This Will Come To India Too.

This is to share my recent experience of domestic air travel in USA.  These airlines have wonderful ways of enhancing their revenue even as they offer cheap tickets to gullible customers.  Had Vijay Mallya known of these, he wouldn't have failed so miserably or fled with so little (:)).  But then first class passengers or charter holders have no reason or occasion for getting exposed to these tricks.

The first flight was a Hawaiian Airlines flight from Oakland in California to Kona on the Big Island in Hawaii.  The female staff were all wearing a flower in their hair as is customary in Hawaii and male crew were dressed in shirts with floral prints.  This made the crew look like the tourists rather than the passengers.  During initial welcome and informative announcements it was conveyed that complimentary meal was to be served during the course of the flight.  The flight duration was a little over 5 hours.

Shortly after the take off an announcement was made that snacks will be available for purchase.  My two grandsons proclaimed that they were very hungry and that we must buy them some snacks.  So we bought them some snacks and drinks at a rather stiff price.  Then even before they could finish their snacks another announcement was made that complimentary snacks and drinks will be served and were promptly served indeed!

By the time we finished the snacks and the drink, the cabin had become very cold.  Several passengers were seen retrieving their jackets and putting them on.  We had brought none as the weather in Hawaii was foretold to be rather warm.  After a few minutes the kids started complaining that it was too cold.  I approached the hostess, informed her that the temperature was too low for comfort and inquired if she could give us some blankets.  She promptly replied that blankets were available for purchase at $10 each.  Even though we were loathe to add to our baggage, we bought two.  The kids wrapped themselves and felt cozy and nice.  Less than an hour thereafter the cabin temperature returned to a comfortable level.  My elder grandson removed the blanket and remarked, "Oh, they can make a lot of money by just turning up the cooling for an hour!"

Each seat had a monitor and a menu of programs to watch.  However there were no earphones / headphones provided in the seat pockets.  Even before we could inquire about the missing earphones, a hostess came down the aisle announcing that earphones were for sale and passengers could take the purchased item with them as a souvenir!  Most passengers seemed to be experienced ones and were carrying their own earphones.  I decided against buying one and spent time playing Sudoku instead of watching a movie.  Even Sudoku was part of the premium section.  But, thankfully, no payment was demanded for the game.

I may add that most passengers had only a handbag and another small bag or laptop bag only.  Each checked-in baggage had to be paid for at $25 a piece and conform to size and weight specifications.

We flew Air Delta on our return.  We tried a web check-in to save time at the airport.  The check-in went through and generated six random seat numbers for our group of six (with a single PNR) with no two seats next to each other!  The option for choosing a different seat said that it could be done at a cost of $20 per person.  We decided to wait and pay only at the counter if required.  When we reached the airport, the self check-in kiosk showed that the seats had been reallocated and we were seated in two groups of three each, one behind the other and we got the new boarding passes.  Those with small kids who might have panicked at the prospect of a child sitting away from them may have ended paying up in multiples of $20.

Our own airlines in India must find these practices inspirational and be getting ready to adapt them.  They already have dynamic pricing for fare.  So, beware!

Do we still need religions?

Early in my career I had the opportunity to undergo a training in Behavioral Science.  It was a fascinating new subject and one of the many insights that it provided was the difference between needs and wants.  Needs are universal but their manifestation as a wanted thing is influenced by the culture one is raised in.  It is best illustrated through an example.  Nourishment is a fundamental need.  But what food items does one want to satisfy this need differ widely.  One person may want a dosa, another rice with curried fish, yet another may want parotha with lots of butter and so on.  It is not uncommon to find that two persons may find each other's wants disgusting though these are in satisfaction of a common need.

What has been said above would suggest that there must be a basic need behind divergent religions followed by the humankind and that all of these serve to satisfy that same universal need.  And, as in the case of food, though followers of one religion may feel repelled or unsettled by another religion, it will do well to remind ourselves that each of the religions caters to the exactly same human need.

Apparently all our biological needs are in common with the whole of animal kingdom.  However religion seems to be the manifestation of a need that only humans have.  What exactly is this need?  Is this an emotional need or an intellectual one or a need that arises from the combination of emotional and intellectual faculties?  It is certainly not physical in the biological sense.

Many feel that it is an emotional need for security - need for an element of certainty in the very uncertain human existence.  As children we get a feeling of security from our parents.  As we grow up we realize that they too are frail human beings like us.  And so we think up of an entity that is truly omnipotent and omniscient. Thus, it can be said that it is the emotional need for security through a protector that makes us create an omnipotent and compassionate God or a multiplicity of gods.  Well defined and strictly enforced social practices through a commonly subscribed religious code too add to a sense of security by eliminating uncertainties.  Each society passes on these beliefs and social codes to each successive generation.  And thus a particular religion becomes what the members of this society want for satisfying their need for security.

This view of origin of religions also explains why most people become increasingly more religious when confronted with adversities and calamities.  This viewpoint is also borne out by studies that suggest that atheism blossoms in affluent societies where most people feel economically secure.  Such societies have reduced the uncertainties and insecurities in human existence to the bare minimum.  Click here to read a related article.  (However, some of the oil rich Arab countries seem to be an exception to this observation.)

Religion and God could also be a response to the strictly intellectual need to find out how the world came about and the causes for the goings on around us.  This is a strictly human need as no other species has been endowed with the kind of intelligence that we have.  Intellect subscribes to a cause and effect model and hence asks questions beginning with why and who.  It also inquires into the nature of things and asks questions beginning with what.  This suggests that the theories like Karma, and the postulate of an universal consciousness as the original cause are all the responses generated by the earliest intellectuals to this need to know.  It need not be gainsaid that these are merely enlightened guesses in the absence of a methodology to find the answers to the bewildering questions posed by the universe to our limited intellect.

Further, it also appears that these early intellectual elites must have thought that the future generations of intellectuals will not rest content with their explanations and definitely make further efforts to know the ultimate answers.  They must also have thought that this will be a waste of intellect and time because human intellect could see only that far and no further.  And thus it must have been with a view to dissuade the coming generations from wasting their talent on useless pursuits that they attributed their thoughts and words to an ultimate authority, the God, and firmly propounded the finality of what they had said. They made a contrary view punishable to dissuade further inquiries.  But the forbidden fruit is sweet indeed.  While at this point, it may also be added that the Day of Judgement and Heaven and Hell must have been propounded by these intellectuals to dissuade the hoi-polloi from indulging their animal passions and losing the productivity required to keep the human society together and ensure its progress.

As we know, this attempt to quell further inquiries failed to deter the pioneer intellectuals' increasingly capable successors who adopted the scientific inquiry method to find the answers that human intellect craved for.

This curious group made rapid strides, developed tools for their inquiries and came out with verifiable answers to many of the queries bothering the human intellect.  They also proved their ancestors wrong in several cases.

Could this impudence of the unstoppable inquirer be at the root of antagonism between science and religion?

Now science and economic progress have reached a stage where they can cater to the emotional need for security as well as the intellectual need to know.  Yes, it is true that there still are unanswered questions.  To wit, nature of human consciousness, the evolution versus intelligent design debate and so on.  But these can be assigned to secular philosophy instead of competing and dogmatic religions.

And so the big question is, is there still a need for religion? If yes, why? Do you think that giving up religion will make the world too monotonous and colorless?

The bigger question is that though a (superior) alternative is available how to ensure that people want it instead of antiquated religious beliefs?  Isn't this somewhat like asking how to draw people towards a healthy diet that they don't want for reasons of liking?

Phished, well, almost, in the US of A!!

It was the afternoon of Friday.  I was at home with my wife and the two grandsons.  My son and daughter-in-law were away to work.  We had had lunch and were having a chat with the kids when the landline phone rang.  My younger grandson, 7 years old, picked up the phone and responded.  Then he handed over the phone to me saying that it was probably for his mom.  When I responded, the caller on the other side announced that he was calling from the immigration department of the government of USA and gave me his name and id number.  He asked whether Mrs. Upadhyaya was available.  Thinking that he wanted to talk to my daughter-in-law, I told him that she was away to her office.  He inquired who I was and I gave him my name and relationship to the intended recipient.  He asked me to spell out my first name and I did that.  He then announced that this was about serious issues with the recent immigration checks of my wife and me.  I asked him about the issue and he informed that even though requested to do so, we had failed to submit form I-94 even after so many days of entering the USA.

Now this fellow was speaking in an impeccable American accent and there were appropriate background noises too suggesting that he was in an office.  He had identified himself with all the details and was addressing me as Sir as they normally do when interacting with a citizen (/visitor.) Though, the tone and tenor was quite officious. So this had me rattled.  I could recall that a certain form, other than the customs declaration form was earlier being obtained from visitors but it had been discontinued year before last.  And it was form I-94.  However being rattled, I thought it must have been some other form.  I told him that no one had asked me to submit any form.  He said that a notice had been sent out too.  I protested saying that I had not received any notice.  He then read out an address in the Eastern part of USA and asked me to confirm that this was my address.  I said that there has been some mistake and that I was in the city of Cupertino in California.  Even in that rattled state I avoided giving him the street address.  Then he expressed surprise and added that after my file was opened for this violation another serious criminal matter related to my id has come up and they are in the process of getting an arrest warrant issued for me.  When I expressed my astonishment, he said that he was not able to make out what I said and asked about the languages that I speak.  When told that I spoke Hindi and English, he asked me to wait while he handed over the call to an interpreter.

Next one Rakesh Patel came online and after properly introducing himself, he asked me in Hindi which Indian Language would I prefer.  I said Hindi and he said that my voice was breaking up and inquired if I had a cell phone.  This must have been the first step towards the identity theft.  My son had given me a prepaid connection, and I gave him the number.  Then he asked me to wait for a call on the cell phone which materialized pretty soon.  After repeating the charge of non-submission of form I-94, he said that my identity had been misused for withdrawing money from an account in Bank of America and that the money was remitted to Pakistan presumably for terrorist activities.  Then he gave me a Muslim and a Christian name and asked me if I knew any or both of them (I forget the names but would refer to them as Khan and John in later paragraphs.)  He said that the Muslim person was a Pakistani and had used my identity to perpetrate the crime.  Then he asked if I could explain how could the fraudster get my identification details?  I politely told him that the question was directed at the wrong person and they should be asking the perpetrator of the fraud.  He asked me if I had an USA id.  This gave rise to some suspicion in my mind.  How could they be leveling this charge unless they knew about what id I had?  If they were from Immigration department they should know my passport number and my nationality.  But being under psychological pressure I didn't question him and played along.  He asked me what ids I had.  I responded I had my passport.  Then he asked if I had an US driving license to which I replied in the negative.  This slightly added to the suspicion.

Next, the purported Mr Patel said that there was some legal procedure to be completed and that he would be handing me back to the immigration officer.  He also counselled me to be polite them as they were the officers handling my case.

The earlier fellow came online and announced his name and id number once again.  He next informed me that the next part of the conversation will be recorded and whatever I said could be used against me in a court of law.  He advised me to be truthful.  The questions went like this.  Did I know Khan and John?  How could they get hold of my id? Did I ever use my id to open a bank account in USA? Did I have an account with Bank of America or any other bank in America?  What ids did I have with me?  The last question startled me.  For if he asked me about my passport details, I must decline as this was a sensitive information.  How could I do so without offending him?  Also when I told him that I had no bank accounts in USA, he had asked me to hold the line while he consulted his senior.  I could hear him saying, "He does not have any bank accounts in America."  I could not make out the response of the other person.

Luckily he did not ask any details of passport or Indian driving license and spared me the torment of evading the question.  He instead informed me that a warrant had already been issued in my name: well, things do move fast in USA!  He said that it being a Friday I had very little time to pay a bond amount of USD 1978 and avoid an arrest.  He said that I will have to come over and sign the bond and deposit the amount.  Then he added that the bond amount was refundable and if I was found not guilty it would be refunded.  Next he asked if I knew the immigration office closest to my residence.  When I replied in the negative he said further details will be provided by the interpreter.

Mr Patel duly came online, identified himself, and painted a very bleak picture before me.  He said that unless I could post the bond within two hours, I may have to spend time in prison and this would put paid to any further visits by me to USA.  The suspicion in my mind was gradually turning into a certainty.  I requested Patel to advise me the address so I could call my son to drive down to the address and post the bail.  He said it was an extremely serious matter and no third person should associate with it.  He said that if my son's name figured in the proceedings he could lose his job too.  Now I said, a little boldly, "I have heard about the great justice system in USA.  How could my son lose his job if the crime has been supposedly committed by me and not him?"  He said there was no time to explain and asked me if I had the bail amount at hand in cash.  Now the hardened suspicion was turning into a certainty.  I told him that I did not have a single dollar and that my son would have to drive me to the address given by him and there was no other option.  Patel asked me in a surprised tone that how could I possibly be here and not have even USD 1000 in cash?  Surprise! He did not say 1978!  Probably he could also sense the change in my tone by now.  So he said, "OK, in that case I will hand you back to the immigration officer.  Please talk here."  And the call got disconnected.  And it was only now after disconnection that I noticed that the call was from an Unknown Number!

But dear reader, the biggest surprise was yet to come.

My two grandsons had been watching me and listening to my part of the conversation with great attention and concern.  The elder one had also started video recording the call without my noticing it and he showed me the video later on.  After I put down the phone, my elder grandson said, "Dadu, you should not have told them which city you are in."  When I said that I thought they were government officials, he said, "In that case you should have checked back."  I asked him how and this is what he said, "You should have challenged him to give you your passport number and date of birth to prove that he was from the immigration department and declined to tell your name or city till he had proved his identity!"  This came from an 11 year old!  When I asked him how did this occur to him, he deprecatingly said that he had seen something similar in a TV serial here.  Later my son also told me that all government communications are in the form of letters delivered by USPS and never through a telephone call.  Citizens, of course, could call a department in case of need.  And if at all there were to be a call from a department, it would never be from an unknown number.

My grandson also showed me the video clip where he had succeeded in capturing the sound from the other side too because of high volume and his proximity to me.  He next advised me to call 911 (Police) and inform them this of this attempt to perpetrate a fraud.  We chose not to do that.

LKO to SFO: US pre-clearance at Abu Dhabi

My wife and I travel to USA each year for spending some time with our grandsons.  Though Lucknow boasts of an international terminal, the only international flights available are those to destinations in the Middle East.  We often wondered why did they not offer flights onwards from there to other destinations, but could not find an answer.  In the absence of such connecting onward booking, the only option for us was to travel from Delhi.  Airlines operating between Lucknow and Delhi do not allow any extra baggage allowance to passengers connecting to or from international sectors.  In view of this and also double the normal baggage allowance for USA bound passengers, we used to travel to Delhi by train.  This often meant a prefix interval of 24 hours from the time we left home at Lucknow to the time we boarded the international flight at New Delhi.  The travel time from New Delhi to San Francisco being 24 hours, this train travel doubled the total travel time.

So we were very happy when we learnt that Jet Airways was likely to start bookings for the sector LKO-SFO.  Finally, when my son made the booking, we discovered that the itinerary was a collaboration between three airlines.  For our outward journey from Lucknow, the first flight from Lucknow to Abu Dhabi was operated by Jet.  The next flight from Abu Dhabi to San Francisco, 16 hours of flight time, was an Etihad airways flight. The third airline is Air Berlin on the return leg which doesn't trace back the outward journey.  But the most unusual thing was US pre-clearance at Abu Dhabi.  Pre-clearance simply means completing US immigration and customs check at Abu Dhabi itself.  And this means that you exit on arrival in USA as if you had traveled domestically!  Though, as we discovered, this has one disadvantage too: you have to pay for the luggage cart!  Regular international travelers get the cart free.  Another side effect is that the admission date stamped on your passport is the date in Abu Dhabi at the time of clearance.  Thus though I actually entered the USA on 11th June 2016, the date stamped on my passport is 10th June 2016!

It seems that all US bound passengers at Abu Dhabi board their flight through gate no. 59.  It also seems that this gate opens only after boarding for an US bound flight is announced.  Passengers have to wait in the waiting areas of the adjoining gates.

The way to pre-clearance facility is through a door across the corridor from gate number 59.  You descend a flight of stairs into the pre-clearance area and then ascend a flight of stairs to get back to gate number 58 adjoining 59.  The whole process starts 3 hours before departure.   About an hour before this starting time we were asked to vacate the seating area at gate number 58 so that the area could be sanitized: sanitized as in security and not in hygiene.  Upon inquiry we were told to return to that place after an hour.  The customs clearance form was also provided.

At the appointed time the queue started forming in the corridor which had been blocked near gate 59.  Passengers were directed towards the pre-clearance area.  The boarding pass and the passport were checked by the airlines staff.  Then there was a thorough security check.  After the check we went for the proper immigration process.  It was exactly as done in USA on arrival.  Usual questions were asked and biometric impressions were taken.  The only difference was that a picture of all our checked-in bags appeared on a computer screen in the immigration officer's cabin.  I may add that the luggage had been accepted at Lucknow under through check-in and we were NOT required to take possession of the luggage at Abu Dhabi for custom clearance.

After the immigration formalities were over, we exited and went one flight of stairs up to gate number 58.  At around the time of boarding all economy class passengers were requested to move to the waiting area of gate number 60 and wait for the boarding call.  The boarding was in the usual zone-wise manner.

Banking Transaction Tax (BTT) - The Most Revolutionary Reform Waiting to Happen

It is quite some time since Arthakranti.org put forward a proposal to replace ALL taxes by a single tax levied on credit turnover in bank accounts.  As pointed out by them, along with this the amount of currency in circulation has to be drastically curbed to minimise tax evasion.  It has earlier been shown by an IIM professor that even at 1.5% the BTT yield will exceed the total current tax revenue.

In the present system, the vast army dedicated to tax collection notwithstanding, there are serious leakages.  People evade tax either by simply not declaring the correct base figures for taxation at the lower rungs, or through creative accounting coupled with exploitation of all the fine prints at the top rungs.  The cost of maintaining the army of tax assessors and collectors is humongous.  The cost of compliance, maintaining records and reporting too is mind-boggling.  Though, to be fair, it must be said that till now there was no practical alternative to this cumbersome way of taxation.

Today taxes are divided into two categories, direct and indirect. The Arthakranti website prominently displays a cartoon depicting a man carrying two loads at the two ends of a stick balanced on one of his shoulders.  One load labelled Indirect Taxes is much heavier than the other load labelled Direct Taxes.

Will you agree if I contend that this division of taxes between Direct and Indirect is quite artificial and useless?  Any taxes levied on corporates, or any productive entity for that matter, would ultimately get reckoned towards overheads and factored into the prices.  And, in this sense all taxes are indirect and borne by whoever the consumers are.  There are cases where employees negotiate for a salary net of Income Tax and this makes even the most direct tax an indirect tax.  Taxing the credit turnover in bank accounts, BTT, explicitly does away with this artificial classification of direct and indirect.

As collection costs are eliminated, banks can be given a small percentage of taxes remitted by them as commission.  This will have far reaching implications for the banking industry by substantially boosting their fee-based income.  This can help them lower lending rates, something that all governments have been hankering after, by boosting their non-interest income.  This will help commerce and industry without compromising interests of depositors.

Above all, the energy and qualified human resources that are currently committed to discovering and plugging loopholes in taxation laws, and the so-called creative accounting, reporting and compliance, are truly mind-boggling.  All this can be released and can do wonders by being deployed into productive and meaningful work.  This alone is worth a dozen good enough reasons for implementing BTT.

Some objections that may possibly be raised against this novel way of taxation that has the simplicity of genius, will go like this:

• Taxation is presently used as a tool to encourage or discourage consumption of a product by reducing or increasing tax rate on that particular item.  This also comes handy for raising additional revenue from products with inelastic demands.  This can still be done in BTT but would detract from its fabulous simplicity.  Also, taking the example of curbing smoking, prohibition of smoking in public places has been far more effective a deterrent than sustained price rise year after year.  Thus government should use its legislative powers to discourage or ban use of harmful products instead of exploiting public's addiction for enhancing revenue.
• A fear that people my engage in barter is baseless at this level of economic advancement.
• Taxes on imports and exports are also used as tools to promote/restrict exports/import.  I am not fully aware of what the international trade agreements have to say on this.  Exports will, of course, get taxed when proceeds are received in exporters' account. Imports may be taxed whenever an importer's account is debited towards import and the complication of different rates for different items may remain here.  This will be an instance where a debit entry in an account has to be taxed. It will be recalled that BTT is essentially for taxing credit turnover in bank accounts.
• It may be argued that a single rate on all and sundry is iniquitous.  This may be corrected by specifying amount ranges for credit turnover and applying differential rates.
• To avoid multiple taxation, transfers between different accounts belonging to the same customer-id may be excluded from the credit turnover.  To effect it across banks an universal customer-id, such as Aadhaar number, could be used by all the banks.
• Again, it may be argued that not only revenue but capital transactions, like borrowing and repayment, too, will get taxed under BTT.  However, as BTT is very likely to bring about reduction in lending rates by banks as argued in the beginning, this small burden on capital transactions is likely to be more than set off.
• A serious objection to BTT comes from the concomitant demand for drastically reducing currency in the system.  Lower reserve requirements may enable banks to create too much money.  But then this can always be controlled through capital adequacy norms and reserve requirements imposed by the Monetary Authority.

It cannot be emphasized enough that the entire success of BTT depends on drastic reduction in use of currency in the economy.  All notes above ₹50/= must be discontinued.  

There may be some apprehensions against bringing down use of currency in the economy.  One is that in their quest to avoid taxation, people may create alternate currencies or start using precious metals and stones.  It is not very likely to happen in a big way as all ultimate uses will have to be only in proper currency and bank balance only.

What may not be immediately obvious is that unless the cost of electioneering is reduced and funding of political parties is made absolutely transparent, politicians will resist these proposals tooth and nail.  For it is bundles of high-denomination notes, mostly unaccounted money, that are used for these two purposes.

An examination of tax data shows that when it comes to direct taxes, total Income Tax paid by corporates is hardly 1.5 times the total Income Tax paid by individuals. And the whole of indirect taxes, which far exceed the direct taxes, is ultimately borne by individual consumers only.  Thus corporates pay very little tax and almost the entire tax burden falls on individuals only.  Hence it is likely that corporates may raise all kinds of objections to BTT.  However all such arguments will be fallacious because in the final analysis all taxes on a productive entity are indirect only (as long as it is a going concern.)

To conclude, it is currency that facilitates most evils including crime, terrorism and drug trade.  It also facilitates the kind of expensive politics that makes it near impossible for an ordinary citizen to get into it.  The elimination of currency will curb these evils and BTT will release unbelievable amounts of energy and manpower currently committed to the process of tax collection, payment (and evasion) and compliance requirement.  These two can be the biggest game changers for the human race.

Thus there is a need to start a public movement across the globe so that all countries take to BTT and minimal currency use.

Comments requested.

Bangladeshi Immigrants and Swachchh Bharat

A few days ago we had a meeting of the local Residents' Welfare Association.  One member observed that an order has been promulgated by the government for penalizing burning of garbage as a mode of disposal.  Of course, nobody knew of any initiatives for improvements in the current pathetic state of garbage collection and disposal to supplement this notification.  In the absence of such improvements, the notification looks like just cynical buck passing.

At our place garbage is not collected by the corporation directly but by a private agency called "Chamacham Lucknow."  I think most other cities too have similar arrangements.  Chamacham fellows are supposed to take all the garbage to the nearest designated garbage dump from where corporation collects it, though not on a daily basis. The Chamacham people do take the household garbage away once in two days.  However, the fallen leaves, plant trimmings from houses as also the neighborhood park are bulky and Chamacham workers refuse to cart it away.  Instead they collect it in a heap, leave it to dry and then set fire to it.  Often this burning mass also includes bits of plastic and wrappings lying on the road and roadside. This is a major source of air pollution in the city.

As an aside, we all have read in the newspapers that these days the farmers too set fire to the dry plant stalk remaining in the fields after harvesting. Thus burning of plant stalks in villages and garbage in cities have raised air pollution levels to a new high all around.

After the meeting I chanced to meet the local Chamacham supervisor and interviewed him briefly.  This is the picture that emerged from the interview.

He said that there are well paid municipal employees under a supervisor who are supposed to sweep the streets and take away all the swept-up garbage.  Instead they are made to work as domestic servants at bureaucrats' and politicians' homes.  Then many of them do not work themselves.  They hire another person to whom they pay a fraction of their wages.  They also pay another small fraction to their supervisor and then splurge the rest.  After all, why should they work once they have become a government employee: never mind if it is just the LSG (Local Self Government!)  Chamacham people rightly thinks that compensating for such shirking by people who are extremely well paid entitles them to separate payment for sweeping the streets.

Then again, the number of garbage dumpsters has been steadily declining as nobody wants one near his house.  To be sure, it really is a big nuisance.  It will overflow before it is emptied by the autonomous employees.  Dogs and cows will be rummaging through the overflow and adding their own poop to it.  Now who wouldn't mobilize all his resources to ensure that he is as far away from such a place as possible?

Thus inadequate deployment of dumpsters and infrequent emptying of these few dumpsters force burning of garbage as the only means of disposal.

He concluded by adding a note of caution, "People resent the Bangladeshi immigrants. But it must be said that but for them our cities would have by now turned into garbage mountains."

Unless Municipal Corporations are overhauled, rid of corruption and their employees made to work, merely exhorting and goading the citizens will not get us any closer to the Swachchh Bharat of our dreams.  And if we cannot make the employees work, we may have to encourage Bangladeshi immigration, political posturing notwithstanding.

Internet Banking and Travelling Overseas

With steady increase in the NRI numbers, many parents make yearly trips abroad to spend some time with sons, daughters and their "grand" versions.  One issue that inconveniences them is the use of internet banking while abroad. They have to use it for payment of bills as also checking their accounts.

All banks impose use of use-once-only OTP (One Time Password) under certain conditions though the usage is not uniform.  The use is for ensuring that the action is being performed by the genuine account holder who is in possession of his registered mobile number.  The OTP is sent as an SMS on this registered mobile number.  Some banks initiate OTP at the time of login itself if they find that it is being done from an unfamiliar device and location.  While some banks may just have a second password for transactions, others insist on use of OTP for all transactions irrespective of device or location.

The point is that unless international roaming is activated on your Indian mobile number,  you may not be able to make use of Internet banking.  International roaming is not only expensive but also not as easily available as national roaming.  BSNL does not provide international roaming to its prepaid customers.  Airtel does, but not to customers in East UP circle: This gets my goat as I reside in this circle.  And then this roaming can prove to be very expensive if you were to respond to an incoming call by mistake.

I had found a solution for this.  I put an app 'Relay ME' on my phone.  Then I would leave my phone in India with someone who could ensure that it is kept charged and connected to the network.  The app relays all received SMS to an email address configured in it.  This did the job without having to go for international roaming.

Now many banks have introduced 'active token' for generating the OTP instead of receiving it from the bank.  It is done through an app on customer's smartphone.  The OTP can be generated whether or not you are in the coverage area of your GSM operator.  However your SIM which has the mobile number registered with the Bank, must be present in the phone. Presto! carry your SIM with you and forget about international roaming.  As long as you have a wi-fi connection you can carry out Internet banking unhindered.

Activating the "Token" app is just a little bit tricky.  For this purpose you have to log into your Internet banking account, preferably on another device while activating the app on your smartphone.  Also you must install the app on the phone which has the SIM for the registered mobile number.  You will receive an SMS which will have an URL for activation and you have to click on this URL on the phone having the app and the SIM.  However all the hassle is worth it.

Finally, having your Bank's mobile banking app on your phone also helps.  It allows you to login and transfer funds without OTP.  However when you are being redirected to bank's Internet banking site by an online merchant, you may have to resort to the "Active Token."

Do share your experience if you have been using an active token for banking transactions.