Sunday 23 May 2021

Apple for Apple ? Vaccine against Vaccine ?

Several Indian States have recently floated Global Tenders for supply of millions of dozes of Covid vaccine. May be close to 12 States asking for 500 million dozes of vaccines

These figures must be looked in the light of following :

Ø Currently there are only 2 Indian Manufacturers

Ø During the next 6 months ( June-Dec ), another 4 / 5 Indian manufacturers may start production

Ø Russia has already started supply of SPUTNIK V( though only a few million dozes )

Ø Other Foreign Manufacturers are unlikely to quote against Indian tenders( they get much higher prices from other countries )

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Now, it is apparent that :

Ø Demand is far in excess of supply

Ø Tenders floated by State Govts can be expected to be shoddily drafted ( - on purpose ? )

Ø Within India, several States will be simultaneously negotiating with very few manufacturers, pitting one state against the other, for the SAME capacity

Ø Manufacturers / Suppliers are bound to take advantage ( of this scarcity situation, leading to intense and unhealthy competition amongst states and, as a result, pushing up the prices )

Now there is no denying that a DECENTRALIZED MANNER of purchase process could, well be much FASTER as compared to a CENTRALIZED purchase on behalf of the States

But,

Ø Was it impossible for all State Tender Inquiries to be posted on central govt purchase e-Portal ?

Ø The QUOTATION FORM was so STANDARDIZED that it would be very easy to prepare a COMPARATIVE TABULATION of all the offers as shown below ?

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AN “ APPLE FOR APPLE “ COMPARISON OF OFFERS RECEIVED

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	Vendor A	Vendor B	Vendor C

PARAMETERS FOR COMPARISON:

( A ) Product Specifications
# Manufacturer / Brand
# Whether WHO approved
# Efficacy %
# Storage Temperature Range
# Expiry Period

( B ) Tenderer / Local Agent Details

( C ) Country of Manufacture

( D ) Base Price ( $ per dose of 10 )
( E ) If Imported :
# Price Basis ( FOB – CIF )
# Import Duty %
# Landed Cost

( F ) Local Taxes ( GST )

Final Total Delivered Price ( $ per dose )

( G ) Total Quantity being offered ( Millions )

( H ) Delivery to commence from ( date )

( I ) Weekly Supply Rate

( J ) Commercial Terms
# $ / Rs Exchange Rate assumed
# Letter of Credit / Progress Payment Terms
# Penalty Clause acceptance
# Liquidated Damages Cost acceptance
# Risk Purchase Clause acceptance
# Force Majeure clause acceptance
# Offer Validity date
# Product Liability acceptance
# Indian Court of Jurisdiction acceptance

Mumbai civic body gets 3 bids for Sputnik, but firms show no proof of deal with manufacturer

Extract :

The Mumbai civic body has received three bids for the supply of the Russian-made Sputnik V Covid-19 vaccine but none of the companies have produced any documentation connecting them with the vaccine manufacturer.

It has, meanwhile, asked the three companies that have put in bids, to submit more documents.

“The issue is that the three companies who claim that they can supply the Sputnik vaccine have not given any documents that connect them with the manufacturer,” P. Velarusu, additional municipal commissioner, told ThePrint.

“We don’t know from where they intend to procure the vaccine. We have asked them to provide these documents, show what agreements they have with manufacturers and so on.”

Of the three companies that have submitted bids, one is from the United Kingdom while the other two are based in India.

A senior BMC official said the two Indian companies seem more like medicine importers.

The BMC does not know if these companies have supplied Covid vaccines anywhere else in the world.

“That was not a requirement in our tender conditions. But what we are absolutely firm on is that these companies must have authorisation from the manufacturer,” said the official quoted above.

He added that so far there haven’t been any queries, either formally or informally, from any other companies in response to the global tender.

The three companies that have shown interest in supplying Sputnik V for Mumbai have all quoted price points between $18 and $20 per two doses.

“At the current rate, this works out to Rs 750 per dose, which is more expensive than the domestic manufacturers. But we are fine with that,” the civic official quoted above said.

Serum Institute of India is supplying Covishield, the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, at Rs 300 per dose to state governments, while Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech is supplying the indigenous Covaxin at Rs 400.

Other than the BMC, civic bodies of Navi Mumbai and Thane, Mumbai’s satellite towns, have also floated global tenders for Covid-19 vaccines. The Maharashtra government too has floated its own global tender for the supply of Covid vaccines.

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Raj may move SC for uniform vaccine pricing / HT / 24 May 2021

Extract :

Ø The Rajasthan government is planning to approach the Supreme Court to ask for a new policy that ensures uniform distribution and pricing of Covid-19 vaccines, said a senior official familiar with the development. It will be the second state to do so after West Bengal, which had on May 7 moved the apex court for the exact same reason and demanded that the states be given the vaccines free of cost

Ø The state has also floated a global tender to procure 1 crore doses but says that this should have been done by the Centre.

“TThe state can bear the expenditure, but the tender should be floated by the government of India. The Centre can negotiate for a uniform rate, and check the credentials and credibility of the vendors,”

Ø The differential pricing, the official said, will result in competition among states, as the vendors participating in the global tender are quoting more than twice the price of vaccine — ₹300 per dose plus GST.

Ø Vaccine manufacturers SII and Bharat Biotech have been charging ₹150 per dose from the Centre, and ₹300-400 per dose from the states. The price should be capped at a uniform rate of ₹150, the official said

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States may hit a roadblock in Global Sourcing quest / Business Line / 24 May 2021

Extract :

Ø Pfizer has indicated that its discussions will be ONLY THROUGH the Central Government

Ø ….. across the World, Pfizer will supply the COVID – 19 vaccine ONLY to Central Governments and supra-national organizations for deployment in national immunization programmes. The allocation of doses and implementation plan within a country is a decision for local governments based on local health authority guidance

Ø Moderna, too is said to have told the Punjab government that it would deal ONLY WITH THE CENTRE

Ø Besides , there is no excess vaccine supplies as companies have already committed much of their supplies for the next several months, he ( former Health secretary, JVR Prasad Rao ) added. States competing for vaccines will push up the price of vaccines, he said, and the coutry loses its bargaining power and economies of scale that come from procuring as a single entity

Ø An industry representative explained: since vaccines have emergency authorizations in most countries, they will be available ONLY THROUGH GOVT CHANNELS – meaning, there is no excess stock to tap

Ø Except for Sinopharm and may be Sputnik-V, it looks unlikely others have capacity to supply to individual states

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Dear Chief Ministers of States :

In any industry, it takes months ( if not years ) to :

Ø Put up Greenfield manufacturing facilities

Ø Ramp up existing manufacturing capacities

Hence, all these brave talk of DECENTRALIZED PROCUREMENT, in itself, is unlikely to get us 2166 million doses in Aug-Dec ( 5 months @ 430 million doses per month – as against actual procurement of a meagre 356 million doses in Jan-May , @ 70 million per month ! )

There is just no way, Pharma Industry can ramp-up vaccine production by 6 TIMES in June-July !

It is time to accept this ground reality of life and collaborate / cooperate with the Central Government for a

Ø united / joint evaluation of tender offers

Ø joint negotiations with suppliers

Ø single order placement ( on behalf of all the States )

Ø Single Delivery Schedule Instruction to each supplier

It is time to pull together in one direction rather than pulling in different directions

Through this E-Mail, I am requesting Dr HarshVardhanji to file appropriate AFFIDAVIT in the Supreme Court , showing willingness of the Central Govt to coordinate vaccine procurement as suggested above

With regards,

Hemen Parekh / hcp@recruitGuru.com / 24 May 2021

Thursday 20 May 2021

Suspending Surveys ? How about Scrapping ?

Context :

Government suspends key nationwide surveys amid raging Covid-19 2nd wave

Extract :

The Union authorities has suspended work on 4 key surveys on

# Migrants # Home employees # jobs created by the Transport sector and # Professionals ,

With lockdowns and curfews being imposed throughout the nation, surveyors .. will discover it tough to go to households, places of work and worksites,…and the surveys will restart as soon as the state of affairs improves.

The delay could.. have an opposed influence on the proposed nationwide employment coverage that the federal government was mulling.

“We are speaking to our professional committee on how one can incorporate the brand new realities in these surveys.. Second, nobody will entertain surveyors at their houses throughout a second wave,” mentioned Negi, who can also be the chief labour commissioner (central).

According to the Union labour ministry,

# The Migrants’ survey would be the first such examine of “ the socio-

economic and dealing circumstances of migrant employees”

# The survey of Home employees expects to seize the socio-economic

situation, the job desire and influence of the pandemic on their financial

standing

# The Transport sector survey was imagined to seize the roles created by

the trade, together with by taxi aggregators,

# The one on Professionals was imagined to seize the employment era and

potential of tens of hundreds of pros, together

with advocates, docs and chartered accountants.

On March 31, labour minister Santosh Gangwar mentioned the surveys will “generate extremely helpful knowledge for efficient policymaking within the area of labour and employment”.

The examine of the labour market, together with gig employees, will assist the federal government formulate a complete employment coverage for each formal and casual segments and design social safety and welfare measures.

Besides, there was a rising demand for a nationwide coverage on employment to formalize the big casual sector, implement social safety for unorganised employees, and formulate welfare schemes for low-income households.

The surveys are essential as they might present a holistic image of the employment market and the socioeconomic situation of migrants and different casual employees..

The first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic pushed an estimated 230 million Indians to poverty, in response to a survey by Azim Premji University.

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MY TAKE :

Ø To conduct these surveys ( and many other not listed above ), we will need to engage lakhs of SURVEYORS , spread over a period of months , involving millions of man-hours for each exercise

Ø These Surveyors would need to be given some ( obsolete ? ) DATABASE of households across entire country ( may be each Ministry has its own “ Database of Householders “ ? )

Ø May be, each surveyor manages to visit 4 / 5 householders per day

Ø They will ( most likely ) carry with them, lengthy printed forms, each having ( may be ) 30 data-fields

Ø By reading out each question to the householder, they will enter the submitted data in the form ( many times, their own “ liberal interpretation “ of what was said by the householder ). Without doubt, these surveyors would need to be “ multi-linguists “ , especially in Metros where the citizen population is cosmopolitan, with 5 / 6 different major Indian languages . Accurate translation will be a big problem

Ø Then, they will need “ INPUT “ all the collected data into Online Databases ( on as many different govt portals, as there are no of different surveys , conducted by different Ministries )

Ø Under the universal idiom of “ left hand does not know what the right hand is doing “ , there is bound to be a dozen data-fields which are IDENTICAL across the SURVEY FORMS of different Ministries ! – may be in different order !

Ø I am sure, data inputted by each Surveyor ( for each exercise ) for each household, will be “ Counter-checked “ for accuracy, by ANOTHER DATA ENTRY OPERATOR

Ø By the time a given survey-exercise gets over and the “ inputted data “ properly analyzed and tabulated, it will take 12 / 18 months. At the whim of the Ministry concerned, that ANALYSIS may or may not get published on the Ministry’s website !

IN SUMMARY :

Ø These are time and money consuming, wasteful exercises, of little relevance to real-time policy initiatives

Ø If possible, ALL such surveys must get consolidated into ONE SINGLE UNIVERSAL and ONGOING process , with little or just one-time “ human intervention “

Ø It should be VOLUNTARY but offering such powerful INCENTIVES that, every citizen joins and updates-edits, his / her data, every time there is a change

Ø Such a TECHNOLOGY – DRIVEN process should be spread-over a period of 3 years for all establishments in the country

WHAT COULD BE THE OUTLINE / FRAME-WORK OF SUCH A PROCESS ?

Ø From BAD to MAD …………………………[ 01 June 2016 ]

Suggested Reading :

Ø Even Inevitable takes time ……………[ 11 Mar 2021 ]

With regards,

Hemen Parekh / hcp@recruitGuru.com / 21 May 2021

Wednesday 19 May 2021

Slow – but as Envisaged ?

Thank you, Shri Piyush Goyalji – Shri Nitin Gadkariji,

For implementing my 4 year old suggestion, which has the following potential :

Ø To bring down our LOGISTICS COST from current 14 % to less than 10 % of GST

Ø To reduce truck travel-time, on our highways, by 50 % of current time

Ø To end CORRUPTION by ending INSPECTION RAJ along our highways

Ø As against current 25 lakh trucks plying daily on our highways, raise it to 50 lakh / day ( leading to much higher ASSET – UTILIZATION and much higher ( RFID based, automatic ) TOLL collection

Context :

E Way Bill integrated with FASTag, RFID : NIC / Eco Times / 20 May 2021

Extract :

Ø GST officers have been armed with real-time data of commercial vehicle movement on highways with integration of the e-way bill (EWB) system with FasTag and RFID, a move which will help in live vigilance of such vehicles and check GST evasion.

Ø Additional features have been added to the e-way bill mobile application of tax officers, which will provide them real-time tracking details of e-way bill and vehicle to help them nab tax evaders who are misusing the e-way bill system

> In the electronic way (e-way) bill system, businesses and transporters have

to produce before a GST inspector the e-way bill, if asked.

> On an average 25 lakh goods vehicle movements from more than 800

tolls are reported on a daily basis to the e-way bill system.

Ø The integration of ,

# E-way bill,

# RFID , and

# FasTag ,

will enable tax officers to undertake live vigilance in respect of e-way bill

compliances by businesses and will aid in preventing revenue leakage by

real-time identification of cases of recycling of EWBs, non-generation of

EWBs.

Ø Taxmen can now access reports on vehicles that have passed the selected tolls without e-way bills in the past few minutes. Also, the vehicles carrying critical commodities specific to the state and have passed the selected toll can be viewed.

Ø Any suspicious vehicles and vehicles of EWBs generated by suspicious taxpayer GSTINs , that have passed the selected toll on a near real time basis, can also be viewed in this report.

Ø The officers can use of these reports while conducting vigilance and make the vigilance activity more effective. Also, the officers of audit and enforcement wing can use these reports to identify the fraudulent transactions like bill trading, recycling of EWBs.

Ø AMRG Associates Senior Partner Rajat Mohan [ rajataggarwal008@gmail.com ] said "online real-time tracking of vehicles and goods would go a long way in tightening the lid on tax evaders. This mobile application for tax officers would empower them to catch hold of all the stakeholders involved in clandestine removal of goods."

Ø EY India Tax Patner Abhishek Jain said CBIC had earlier conveyed its intention to further digitise the process of enforcement of e-way bill provisions under the GST law, and in line with this idea, the e-way bill system has now been integrated with the FasTag and RFID system, and MIS (Management Information Systems) reports from the same will made available on officer's mobile app.

Ø "This is a commendable move on the part of government and points towards the development in the field of technology and how the government is pro-active in using the same to ensure tax compliance and track fraudulent activities," Jain added.

Ø With effect from January 1, 2021, the government has integrated RFID/FasTag with the e-way bill system and a transporter is required to have a RFID tag in his vehicle and details of the e-way bill generated for goods being carried by the vehicle is uploaded into the RFID.

Ø When the vehicle passes the RFID Tag reader on the highway, the details fed into the device gets uploaded on the government portal.

Ø The information is later used by the revenue officials to validate the supplies made by a GST registered person.

Ø To improve tax compliance, the government has also started blocking of EWB bill generation if a GST registered taxpayer has not filed GSTR- 3B return for the last two successive months.

Ø Also, the government has blocked the generation of multiple EWBs on one invoice. If the EWB is once generated using an invoice number or document number, then none of the other parties can generate another EWB using the same invoice number.

Ø Besides, the e-way bills system has enabled auto calculation of distance based on PIN codes. The system will auto calculate the distance between the source and destination, based on PIN codes.

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HOW COME, SLOW ?

Nearly 4 years ago, I had sent following suggestion to our Cabinet Ministers / Policy Makers :

A New Way to E-Way ? ………………………………..[ 15 July 2017 ]

WHAT DID YOU SUGGEST ?

Extract from that E Mail :

My request / suggestion to GST Council :

Ø Aim to turn India’s highways into friction-less “ Conveyor Belts of Commerce “

Ø Look up conveyor belts in the warehouses of Amazon / Flipkart / UPS / FedEx etc , which carry hundreds of packages per minute – with each package carrying dozens of different items ( can we replace “ packages “ with TRUCKS and “ conveyor belts “ with HIGHWAYS ? )

Each item within each box, has RFID chip and QR code ( interlinked )

Ø Sensors placed along the conveyor belt “ reads “ each package and each item inside each package . No need to stop the flow of the packages

Ø E-way Bill too , will have all the QR Codes / RFID data , of each item loaded onto the truck ( Price / Origin City / Destination City / Supplier with GSTN registration number / Recipient with his GSTN registration number / GST – ISGST – SGST amount for each item / Date of Dispatch / Validity of E Way Bill etc )

Ø Just like today’s Mobile Apps of UPS / FedEx enable online tracking of each package and of individual items within each package , that “ high technology interface “ being proposed by the Government should incorporate the following technologies :

# QR code / RFID chip

# GPS based NaviC ....................... ( 30 Mar 2017 )

# Internet of Things ( IoT )

# Internet of Vehicles ( IoV )............ ( 04 Mar 2017 )

# BlueTooth / NFC

Dear Members of GST Council :

Here is YOUR opportunity to lead the way ( - in this case, the HIGHWAY ! )

There is no technical reason why Software Super Power India, cannot lead the world in ,

“ Ease of Doing Business “

If you guarantee the business / industry that “ NO INSPECTOR “ will stop the truck along its journey , they will willingly implement ANY / ALL technologies to serve the purpose of E Way Bill

Remember, all corruption starts by permitting HUMANS to “ interpret “ whether a given process was “ correct / incorrect “ as prescribed – and collect their “ hafta “ for offering to interpret it in favour of the Business / Industry , violating the process !

By implementing my suggestion " Fast Forward to IoV ? " ( 03 July 2017 ) , technology will SHUT DOWN the truck engine , upon detection of a violation !

And automatically unlock the engine when the violation gets corrected by EDITING the E-Way Bill , on GSTN web site !

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Sunday 23 May 2021

Apple for Apple ? Vaccine against Vaccine ?

===================================================

Now, it is apparent that :

Ø Demand is far in excess of supply

Ø Tenders floated by State Govts can be expected to be shoddily drafted ( - on purpose ? )

Ø Within India, several States will be simultaneously negotiating with very few manufacturers, pitting one state against the other, for the SAME capacity

Ø Manufacturers / Suppliers are bound to take advantage ( of this scarcity situation, leading to intense and unhealthy competition amongst states and, as a result, pushing up the prices )

Now there is no denying that a DECENTRALIZED MANNER of purchase process could, well be much FASTER as compared to a CENTRALIZED purchase on behalf of the States

But,

Ø Was it impossible for all State Tender Inquiries to be posted on central govt purchase e-Portal ?

Ø The QUOTATION FORM was so STANDARDIZED that it would be very easy to prepare a COMPARATIVE TABULATION of all the offers as shown below ?

===================================================

AN “ APPLE FOR APPLE “ COMPARISON OF OFFERS RECEIVED

===================================================

Mumbai civic body gets 3 bids for Sputnik, but firms show no proof of deal with manufacturer

Extract :

The Mumbai civic body has received three bids for the supply of the Russian-made Sputnik V Covid-19 vaccine but none of the companies have produced any documentation connecting them with the vaccine manufacturer.

The three companies that have shown interest in supplying Sputnik V for Mumbai have all quoted price points between $18 and $20 per two doses.

Thursday 20 May 2021

Suspending Surveys ? How about Scrapping ?

Ø From BAD to MAD …………………………[ 01 June 2016 ]

Ø Even Inevitable takes time ……………[ 11 Mar 2021 ]

With regards,

Hemen Parekh / hcp@recruitGuru.com / 21 May 2021

Wednesday 19 May 2021

Slow – but as Envisaged ?

Monetizing Geospatial Data ………………………………………………………….[ 16 Feb 2021 ]

Congratulations , Sid Chakravarthy ……………………………………………..[ 24 July 2020 ]

Highways to Hyper-loops / #GST #EWay …………………………………….[ 09 Mar 2018 ]

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With regards,

Hemen Parekh / hcp@RecruitGuru.com / 20 May 2021