Come – Meet – Tea ?

In Dec 1979 , I had defined the role of a Committee as follows :

“ An  anthropologist   discovered  existence   of  'Committees' during the Indus Valley civilization.

While digging at "mohenjo-daro", he  unearthed a room-full of chairs  and  cups of  tea  -  "Come-meet-tea" !

( Since then civilization  has made  great strides  in this  art  of doing nothing, by introducing coffee - it keeps you awake !)

[ source :

https://latterstolntemployee.blogspot.com/2013/07/synopsis-communication-for-productivity_30.html   /   23  Dec  1979  ]

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39 years later , I just came across the following validation of my postulate

Par panel wants Niti Aayog to formulate policy on PSUs' financial health     

Here is what that Parliamentary Panel did :

#   RECOMMENDED

     the Niti Aayog to formulate a policy to regulate and monitor the financial health of the

     country’s PSUs 

#  OBSERVED

    that while CPSUs in a few sectors like mining, power, steel and petroleum & natural gas

    continue to hold a dominant market position , most of their counterparts in other

    sectors have been continuously making losses over the years 

#  CALLED FOR

    optimum utilisation of their assets to generate better earnings 

#  OBSERVED

    that Air India functioned under a large debt burden which became unmanageable and

    increased to gigantic proportion year after year 

#  EXPRESSED

    the hope for completion of the disinvestment process early 

#  DESIRED

    to know the fate of debts and liabilities on the disinvestment of Air India

 

#  CAUTIONED

    the government to analyse all the factors before taking any decision on the merger of

    two CPSUs 

#   OBSERVED

     that they will not be able to compete in the market  unless they are given the desired

     level of independence enjoyed by their counterparts in the private sector.

#   RECOMMENDED

     that the CPSUs' Board must be sufficiently empowered to take all strategic decisions

  

#   SAID

     accountability must be fixed for the Board or concerned ministry or department 

 

#   RECOMMENDED

     that the government should work out a uniform definition or parameters of “ strategic “

     for their classification 

#   RECOMMENDED

     that the performance of the subsidiaries of loss making state-owned firms should be

     thoroughly analyzed

 

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

After reading this , it is possible that someone may file an application under RTI Act for following details :

#  Number of government committees / panels ( Active and Passive )

#  Number of Members

#  Number of meetings held and ave no attending each meeting

#  TA / DA paid to the members

#   Ave time extensions granted as against ave specified tenures

#  No of reports submitted / yet to be submitted

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

Now , as far as NITI Aayog is concerned , it has been working on the question of SICK PSUs – and what to do with them – for quite some time and not likely to benefit much from the above-listed “ Observations / Recommendations “

It is also possible that the functionaries of NITI Aayog had opportunity to read :

FLOGGING A DYING HORSE    ………………[  28  Feb  1986  ]

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21  Dec  2018

www.hemenparekh.in / blogs

Thus spoke Mukesh :

India’s data must be controlled and owned by Indians: Mukesh Ambani  

·         “ Data colonisation” is as bad as previous forms of colonisation and India’s data must be controlled and owned by Indians

·         Data of an individual or business belongs to them and not to corporates who could use it to monetize from them.

·         In this new world, data is the new oil. And data is the new wealth. India’s data must be controlled and owned by Indian people and not by corporates, especially global corporations

·         Therefore, for India to succeed in this data-driven revolution, necessary steps will have to be taken to migrate the control and ownership of Indian data back to India - in other words, Indian wealth back to India

·         Data freedom, he said, is as precious as the freedom won in 1947.

·         Fundamentally, I am a big believer in the power of all of us together rather than a power of few.

·         The world will have to go from aggregator model to a distributor model as he backed those arguing for preventing foreign companies from repatriating and making money off of Indian consumers’ data.

·         Important thing is that data of an Indian belongs to him.  It does not belong to a corporation, whether it be Indian or global. The only right that the corporation has is exactly like a bank that if I give you a fixed deposit locker and you put your money, which is your data in my locker, it doesn’t become mine that I take that money and gamble on the stock market. If I make gain, take it and then say, I have given back your Rs 100. It doesn’t work like that

·         Fundamentally, he said, the data belongs to the individual. If I use or monetise it in any way, I have to transparently share with you the gains of that

·         I strongly feel on data ownership and the way data should be monetized for every single entity. This is true for individual, small merchants, small shops, small businesses, and large businesses. Even my business data should be my own data.

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

Thank you Mukesh  [ mukesh.ambani@ril.com  ] :

-      for articulating the  Storage – Distribution – Exploitation and Compensation for the NEW OIL , whose Ownership vests with individual citizen

Coming from you , there is no doubt that our Policy Makers will , carefully listen to you

And should the Policy Makers want to know how the principles laid down by you could be effectively translated into practice , they may look up my following earlier E mails :

The new GDP   ………………………………………………………..[  18  Dec  2018  ]

Only Answer : a Statutory Warning  ………………………..[  10  Nov  2018  ]

Contract for the Web  ………………………………………………..[  06  Nov  2018  ]

Internet Bill of Rights  ………………………………………………..[  07  Oct  2018  ]

Alice in the Wonderland of Privacy !   ………………………..[  06  Oct  2018  ]

Tim Berners-Lee Speaks    …………………………………………..[  30  Sept  2018  ]

Wealth of Nations   ……………………………………………………….[  17  Aug  2018  ]

A Matter of Motive   ……………………………………………………….[  04  Aug  2018  ]

Data Privacy Law : a Pandora’s Box ?    ……………………….[  15  July  2018  ]

Privacy  for  Sale    …………………………………………………………[  26  Aug  2017  ]

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20  Dec  2018

www.hemenparekh.in / blogs

Betting on BPOs ?

You bet  !

And here is some better news for the BPOs , which earn for India billions of dollars through “ Service Exports “ :

BPOs may be kept out of GST ambit  

Extract  :

India aims to keep business process outsourcing (BPO) service providers out of the ambit of the goods and services tax (GST), ensuring that they won’t face 18% tax. 

This will ensure that services provided by captive BPOS to their parents as well as by Indian back-office service providers are treated as exports and not face tax in the country. Intermediary services face 18% GST. 

Exports, as a principle, have to be tax neutral. Thus, all taxes used in the inputs are also reimbursed. Back-office services have enjoyed this benefit even under the erstwhile service tax regime. 

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

In August last year , I sent following e-mail to our Policy Makers , where I wrote :

 [  Ready to be Ridiculed  ]

If engaged in “ Export of Intellectual Property “ ( BPO / KPO / LPO / Any PO that the rest of the World needs to be carried out remotely by our low cost graduates ) , then it would become possible to :

·     #    Put those unsold 4 lakh flats to a productive use

·     #    Increase “ Asset Utilization “ of property worth Rs 20 lakh*crore lying idle

·     #    Provide gainful employment to 120 lakh youth

·     #    Export “ services “ valued at $ 528 Billion / year

     ( Read :   Brain Inc  2.0  ) 

     https://myblogepage.blogspot.com/2017/08/brain-inc-20.html

#       Encourage owners of these 4 lakh flats to turn their flats into “ Knowledge Factories “

         ( exempted from “ Factory Act “ / “ Shop & Establishment Act “ / “ Minimum Wages Act “

          / “ PF Act “ / various Labour Laws…  etc  )

#       These “ Knowledge Factories “ to be governed by “ Human Enterprise Act “ ( to be

         drafted / legislated )

#       Owners need not pay any taxes such as “ Property Tax  / GST / Income Tax etc “

#       No questions to be asked as to the source of funds with which the flat was bought

        

#       Owners to “ Register “ as a Start Up as laid down in :

   “  Start Up Act –2015 “

    https://myblogepage.blogspot.com/2015/09/a-new-economic-order.html

Related Readings :

HowAbout Virtual Call Centers ?                            [  04 Oct 2016  ]

 

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20  Dec  2018

www.hemenparekh.in / blogs

The new GDP

In current turmoil about ownership and protection of personal data , this GDP stands for,

Great  Data  Pilferage

On the internet, there are thousands of Data Thieves , who hack into web sites / search engines and siphon off all kinds of user data which accumulates there through usage

Then there are web sites where users submit a huge amount of their personal data for availing certain services / for buying things etc

These sites are known to “ sell “ such user-data to other companies ( - mostly , e-commerce companies ), without “ explicit “ user permission

Sites like Google – Apple – Facebook – Amazon ( the infamous GAFA ) , may not be “ selling “ user data to others “ directly “ but make such data available to advertisers “ indirectly “

  

In the process , GAFA make tons of revenue / profit

This has prompted France to introduce ( effective Jan 01 ) , the so-called GAFA tax , which is estimated to yield to the French government, $ 570 million in 2019

I am worried that when our own DATA  PROTECTION  ACT  takes concrete shape , our government too , may consider levying some such tax on Social Media sites

But the Indian user is much smarter . He is telling the government ,

“ Over the past 4 years , you have convinced us about the advantages of DBT ( Direct Benefit Transfer ) .

So , please , don’t  tax GAFA . It will be impossible to figure out how much revenue / profit they made , using our PERSONAL data and therefore , how much tax they must pay

Whatever figure IT department may come up with , will get challenged in Supreme Court

Instead , let them pay us DIRECTLY for use of our personal data .

We have just read the following news report :

Your digital life may be up for sale for just Rs 3,500: Kaspersky Lab 

[ According to cyber security firm Kaspersky Lab that investigated Dark Web markets to find out how much personal data is worth, cyber criminals can sell someone's complete digital life for less than $50 (nearly Rs 3,500 )

This can include data from stolen social media accounts, banking details, remote access to servers or desktops, and even data from popular services like Uber, Netflix, and Spotify, as well as gaming websites, dating apps, and porn websites which might store credit card information. ]

We would not be surprised if our data is being sold to 10 different parties ( E-Com sites / Advertisers etc ) every month , adding up to a loss of Rs 35,000 per month ( Rs 4.2 lakh per year )

We request you to incorporate provisions in our proposed Data Protection Law , to get these web sites to deposit this amount DIRECTLY in our Jan Dhan bank account, every time they use it for commercial purpose


And please , exempt this income from personal income tax  !

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

Dear Shri Arun Jaitleyji / Shri Ravi Shankar Prasadji ,

Here is your golden opportunity to implement an equivalent of a Universal Basic Income , without having to worry – “ How shall we fund it ? “

Just ensure that our own Data Protection Law gets centered around :

Only  Answer  ;  a Statutory  Warning 

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

19  Dec  2018

www.hemenparekh.in / blogs