India, Pakistan, Pakistan floods

 

The current floods in Pakistan are the worst ever for the country. It hasn’t seen anything like this in the past 80 years. 17.2 million people are affected, 1.2 million homes damaged and the overall loss could run into billions. To put things into perspective, the Pakistan floods are more disastrous than 2004 Asian Tsunami, and  2005 Pakistan earthquake and 2010 Haiti earthquake combined.

Pakistan can use any help it can get right now, but the world’s reaction to the floods has been slow. There are multiple theories and conspiracy theories. One reason: Well it’s Pakistan. Another theory for the tepid response: The floods have been slow to affect, unlike the Haiti earthquake, where the damage was done in couple of days. Theories aside, the world is chipping in with aid.

India, though a little late, has offered $25 million in aid to Pakistan.

20 million US Dollars would be contributed to the ‘Pakistan Initial Floods Emergency Response Plan’ launched by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. The balance of 5 million US Dollars would be contributed to the World Food Programme for its relief efforts in Pakistan. (source)

Better late than never.

If you wish to donate to Pakistan’s flood relief, you can do it through Relief4Pakistan. They take donations in all denominations and have raised $90,589. They accept credit cards only (Visa, Mastercard, American Express and Discover). It could be a little for you, but collectively it really counts. Donate.

 

		2	extreme offshoring, infosys, offshoring, outsourcing, india outsourcing

Outsourcing, offshoring, near sourcing, rural outsourcing are the terms which we use when we talk about any IT services company. Now there is a new term to be added to the list - extreme offshoring. I am really not sure what it means, but I will make an attempt.

Infosys is planning to use ‘extreme offshoring’ to offset the hike in visa fees by the US government. The US government, in a bid keep Indian IT companies from taking American jobs, has hiked the visa fees to some ridiculous levels. Indian IT companies are taking it up with the trade bodies as this affects their business directly. To overcome this, Infosys has taken a few steps. It will be increasing its India capacity to a 95 percent level and reduce the number of L1 and H1-B visas. Infosys also plans to near-source some of the projects by sitting at remote locations, possibly in the same time zone and outsource it to India.

From what I see, extreme offshoring is outsourcing all the bits of a project. How is this different from any offshoring or outsourcing? It looks like the same thing, same term dubbed as a new business model. What might be different is the quantum of offshoring. Why bother with a new terminology.

Anyway, Infosys would increase its revenues and reduce the spending by reducing the number of L1s and H1-Bs. But wouldn’t that make Infosys and other IT services companies less appealing to the Indian job seekers?

Here’s what a Indian job seeker looks for in a new job :

1. 30-40 percent hike? Check
2. Big brand name, which can be easily recognized in my village? Check. (Infosys, TCS, Wipro and Satyam qualify. Accenture and Cognizant are gaining popularity in Indian villages)
3. Automatic promotion or band change after three years? Check
4. On-site opportunity? Ummm. (Infosys - No. Let’s see what TCS, Wipro and Accenture has to offer)

On-site opportunity has a huge mass appeal. People would leave a high-paying current job for just a promise of on-site opportunity. If Infosys goes for extreme offshoring and if other services companies follow, then the job seekers will look for companies which are not offshoring extremely. If they run out of companies then maybe they would change their checklist.

PS: The current job market in India is very exciting. People typically have more than four job offers and still attend interviews just to see how it goes. Needless to say they come with a lot of attitude.

PPS: For those of you who are still looking for an on-site job, I got a tip - India is the new onsite. Didn’t like it? Never mind.

			Google, Skype, VPN, Google ban India, Blackberry

Buoyed with its success with BlackBerry, the Indian government is taking it up a notch. It will be issuing notices to Google, Skype and VPN to comply with its guidelines. These companies have to give access to their servers to law enforcement agencies. Or else they would face a ban. (source)

This is bad news for the the Internet telephone world, which is buzzing right now with competing products and acquisition rumors. Google has launched its calls through Gmail, which directly competes with Skype. And Skype has applied for an IPO and could be on the block. Cisco would like to add Skype to its kitty and expand its human network, which already comprises of online meeting software - webex.

Google is the Tata of the software and online world. People use Google for almost anything and everything - search, email, chat and now phone. The Indian government is only interested in the voice and messaging services of Google, which excludes its popular search, email and social networking tool (Orkut). Banning any of Google’s services would be unimaginable. Maybe these enforcements should come in when a service is starting to grow, not when it is fully matured and has already gained a significant customer base.

Would Google bow like Blackberry?

			DTC India, India direct tax code, new tax laws india, tax bill, dtc bill, individual tax, india income tax, tax slabs india

India has tabled a new direct tax code in the parliament. The tax code will face little resistance as it has mass appeal and benefits 96 percent of taxpayers. Once approved it will come into affect from April 1, 2011. Update : This is effective from April 1, 2012. 
 
India has changed the direct tax structure in this financial year which has put 40,000 rupees ($860) back in the pockets of taxpayers. Now it is all set to put Rs. 44,000 more back in to the pockets of the tax payers. The tax slabs are increased by 2 lakhs each. A person earning 10 lakhs of taxable income would save Rs. 44000 annually or Rs. 4000 per month (not counting the education cess).
 
Here’s the new structure in comparison with old structure :

Tax	OLD	Tax	NEW	Tax
Nil	Up to Rs 160,000		Up to 200,000	0
10.00%	Rs. 160,001 to Rs. 500,000	34000	Rs. 200,001 to Rs. 500,000	30000
20.00%	Rs5,00,001 to Rs8,00,000	60000	Rs5,00,001 to Rs10,00,000	40000
30.00%	Above Rs8,00,000	20000	Above Rs10,00,000
		114000		70000
			Saving	44000

 

95.75 percent of the 3.25 crore taxpayers of India, who fall in the tax bracket of Rs. 1 lakh to Rs 5 lakh income range, would benefit the most. They account for 30 percent of tax revenues. 2.2 percent of taxpayers are in 8 lakh and above range but contribute to 60 percent of tax revenues. (source)

The tax exemption on housing loan interest will remain. This exemption is Rs. 150,000.

The Government would lose Rs. 53,172 crore rupees because of this new structure.

I don't see the extra money I am getting in this financial year. Thanks to inflation, everything from bus fares to house rents have gone up. So it has evened out, or at least it has for me. Will it be the same next year?

			Nokia, Blackberry India, Research in Motion, Blackberry, Nokia email, blackberry email

The 3G auctions have been delayed more than once, mobile number portability has been postponed many times and there isn’t one deadline which was ever met. The Indian government, not happy with its track record, is trying to set the record straight. It has found Blackberry. India set a deadline for an answer from BlackBerry and it got the answer quite promptly, one day ahead of schedule.

We are the government. We can do anything.

Of the 41 million Blackberry users, 1 million are in India. Quite a sizeable customer base to be ignored. Also India is not the first government to raise concerns. Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, UAE, France, Lebanon and Algeria has raised security concerns in the past. No other country has gone this far to ban the services.

Indian officials wanted access to the encrypted messaging and email servers of BlackBerry and also that the servers be placed in India. BlackBerry will give immediate access from Sep 1. It was given 60 days to set up a server in India. In all likelihood, BlackBerry will budge. Not because it is dealing with government but it is dealing with government and competition at the same time. Nokia and Apple are breathing down its neck. Nokia, very slyly, announced that it was setting up a server in India. This announcement came few hours before the Indian government’s meeting with Research in Motion (BlackBerry). Nokia has cornered RIM fair and square. A classic case of corporate rivalry, only seen in the movies.

Or has Nokia actually helped Blackberry?

If you have options then you choose. If you don’t have any options then you take whatever is available. If Nokia did not make an announcement, and if BlackBerry had other plans, maybe the services of BlackBerry would have been banned from August 31. This would actually have helped Nokia and Apple. Many IT companies were already planning to move away from BlackBerry, thinking the ban on its services is imminent. Nokia has played it in to the hands of BlackBerry.

Gaining new customers is important and retaining existing customers is paramount. BlackBerry lives another day and retains most of its customers, thanks to Nokia.

What would have happened if Nokia delayed its decision by few days?

			India ewaste, ewaste

India is the fastest growing telecom market and has the second largest number of telecom subscribers in the world. India’s 630 million telecom subscribers means an inclusive growth and increasing opportunities for the rural poor. But it also means more than 600 million mobile phones which can turn into eWaste in two years. The average shelf life or the obsolescence rate for a mobile phone is 1.8 to 2 years. There will be millions of mobile phones which are not being used every year, in addition to the millions of mobile phones being bought every year. Indians bought 930 lakh ($2m) worth of mobile phones in 2007-08.

India produces 1,040 tonnes of e-Waste daily, of which an abysmal 10 tonnes is treated. If this wasn’t enough it ‘imports’ waste from richer countries. Most of these imports are not legal and usually imported as scrap. A possible 1.9 million tonnes of e-Waste is sent from US to the Asian nations, and India gets a big cut of it. India generates up to 385,800 tons of electronic waste every year, and imports another 55,100 tons, mostly illegally under the pretext of metal scrap and secondhand electrical appliances.  e

The amount of eWaste is expected to jump 500 percent by 2020. A survey carried out by the Central Pollution Control Board lists these top 10 cities generating e-waste are Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Kolkata Chennai, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Pune, Surat and Nagpur. (source)

Though mobile phones are easy targets, televisions and computers are the biggest contributors to India’s eWaste. Of the total 382,979 metric tonnes of electronic waste generated in India, 275,000MT is from TVs and 56,000 MT is from computers. Mobiles only contribute 1,655MT of the eWaste. People tend to dispose TVs and computers and tend to hold back or forget mobile phones. This could be one of the reasons for the low contribution of mobile phone eWaste, despite their ubiquity. With the growing number of plasma screen TVs and imminent 3D technology televisions the waste will only grow. Add a mix of low-cost computers, tablets and gaming consoles, it could soon become unmanageable.

Is India ready for handling the eWaste generated?

Nokia has launched a Take Backcampaign to promote the safe disposal of eWaste. Three tons of old phones and accessories were collected in 45 days of the campaign period from four cities. A total of 10,000 phones were collected in the pilot program in which Nokia has planted a plant for each phone collected. What Nokia did with the waste is not known. What would happen to this waste otherwise?

It has to be handled. For someone to handle eWaste officially they have to be registered with the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB). Right now only 14 facilities have registered with CPCB. Don’t we need more?