A World of Thoughts

Introduction   Let us have a quick recap of the solar cell technology that we have studied earlier in our engineering courses so that we are able to make a well-informed decision while buying a solar power plant.   1954 was the year when the first solar cell was fabricated in the Bell Labs, which was the first practical solar cell made. Of course, over one hundred years had flown by since the invention of the photovoltaic effect in 1839 by the French scientist Edmond Becquerel. (Don’t confuse him with Henri Becquerel who won the Nobel on Radioactivity in the early twentieth century).   Since then, many developments have taken place so much so, there are many buildings sporting a solar panel, today.   Mono, Poly and Thin-film   Technology wise we can differentiate the panels as Monocrystalline, Polycrystalline and Thin-film. Monocrystalline is the case of silicon crystallized and made into a single bar. From this bar, slices of wafers are made and cut to the requ...

There is a surprising shift towards solar power plants these days from consumers!   The shift is not sudden, though the reasons have presented themselves for a long time.   For obvious reasons, price of power purchased through the Distribution Companies such as TANGEDCO in Tamil Nadu or BESCOM in Bangalore, etc., seem to be at least 20% higher than from other sources. Commercial as well as industrial establishments started picking up private power during the massive power shortage years, 2010 to 2015.   Post 2015, the power shortage yielded place to power surplus. The result was that while during the power shortage years, consumers wanted power even if it meant paying a higher price. Today, they want to buy power for the simple reason that they are helping them save on the cost of production.    With Distribution companies playing truant and making life miserable for most of the private power companies using all the methods under their ambit, consumers had to lo...

Elections come and go, every five years in India.  Be it Central or State, the tempo that it builds certainly reaches a crescendo as it nears the D Day and then falls flat for the next five years! Silent and unresponsive! Many a time, as tax payers, we have felt that the government should have been more responsive to our sufferings. More responsive to the way taxes are collected. Many times, we feel that so many different taxes continue to be collected by the local bodies, central and state governments in various forms and shapes. We spend a few people on the job of tax related work! Tax payment do the government continues to be a major exercise! Neither is the tax collection easy on our pocket; nor is it easy on our mind. There is always a pressure of filing returns every month for GST (3 reports to be exact) and the TDS payments. Now we have TCS payments too! Instead of simplifying tax payment procedures aren't we getting harangued continuously on some ground are other for tax re...