Hi Friends,

Even as I launch this today ( my 80th Birthday ), I realize that there is yet so much to say and do. There is just no time to look back, no time to wonder,"Will anyone read these pages?"

With regards,
Hemen Parekh
27 June 2013

Now as I approach my 90th birthday ( 27 June 2023 ) , I invite you to visit my Digital Avatar ( www.hemenparekh.ai ) – and continue chatting with me , even when I am no more here physically

Sunday, 7 March 2021

Supreme Court is Angry : and rightly so !

 

   


 

Context :

SC pulls up Centre for delay in installation of CCTV cameras in offices of CBI, NIA, ED  /   Tribune /  02 Mar


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Extact :

The Supreme Court on Tuesday pulled up the Centre for “dragging its feet” over installation of CCTV cameras in the offices of investigating agencies such as CBI, ED and NIA even as Solicitor General Tushar Mehta sought more time to implement the court’s December 2 order.

“We are getting a distinct impression that you (government) are dragging your feet,” a Bench headed by Justice RF Nariman told Solicitor General Tushar Mehta.

Noting that the issue concerned the rights of citizens, the top court said it was not ready to accept the excuses offered in the Centre’s letter seeking adjournment.

In a move aimed at checking police brutality, the Supreme Court had on December 2 last year ordered the Centre, States and Union Territories to install CCTVs with night vision cameras in each police station, including central probe agencies such as CBI, ED, NIA, etc. across India.

"The State and Union Territory Governments should ensure that CCTV cameras are installed in each and every police station functioning in the respective State and/or Union Territory. In addition, the Union of India is also directed to install CCTV cameras and recording equipment in the offices of CBI, NIA, ED, NCB, DRI, SFIO and any other agency which carries out interrogations and has the power of arrest," it had said.

On Tuesday, Mehta sought adjournment of the case as the issue may have ramifications.

We are not concerned about the ramifications…This concerns the rights of citizens…We are not accepting the excuses,” the top court told the Solicitor General and sought to know about allocation of funds for installation of CCTVs in the offices of the central probe agencies.

After perusing a report placed before it by senior advocate and amicus curiae Siddharth Dave on the timeline of different states to comply with its direction, the court gave three weeks to the Centre to file an affidavit on the issue.

The December 2, 2020 order had come in a case relating to CCTV installation in police stations and examination of witnesses by police. The CCTV installation was revived by the top court following a case of custodial torture in Punjab.

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MY TAKE :

Of Course, Supreme Court has right to get angry, considering that its directive in this matter is nearly 3 years old

Torturing a “ suspected criminal “ to get him to admit his ( alleged – and yet unproven ) crime , has been outlawed in most countries around the world. I believe, this method is illegal even in India

But everyone knows that torturing is rampant in police-stations, all over India

According to police, the legally approved methods ( interrogation /  investigation / evidence collection / deposition by witnesses / circumstantial evidence etc ) are TOO SLOW / TOO TIME CONSUMING and often unsustainable in a court of law

But none of these can be excuse for resorting to torture, which is, without doubt, a violation of Human Rights

Having said that, allow me to add :

Ø  By all means, installing CCTVs at all ( 16,000 ) Police Stations will go a long way in reducing torture – even if it fails to eliminate it completely. To resort to torture, Police Station In-Charges will find hundreds of “ reasons “ for non-functioning of CCTVs / recording equipment

Ø  Monitoring / watching CCTV cameras on LIVE / REAL-TIME basis will require LAKHS of “ human vigilante “, on 24x7 basis. They need to be trained in deciphering the footage where torture ( even verbal abusing / threatening – and not physical ) SEEMS to be taking place    

 

RELATED READINGS :

 

Ø  CCTV in Police Stations . Tomorrow Everywhere ……[ 19 Sept 2020 ]

Ø  Supreme Surveillance Solution ?.............................[ 05 Dec 2020 ]

 

Extract :

 # We have a total of some 16,671 police stations spread among 718

    districts ( ave of 23 / district )

     

#   Each police station may need 20 CCTV cameras , ie., 460  cameras per

     district ( 23 x 20 )

     

#  Recording for say 12 hours / day, amounts to a CCTV footage of 5520

    hours / day, to be reviewed by the District Committee Members for

    “ human rights violation

        

#  From a video / audio, how does a human detect / conclude a “ human

    rights violation “ ?  

 

I urge the Supreme Court to consider,

 

     Integration with those lakhs of CCTV cameras , a ( human independent ) technology-based software which can detect in a VIDEO-RECORDING, the “ human emotions “ listed above and then alert ( by automatically e-mailing that offensive portion of a VIDEO-CLIP ) to Human Rights Commission / District – State level Oversight Committees Members / any other designated persons or agencies , along with full details of :

 

      #   District / Police Station Number

      #   Name – Rank of interrogating Police Officer

     #    Name / Aadhar ID of suspect being interrogated

     #    Date / Time of interrogation

     #    Suspected Offence for which being interrogated

     #    FIR No

===================================================

Dear Shri Amitbhai Shah,


I urge you to consider exhaustive solution ( described in my above-mentioned e mail ) which :


Ø  Will be cost - effective / practical


Ø  Will not require training thousands of persons to visually “ monitor “ those lakhs of CCTV cameras


Ø  Being “ technology – based “ ( non-human “ based ) , it will not get biased


Ø  It will automatically “ alert “ authorities / lawyers / watchdog committee members for violations


Ø  It will satisfy the Supreme Court being first of its kind in the entire world


 

With regards,

Hemen Parekh  /  hcp@RecruitGuru.com  /  08 March 2021    

 

Thursday, 4 March 2021

Congratulations, David Temkin

 


 

( Director of Product Management, Ads Privacy and Trust , Google / david@google.com / david@gmail.com / david@brave.com )

 

What For ?

For following revolutionary announcement on Google Blogs :

Charting a course towards a more privacy-first web  /  Google Blogs  /  03 March 2021

 

Extract :

 

It’s difficult to conceive of the internet we know today — with information on every topic, in every language, at the fingertips of billions of people — without advertising as its economic foundation.

 

But as our industry has strived to deliver relevant ads to consumers across the web, it has created a proliferation of individual user data across thousands of companies, typically gathered through third-party cookies.

 

This has led to an erosion of trust:

 

In fact, 72% of people feel that almost all of what they do online is being tracked by advertisers, technology firms or other companies, and 81% say that the potential risks they face because of data collection outweigh the benefits, according to a study by Pew Research Center.

 

If digital advertising doesn't evolve to address the growing concerns people have about their privacy and how their personal identity is being used, we risk the future of the free and open web.  

That’s why last year Chrome announced its intent to remove support for third-party cookies, and why we’ve been working with the broader industry on the Privacy Sandbox to build innovations that protect anonymity while still delivering results for advertisers and publishers.

Even so, we continue to get questions about whether Google will join others in the ad tech industry who plan to replace third-party cookies with alternative user-level identifiers.

Today, we’re making explicit that once third-party cookies are phased out, we will not build alternate identifiers to track individuals as they browse across the web, nor will we use them in our products.

We realize this means other providers may offer a level of user identity for ad tracking across the web that we will not — like PII graphs based on people’s email addresses.

We don’t believe these solutions will meet rising consumer expectations for privacy, nor will they stand up to rapidly evolving regulatory restrictions, and therefore aren’t a sustainable long term investment.

Instead, our web products will be powered by privacy-preserving APIs which prevent individual tracking while still delivering results for advertisers and publishers.

 

Privacy innovations are effective alternatives to tracking

People shouldn’t have to accept being tracked across the web in order to get the benefits of relevant advertising.

 

And advertisers don't need to track individual consumers across the web to get the performance benefits of digital advertising. 

Advances in aggregation, anonymization, on-device processing and other privacy-preserving technologies offer a clear path to replacing individual identifiers.

In fact, our latest tests of FLoC show one way to effectively take third-party cookies out of the advertising equation and instead hide individuals within large crowds of people with common interests.

Chrome intends to make FLoC-based cohorts available for public testing through origin trials with its next release this month, and we expect to begin testing FLoC-based cohorts with advertisers in Google Ads in Q2. 

Chrome also will offer the first iteration of new user controls in April and will expand on these controls in future releases, as more proposals reach the origin trial stage, and they receive more feedback from end users and the industry.

This points to a future where there is no need to sacrifice relevant advertising and monetization in order to deliver a private and secure experience. 

 

First-party relationships are vital

Developing strong relationships with customers has always been critical for brands to build a successful business, and this becomes even more vital in a privacy-first world.

 

We will continue to support first-party relationships on our ad platforms for partners, in which they have direct connections with their own customers.

 

And we'll deepen our support for solutions that build on these direct relationships between consumers and the brands and publishers they engage with.

Keeping the internet open and accessible for everyone requires all of us to do more to protect privacy — and that means an end to not only third-party cookies, but also any technology used for tracking individual people as they browse the web.

We remain committed to preserving a vibrant and open ecosystem where people can access a broad range of ad-supported content with confidence that their privacy and choices are respected.  We look forward to working with others in the industry on the path forward.

 

===================================================== 

Dear Shri Ravishankar Prasadji,

 

This is a very significant announcement on part of Google


Its significance lies in the following statement of David Temkin :

“ Today, we’re making explicit that once third-party cookies are phased out, we will not build alternate identifiers to track individuals as they browse across the web, nor will we use them in our products “


He goes on to add :


Ø       >      We realize this means other providers may offer a level of user identity

                  for ad tracking across the web that we will not — like PII graphs based

                  on people’s email addresses “


>      Instead, our web products will be powered by privacy-preserving

        APIs which prevent individual tracking while still delivering results for

        advertisers and publishers.

 

Ø      >     Advances in aggregation, anonymization, on-device processing and

               other privacy-preserving technologies offer a clear path to replacing

               individual identifiers


>    In fact, our latest tests of FLoC show one way to effectively take third-

      party cookies out of the advertising equation and instead hide individuals

       within large crowds of people with common interests.

 

 

Dear Shri Prasadji,


It is time to write and ask  David :


You are talking with other players in your industry for “ creation of a  PRIVACY  SANDBOX  to build innovations that protect anonymity while still delivering results for advertisers and publishers “ .


While wishing you success in convincing other industry players to join you ( of which there must be thousands ) , how about partnering with INDIA at entire country level – to implement following “ Innovations “, which enable advertisers to create DEMOGRAPHIC PROFILES of our 1.4 billion citizen ( hide individuals within large crowds of people with common interests  ),  

 

      Digital Dividend from Demographic Data [ 4 D ]………… [ 14 Feb 2019 ]

 

      SARAL ( Single  Authentic  Registration for Anywhere  Login )….[ 10 Feb 2019 ]

 

===================================================

With regards,

Hemen Parekh  /  hcp@RecruitGuru.com  /  05 March 2021

 

 

 

 

Wednesday, 3 March 2021

Elon Musk : We offer a GREEN CARPET

 


 

Tesla set up EV plant in China for following three reasons:


Ø  Chinese Govt rolled out a RED CARPET with a slew of incentives


Ø  China is by far, the biggest EV market in the world


Ø  For over a decade now, China boasts of a large number of EV component suppliers

Ø  

Question :

Ø  What kind of a GREEN CARPET can India roll out for Tesla ?


Answer :

The following news report which appeared in news-papers recently, does not provide a clear answer. But may be at this stage, Shri Nitin Gadkariji does not want to go public with the details :


India woos Tesla with cheaper production costs than China  /   First Post  /  03 March 2021

Extract :

India is ready to offer incentives to ensure Tesla Inc's cost of production would be less than in China if the carmaker commits to making its electric vehicles in the south Asian country, transport minister Nitin Gadkari told Reuters.

"Rather than assembling (the cars) in India they should make the entire product in the country by hiring local vendors. Then we can give higher concessions," Gadkari said in an interview, without giving details of what incentives would be on offer. 

"The government will make sure the production cost for Tesla will be the lowest when compared with the world, even China, when they start manufacturing their cars in India. We will assure that," he said.

But India faces a big challenge to win a production commitment from Tesla, which did not immediately respond to an email requesting comment about its plans in the country.

India's fledgling EV market accounted for just 5,000 out of a total 2.4 million cars sold in the country last year as negligible charging infrastructure and the high cost of EVs deterred buyers.

In contrast, China, where Tesla already makes cars, sold 1.25 million new energy passenger vehicles, including EVs, in 2020 out of total sales of 20 million, and accounted for more than a third of Tesla's global sales.

India also doesn't have a comprehensive EV policy like China, the world's biggest auto market, which mandates companies to invest in the sector.

Gadkari said that as well as being a big market, India could be an export hub, especially with about 80% of components for lithium-ion batteries being made locally now.

"I think it's a win-win situation for Tesla," Gadkari said, adding he also wanted to engage with Tesla about building an ultra high-speed hyperloop between Delhi and Mumbai.

India is drawing up a production-linked incentive scheme for auto and auto component makers as well as for setting up advanced battery manufacturing units, but the details are yet to be finalized.

===================================================

Dear Shri Gadkariji,

 

Any special concessions / incentives that you may be considering to offer to Tesla, will get,

Ø  demanded by other foreign EV manufacturers also, who want to set up shop in India

Ø  decried by domestic ( purely Indian ) EV manufacturers as “ killing domestic industry “

Ø  deplored by Opposition Parties as example of “ Crony Capitalism “

I am sure, given the challenge of meeting “ 30 % EV on the roads “ target by 2030 , you will not deviate from your following promise ,

" The government will make sure the production cost for Tesla will be the lowest when compared with the world, even China, when they start manufacturing their cars in India. We will assure that

 

To enable such a LOW COST PRODUCTION SYSTEM , I urge you to consider suggestions made in my following earlier e-mail :

Ø  Fastest Finger First ? ………………………………[ 07 Oct 2020 ]


Extract :

Could Shri Vijaybhai Rupani ( CM-Guarat ) have a “ Second Mover Advantage “ ( once Karnataka has revealed all its cards ) ?

Could he offer to Elon, an INTEGRATED SOLUTION as follows ?

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

[ A ]…. Lower Cost of Steel

Steel sheets constitute a major cost of a car. Gujarat can invite Anand Mahindra to set up a,

 “ Vehicle Scrapping Plant “

Such a plant could melt the recycled steel scrap ( 70 % of a car ) and reroll steel sheets and supply to TESLA plant at 30 % cheaper than virgin steel sheets from iron-ore based steel plants

Refer :

Car Grave-Yard of World ? ……………………………………………[ 14 Feb 2018 ]

Mahindra Accelo : Saluting a pioneer    …………………… [ 19 June 2018 )

Scrapping Old Vehicles : Swiss Challenge Solution …[ 24 July 2018 ]

 

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

[ B ]…. Lower cost of Electric Power

 

Get Solar Power at Rs 2.5 / Kwh from Adani Green Energy’s 10,000 MW solar project being set up in Rajasthan

The goal of 10,000 Mw generation will be achieved in phases – in phase-I, 1700 Mw hybrid power plant (solar and wind) in Jaisalmer will be established by 2021 after which 2,000 Mw plants every year in next four-five years at Jaisalmer, Jalore and Bikaner.

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

[ C  ]  …. Lower the cost of Finance

If China can give to TESLA, a cheap loan of Rs 16,467 crore, how about subsidizing TESLA India plant with those Rs 900 Crore that NITI Aayog has recommended in its proposal ?

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

[ D ] …. Lower the cost of Supply Chain of components

Next to the plot of 10,000 acres for TESLA Tera-Factory at Mundra, allot another 500 acres for EV component manufacturers.

Entice M&M ( or TATA Auto-Comp ) to set up a PRESS SHOP, to fabricate EV Body / Chassis , fed on a conveyor belt to TESLA factory ( Elon Musk’s BORING COMPANY would happily construct an UNDERGROUND TUNNEL , as done in LA / Las Vegas )

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

 [ F ]  …. Lower the cost of Sea-Freight ( for Imports-Exports )

In [ A ] , I have suggested setting up a Vehicle Scrapping Plant .

From EU ( which has problem of scrapping of millions of Petrol-Diesel cars - to replace with EVs ), let specially configured ships bring 10,000 cars ( per each inward trip ) and unload at Adani Port’s Jetty # 2 ( for conveyorized delivery to Mahindra Accelo plant for scrapping ). Unloading within 20 hours ( 500 cars per hour )

After un-loading, same ship will carry 10,000 EVs ( for export to EU ), on it’s return journey to Barcelona  

Export of 3 million EVs in 300 working days, earning enough foreign exchange for setting up many more Tera-factories ( - of course , this export could start in 2022 at the earliest – and may be only 10,000 EVs and gradually rise to 3 million / year by 2030 )

Guaranteeing full loads with minimum turn-around time, to 300 ships, will bring down round trip freight cost between Barcelona and Mundra, from $ 1600 per container, to ( may be ) $ 800 per container !

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

[ G ] ….. Lower On-road Sale Price through various incentives

#  Production Linked Incentive ( PLI )

For Electronic Companies (including Mobile manufacturers ), Govt has planned to give an incentive of 4 % - 6 % of sale price

Let Govt give a similar incentive @ 5 % of Sale Price to TESLA

Assuming India–made TESLA’s base price ( before incentives ) = Rs 10 lakh

Therefore 5 % PLI = Rs 50,000

 

#  Incentive linked to GST on imported Li-Ion Batteries

Assume :

TESLA imports a 65 Kwh battery at $ 100 / Kwh = $ 6500 = Rs 4,55,000 / -

GST at 15 % =  Rs 68,250 / - ( currently charged )

GST at 5 %   =  Rs 22,750 / -  ( proposed for TESLA plant )

Therefore , saving = Rs 45,500 / -

(  View : How Tesla's New Battery Will Destroy Gas Cars  ) 

 

#  Incentive linked to GST on Sale of EV in India

Current GST ( @ 5 % ) = Rs 10 Lakh x 5 % = Rs 50,000 / -

 Proposed GST for India-made TESLA cars = 0 %

Therefore, saving = Rs 50,000 / -

 

Added up, these 3 incentives  =  Approx  Rs 1.5 Lakhs

That would reduce the on-road Sale Price from Rs 10 Lakh to Rs 8.5 Lakh ( below the sale price of equivalent Petrol – Diesel cars )

If this happens, no one would want to buy a Petrol-Diesel Car any more !

 ==================================================

Related Readings :

Chinese Electric Cars Will Take Over The World – If We Let Them

James Morris /  https://www.whichev.net/  / james@whichev.net / jmorris@forbes.com

Extract :

There are even cheaper cars that could really disrupt the Western markets, though. Great Wall’s Ora R1 costs around $ 8,600, yet still comes with a 33kWh battery offering up to 194 miles of range. The Dacia Spring might look like a potential European competitor to the Ora R1, but that’s based on a Chinese-made car too. Even Tesla is considering building a small Chinese-made car.

 

A Brief History of Electric Vehicles in India ………..[ 30 Jan 2021 ]

===================================================

With regards,

Hemen Parekh  /  hcp@RecruitGuru.com  /  04 March 2021

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