BHIM : Can You tango with GST ?

In another ten days , GST will roll out across India on July 01

Businesses / Industries / Experts / Tax Consultants / Politicians and even 80+ lakh tax assesses are worried to death about possible disruption to businesses

Government officers do not deny that there might be a chaos , considering that nothing like this reform has ever been attempted in any other country, on this scale

ASSOCHAM and others , have requested postponement of the roll out date

As per news reports , some 67 lakh business tax payers have already “ Registered “ on GSTN portal

Big companies , buying goods / services from small companies, are bringing pressure on these suppliers to get registered or else the buying companies will stop buying and cancel pending orders

This is because , the big buying companies will have to fork out 28 % GST , without getting any “ Input Credit “ if their small suppliers are not registered !

This is a good pressure tactic for obtaining quick compliance !

Hopefully, most problems will get sorted out in 6 months , with the Government officers and the GST Council responding to each problem , as it surfaces

One major issue is the number of :

·         Daily invoices to be uploaded ( could be 500 for a hotel ? )

·          

·         GSTR 1-2-3B, Monthly returns to be filed ( could be hundreds ? )

·          

Whereas this exercise cannot be avoided for ALL types of assesses , I think it could be avoided for “ Payment Transactions “ which get made using Mobile Wallet App – BHIM V 4.0 ( Voice Activated payments )

In BHIM 4.0 , I have suggested incorporating a feature for deduction and deposition of applicable GST , into concerned account automatically !

And if BHIM V 4.0 , can deduct / deposit GST automatically / instantaneously, there is no ( technical ) reason why it cannot , also upload the relevant INVOICE pertaining to each payment and also upload those RETURNS as per schedule, on GSTN portal  !

This is possible since Aadhar Number ( ID ) is now linked to almost all of the following databases , currently being maintained by different government agencies / private concerns :

·         Bank Accounts ( from Dec 2017 ) / Jan Dhan Accounts

·         PAN ( Corporate and Individual Tax Payers )

·         Registrar of Companies / MSME Ministry

·         RTO of different States ( For Road Tax / Vehicle Tax )

·         Municipalities ( for Property Tax )

·         GSTN Portal

·         IT department / Sales Tax Department

·         Mobile Wallet Companies / Credit – Debit card Issuers

·         Excise Department / Customs Department

·         Police Department / Labour Department

·         NSSO / Election Commission ( Voter Identification )

·         A whole host of agencies

It is only a matter of time before these agencies / departments :

·         Enable Aadhar linked “ Data Exchange “ between these agencies

·         Enable total “ Synchronization “ of their departmental data bases

·         Agree to dump all data collected by them into a CENTRAL DATA BASE

BENEFITS :

·         Enormous saving of time / effort on part of small establishments ( retailers / self employed ) who accept payment using BHIM V 4.0

IMPLICATION FOR BHIM V 4.0 :

·         If BHIM 4.0 can save them the hassle of daily uploading of invoices , millions of small retailers / self-employed would use ONLY BHIM V 4.0 – and no other mobile wallets !

IS  THIS  POSSIBLE  ?

·         Correct question should be : “ When can BHIM V 4.0 , with feature to automatically upload invoices / GST returns , be launched ? “

HINT :

Could following help to implement my suggestion ?

·         https://www.linkedin.com/company-beta/13186874/

·         https://www.digio.in/

·         www.GupShup.com

·         https://backend.yourstory.com/2017/06/facebook-uses-artificial-intelligence-counter-terrorism/

I SEE NO REASON WHY BHIM CANNOT TANGO WITH GST  !

20  June  2017

www.hemenparekh.in / blogs

Will Robots get better than Humans ?

There is a general agreement among the scientists / technocrats that , in some respects at least , robots will get better at doing things , as compared to human beings

Some of these experts have even gone to the extent of predicting which jobs will be taken over by the robots – and when

But some scepticism persists in respect of a robot’s ability to copy and display “ human emotions and feelings “

Eg : Empathy

This is a “ feeling “ that  I believe a Software Agent ( - a Chat Bot ? ) could be trained to acquire if someone was to implement :

Share  Your Soul

{https://myblogepage.blogspot.com/2016/07/share-your-soul-outsourcing-unlimited.html }

Following news report ( Mumbai Mirror / 17 June ) , reinforces my belief :

“ New algorithm teaches robots human etiquette “

Scientists have developed a new machine-learning algorithm to help robots display appropriate social behaviour in interactions with humans.

Advances in artificial intelligence (AI) are making virtual and robotic assistants increasingly capable in performing complex tasks, researchers said.

For these “smart” machines to be considered safe and trustworthy collaborators with human partners, however, robots must be able to quickly assess a given situation and apply human social norms, they said.

Now, researchers at Brown University and Tufts University in the US have created a cognitive-computational model of human norms in a representation that can be coded into machines.

They developed a machine-learning algorithm that allows machines to learn norms in unfamiliar situations drawing on human data.

The project funded by the US Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) represents important progress towards the development of AI systems that can “intuit” how to behave in certain situations in much the way people do.

“The goal of this research effort was to understand and formalise human normative systems and how they guide human behaviour, so that we can set guidelines for how to design next generation AI machines that are able to help and interact effectively with humans,” said Reza Ghanadan, DARPA programme manager.

As an example in which humans intuitively apply social norms of behaviour, consider a situation in which a cell phone rings in a quiet library, researchers said.

A person receiving that call would quickly try to silence the distracting phone, and whisper into the phone before going outside to continue the call in a normal voice.

Today, an AI phone-answering system would not automatically respond with that kind of social sensitivity.

“We do not currently know how to incorporate meaningful norm processing into effective computational architectures,” Ghanadan said, adding that social and ethical norms have a number of properties that make them uniquely challenging.

Ultimately, for a robot to become social or perhaps even ethical, it will need to have a capacity to learn, represent, activate, and apply a large number of norms that people in a given society expect one another to obey, Ghanadan said.

That task will prove far more complicated than teaching AI systems rules for simpler tasks such as tagging pictures, detecting spam, or guiding people through their tax returns.

However, by providing a framework for developing and testing such complex algorithms, the new research could bring machines that emulate the best of human behaviour closer, researchers said.

18 June  2017

www.hemenparekh.in / blogs

A Living Room on the Go ?

Following news report appeared in Business Line ( 07 June ) :

“ Tata Elxsi too joins autonomous car bandwagon “

Tata Elxsi is testing prototypes of autonomous cars that could soon head for road trials provided necessary regulatory approvals are in place.

While Tesla, Google, Volvo, Uber and most major automotive companies have made rapid strides in terms of autonomous cars, Tata Elxsi, the Bengaluru-based technology company focussing on automotive electronics and software, has laced together various technologies on its platform built on artificial intelligence towards developing the autonomous car.

It has licensed its advanced autonomous technology platform Autonomai to one of the world’s top five automotive OEMs for driverless car research and development.

Thangarajan M, Senior Vice-President, Next Generation Business, Tata Elxsi, told BusinessLine :

“We are working on two prototypes of autonomous cars. One is fairly high-end artificial intelligence packed with radar, 3-D Lidar and simulation facilities.

The second one is pretty low-end sedan without much electronics where a number of elements have been loaded.”

According to him, “Artificial intelligence-based systems will become integral part of cars covering speech recognition, driver monitoring and sensor-based engine control units.

 While autonomous cars may still take more time to get on to roads, various elements that go into such cars will be all-pervasive.”

What started with pedestrian alerts and collision alerts has evolved into intelligence built into the systems.

Over the next five years, human-machine interface covering speech recognition, gesture, handwriting, eye tracking and driver monitoring, virtual assistance and natural language interfaces would make a collective impact.

“We have worked with major automotive OEMs to analyse the impact of vehicle operation and vehicle data has been co-related with driver.

The work includes night vision systems, lane depart feature, signboard recognition, pedestrian detection systems, parking assistance systems, driver drowsiness system and blind spot warning systems,” he said.

“I believe it won't be long before a car becomes a  living room on the go, ” he said.

{ https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/15/automobiles/wheels/driverless-cars-interior.html?_r=0 }

Now that TATA have put their technological prowess behind autonomous cars , my vision of Internet of Vehicles ( IoV ) , cannot be far behind !

Internet of Vehicles ( IoV )

{ https://myblogepage.blogspot.com/2017/03/internet-of-vehicles-iov.html }

18  June  2017

www.hemenparekh.in/ blogs

BHIM , the Impersonator ?

Mahabharat does not say whether BHIM - the Pandav - had another avatar

But BHIM – the Mobile Payment App – had 3 avatars already

And I thought , there could be as many as 10 !

{ Read : BHIM, the Unstoppable / 

https://myblogepage.blogspot.com/2017/04/bhim-unstoppable.html )  

After reading the following news report ( Pune Mirror / 16 June ) , if you were to imagine an avatar of BHIM which starts “ bargaining / negotiating “ with the seller of a Saree / ladies’ dress , for a better price , you would not be far off !

Can you guess how insanely popular that avatar of BHIM could become among Indians who love to bargain for each and every product or service ?

If NPCI ( National Payment Corporation of India ) , the primary developer / promoter of BHIM were to come up with such an avatar , it would obsolete ALL other mobile payment wallets !

While launching the THIRD avatar of BHIM on 14 April 2017 , our PM Shri Narendra Modiji had prophetically , said :

“ The BHIM-Aadhaar Pay app is such a modern and apt facility which even the technologically advanced countries do not have “

“It will pave the way for digital payments through the Aadhaar platform. This will enable every Indian citizen to pay digitally , using their biometric data like thumb imprint on a merchant’s biometric-enabled device which could be a smartphone with a biometric data reader.”

 “ There was an era when the thumb was a sign of being illiterate. Now, the thumb (used for Aadhaar-based transactions) has become your strength ”

“ Facebook bots can now negotiate , compromise “

Bots will be able to engage in start-to-finish negotiations with people while arriving at common decisions or outcomes

Facebook’s artificial intelligence researchers announced that they had broken new ground by giving automated programs or “ bots ” the ability to negotiate and make compromises.

The new technology pushes forward the ability to create bots “that can reason, converse and negotiate, all key steps in building a personalised digital assistant,” said researchers Mike Lewis and Dhruv Batra in a blog post.

Up to now, most bots or chat-bots have had only the ability to hold short conversations and perform simple tasks like booking a restaurant table, according to the researchers.

But in the latest code developed by Facebook, bots will be able to dialogue and “ to engage in start-to-finish negotiations with other bots or people while arriving at common decisions or outcomes,” they wrote.

Facebook’s Artificial Intelligence Researchers (FAIR) team gave bots this ability by estimating the “value” of an item and inferring how much that is worth to each party.

“FAIR researchers created many such negotiation scenarios, always ensuring that it is impossible for both agents to get the best deal simultaneously,” Lewis and Batra said.

“Furthermore, walking away from the negotiation (or not agreeing on a deal after 10 rounds of dialogue) resulted in 0 points for both agents. Simply put, negotiation is essential, and good negotiation results in better performance.”

But the bots can also find ways to be sneaky.

In some cases, bots “ initially feigned interest in a valueless item, only to later ‘compromise’ by conceding it – an effective negotiating tactic that people use regularly,” the researchers said.

This behaviour was not programmed by the researchers “but was discovered by the bot as a method for trying to achieve its goals,” they said.

WOW  !

 

How long before these  BOTS  beat humans at “ negotiating to win “ ?

And beat other BOTS or other humans , who too are negotiating with the same human for a favourable outcome ?

As in case of dozens of jobseekers being interviewed by a recruiter

Not inconceivable if someone comes up with a CANDIDATE BOT ( a software agent of the jobseekers ) , which gets pitted against a RECRUITER BOT ( a software agent of the employers )

Entirely possible if some Online Recruitment Start Up implements :

JobsFair :  Online  or Offline  ? 


{  https://myblogepage.blogspot.com/2016/08/job-fairs-offline-or-online.html }

I await

18  June  2017

www.hemenparekh.in / blogs  

Can Technology Out-Smart the Traffic Offenders ?

Read the following report which appeared in Hindustan Times ( 15 June ) :

Mumbai traffic police’s E-challan scheme faces road block, only 50k of 8 lakh motorists pay fine

The Mumbai traffic police’s ambitious SMS challan scheme seems to have hit a major road block with just 50,000 out of the 8 lakh motorists having paid the fine since January this year.

The glitch has now forced the police to look for temporary measures-- like sending paper challans to the offenders through courier or physically trace and summon them to chowkies to pay up-- before alternative arrangements are made.

“We are exploring several alternatives to collect the fines before a solution was found for the present hitch,” joint commissioner of police, traffic, Amitesh Kumar told HT.

This technology enabled the traffic police to start sending challans to offenders over SMS since January this year by collaborating with the Road Transport Authority (RTO), which maintains the telephone (mobile) data bank of the motorists. 

As soon as the personnel monitoring the cameras at the traffic police control room scan the culprit vehicle’s registration number, it is sent to another set of monitors where the telephone number of the vehicle owner is traced from the RTO data bank.

Within seconds the e-challan (denoting the fine) is generated and the text message is sent to the mobile phone of the motorist through SMS. 

Following the receipt of the challan, the motorist is expected to pay the fine at the chowkie as directed in the challan.

Sources in the traffic police said that the compliance to the SMS challans has been abysmally low ever since it’s launch in January this year. Fines for only 50,000 out of the 8 lakh challans have been deposited so far.

“While in majority of the cases the non-compliance has been deliberate, in other cases the problem occurs when telephone numbers were not updated after the vehicle was sold by the original owner. Also change of mobile number by the vehicle owner without intimating the RTO is the other factor resulting in the plague,” a senior traffic official said.

As an immediate solution, the traffic police have earmarked a plan of action which will be implemented in a phased manner. First, 500 repeat offenders have been identified against whom more than 2,700 challans are pending at present. 

“These are the repeat violators against whom 5 challans each, or more, have been pending over the months,” Joint commissioner Kumar said. 

Traffic chowkies have been given the list to physically trace the address of these motorists from RTO records and summon them to pay up the fine.

In the second phase of the drive, the traffic police would set it’s target on 2,700 more motorists against whom 3 or more challans (each) are pending (total 6,000 challans). “We want to send a message to the violators that there is no let up,” said Kumar.

Meanwhile, another traffic police official said that the glitch has forced the department to look for alternatives. “We are exploring options like approaching the (vehicle) insurance companies for phone number updates of motorists. Side by side, we are also in discussion with private courier companies for sending paper challans at the addresses of the offenders,” the official added.

MY  SUGGESTION  :

Instead of traffic police chasing the offenders , can we make the car drivers chase the police , for paying up the fines in a hurry – and ensure that they do not repeat the offence ?

Here is how :

Technology will “ immobilize “ the violating vehicle as soon as it commits the offence for the third time in a month ( even if the car owner has paid up fines for earlier offences )

By implementing :

·         Horn OK ? 

     {  https://myblogepage.blogspot.com/2016/08/horn-ok.html  }

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

·         Internetof Vehicles ( IoV )

      {  https://myblogepage.blogspot.com/2017/03/internet-of-vehicles-iov.html  }

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

Dear Shri Nitin Gadkariji :

For implementing such a technological solution , we don’t need to wait for Elon Musk to set up e-Car plant in India ( - although he will love such a challenge ! )

If challenged , the technologists of our Car Manufacturers and ISRO , can put this solution in place within one year !

What is holding us back  ?

17  June  2017

www.hemenparekh.in / blogs