Should solar roof-top generation be a part of Infrastructure sub-sector or Government need to work on characteristics which defines Infrastructure sectors!

          Being a student of Infrastructure Management, I was always convinced about the importance of Infrastructure in economic development and growth of any country. What intrigued me the most was the question “How do we define Infrastructure?”

After grappling for some time, I found the answer during a lecture of Infrastructure development taken by Dr. Astha Agarwalla (Economist and Professor at Adani Institute of Infrastructure Management) about the characteristics of Infrastructure sectors.

In the lecture, Prof. Agarwalla shared with us the Harmonized list of Infrastructure sub-sectors, as given by Government of India.

During the class discussion, I got concerned about the status of power generated with the help of roof-top solar panels and supplied to grid.

In order to appreciate the concern, it will be helpful if I start out with little understanding behind the concept of the infrastructure characteristics. As per the guidelines provided by Press Information Bureau, Government of India, Cabinet Committee on Infrastructure about the characteristics are,

Natural monopoly – A natural monopoly asset is one where the barriers to entry are high; often so high that it is not efficient to have competing service providers.

High sunk costs and asset specificity – High sunk cost can be defined as the investment in an asset which can not be recovered; asset specificity can be defined as an asset that can be used for specific purpose only.

Non-tradability of output – As per this characteristic, the final output is not tradable in nature.

Non-rival-ness in consumption – Consumption of one individual will not affect the consumption of others.

Possibility of price exclusion – According to this, producer of any service or good can exclude the end user if the price is not paid.

Presence of externalities – An infrastructure project can create positive or negative impact on the environment/society.

Hence, all of these characteristics shall be applicable on sector to make it eligible for enlisting in to the list of Infrastructure sub-sector.

The Concern: Why “Electricity generation” as a whole is a part of energy category of infrastructure sector, as generation of electricity through solar rooftop system is purely tradable in nature which is point number 3 in above listed characteristics!

Press Information Bureau, Government of India, Ministry of New and Renewable Energy in their recent press release stated about their future vision pertaining to Solar rooftop generation i.e. 40GW of grid connected rooftop solar capacity by 2022.

Now government shall clarify its view on whether electricity generation through solar rooftop generation is under infrastructure sub-sector or not!

If government think of removing the characteristic filter of non-tradability nature of infrastructure sub-sector then areas like Real-estate will be consider under infrastructure sub-sector. If that happens, government schemes of pushing infrastructure development will aid in real-estate sector as well. The benefits such as, if government releases funds or launches any scheme for the growth of all infrastructure sector then the benefits of the same will be reaped by the real-estate sector as well.

E.g. Real-estate being in one of the most affected sectors to the common man, who utilizes his /her entire life for creating own shelter, the government scheme for boosting real-estate sector might lure someone with fraudulent intentions and at the end common man would have to suffer. Hence government would never want to hatch the egg of bird called “black money”.

There might be other sectors as well which might get enlisted in the infrastructure sub-sector because of this removal of non-tradability characteristic or government shall look for the easy way out by updating the master list of infrastructure sectors by stating “Electricity generation except solar rooftop generation”

References:

Press Information Bureau Government of India Cabinet Committee on Infrastructure, 01.03.2012, http://pib.nic.in/newsite/PrintRelease.aspx?relid=80634

Press Information Bureau, Government of India, Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, 19.07.2018, http://pib.nic.in/newsite/PrintRelease.aspx?relid=180728

http://mospi.nic.in/sites/default/files/reports_and_publication/cso_research_and_publication_unit/Infrastructure_Statistics/infra_stat_2010/VII-Introduction.pdf

Overcome your fear of failure - stammering kneels before confidence...

It should start with Thanksgiving - a positive gesture always helps in creating positive attitude.

Whole heartedly thanks to Mr.Nikunj Acharya - whom we use to call "Bava"

This wouldn't be possible without you.


Well, I am not a preacher, writer, professional blogger nor a grammer Nazi!

Starting with the topic - Overcome your fear of failure - stammering kneels before confidence..

We often resist to think about our weakness aren't we?

Its natural, as a human being we would like to be seen as powerful and with those weaknesses its quite questionable! Hence we try to hide our weakness behind certain masquerades which acts as a gurad for the weaknesses.

 I used to do the same, one of my weaknesses was I used to stammer a lot and hence it was difficult for me to stand in public and speak!

In order yo hide this, I always keep on avoiding public speaking even after joining event called Footprints in which we had to speak in public for like every now and then.

Avoiding speaking publically was equally challenging just like speaking publically.

You have to make sure that you never get turn, or you have to manage time so well that when your speech comes, you get more important work than the speech!

But all day we can never hide what is seen with the naked eye!

I had to speak, if not today then tomorrow and without having effective communication skill none has survived this world.

Nikunj was our public speaking advisor, he has taken the responsibility of nurturing all the team members and make them speak in front of public.

I still remember that conversation between me and nikunj, He said " you have to speak for your self if not today then tomorrow, so why don't you start from today - you will see better tomorrow!" He added that " think as if people aren't there actually to listen you, people need you to speak as they don't know something which you know, all you get to do is just tell them what you know"

As my first reflex was to avoiding these solutions, as unconsciously I was guarding my own weaknesses.

For few days  I didn't do anything, but one day I was in situation which no one would want to be!

I made to speak in front of whole team suddenly! And as expected goofups happened!

I couldn't speak a single line and stuck at the very first sentence! There were many people in the crowd for whome i was a talented guy but by knowing about my art of speaking nothing i felt that i lost importance in their life.

I was all broken that day, when bava told me " this happened in our team only, imagine you are doing a job and giving presentation in front of your boss and clients and this happens! You might lose your job as well, I am not scaring you but waking you up that if you don't speak today then you won't get chance to speak at all "

He gave me certain idea like speaking in front of mirror first then speaking in empty class followed by speaking in empty hall and conference rooms etc.

First, I used to read loudly keeping a copy of my speech with me, then i tried to remember and then speak few fumble happened but somehow i managed to speak not because of practice i was doing, it was because i wanted to speak! I wanted to prove that yes, i too can speak.

Later, I started jamming session in canteen where we used to persuade people for taking part in our event.

It was all improving without knowingly. I started speaking fearlessly, bava used to give me feedback of my improvement and one day he recorded my whole speech and showed it to me!

I was astonished  by seeing the way I spoke!

Since then and till now, I do not fear of speaking in public, not because i worked hard just because i wanted to speak!

This article is still in continuation, I will share some more experience and technique shared by Dr.Diti Vyas (Prof. at Adani Institute of Infrastructure Management) in my next blog.