t understand is the attempt by the detractors of GDP aping a metric which they have perhaps misunderstood. They are in effect saying, “GDP does not measure happiness. So we must come up with an alternate aggregate measure we will call Gross National Happiness which will be more appropriate.”

That is Gross National Silliness."

Source: http://indianeconomy.org/2005/10/20/gross-national-happiness-is-grossly-silly/