Advantage , Incumbent ?

Yesterday , Shri Akhilesh Yadav ( CM - UP ) offered FREE smart phones to citizens of UP , if Samajwadi Party gets voted to power , in the forthcoming State elections

Anyone who is over 18 and lives in Uttar Pradesh can apply for a phone - online - provided their family income is less than 2 lakh rupees a year. The online registrations are likely to start in a month.

At a recent function, the Chief Minister had hinted at the scheme, saying ,

" Samajwadis will think of something which we can give to next generation or something through which they can get more information about the government and share their expectations. The cities are becoming smart and through mobile applications people are getting information."

Apparently , Shri Akhilesh is smarter than the smart phones !

He knows that one party after another , has won State Elections in the past 5 years , by promising freebies to voters . That includes his own so gratifying experience of winning the last election by promising FREE laptops !

That takes us back to the Election Commission Guidelines re " Promising of Freebies " by political parties

On 22 Feb 2014 , following Supreme Court directives , the Election Commission , revised , " Model Code of Conduct " , containing guidelines on what kind of poll promises , political parties can incorporate in their poll manifestos

GUIDELINES

*   Parties shall make only those promises which are possible to be fulfilled

*   It is expected that manifestos also reflect the rationale for the promises

     and broadly indicate the ways and means to meet the financial

    requirements for it

*   Party in power shall stop advertizing for publicity of achievements

For Akhileshji , there is no problem satisfying these guidelines !

With the bargaining power for  10 crore  phones , he can just insist that Reliance Jio  :

#  Drop the price of its cheapest LYF phone to Rs 1,000 each

  

    That would cost the UP Exchequer , Rs 10,000 Cr , which UP govt will easily recover within one year , from the

mobile advts that thousands of E-Commerce Companies would be too happy to flash on the pre-installed Mobile

App , " I SIN><U SIN " ( described below in my earlier blog dt 29 Dec 2012 )

#  Develop this mobile app ( of course , FREE ) and pre-install it before delivery of the phones

Then tell the Election Commission ( and the Supreme Court , if required ) :

"  Our FREE distribution of Smart phones , will usher a REVOLUTION in the matter of E-GOVERNANCE "

If they get to read this blog / email , I would not be surprised if some or other , political party makes a similar promise for the forthcoming elections in Punjab !

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Saturday, 29 December 2012

 

 

I  SIN  > <  U  SIN

That could be the name of an android app ( I Seek It Now > < U Solve It Now )

To be developed by India’s Central Home Ministry for successful implementation of proposed,

“ Delivery  of  Services  Act “

The app will come pre-installed on those mobile phones which Government of India plans to distribute FREE , to some 400 million “ Poor People “ of India , before the 2014 National Election ( and on those 220 million Aakash Tablets )

Issuer will enter the Mobile No and that person’s Aadhar Card No, in a computerized central database , before issuing the phone

Hence , no need to login to the App , whose screen will read,

 I wish to send my complaint to the following department :

·                  National Commission for Women

·                  Garbage Clearance

·                  Water Supply

·                  Electricity Supply

·                  Roads Repair

·                  Rationing ( Food Distribution )

·                  Police

·                  Bus Transport

·                  Railways

·                  Post

·                  Employment

·                  Education

·                  Irrigation

·                  Building Permits

·                  Revenue / Land Records

·                  Anti Corruption

·                  Other ……………………………………….etc

·                   

(List should not exceed 50)

Touching name of any department name will open a SMS message box where the user will type out his complaint ( in a language of his choice )

There will be option to speak-out and record voice message , for illiterate users

Touching SEND button will transmit the complaint and within minutes, user will receive SMS reply , giving,

·                  Name of Officer responsible

·                  Office Landline No

·                  Mobile No

·                  Email Id

·                  Complaint No

·                  Expected date of solving

·                   

Bingo !

Then publish online , a tabulation of departments , arranged in the descending order of the no of complaints received / cleared / pending!

This frugal innovation will bring in Good Governance all over India

Request Nandan Nilekani / Sam Pitroda to help out , even though they may be busy implementing my earlier suggested app , 

“ VotesApp “

I have no doubt that the political party which promises , “ I SIN >< U SIN “ ,  will get voted to power in 2014

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06  Sept  2016

www.hemenparekh.in / blogs

A Booster Shot ?

Business Line ( 05 Sept 2016 ) carries a news report titled :

"  Start ups may get a Booster Shot of fresh incentives "

It says :

" An inter-ministerial committee headed by DIPP Secretary , Ramesh Abhishek , and comprising senior officials from the NITI Aayog and from Ministries and Departments such as Finance, Labour , Environment , HRD and MSME , will meet within a fortnight to discuss a possible new stimulus for Start ups

The official said ,

We will to push for some more tax incentives in addition to the three year tax holiday, lower compliance requirements especially in labour and taxation and a relaxation in listing norms

The line Ministries will take forward what the inter-ministerial committee feels is feasible so that the new rules can be worked out . We are examining the tax policies of countries such as Argentina , Australia , Chile , Finland and Israel "

Considering that nearly ONE YEAR after the launch of the Start Up initiative , so far only 3 Start Ups have managed to qualify for the tax holiday , this is very good news

But trying to compare what other countries have done to boost their Start Ups , has only , a very limited learning !

We have,

#    A history of 60 years of total neglect of the Start Ups , under a license / permit raj

#    12 million young people joining our work force each year ( with only 10 % finding jobs )

#    3.5 million graduating from colleges , each year ( of which , only 20% are found " Employable " by industry )

I once more request the Committee - and the concerned Ministries - to find a " Productive Vent " for the enormous / volatile energy , trapped inside this " Volcano of Unemployed Youth  "

My own suggestions are contained in my following blogs ( sent earlier as email concerned Policy Makers ) :

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Saturday, 16 January 2016

TEN  MILLION  START- UPS  IN  ONE  YEAR  ?

Thank you , Narendrabhai , for the Start Up Action Plan announced last evening

I am glad that some of my suggestions ( sent to Ministers / Secretaries ) over the past 2 years , have been incorporated in the ACTION PLAN , in respect of :

*    Self Certification

*    Simplified Registration thru Mobile App

*    Tax Exemption for Capital Gains

*    Entrepreneurship Program for 10 lakh students 

*    No Corporate Income Tax for 3 years

   

 You will find my detailed suggestions covering these points in following blogs at :

 www.hemenparekh.in :

       *    A NewEconomic Order - Start Up Act 2015   /   12 Sept 2015 

            (  http://myblogepage.blogspot.com/2015/09/a-new-economic-order.html  ) 

       *    FromJob Seekers to Job Creators   /   15 Sept 2015

            (  http://myblogepage.blogspot.com/2015/09/from-job-seekers-to-job-creators.html ) 

       *    Back Up Factory of the World  /   09 Sept 2015 

           (  http://myblogepage.blogspot.in/2015/09/back-factory-of-world.html  ) 

       *     BluePrint for a Start Up Nation  /   27 Dec 2015 

           (   http://myblogepage.blogspot.com/2015/12/blue-print-for-start-up-nation.html  ) 

       *     CreatingJobs Vs Creating Self Employed ?  /   10 Dec 2015 

           (   http://myblogepage.blogspot.com/2015/12/creating-jobs-vs-creating-self-employed.html  ) 

       *     Get Out ofthe Way  /   01 Dec 2015 

          (   http://myblogepage.blogspot.com/2015/12/get-out-of-way.html  ) 

       *     TenMillion Entrepreneurs ?  /   19 Oct 2015

          (   http://myblogepage.blogspot.com/2015/10/ten-million-entrepreneurs.html  ) 

       *     StartUp Eco System / USA vs India  /   01 Oct 2015

          (   http://myblogepage.blogspot.com/2015/10/start-up-eco-systems-usa-vs-india.html  )

       *     Treadingthe Beaten Path  /   25 Sept 2015

          (   http://myblogepage.blogspot.com/2015/09/treading-beaten-path.html  ) 

       *     SecondIndustrial Revolution  /   21 Sept 2015

         (   http://myblogepage.blogspot.com/2015/09/second-industrial-revolution.html  )

       *     FromSingle Window to a Single Day ?  /   19 Sept 2015

         (   http://myblogepage.blogspot.com/2015/09/from-single-window-to-single-day.html  ) 

       *     Myth ofJob Creation  /   12 Sept 2015

         (   http://myblogepage.blogspot.com/2015/09/myth-of-job-creation.html  ) 

       *    KillingMany Birds with One Stone  /   07 Sept 2015

         (   http://myblogepage.blogspot.com/2015/09/killing-many-birds-with-one-stone.html  ) 

       *    IfMohamed cannot go to Mountain  /   26 July 2015

         (   http://myblogepage.blogspot.com/2015/07/if-mohamed-cannot-go-to-mountain.html  ) 

       *    DitchHistorical Baggage  /   24 Dec 2015

         (   http://myblogepage.blogspot.com/2015/12/ditch-historical-baggage.html  ) 

       *    CreateSelf Employment  /   21 Feb 2015

         (   http://myblogepage.blogspot.com/2015/02/create-self-employment.html  ) 

Very likely , your initiative may see the birth of ten thousand new start-ups in 2016-17, which , together , might generate one lakh jobs

In itself, this will bring a new dynamism to India's Economy 

But that will still fall far short of 12 Million ( 120 lakh ) youth joining the work-force each year

Can all of these youth become Start Ups ?

It is entirely possible

All you need to do is to implement my following suggestion, described in ,

"  A New Economic Order / Start Up Act - 2015 " /  12 Sept 2015  " :

SUGGESTION

    *  Although all Start Ups will need to file annual Income Tax returns ( with full disclosure of income / expenses / profits / sources of funds etc ) , it will not be required to pay any Corporate Income Tax for the first 10 years of its existence

     *  A Start Up will be free to raise  funds from any source ( Individuals / Companies / PE funds / VCs / Angel Investors / Religious Trusts etc )

     *  100 % FDI will be permitted in Start Ups

     *  A Start Up can receive loans or equity and be able to accept fixed deposits . It can also give loans to individuals or other Start Ups or invest in other Start Ups by way of equity

    *  There will be no restrictions on what interest ( on loans / FDs ) that a Start Up may pay nor any restrictions on dividends it may declare

        The dividends declared by Start Ups will not attract any Income Tax

    *  As far as the persons / companies etc providing funds to Start Ups ( by way of loans or equity ) is concerned , no questions will be asked re their source of funds

   WHAT  WILL   HAPPEN , IF  IMPLEMENTED  ?

   *  Billions of rupees worth Black Money will flow into these Start Ups - money which is currently lying unutilized or locked up in unproductive assets

       

    *  Within 3 months , thousands of Venture Capital Funds will be born , exclusively for funding of Start Ups ( You know who will set up these VCs ! )

    *  With NO Income Tax to be paid , Start Ups will conduct all transactions through cheques ( receipts / payments )

    *  GST  collections will go up

    *  Domestic Savings Rate will go up

    *  Since millions of ( Black Money holding ) individuals / businesses will come forward to fund these Start Ups , lending pressure on banks will go down

    *  Who knows , Start Ups may get into the business of Assets Reconstruction and relieve banks of NPAs !

    *  With locally / domestically stashed Black Money flowing into the economy , our dependence on FDI will go down

    *  Corruption will decline drastically

Dear Shri Narendrabhai :

It is still not late to incorporate my suggestion in forthcoming Union Budget on 29 Feb 2016

This is your opportunity to ,

*   Dream BIG

*   Enable millions to dream big

*   Unleash the Entrepreneurial Genome of India's Youth

*   Make 21st Century , an Indian Century 

*   notwithstanding the opposition in Rajya Sabha

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05  Sept  2016

www.hemenparekh.in / blogs

Indian Railways : A Trillion Dollar Opportunity

That was the name of a Conference held in Mumbai , on 03 Sept 2016

Railway Minister , Shri Suresh Prabhu , wants businesses and Agencies ( both , national and international ) , to invest billions of dollars in modernizing the Indian Railways

These " modernizations " include :

#    High speed Trains

#    Rolling Stock

#    Railway Station Development

#    Signaling and Structural Development....etc

How about making this an " Opportunity to save 15,000 lives " ? ( Number of persons getting run-over by trains each year in India )

On the tracks of Mumbai local trains alone , some 3,000 + persons get run over each year , while crossing

Just the day before the Conference , as many as 18 persons got run over in a single day !

Provision of overhead bridges has not helped . Temptation to catch a train is too much when time is short  !

Perhaps sub-conscious thinking of people who cross the track , goes :

" Of the 100,000 persons who cross the tracks daily, only 10 die. My probability of getting hit is only 1 in 10,000 ! "

But what if that probability was 1 in 1 ( 100 % certainty ) ?

Like a 11KV current flowing in the tracks ?  You dare to cross , you die ! No one will dare !

No , please don't get me wrong ! I am NOT suggesting anything sinister like that ! ( anything like replacing those pellet guns in Kashmir with AK 47 assault rifles )

What I am suggesting is a " Digital Death " for the trespassers !

For today's generation , as real as " Physical Death " - or worse !

Mobile phone ( smart phone or feature phone ) of the person crossing , to get " fried / killed " , electronically !

By an innovative application of a " Controlled EMP ( Electro-Magnetic Pulse ) " , surging through the tracks , once every second - low voltage but strong enough to kill the onboard solid state circuitry of the mobile phone

This low voltage magnetic wave , will neither harm the human carrying the phone in his pocket , nor kill the phones of those travelling in the train , due to " Skin Effect "

Even though, a " Low Voltage EMP " , is an oxymoron , I am sure Indian Scientists are quite capable to resolve this apparent paradox , if challenged

Shri Prabhu-ji  :

In your Rail Budget speech, you had said :

" A single accident or loss of a single life causes me great sorrow and anguish. It also demonstrates that we still have a long way to go in realizing our objective of a zero accident regime. Although our safety record is better at 20% lower accidents compared to the previous year, there is much more that is required to be done. I truly believe that the way forward to eliminate accidents from IR is through adoption and assimilation of latest technology. "

Instead of , always trying to " adopt and assimilate " technologies developed abroad , please consider " Evolving " of a technology locally for your goal of " Zero Accident Regime "

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04  Sept  2016

www.hemenparekh.in / blogs

An excellent advice , Shri Raoteji !

Shri Diwakar Raoteji

Minister for Transport

Maharashtra Government

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

Dear Shri Raoteji,

In Hindustan Times ( 02 Sept 2016 ) , carries a news report , which reads :

State Transport Minister Diwakar Raote on Thursday asked autorickshaw and taxi unions to improve and upgrade their services by using tools such as smart phone applications to give cab aggregators a good run for their money .

Shri Raote said, " I have suggested them to use app and install GPS in their taxis to improve services "

An excellent advice , Shri Raoteji  !

It is high time , old / established / entrenched businesses realize that the March of Technology cannot be stopped and they stand to become obsolete if they fail to " re-invent " their business models  

If Taxi-Auto owners want to know how exactly they can beat Uber / Ola , at their own game , let them read my following suggestion / blog

I would be happy to help , if requested

with regards,

hemen  parekh

( click to view my profile ) 

www.hemenparekh.in

Marol , Mumbai , India

hcp@RecruitGuru.com

( M ) +91 - 98,67,55,08,08

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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