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Wednesday 22 July 2015

Close in India ?

Writing in Hindustan Times ( 23 July 2015 ) , Timsy Jaipuria

provides following information about Scooters India Ltd (SIL) :

* SIL employs 1000 persons

* Incurred losses from 2002 to 2012

* Given Rs 200 crore revival package in 2013

* Expected to make loss in 2015

* Government could not find a buyer for SIL in2011

* If SIL fails to revive , Government will try to divest again

All of these reminded me of the following letter that I wrote to 7,500 employees of L&T Powai Works ( individual copies in English and Marathi ), some 30 years back :

------------------------------------------------------------------------

28 Feb 1986

Dear Friends :

FLOGGING A DYING HORSE

The correct idiom is "flogging a dead horse" bu t there is every possibility that the horse ( Scooters India ) is dead by now.

This is because the enclosed article ( Dying Horse ) about SIL is almost 18 months old.

And as of Dec. 31, 1985, we have such 93,282 dying (or dead?) horses in our country.

These are known as " Sick Units "

What I do not know is whether the above mentioned figure includes public-sector ( Govt. owned ) sick-units or not.

Most of these are sick - in fact VERY SICK. If you wish to know how "sick", here are some "temperature-readings" :

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Government Unit ( PSU ).......... Loss in last 3 years ( Rs Crores )

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1.	Engineering Projects India Ltd. (EPI)...............90
2.	Hindustan Steelworks Const. Ltd. (HSCL)..........67
3.	Cycle Corporation of India Ltd. (CCIL)............ 8.8
4.	Scooters India Ltd. (SIL).............................. 50
5.	Tanneries & Footwear Corp. of India Ltd.(TAFCO)..5 ----------------------------------------------

I understand that the Govt. is planning to wind-up (close-down) the first 3 units and merge the remaining 2 units with some successful public or private sector company.

From the "Dying Horse" article, we find that neither Bajaj nor HMT wants to even touch Scooters India !

And no wonder

A similar company in America would perhaps employ 500 persons whereas Scoo ters India has employed 3500 persons .

Reminds me of Bombay Municipality !

If BMC can sack (terminate/retrench) half of its employees, productivity would go up FO UR TIMES !

If you do not believe me, next time stop and count the number of persons pretending to dig a hole for a faulty telephone cable !

And talking surplus labour (?) HSCL has 12000 ! ( See following ar ticle )

How long before some of us muster enough courage to ask

"Am I my brother's keeper?"

H C Parekh

General Manager ( Powai )

------------------------------------------------------------------------

It seems , since I wrote the above-listed letter , things have not changed ! May be the " Industrial Sickness " has spread

May be we need to launch another initiative called , " Close in India " !

And permitting 100 % FDI in sick units could be another " Out of Box " solution worth considering ! Nothing to lose but something to gain

And , the beauty is , no political party will oppose such " Privatization " !

--- hemen parekh

23 July 2015

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Tuesday 21 July 2015

National Career Service Portal

On 20 July 2015 , our PM , Shri Narendra Modi-ji launched a career portal ,

www.ncs.gov.in

NCS claims to bring together on a single platform , Career Centers ( re-named Employment Exchanges ? ) / Jobseekers / Employers / Career Counselors / Skill Providers / Local Service Providers etc

Whereas this is a great initiative , it seems the web site has got launched despite any number of glitches , such as :

> " Site Map " missing

> Links not clicking

> Pages not loading

> Databases missing

> Content confusing

> Naming misleading... etc

As if this is not enough , most of the Registration Forms , carried unnecessary and irrelevant data-fields , such as :

> Aadhaar Number for Employers / Placement Organizations ?

> Employer Company Executive to provide personal Aadhaar Number ?

> Employer Company Executive to provide Gender / DOB / Father's Name ?

A Local Service Provider does not need to select ( from a drop-list ) , what kind of service does he provide. But he must mention his "Affiliation" ?

A Jobseeker does not need to provide :

> Edu. Qualifications / Institute attended / Exams passed - and when

> Previous Employment History ( for experienced job-seekers )

> Years worked / salary drawn / designation held , in each previous job

I suspect , there is some another form hidden somewhere , which , a job-seeker will be asked to fill in later , just when he is ready to click " Apply " against a job searched after several hours !

But , these are minor defects that can be rectified soon - and without much difficulty

But here is the worst part !

Apparently the web site does NOT want job-seekers and employers to get motivated enough to register !

Here is how :

# EXPERIENCING THE FEATURES

Job portals all over the World , enable any casual jobseeker to be able to search the online database of posted / live jobs , even if he is not registered

But he cannot " Apply Online " , unless he is registered and logged in

It is no different than a shop-keeper allowing you to roam free thru the entire shop , without asking to see your Credit Card !

He knows that a customer gets motivated to " Buy " , only if he gets to see the goods on sale !

Ditto with a casual Employer Visitor

Job portals allow anyone to search and look at resumes

But he can download only if he is registered / logged in

Usually , job portals " hide " contact details on the resumes , when viewed online but downloaded resumes carry full contact details

This is because , job-portals , make their money from Subscriptions from Employers ( usually 95 % of the incomes of Indian Job Portals )

They cannot afford any casual visitor to reach out to the job-seekers , bypassing them ! They make their money , by acting as " Gate-keepers " between the job-seekers and the employers

I am sure , this ( making money by acting as an intermediary ) , cannot be the intention of National Career Service - since , rightly , it is FREE for employers as well !

I believe NCS intention is to ensure that no vacancy remains un-fulfilled for more than a few hours !

# JOB / RESUME ALERTS ON MOBILE

On the web site , I could not find any provision ( downloadable Mobile App ) thru which ,

> A jobseeker can " pull " job alerts " matching his resume and can apply online , directly , from his mobile

> An Employer can pull " resume alerts " matching his posted job and download those resumes with just one click on his mobile

We must remember that millions of jobseekers in remote corners of India have no access to a PC

But , soon , all of them will have internet-enabled smart phones !

# JOB FAIRS

On the site , there is a provision to search for info on ground-based Job Fairs taking place in different parts of India

But , for a job-seeker located in Coimbatore , there is no use getting info about a job fair taking place in Kolkata !

Same with an Employer

Why have portal designers shied away from a " Virtual Job Fair " , where both , the job-seekers and the employers can conduct Online Interviews , using Video ?

Not difficult , considering that all mobile phones / tablets carry a camera and Skype / Face Chat are free !

Technically , it is a simple task to create a million Interview Cabins online , which any registered Employer can " book " for a specific date / time / period and conduct online interviews

A million online interviews can take place simultaneously , with no constraints of either time / space / distance !

That would encourage even employers located anywhere in the World to conduct interviews of Indian jobseekers

If , India wants to train 40/50 million youth who will constitute " Export Surplus " , as per Shri Modi-ji , then this feature is a must

# COMMON SHARED DATABASE

Today , in India , there are hundreds of job-portals , each having its own database of Jobs and Resumes

And , barring a few big ones , most of these offer FREE service to both , the jobseekers and the employers

Many have only " local clientele " ( both job-seekers and employers )

But a jobseeker who is registered on portal A , can search only those jobs which are posted on that portal

Same with employers searching for resumes

Neither resumes , nor jobs posted on portal B can be accessed by visitors of portal A !

Like a MTNL subscriber not being able to dial anyone other than another MTNL subscriber !

This severely limits their usefulness

NCS should enable ALL such job portals to ,

> Deliver their jobs and resumes , into the CENTRAL DATABASE of NCS

> Deliver / display all of these to any visitor of any participating partner portal

Within a short period , this feature would generate a database of millions of jobs and hundreds of millions of resumes , accessible from a thousand partner job portals

Just imagine the exponential increase of usefulness thru " Network Externality "

# MOBILE APP - " JOB-POST "

Today , NCS web site boasts of only 1684 registered employers !

India's 3 major job portals show some 50,000 + registered employers

Then there are approx 50 million MSME , who have never advertised their vacancies on any job portals !

May be because they don't have PCs / broadband connections

Let NCS web site enable them to post their jobs , using a simple Mobile App , " Job-Post "

There is no reason why their 12 million vacancies every year , should remain " Un-Announced " !

Then there are many other features that can bridge the DIGITAL DIVIDE between the jobseekers and the employers

If desired , I would be happy to share my thoughts / notes / codes etc with NCS or Ministry of Labour and Employment

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

hemen parekh

22 July 2015

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Saturday 18 July 2015

Innovation , a distant dream ?

Writing in today's ( July 19 , 2015 ) Business Standard , Arindam Majumder provides following interesting facts about patents :

> No of patents filed last year

* Whole World..................... 214,500

* USA................................ 61,492

* Japan.............................. 42,459

* China............................... 25,539

* India............................... 1,349

> Only one Indian entity features on the list of the top 10 recipients of Indian

patents

> Collectively , the IITs filed 342 patents

That article also quotes Mr Narayan Murthy , expressing his anguish at the lack of innovations coming out of our IITs and Research Labs

True , but while lamenting this poor state of affairs , we should also examine what causes this poor state

Here are my guesses :

> PATENT - FILING TIME

Whereas , it takes months to get a patent approved in Developing Countries , it takes years in India ( see my old blog below )

> PATENT- FILING COST

In India , it costs lakhs of rupees ( fees of Patent Attorney ) . Abroad , it takes lakhs of dollars

> PATENT PROTECTION COST

It costs a fortune ( whether in India or Abroad ) , to protect your patent in a court of law . Often , more than the monetary benefit derived from it !

And with never-ending appeals , it takes years to settle the matter

For Indian Innovators , fighting a patent litigation in Foreign Courts , is an impossible task

> PATENT REGIME

India's Patent Laws are considered " weak " , especially , in case of Pharma / Chemical patents , in respect of " Product Patent " vs " Process Patent "

There is also a provision whereby , Government of India can force a Foreign Patent holder to " license " it compulsorily , to an Indian applicant who wants to exploit that patent ( of course , on reasonable licensing fees ! )

> PATENT BENEFITS

Abroad , when a scientist working in a Educational Institute or a Research Lab , invents something for which ,even if a patent gets applied for in the name of that Institute , he too gets a percentage of future royalties , when that patent gets licensed for commercial exploitation

I don't think , Indian Inventors , benefit in this way . That takes away the incentive

> PATENT PRESTIGE

If the inventing scientist's name does not figure on the patent and gets replaced by the name of his boss , innovations will remain buried !

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{ Old blog dated : 26 Feb , 2012 }

Want a Patent ? Be patient !

Newspaper Pravasi ( 26 Feb 2012 ) gives following interesting – but far more distressing – info about working of India’s Patent Office in Mumbai :

Ø No of patent applications pending ………………………………… 100,000

Ø Which will take to clear ………………………………………………….. 3 years

Ø No of requests being examined / year ………………………….. 12,000

Ø Additional Patent Examiners being trained …………………….. 250

Ø Which will help clear no of applications / year ………………… 40,000

Ø New requests being received / year ………………………………… 25,000 +

Ø Annual growth-rate of requests ……………………………………… .. 20 %

I would not be surprised if Indian scientists working in foreign labs are filing more patent applications abroad than the Indian scientists working in Indian labs !

Innovation will get a huge boost if Patents can be granted – or even rejected – in 6 months !

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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hemen parekh

19 July , 2015

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Friday 17 July 2015

Make in India is Skill-ing India

A couple of days back , PM Shri Narendra Modiji launched this scheme

Some 20 odd Central Government Ministries / Departments are engaged in this effort

Many State Governments are joining forces to impart Skills Training to millions of Indian Youth

As to the number of youth planned to be trained , following figures are reported :

> 400 million by 2022

> Creation of a pool of 500 million skilled youth by 2022

> Exportable surplus of 40/50 million skilled youths

Major burden for this Herculean effort will be borne by some 11,500 ITIs ( Industrial Training Institutes ) , with a combined intake capacity of 1.6 million students per year ( most have 2 / 3 year courses )

An intake of barely 140 students per ITI per year !

But Skill India program is talking of imparting skills to some 60 million youth every year , for the next 7 years !

That would require some 4,40,000 ITIs , altogether !

Now , assuming that setting up a full-fledged ITI , would require an investment of Rs 1 Crore , we are talking of a fund of Rs 4.4 lakh*crores !

Governments ( Central + States ) don't have that kind of money

Nor will banks lend that kind of money to anyone to set up an ITI , without assurance of adequate returns ! Banks are already bleeding with NPAs amounting to Rs 4 lakh*crores and begging the Central Government for re-capitalization !

There are two sources from where this kind of money can come from

These are :

> 100 % FDI in ITIs

> Black Money Channelizing in ITIs

To encourage Black Money to flow into this most productive and beneficial use , we must come out with an Amnesty Scheme for such investments thru

SPVs.

And , whether the investment came through 100 % FDI or thru Amnesty Scheme , the income from operating an ITI , should be made tax-free for 20 years

Nothing short of an " Out of Box " thinking will help !

If this suggestion is implemented , I see following consequences :

> FDI INFLOW IN SERVICE SECTOR

There will be a huge inflow of FDI from Foreign Investors , who , today

earn 2 % from their bank deposits . Their investment in an Indian ITI ,

can earn them , may be , 10 % - and tax-free !

> UPGRADING OF TECHNOLOGY

Instead of finding ( in our present ITIs ) , a 20 year old lathe , we will

see most modern machines / technologies in these new ITIs

This will tremendously raise the Skill Level of graduating students - the

kind of skills which will enable students to find jobs abroad

> JOB CREATION

We should , simultaneously amend the Apprentice Act - 1951

Under the amended Act , every factory will be required to take fresh

Apprentices in the ratio of 1 : 3 ( one trainee for three permanent

employees , in each trade ) , instead of current prescribed ratio of 1:7

This will create a huge demand for ITI trained students

> COST REDUCTION

Since ITI trained apprentices are paid a stipend ( generally 20 % of the

wages paid to regular / permanent / skilled workers ) , this will sharply

reduce the manpower costs of manufacturing units

This will lead to India becoming a " Low Cost Economy " and increase the

competitiveness of our products , in the international markets , thereby

boosting our exports ( currently , a meager 1.7 % of World Trade ! )

This is the major reason why Foxcon ( Taiwan ) wants to put up 10

factories in India , at an investment of $ 20 billion

> ADVANTAGE , MSME

Under amended Apprentice Act , permit MSME to retain ITI trained skilled

workers , on a stipend-basis , for 4 years ( instead of current 2 years )

This lowering of wages will make MSME very competitive in their cost.

In turn , this will encourage large organized factories to outsource /

sub-contract more components to MSME , instead of manufacturing

in-house

This will result in a robust " Supply Chain Eco-System "

It is such an Eco-System in China , which compels Apple to have 331

Component-Suppliers in China as against ONE supplier from India !

> PRODUCT QUALITY

Product quality depends upon quality of skilled manpower coming out of

ITIs

When lakhs of ITIs are competing with one another for attracting

students , each will try to raise the quality of its training

When such highly trained students enter work force , quality of " Make

in India " products , is bound to rise

> PERCENTAGE OF SKILLED WORKERS

Of the total work force , percentage of skilled workers in India today , is

meager 3.5 % , as against 96 % in South Korea !

If my suggestion gets implemented , we should be able to raise this

figure to at least 50 % in next 10 years !

> DEMAND FOR TEACHERS

There will be a huge surge in demand for Highly Skilled persons to act as

teachers / trainers in 4.4 lakh ITIs

> SELF EMPLOYMENT

MUDRA bank will provide loans to ITI trained skilled workers to set up

themselves as local area Carpenters / Electricians / Plumbers / Welders /

Masons / Repairers etc

Thousands of ITI trained workers will tend to become Self Employed

You will be justified in asking :

" How do we know that your suggestion will transform India's Unskilled

Youth into a Demographic Dividend ? "

All I can say is :

" Luck happens when preparedness meets opportunity . If we prepare

ourselves , opportunity will arrive , sooner than later "

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hemen parekh

18 July 2015

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