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

Friday, 24 January 2020

One Stop Shops ?




All of the following are, without doubt, welcome initiatives to improve

#    Ease of Doing Business

#    Ease of Governance [ e-Governance  ]

#    Ease of Regulatory Framework

#    Ease of Policy Formulation


But in this enthusiasm for a DIGITAL INDIA , are there following possibilities :

#    Duplication of same data in different databases , created / maintained by different
      Ministries ?

#    Different “values “ for same data in different databases ?

      [ Left hand not knowing what the Right hand is doing ? ]


#    Due to lack of a mechanism for AUTOMATIC UPDATION and across-the-board
      SYNCHRONIZATION of data, obsolete data leading to wrong decisions ?


Before all these portals ( with their respective DATABASES – DATA SOURCES – SEARCH ENGINES – USER INTERFACES etc ), go live, I urge PMO to appoint some third party outside agency ( eg : TCS – INFOSYS – L&T INFOTECH – WIPRO etc ), to study all of these proposals to ensure that the “ misgivings “ expressed by me above , are properly addressed


Context :

[ A ]



Extract :

Ø  The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation ( MoSPI ) is developing a digital repository of all official statistics in the country, called the National Integrated Information Portal (NIIP),


Ø  Data from,


     #  ANMOL (National Health Mission),

     #  HRD ministry’s Unified District Information System for Education (UDISE),
  
     #  Corporate affairs ministry’s Corporate Data Management,

     #  Labour and employment ministry’s Unified Shram Suvidha Portal

     #  National Career Service, ICEGATE

     #  Government e-Marketplace,


-      are likely to be part of the portal.


Ø  “It will have a dashboard for socio-economic indicators to monitor the health and progress of the economy on a real-time basis and suggest leads for sector-specific interventions,”

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

[ B ]


Extract :

Ø  NITI Aayog is developing a National Data and Analytics Platform (NDAP) to serve a “one-stop platform for all published government data”, Rajiv Kumar, the vice chairman, announced. It will be built with the help of stakeholders and government bodies who work with big data. The first version of the NDAP is proposed to be released in 2021.

Ø  MediaNama has reached out to NITI Aayog and members of the technical advisory group, which has been established to govern the platform, to learn how the NDAP will be different from the Open Government Data (OGD) Platform maintained by MeitY. It seems as if the two platforms have significant overlap in areas such as use of a search engine, sources of data, social media sharing, visualisations, etc.

Ø  Apart from OGD, the NDAP will source data from websites of more than 50 ministries/departments of the central government, state governments “not exceeding 250 [sic]”, autonomous and affiliated bodies of the ministries of agriculture, education, finance and health, etc.

Ø  It appears that NDAP and OGD will have an overlap in data sources since the OGD portal has a huge corpus of data that will now be a part of NDAP
=========================================================

[ C ]



Extract :

Ø  India will come out with a National Statistical Business Register that will have data on all business enterprises in the country collated based on the results of the ongoing seventh economic census,

Ø  The register will have a district-wise list of all business enterprises and establishments engaged in production or distribution of goods or services, and it will be updated regularly using data from Goods and Services Tax Network, databases of Employees’ State Insurance Corporation, Employees' Provident Fund Organisation, and those with the corporate affairs ministry,

Ø  The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation ( MoSPI ) wants to put in place such a register to strengthen the assessment of economic activity by digitising enterprises’ data.

The register will have details such as the name of an enterprise, its location, activities, type of ownership, number of workers and PAN/TAN.
========================================================

[ D ]




Extract :

Ø  The Corporate Affairs Ministry plans to come up with a new form — SPICe Plus — for incorporation of companies

Ø  The new form will be an integrated web form offering multiple services (simultaneous registration) — name reservation, incorporation, Director Identification Number allotment, mandatory issue of PAN, TAN, EPFO, ESIC, Profession Tax (Maharashtra). It will also help in opening of a bank account.
   It will also facilitate allotment of GSTIN wherever it is applied for by the stakeholders.

Ø  The existing SPICe form is not web-based and could only be electronically uploaded.

Ø  Once SPICe Plus gets notified, all name reservations for new companies as well as new incorporations should be applied through it.
=========================================================
Related Readings :

Unique ID for Every Enterprise ?                           [ 02 Feb 2018 ]

E - Governance ?                                                 [ 03 April 2014 ]


=====================================================================================
25  Jan  2020
hcp@RecuitGuru.com



First Step to VotesApp ?




First step is always difficult , haunted by doubts of possible failure

It is like Tinker Bell ( of Peter Pan ) flying on “ wings of faith “- wings sprinkled with stardust

But Telengana State Election Commission ( SEC ) seems to have dared to take that first step by launching FACIAL RECOGNITION technology for voters during elections for Municipality at Kompally ( Medchal Malkajgiri District  )

Today’s Times of India carries following report :


Extract :

The use of the new technology entails a polling official verifying a voter’s ID proof using a smartphone, and then taking his / her photo

The voter’s photo is then uploaded on a server, using  face recognition app
This image is then tallied with the photo on the voters’ list

If the image is tallied successfully, a green mark appears on the smart phone, stating he / she is a genuine voter

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

Some 7 years ago, I suggested that we change over to a Mobile App based voting in :

 VotesApp  ,

where I suggested ,

  Vote will get recorded only when that Voter takes a Selfie - which will get matched automatically , with his Aadhar Card photo

                                      
A few years later , in my following blog / email , I had suggested that this change-over should be done in following phases :

[ source : One Nation , One Vote ?    /   29 Nov 2016  ]

 

AWARENESS  CREATION  PHASE       Now - March 2017 }

 

OPINION  GATHERING  PHASE           18 - 19 - 20th Apr 2017 }

 

CONSENSUS  GENERATION  PHASE     {  May 2017  }

 

 IMPLEMENTATION  PHASE                  20 April 2019 }

 

I followed up by sending following blogs/emails to NDA Ministers / Secretaries / MPs / MLAs  :

#  One Poll  ,  One  Time                       ( 06 Sept  2016 )

#  One Day Polling is possible                ( 31  Mar  2016 )

#  Honey ! I shrunk  the  EVM                21  Oct  2015 )

#   ROMP - A Panacea ?                         ( 06  Aug  2015 )

#  Filtering  Candidate  Information ?      18  Sept  2016 )

#  Advantage  Incumbent  ?                   05  Sept  2016 )

#  How  to  Save  Rs  5511  crore  ?        12  Dec  2015 )

#  A  Software  Powerhouse  ?                ( 24  April  2014 )


What Kompally has pulled off may be regarded as a “ Small Step for Telengana

Could it, some day lead to country-wide adoption of VotesApp , a “ Giant Leap for India “ ?


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

24  Jan  2020

hcp@recruitGuru.com










.







Wednesday, 22 January 2020

CAA Compromise : With Malice towards None




For the past few weeks, our beloved country has witnessed protests against CAA – some peaceful and some violent

There have also been endless debates on TV channels, with participants finding faults with CAA
But hardly anyone suggesting a compromise solution, consisting of modified text of this amendment, which would satisfy all the Indian citizens and which would be welcomed by all


Following is my suggestion :

=====================================================================================
Item Description
Existing Text
Proposed Text
  Short title
This Act may be called the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019

[  CAA  ]
This Act may be called the
Religiously Persecuted Foreign Minorities ( grant of Citizenship ) Act, 2020   [  RPFM  ]
Amendment of section 2.

"Provided that any person belonging to Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi or Christian community from Afghanistan, Bangladesh or Pakistan, who entered into India on or before the 31st day of December, 2014 and who has been exempted by the Central Government by or under clause (c) of sub-section (2) of section 3 of the Passport (Entry into India) Act, 1920 or from the application of the provisions of the Foreigners Act, 1946 or any rule or order made thereunder, shall not be treated as illegal migrant for the purposes of this Act;".

Under this amendment, Indian “ Certification of Naturalization “, may be granted to foreigners who have entered into India, on or before the 31st day of December , 2014, under following criteria :

[ A ].. Country of Foreigner

          Such a foreigner could hail from any country of the world

[ B ]… Religion of Foreigner

           Such a foreigner could belong to any religious community

[  C  ]…. Status of Foreigner

            In his / her own native country, said foreigner must belong to a religious minority , which has been or currently being , persecuted for his / her religious belief

[  D  ]…. Proof of persecution

           While applying for Indian “ Certification of Naturalization “, under this RPFM Act, the foreign person would need to prove to the satisfaction of the Home Ministry, that he / she was persecuted by the majority religious community in his / her native country before entering India


Special provisions as to citizenship of person covered by proviso to clause (b) of
sub-section (1)
of section 2.

'6B. (1)

The Central Government or an authority specified by it in this behalf may, subject to such conditions, restrictions and manner as may be prescribed, on an application made in this behalf, grant a certificate of registration or certificate of naturalisation to a person referred to in the proviso to clause (b) of sub-section (1) of section 2.



----------------------------
(2)

Subject to fulfilment of the conditions specified in section 5 or the qualifications for naturalisation under the provisions of the Third Schedule, a person granted the certificate of registration or certificate of naturalisation under sub-section (1) shall be deemed to be a citizen of India from the date of his entry into India.


6B ( 1 )

No change in existing text














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

( 2 )


Subject to fulfilment of the conditions specified in section 5 or the qualifications for naturalisation under the provisions of the Third Schedule, a person granted the certificate of registration or certificate of naturalisation under sub-section (1) shall be deemed to be a citizen of India , upon completion of 10 years of continuous stay from the date of entry
However, in consideration of the level of religious persecution suffered by certificate holder , Government may , at its sole discretion , shorten this period
Foreigners failing to fulfill the conditions for issue of “ Certificate of Naturalization “
No mention in existing text
If an applicant fails to fulfill the conditions laid down for the issue of the “Certificate of Naturalization “, then ,

Ø  He / she will be reimbursed the cost of repatriation to his / her native country

Ø  In case of his / her native country refusing to take him / her back, he / she may continue to stay in the same city / town of India, where they are currently residing, with the status of,


             Atithi of India

Ø  As an “Atithi “, such person cannot buy / own any property in India but may continue to earn their livelihood as at present and pay legal taxes on their income as per Income Tax Act
Detention Camps
No mention in existing text
Persons failing the conditions for getting “ Certification of Naturalization “, will not be forced to stay in facilities specifically created for their stay by the Government . But , if requested , they will be granted “ Temporary Accommodation “ in such facilities
Children born to such Foreigners
No mention in existing text
If such children are born in India, they will be granted Indian Citizenship, even if the foreigner failed to get “Certificate of Naturalization “  
Subject to be added by readers of this blog

            ?


Dear Shri Amitbhai Shah,

This is not a question of losing face .

It is a question of magnanimity – a question of accommodation of the wishes of everyone concerned – a question of “ Give and Take “ – a question of “ sub ka Saath , Sub ka Vikas “


Even the CJI of the Supreme Court said yesterday :


“ I don’t think anything ( any law like CAA ) is irreversible . There will have to be a date for hearing this interim prayer ( for stay on CAA )………. This case is uppermost in everybody’s mind “


I urge you to consider further amendment of CAA along the lines suggested by me above , after due prior discussions with all the parties concerned
I believe they will appreciate your constructive approach


With regards,

Hemen parekh

==================================================================
23  Jan  2020
hcp@RecruitGuru.com