Ethanol

The idea of using ethanol as alternate fuel has gained more momentum in this decade. The ethanol industry has grown leaps and bounds in these years. Knowing about it is a curious thing for all. I am preparing for a write up on this in the coming weeks. Soon you can see a detailed blog on Ethanol and its associated industry.

Uncertainty Continues

Not sure whether it is coincidence or not, after I have started bfacts I only get to see adverse situations in global markets. The uncertainity prevails across global markets as a continuation of the US prime mortgage meltdown. CountryWide is struggling to assure its customers over their deposits as they have started knocking its branches and withdrawing deposits, Capital one is closing down its Greenpoint Mortgage Unit which it bought recently, and many more fallouts like these.
The only positive note I made was regarding Sun's comeback, which didnt get consensus either among my friends. But sure there are other fascinating business trends going around the globe which will be of great interest to all of us which I will be updating in coming days.

Sun spreads its Rays

Its always interesting to watch the growth and strategies of Sun Microsystems. One of the biggest successes of Silicon Valley enterpreneurship, Sun has always fascinated me. But the past few years has been miserable for Sun. Its topline fall and the reason....? Low cost intel machines running Linux. The much hyped win of Linux over Windows didnt happened till now. But as somebody predicted way before, Linux has eaten into Unix markets and eventually Suns market share. Investors confidence dropped and Sun started posting lossess. Eventually Scott (McNealy) stepped down as CEO (Continues as Chairman)

Jonathan Schwartz after becoming CEO has brought revloutionary changes. Thanks to John,he (was forced) to Open Source Solaris, I have a machine with a partition having the solaris as Operating System. Recently Sun has joined hands with IBM to offer Solaris on IBM intel Servers and eventually on Mainframes. Sun's "Startup Essentials" package for developing markets like India and China is another initiative to grow into new markets. Sun has started posting profits after she had tough years of lossess. Finally the Sun is spreading its rays again after years of darkness.

SubPrime Meltdown

Financial markets across the world are experiencing jitters. India is also not insulated. Sensex plunged to 14,xxx shattering the dreams of touching 16000. Reason..? Subprime Mortgage meltdown.

(Subprime Mortgage : Loans given to consumers who have poor credit history. The loans have high interest rate and lot of strings attached to it).

Subprime defaulting will result in foreclosures and a massive defaulting results in foreclosures which has affected already poor US home realty industry. Even selling the mortgages is not easy in this scenario. As a result of subprime foreclosures which started in US in late 2006 and continuing in 2007, many subprime lenders have filed chapter 11 bankruptcy. Two major American sub prime lenders have filed bankruptcy which has resulted in global fear and apparently crisis. Markets responded across the world in fear of credit crisis as banks are expected to control credit lending. Result..? No easy liquidity. To allay the fears both US Federal Reserve and European Central Bank have pumped in billions of dollars into their respective banking system.

The picture is not going to get rosy in the coming weeks. Now that is the bad news.

Appreciating Rupee

Leave all the hifi statistics and business jargons the Rupee is Appreciating and that is the fact. Now the real quesiton is it really because of India' strong economic growth or just the dollar is week. There are variety of reasons and facts that support both theory. If the rupee is reallly rising why in the hell consumer inflation is high...? which implies rupee is loosing its value..? The obvious reason for the anomaly is India's inflation is not demand generated but supply generated,eroding rupee's real value. Appreciating currency against dollar is not India specific but its a global phenomenon.

Whatever be the reason, the appreciating rupee is not good in long run. It will erode export earnings and may washout the bottomline of Indias major exporters. Especially hit are the software and services sector. Luckily the central bank has taken some measures, like putting a cap on the External credit borrowings and other such measures. How far it will yield results is something we need to wait and see.