Help ! please , rescue me !

You would expect this kind of a cry from an innocent person , locked up behind bars

But can you make a currency note of Rs 1000 / Rs 500 , locked up in a bank locker or a home cabinet , to cry out :

"  Please , liberate me ; I am held hostage by a black marketer "

For over 2 years , I have been saying that making high denomination currency notes to " declare their locations ", is not only possible but that it is the ONLY PERMANENT FOOL-PROOF way , to eliminate from our economy , the twin scourge of CORRUPTION / BLACK MONEY

Those who still have some lingering doubts about both , the feasibility and the inevitability of my suggestion, may want to read the following news report ( DNA / 08 Aug 2016 ):

SMART  DRESSING

Scientists are developing a novel technology for smart clothes that would contact charity shops or auction web sites like eBay when they are not worn regularly

THE  TECHNOLOGY

Researchers from Birmingham City University plan to create an " Internet of Clothes " that tags garments using washable contactless technology , known as Radio Frequency Identification ( RFID )

WASTE NOT , WANT NOT

Researchers said, users can now move away from the idea of ownership of clothing, to use them as long as they need them

HOW  IT  WORKS

Step # 1  : Users will receive a tweet and message every day from the clothing asking to be worn

Step # 2  : Forgotten items in the wardrobe will text owners to remind them they are gathering dust

Step # 3  : If the notifications are ignored by the user, the garments will get in touch with a clothing charity

Report in newspaper " Business Line "  adds :

" Think of the surprise when an owner suddenly receives bids for items they did not know were in their wardrobe "

Now in India , the owners / hoarders of crores of BLACK MONEY , are unlikely to forget how many of Rs 1000 / 500 , currency notes they have stashed away - and precisely where !

But , if those notes were embedded with RFID micro-sensors ( thinner than human hair ) - as repeatedly suggested by me - then those owners would certainly get surprised ( albeit , unpleasant ! ), when they receive an SMS from the Income Tax Department / Enforcement Directorate , saying :

" Please , explain the source of 10,000 currency notes of Rs 1000 each , located in your Bank Locker / home cabinet , at GPS located address, XYZ  ( or different nos at different locations )

Of course , if you disclaim its ownership and surrender these amounts within 24 hours, for productive use by the nation for building infrastructure - and , thereby create millions of jobs , we will not prosecute you "

MY  LOGIC

If clothes remaining unused ( for a long time ) want to become " useful " by being offered for charity , then why not provide the same advantage to Rs 100 lakh*crores worth of high denomination currency notes, lying unused in bank lockers / home cabinets ?

Surely , these notes do not like to be held " hostage / remain unused / gather dust " and would want  to move , from hand-to-hand , by free circulation in MAINSTREAM LEGAL ECONOMY !

Whereas yesterday's passing of GST Constitutional Amendment Bill in Lok Sabha , is no doubt a great reform , it will be , at least 3 years before we see its positive impact on our GDP ( ignoring the fact that it took 10 years of debate / discussions / persuasions to reach this stage ! )

But , on the other hand embedding RFID sensors into high denomination currency notes would need,

#   No discussions ( since, no political party would want to appear to be protecting the black money ! )

#   No passing of any Bill in the Parliament

And its impact on the economy / GDP , will become visible within 3 months of its implementation

For full details of my suggestion , read " Internetof Currency Notes "

[  http://myblogepage.blogspot.com/2015/11/network-of-currency-notes.html  ]

Shri Narendra Modi often says , "  I like to experiment and take bold , out-of-the-box decisions "

This is one decision that the generations of Indians to come, will remain to him grateful for !

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09  August  2016 ( August Kranti Din )

www.hemenparekh.in / Blogs

Job Fairs : Offline or Online ?

Recently , NICS ( National Institute of Career Services - Noida ), conducted a ground-based job fair

NICS plans to conduct one such job fair , every month , with the next one planned in Hyderabad

Recruiters from three dozen companies sat in small cubicles , handing out forms and registration numbers and asking some candidates to go to a nearby hostel building for a written or oral test

For 5,000 vacancies , some 11,000 jobseekers turned up but only 640 got shortlisted ( just 6 % )- utter chaos !

CANDIDATES  GROUSE :

#  Recruiting companies did not disclose the profiles on offer or the salary structure

#  Had to spend nearly entire day at the venue, after travelling hundreds of kilometers

#  Had to return without knowing the result of the interview

#  There was a lot of confusion as some Company recruiters never turned up for the interview

#  There was ambiguity in the entire selection process since the Company Display Boards and the Profile

    Requirements mentioned during the registration process did not match

#  Overcrowding required hundreds of job aspirants to stand in the sun, for hours !

   

PROBLEMS  FACED  BY  THE   RECRUITING   COMPANIES :

#   Candidates were not job-ready . Even after interviewing 15 candidates , could not zero in on one !

#   English language proficiency of the candidates was very poor

STATISTICS :

#  In 25 years ( between 1991 - 2012 ) , employment in Organized Sector grew by 2.85 million jobs

   ( just above 1 lakh per year as against addition of some 120 lakh jobseekers entering job market per year ! )

#  In 2014, eight key manufacturing sectors created 4.2 lakh jobs and in 2015 , just 2 lakh jobs

MY   TAKE  :

#  Whereas ground based Job Fairs have been around for many years , there is no way these can provide a

    solution to matching available jobs to available jobseekers ( 120 lakhs per year )

#  India has close to 50 million MSME . Assuming that only 10 % of these need to hire just ONE person each year,

    ( either by way of replacement or for growth of business ) , that amounts to some 5 million jobs per year

    These MSME do not advertise their vacancies, either in newspapers or on online job portals . These vacancies

    get filled by word-of-mouth

CAN  TECHNOLOGY  HELP  ?

#  Sure ! The answer lies in " Online JobsFair " - a job portal with a difference !

#  An " Online JobsFair " , does NOT suffer from the following limitations of an " Offline ( ground-based ) job fair :

   *  No physical space limitations . Unlimited number of VIRTUAL INTERVIEW CABINS can be created on the fly

   *  Unlimited numbers of jobseekers and recruiters can come ONLINE , at any given instance(millions, if you will )

   *  Since this platform also enables FOREIGN COMPANIES to interview INDIAN CANDIDATES , such interviews

      can take place round-the-clock ! This platform will vastly improve overseas recruitment of Indian jobseekers

   *  Thousands of INTERVIEWS can be going on SIMULTANEOUSLY , in total privacy ( from anywhere in World )

   *  4 interviewers ( belonging to same company ) , located in 4 different cities , can interview the same candidate

      jointly by logging in at the same time in the same INTERVIEW CABIN ( password protected entry )

   *  Neither the candidates nor the interviewers need to travel , saving millions of wasted man-hours

   *  Interviews can be pre-scheduled and candidates will be emailed in advance , when to log into which cabin.

       The SCHEDULER SOFTWARE will do this automatically

   *  Candidate Assessment Forms will get filled in ONLINE and made available to concerned candidate by email

   *  Offer letters ( or Offer Intention Letters ) or Rejection Letters will get emailed as soon as CANDIDATE

      ASSESSMENT form gets mandatorily filled in online  !

  *  Company Display Boards will be visible to ALL visiting jobseekers to decide which jobs to apply for

  *  Resume Rating software will automatically " rate and rank " resumes of all candidates applying

     against a particular vacancy and arrange applicant-resumes in descending order of " Raw Score " and send out

     Interview Schedule to shortlisted candidates , without human intervention

  *  All online interviews will take place using Audio-Video chat thru Skype / FaceTime ( from Smart phones )

  *  All interview " Conversations " ( questions and answers ) will get recorded and made available to candidate

     being interviewed for his study and improving his " Interviewing Skills "

There are many other advantages , not listed above  but which you can read at :

www.hemenparekh.in > Reports > OnLineJobsFair

Should Ministry of Labour desire , I would be happy to design / develop and hand-over such a online platform without any charge / fees , provided ,

#   Labour Ministry hosts and maintains it  

#   Makes it available for use ( by Recruiters and Jobseekers ) , FREE  OF  COST

Neither the governments ( Central + States ) , nor the Organized Sector , is in a position to " CREATE " 12 million  

jobs per year . 

By creating OnLineJobsFair ( a kind of Virtual Employment Exchange ) , we can help our youth to

enter Job Market of entire World

A beginning  of  " WORLD  WIDE  WORK  FEDERATION ( W3F )

Last ( but not the least ) :

OnLineJobsFair will enable millions of young Indians to offer their " Remote Services " to Foreign Companies !

Services such as " Coding " / " Caring " / " Consulting " / " Curating " / " Controlling " etc

It may even become a " Business Meeting " platform !

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06  Aug  2016

www.hemenparekh.in / blogs 

 

Public Policy Game-Changer ?

Economic Times ( 29 July, 2016 ) carries a report , titled :

" Your Smartphone can be Public Policy Game-Changer "

This report describes UIDAI's idea as follows :

" Chips of Aadhar-enabled smart phones will be encrypted with UIDAI key and the phones will be connected to the Aadhar server

The key is a security feature to prevent information leakage . The server connection will allow instant fingerprint and iris authentication

The technology bar for putting these features in smart phones is not high - most smart phones can be equipped similarly "

Shri Ajay Bhushan , CEO - UIDAI , added :

" This can be a game-changing feature in phones to become the identity of a person and let him do more transactions on the phone in a secure manner .

This is perhaps the first time something like this will be attempted in the world

Nearly 104 crore Indians have Aadhar and almost 40 crore have smart phones . Every agency requires authentication via Aadhar

If people don't need to go to any office to authenticate their identity and get government services, and if they are able to do so through their mobile phones, this can be a game-changer "

Writing in Times of India ( 28 July, 2016 / How Digital Will Save India ) , Shri Nandan Nilekani , writes :

#  Aadhar provides open Application Programming interfaces or APIs, which can integrate easily into any electronic device . These APIs enable online authentication using a fingerprint or iris. Recently Samsung introduced an Aadhar-compliant tablet with a camera that in a single click performs iris authentication

#  More than 290 million bank accounts are linked to Aadhar today, and several billion dollars of benefits and  entitlements have been transferred to people's bank accounts electronically in real time

#  Such platform aggregators will also create jobs, not as monolithic large organizations, but as millions of small entrepreneurs connected to a platform

#  Indians will either migrate or do outsourcing work. Care providers around the world will come from India

#  The only place where India can achieve economy of scale is in services

Will these visions of Shri Bhushan and Shri Nilekani , get translated into reality - and in near term ?

Read following Smart phone based Mobile Apps for conceptual frame-work :

 *  BackFactory of the World

*   Redefining  Manufacturing

*  RobotsRobots Everywhere , Not a Soul to See  !

*   VotesApp

*   ISIN > < U SIN

*   ROMP

*   BANMALI

*   Black-Mail

*   Currency  Maps of  India

*  An  Aadhar  for   Corporate

*  From  BAD to  MAD

*  Digital  Locker Project

*  DISPENSER- Digital Delivery of Drugs

*  DIGI-MET/ FARE-CALC

*  Fak-e-Mon

*  The  March of  Algorithm

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05  Aug  2016

www.hemenparekh.in  /  blogs

Fraud Corporation of India ( FCI ) ?

No , I have not given that name to the Food Corporation of India

It is none other than the Supreme Court of India , which seems to think so !

Following are the " reasons " ( as reported in Times of India , a few weeks back ) :

#  On Jan 09 , SC said, " there was something seriously wrong with the FCI where 370 departmental labour

    were each paid Rs 4.5 lakh a month , a salary much more than the President of India "

#  Report of a high level committee said ,

    *   Rs 1800 crore salary bill for labourers in FCI , was unacceptable

    *   Apart from these 370 , there were other departmental labourers who earned a monthly average salary of

        Rs 80,000  and that in contrast, the Contractual Labourers doing the same job earned Rs 10,000 per month

#  Vikram Singh Jangra ( advocate for FCI ) admitted that the average cost per month per worker was Rs 80000/-

#  Supreme Court remarked :

   " They are just loading and unloading sacks of food grain. How are they paid so much when the Contractual

     Labour for the same job gets paid Rs 10,000 ? This means there must be many who must be subletting the

     work to the Contractual Labourers and drawing salary without doing anything "

#  The Government admitted :

    Those drawing salaries in lakhs had actually engaged Contractual Labourers .

#  Amit Sibal ( advocate for FCI Workers Union ) said :

    * Since the salaries could not be paid to the Contractual Labourers , the departmental labourer who engaged

      them was collecting the entire money for their behalf, showing erroneously that a single departmental labourer

      was drawing hefty salary

#  Earlier , the Bombay High Court had passed following directions to FCI :

    *    Reduce the mind-boggling incentive scheme prevalent in FCI

    *    Make the labourers jobs transferable

    *    Abolish depots

    *    Abolish the system of departmental labourers in phases

#   Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar informed SC :

     The Centre has issued a notification on July 06, to revert to Contractual Labourers for loading and unloading

     of food grains sacks at FCI depots

MISSING  LINKS :

#   What punishment , if any , was handed out to those " Labour Department Supervisors " who ,

     *  failed to mark as " absent " those departmental labourers and instead marked them as " present "

     *  allowed entry to those Contractual Labourers , who were NOT engaged " directly " by FCI

#   Does the Central Government notification , violate the " Contract Labour  Abolition and Regulation Act "  ,

     which stipulates monthly wages to Contract Labourers equal to those paid to regular workers at the bottom of

     the scale ?

#   If regular workers are to be replaced by the Contract Labourers , what will those 370 regular workers do ?

     I suppose , they will continue to draw their wages ( obviously , much higher than the monthly average of

     Rs 80,000 ) for playing cards in FCI premises !

#   Do FCI have any established ," Productivity Standards" for " Tons of grains loaded / unloaded per work-day " ?

#   What are the " Permanent Workers / Contractual Workers / Total Wage Bill / Ave wage per worker per month "

     scenarios in other Government Corporations such as STC / MMTC / ASI / GSI and hundreds of PSUs ?

It is high time , our decades old " National Productivity Council - NPC " is requested to carry out an exhaustive work-measurement study of ALL such Corporations and establish clear OUTPUT PER WORK-HOUR norms

#  Annual Salary Bill of the Central Government ( for 39 lakh employees in 2016-17 ) is Rs 183,936 Crore

    Government could easily save 5 % of that bill ( = Rs 9,197 Cr ) , by simply implementing MAD ( Mobile

    Attendance Device ) described in my following email to the NDA Ministers / MPs on   01 June 2016 :

   "  From  BAD to  MAD  "

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03  Aug  2016

www.hemenparekh.in / blogs

   

     

   

Land Pooling vs Land Acquisition ?

Remember those violent demonstrations against the proposed Land Acquisition Bill , all over the country , some 2 years ago ?

After weeks of debates - both inside and outside the Parliament and issue of 2/3 ordinances - , that bill remained in suspended animation

That is when I sent the following email to Shri Nitin Gadkariji ( 23  March  2015 )

Now , more than a year later , I am happy that different States are in the process of implementing different variations of my suggestion through a process of " Land Pooling " , for the following infrastructure projects :

#    Navi Mumbai Airport Influence Notified Area ( NAINA ) / 3,800 hectare

#    Navi Mumbai International Airport / 1,160 hectare / Rs 16,000 crore

#    Mumbai-Nagpur Communications Super Expressway / 22,000 hectare / Rs 30,000 crore

#    Andhra Pradesh Capital Region Development - Amravati / 13,355 hectare / Rs 1 lakh*crore

DNA ( 30 July 2016 ) reports :

#   Experts say a pooling scheme can change all that and encourage farmers to give up their land in lieu of monthly rent and other benefits

#   It's also a win-win for the government and the investors as it will only help in expediting the infrastructure and development related projects

#   The Gujarat , Chhattisgarh , Chadigarh and Andhra Pradesh governments too have found it better to go for land pooling scheme as against complex Land Acquisition , Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act , 2013 ( Laar )

#   In land pooling, resistance is least and compensation amount way less than Laar

#   Owners of smaller plots will also get a share certificate in the Company that will be formed for the project

#   Un-irrigated and irrigated farmers will stand to get annuity of Rs 50,000 and Rs 1 lakh per hectare with a provision of 10 % hike every year for a decade

This is what I wrote to Shri Gadkariji on 23 March 2015 :

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Dear Nitinji,

Farmers are opposing this bill for the following reasons :

>    Low / Inadequate compensation

>    Once land is sold , not being able to benefit from the appreciation of land value , when the project comes up

>   Private parties bought their land at low price and then sold it ( mostly to private builders ) for a whooping profit

I think there is a simple solution to the concerns expressed by the farmers . Please consider the following :

>    Each project will be tied to a specific SPV , created for that purpose only

>    In the first instance , affected farmers will create a " Cooperative Society " 

>   Co-operative Society will issue shares to each land-donor farmer , in proportion to the QUANTITY / VALUE of the land donated by him

>   In turn , Co-operative Society will receive shares in the SPV , equal to the value of the land + a cash compensation equal to 4 times the value of the land

>  Farmer's shares of Cooperative Society cannot be sold in open market before 5 years but can be gifted to wife / Children

>  Shares of Cooperative Society in the SPV itself cannot be sold for next 10 years

>  The " Cash-Value Compensation " received by the Co-operative Society ( ie 4 times the land value ),  will be deployed as follows :

   *  To be immediately paid in cash to the farmers............ 2 times

   *  To be deposited in the Jan-Dhan Account of each farmer as FIXED DEPOSIT ( with 10 @ interest ).............2 times

Dear Gadkariji ,

My proposal will ensure :

>     Immediate attractive compensation to farmers

>     Recurring income from FD in Jan Dhan account ( for a sustained livelihood )

>     Continued sense of " Ownership " in the SPV / Project , which will facilitate QUICK implementation without

       resistance

>     Willing farmers themselves canvassing / convincing " Reluctant " farmers

>     No fear of private parties benefiting by appreciation of land value

>    A sense of " Enlarged Participation " thru Co-operative Society representing them on the Board of Directors of

      SPV

>    Board Representation enabling farmers to ensure that honest decisions are being taken

PLEASE , GIVE  THIS  SUGGESTION   A  CONSIDERATION 

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Thank you , Shri Gadkariji !

Thank you for listening to ordinary citizens

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02  Aug  2016

www.hemenparekh.in / blogs