The project finance scenario has changed significantly around the world after the 2008 financial crisis and following the subsequent Basel III recommendations. Project finance loans from commercial banks and financial institutions have largely dried up, leaving it mostly to the export credit agencies and the bilateral and multilateral development banks to provide the institutional credit. Unfortunately, those sources are not enough, given the huge needs for construction of new infrastructure and renovation of the old ones across Asia, Africa and Latin America. The need for capital markets, through market listed financial products across asset class, unlocking a large part of domestic and corporate savings, has never been felt as strongly before. This article seeks to analyze the development story of various Asian capital markets and examine financial products, which have succeeded in their short history in receiving investor interest. The article also delves into the challenges to market development, policy imperatives and the issues relating to market liquidity and credit rating, which are the most significant influencers for public market float and investor interest.

It has become commonplace to describe publicly provided infrastructure as being in a sorry state and to advance public-private partnership as a possible remedy. This essay adopts a skeptical but not a cynical posture toward those claims. The paper starts by reviewing the comparative properties of markets and politics within a theory of budgeting where the options are construction and maintenance. This analytical point of departure explains how incongruities between political and market action can favor construction over maintenance. In short, political entities can engage in an implicit form of public debt by reducing maintenance spending to support other budgetary items. This implicit form of public debt does not manifest in higher interest rates but rather manifests in crumbling bridges and other infrastructure due to the transfer of maintenance into other budgetary activities.

Embassies are important buildings, involving the diplomatic image of a country’s government in another foreign country. Given the rising tensions between countries, either political, economic, religion or war, attacks on embassies have been increasing in recent years. Thus, it is evident that appropriate measures are to be taken to reduce the potential impact of an attack. The paper discusses the measures in enhancing building security of embassies. The principles for Security Planning and Design are discussed, followed by an introduction to a systematic security risk assessment framework. The framework is evaluated regarding the potential security risk posed by an attack against elements of the mega infrastructure using explosives. Further options to increase the security of embassies are also explored to reduce the risk of a potential attack. A security-enhanced building, planned and constructed well to specifications, can provide benefits to the client, including greater cost advantage and increase of value for the structure.

Regarding to the influence of chloride and fluoride ions on the corrosion resistance, the electrochemical behavior of Ti alloys has been deeply studied. In this work, the main goal was to investigate the electrochemical behavior of cp-Ti and Ti-Mo alloys containing 6, 10 and 15 wt% of Mo concentrations. All the samples were immersed in different solutions, such as 0.15 mol L^-1 Na₂SO₄, 0.15 mol L^-1 Ringer, 0.15 mol L^-1 Ringer plus 0.036 mol L^-1 NaF and 0.036 mol L^-1 NaF. Simulating the commercial fluorinated gels, the NaF solutions naturally-aerated were prepared with 1450 ppm of fluoride ions. The electrochemical techniques applied in this work were the open-circuit potential, cyclic voltammetry, besides the technique for chemical identification, which was X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The formation and growth of TiO₂ and MoO₂ were identified, without pitting corrosion. The electrochemical stability and the corrosion resistance of the Ti-Mo alloys decreased in the solutions containing chloride and fluoride ions, with an appreciative decrease especially in the fluorinated medium. The Ti-Mo alloy with higher Mo content concentration was the material with higher corrosion resistance. Therefore, it is a promising candidate as a biomaterial, once the osseointegration needs a satisfactory corrosion resistance for being achieved.

The objective of this research is to examine the effects of income inequality, governance quality, and their interaction on environmental quality in Asian countries. Time series data are obtained from 45 Asian countries for the period 1996–2020 for this empirical analysis. The research has performed various econometric tests to ensure the robustness and reliability of the results. We have addressed different econometric issues, such as autocorrelation, heteroskedasticity, and cross-sectional dependence, using the Driscoll-Kraay (DK) standard error estimation and endogeneity issues by the system generalized method of moments (S-GMM). The results of the study revealed that income inequality and governance quality have a positive impact on environmental degradation, while the interaction of governance quality with income inequality has a negative effect on it. In addition, economic growth, population growth, urbanization, and natural resource dependency are found to deteriorate the quality of the environment. The findings of the study offer insightful policies to reduce environmental degradation in Asian countries.

This report deals synthesis of CuInGa (CIG) nano materials along with doctor blade and spin coated thin films selenization and their physical properties. The doctor blade and spin coated CIGS/SLG thin films thicknesses are obtained ̴ 2 μm and ̴ 2.95 μm.  Raman spectroscopy of these thin films leads the chalcopyrite phase formation by exhibiting the peak at wave number 171 cm^-1. The well developed grain growths of spin coated thin film are appeared in the surface morphology. While the grain growths developments in doctoral blade coated thin film is rather hard and fuzzy. EDS measurement recognised the existence of the compositional ratio presence of the alloying elements Cu, In. Ga and Se. The doctor blade and spin coated CIGS/SLG thin films are exhibited the UV- Visible transmission peak in the wave length range 240 nm 320 nm. The optical energy band gaps for the doctor blade and spin coated CIGS thin films are obtained 1.41eV and 1.5 eV.