One Bitcoin Trade Can Power A Home

Soaring bitcoin transactions took the price of the cryptocurrency to an all-time high late in November. Also on a high was the use of electricity to power these digital transactions. In November power consumption for bitcoin transactions jumped 29.98 per cent. Bitcoin miners have begun to use more and more powerful and electricity guzzling computers. According to Dutch Bank ING, a single bitcoin trade consumes enough electricity to power a house for a whole month! A lot of bitcoin mining is done in China, which still uses large amounts of non-renewable, carbon dioxide-emitting fossil fuels, making the mining process an inherently unsustainable, ecologically deteriorating process.

Energy tariff comparison service, PowerCompare.co.uk research shows that the amount of energy expended in mining bitcoins globally has already exceeded the amount used on an average in Ireland and most African nations. It is also more than the annual power consumption of almost 160 countries.

If the energy consumed to mine bitcoins continues to rise at this pace, the cryptocurrency will consume all the world’s electricity by February 2020. In India, bitcoin mining only sucks out a mere 2.9 per cent of all the electricity consumed at present, but from a global perspective, the process accounts for 0.13 per cent of the total energy consumption. Just imagine – were bitcoin miners to form a nation, they would rank 61st in the world in terms of electricity consumption!
— Anurit Kanti

Why The World Loves Them!
Bitcoin prices smashed past the $11,000 mark on November 29, barely 11 hours after crossing the five-figure mark (Rs 7.02 lakh per bitcoin), as speculative frenzy gained momentum. But had you bought Rs 1 lakh worth of Bitcoins last year, you would be sitting pretty on Rs 14 lakh worth of the cryptocurrency today.

But why are people willing to pay a bomb for what seems like a piece of code? Bitcoins are now being increasingly seen as an alternative currency to the fiat monetary system of governments the world over. Says Amar Ambani, head of research, IIFL Wealth, “The world has seen time and time again, Central Bankers working only for governments, rather than people. Every few years a crisis surfaces and then money is printed to cover up for irresponsible policies of governments and willful defaulters in the garb of the larger good. These policies punish savers, tax payers.”  He describes the trend as a “a short trade on conventional systems governing the world today.” And is it a bubble?”  No, says Ambani, it was too early to write off cryptocurrencies as such!  So, the  dream run is on!
— Clifford Alvares

Railways Save Rs 5,636 Cr On Power
The Indian Railways have managed to save Rs 5,636 crore in power bills between April 2015 and October 2017. The savings are a part of the Union government’s ‘Mission 41k’ plan which aims to reduce energy bills by Rs 41,000 crore over the next decade. As on date, of the total requirement of about 2,000 MW of electric traction power, more than 1,000 MW is flowing under open access, reducing the dependence of the Indian Railways on state Discoms.

The average cost of power in states where power is flowing under open access, therefore, comes down to about Rs 5 from more than Rs 7 per unit earlier, according to the Union ministry of Railways.
—   Naina Sood

Strictly Organic EU
After more than three years of uncertainty over how and whether the European Union legislation on organic farm produce would change, some answers and more confusion seem to have emerged at the Brussels meet. The European Commission had launched negotiations for stringent regulations on organic products in 2014. If an organic farm adjacent to conventional farms, for instance, had a pesticide drift from such farms and left a residue on the produce, the harvest would have to be sold as conventional agricultural produce and not an organic one – implying clear loss of value for the organic farmer. Within the EU some members, including Belgium and Italy, have pushed for very low-tolerance thresholds – or even a zero-tolerance one for non-approved pesticide residuals. Others, led by Germany, have rejected a threshold altogether, arguing that organic farmers should not be made responsible for adventitious contamination from conventional farms. Is the EU about to set a trend for the world order?  
— Prabodh Krishna 

Volkswagen Goes Desi
Volkswagen (VW) India is in the process of drawing up a blueprint for an R&D centre in India, focussed specifically on products for the local market.

It is widely believed that the German car major may consider Bangalore or Pune or even Chennai as a location for its design and product development centre.  The Wolfsburg- based firm runs five such centres globally in Wolfsburg, Sao Paolo, Mexico, Shanghai and Changchun.

A company source said, “Setting up an R&D centre for developing India-specific cars would be a stepwise process and we are thinking on those lines. We may not come out with Up! for the Indian market, but a car below the Polo has a huge potential.”

Volkswagen India already has a Technical Department to ensure that its vehicles are compliant with the requirements of  local homologation.                                          
— Avishek Banerjee