India

US$100bn in infrastructure buildout, bit in road with new minister. Good and cheap funding from ADB, World Bank, JICA (100bps fixed).

India has 8,000 movie screens but 3 largest only have 450.

Research Jul 15

1. CSV and SCI
2. K US
3. RB
4. Markel
5. SIE SG
6. V and MA
7. SCI SP
8. SUPER SG
9. DB1
10. ZMH
11. KT&T
12. OCBC
13. MON US
14. COH
15. TIF

BP

Total bill for GOM accident - c. USD 54bn

BP’s estimate of $54bn for the identified costs of the disaster is proportionate to ExxonMobil’s figure of $4.3bn for the Exxon Valdez accident in 1989, given that BP is thought to have spilt about 12 times as much oil.

BP spilled 3.2m barrels over 85 days

Mentors

1. LC
2. KYK
3. WTK
4. WSH
5. KHH
6. BY
7. NKS
8. TSK
9. NCL
10. ZQW
11. SZHK (12)
12. LKC
13. PJE
14. Gian
15. HL

Todai spinoffs

Todai spinoffs

Over 200 startups worth over 1 trillion yen

TOKYO -- The University of Tokyo, also known as Todai, is now proud parent to more than 200 startups born from university patents and personnel. Those startups have a combined value exceeding 1 trillion yen ($8.07 billion), and in fiscal 2013 they garnered the university record-high revenues exceeding 610 million yen through avenues such as patent royalties and listings on stock markets.

     The university's Division of University Corporate Relations recently conducted a survey to calculate the scale of Todai's startups. It looked at companies set up to commercialize university patents and research results, and also included companies founded by Todai graduates, companies whose management teams include university professors, and companies in which university-affiliated venture capital firms have made investments.

     As of the start of April, there were a total of 224 Todai-related startups, or roughly double the number from five years ago, including 16 listed companies and 208 unlisted.

     Those 16 listed companies, which include bio-food venture Euglena and biopharmaceutical venture PeptiDream, have a market capitalization topping 960 billion yen. When the venture capital invested in the unlisted companies is added in, the 224 startups have a combined value of around 1.3 trillion yen.

     The 610 billion yen that the university reaped in fiscal 2013 from patent licensing fees and stock acquisition rights was triple the amount garnered five years ago.

     The Japanese government looks to the intellectual property of the universities as seeds for growth, so Todai will likely see these kinds of revenues continue to grow in the years ahead.

     But while Todai's startups are gaining attention in global markets, with some even being acquired by the likes of Google and Chinese Internet company Baidu, the relative scale of its association with startups is still small.

     Todai has transferred intellectual property to only 68 companies, which pales next to the over 700 companies that the University of California has seeded.

     Nothing compares to the more than 40 trillion yen market value of Stanford University's Google. But a more telling example is that of Israel, which has a national policy of promoting startups from universities. In 2014 alone, 13 such Israeli startups went public in the U.S. and five in the UK, procuring total funds of $9.8 billion.

(Nikkei)

Energy sustainability

The sun provides 5,000 times more energy than humans demand from industrial sources. But we do not know how to exploit enough of it.

Despite the evident need, publicly-funded research and development on renewable energy is under 2 per cent of all publicly-funded R&D. At just $6bn a year, worldwide, it is dwarfed by the $101bn spent on subsidies for renewable production and the amazing total of $550bn spent on subsidising fossil fuel production and consumption.

Unicorns, Private IPOs

In 2012 there used to be a dozen private companies worth over $1bn, and now there are nearly 100,” says Bill Siegel, SecondMarket’s chief executive.

Public exchanges, perhaps sensing the threat, are getting involved. Nasdaq established Nasdaq Private Market two years ago, which facilitates secondary offerings through company-approved tender programs, as a joint venture with SharesPost

Tax Relief

1. CPF Top Up: Mum 7k, Spouse 7k
2. SRS
3. Donations
4. Courses

China's migrant workers

300m Chinese work outside their province in China.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/767495a0-e99b-11e4-b863-00144feab7de.html#ixzz3ZJZQav8v

The National Bureau of Statistics estimates the number of people working outside their hometowns for at least six months was 278m last year. If they were a country, China’s migrant population would be the world’s fourth largest.

China’s growth in gross domestic product is forecast to slow to 6.1 per cent from 2016-2020, from 9.8 per cent in 1995-2009, according to estimates by Cai Fang, vice-president of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, which advises the government. A shrinking labour force is the main factor.

Development economist Arthur Lewis laid out the turning point theory in 1954 to explain how wages stay low in agricultural economies that undergo rapid industrialisation. Since then, the idea has been commonly applied to the “Asian tigers” such as Japan, South Korea and Taiwan.

When industrialisation begins, Lewis explained, the reallocation of labour from farms, where productivity is low, to the urban industrial sector fuels rapid growth. 

But the fruits of this development flow disproportionately to business owners because the deep pool of excess rural labour ensures wages stay low.

This dynamic explains the extraordinarily high rates of savings and investment that are hallmarks of China’s economy. Knowing they can easily find fresh workers, factory owners and property developers boldly expand their operations. Rising profits fuel further investment, creating a positive feedback loop. Cheap labour and high savings produce trade surpluses, big foreign exchange reserves and a rising currency. Asset bubbles can also develop, as China has seen in its real estate market.

Eventually, however, the rural wages begin to converge with the industrial sector. At that point, labour shortages appear and urban employers must offer higher wages to lure workers from the countryside. Corporate profits, export competitiveness and asset prices fall.

Wages grew from 1000 Rmb to 3000 Rmb per mth over 10 yrs

Diamond producers

30% De Beers (incld Govt of Botswana and Govt of Namibia)
28% Alrosa
7% Dominion
6% Rio Tinto
6% Govt of Angola
3% Petra Diamonds