Astonishing Estonia

[ Became independent in 1991 / Population of 1.3 million as compared to 1.51 million population of Mumbai Suburb Andheri ]

Following news reports appeared recently :

How Estonia is plotting to end bureaucracy 

In Estonia, marriage and divorce are among the very few government interactions that can’t be executed online 

Lessons  from  Estonia :

·         “Now we will register our child,” Andrejs Lunde says with gravity as he inserts his ID card into the card reader.

     And just like that, Oskar is Estonia’s newest citizen. No paper. No fuss.

·         Ambitious project to make government administration completely digital to reduce bureaucracy, increase transparency and boost economic growth

·         Estonia has created one platform that supports electronic authentication and digital signatures to enable paperless communications across both the private and public sectors

·         Citizens can monitor their data and see if any government or private institution accesses it

·         The platform is underpinned by software called X-Road, a decentralized data exchange system that links databases

·         The leadership looked for an industry where the country could compete. They decided on information technology and the internet

·         More than 99 percent of Estonia’s banking transactions now take place online

·         “If someone really wants my information, they will get it anyway,” said Lunde. “If they can get Hillary’s emails, they can get mine.”

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Way to imbibe those lessons in India :

·         No paper. No fuss

           [     VotesApp     //       I  SIN  >  <  U  SIN   ]

·         Reduce Bureaucracy

          [   GSTIN on Sign Boards ? How about other 16 ?   ]

                      

·         Increase Transparency

          [  Thank You , Shri Hardeep Singh Puriji   ]

                

·         Boost Economic Growth

         [  Foundation of Economy  ]

                

·         Electronic  Authentication

          [  #Aadhar-the-Irreversible   ]

                          

·         Citizens can monitor their data

         [  Only Answer : a Statutory Warning  ]

                            

·         X-Road  

         [  Break-down the Silos !   ]

                         

·         Information technology

          [  Can Indian IT Re-invent itself ?  ]

                 

·         Internet

          [  “  BACK FACTORY " OF THE WORLD ?  ]

                  

·         They can get mine   

          [  Alice in the Wonderland of Privacy !  ]

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Related  Readings :

·         Estonia : Our Gateway to World ?                  [  13  March  2018 

·         #Reliance Jio : the Mighty Start Up                 [  21  May  2018  ]

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29  Dec  2018

www.hemenparekh.in / blogs

 

Thank You , Shri Hardeep Singh Puriji

Thank You , Shri Hardeep Singh Puriji 

[  Minister for Housing and Urban Affairs  ]

Eco Times ( 26 Dec 2018 ) carries following report :

Government may open data platforms to public scrutiny in January 

Extract  :

·         The Ministry of housing and urban affairs, which is spearheading the highest number flagship programs , is developing the app and is likely to open its data platform to public in Jan 2019

·         The app will involve geotagging of all infrastructure created and then uploading the unique address with videos and photographs……..

·         The biggest challenge is being posed by Swachh Bharat Abhiyan , under which 6.2 million individual household toilets and about 500,000 community and public toilets have been constructed. Geotagging all of them with photographs is a tedious task but ultimately it is creation of asset from government funds so it will happen gradually

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In my blog / email ( 04  Dec  2015 ) to the Cabinet Ministers , I had urged :

[  Nothing prettier than PERT !  ]

 

·         When any Ministry submits any Project Proposal for Cabinet approval , it must be accompanied by a PERT ( Program Evaluation and Review Technique ) chart , clearly showing all the " Activities " lying along the CRITICAL PATH

     ( earlier known as the CRITICAL PATH METHOD )

·         Insist that all the government departments / contractors, responsible for execution of any of these "activities", update the PERT chart status online on the web site of the Project Monitoring Group

     

    

·         PERT charts for all the projects should be made visible to the general public

·         If there is any " slippage " in any activity lying on the CRITICAL PATH , the name of the department or contractor responsible , must appear in bold RED letters , against that activity

     

·         This is the only INNOVATION that we need , to ensure that the projects get completed in time and within budget

         [ Tutorial : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bmaDMSQe04 ]

.

PERT network chart for a seven-month project with five milestones (10 through 50) and six activities (A through F).

The program (or project) evaluation and review technique (PERT) is a statistical tool used in project management, which was designed to analyze and represent the tasks involved in completing a given project.

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And 5 months after my first email to the Policy Makers , following is what I wrote to NITI Aayog, on , 07  May  2016 :

Dear  Sir  :

Economic Times (  05 May  ) talks about a PMO letter to NITI Aayog , as follows :

  

"  NITI Aayog is requested to undertake monthly monitoring of the implementation of decisions taken, create a dashboard for constant Monitoring, Evaluation and Review, and fix up outcome targets for all major schemes of infrastructure and social sectors for FY2016-17 and submit them to PMO by May 21, 2016  "

  

As you would have noticed in my earlier suggestion , the best results would be achieved , when department / ministry proposing the project is , itself made responsible for :

  

#   Preparing a comprehensive list of Project Activities and their " sequences " ( parallel or

     consequential )

  

#   Estimating " Time " , each activity will take to complete

  

#   Defining ( by name / designation / mobile number / email ID ) , those responsible for

     each activity

  

#   Uploading all of these DATA , in the PERT INPUT page on web site of NITI Aayog

  

#   Updating  the PERT CHART on daily basis

  

Entire idea is to put the ball in the court of these departments / ministries !

If created / maintained by NITI Aayog , the chart ( Dashboard ) would become an instrument of endless arguments !

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Dear  Shri  Puriji,

As far as geotagging of those millions of toilets is concerned, I suggest adopting the technology platform of www.What3Words.com , who are in the process of adapting their unique / simple tech for HINDI language

All we need to do is to feed this “ location database “ of 6.2 million toilets in 3 HINDI Words, to an army of DRONES , which will precisely locate each of those toilets , take a photo and create a geotagged database – all within weeks  !

Following correspondence with the support team of  What3Words  shows how this can be done , with least human intervention :

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

On Fri, Sep 28, 2018 at 11:18 AM, "hcp@recruitguru.com" <hcp@recruitguru.com> wrote:

How do I find address for a small hut in the middle of DHARAVI SLUM in Mumbai ?

Support team replied :

“ Using our map site, which you can find here :

https://map.what3words.com/handed.airstrip.contrived ,

you can locate the location you wish to find.

I have set the 3 word address to Dharavi, Mumbai so finding the location you wish will be easier.

Drag the map around to find the location you wish, and there you may see the 3 word address for that location “

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27  Dec  2018

www.hemenparekh.in / blogs

 

Thank You , Shri Jaitleyji,

Finance minister wants govt depts to lease e-vehicles   [  26  Dec  ]  

Extract :

·         The finance minister has asked all government departments to switch over from petrol and diesel to electric vehicles while hiring cars…

·         In recent years, to cut down on manpower and maintenance costs, government departments have opted to lease vehicles….

 

·         ….. and has a lower operating cost, the expenditure department said in a note to other government departments 

·         North Block has issued the circular and also attached  a revamped lease agreement  ……….

·         Government’s own experiment to lease 10,000 electric vehicle from public sector Energy Efficiency Sevices Limited ( EESL ) has not fully taken off

·         In fact a second tender for vehicles from companies such as TATA and Mahindra has not been issued as the manufacturers are yet to complete the first order

 

·         Further, officials pointed out that the charging infrastructure is inadequate with only a few chargers in NITI Aayog and just one point in Udyog Bhavan and a few other government offices 

·         Before cars are leased, a network of chargers will have to be put in place ….

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Since Aug 2017 , I have sent 16 e-mails to the Cabinet Ministers / NITI Aayog / EESL etc, urging that,

·          EESL itself should modify its first tender ( for 10,000 Electric Cars ) from  outright “ purchase “ to “ Wet Lease “

Main advantages of wet-leasing :

·         Saving of initial capital outlay of Rs 1200 crore ( for 10,000 cars )

Over the next 4 years, EESL plans to replace the entire govt fleet of 500,000 petrol / diesel cars with Electric cars

·         Big saving in operating cost ( Rs / km )

·         No need to worry about setting up Charging Network

    ( - this will happen only if the lease rent is stipulated  in “ Rs / km “  and not “ Rs /

     month “ . Under such terms , TATA / M&M will rush to set up a wide network of

     charging stations to ensure that their leased cars do not run out of charge and idle  )

·         No worry about driver absenteeism / leave replacement

The details of advantages are explained at length in my last email :

EESL : It is your move now !    …………………………………………………………..[  12  Oct  2018  ]

Now Shri Jaitleyji is a highly cultured and polite person

He will not say :      “  EESL , I want you to opt for leasing “

He is more likely to say :   “ Saurabh Kumarji, I request you to examine the leasing option “

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26  Dec  2018

www.hemenparekh.in / blogs

Amitabh says : Grow Big

In yesterday’s Hindustan Times , Shri Amitabh Kant ( CEO – NITI Aayog ) expressed his personal views in :

India needs champion companies to achieve a high growth trajectory   

Extract :

How can India capitalise on its growth potential ?

·         Achieving size and scale are prerequisites for the economy to be highly competitive and innovation driven.

·         To do this, Indian companies must have the capability to emerge as global champions and penetrate global markets.

·         These companies will also help create the requisite jobs needed for India’s young population

·         Large, formal firms drive income and efficiency. With scale, companies can lower per unit costs and compete in global markets thereby raising their own standards.

·         The prevalence of large firms is a key characteristic of well performing economies and sectors.

·         There are certain good practices that large enterprises imbibe in economies, which is a vital reason why large enterprise in India must expand and broaden.

·         Competition and innovation are critical factors driving growth.

·         For India to reach the next stage in its economic trajectory, the government’s task is to create a supportive, enabling environment for firms to grow and achieve scale.

·         Only by facilitating champion companies can India fulfil its growth potential and move to the next rung in its development

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As always , Amitabh does not mince words and hits the nail on the head   !

Only yesterday he said :

“ We need to incentivize domestic funding in our Start Up movement, not tax them . This is necessary as we do not tax venture capital ( VC ) funds . …a serious concern is the decline in seed stage capital by 20 % ……..seed capital is extremely important to nurture entrepreneurial innovation and is often the riskiest investment “

Here is cause for concern :

2017  >  Firms raised Rs 8.6 L*crore thru debt market and Rs 1.6 L* crore from equities

2018  >  Rs 5.1 L*crore thru debt market and Rs 78500 crore from equities

Earlier as the architect of “ Make in India “ initiative and now busy fostering a positive / healthy competition among the States when it comes to “ Ease of Doing Business “ , he has championed many reforms

But “ reforming “ an entire ECONOMY of our country is an ongoing / everlasting ,“ Work in Process “

And , as far as “ Growing Big “ is concerned , I have sent following suggestions in the past :

AGENDA FOR REFORMS                                                     [  Oct 2015  to  March  2018  ]

Transport : an Integrated Logistic Plan ? ………………………………[  20  Nov  2018  ]

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

Foundation of Economy  ………………………………………………………….[  03  Nov  2018  ]

Will China save the World ?  ……………………………………………………[  21  Oct  2018  ]

Costing Plays a Key Role  ………………………………………………………..[  18  Oct  2018  ]

Climate Conundrum ?  ……………………………………………………………..[  10  Oct  2018  ]

Ayushman Bharat : Think Big  ………………………………………………….[  23  Sept  2018  ]

Crossing the Seven Seas - 7 C   ……………………………………………….[  10  Sept  2018  ]

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25  Dec  2018

www.hemenparekh.in / blogs