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Sunday, 20 November 2016

A Step in the Right Direction

DNA ( 18 Nov 2016 ) carries following news report :

" Now, pay more for every traffic offence "

Part of the report reads ,

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Soon, you will pay escalated charges for repeating a traffic offence which may eventually lead to suspension of your license.

The state home department, which is working on extending the e-challan project in all 26 municipal corporations of Maharashtra, is set to introduce a Point of Sale (POS) machine.

The machine will automatically show whether the offence has been committed for the second, third or even more number of occasions by the driver, and will charge an escalated penalty accordingly.

For too many offences, the government is also proposing to introduce

* temporary suspension of license,

* impounding , and

* cancellation of license.

Under this system offenders will have the freedom to pay by debit card, credit card or take a printed challan and pay in cash or challenge it in court.

Senior home department officers further said that in the current system of violators being fined by the traffic police on the spot in physical mode is time consuming and cumbersome.

"It also does not show record of how many violations are done by a particular license holder.

Under the e-challan facility, CCTV surveillance system is set up at traffic signals and the cameras are linked to the main control room.

If traffic rules are violated, the pictures are captured on the camera. Based on the pictures, a letter seeking penalty for traffic norm violations is sent to the person concerned.

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One more example that NDA ministers listen to the suggestions of ordinary citizens and implement the same , if found good

I hope , someday soon , Shri Nitin Gadkariji , will implement the rest of my following suggestion , sent to him ( as Email ) , 2 months back

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Monday, 22 August 2016

HORN OK ?

No doubt , you have seen these words painted behind many trucks in India

But Transport Minister , Shri Gadkari says : HORN NOT OK !

Times of India ( 17 Aug 2916 ) carries a news report titled :

" Gadkari wants to silence horns "

It goes on to quote Shri Gadkari :

" Honking and using pressure horns is a big menace on our roads. Only rules and regulations can't address this problem . We need a change in behavior and mindset of drivers "

Last week Shri Gadkari introduced a bill which will impose on the erring ( honking ) drivers , a fine of Rs 1,000/-

A repeat offence will attract a penalty of Rs 2,000/-

Shri Gadkari added :

" The central law will create an enabling framework for the enforcement agencies to use these provisions for reining in violations

The enforcement agencies must also do their job with sincerity and must not use these provisions for making a quick buck "

Apparently Shri Gadkari is all too aware how this law will get abused !

And prey , in a traffic of hundreds of vehicles passing any road-crossing every minute , how will the policeman on duty decide " WHO honked ? "

Will not , on-the-road arguments / disputes ( Where is the proof that I honked ? ) end up in " It is your word against mine " ? And bring the traffic to a halt ?

Shri Gadkari thought of automatic toll plazas , where each passing car would be embedded with an RFID chip

Even as the car slows down just slightly for CCTV cameras to read the Car Number and transmit it to a Central Server , the toll amount gets deducted automatically from the prepaid RFID chip !

No need for a human attendant to collect payment , no waiting in a queue , no arguments !

Why can he not just mandate all car / truck manufacturers to pre-install a RFID based SCADA chip in their vehicles which will flash the car number of the honking car, on the Mobile Phone of the nearest policeman ?

No arguments !

And instant / automatic penalty deduction thru Mobile Wallet details , embedded in that SCADA chip !

( Some of these data will need to be entered into the chip by the Vehicle Dealer at the time of sale )

But then nothing stops Shri Gadkari to tell the vehicle manufacturers :

" What we need is a TRANSPORT REVOLUTION

To bring that about , each SCADA chip must get hard-coded with full details about that vehicle , such as :

* Type of Engine ( Petrol / Diesel / Electric etc ) with CC / KW capacity and Engine Number

* Make / Model / Year of manufacture / Sitting Capacity etc

* Anything else that you ( the Manufacturers ) can think up of , which will ultimately lead to sharing of

AUTONOMOUS CARS / BIKES and help reduce individual/personal ownership. for a vastly underutilized asset "

This will enable the Transport Ministry to " Acquire " a variety of Data , to keep track of the following

dynamically :

* No of vehicles on our roads at any time / any place ( Traffic Density ) and their direction / velocity for better

traffic control . Delivered through a Mobile App ( called, DIVERT ? ), this will help motorists in commuting

* Amount of Emission Gases being injected into the atmosphere by all the vehicles and each vehicle .

Every time any vehicle fails to meet BHARAT VI emission standard , its Vehicle No will flash on the Mobile

Screen of the nearest Policeman , who will pull it aside and immobilize it till set right !

* Which vehicle got involved in an accident , when , how , where and may be , even " why " !

* Which vehicle honked when / where

I am sure , readers will come up with a list of other benefits

Much easier than trying to change ,

# Mindsets of drivers

# Temptation of trying to make a quick buck

For a change , instead of following, can we think of leading the World ?

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21 Nov 2016

www.hemenparekh.in / blogs

Posted by Hemen Parekh

A Case of Misplaced Priority ?

Yesterday , there was a terrible train accident near Kanpur

As per latest reports , some 100 persons got killed and around 100 got injured

Government was quick to announce a compensation of Rs 2 lakhs to the kin of those dead and Rs 50,000 to the injured

So , to the Government , apart from the loss to the property , the ECONOMIC LOSS was , approx Rs 2.5 Crore

And if someone were to fight this case in the Courts ( for next 5 years ? ) , the Court might award Rs 1 crore per dead ( loss of earning capacity at Rs 2.5 lakh per year for 40 years )

That would add another Rs 100 Crore of " Economic Cost ", to the government

But what about the EMOTIONAL LOSS of the bereaved family ?

It is just not possible to attach a monetary value to the life-long sufferings of those families

I believe , we have lost ( on ave ) , some 50 lives to major train accidents , each year for the past 22 years ( not counting ave of 10 persons who get run over by Mumbai local trains , EVERY DAY ! )

View this in the background of Government plan to spend Rs 1,00,000 CRORES , for a Bullet Train between Mumbai and Ahmadabad, which will transport 600 persons in 2 hours , in place of the current travel time of 8 hours

So , what will we gain for this enormous " Economic Cost " ?

Some people will save 6 hours of travel time !

Even as 50 persons continue to die each year in train accidents , which are , largely preventable !

And , very likely , implementing technological solution for saving these lives would cost , less than Rs 1,000 cr !

Major causes of train accidents are :

# Fractured rails ( as is suspected in the present case )

# Loose anchor bolts

# Sagging rails due to washed out foundation

# Jammed track-switching mechanisms

# Faulty Signals...etc

And , of course , " human errors of judgment "

How come such train accidents rarely happen in Developed / Advanced countries , despite the fact that their trains run 2 / 4 times as fast as ours ?

Simple answer :

They have implemented technological solutions ( Data Acquisition Devices and Software ) , which , not only monitor / detect the " faults / failures " described above , but , they alert the train-traffic management team in real time , on large screens in their TRAFFIC CONTROL ROOM

And , if the person watching that TRAFFIC FAULT SCREEN , is slow to respond ( to take a corrective action ) , the software will bring the train to a halt , on its own !

If our ISRO scientists / engineers can detect a tiny fuel leak in our rockets / satellites , from thousands of kilometers away ,- and make course correction in milliseconds , there is no reason to doubt their capability to find a technical solution to prevent train accidents

I have no doubt that Shri Suresh Prabhu will re-arrange his priorities !

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21 Nov 2016

www.hemenparekh.in / blogs

Saturday, 19 November 2016

A Dark Cloud With Gold Lining ?

For the women of India , can the dark cloud of Demonetization , turn out to be one with a " Golden Lining " ?

Could the drive to eliminate BLACK MONEY , result into " Women Empowerment " ?

If you cannot see the connection , please consider the following :

# Value of withdrawn notes of Rs 500 / 1000 = Approx Rs 15 lakh*crore

# Of the above ,(approx ) Rs 10 lakh*crore worth notes are with public ( rest with banks )

# Of Rs 10 lakh*crore, may be 50% gets returned to RBI ( Approx Rs 5 lakh*crore )

# Remaining 50 % may get burnt / destroyed ( Rs 5 lakh*crore )

# But , at 23 % of GDP , India's BLACK ECONOMY is valued at Rs 39 lakh*crore

# Which means , Rs 34 lakh*crore ( Rs 39 Lakh*cr - Rs 5 Lakh*cr of Black Cash which got

burnt ) are in the form of either GOLD or PROPERTY

# Let us assume that 50 % of that Rs 34 lakh*crore is in the form of GOLD BISCUITS

# There is no way , RBI can withdraw those GOLD BISCUITS . No demonetization possible !

So , what will the holders of those GOLD BISCUITS do to escape the raids of IT / ED ?

Simple !

Give these ( of course , gradually over a period of few years ) as GIFTS to ladies of the family as " Stri-Dhan ", where Income Tax provisions are as follows :

# " Gold / Jewellery " are WEALTH and subject to WEALTH TAX

# If a lady declares in her Wealth Tax return , wealth in excess of Rs 30 lakh, she has to

pay 1 % Wealth Tax ( even if she has no regular income tax liability ? )

# During a RAID by IT dept , there can be no seizure of GOLD as follows :

* 500 gms ( approx 50 tolas , worth Rs 15 lakh ) , in case of " married " women

* 250 gms ( approx 25 tolas , worth Rs 7.5 lakh ) , in case of " unmarried " women

# There can be no seizure of ornaments which are already declared in Wealth Tax returns

# " Stri-Dhan " ( including all Gold Ornaments ) given by parents on occasion of the

marriage of a girl , is NON TAXABLE

# Of India's 810 million adults , approx 405 million are WOMEN

# Of India's 30 million persons who file Income Tax returns , maybe 5 million are

women , leaving out 400 million women who do not file Income Tax returns

# Assume that , 200 million are " Married " and 200 million are " Unmarried " women

# At the permissible limits of Rs 15 lakh ( 500 gms ) and Rs 7.5 lakh ( 250 gms ),

between them , they can hold " Stri-Dhan " ( valued at Rs 45 lakh*crores ) , without

any wealth tax liability !

When 2015-16 year tax returns get filed, expect a large number of women coming forward to file their Wealth Tax returns !

Especially those , who got married during current tax-year !

And what about those ladies whose parents expired , without a formal / legal " Will " ? Can they say , " Before her death , my mom gave me her jewellery of 500 grams " ?

Could these women, possibly declare their " Stri-Dhan " gifts , in excess of Rs 30 lakh ?

As long as the evil of Personal Income Tax / Wealth Tax continues , expect people to come up with innovative ideas to avoid tax legally

Some will even try to " Evade " tax illegally , like that businessman from Surat who was nabbed at the Airport yesterday , with 2.5 kg of Gold Biscuits , which he had purchased for Rs 90 lakhs ( using OLD notes ), which would have cost him only Rs 60 lakhs in NEW notes !

His idea was to sell this gold abroad in foreign currency - then find a way back through hawala transaction !

What does this portend for some Rs 35 lakh*crore worth of BLACK MONEY , squirreled away by Indians into foreign banks , during past 10 years ?

Will that return to India in GOLD , as " Stri-Dhan " ? Anybody's guess !

But if abolition of Personal Income Tax, is considered " too risky " , what stops the NDA government from embedding RFID micro-sensors in Rs 500 / 1000 / 2000 notes ?

That simple / cheap / fast , step could also put a permanent STOP to future generation of BLACK MONEY !

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19 Nov 2016

www.hemenparekh.in / blogs

Thursday, 17 November 2016

Having the Cake and Eating Too ?

That about sums up the desire of the NDA government

It wants to rid the economy of the Cancer of Corruption , but also wants to retain those high denomination notes for the convenience of common citizen ( ! )

There is only ONE WAY both of these objectives can be achieved simultaneously

By totally abolishing Personal Income Tax !

By simply removing the " Incentive / Motivation " for tax evasion

Why would anyone want to hide his income, if there was no tax ? Let the World know !

If that lack of privacy makes some people uncomfortable, they can keep their wealth a secret and we must respect their desire ( knowing that , Artificial Intelligence won't ! )

Remember , in itself , a note of Rs 1000 is not BLACK . If the owner of that note has paid tax on that income , it is WHITE

So , the issue is not to withdraw notes . Issue is to find out whether the owner has paid tax on those notes, or not

If a citizen has 100 notes of Rs 1000 ( Rs 1 lakh ), either in his cabinet at home or in his locker in the bank , IT / ED would not want to waste their time , trying to locate it / count it / tally this amount with that owner's tax returns , to conclude whether that amount of Rs 1 lakh was " disproportionate to his known source of income " or not

IT / ED can safely conclude that this is WHITE money

Now, if a citizen has 10,000 notes of Rs 1000 each ( Rs 1 Crore ) , but his tax returns show a taxable income of only Rs 5 lakh , that would be sufficient indication that

* the amount " un-earthed ", is " disproportionate to his known source of income "

* must have been received from " Unknown Sources of Income ",

* no tax has been paid on it

* it qualifies to be called " BLACK MONEY "

To reach the same conclusions, extrapolate this logic to locating Rs 20 crores worth CASH, in the cabinet / locker of a person , whose latest tax return shows a taxable income of only Rs 1 crore

HENCE , THE TRICK IS :

* Locate those huge hoards of CASH , concentrated in a small area ( say , 1 sq meter )

* Find out to whom those accumulations belong ( the owners )

* Compare / tally these amounts with the tax returns filed by those owners

* Carry out these 3 steps AUTOMATICALLY ( without human intervention ) with the help of

latest technology ( IndiaStack platform + RFID sensors embedded in notes )

* Seize those amounts where the ratio ( CASH found , divided by last taxable income

claimed ) exceeds 20 ( or whatever IT / ED prefers , after making ABC analysis )

WHAT IS THE NEED FOR SUCH TRICK ?

NDA government has following objectives :

# Destroy already accumulated BLACK MONEY

Far from being foolproof , current act of withdrawing Rs 500 / 1000 notes , will take care

of this to SOME extent , although it will mean a lot of inconvenience to honest people /

huge administrative costs / possible temporary drop in GDP % etc

Of course , owners of huge amounts of BLACK ( untaxed ) CASH , are already finding

innovative methods to convert their OLD notes into NEW notes !

At best , this objective will get served ONLY PARTIALLY - and temporarily

# Stop future generation of BLACK MONEY

As far as this objective is concerned , not only is the current step , TOTALY INEFFECTIVE

, it is downright RETROGRADE through introduction of NEW notes of Rs 2,000 !

Within 6 months , it will be BUSINESS AS USUAL , for the Black Marketers - and with

greater ease / convenience , using lesser number of notes to stash up ever larger

amount of CASH , in even smaller bank lockers !

Sure , BOTH of these objectives could be met SIMPLY / ELEGANTLY / SIMULTANEOUSLY , by abolishing Personal Income Tax

But that would never happen as long as matters of ECONOMY are left to the mercy of the learned Economists !

BUT ,

If you want to have the Cake ( continue with high denomination notes ),

AND

Eat it too ( ALSO stop future generation of BLACK MONEY ) ,

THEN,

Your ONLY solution is to embed those high denomination notes with RFID chips !

Even if NDA succeeds in fooling the Bankers and sundry, learned Economists, it won't be able to fool the ordinary citizens !

It is still not too late to ditch the Economic Advisors and listen to the ordinary citizens !

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18 Nov 2016

www.hemenparekh.in / blogs

Wednesday, 16 November 2016

Chakra Viewh / 2016 AD

CHAKRA-VIEWH :

Some 5,000 years ago , Pandavas and Kauravas fought the epic battle of Maha-Bharat for 18 days , on the plains of Panipat

On the 10th day Kauravas arranged their army in a battle formation known as Chakra-Viewh , which was considered very difficult to penetrate

And , if someone succeeded in penetrating , it was equally difficult to get out of

Arjun's son , brave Abhimanyu had learned the " Art of Warfare " - but in half measure

He managed to penetrate the Chakra-Viewh but did not know , how to get out !

Kauravas encircled and killed him

From 08 Nov 2016, our country is witnessing re-enacting of that epic battle of " Good " vs " Evil " - the Honest / Ordinary Citizens vs the Evil Demon of Black Money

Those of us who watched Rajya Sabha TV yesterday ( " Sanjay Drishti " of Maha-Bharat ? ), witnessed the Chakra-Viewh

QUESTION :

If , withdrawal of Rs 500 / 1000 Currency Notes , was like " penetrating the Chakra-Viewh ", can introduction of Rs 2,000 notes be considered , " getting out of the Chakra-Viewh " ?

ANSWER :

Unfortunately not !

After burning a few lakh*crore worth of OLD notes , the demon of Black Money will rise from the ashes of the OLD, in the form of those NEW notes ( made easier / simpler to carry AND hide )

Much stronger - and even more capable of destroying our economy !

IS THERE A WAY OUT ?

Fortunately , unlike 5000 years ago , today we have a technology capable of tracing / tracking the Demon of Black Money, around the clock and destroy it , no matter where it chooses to hide !

That technology is called : Passive RFID micro-sensor

For a cost of just 30 paise , embed one in each note , while printing

Following links tell us about the feasibility of this technology

# http://www.acting-man.com/?p=37637

# https://www.google.co.in/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=RFID%2B%22Currency+Note%22https://www.google.com/patents/US20140069997

# http://www.kurzweilai.net/are-you-ready-for-rfid-chips-built-into-your-money-and-documents

# http://scialert.net/fulltext/?doi=rjit.2013.427.434&org=10

# https://www.hindawi.com/journals/mpe/2015/264514/

# https://www.fleur-de-coin.com/eurocoins/banknote-rfid

# http://www.computerworld.com/article/2569398/mobile-wireless/hitachi-develops-rfid-chip-for-bank-notes--documents.html

Dear Shri A :

RFID is your " Last Chance " to extricate yourself from the mess !