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 6 July 2014

The Invisible Corruption



Why invisible  ?

Because it is cleverly camouflaged in the " Terms of Contract " that companies sign with Central Government / State Governments / Municipal Corporations / umpteen Government Agencies

This invisible corruption is rampant in Infrastructure Projects that get spread over months / years

And every possible trick / excuse ( officially called " Reasons " ) is used to ensure that these Projects get delayed as much as possible !

Examine carefully and you will find that the more a Project  gets delayed , the more that Contractor stands to gain ! Anyone believing otherwise , has got to be naive  !

How  ?

These contracts contain " Cost Escalation Clauses " which decide the extra / additional amounts payable to the Contractor , over and above the ( so called ) " Fixed Price " quoted at the time of tendering

Under these clauses , the Contractor is eligible to claim / demand extra payments , whenever

*  SOMETHING  HAPPENS

   - costs of certain " Inputs " go up above a certain agreed level , eg :

    #  Prices of Raw Materials
    #  Prices of Water / Gas / Electricity
    #  Cost of Labor
    #   Foreign Exchange Rate
    #   Consumer Price Index
    #   Interest Rate

    If any of these go up above certain agreed levels , the quoted price to go up by X/Y/Z amount , as per the Formula which determines the % age contribution of these elements , in the quoted price

*  SOMETHING  DOES  NOT  HAPPEN

   #  Environment Clearance for the Project
   #  Land acquisition and Handover to Contractor
   #  Hundreds of permissions from dozens of Govt Depts/Muni Corporations
   #  Issue of Import Licenses
   #  Release of Foreign Exchange
   #  Issue of NOC from umpteen departments
   #  Issue of Compliance Certificates from various departments
   #  Approval of Designs / Design Change Requests ( from Govt as well )
  

If any of these are NOT issued / given by certain " Dates "  ( very easily managed  !  ) , then the quoted price to go up by X / Y / Z  amount

Invariably , these clauses are heavily  tilted in favor of the Contractor

And equally invariably , colluding Government officers / bureaucrats / politicians , responsible for drafting / approving these " Clauses " , leave them vague !

This is apart from framing the Tender Specifications in such a manner that only a certain preferred bidder will qualify !

If you doubt what I have said , then just file a RTI application , asking for a copy of,

*  Original Tender Document
*  Final Contract
*  Number of Price Revision Requests received / granted

for any project of your choice  !

If Narendra Modi is keen to reduce corruption , he should start by instituting MODEL  INFRASTRUCTURE  PROJECT  CONTRACT , which clearly spells out what price / time revisions can be granted and when

At the same time , internally , there must be a provision for DEMOTION / PENALTY for those officers who fail to give permissions / approvals / NOC etc, on specified dates ( milestones for the project )


*  hemen  parekh  (  07  July  2014  /  Mumbai  )

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Make    Yourself    Heard

Dear Visitor :

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Saturday 28 June 2014

A Threat or an Opportunity ?



Unemployment in 17 countries of Euro Zone is climbing steadily over the years


Before the financial crisis of 2008 , it was 7.5 %


In April 2014 , it reached 12.2 % , with 19.38 million unemployed ( out of a population of about 330 million )


By Dec 2014 , it is expected to reach 20 million


Country-wise figures are as follows :



---------------------------------------------
Country                    % age Unemployed 
               Youth % ( 16-25 Years )
-----------------------------------------------------------

 Greece  ................   
27...........................................   62.5

 Spain   ..................  26.8.......................................    56.4

Portugal  ................  17.8  ......................................   42.5

Italy  ...................... 12  .........................................   40.5

Netherland ..............  6.5  ......................................    10.6

Austria  ................... 4.9  ........................................   8.0

Germany  .............    5.4  .........................................  7.5


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

What does this mean to India  ?


*   If their own economies do not expand fast enough ( highly unlikely , in short term ) , to absorb their own jobless citizens , would these countries try to aggressively " export " their goods and services to developing countries like India  ?

That might affect our own employment  !


*    Should India open up its market to these countries ( FDI etc ) , in return for their agreeing  to liberal / unrestricted, import of Indian goods and services ?



Considering that NaMo is ,


*  an OPTIMIST ( remember , " glass half full with water and half full with air " ? ),

*  an astute Gujju businessman ,


I am sure , he will find means to exploit this situation to India's advantage  !


*   hemen  parekh  (  29  June  2014  /  Mumbai  )

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

Make    Yourself    Heard

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

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Friday 20 June 2014

To Err is Human

To err is human

To forgive is divine ( provided it was a honest error )

All of us keep making errors , all the time

But rarely same " mistake " twice

Often , decisions taken at a point of time , turn out to be " poor " , with passage of time

Reasons are simple :

*  We never have all the information - relevant to the problem we are trying to solve - available with us , at the time of taking a decision

*  Even when most of such relevant info is available , we may not have the capacity / competence to " process " such info

*  As humans , we have our biases / prejudices , based on our previous experiences , which influence our decisions

*  Quite often , and often against our own better evaluation / judgement of a given situation , we are wrongly influenced by our peers / bosses / subordinates or even voters - all of whom have different expectations / vested interests !

*  Additional - and more relevant - information surfaces , AFTER we have taken a decision ( happens all the time  !  )

To encourage Babus and Ministers to take FAST decisions , Narendra Modi must insist that they carefully " Record " on the files :

* What info / data he wished was available for a better decision

* What different " views / opinions " were presented to him for consideration

* What " Data / Views " he would have obtained if he had more time

* Who all , the decision might offend

* What is the likely " Cost " of postponing that decision

And finally a declaration "

* This decision is not likely to benefit any of my near relatives / friends , directly or immediately

After all of this , if the decision appears to be " Wrong " in hindsight , it must be " forgiven " and treated as an honest error

To err is human  !


*  hemen  parekh  (  21 June  2014  /  Mumbai  )

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

Make    Yourself    Heard

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

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Paranoid About PA / PS

Why is Narendra Modi so paranoid about getting rid of the PA ( Personal Assistant ) and PS ( Personal Secretary ) , who served the Ministers in the ousted UPA-2 government  ?

Simple because ,

*  they were privy to all the scam-related decisions taken by their bosses

*  they know where those " lost " files are hiding

*  they know the identities of all the " middlemen "

*  they know who were the " beneficiaries " 


And , if they were not a direct party to those decisions or indirect beneficiaries , at the least , they failed to protest to their bosses

They failed to blow the whistle  !


Now , Modi is committed to starting a thorough investigation into all that murky hanky panky that happened during UPA-2 regime


And Modi knows that , if those very same PA / PS are still around , nothing worthwhile will ever come out !


They will stone-wall the investigations and hide the truth !


It will be a futile exercise !


Only fresh PA / PS , with nothing to fear , can cooperate in unearthing the truth


This is certainly a matter to be paranoid about  !


*  hemen  parekh  (  21  June  2014  /  Mumbai  )

------------------------------------------------------------
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 18 June 2014

Link

How Can This Help Us ?






Shuklendu  /  Nitin,


Can these tools help us on B2B  /  hemenparekh.in  ?


hcp

Smriti Irani


Is   Smriti   Irani   listening   ?


Apparently , no one ( or very few ) want to get into teaching

This is obvious from the number of faculty vacancies in AICTE approved institutions , as shown below :



Faculty…………………………………… Teachers Required…….  % age Vacancy



  • Applied Arts & Crafts……………………….  2,678…………………….. 56

  • Architecture and Town Planning………11,762…………………….. 51

  • Engineering & Technology……………..5,29,543……………………..28

  • Hotel Mgmt & Catering………………………..3245……………………… 43

  • Management……………………………………….61,610……………………..27

  • MCA…………………………………………………..  26,714……………………. 15

  • Pharmacy…………………………………………….31,421……………………. 20




Why such a poor state of affairs  ?


According to leading Educationists , some of the reasons are  :


  • Poor salaries in teaching profession

  • Stringent Quality Norms

  • Archaic Service Conditions

  • Little scope to earn thru consultancy

  • Very little Industry-Interaction / Internship

  • Poor Research facilities



Even as Smriti starts up a dialogue among the Stakeholders ( Students / Teachers / Educationists / Administrators etc ) ,in respect of formulation of a NEW EDUCATION POLICY ,  she would do well to frame an ONLINE QUESTIONNAIRE ( Yes / No : True / False : Multiple Choice ) and upload it on her Web site for people to participate in thousands


What is wrong with our current state of Education and what needs to be done to fix it , can only emerge from such a REFERUNDUM



*   hemen  parekh  ( 18 June 2014 / Mumbai )