Friday, February 26, 2010

Indian Union Budget 2010




















The Finance Minister


This morning as I was watching The Budget, it took me a while to understand the reason behind the uproar of the Parliament. The primary reason behind the hulla-bulla was The Finance Minister - Pranab Mukherjee's decision to hike petrol and diesel prices by 1 rupee per litre and even an overall increase in the M.R.P of passenger automobiles.

I do not know if I would have reacted in a similar way, like the Opposition did, though I would for certain have responded against his preceding statement -

"To remedy the difficulty faced by manufacturers of electric cars and vehicles in
neutralising the duty paid on their inputs and components, a nominal duty of 4 per
cent on such vehicles imposed. Some critical parts or sub-assemblies of such
vehicles exempted from basic customs duty and special additional duty subject to
actual user condition. These parts would also enjoy a concessional CVD of 4 percent."

All of this due to the rising costs these companies are facing is not asserting whether costs would curb via the duty, in the future.

I do not think this is the right way to go about such a situation. If costs are mounting, the government should assure there is no tax on the import of such components and parts of these vehicles.

The positive development announced at The Union Budget was -

"A concessional excise duty of 4 per cent provided to “soleckshaw”, a product
developed by CSIR to replace manually-operated rickshaws. Its key parts and
components to be exempted from customs duty."

These are going to be the solar powered, public transport vehicles, known as the rickshaw.

Its only time which can tell whether these developments are going to be taken in the bright light!

Monday, February 22, 2010

Mumbai Invites the World to Cycle



An advertisment in the Asian Age, dated 19th February, 2010




It has been nearly over 12 hours since yesterday's cyclothon, here in Mumbai, India.

I am very proud to blog this development, as yesterday - 21st February, 2010, Mumbai hosted India's first ever national bicycle rally.

Participants included individuals and groups from around the world and it culminated into a +7000 people cycling for a green cause.

The rally which had a finish line and a winner ran across a stretch of 100 kilometers.

It was a proud moment for many, to have met their professional bicycle idols, the trademark dabbawalls to have cycled on the Sea Link, people of all ages biking alongside one another.

Eventually there were suggestions for the event to become an annual affair!



The event dated, 21st February, 2010

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

First Bicycle Mall of India




Lifecycle (Scanned from Business Standard)


Pune, the city which was once known as the 'city of bicycles', is home to Lifecycle, India's first and biggest bicycle mall ever, launched on 27th January, 2010.

The mall is spread out over a 6,000-square feet area and houses a buffet of international bicycle brands. The brands come from America, England, France, Germany and Japan, and include Firefox, Trek, Giant, Schwinn, Ducati and many more.

Ulhas Joshi (also founding member of a cycling group 'Zenof') and Manish Sabde are the promoters of Lifecycle mall, in an interview with Business Standard, Joshi says, " We started Lifecycle store out of our passion for cycling.....Cycling connects you to nature, it keeps you healthy and most importantly it is pollution free."

To attract individuals and groups to take up cycling they have organized cycling holiday concepts under the name of Guardian Cycling Holidays, with tours around Switzerland, England and Sri Lanka!