In: Banker, D. V. & Banker, K, (2017), Women in Leadership: A Scenario in Indian Higher Education Sector, Riding the New Tides: Navigating the Future through Effective People Management, 239-251, Emerald India Publishing, New Delhi.
Before we can reform the financial system, we need to understand what banks do; or, better, what banks should do. This paper will examine the later work of Hyman Minsky at the Levy Institute, on his project titled 'Reconstituting the United States' Financial Structure.' This led to a number of Levy working papers and also to a draft book manuscript that was left uncompleted at his death in 1996. In this paper I focus on Minsky's papers and manuscripts from 1992 to 1996 and his last major contribution (his Veblen-Commons Award-winning paper). Much of this work was devoted to his thoughts on the role that banks do and should play in the economy. To put it as succinctly as possible, Minsky always insisted that the proper role of the financial system was to promote the 'capital development' of the economy. By this he did not simply mean that banks should finance investment in physical capital. Rather, he was concerned with creating a financial structure that would be conducive to economic development to improve living standards, broadly defined. Central to his argument is the understanding of banking that he developed over his career. Just as the financial system changed (and with it, the capitalist economy), Minsky's views evolved. I will conclude with general recommendations for reform along Minskyan lines.
Rapid Urbanisation trends worldwide has resulted in 54% of the world population living in urban areas, in 2014 from 39%, in 1980. As per 2014 Revision of World Population Prospects, UN, 2014, India & China are expected to be the largest contributors to the estimated increase in urban population till 2050. Most of the grunt of the population growth is going to be seen on big cities or mega-cities, with Asia to struggle most with estimated 60% of the megacities by 2025, most of them across India and China (13th annual edition of DemographiaWorld Urban Areas, 2017).Amongst the various challenges faced by these megacities, providing developed land (i.e. land with access toinfrastructure facilities) for future developments and city infrastructure within the limited funds available with the city & state governments, is a major one. Indian cities, due to limited funds often face delays in infrastructure development (due to high costs of land acquisition) resulting in haphazard development.Land acquisition for industrial, urban and infrastructure development has always been a contentious subject. For land development – land acquisition and land pooling are the two methods adopted in land acquisition process. Land acquisition is carried out under act (LAA), while land pooling is carried out using the provision of related town planning schemes like in the Gujarat. A public private partnership mode plays an important role in the land acquisition and in development of Land.This study attempts to analyse the mechanisms followed under the two methods and the benefits of each. It also recommends mechanism to provide for larger pockets of developed land to be used by the Urban Local Bodies for public purposes, generate revenue and provide for additional development provisions for the developers (for larger public good). The suggested tools & recommendations will in addition to cutting the cost of acquiring land will fetch capital to the project that would make the project self financed and self sustaining, releasing the financial pressure from the Urban Local Body.
In November 2016, the European Union Commission announced its Winter Package: Clean Energy for All Europeans, a set of eight proposals that aims to transition the continent to a clean energy economy while actively engaging citizens in the process. One component of the package is that Member States must allow their citizens to participate in collective selfconsumption of renewable electricity, in which electricity consumers are able to collectively produce and consume their own renewable energy without facing discriminatory conditions or procedures that may preclude their participation in such a scheme. This was set into law in 2018 when the Renewable Energy Directive of 2009 was recast, and Member States must include in their updated National Energy and Climate Plans for 2021-2030 how they will enable the formation of collective self-consumption in their country. This paper aims to analyze how five different EU Member States are enabling collective selfconsumption, discuss the advantages and disadvantages of each approach, and make a recommendation for which approach works best and should be followed by other countries. The countries were selected based on which ones have already implemented a regulatory framework that supports a form of collective self-consumption. Spain, Greece, Slovenia, France, and Germany were chosen. The analysis first takes a look at the current energy and electricity situation in each country and then provides an overview of the National Energy and Climate Plans for 2021-2030. This sets the stage to compare each country's legislation regarding collective self-consumption, such as the proximity requirements, size restrictions, Collective formation, administrative components, technical requirements, and the economics of self-consumed and surplus electricity. Finally, the paper discusses the limitations and barriers of each country's approach and, based on the entire analysis and literature review performed, recommends best practices for Member States to consider when drafting and updating their collective self-consumption legislation.