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

Wednesday 20 January 2016

START UP RE-DEFINED



No doubt , you have read the definition of a Start Up in the Start Up Action Plan document

I have tried to envisage below, how that might look on that Mobile App for Registration :


*   Is yours a Private Ltd Co / LLP / Partnership  ?...........................................  Yes  /  No


*   Is your Company more than 5 years old ?....................................................Yes  /  No


*   Is your Start Up formed by splitting an existing business ?............................ Yes  /  No


*   In last 5 yrs, has your turnover exceeded Rs 25 Crores ?.............................  Yes  /  No


*   Is your product/service " DIFFERENTIATED "  ?............................................ Yes  /  No


*   Is your product / service " COMMERCIAL "  ?............................................... Yes  /  No


*  Is your product / service " INNOVATIVE "  ?................................................  Yes  /  No


*  Is your product / service driven by ,
    " TECHNOLOGY  / INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY "  ? ............................................Yes /  No


*  Is your product/service ,
   " NEW / SIGNIFICANTLY IMPROVED "  version "  ?.................... ...................... Yes / No

  
*  Does your product/service add " VALUE " to customers  ?................................ Yes / No


*  Does your product/service add " VALUE " to " WORKFLOW " ?.........................   Yes / No


*  Have you got certification  from Inter-Ministerial Board ?................................ Yes /  No


*  Have you got recommendation from Incubator in Post Grad Indian College ?.......Yes / No



MY  TAKE :

#  Each year 12 million persons join India's work force

#  Of these , 3.5 million are Graduates

#  Rest ( 8.5 million ) are 10th / 12th Standard pass or less

#  No more than 1,000 persons will fulfill above mentioned " Eligibility Criteria " for Start Up

#  There will be endless debates on the correct meaning of words in CAPITAL letters above !


WHY  SUCH  STRINGENT  " ELIGIBILITY  CRITERIA "  ?

#  At Rs 2.5 cr loan per Start Up, Govt Fund of Rs 2500 Cr can help only 1,000 Start Ups !

#  Any relaxation in " eligibility criteria " , may result in MILLIONs of persons queue-up !


WHAT  IS  THE  IMPLICATION  ?

#  Funds are just insufficient to help 12 million persons to become " Self Employed "


MY  SUGGESTION :

In India , we are talking of getting " Unemployed " to launch " Start Ups "

Anywhere between 100 million to 400 million " Unemployed " for whom neither Public Sector nor Private Sector , is in any position to create jobs

We want them to become " Self Employed " - what Shri Narendra Modi described in USA , as our " PERSONAL  SECTOR "

They are unlikely to launch technology driven , Web-based businesses , even if their businesses require them to have a Smart phone , on which , their customers can reach them

They aspire to become ( list can run into 200 trades ! ) :

*  Street-side Vendors ( Vegetables / Shoes / Purses / Fruits / Trinkets )

*  Craftsmen ( Plumber / Electrician / Carpenter / Repairer  )

*  Dhobi / Barber / Pan Beedi shop-owner / Tailor / Mochi

*  Doodh-wala / Ruddi Paper-wala / Gajra-wala / Delivery Boy

*  Cook / Maid / Courier / Tuition Teacher / Beautician / Taxi Driver

*  Home-cooked Tiffin Service /  Car wash  /  Gardening ......



How can we help millions of  JOBLESS  to set up such  MICRO - BUSINESSES  ?

By Government ( Central / State / Municipal ) getting out of their way !

HOW  ?

*  No licenses / permits / approvals / conditions / criteria

*  Simple online registration on proposed Web site of DIPP for Start Ups

*  No personal Income tax for individuals

*  No Corporate Income tax for Start Ups for 10 years ( no chance of profit in first 3 years )

*  Amnesty Scheme for enabling Rs 10 million*crores of BLACK MONEY to flow into such
   Self Employment


It is still not too late for our  Policy Makers will think " Out of Box " and implement :

www.hemenparekh.in > Blogs > A New Economic Order - Start Up Act - 2015

Anything less just won't make much of a difference !

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

hemen  parekh

21  Jan  2016

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

Make    Yourself    Heard

Dear Visitor :

It is time for YOU to speak up - and demand that YOU are heard

By emailing this suggestion - incorporating your OWN improvements - to the following Policy Makers

(  Just multiple copy all the following Email IDs into the Recipient column of your Outlook and Copy / paste this suggestion in the Message Box ) :


    narendramodi1234@gmail.com; 38ashokroad@gmail.com;ajaitley@del5.vsnl.net.in; jayant.sinha19@sansad.nic.in;piyush.goyal@gov.in;nitin.gadkari@nic.in; spprabhu1@rediffmail.com;bandaru@sansad.nic.in;smritizirani@nic.in;nsitharaman@nic.in; ravis@sansad.nic.in;sureshprabhu@irctc.co.in;prakash.j@sansad.nic.in;secy-ipp@nic.in; amitabh.kant@nic.in; shaktikanta.das@nic.in; rsecy@nic.in; adhia1981@gmail.com; ceo-niti@nic.in; atul-chaturvedi@nic.in; uma.bharati@sansad.nic.in; d.pradhan@sansad.nic.in; rprudy.office@gmail.com; rudypr@rediffmail.com; eam@mea.gov.in; mosvks@mea.gov.in; mvnaidu@sansad.nic.in; mnaqvi@sansad.nic.in; rao.inderjit@sansad.nic.in; mljoffice@gov.in; sadananda.gowda@sansad.nic.in; ministerminority@gov.in; najmah@sansad.nic.in; minister-ca@nic.in; ramvilas.paswan@sansad.nic.in; gandhim@sansad.nic.in; akumar-alpha@sansad.nic.in; jpnadda@sansad.nic.in; hm.moca@nic.in; geete@sansad.nic.in; simratbadal@yahoo.com; ns.tomar@nic.in; rmsingh@sansad.nic.in; tc.gehlot@sansad.nic.in; dr.harshvardhan@sansad.nic.in   




      

Saturday 16 January 2016

TEN MILLION START- UPS IN ONE YEAR ?


Thank you , Narendrabhai , for the Start Up Action Plan announced last evening

I am glad that some of my suggestions ( sent to Ministers / Secretaries ) over the past 2 years , have been incorporated in the ACTION PLAN , in respect of :

*    Self Certification

*    Simplified Registration thru Mobile App

*    Tax Exemption for Capital Gains

*    Entrepreneurship Program for 10 lakh students

*    No Corporate Income Tax for 3 years

   
 You will find my detailed suggestions covering these points in following blogs at :
 www.hemenparekh.in :


       *    A New Economic Order - Start Up Act 2015   /   12 Sept 2015

       *    From Job Seekers to Job Creators   /   15 Sept 2015

       *    Back Up Factory of the World  /   09 Sept 2015

       *     Blue Print for a Start Up Nation  /   27 Dec 2015

       *     Creating Jobs Vs Creating Self Employed ?  /   10 Dec 2015

       *     Get Out of the Way  /   01 Dec 2015

       *     Ten Million Entrepreneurs ?  /   19 Oct 2015

       *     Start Up Eco System / USA vs India  /   01 Oct 2015

       *     Treading the Beaten Path  /   25 Sept 2015

       *     Second Industrial Revolution  /   21 Sept 2015

       *     From Single Window to a Single Day ?  /   19 Sept 2015

       *     Myth of Job Creation  /   12 Sept 2015

       *    Killing Many Birds with One Stone  /   07 Sept 2015

       *    If Mohamed cannot go to Mountain  /   26 July 2015

       *    Ditch Historical Baggage  /   24 Dec 2015

       *    Create Self Employment  /   21 Feb 2015


Very likely , your initiative may see the birth of ten thousand new start-ups in 2016-17, which , together , might generate one lakh jobs

In itself, this will bring a new dynamism to India's Economy 

But that will still fall far short of 12 Million ( 120 lakh ) youth joining the work-force each year

Can all of these youth become Start Ups ?

It is entirely possible

All you need to do is to implement my following suggestion, described in ,

"  A New Economic Order / Start Up Act - 2015 " /  12 Sept 2015  " :


SUGGESTION

    *  Although all Start Ups will need to file annual Income Tax returns ( with full disclosure of income / expenses / profits / sources of funds etc ) , it will not be required to pay any Corporate Income Tax for the first 10 years of its existence

     *  A Start Up will be free to raise  funds from any source ( Individuals / Companies / PE funds / VCs / Angel Investors / Religious Trusts etc )

     *  100 % FDI will be permitted in Start Ups

     *  A Start Up can receive loans or equity and be able to accept fixed deposits . It can also give loans to individuals or other Start Ups or invest in other Start Ups by way of equity

    *  There will be no restrictions on what interest ( on loans / FDs ) that a Start Up may pay nor any restrictions on dividends it may declare

        The dividends declared by Start Ups will not attract any Income Tax

    *  As far as the persons / companies etc providing funds to Start Ups ( by way of loans or equity ) is concerned , no questions will be asked re their source of funds



   WHAT  WILL   HAPPEN , IF  IMPLEMENTED  ?


   *  Billions of rupees worth Black Money will flow into these Start Ups - money which is currently lying unutilized or locked up in unproductive assets

       
    *  Within 3 months , thousands of Venture Capital Funds will be born , exclusively for funding of Start Ups ( You know who will set up these VCs ! )

    *  With NO Income Tax to be paid , Start Ups will conduct all transactions through cheques ( receipts / payments )

    *  GST  collections will go up

    *  Domestic Savings Rate will go up

    *  Since millions of ( Black Money holding ) individuals / businesses will come forward to fund these Start Ups , lending pressure on banks will go down

    *  Who knows , Start Ups may get into the business of Assets Reconstruction and relieve banks of NPAs !

    *  With locally / domestically stashed Black Money flowing into the economy , our dependence on FDI will go down

    *  Corruption will decline drastically


Dear Shri Narendrabhai :

It is still not late to incorporate my suggestion in forthcoming Union Budget on 29 Feb 2016

This is your opportunity to ,


*   Dream BIG

*   Enable millions to dream big

*   Unleash the Entrepreneurial Genome of India's Youth

*   Make 21st Century , an Indian Century 

*   notwithstanding the opposition in Rajya Sabha


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


hemen  parekh

17  Jan  2016

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

Make    Yourself    Heard

Dear Visitor :

It is time for YOU to speak up - and demand that YOU are heard

By emailing this suggestion - incorporating your OWN improvements - to the following Policy Makers

(  Just multiple copy all the following Email IDs into the Recipient column of your Outlook and Copy / paste this suggestion in the Message Box ) :


    narendramodi1234@gmail.com; 38ashokroad@gmail.com;ajaitley@del5.vsnl.net.in; jayant.sinha19@sansad.nic.in;piyush.goyal@gov.in;nitin.gadkari@nic.in; spprabhu1@rediffmail.com;bandaru@sansad.nic.in;smritizirani@nic.in;nsitharaman@nic.in; ravis@sansad.nic.in;sureshprabhu@irctc.co.in;prakash.j@sansad.nic.in;secy-ipp@nic.in; amitabh.kant@nic.in; shaktikanta.das@nic.in; rsecy@nic.in; adhia1981@gmail.com; ceo-niti@nic.in; atul-chaturvedi@nic.in; uma.bharati@sansad.nic.in; d.pradhan@sansad.nic.in; rprudy.office@gmail.com; rudypr@rediffmail.com; eam@mea.gov.in; mosvks@mea.gov.in; mvnaidu@sansad.nic.in; mnaqvi@sansad.nic.in; rao.inderjit@sansad.nic.in; mljoffice@gov.in; sadananda.gowda@sansad.nic.in; ministerminority@gov.in; najmah@sansad.nic.in; minister-ca@nic.in; ramvilas.paswan@sansad.nic.in; gandhim@sansad.nic.in; akumar-alpha@sansad.nic.in; jpnadda@sansad.nic.in; hm.moca@nic.in; geete@sansad.nic.in; simratbadal@yahoo.com; ns.tomar@nic.in; rmsingh@sansad.nic.in; tc.gehlot@sansad.nic.in; dr.harshvardhan@sansad.nic.in   





       

Thursday 14 January 2016

Land of Koop Mandooks ( Frogs in the Well ) ?


How else can you describe some people trying to raise a controversy around the fact that the LION logo of " Make in India " initiative was designed by the Indian Subsidiary of an AMERICAN  Company  ?

Meaning  ?  National honour was lost  ?

It speaks poorly of the Koop Mandook mentality of some of us that Shri Amitabh Kant ( architect of Make in India initiative ) had to " defend " this by tweeting :


"  Logo has been designed by young Indians led by an Indian creative director . This is an Indian Subsidiary of W & K "


I get a feeling that those people trying to rake up a controversy must be thinking :

" Ah ! This has to be some sinister plot of  imperialist powers trying to subvert the Indian democracy

Like the Trojan Horse of the past , American ( W&K ) capitalists seems to have conspired to defeat Indian manufacturing by hiding evil software code inside that LION logo image , using secret  Steganography "



These small-minded people are forgetting that :

*   Some 16 million Indians ( largest diasporas in the World ), are working abroad

*   Annually , they are remitting to India , approx $ 70 Billion

*   Of these , 7 million Indians working in Gulf are remitting $ 40 Billion

*   An overwhelming majority of Indians working overseas are highly qualified professionals

*   Many are occupying the CEO positions in big American Companies(Google / MS / PEPSI )

*   A huge number of Indians are working in USA subsidiaries of  INDIAN  Companies

*   They are designing world-class products / services for their AMERICAN  clients , including
     USA government ( Space  / Defense / Energy Solutions / Cyber Security etc )

*   Many Indians have even reached high ranking positions in USA government

*   Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister of Singapore, are of Indian origin
    ( country which is always at rank # 1 in Ease of Doing Business  ! )

*   National Health Service of UK is heavily dependent on Indian doctors/nurses

*   Foreign countries are proud of the contribution that Indians make locally in their
     countries

*   Even today , Americans are grateful that it was the COBOL knowing ,Indian Software
    engineers who saved the collapse of American economy in 2000 , during Y2K crisis !


When will our narrow-minded citizens stop looking at the nationality / language / religion etc of a person who is contributing to our progress ?


Are they forgetting that, at the very heart of the " Make in India " initiative is invocation of :

"  ATITHI  DEVO  BHAVA "

inviting FOREIGN companies to set up their businesses in India  ?

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

hemen  parekh

15  Jan  2016

www.hemenparekh.in / blogs

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

Make    Yourself    Heard

Dear Visitor :

It is time for YOU to speak up - and demand that YOU are heard

By emailing this suggestion - incorporating your OWN improvements - to the following Policy Makers

(  Just multiple copy all the following Email IDs into the Recipient column of your Outlook and Copy / paste this suggestion in the Message Box ) :


    narendramodi1234@gmail.com; 38ashokroad@gmail.com;ajaitley@del5.vsnl.net.in; jayant.sinha19@sansad.nic.in;piyush.goyal@gov.in;nitin.gadkari@nic.in; spprabhu1@rediffmail.com;bandaru@sansad.nic.in;smritizirani@nic.in;nsitharaman@nic.in; ravis@sansad.nic.in;sureshprabhu@irctc.co.in;prakash.j@sansad.nic.in;secy-ipp@nic.in; amitabh.kant@nic.in; shaktikanta.das@nic.in; rsecy@nic.in; adhia1981@gmail.com; ceo-niti@nic.in; atul-chaturvedi@nic.in; uma.bharati@sansad.nic.in; d.pradhan@sansad.nic.in; rprudy.office@gmail.com; rudypr@rediffmail.com; eam@mea.gov.in; mosvks@mea.gov.in; mvnaidu@sansad.nic.in; mnaqvi@sansad.nic.in; rao.inderjit@sansad.nic.in; mljoffice@gov.in; sadananda.gowda@sansad.nic.in; ministerminority@gov.in; najmah@sansad.nic.in; minister-ca@nic.in; ramvilas.paswan@sansad.nic.in; gandhim@sansad.nic.in; akumar-alpha@sansad.nic.in; jpnadda@sansad.nic.in; hm.moca@nic.in; geete@sansad.nic.in; simratbadal@yahoo.com; ns.tomar@nic.in; rmsingh@sansad.nic.in; tc.gehlot@sansad.nic.in; dr.harshvardhan@sansad.nic.in   



   



Wednesday 13 January 2016

Congratulations , Shri Rudy !




Congratulations on setting for your Ministry , a lofty objective and then achieving it , viz:

*   Setting up 1150 Industrial Training Institutes ( ITI ) in year 2015 ( 100 per month )

A remarkable achievement considering that in the past 60 years , Governments ( Central + States ) , could manage to set up only 13,105 ITIs ( ave  of 18 per month )

But even that pales against your target to set up 7,000 ITIs in year 2016 !

A very refreshing approach when compared to all other ministries focusing on the fact that they have managed to " spend " by now , most of their last year's budget allocation ( the higher the percentage , the better your performance  !  )


 Why this perverse obsession with " how much you have spent " ?     


Reason is all too simple :


While drawing up the next year's budgetary allocations for various Ministries , the Finance Minister will increase / decrease their allocations based on , to what extent ( % ) did they manage to actually " spend " their current year's allocations

The one and only emphasis is on " spending " !


As usual , no MP will ask :


"  But , what exactly did the Minister concerned achieve by spending this money  ?

What physical / measureable targets did the Minister succeed in reaching / exceeding , with that money  ?

Where / What are the OUTPUTS  ?


Why is it that no targets were set in advance , before the start of the year ?


How come , Minister was allowed to shoot first and then draw concentric circles around the hole afterwards ( at the end of the year ) , to claim BULL'S EYE  ?  "



In private sector , shareholders / bankers do not hesitate to sack the CMD / MD / CEO , if he fails to deliver on promised profits


Then , why are Ministers allowed to retain their posts ( - or even get kicked upstairs  ! ) , despite failing to deliver  ?


What did get fixed , were only EXPENDITURE TARGETS  !


For a change , for the forthcoming budget ,can we expect Shri Jaitley-ji to :

*  Get away from making financial allocations ,

*  Fix for various Ministries , physical achievement targets such as :


#  FINANCE  MINISTER

   *   GDP ..... 8 % ............  [  10 % improvement ]

   *   CAD...... ( -  ) 5 % ..... [  20 % improvement ]



#  COMMERCE  MINISTER

   *   Exports........  $ 350 Billion  ....  [ 10 % improvement  ]

   *   FDI.............. $    50 Billion...... [ 20 % improvement  ]



#   RAILWAY  MINISTER

    *   Lengths of Tracks.....................125,000 Km.....      [  Up by 10 %  ]

    *   No of Passenger Trains / day..... 10,000...               [ Up by 10 % ]



#   HEALTH  MINISTER

  *   Chronic Hunger and Hunger Related Deaths
         8 Million / year ....................................  [  Down by 20 %  ]

   *   Under-nourished people..... 200 million.....  [ Down by 10 % ]



#   SOCIAL  WELFARE  MINISTER

    *    Dowery Deaths / year.......  8,000...... ......[  Down by 10 %  ]

    *    People without Toilets........ 500 Million....  [ Down by  20 % ]



#   AGRICULTURE  MINISTER

    *    Farmers Suicide/ year..... ..  14,000.............. [ Down by 20 %  ]

    *    Food Grain rotting / year..... 5 Million tons.....  [ Down by 20 %   ]



So on and so forth for each Minister



Some caution / suggestions :



*    Ignore the numbers given above. I could be factually wrong

*    Focus on the concept of " Management by Objectives "

*    Overcome the fear of " failure to meet the targets "

*    Overcome the fear of " being ridiculed " !

*    Don't chop off the neck that dares to stick out  ! Encourage risk-taking  !

*    Only failure is , not fixing the targets  !

*    Actual vs Targeted achievements must be measured , on an ongoing
      basis , by totally independent  THIRD  PARTY  agencies

      Ministers / Finance Minister and these Agencies , must agree in advance
      how the Agencies will go about " measuring " the Actual Achievements
     
      The method of measurement must be transparent and well publicized
      in advance

      Agencies shall have no role in fixing of Annual Targets

      That is best done by the Prime Minister - the CEO , MakeInIndia

*    There must be at least 10 performance parameters for each Minister

*    Parameters themselves could be selected / prioritized , based on an
      ONLINE PUBLIC SURVEY  /  OPINION POLL , from Govt web site

*    If conducting such an ONLINE POLL for the forthcoming budget is
      too late , same could be done on a printed form , by current MPs /
      MLAs / Rajya Sabha Members

*    Results of the SURVEY / POLL , must be published

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




   hemen   parekh  /  14  Jan  2016

   www.hemenparekh.in / blogs

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

Make    Yourself    Heard

Dear Visitor :

It is time for YOU to speak up - and demand that YOU are heard

By emailing this suggestion - incorporating your OWN improvements - to the following Policy Makers

(  Just multiple copy all the following Email IDs into the Recipient column of your Outlook and Copy / paste this suggestion in the Message Box ) :


    narendramodi1234@gmail.com; 38ashokroad@gmail.com;ajaitley@del5.vsnl.net.in; jayant.sinha19@sansad.nic.in;piyush.goyal@gov.in;nitin.gadkari@nic.in; spprabhu1@rediffmail.com;bandaru@sansad.nic.in;smritizirani@nic.in;nsitharaman@nic.in; ravis@sansad.nic.in;sureshprabhu@irctc.co.in;prakash.j@sansad.nic.in;secy-ipp@nic.in; amitabh.kant@nic.in; shaktikanta.das@nic.in; rsecy@nic.in; adhia1981@gmail.com; ceo-niti@nic.in; atul-chaturvedi@nic.in; uma.bharati@sansad.nic.in; d.pradhan@sansad.nic.in; rprudy.office@gmail.com; rudypr@rediffmail.com; eam@mea.gov.in; mosvks@mea.gov.in; mvnaidu@sansad.nic.in; mnaqvi@sansad.nic.in; rao.inderjit@sansad.nic.in; mljoffice@gov.in; sadananda.gowda@sansad.nic.in; ministerminority@gov.in; najmah@sansad.nic.in; minister-ca@nic.in; ramvilas.paswan@sansad.nic.in; gandhim@sansad.nic.in; akumar-alpha@sansad.nic.in; jpnadda@sansad.nic.in; hm.moca@nic.in; geete@sansad.nic.in; simratbadal@yahoo.com; ns.tomar@nic.in; rmsingh@sansad.nic.in; tc.gehlot@sansad.nic.in; dr.harshvardhan@sansad.nic.in