Role of Financial Services in Green & Renewable Sector

These days it has become a mandatory for every company to bring in the concept of go green/ eco-friendly to their products/services. In general, financial markets also avail an opportunity to play a key role in Green and Renewable sector with their wide range of policy instruments. Without getting the government policies and bodies into consideration, there are a number of ways through which the financial institutions interact with the environment.

Act as Pioneer by unique product/services:- Considering the global changes these days it is very important to have innovation in the approach. It can be innovation in services offered, innovation in means of offering the services, innovation in product development, innovation in advertising the products/services etc. Hence innovation can be anywhere and everywhere. Aligning to it the financial institutions play a key role in developing new financial products to encourage sustainable development. Ex:  Energy Potency

Act as Backer: - They support the enterprises/organizations by providing investments through which they can attain a sustainable development over a long run. In India, taking the competition within banking services into consideration, getting a financial support to a business model has become much simpler than what it used to be in the past decade. The investments are not just done through credit facility but also through mutual collaborative investments or through venture capitalists.

But ultimately it is the idea which really matters for someone to get convinced and support the initiative abiding to their rules and regulations. In most of the cases, though the investments are expected to be high, the business models that are evolving in today’s trend are much more profitable because of the niche market. And moreover these days most of the urban populations have become sensible compared to the past in consuming products that are environment friendly. Either it may be in the automobile sector or white goods or in construction industry etc. Just to validate the statement, many companies have already added a tag line to their products, either as “eco-friendly” or “go green” irrespective of the industry there belong to. 

Act as Powerful stakeholders:- It always need not always be a public or private company that looks for an IPO and get listed but there can always be a probability for the financial institutions to partner with the companies as shareholders and lenders can exercise considerable influence over the management of companies.

Act as Valuers :– For any investment valuation is must and abiding to the valuation process and norms is a mandatory for any financial institution.  The role of valuers is to calculate the risks in various pricing structures as well as in estimating the returns for companies/various projects. For example, according to the Institution of Valuers’, if a property is of value Rs 1, 00,000 then the valuer’s fee is Rs 125. But it is an observation that the financial institutions are not abiding to it.  It may or may not be true in all the cases but yes it is a real concern to drill down for a validated solution.

The Commercial Banking Sector:-

One of the major advantages of the commercial banking sector in India as well as across the globe is their connectivity to small and medium sized enterprises where they act as highly influential players in providing adequate information about their suitable services and also about their lending practices. By default they (bankers) always have a scope for influencing the consumers and their behaviors through their own financial services/products. But definitely their impact/ influence of commercial banks on giant companies is comparatively less because of several reasons.

The Investment Sector:-

In the same way the advantage of the investment sector is highly influenced by the giant/large companies which are multi-national.  They can certainly indicate the price of the new capital for various companies and in the process they can directly use the rights either as shareholders or as prospective owners.

Just to add, even the environment not for profit organizations across the country have started targeting the investors and bankers for their collaboration/association with huge companies that are not eco-friendly and are threat to the environment. Though they failed to create a major impact, as mentioned above they have slowly started influencing the sectors. So it is always a major concern for the investment sector to improve the performance of investments over the environmental performance.

Insurance Sector:-

The insurance sector can achieve sustainable growth only when they can have various types of pricing over the environmental risk for which they should pay even for the environmental damage.

The Environment Business Sector:-

This sector ranges from traditional environmental business like waste management or emerging “green” pioneers, such as renewable energy and introducing the concept of eco-tourism globally. Though the role is very critical it is certainly essential to attain sustainable growth and thereby ensuring the access to private sector and other private financial institutions.

Financial Policy:-

There is always a diffident and discreet scope to circumscribe environmental issues in many areas because it is never evident that the environmental risks are adequate to authorize special treatment by regulators/ governing bodies.

Analysis:-

Improvising the flow of information can also be an effective way to help the financial institutions to ease their environmental considerations and there by incorporating them. But there is still a definite potential to reinforce the relationship between environmental and financial performance, especially through the use of economic instruments like as environmental taxes.

                                                                                

So Far So Good

All I guess it has been long time since I've updated my blog. Its certainly because of my other priorities which made me stick busy to them but good that this telangana bandh game me some time to live for myself. I have got no comments to this "telangana" issue but the kind of approach they are trying to go ahead is creating a real mess out there and ultimately people land up blaming the govt alone for the situation.

Whatever, I could successfully complete my internship at Jones Lang LaSalle for two months without a single leave and inspite of the hectic work I managed to move out by creating a positive impact. Those two months really made me struggle hard to keep up people's expectations and strive hard to make a mark before I move out. Beneath all this, the confidence that I could build up in these two months living as an individual is really helping me out in looking ahead for broader perspective. 

I always live in a phobia where I always carried an ambiguity within myself about the specializations which students generally elect in their management program. The impact of peoples expectations on me always demands me to give my best and that is what exactly I look for. Ultimately one looks at the job & profile I would carry one year down the line.  A week ago, I had been to Bangalore for couple of days with one of my best mentor's and I had a chance to express my thoughts to him. The only response I got was " Don't think too much about anything, just stay cool and enjoy life." These words made me really realize what i'm supposed to do and this made me feel more comfortable and bright in my thoughts. 

Being simple is Sensible!!!!

Well I was just going through several profiles in social media and there is something interesting I would like to post. I wonder why many of them start boosting about themselves, failing to oversee the fact that they convey nothing close to reality. I could observe that people start updating their status in FB, Blogs, Tweets etc, they always try to capture others sight by projecting a false propaganda thereby feeling themselves as "Future Leaders". One of my friend is an example for it. She always tries to capture other's attention by creating a propaganda of her achievements wherever she goes and to whomsoever she interacts.I don't think leaders will actually speak or project something openly even before it is not physically visible. If I consider N.R.Narayana Murthy or the TATA's or Bill Gates or Mahatma Gandhi or any other eminent person, each and every one of them have achieved success silently and they are automatically projected by the media or other alternatives. I don't think they consider themselves as 'leaders' but it is others who follow their values, ideas & insights make them leaders. 

And it is still a debatable topic for someone to raise his opinion when asked "whether leaders are born or made". Every individual in this world has got his/her own opinion & perception about this argument but the fact remains the same that leaders do not work for publicity or visibility. But these instruments are automatically driven behind, if one is sincerely committed towards his/her work. Eventually I believe in the term " ONE MAN ARMY" and this is what I abide within my soul while accomplishing the tasks that come across. At the same time I would also appreciate one's ability in managing a team and then grow successful with the team but this shouldn't mean that one should be depended on the group. He/she should always have the strength to face challenges and stand out alone rather than looking for help.

Another interesting thing which I would like to mention is that I observe people saying that "I shall/will/can TRY". But from my perspective there is never a term 'TRY' if you attempt to accomplish a task.

                                        "Do, or do not. There is no 'TRY'."



  

Review on the Book “Evolution of TATA Brand”:-

This book is totally focussed on what is the Tata brand all about? What are its values? How do people look at it, in India and across the world? There are certain facts which answer the questions regarding to the value system that is followed by the TATA’s. 

It is basically a 140-year-old group for which it is specially recognized. All the Indians have trust in the brand and believe in the brand’s product. And when I mentioned product it is not just confined to it but it also refers to whole group consisting of the TISCO, TAJ hotels, Automobile, Telecom, IT industries etc. Irrespective to the sector it is in, the value system always remains same believing the BEST. Hence the biggest strength of the TATA group is considered to be the value system. It is also observed that the mission of the company is not just making money but taking social responsibility as well. Starting as a small group in India, now the company has become one of the biggest business groups in India drawing 65 per cent of its revenue from outside the country. The author mentions a statement which helps us to identify the value system of the group by saying that “The deep-rooted values have not only become the pride of the company but the entire nation which was reflected during the Mumbai attacks”. Explaining this context at the time of the Mumbai attack at the TAJ hotel when the terrorists were attacking the visitors/tourists inside the hotel, the staff of TAJ sacrificed their life’s to protect their value system by providing the best hospitality to the maximum and even extended it to the cost of their life. 

Now, looking at the Tata as a business group and as a brand in itself. Being old, it has a long, well defined and well-articulated history. It has multiple numbers of brands as they make and service anything from “Salt to Steel”. They have dealt with various decades in India, the British Raj, the young democratic setup, license Raj, Nationalization and finally the liberalization and globalization. Not many industrial groups possess this ability in such a wide way. On an overview we can look at the variety of industries, from hard-core engineering (TISCO) to multi format retail to services as wide as hospitality to information technology (TCS). They have businesses that carry Tata names clearly. But some might be looked in to so clearly and some not at all. They all are owned and cross-owned businesses with Tata sons being the parent or umbrella company which in turn is owned by a series a trusts as mentioned above. 

In this book the author starts off giving the brief history of Tata group and its founders. He talks about the reputation of Tata and brand image of “Tata”. The Reputation which has been built over a century in running the business successfully across the country was mentioned clearly over last few decades. Brand itself is not a single brand but consists of many sub brands, at least one for each segment of business they are into. A study of the co-existence and inter-relations between these brands are visible from the author’s perspective. He has also looked at perceptions about the group and the family. 

The author "Morgen Witzel" gets involved himself when he visited TISCO and then he starts mentioning about the multiple connections through various segments among the people belonging to various brands within the Tata group. Let me borrow couple of lines for my review where it is mentioned that “The reputation he says is based on the long association of Tata’s with the society through their social work and investing in educational and research institutes.” This clearly explains the whole value of the TATA’s. The best example to prove this fact is the tribal in Jharkhand where TATA steel is located. That is why the author looks at the brand from different perspectives based on his assumptions on various stakeholders like consumers, employees, financial community, media, society and even the politicians. 

Comparatively since last few years they have added the new dimension of Innovation to this brand through products like Tata Nano and by entering into new age segments like IT and Telecom. The launch of Nano could not excite the high class family in the country but could definitely grab the attention of the low & middle class families. Irrespective of the success or failure of the brand, the launch of NANO created a huge impact in the automobile industry in the world. One key aspect he has looked at is the Brand Tata in India and outside India. This is extremely important as the Tata group goes global in a more visible way. He very broadly looks at the key markets outside India where Tata are expanding their vicinity levels and how they are perceived there. 

Hence all I can mention is that this book is easy to understand and will definitely help an individual in understanding the value of a brand and the image that is carried out among the people in and around the country. To understand industrialization in INDIA since past decades this book will definitely add a new edge of learning and maintaining the brand value over years.

Feels like I'm Back

As I've mentioned, life has taught me several things till this moment. I could oversee both success & failures but dominantly failure in my life capture a major edge. Nevertheless I was demanded to give my best at every instance to prove my capabilities. After a long gap filled with bad instances & failures in terms of feedback, since past 2 weeks I'm now slightly on an edge of success that has a very good inclination over a longer run of my life. Irrespective to what it leads to the only task that is in front of me is to grab every opportunity that I come across and make the best out of it. 

I've got something really interesting to post this time. Inspite of having contact details of several eminent persons in the country, I failed to communicate them due to several materialistic reasons. But I then could oversee the opportunity and then added some dare to my initiative thereby contacting them through mails & direct calls. Initially during the first two calls,I had tumble at few instances because the way I was asked questions where in my intention of replying them in a convincing way could not meet their expectations. But then I had to rethink and build up little more confidence by adding some essence to flattery to my replies and then finally got an approval to meet and then had a chance to video shoot my interaction with them. Nice to know that from past one month I could meet 24 eminent people till date and every person whom I met is really motivating and I could find them truly inspiring!!!!!!!

I'm sure I'm gonna land up as one among them 15years down the line :) :) :) :)

Took time for myself!!!!

After experiencing the worst day yesterday, I decided to take a break to come out of it. I spent my whole day with one of my best buddies at my place and inspite of being unwell my friend could get me back into the track where I found myself more energetic than what I was till that moment. After all that is how I wanted things to be around me. But what did I learn today? The answer would be taking time for myself to understand what exactly was going wrong on my side and took time to prioritize my pending tasks. Then ordered for a country spl pizza at dominos, and the delivery time for that guy was more than 30mins. I mentioned it while receiving the order at the 40th minute asking him whether to pay the amount for his delay of 10mins or not. But eventually after knowing that the amount which I deny to pay for his delay would reflect in deduction of same amount from his salary, I felt bad and paid him the 400 bucks. We might feel that 10mins is a very short span but that particular ten mins costs high for another individual. As a matter of fact at any instance, even a single minute is precious in this whole world. 

Whatever it might be but, at the end of the day all what matters to me is did I make the fullest use of the time?

The answer would be yes in enjoying the day, But NO for wasting my valuable 24hrs of time which I can never regain. 

Ah!!!! Wish I can undo my past 13 hours

When something goes wrong, I always hear people saying "every Dog has its day" . In-spite of not being a dog but being a sensible human, i'm eagerly waiting for my day to prove what I'm, to the people around. Probably today is one of my worst days, I've never experienced since my birth. Hard to listen when people just say it that "i'm worthless and useless." But had to hear it again and again and again by people around. All I need is the right path where I can show my abilities and then its for sure that i'm never gonna look back. I'm emotionally beaten up but that particular attempt made me realize the reasons behind it as well as introspecting of what actually went wrong. 

Now that I've realized to listen to what my heart says but not to what people compel to do, I'm sure tomorrow would be a great beginning for me with added hopes and I will never ever give up unless the same people who stated i'm useless & worthless take back their words.

Thats all for today. Hoping for the best tomorrow.