Prime Minister Who Listens

Some may call him " inscrutable "

Till 2 days back , Shri Modiji was warning poor Jan Dhan account holders not to allow Black Money holders to use their accounts as some kind of a " Magic Hat " , where you put in OLD notes and , after a few weeks , pull out brand NEW notes !

He was warning Jan Dhan account holders with dire consequences ( 7 year prison ) , if they turned themselves into BENAMI account holders for Black Money owners

Following figures ( Nov 09 - Nov 30 ) , were enough evidence to suspect that this had happened :

*  ZERO balance Accounts went down by............... 4  lakh

*  Total No of accounts went up by...................... 27  lakh ( to reach 25.78 crore )

*  Total Deposits went up by......................Rs 28,685  Crore ( to reach Rs 74,322 cr )

He repeatedly said : IT / ED will keep a sharp eye on those account holders who withdraw their entire deposit within 3 / 4 weeks ( ostensibly , to return the WHITE cash to the original Black Money owners , after deducting their 30 % " commission " )

Such sudden / total withdrawals would enable IT / ED to track down those original Black Money owners and raid them ( of course , poor Jan Dhan account holders would cooperate and reveal such information , when promised " pardon " ! )

Given this simple-sounding logic, it came as a surprise to all that RBI imposed restrictions on withdrawals from these accounts at Rs 5000 and Rs 10,000 per month !

No sudden withdrawals ?  A lost opportunity to catch those culprits ?  What is going on  ?

Then speaking at a rally in Moradabad yesterday , Shri Modiji said :

" I want to tell holders of Jan Dhan accounts , they should neither withdraw nor return this money .

Write to me if someone intimidates you .

The Centre is thinking of how to utilize this money for the poor .... I am thinking hard..... racking my brains to figure out how it ( the money ) can be yours "

Dear Shri Narendrabhai :

In your process of " racking your brains to figure out " , I request you to refer to my following suggestions for your next MASTER  STROKE :

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#  E mail dt 05 Jan 2016 ( Fear of Being Ridiculed ? ) :

     *  No questions ( as to the Source ) for cash deposited in Jan Dhan Bank Accounts (

        Permanent  Unlimited Amnesty  )

    *  FD Interest / Dividends from Infra Bonds / SPVs to be credited to Jan Dhan A/cs

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#  E mail dt 30 Jan 2016 ( Structural Reforms ? )

    *  Perpetual Amnesty Scheme ( no questions asked as to the source for CASH deposits in

       Jan Dhan Accounts , if funds from these Accounts are invested in Govt

     approved INFRASTRUCTURE SPVs  )

        

      So far , Rs 30,000 Crores have been deposited in Jan Dhan Accounts . With introduction

     of this REFORM , that figure will rise a thousand times to Rs 30,000,000 Crores , within

     one year  !

   

    These investments will generate 10 million jobs each year and raise our GDP to 10 % in

    2016-17 ! 

   *  Transferring 10% of GST ( ie 1.8 % out of 18 % ) to PPF accounts of the buyers (

      increase Domestic Savings )

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#  E mail dt 01 Oct 2015 ( From  Greed  to  Great  )

*    Stop asking any questions as to the " Source " for all cash deposits 

      made into bank accounts opened under Jan Dhan Yojana

*    Encourage deposits made into Jan Dhan bank accounts to be invested in

      SOLAR POWER SPV Farms , by direct depositing of income derived ( from sale of

      electricity to DISCOMs ) into those bank accounts

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#  E mail dt 28 Feb 2016 ( Don't Expect This in Budget ! )

*  Come out with ATM V 2.0 ( call it , " Automatic Taker Machine " ? )

*  Install one in every bank branch and at 145,000 post offices ( India Post's Payment

    Banks )

*  ATM V 2.0 does  NOT  " dispense" cash . It only " accepts " cash  !

*  Cash depositor will enter personal details ( Aadhar No / Jan Dhan Bank A/C No etc ) and

    amount being deposited 

*  ATM V 2.0 will count the cash ( much like currently used CASH COUNTERS at most bank

    branches )

*  It will print out a RECEIPT , giving full details 

*  All ATMs ( V 2.0 ) will be inter-connected in a Network having a CENTRAL server

*  All cash deposited ( by every user ) will be used for Infrastructure SPV

*  Depositor will earn annual interest @ 5 % on CASH deposited ( Receipt wise )

* Cash Receipts can be en-cashed upon maturity of 10 years( like FIXED DEPOSIT receipts )

*  Interest will be TAX FREE and get directly deposited in depositor's Jan Dhan Bank A/c

*  No questions ( as to the source of the cash deposited ) will be asked ( Perpetual Amnesty

    Scheme )

I understand , Jan Dhan Yojana managed to garner deposits of approx Rs 30 thousand crores in 18 months

ATM V 2.0 , will bring back those Rs 34.4 lakh*crores of undisclosed assets that are lying in foreign banks ,

AND

Rs 340 lakh*crores of unaccounted BLACK MONEY lying in domestic bank lockers ( or locked up as gold / land )

In deep space , there are BLACK HOLES which suck in all matter . Even light cannot escape from a black hole

ATM V 2.0 will be our WHITE HOLES which will suck in all black money Indians have stashed anywhere  !

Let us use this INNOVATION , which is simply re-configuring  well-established and straight forward HW / SW ! 

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#  E mail  dt  03 June 2014 ( White Holes of Black Money ? )

*  INVERSE  TAXATION   REGIME

    Where one pays DECREASING , incremental  tax , with each higher slab of

    income. This will encourage full declaration of all income and remove 

    incentive to hide income . People will insist upon receiving all payments 

    by cheques . 

    " Reverse  Hawaala " system ( converting black money to white

    money ) will , soon eliminate parallel economy  !

*  AMNESTY  SCHEME

    Where no questions will be asked as to the source of declared black 

    money , if that money is invested in Government-Approved Infrastructure 

    SPVs .

    Dividends / interests from such investments will be free from Income Tax for 15 years .

   

    Infrastructure should also include , Education, Health-care , Sanitation etc

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Dear Shri Narendrabhai :

I repeat my earlier request to give me 20 minutes of your precious time to answer any questions that you may have with regards to my suggestions

with regards,

hemendra parekh

04 Dec 2016

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www.hemenparekh.in / blogs

   

 

Reincarnation of Smart Phone ( with SARAL app )

To accelerate the movement towards a DIGITAL PAYMENT ECONOMY ( or a LESS CASH economy ) , the committee of Chief Ministers set up for this purpose , is convinced that we need to increase the number of smart phones in use , from current 200 million to , may be 700 million

All pre-installed with AEPS ( Aadhar Enabled Payment Service ) mobile app , which the NDA government plans to launch in next 15 days

AEPS will be linked with Biometric identification / Aadhar number / Jan Dhan bank a/c number of the user 

( as suggested in my blog :  How to go Cashless : 27 Nov 2016 )

{  http://myblogepage.blogspot.in/2016/11/how-to-go-cash-less.html  }

It was reported that the Committee debated various methods of putting these additional 500 million smart phones in the hands of the users , including the option of NDA government " buying " these directly from manufacturers and then selling to public at subsidized rates

Even at a modest price of Rs 1000 per phone , that would cost Rs 500 Billion - which the government does not have

And the disaster of Aakash Tablets is still haunting us !

WHAT  ARE  THE  POSSIBLE  SOLUTIONS  ?

I am talking of solutions that do NOT require the government to foot the bill of buying 500 million phones

ONE  OF  THE  SOLUTION :

Using Smart phone as a Service ( instead of " Smart phone as a Product " )

With the arrival of UBER / OLA , cars are changing from " products owned by individuals ",

to " transport service enjoyed by hundreds without owning "

All over the World , car manufacturers are worried at this disruption , where less and less people would want to " own " a car and would rather call for a taxi through a mobile app

It is proving to be much cheaper ( than owning / maintaining ) and more convenient !

So the car manufacturers are asking of themselves :

*  Shall we become a transport service provider , rather than a car manufacturer ?

*  Rather than " sell " a car for a one-time income of Rs 10 lakh , should we sell taxi-service

   worth , a recurring income of Rs 1 lakh per month for 24 months ?

As a first step , we have recently witnessed leading car manufacturers all over the World , tying up with mobile app based taxi services

And do not be surprised if , in the next 2 years , you see taxi service providers getting cars manufactured in their OWN BRAND NAME ! And Mahindra & Mahindra , willing to do that !

There is no reason why this new BUSINESS MODEL , cannot work for smart phones

We have following options :

*  Smart phone manufacturers becoming " Mobile Service Providers - MSP " themselves

*  Mobile Service Providers getting phones made by manufacturers and " bundling " with

    their services ( - although , I believe , this is not currently permitted in India )

*  Mobile Wallet Service providers ( Paytm / Mobiquick / FreeCharge etc ) , providing the

   phones to their subscribers , free of cost or at a highly subsidized rates

*  NDA government entering into a " Revenue Share Agreement " with any of these ( Phone

   Manufacturers / MSPs / Mobile Wallet companies / Banks etc ) , who are willing to ,

   #  Get SARAL phones made , duly pre-installed with AEPS and give away to users FREE

   #  Earn from the Government , 1 % of the " Payment Transaction Amount " as their

       revenue share , whenever the user buys any goods / service , using SARAL ( for the

       Government , this will work as a kind of " subsidizing through deferred payment " )

   

But let us go back to the earlier example of cars ( Individual Ownership vs  Collective Usership , ala Uber / OLA )

Why do people need to " OWN " a phone ( AEPS pre-installed ), in order to be able to " USE " it ?

People who make their purchase payments using Credit / Debit cards , do NOT own their personal PoS machines / Card Readers !

The SELLER owns those machines , kept on his counter

And allows the BUYERS to use these while making payment

With AEPS duly " integrated " with Aadhar-based BIO-METRIC device , linked to user's bank account , there is no technical reason , why a BUYER cannot use an AEPS installed phone , lying on the counter of the SELLER !

When he is carrying his EYES - and his Aadhar Card - there is no need for him to " OWN / CARRY " his own EYE - READER ( smart phone ) , wherever he goes !

Just look into the camera of the SARAL phone lying on the sales counter , speak your Aadhar Number , then speak payment instruction !  As SARAL ( simple ) as that, until smart phones start reading your unspoken thoughts !

And putting a 100 million SARAL phones ( pre-installed with AEPS ) , into the hands of SELLERS , is much easier / faster / cheaper than placing 500 million phones into the hands of USERS !

With this innovation ( shrinking and morphing a bulky PoS / Card Reading Device to a tiny SARAL phone , pre-installed with AEPS ) , there is an opportunity for manufacturers of these devices to " re-invent " themselves !

Now is the time to make themselves obsolete , before someone else does !

If they don't , they are cooked !

And , since Credit / Debit card Issuers too are on the verge of " going into oblivion " , they would be happy to tie-up with PoS / Card Reader manufacturers , to implement my suggestion

They can still survive , if they ensure that those MORPHED / SHRUNK devices ( called SARAL phones ) , enable millions of illiterate Indians to make their payments , just by " talking to the phone ( lying on the SELLER's counter ) " , in a language of their choice !

If they succeed in pulling off this innovation ( of spoken instructions ) , they have a good chance to beat existing Mobile Wallet companies

Dear Shri Amitabh Kant :

If asked , Sundar Pichai ( Google ) would gladly combine " Google Talk "  with " Google Translate " , to come up with a  " SARAL " app which can be integrated into AEPS !

This  SARAL  avatar of a Smart phone , has tremendous scope for export all over the World .

I hope , the Members of the Chief Ministers Committee , find time to debate my suggestions

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03  Dec  2016

www.hemenparekh.in / blogs

Do Not Stop Here !

DNAINDIA website carried following report on 01 Dec 2016 :

"  Government wants Aadhar-enabled Payments to replace cards "

The report goes on to read :

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The Unique Identification Authority of India has planned to increase biometric authentication capacity through Aadhaar to 40 crore a day from 10 crore to encourage more use of the platform for realising a cashless society.

The government is concurrently working on developing a common mobile phone app that can be used by shopkeepers and merchants for receiving Aadhaar-enabled payments bypassing credit and debit cards, pin and password.

Through this mobile application, the handset will be used for authenticating biometrics of customers making Aadhaar enabled payment.

Shri Ajay Bhushan ( CEO - UIDAI ) explained that these biometric authentications include attendance marked by employees of government establishments.

{ This was suggested in my blog / email : From BAD toMAD : dt 01 June 2016 }

{  http://myblogepage.blogspot.in/2016/06/from-bad-to-mad.html  }

The 12-digit number has already been issued to 1.08 crore people and 99 per cent of adults have been covered.

People can link their Aadhaar with their bank accounts and use Aadhaar Enabled Payment System (AEPS) for funds transfer, balance enquiry, cash deposits or withdrawals and inter-banking transactions.

AEPS allows users to make payments to merchants or shopkeepers without credit or debit cards using their Aadhaar number and biometric authentication.

They just need to quote Aadhaar and authenticate it through biometrics. The money is directly transferred from the customer's bank account to the merchant's. Subscribers of 118 public and private banks can use AEPS at present.

NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant said the government is working on incentivising cashless transactions and disincentivising cash transactions.

"We are asking mobile manufacturers to see if all mobiles made in India should be in-built with iris or thumb identification system to help Aadhaar-enabled transactions," Kant said.

Kant is part of the chief ministers committee that will lay out a road map for implementation of digital payments over the next one year. The first meeting is scheduled today.

IT Secretary Aruna Sundarajan said the ministry has kept aside Rs 100 crore to incentivise enrolment of merchants on to the digital platform to help push the drive.

"IT department is providing incentive of Rs 100 for every merchant enrolled through over two lakh common service centres across India. The ministry will undertake a major outreach communication campaign starting from Monday," she said.

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This is one more proof that Ministers / Secretaries of NDA government , not only read every suggestion received from ordinary citizens , but also implement the same , if found good - and double-quick too !

PROOF :

In my email to Ministers / Secretaries ( dt 27 Nov 2016 ) , I suggested as follows :

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Dear Shri Amitabh Kant :

There is no doubt , you will encourage PRIVATE SECTOR players to launch Mobile Wallet apps

But you have this opportunity to SIMPLIFY the use of Mobile Wallet Apps - the use , which appears " daunting " to rural folks

Here is how :

*  Based on UPI / Indiastack , come out ( in next 6 days ? ) , with M-Rup ( RuPay based 

   mobile app , linked to Jan Dhan A/c and to Aadhar Biometric verification of the user )

*  Citizen can download M-Rup ( whether on Smart phone or on feature phone ) ,from

   Google App store 

*  M-Rup can be activated only after user enters his Jan Dhan A/c number / his Aadhar

   Card number and his Mobile number , in the App

   

*  At the time of " Activation ", let the M-Rup wallet get filled up with Rs 100 ( as a freebie )

*  This initial loading of M-Rup with Rs 100, to happen, even if the user has no Jan Dhan a/c

*  This initial loading will enable the users to " experiment " transferring or receiving digital

   money ( even between friends , none of whom have Jan Dhan accounts !). Make it FUN !

I am sure , you will say :

" How does this make M-Rup any DIFFERENT from any other Mobile Wallet app ?  

  Where is that SIMLIFICATION of use ? "

  

Dear Shri Amitabh :

Like you ( and of course , Shri Modiji ) , I have a great faith in the ability of Indian software engineers ( local or NRI ) to come up with revolutionary solutions / innovations !

Just ask Sundar Pichai , Sam Pitroda , Satya Nadela , Sachin Katti , Pranav Mistry , Sanjay Sarma , Nandan Nilekani etc , if they will help implement the following :

*  Buyer  buys something worth Rs 100 from a shopkeeper

*  Buyer and the Seller , look into their own mobile-cameras ( of  smart phones

   loaded with M-Rup ) for biometric Aadhar identification / linked to Jan Dhan a/c 

*  Seller speaks in his mobile : " Muze Sau Rupiah dedo "

*  Buyer speaks in his mobile : " Inko Sau Rupiah dedo "

*  Message flashes in the mobile screen of Seller : " Tumhare account-me Sau Rupiah

   Jamah ho gaya / GST bhi kaat ke Sarkar-ko bhej diya "

*  Message flashes in the mobile screen of Buyer : " Tumhare account-se , Sau Rupiah inko

   Bhej Diya . Abhi balance me teen sau sath rupiah bacha hai "

I request all concerned , not to insult our engineers / scientists / geeks , by doubting if such SIMPLIFICATION ( based on day to day spoken language ) is possible

Doubting Thomas may want to look up ... PILOT   

{  http://www.waverlylabs.com/  }

This is the only way rural India can bypass the Jurassic Age of Plastic Cards to usher into a CASH-LESS society !

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Dear  Shri  Amitabh  Kant  :

While congratulating you - and your entire team of dedicated professionals - I request you , not to stop with launch of AEPS mobile app

Please, do come up with a version which enables millions of not-so-savvy Indians to just give a " Voice based Instructions " to AEPS app , for all of their Digital Payment transactions, in language of their choice

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02  Dec  2016

www.hemenparekh.in / blogs