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

Thursday, 19 May 2016

Harness " Greed " to " Skill India "

MINT ( 17 May 2016 ) carries a report titled :

" Govt taps profitable PSUs for Skill India Mission "


As per this report , Shri Rajiv Pratap Rudy , Skills Development Minister , has asked all profitable PSUs to take in apprentices equal to 2.5 % of their total workforce


With barely 50-60 PSUs which are " profitable " , this directive is unlikely make a dent , as far as Government target of training 120 million persons by 2020 is concerned


REASON ?

As of now , a total of 28,500 industrial establishments ( Public Sector + Private Sector ) , between them , have 200,000 apprentices . Adding 50/60 " profitable " PSUs cannot make much of a difference !


CONTRAST :

As against our total of 2 lakh apprentices , China has 300 lakh  !


WHAT  NEEDS TO   BE  DONE  ?


 >    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





Just tell our 50 million MSMEs ( and all larger units, as well ) :


* " Train "  Apprentices ( low cost labour ) , then 

* " Hire " them for longer periods  ( - again , low cost labour ) ,
*  Reduce your manufacturing cost ( to become competitive world-wide ) ,

*  Become more profitable ( and sooner  )



It is time to stop tinkering with persuading of PSUs 

It is time to harness " Greed " to " Skill India "

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www.hemenparekh.in / blogs

19   May   2016

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Tuesday, 17 May 2016

Lifetime of a Law



Over the past few months , NDA government has repealed ( or about to repeal ) , some 1,000 + laws , some of which are 50 / 60 years old


These were enacted , keeping in mind the Social / Political / Economic situations prevailing at those times


But things are changing fast , making those laws obsolete in today's context


Having outlived their utility , these were only used to harass the public  !


Now , Minister for Food and Consumer Matters , Shri Ramvilas Paswan , is planning to replace the existing Consumer Protection Act with an improved version


Under this new version , any celebrity promoting any " sub-standard " product ( through endorsement ), without first checking out and satisfying himself with the " correctness " of the benefit claimed by that product , will become liable for ,


*  Imprisonment of up to 5 years


*  Fine of up to Rs 50 lakhs


No doubt , a very noble intent  !


But with a potential for endless litigation between , Government / Celebrities concerned / Advertisers / Media etc


I have not read the draft bill but the questions going through my mind are :


#   Is there a Government Notified , " Minimum  Standard " to which , each and every product must conform ?  Like Indian Standards for most engineering products  ?  I doubt , very much


    I suppose , the proposed law will make it mandatory for the products ( package ) to carry conformation with such a STANDARD , wherever it exists


Eg :


Are there " STANDARDS " for,


*  Lipsticks / Hair Oils / Shampoos / Soaps / Gels / Creams


*  Toothpaste / Diapers / Condoms / Skin Whiteners / Shaving Creams



#   Will this new act also cover " Services " ( besides " Products " ) ?


It would be next to impossible to prescribe rigid " Standards " for services of Doctors / Lawyers / Engineers / Management Consultants / Advisors etc



#   Does the new law expect that the endorsing celebrity must have , himself " tried out " / " Used " , those products and satisfied himself , before promoting the same ?


Even if it does , is it not possible that what worked well for Amitabh Bachhan , may not work for me ?



#  What about those " Surrogate " advertisements ? ( remember , conducting Board Meetings in  swimming pool , only to promote GLASSES ? )



#  What about ( once rampant ) " Subliminal " advertisements , which flashed on our TV screens for a fraction of a second and persuaded us to buy this or that , without our even being conscious of having seen that advt  ?


#  Many years back , advts appeared only in Newspapers and theater screens and were easy to monitor


Over the past 50 years , technology has progressively pushed these advts onto ever smaller screens , like TV / Computer / Tablet / Smart Phone / smart watch / Google Glass etc


Rest assured , within 5 years , these advts will appear on your thumb-nail or your eye-ball  ( not counting a hologram in the middle of your bedroom ! )


With arrival of IoT ( Internet of Things ) , you will not even need to SEE any advertisement , in order to be persuaded !


Advertiser will simply " Persuade " your " Refrigerator " to order AMUL cheese instead of GO cheese - without your knowledge and STANDARDS notwithstanding ! Why waste time to persuade you ?


How will anybody manage to monitor these ?


#  And finally , everything that you See / Smell / Touch / Feel or Taste ( through our 5 senses ) , will get processed by the Advertisers , using BIG DATA software , and products that you did not even know that you wanted , will get delivered to your home , by a drone !


Remember what that high priest of technology , Steve Jobs said while releasing iPad :


"  It isn't the consumers' job to know what they want "


Let us hope the new version of Consumer Protection Act , lasts 5 years !


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www.hemenparekh.in / blogs


18  May  2016

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Not that I love Caesar less !


After stabbing Caesar in the back , in a town-hall meeting , Mark Antony defended himself by proclaiming :


 "  Not that I love Caesar less but that I love Rome more  "


These days , our Supreme Court seems to be saying :


"  Not that we love Lok Sabha less , but that we love Indians more !  "


Of course , our Parliamentarians are not amused !


Remember , how all of them ( including those bitterly opposing Women's Representation Bill , for past 37 years ) , in a rare gesture of unity , applauded Shri Jaitleyji , when he said :


" Supreme Court is demolishing the sovereign power of Parliament , inch by inch / brick by brick


In a deliberate and gradual manner , Supreme Court is taking over the function / responsibility of the Legislative Wing and dictating administrative actions "


{  I do not recollect the exact words but you get the spirit  }


Dear Shri Jaitleyji :


At any other time , I would agree with you


But these are no " ordinary " times !


And fortunately ( for NDA ) , none of these bad times , are of your creation !


Please , try to understand that the Supreme Court's frustration ( and , consequent " judicial activism " ) , arises out of 68 years of post-independence " Slavery " that millions of Indians have suffered at the hands of successive Congress Regimes


When Supreme Court directs the government to set up SITs  for ,


*  Black Money

*  Corruption

*  Various Scams

*  Cases of Dis-proportionate Assets

*  Farmers' suicides for inability to repay meager loans ( 17,000 per year )

*  Enforcement of Food Security Act ( to save 3700 + children , dying due to
    starvation , EVERY DAY )

*  NPA of Rs 13 lakh*crore ( mostly from willful defaulters )

*  60 lakh ( totally avoidable ) deaths per year , due to smoking

*  Blindness caused by Arsenic-laced ground water

*  Poor families feeding grass-root rotis to their starving children

*  Khap Panchayats ordering " Honour Killings "

*  State Assembly ordering filling up of Sutlej-Yamuna Canal

etc ....etc ,


please accept these directives with humility !


And , tell the voters that you are trying to undo the SINS of several decades, committed by the MASTERS that people themselves voted for  !


But , please , do not punish the voters by ignoring / not implementing these directives . They have learned their lessons and given YOU the mandate !


If anything , through PRO-ACTIVE measures , help Supreme Court get back to happily doing what it does best - viz: interpreting the laws


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www.hemenparekh.in / blogs


17  May  2016

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Monday, 16 May 2016

Tablets in Taxies ?




DNA ( 16 May 2016 ) carries following news-report :


" LMO for apps to replace fare meters "


In this report , Shri Amitabh Gupta , Controller of Legal Metrology Organization ( LMO ) , is quoted as follows :


" There are couple of mobile phone-based applications available on the internet which can calculate the fare based on distance and waiting time.

If genuine applications are verified by the LMO, then any auto rickshaw or taxi driver can download it on their phones and then use them.

Since they would be verified by the LMO, there would no question over the issue of malpractice.

This way, gradually the electric metres would give way to such applications that appears to be useful and are in line with the latest technology "


Congratulations , Shri Gupta , for this initiative  !


This is , indeed , good development and reinforces my following suggestion / blog  : 

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Sunday, 14 February 2016

Making Yourself Obsolete ?


As I observed in my earlier blog ( 05 Feb 2016 ), Theodore Levitt wrote in his seminal essay," Marketing Myopia " :


If you don't obsolete yourself , someone else will . So keep asking yourself : What business are we in ?


Levitt gives example of American Railroads , which failed to ask themselves this question and got obsolete by American Car manufacturers and American Airlines . No more people wanted to travel by trains !


Whereas it may take 10/20 years before Car Manufacturers themselves get obsolete ( by manufacturers of Virtual Reality / Augmented Reality / Holographic / Hepatic devices and web-services - making travelling unnecessary ) , according to me , taxi-rickshaw Meter Manufacturers are in the danger of getting obsolete , within the next TWO YEARS  !


Expect some Indian Start-Up to come up with a digital taxi meter ( to be called , DigiMet  ? ), resembling a 8" tablet , with a screen on both the sides , visible to both , the driver and the passenger


DigiMet will be integrated with :


*  GPS based Google Map


*  Mobile App ( called , FareCalc ? ) downloaded from the web site of the Authority fixing " Tariff " ( RTO ? )


Passengers will also need to download / install , FareCalc app on their smart phones


As requested by the passenger , taxi driver will enter the destination location , in DigiMet


Immediately , DigiMet will display the following routes to the desired destination :

*  Shortest route ( distance-wise )


*  Fastest route ( time wise ) , taking into account the traffic conditions on different routes


DigiMet will also display , the amount of " fares " payable for each route ( also displaying tariff : Rs per Km )


Now it is the passenger's turn to select / choose the route that he wants the driver to take



The taxi / rickshaw will start only thereafter !


At the end of the journey , passenger will have the options to pay the fare ,


*  In cash


*  By entering his Credit Card details into the DigiMet , or


*  Through his Mobile Wallet ( using NFC  ? )


The Mobile App will also need to have a provision for any " Waiting Time " charges to be added


When the destination is reached , DigiMet will display :


*  Distance travelled


*  Time taken


*  Waiting Time ( if any )


*  RTO approved tariff ( Rs per Km )


*  Fare amount payable



Any revision in the tariff will get updated automatically in DigiMet as also on the smart phone of passenger


For taxis / rickshaws running on Hybrid fuel ( producing less Co2 ) or Electric Vehicles ( zero emission ) , both , the driver and the passenger will get " Carbon Credits " , which will also get displayed on the DigiMet as also on the FareCalc Mobile App on the smart phone of the passenger ( @ 20 % of the fare payable ? )


These amounts will get transferred to their respective Jan Dhan Bank Accounts ( thru DTB ) , every quarter


I suppose some variation of DigiMet / FareCalc can be introduced in all State Transport buses and intra-city Municipal buses


I hope , the current manufacturers of taxi - rickshaw meters are asking themselves  :


What business are we in ?


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hemenparekh.in / blogs

15  May  2016


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Make    Yourself    Heard

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