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 30 April 2017

Everything Else being Equal


WHAT  ?


·         Last week , Donald Trump reduced Corporate Income Tax from 35 % to 15 % for American companies


·         Earlier , UK had announced reduction in Corporate Tax from 30 % to 20 % . Several EU countries are planning similar reductions


·         Closer at home , in his last budget , Shri Arun Jaitleyji had reduced Corporate Tax from 30 % to 25 % , for companies with annual revenues of less than Rs 50 crore


·         News reports say that the Finance Ministry is considering to extend this benefit to companies with revenues of less than Rs 500 crores , in the forthcoming budget



There is sufficient evidence to show that :


·         Lower tax rates lead to better tax compliance and higher , overall tax collections


·         Lower tax rates also result in expanding the tax-base ( of tax payers )



This phenomenon assumes significance in view of the following declaration by Shri Hasmukh Adhia , Union revenue Secretary , last Saturday :


“ Close to 9 lakh registered companies have not been filing annual returns with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs ( MCA ) and are a potential source of money laundering



Focus should be now on technology . There should be no need to call anybody a thief. The machine should itself catch the thieves “




WHY  ?


·         To attract investment ( both local as well as Foreign ) in  Mfg / Services / Infrastructure ( by enabling companies to plough back increased profits )


·         To generate jobs for millions of unemployed youth


·         To prevent companies from going abroad to make more profits in countries where tax rates are lower


·         To make companies globally competitive


·         To increase share of international trade by increasing exports



WISHFUL  THINKING  ?



Not entirely  !


But , by itself , lowering of Corporate tax is not a “ sufficient “ condition for achieving the five “ Objectives “ listed above


For sure , no company hires more number of people than it needs , just because it can now “ afford “ ( due to bigger profits ) !


If we are smarter than those other countries , we should link lower Corporate Tax liability with each “ ADDITIONAL UNIT OF NEW JOB CREATION “ , as explained in :



Incentivizing  Employment ?  ( 24  Aug  2016  )





NEXT :


By “ Globally Competitive “ , I suppose , Economists ( - and Politicians ?  ), mean :



Creating a LOW COST ECONOMY



That is not going to happen just because of  “ LOW CORPORATE TAX “ !


It will happen only when we implement measures to facilitate  “  LOW INPUT COSTS  “


Inputs of all kinds as explained in :


·         SolarPower at Rs 1 per Kwh ?  ( 29  Jan  2017  )



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·         OneUp on Donald Trump ?  ( 16  Dec  2016  )



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·         Automationis Inescapable   ( 30  Nov  2016  )



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·         Howto break the Vicious  Circle  ?   (  03  July  2016  )



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·         Level  Playing  Field  ?  (  11  June  2016  )



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·         BackFactory of the World  ?   ( 09  Sept  2016  )



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·         Create  Wealth to  Create  Jobs   (  26  Feb  2014  )


If there is a political will , India can beat the menace of “ Anti-Globalization / De-Globalization “ , by turning itself into a LOW  COST  ECONOMY


By itself , reducing Corporate Tax will not take us very far  !



   
01 May  2017




Saturday 29 April 2017

Ignoring the Real Value ?



NDA / BJP  governments at Centre and at States , are trying to make a hit out of Biometric Attendance


A DNA report ( 27 April 2017 ) says :


“ Now , time is money for civic staff


Latecomers to face salary cuts as biometric attendance will be made mandatory from next month


Employees who are on-field can apply for outdoor ( OD ) attendance through the MCGM HR app


The HoD will receive an SMS soon after an employee applies for OutdorDuty through the app


The HoD can then accept or reject the request made by the employee “






It seems a pity that despite several emails , the Policy Makers are unable to grasp the ENORMOUS IMPACT ( Social / Economic / Political ) of my following suggestion :






Wednesday, 1 June 2016


From BAD to MAD


BAD   =   Biometric Attendance Device

MAD   =   Mobile Attendance Device


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


Here is my idea of a technology that we need to create for a better India :


Today Employee Attendance Systems in India work at three levels as follows :


#   Entirely Manual

     Attendance Register and Wage/Salary payment in cash or by Cheque


#   Partly Automated

     Punch cards or Bio-metric recording of attendance but manual calculation
     of wages / salaries and payment by cash or cheque



#   Fully Automated

     Bio-metric Attendance Devices ( BAD ) , integrated with a home-grown or
     bought-out Salary Payment Software , running on a local Server.

     Salary payments could be by cheques or thru Electronic Transfer to
     concerned employee's bank account


Once in a while , if a company has several establishments within a city , those local servers are connected to a Central Server , doing all processing




In a rare case ( although , I am not aware of any ) , it may be that all the local servers of all the establishments of a company , all over the country , are networked with its central computer in its head-quarter



Now imagine this :


#  All smart phones to evolve as Bio-metric Attendance Devices , with built-in
    Bio-metric Recorders , GPS , a mobile attendance App ( called MAD ? )


#  App to have 2 buttons ( Green = IN  Red = OUT )


#  Employee to touch IN upon reaching his work-station and touch OUT ,
    while leaving work place , at the end of work-shift . That's all  !


#  Being GPS enabled , buttons will get activated ONLY when the employee
    has reached the work place ( not while he is on his way ! )


#  All 100 million establishments in India ( factories / offices / shops / clinics
    NGOs / Govt Depts ) to ensure that the MAD app is installed on the smart
    phone of each employee , when he joins


   
#  All of these smart phones to be connected ( IoT ? ) , with the Servers of ,


    *  Labour Ministries ( Central and States )

    *  HRD Ministry ( Central )

    *  Skills Development Ministry / NSDC

    *  Finance Ministries ( Central + States )

    *  NITI Aayog

    *  Income Tax Department

    *  Any other server that you may want to



#   MAD app is integrated with a STANDARD / COMMON , software system
     for computing daily wages / monthly salaries of ALL the persons working
     in those 100 million establishments ( whether they are casual /
     contractual  / trainee / apprentice / probationer / permanent / retained



#   As each person joins in any of these establishments , data re  that
     person must be inputted by the Employer into the App , such as :

   
     *  Name / Contact Details / DOB / Aadhar Card No / Employee Number

         ( Each unique Employee Number will be auto-generated by the
         common Salary Payment Software , running on IT Dept Server )


     *   Employee's Jandhan Yojana Bank Account Number for salary EC


     *   Employer's Jandhan bank account / Unique Employer Number


     *   Payment Mode ( Hourly / Daily / Monthly Rated , wages / salaries )


     *   Leave provisions / PF rate / TDS rate / Allowances / Reimbursements


     *   Any other relevant data ( either about employee of for employer )



WHAT  ARE  THE  ADVANTAGES  ?


#   For employees , no need to file a separate annual Income Tax Return

#   Direct deposit of PF / TDS amounts into bank accounts of Govt Depts

#   Direct Benefit Transfer ( DBT ) to every Employer for Stipend Subsidy ,
     based on number of total trainees / apprentices employed

#   Total number of employees in India ( category / region / industry )

#   Employment Density ( Industry wise / Region wise / Skill wise etc )

#   Net Employment Growth Rate ( weekly - monthly / Industry-wise )

#   Co-relation with no of persons graduating at various levels

#   Data about those Unemployed ( " Graduating " less " Employed " )

#   Overtime Statistics ( Use / Abuse )

#   Work-hour Analysis ( Ave hours / week - month )

#   Wage / Salary Rates ( Rs per hour ) - Industry wise / Region wise

     ( of great interest to Foreign Investors looking to bring down
       manufacturing costs , by outsourcing to India / manufacturing in India )

#   Compliance with labour laws / tax laws / Apprentice Act etc

#   Job Market Forecasts through BIG DATA ANALYTIC ( region / industry )

#   Demographic  Profiles of employees  ( Rural to Urban migration )

#   Per Capita Income Growth for persons using MAD app  ( MOM / YOY )

#   Changing composition between Blue Collar and White Collar employees




29  April  2017


www.hemenparekh.in / blogs  

Friday 28 April 2017

If You cannot lick them, Join them !



Times of India ( 26  April  2017 ) carries following news :




Soon, control room and app for kaali-peelis



Taxi unions have taken the initiative for setting up the first-ever control room for monitoring movement of kaali-peeli cabs using apps for operations from June 1.


Said union leader A L Quadros ,


“ We are launching our very own app for drivers , who are being registered under the City Taxi Scheme. This will happen by June 1


 We have submitted a report on our project to the Andheri RTO and very soon , a control room will be set up to assist kaali-peelis


At least 12,000 kaali-peeli drivers could switch to mobile app in coming weeks , as they face stiff competition from aggregator firms


Most drivers are eager to remove the electronic meter and operate using apps . It will also generate more revenue for these drivers  “





Some 40 years ago , Ted Levitt wrote in his seminal essay , “ Marketing Myopia “ :


“ If you don’t make yourself obsolete , rest assured , someone else will “


No doubt , Shri Quados hurried up to implement what I said in following blog :




Monday, 3 October 2016

Kaali-Peeli , Wake Up !


Hindustan Times ( 04 Oct 2016 ) carries a news report titled :





" In Mumbai: Kaali-Peeli app to offer 25% discount to stay in business "


It goes on to read :

Facing tough competition from app-based aggregators such as Ola and Uber,

 Kaali-Peeli taxi drivers from Navi Mumbai will offer discounts on fare to 

commuters from Tuesday



Taxi union sources said that the daily earning of cabbies had gone down. They

 were now offering such discounts to stay in the business.




“ We are aware that Ola and Uber has taken benefit of our weakness, but to 

improve the situation, we need to change ourselves and adopt a new 

technology. Otherwise, the situation will worsen as we have already lost 40% of

 our earnings to Ola-Uber ”, says Vijay Chauhan , who is driving a taxi for last 

26 years.




Mumbai has over 38,000 Kaali-Peeli taxis, besides air-conditioned cool cabs and

 fleet cabs.




Upset with rampant refusals from Kaali-Peeli cabbies, the commuters started

 taking to Ola and Uber for long distance rides because of the cheaper fare

comfortable ride and ease of booking.



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



But , do Kaali-Peeli owners realize that " reducing fares to beat the competition

 " , is an obsolete technology - which belongs to a " Sun-set " Industry !




Do they realize that Uber-Ola are not even pretending to be competing with the

 Kaali-Peelies !




They are too busy creating a brand NEW industry , having a totally different set

 of rules !





They are in the business of  " ASSET  AS  A  SERVICE " industry , rather than "

ASSET AS OWNERSHIP "




In the process , they are adding in India alone , some 5,000  such " Asset-

service Taxies " , every month !




Who knows , someday " Car Ownership " as a concept , may disappear !




And making available these " Assets Service " to travelers ,




*  WHEN  they want


*  WHERE  they want


*  HOW  they want ( alone or sharing mode )


*  CHEAP


*  FAST ( made available in 5 minutes )



One piece of advice ( albeit , unsolicited ) to Kaali-Peeli owners :


Do not even dream to go on a strike  !


You will end up forcing more travelers to embrace Uber-Ola , thereby hastening your own demise !




It is still not too late for Kaali-Peeli owners to " re-invent "  their " new avatar " 

by reading the following :






    {  http://myblogepage.blogspot.com/2016/09/name-of-game-co-operation.html  }





    {  http://myblogepage.blogspot.com/2016/09/irrefutable-law-of-economics.html  }





    {  http://myblogepage.blogspot.com/2016/09/an-excellent-advice-shri-raoteji.html  }





    {   http://myblogepage.blogspot.com/2016/07/turning-back-clock.html   }





    {   http://myblogepage.blogspot.com/2016/05/tablets-in-taxies.html   }



29  April  2017