Intellectual Thoughts by Sanjay Panda


Tesla Model 3- "Biggest one-week launch of any product ever."



Tesla announced on 8th April that it has received 325,000 pre orders for its recently unveiled Model 3. If it sells every car that's been reserved, the company says it will earn enough revenue to make this the "biggest one-week launch of any product ever."   



Approx $14 billion in implied future sales for a car that  unlikely  to  delivered  to anybody  until 2018 at the earliest.  While it’s undoubtedly encouraging that hundreds of thousands of consumers are eager to purchase the Model 3, its possible that interest may wane if some deliveries are pushed back until 2020  and that  seems likely if one sees the  history of Tesla.

Musk further  revealed that only 5 percent of Model 3 pre order customers reserved two cars -'the maximum allowed"  and  as per him,   this suggests "low levels of speculation," or buyers looking to flip the car for a profit. The reservations are not transferable, meaning any speculators would need to buy the car outright and then sell it used to a third-party.

After receiving these incredible numbers of pre orders  Tesla now seems to be scaling back on Model 3 expectation. For instance, when Musk first introduced the Model 3, he insinuated that Supercharging would be free. However, a closer inspection of Musk’s remarks revealed that Supercharging capabilities on the Model 3 would come standard, perhaps implying that Model 3 users might have to pay for Supercharging access.

In fact, Tesla even changed the supercharging verbiage on its website following the Model 3’s unveiling. Whereas “Supecharging” was initially listed as one of the Model 3’s features, it has since been changed to “Supercharging Capable.”

Other   instances like, Tesla’s initial Model 3 webpage boasted that the car would sport a “5-star Safety Rating in all categories.” but the updated Model 3 webpage simply states that the car will be “Designed for Safety.”

In another example, the first incarnation of the Model 3 webpage said that the car will feature “Autopilot Safety Features.” Now it simply reads that the Model 3 will come with “Autopilot Hardware”, seemingly implying that users will have to pay extra to get Autopilot safety features turned on.


Source :website and various news articles

10 facts about China's Five-Year Plan for 2016 to 2020



1. To grow China's economy  by an average of at least 6.5% a year over the period. Gross domestic product (GDP) to go from 67.7 trillion yuan ($10.4 trillion) last year to more than 92.7 trillion yuan in 2020.


2. The service sector to account for 56% of GDP by 2020, up from 50.5% in 2015.


3. To cap total energy consumption under 5 billion tons equivalent of coal by 2020, compared with 4.3 billion tons equivalent of coal last year.
 
4. To cut energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions per unit of GDP by 15% and 18% respectively from 2015 levels by 2020.


5. City air quality to be rated "good" or better at least 80% of the time by 2020, up from 76.7% in 2015.


6. To raise installed nuclear power capacity to 58 gigawatts by 2020, when another 30 gigawatts are scheduled to be under construction. Currently, 28.3 gigawatts are installed, with 26.7 under construction.


7. To expand the high-speed railway network to 30,000 kilometres  by 2020, from 19,000 kilometres last year, and build at least 50 new civilian airports.


8. To boost per capita disposable income by 6.5% or higher every year. The figure grew by 7.4% in 2015.


9. To create a total of 50 million jobs in urban areas over the five years.


10. Permanent urban residents to make up 60% of China's total population by 2020, up from 56.1% last year.

Key Features of Indian Budget 2016- 2017



·  TAXATION

o   Will not resort to retrospective taxation in future; one time tax dispute resolution proposed for retrospective taxation

o   To rationalise corporate tax for new manufacturing companies

o   To implement general anti avoidance tax rule from April 1, 2017

o   Security transaction tax on options raised to 0.05 percent

o   Proposes to levy infrastructure cess of 1-4 percent certain  models of cars  (1 % on small petrol, LPG, CNG cars, 2.5% on diesel  cars of certain capacity and 4% on other higher engine capacity vehicles

o   Raises factory gate tax on various tobacco products by 10-15 percent.

o   Proposes to abolish 13 different levies



 INVESTMENT

o   100 percent foreign direct investment to be allowed in food processing industry

o   Promises further reforms in foreign direct investment policy in insurance, pension, asset recast companies



DISINVESTMENT

o   Total stake sales in 2016/17 seen at 565 billion rupees

o   To encourage central public enterprises to divest own assets for raising resources for new projects

o   Strategic divestment seen at 205 billion rupees







 FISCAL DEFICIT

o   Fiscal deficit seen at 3.9 percent of GDP in 2015/16

o   Fiscal deficit seen at 3.5 percent of GDP in 2016/17

o   Plan expenditure seen at 5.5 trillion rupees in 2016/17

o   Proposes to set up panel to review fiscal responsibility management act

 RURAL ECONOMY

o   Rural jobs programme allocated 385 billion rupees ($5.61 billion) in 2016/17

o   Farmer welfare budget to total 359.84 billion rupees

o   Rural road development to get 190 billion rupees

o   Target of agriculture credit at 9 trillion rupees

o   Interest subvention towards farm loans at 150 billion rupees

o   To set up dedicated irrigation fund worth 200 billion core

o   Allocates 55 billion rupees for crop insurance programme for 2016/17



 POLICY REFORMS

o   Bankruptcy code for financial firms to be introduced in parliament in 2016/17

o   RBI act is being amended for implementing monetary policy framework

o   To list general insurances companies on stock exchanges



BANKING REFORMS

o   Government to infuse 250 billion rupees capital into state-run banks in 2016/17; will find resources for additional capital for banks if required



 INFRASTRUCTURE

o   Allocates 2.21 trillion rupees for infrastructure development for 2016/17

o   Allocation for roads and highways development at 550 billion rupees

o   Capital expenditure on roads and rail development at 2.18 trillion rupees