blog@Yantrajaal

Bitcoin is the rage! With an unbelievable appreciation in prices, many people want to invest in this red-hot cryptocurrency but whether the current valuation is a bubble that will burst is an open question. What is indisputable however is the immense versatility of the blockchain technology that is used in bitcoin -- and all cryptocurrencies. GST too is the rage, or rather the cause of rage because of the inefficiency of the software implementation. This article explains how a decentralised blockchain application could solve GST problems. But what is bitcoin? image borrowed from financeminutes A bitcoin is a unit of value , like an equity share of a company, that can be owned and transferred. It resides in an account in a ledger, like a dematerialised share in a demat account with NSDL. The account number, the public key of the account, is known to all and so anyone can send or deposit demat shares into this account. However to sell or transfer shares out of this account, t...

Civilisation emerges from the lawless jungle riding on the back of a juridical system that resolves disputes through non-violent means. India has had an uneven history in this regard but the relatively stable structure that we had inherited from the British is crumbling because people are now, more often than not, taking the law into their own hands. Not because the judges are incapable, though in some cases that may be true, but because they are not able deliver their judicial services in time. Justice is being denied to large sections of the population simply because of abnormal delays. There are so many examples of this sorry state of affairs that it is pointless to give specific instances. The fact is too well known. Question is what can we do about it? Obviously there is no magic wand, no silver bullet but perhaps a technology driven, business process reengineering approach -- so beloved of management consultants -- can help. “Measurement is the first step that leads to contr...

image borrowed from http://integral-options.blogspot.com The Indian judiciary in general and the judges of the Supreme Court in particular have been in the news for taking some spectacular action in certain high profile cases like Sahara / Subrata Roy, Srinivasan / IPL, 2G / CWG scams and now of late, after the Nirbhaya episode, in rape cases. However, for the vast majority of Indian citizens, the Ram, Shyam, Jadu, Madhu who sit outside numerous high courts and district courts sipping tea and waiting for their cases to be heard and disposed of, the great terror is delay ! In India, litigation never ends -- it goes on and on and on until litigants die or use money and muscle power to settle out of courts. The complex series of adjournments, non-availability of dates and legal skulduggery ensures that cases never end and the Indian judicial system must be the poster boy for the maxim that justice delayed is justice denied. All this is well known, what is not known is what can we ...

The failure of Nandan Nilekani and the UIDAI to introduce the Aadhar card into the the mainstream of India's economic life is one more example of management failure in India. What is most frustrating in the case of Aadhar was that there was a clear need for Aadhar, patterned on the US Social Security Number, and the biometric technology was very much in place to uniquely identify each "warm body" and connect him or her to a unique number. Yet we failed - Why ? Let us study this in a little detail and then try to generalise the same for other similar projects across the country. I believe that Aadhar failed because of a combination of one or more of the following reasons : In general Indians are suspicious of and reluctant to adopt new practices. Starting from social mores like homosexuality and inter-caste marriages to business practices like insisting on revenue stamps and stamp paper for legitimizing contracts or looking for three (possibly dummy) tenders for eve...

Ever since Mohandas G dreamt up the concept of civil disobedience, Indian politicians believe that bandhs, dharnas, rail-rokos, chakka-jams and other anarchic activities are the only tools available to do anything for the welfare of the people. Even educated people like Kejriwal and Jyoti Basu (may he NEVER rest in peace for the damage that he did to West Bengal ) have taken the easy way of out by creating a ruckus on the road to get their point of view across. Let us see if there is a sane way to fight corruption in this country. We all know that the basic rules of checks and balances are all there. Approvals, authorizations and the inevitable CAG audit followed by a CBI investigation should have been enough to stop corruption but when the "policeman is himself the thief" then all these checks and balances go right out of the window and are of no use anymore. So what else can be done ? "Sunlight is the best disinfectant," is a well known quote from the US Su...

Navigating through a government office is a nightmare in India and it is doubly so when you are student and you are looking for your first passport. I went through this wringer twenty eight years ago and I was disappointed to see that even today, my son -- and many other students like him, whom we met at the passport office -- have to go through the same inordinate difficulty to get something that should come to them, literally, as a birthright. In fact, had it not been for a friendly senior police officer who introduced us to senior officers in the passport office, my son and I would still be running from pillar to post. The number of hours waiting in the passport office gave me ample time to understand the process and I am sure that there is a better way to address the matter. That will be the subject of a different post. Here, let me suggest a simple mechanism that will benefit hundreds of students who are applying for passport for the first time. The crux of the matter lies...

I need holidays and so does everyone else but do organisations need holidays ? Do the railways shut down for the holidays ? Do electricity companies, hospitals or essential services shut down for the holidays ? Do steel plants shut down for holidays ? Do BPO companies shut down for holidays ? Of course not. Very basic planning and scheduling processes -- in use for ages across all these businesses -- ensure that employees get their full quota of leave and vacations and yet the businesses and organisations run 365 days a year. Nobody thinks that this is very strange ! Image Credit So why can the same principle not be extended to other service organisations like courts and government offices ? Agreed that government employees do not wish to view themselves as a part of a service organisation -- a government job is meant to be a passport to luxurious idleness -- but if anybody in any position of authority has even an iota of interest in improving, however slightly, the work eth...

People working in the private corporate sector are familiar with the process of annual appraisal and know that annual increments and bonuses are directly linked to this exercise. There may be some disappointment with the way that these appraisals are conducted but (a) no corporate has found an alternative to the process and (b) despite all its faults, companies have not collapsed and died because of appraisals -- in general they have done well. Net-net this means that the strategy of deciding on annual increments and bonuses on the basis of an appraisal process has stood the test of time and reliability in India. Strangely enough, this concept is totally absent in state and central government departments and institutions. The salary structure for all government employees is determined by the Pay Commission and both pay and annual increments are cast in stone. So there is no direct and transparent way to recognise good performance and reward the same. Neither is there any way to ident...

Tax free bonds have always been very popular in India. In the good old days of the distant past we had RBI “Relief Bonds” that offered up to 10% tax free income but it was never quite sure for whose relief the bonds were for -- perhaps for the Indian tax payer! That was then. Now we have similar bonds floated by  IIFCL and NHAI, albeit at far lower rates that vary between 6.5% and 8.3% but even these have garnered Rs 30,000 crores in FY 11-12. Carried away by this appetite for tax free bonds, the finance minister has proposed to float similar bonds to the tune of Rs 60,000 crores in the next fiscal. But where could or should this money be used ? The NHAI has of course been building roads but I think there is another piece of critical infrastructure that can be funded through this route -- education ! Why ? Because education is the mother of all infrastructure that this country needs very badly.. For a variety of reasons not directly attributable to government ...