Do it yourself

  The latest festival season has started on a rather buoyant note, in Indian cities. As per initial reports luxury cars, smartphones, luxury watches, jewelry, home appliances, apparel, etc. are witnessing good consumer demand in most cities. Several high-end cars reportedly have a waiting period of one month to twelve months. Several stores have reported shortages of expensive smartphones and large-sized televisions. On the other side, rural markets are reporting a noticeable slowdown in demand. Most companies catering to the rural sector, like farm chemicals, farm equipment, consumer staples, building materials, etc., have commented in their presentations about the slower rural demand. The Reserve Bank of India, several commercial banks, and other lenders have highlighted rising stress in personal loans, credit card outstandings, and micro-lending. Two wheelers and entry-level cars are also not quite reporting encouraging numbers. There are reports about common households down...

For a large part of 20 th   century Coal was a very important part of our lives. Railways, which were the largest medium of long distance inland travel, operated mostly on coal. An overwhelming proportion of electricity was generated using coal. The black gold was also a key ingredient for producing steel, cement, aluminium, copper, and a variety of chemicals. Things began to change slowly in second half of 20 th   century and change accelerated in the last quarter of the century. Petroleum and Natural Gas started to gain share as major source of transportation fuel, electricity production, industrial feed stock and medium for cooking. From last decade of 20 th   century, the share of renewable sources in India’s energy mix is also rising consistently. Nonetheless, coal remains the most important source of energy for Indian consumers and industry. As per the latest data published by USEIA, “primary energy consumption in India has nearly tripled between 1990 and 2018, reac...