The lights-off event planned for Sunday can lead to disruptions in power supply when everyone switches off their lights from 9pm and switch on after nine minutes. Electricity authorities have studied power consumption patterns across India and the share of lighting in it to come up with a plan to handle the expected dip and surge in consumption that day. When everyone switches off their lights, the power plants will be impacted. The situation can be compared to a bicycle climbing upward. When the lights go off all at once, it is akin to the cyclist suddenly reaching the peak and continuing to pedal as before during the climb down. The bicycle speed will then ramp up and could lead to the cyclist losing his balance. The voltage in the grid and the frequency will surge. The frequency can be understood as the electrical equivalent of the bicycle’s speed. The bicyclist losing his balance is like our power plants stopping operation as a result of these sudden changes. If the bicyclist an...

More than 2,000 people who were at the markaz in Delhi’ Nizamuddin area have been identified. The building has emerged as one of the biggest Covid-19 hot spots in the country. Officials across the country began a frantic search for thousands of people who had been to the headquarters of a religious group in Delhi’s Nizamuddin area that has now emerged as the single-biggest source of coronavirus disease (Covid-19) infections in the country, leading to at least eight deaths and 117 confirmed cases. The discovery of the hot spot at the six-storey building of the Tablighi Jamaat - called a markaz - triggered alarm in several circles of the government. Here’s a timeline of the event as reported by news agency ANI: March 13: Around 3,400 people came together to be part of the religious gathering at the Nizamuddin markaz March 13: The congregation began even after an order by the Delhi government on the same day, which said that no religious, social, political gatherings of more t...

Berkshire Hathaway has been recently in news, with one question in everyone's mind: who will take the reins of the empire built by 88-year-old billionaire Warren Buffett? Well the time will tell, as in January 2019, Berkshire Hathaway has added two senior executives — Gregory E. Abel and Ajit Jain to its board. Before I discuss on who is Gregory E. Abel and Ajit Jain, let us know who is Warren Buffett! Personal: Birth date:  August 30, 1930 Birth place:  Omaha, Nebraska Birth name:  Warren Edward Buffett Father:  Howard Buffett, politician and businessman Mother:  Leila (Stahl) Buffett Marriages:  Astrid Menks (August 30, 2006-present); Susan (Thompson) Buffett (April 19, 1952-July 29, 2004, her death) Children:  with Susan (Thompson) Buffett: Peter, 1958; Howard, 1954; Susan, 1953 Education:  University of Nebraska, B.S., 1950; Columbia University, M.S. in Economics, 1951 Other Facts: Nicknamed the "Oracle of Omaha...

Barely three weeks into March and the automotive industry is already abuzz with news on companies getting into further consolidation mode. Wednesday saw Toyota and Suzuki announce the next phase of their partnership which, cliched as it may sounds, is truly in top gear. Apart from Baleno and Brezza, Suzuki will now supply its Ertiga and Ciaz models to Toyota which, in turn, will re-engineer and retail them under its own badge. Under cross-badging, companies come together to sell a vehicle under different brand names, with some small cosmetic changes. Developmental costs of new models are minimized while brand identity is also retained. Beyond Japan Inc, there are other marriages happening elsewhere across the world. Volkswagen will work with Ford on pick-ups and potentially other initiatives in the mobility space. VW has also joined hands with Hino Motors (a Toyota group company) to explore opportunities in commercial vehicles though this could largely be focused on the ...

Rajat Gupta in his memoir, "Mind Without Fear," that released Monday, tells of his dramatic rise to the top of the corporate and financial world in America and then his fall after being charged in 2012, in one of the largest insider trading cases in the US. The memoir comes just months after a federal appeals court declined to throw out Gupta’s 2012 conviction. Gupta had argued that U.S. prosecutors failed to prove he got a personal benefit for passing tips to his friend, billionaire hedge fund manager Raj Rajaratnam. In 2012, Gupta was found guilty of passing confidential boardroom information to the hedge fund founder Raj Rajaratnam, who is currently serving 11 years in prison for insider trading. One such information the prosecutors alleged Gupta shared with Rajaratnam in September 2008 was about Berkshire Hathaway’s five billion dollar investment in Goldman Sachs. While Gupta has already served his prison term, a ruling in his favor would have cleared his record. ...

Hewlett-Packard and software company Autonomy Co-founder Mike Lynch is set to fight a USD 5 billion civil fraud trial in London's High Court starting Monday.  The High Court lawsuit was filed by HP against Mr. Lynch and former Autonomy finance officer Sushovan Hussain in 2015. HP alleges that the men were behind the fraudulent manipulation of Autonomy’s accounting information on a massive scale, leading to HP paying an extra USD 5 billion for the company. The men deny the allegations and maintain the losses stem from HP’s own mismanagement of Autonomy’s integration. In the meanwhile, the US government has accused Mr. Lynch of destroying documents, money laundering and paying hush money to influence court proceedings. In an explosive set of new allegations made against the British tech entrepreneur, the Department of Justice added three counts of conspiracy and securities fraud to the 14 he is already charged with on Friday. As the High Court trial is due to start i...

HSBC is set to boost its wealth management offering with the use of the BlackRock Aladdin Wealth platform, after 18 months’ collaboration between the two parties.     Aladdin began as an internal tool at BlackRock before becoming the linchpin of Chief Executive Larry Fink’s plan to increase revenues from technology. It is used by investment managers to help to oversee risks and make investment decisions.  The partnership between Europe’s largest bank and the world’s biggest asset manager comes as both industries are battling to use technology to increase profits and improve service. Aladdin Wealth is tool that enables portfolio analysis, taking into account weight and risk management. Aladdin has largely been used in asset management since its creation over 30 years ago and was recently selected by Santander Asset Management to drive it digital transformation. BlackRock’s Fink has said he aims to increase revenues from technology to 30 percent of the firm’s...