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Project
Structuring in Bot Projects in India
--Ravi
Unni
Recognizing
the importance of adequate infrastructure services, such
as power, telecommunications, transport, and given the constraints
on the public finances, the Government of India and State
Governments have shifted part of the burden of new infrastructure
investment to the private sector. Private sector participation
in infrastructure is through the mechanism of concession
contracts. A variety of risks are inherent in the infrastructure
projects. The theory states that risks should normally be
borne by the party best able to assess, control and manage
them. The aim is to ensure that the party with the ability
to reduce risks has incentives to do so and that remaining
risks are borne by the party for which it is least costly.
In practice, this is achieved through the right structuring
of the project. Therein lies the significance of the right
Project Structure.
©
2005 IUP. All Rights Reserved.
Transformation
in the Road Transport System of Bogota: An Overview
--P
Nair and Deepak Kumar
This
article talks about how the transportation system of Bogota
has been changed over the years after the introduction of
the services of TRANSMILENIO. With TRANSMILENIO coming into
operation, the public transit has been increased because
it provides better service to the daily commuters. It talks
about how management and operation are being done vis-à-vis
how the revenue is being distributed. It is really remarkable
to note how Pedestrian in Bogota is an important arrangement
having well_defined guiding principles which aim at using
Pedestrian as a tourist attraction since best stores and
shopping are always on pedestrian streets. The article concludes
saying that India must learn the best practices being adopted
in the transport system of Bogota.
©
2005 IUP. All Rights Reserved.
Accelerated
Power Development Reform ProgramA Performance Appraisal
--Leena Mary Eapen and R Sthanumoorthy
Starting
from early 1990s, India initiated reform measures to revamp
its ailing power sector. The sector had been opened up for
private participation and several measures aimed at restructuring
of State Electricity Boards (SEBs) were initiated to make
them financially viable entities. But even after a decade
of reform initiatives, one of the important goals of reforms
namely attracting substantial private investments into the
sector has met with little success. One of the major factors
that has made the private sector wary of investing in the
power sector was the poor power distribution system that
has come into place in the country which, in turn, is due
to the lack of adequate investment in distribution segment.
It thus became clear to the central government that financial
support would be required in the form of loans, subsidy/grants
in order to improve power distribution. As a result, the
central government introduced a scheme called Accelerated
Power Development Reform Program (APDRP) in 2000 to reform
the distribution segment of the power sector. In this context,
this paper is an attempt to provide a critical review of
the APDRP by analyzing its pros and cons.
©
2005 IUP. All Rights Reserved.
National
Electricity Policy - 2005
--Ajay
Shankar
The
Indian power sector is witnessing major changes. Growth
of the power sector in India since its independence has
been noteworthy. The National Electricity Policy aims at
achieving objectives such as overcoming peak shortages and
availing adequate spinning reserve, supplying reliable and
quality power of specified standards in an efficient manner
and at reasonable rates, increasing per capita availability
of electricity to over 1000 units by 2012 and other issues,
including protection of consumers interests. The policy
also seeks to address issues like rural electrification
generation, transmission, distribution; recovery of cost
of services and targeted subsidies; technology development
and research and development (R&D); competition aimed
at consumer benefits; financing power sector programs including
private sector participation; energy conservation, environmental
issues; training and human resource development and cogeneration
and non-conventional energy sources. In fact, National Electricity
Policy has been notified in compliance with Section 3 of
the Electricity Act 2003 of the Central Government.
©
2005 Ministry of Power, Government of India (www.powermin.nic.in).
Reprinted with permission.
Grid
Computing in Higher Education: Trends, Values and Offerings
--
Martin F Maldonado
Grid
computing is a technology model that fileizes computing
resources. It is distributed computing over a network using
open standards to enable heterogeneous operations. Grid
computing allows researchers to utilize multiple "commodity"
computers to obtain the computing power of a much larger
system. This technology is beginning to be studied and applied
to various applications, starting with academic, and then
moving into administrative computing. It talks about the
benefits of grid computing, its application to higher education,
trends and directions and how this grid computing adds value
to higher education. The applications of grid computing
are used in research collaboration and data sharing, high-performance
computing, weather analysis, simulation and forecasting
and in high energy physics. Thus, grid computing proved
to be successful in higher education.
©
2004 International Business Machines Corporation (www.ibm.com).
Reprint courtesy of International Business Machines Corporation.
Health
Insurance and the Poor in Low Income Countries
--Ken
Grant and Rachel Grant
In
almost all the counties, private expenditure is the main
source of expenditure in the health sector and most of it
is out-of-pocket expenditure rather than through insurance
schemes or other prepaid programs. This is because social
insurancealthough being looked at in many countries, has
little impact on the poor who are not in formal employment.
The need of the hour is that there should be a major change
in thinking of those involved in healthcare for the poor,
both in low income countries and in the international development
agencies. They should aim to be a vehicle where external
development partners can channel fundssuch as the new Global
fund or budget support that at present primarily goes to
the public sector. The governments, with the support of
development agencies, should create a well functioning regulatory
environment that would ensure that the poor are being taken
care of.
©
2003 DFID Health Systems Resource Centre (www.healthsystemsrc.org).
Reprinted with permission.
The
Hangzhou Bay Bridge: Enabling Transport Sector
--
A Anand
The
Hangzhou Bay Bridge (HBB) will be the second largest bridge
and once completed, will be considered as one of the architectural
wonders of the world. Despite the financial problems of
the government budget, the bridge has been able to secure
the finances from private investments. Such private financing
of the project has changed the infrastructure financing
scenario in China. The construction had commenced in June
2003, indicating the ability to implement and the political
inclination to fulfill the vision to make Chinese infrastructure
world-class. The project, when completed, would make Ningbo
and northern Zhejiang province into a greater economic area.
As HBB will be near the Shanghai Port, the bridge can also
be used for the export of goods between the cities. In a
nutshell, the future seems to be bright. The only challenge
will be the proper maintenance of HBB once the construction
is over.
©
2005 IUP. All Rights Reserved.
Research
Summary
Urban
Development, Infrastructure Financing and Emerging System
of Governance in India: A Perspective
This
article talks about urbanization and migration in the post-independence
period: trends, explanations and projections, changing structure
of urbanization and fragmentation of space within cities,
level of basic amenities. It also analyzes the changing
system of infrastructure financing, empowering local bodies
to make investments in basic services and infrastructure
and the proposals for balanced urban development.
©
2000 UNESCO. All Rights Reserved. IUP
holds the copyright for the summary.
Book
Review
E-Governance
: A Change Management Tool
--
Author: P Panneervel
©
2005 P Panneervel. All Rights Reserved. The IUP holds the copyright for the review. |
