Hi Friends,

Even as I launch this today ( my 80th Birthday ), I realize that there is yet so much to say and do. There is just no time to look back, no time to wonder,"Will anyone read these pages?"

With regards,
Hemen Parekh
27 June 2013

Now as I approach my 90th birthday ( 27 June 2023 ) , I invite you to visit my Digital Avatar ( www.hemenparekh.ai ) – and continue chatting with me , even when I am no more here physically

Sunday 7 February 2016

SOMETHING IS BETTER THAN NOTHING



On 05 Feb 2016 , Economic Times carried a news report titled : 

Employers May Get Sops for Creating Extra Jobs

As per this report , NDA govt is expected to announce following incentives for employers who create new jobs :


*  30 % tax exemption for units that create an additional 2 % jobs

*  Alternatively, the hirer could be given a 125 % rebate on provident fund contributions

*  Availability of easy, cheap credit through interest subvention ( Subsidy ? )


Even as I await the budget speech of Shri Jaitleyji on 29 Feb for full details , I wish to thank Shri Narendra Modiji for considering the CORE of my following proposal sent to him on  06 Nov 2014 :

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To complete this ECO SYSTEM , we  need to think " Out of the Box " in the matter of Corporate Tax Regime , as well


Current trend in industry , all over the world , is to


>  Add highly productive , very expensive machinery to " Automate " all
    manufacturing processes


>  Reduce manpower by increasing " Capital / IT Intensity "


>  Hire low skilled workers by transferring higher " Skills " to machinery


>  Outsource manufacturing to countries where manpower is cheap


>  Move out of " Manufacturing " and shift to " Services "


India cannot swim against this World-wide Trend


We must innovate,  to not only survive but to grow in this scenario


Here is my suggestion :


Set in motion , " INVERSION  of JOB  REDUCTION " regime , under which ,


"  The more jobs a company creates , the less Corporate Tax it pays "


Example :


> Up to employment of 100 persons  ............................... 30 %

> 101  -  500 persons....................................................  25  %

>  501 - 1000 persons ...................................................  20  %

>  1001 - 5000 persons ..................................................  15  %

>  5001 - 10,000 persons ................................................. 10  %

>  Above 10,000 persons .................................................    5  %


Let us celebrate those who provide employment to large number of persons


Let us celebrate BIGNESS


Let us create hundreds of  WORLD SIZE  corporations and take on the World


On top of this , provide additional tax - breaks ( discounts ? ) to corporate as follows :


> Average Age of Employees at 30 years.......................  1 %

> Ave age at 25 years.................................................  2 %

> Ave age at 20 years .................................................  3 %



Of course , very strict and transparent rules will need to be framed to


compute,



>  Number of Employees  ( Permanent - not probationers / trainees )



> Average Age ( as on 31 March of Tax year )......etc





But , here is an important aspect of this ," Incentivize  Job  Creation "  Scheme :



Today's labour laws make it extremely difficult - if not impossible - for employers to layoff / retrench workmen , if demand shrinks



Hence , to take advantage of this Scheme , employers are unlikely to hire thousands of youth , if they cannot easily trim the workforce , to match the shrinking demand



So , an important corollary of this Scheme is to modify our existing Labour Laws to facilitate layoff / retrenchment , when situation so demands , while protecting the interests of the workmen concerned



And , last but not the least , permit each and every candidate - and the political parties as well - to spend ANY AMOUNT on election campaigns , without any restrictions as also accept any amount of Corporate Donations by cheque



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hemenparekh.in / blogs

07  Feb  2016

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TOWARDS A NATIONAL JOB PORTAL ?



Economic Times ( 06 Feb 2016 ) carried a news report titled :

 " Labour Ministry Ties Up with Cos for National Career Portal ( www.ncs.gov.in )
 "

THE  REPORT :

Says , the Ministry has signed MOUs with :

Uber / Monster.com / Quikr Jobs / Babajob.com / Tech Mahindra / Indian Staffing Federation ( ISF )


( Strangely , I failed to find any mention of these MOUs on NCS / MonsterIndia / Babajobs web sites ! )


PURPOSE  ?

" It will provide its partners with the huge Aadhar-verified database of authentic job seekers "


HOW MANY ?

" 35 million authentic jobseekers and 900,000 employers have registered on the portal so far "


WHAT ELSE ?

" The government has taken the initiative to link all 878 employment exchanges on a national platform "


MY  TAKE :

This is a step in the right direction

I hope , it will lead to the creation of a SINGLE / CENTRAL  database  ( of jobseekers' resumes and employers' vacancy announcements ) , which can be  freely " accessed " from ANY job portal of India , by anyone , any time

*  By  Jobseekers ,

    #  to search online job advts posted by ANY Employer ( Indian or  Foreign ), on ANY Indian Job Portal, ANY-time
   
    #  to be able to apply against ANY jobs , directly from mobile or online

    #  to be able to REGISTER ( Submit Resume ) on ANY Indian Job Portal

*  By  Employers / Recruitment Agencies,

    #  to be able to post their Vacancies from ANY of hundreds of Indian Job Portals ( after registering )

    #  to be able to search resumes and download any number , without restriction

    #  to be able to shortlist candidates and send Interview Calls, directly from ANY Indian Job Portal

    #  to be able to conduct online Video-Interviews of ANY number of jobseekers from ANY Indian job portal

On  22 July 2015  , I had sent following email to :

*  Shri Bandaru Dattatreya ( Minister for Labour ) ('bandaru@sansad.nic.in' )

*  Secretary , Labour ('secy-labour@nic.in' )

*  Directorate General of Training ('feedback.dget@nic.in' )

*  Chief Ministers of all the States

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

Dear Sir :

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

NCS claims to bring together on a single platform , Career Centers ( re-named Employment Exchanges  ? ) /  Job seekers  /  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 job seeker 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 jobseekers , 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 job seeker 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 job seekers 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 job seekers

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 job seeker 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 , drawing upon my past efforts at designing of following job portals :

RecruitGuru.com / GlobalRecruiter.net / IndiaRecruiter.net / World-Wide-Jobs.com / CustomizeResume.com / ResumesExchange.com / OnLineJobsFair.com



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

hemen  parekh

22  July  2015

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Friday 5 February 2016

MARKETING MYOPIA


In 1960 , Theodore Levitt ( Editor - Harvard Business Review ) wrote an article titled :

Marketing Myopia

He made following points :

*   If you don't make yourself obsolete , someone else will

*   Businesses must keep asking of themselves : What business are we in ?

*  American Railroads thought they were in the " Railroad Business " and failed to appreciate that they were really
    into the business of " Transporting People "

*  Along came , American Car Companies / Airlines , which transported people from point-to-point , easily and at
    will , making railroads obsolete  !


FAST  FORWARD  TO  2015 :

*  Uber / Ola are telling people : Why do you need to " own " an expensive asset such as a car , if you use it only
    for 10 % of the time ? At a moment's notice , we will deliver a chauffeur driven car at your door-step , to take
    you where you want to go - and it will cost you far less than owning a car .


    Some car companies have realized that , if Uber / Ola succeed in increasing the utilization of existing cars to
    80 % , demand for new cars could fall drastically !

  

FASTER  FORWARD  TO  2030 :

*  Having realized that

    #  No one wants to spend a good part of life in endless traffic jams , sitting in a car ( even if it is a self-driving
        car ) , car manufacturers are asking of themselves : What business are we in ?

        And they are realizing that they are NOT into the business of " Car Manufacture " but really into the business
        of " Face to Face " interaction between people , whether for social / economic / political reasons

        
Those car manufacturers who did realize this, switched over to DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY , and got into AR ( Augmented Reality ) /  VR ( Virtual Reality ) /  Holographic Projection Devices  / Hepatic Devices ...etc



Now just make a list of grossly under-utilized assets ( national or personal ) and ask :

*  When will the next Indian Start Up  find a method to increase the utilization % , thereby eliminating or
    vastly decreasing the demand for funds to create / build brand NEW assets ?

*  How about ,

   #  Computers / Office buildings at night ?

   #  Hotel rooms , vacant during the daytime ?

   #  Factories / Machines working in one shift ?

   #  170,000 unsold flats in greater Mumbai  ?

   #  Thousands of School buses ?

  
Sure , if that asset is a ball pen costing Rs 5  , feel free to have 3 , even if you use it for ONE hour in ONE year !

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hemenparekh.in / blogs

06  Feb  2016  

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

Make    Yourself    Heard

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THIS CANNOT BE TRUE !


WHAT  ?

*   RBI recommending to Finance Ministry to introduce currency notes of Rs 5,000 and Rs 10,000 denominations

REASON  GIVEN

*  Inflation has left little value in notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000

*  It will be easier to carry large sums of money in higher denomination notes

*  Less cost since no of notes to be printed will come down by a factor of 10

CURRENT  SCENARIO  ELSEWHERE

Highest denomination notes in :

*   USA....... 100   Dollars

*   UK......... 100   Pounds

*   EU........   500   Euro

*   China.....  100   Yuan

Of course , Japan does have a 10,000 Yen note which is rarely seen

And we all know how corruption has engulfed the Russian Economy with a 500,000 Ruble note  !


WHY  IS  THIS A BAD RECOMMENDATION  ?

*  Because , by facilitating hoarding / carrying huge amount of CASH in a inconspicuous manner , it will encourage
    CORRUPTION through BLACK MONEY transactions , without fear of being caught

*  Funding of political parties with un-accounted money will become rampant

*  More money will pour into non-productive assets such as LAND and GOLD

*  Hawaala transactions will flourish

*  More CASH will flow out of the country

*  Counterfeiters will have a hay-day  !

*  Terror outfits will find it easy to fund themselves

*  It will slow down change-over to a CASH-LESS economy through e-payments


WHAT IS THE CORRECT STEP ?

As I have repeatedly recommended over the past year ,

*  Discontinue paper-based currency notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000

*  Introduce plastic currency notes of Rs 500 / 1,000 which are embedded with RFID sensors

*  Assign to each such note, a IP V 6.0 address , linked to its unique note number

*  Set up a IT-enabled Technology Platform which will constantly monitor any accumulation of Rs 500 / 1000
    RFID embedded notes in excess of Rs ONE CRORE within an area of ONE square meter


I hope what I heard last evening on a TV channel was merely a rumour  !

But , even if there is a remote thinking in this direction , it must be nipped in the bud  !

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hemenparekh.in / blogs


06  Feb  2016

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Make    Yourself    Heard

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