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

Friday 26 June 2015

World Wide Work

diw@negp.gov.in

amitabh.kant@nic.in



Dear Sir :


Many thanks for your invitation to attend the inauguration ceremony of Digital India Week , at the hands of Shri Narendra Modiji , on 01 July , at the Vigyan Bhavan

I am honored but regret my inability to attend due to indifferent health

I do hope my past suggestions , in respect of " Digitized E - Governance " , will be given a few minutes for discussions , during the week-long deliberations

For your ready-reference , these are reproduced below

with regards,

hemen  parekh



(M) 0 - 98,67,55,08,08

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VotesApp


Here is a suggestion to IIT-Bombay , to develop a voting app , to be called VotesApp. Highlights of VotesApp :

Ø  An Android app which can be downloaded from Google Play / Android Zoom / GetJar and the official web site of Election Commission of India

Ø  It will be pre-loaded on 220 million Aakash tablets  which Govt of India plans to distribute to students

Ø  It will also be pre-loaded on those Smart phones ( to be called, “ Dharati “ ? ), which Govt of India plans to distribute free to 400 million “ poor “ Indians , before 2014 National elections

Ø  All tablet / smart phone manufacturers will be encouraged to pre-load VotesApp

Ø  Using this app , a voter can register at Election Commission web site, where he will enter the same data which he has submitted for his Aadhar card, including Aadhar card number (Unique Identification No)

Ø  All of these details will be verified by Aadhar database

Ø  Obviously , those who have not obtained their Aadhar card , will not be able to use VotesApp . They will need to visit nearest polling booth

Ø  Upon correct verification , Aadhar Database will permanently link the person’s Aadhar number with the mobile number from which  registration is done, and issue a Password

Ø  An under aged person will not be allowed to register

Ø  A person will be able to vote only from that mobile number

Ø  After login on first screen, user will be asked to select one option from > Panchayat Election > Municipal Election > State Assembly Election > Lok-Sabha Election

Ø  Upon selection, user will be presented with the list of candidates contesting , from which , he can select only one by ticking a checkbox. There will be also a choice , labeled “ None “

Ø  A long press on a candidate’s name will display details of his declared assets as also his criminal record


Ø  After ticking / selecting a candidate, voter will click on  “ VOTE “ button, whereupon his vote gets registered and VotesApp gets inactivated

Ø  Once a voter registers on Election Commission web site , he cannot go to a poling booth and vote physically

Ø  In less than one year , Govt of India will recover the cost of 220 million Aakash tablets and 400 million” Dharati “ smart phones , through this customized / personalized / shrinking of EVMs ( Electronic Voting Machines ) to a hand-held device. And imagine the millions of man-hours saved !

Ø  And the beauty is , no one can capture this booth , or conduct exit polls ! What will “ experts “ discuss on TV channels ?

Ø  What next ? Election Commission “licensing “ this App to other countries ?


 *    hemen   parekh    (   18   Dec   2012   )

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I SIN><U SIN



That could be the name of an android app ( I Seek It Now > < U Solve It Now )

To be developed by India’s Central Home Ministry for successful implementation of proposed,

Delivery  of  Services  Act

The app will come pre-installed on those mobile phones which Government of India plans to distribute FREE , to some 400 million “ Poor People “ of India , before the 2014 National Election ( and on those 220 million Aakash Tablets )

Issuer will enter the Mobile No and that person’s Aadhar Card No, in a computerised central database , before issuing the phone
Hence , no need to login to the App , whose screen will read,

“ I wish to send my complaint to the following department :
  • National Commission for Women

  • Garbage Clearance

  • Water Supply

  • Electricity Supply

  • Roads Repair

  • Rationing ( Food Distribution )

  • Police

  • Bus Transport

  • Railways

  • Post

  • Employment

  • Education

  • Irrigation

  • Building Permits

  • Revenue / Land Records

  • Anti Corruption

  • Other ……………………………………….etc
(List should not exceed 50)

Touching name of any department name will open a SMS message box where the user will type out his complaint ( in a language of his choice )

There will be option to speak-out and record voice message , for illiterate users

Touching SEND button will transmit the complaint and within minutes, user will receive SMS reply , giving,
  • Name of Officer responsible

  • Office Landline No

  • Mobile No

  • Email Id

  • Complaint No

  • Expected date of solving

Bingo !

Then publish online , a tabulation of departments , arranged in the descending order of the no of complaints received / cleared / pending!

This frugal innovation will bring in Good Governance all over India
Request Nandan Nilekani / Sam Pitroda to help out , even though they may be busy implementing my earlier suggested app , 

“ VotesApp “



I have no doubt that the political party which promises , “ I SIN >< U SIN “ ,  will get voted to power in 2014


*   hemen   parekh   (  29   Dec   2012  )

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Digital    Locker    Project



Dear Shri Ravishankar Prasadji :

Business Standard ( 23 May 2015 ) writes about an initiative of Department of Electronics and Information Technology , to create " Digital Lockers "for Indian Citizens , where they can store their important documents on internet

This crowd-sourcing project is supposed to work as follows :

*   Citizens scan their documents on a scanner and then upload those
     images in personal Digital Locker ( User ID / Secure Password ? )

*   Special S/W will break-up each document image into hundreds of mini
     images ( of a few characters each )

*   Each mini-image will be SMSed to 2 persons ( having Smart phones ? ),
     who will type out the characters in TEXT (  WORD format ?  )

*   These typed TEXTs will get uploaded into document-owner's Digital
     Locker

*   If both these " typed texts " match perfectly ( like CAPTCHA ), it will
     replace that mini-image in the document

Apparently , the idea is to crowd-source the Smart Phones / human resources of millions of Indian Citizens - much like the 30 year old SETI project

But before taking a final decision to go ahead , I feel following questions need to be answered :

*  How much will it cost to develop / deploy the required software ?

*  Let us assume that there are only 10 documents per citizen ( on an
    average ) , taking the total to 12.5 BILLION documents to be scanned

    If each document-image has to be broken-up ( again , on an average ),
    into just 10 mini-images , that would mean 125 BILLION mini-images !

*  Now , if each mini-image has to be sent to 2 smart-phones , that
    would require , 250 BILLION smart phones  !

    Now , of course , there are no more than 250 million smart phones
    That would require Govt to send to each smart phone owner , 1,000
    mini-images  !

    And let us assume that each mini-image contains , just 10 characters,
    ( most likely , it will contain 50 characters )

    That would require each smart phone owner to type out 10,000
    characters  !

*  Why would ordinary Indian smart phone owner take time and trouble to
    type out 10,000 CAPTCHA-like characters ?

*  How will you motivate them ?  By paying  ?  How much  ?  Total cost ?

*  How many years will it take to implement entire project  ?

*  Do our 1.25  Billion ( document-owning ) citizens have easy access to
    scanners ( to scan their own documents ) and to broadband ( to upload
    into personal Digital Locker )  ?

*  On the other hand , is it not far easier for these citizens to use the built-in camera of their
    smart phones to take photos ( essentially , " images " ) of their documents and directly
    upload to their Digital Lockers  ?  After all , with built-in mega-pixel camera , every smart
    phone has become  a " Personal Scanner "  !

*   Why not take help from Global Software Companies to automatically
     convert those scanned document images into WORD texts , using OCR
     technology ?

     Latest OCR soft ware have better than 95 % accuracy

     Then let the document-owner access OCRed documents in his personal
     Digital Locker and EDIT the documents thru his mobile / PC / Tablet  ?

     Let the onus for accuracy be with the document owner

     I am sure , you are aware of the GOOGLE-BOOK project , under which ,
     Google has scanned and OCRed and converted to text , billions of pages !

*   Or , why not get Indian Software Giants to develop a Mobile App ( to
     be called , DigiDoc  ?  ) to enable a document-owner to simply read 
     out aloud , each of his document , into the smart phone , to convert it
     into a TEXT , using " Speech-to-Text " technology ?

    Let the document be in any official Indian Language

    And ask the Software Company to make the " Speech-to-Text " software ,
   " Self Learning " as millions of document owners " correct " online thru   
    " Editing " , all those words , mis-spelled by the software  !
    
    I believe , the " Bye-Product " of this " Self Learning " software could well
    re-define concepts such as >  E Governance  > National Integration  !

  

     The document owner will speak out , his :

    >    Digital Locker Number

    >    Aadhar Card Number

    >    User ID

    >    Password

    >    Document Name

    >    Meta-tags / Keywords


   When Mobile App acknowledges these details and connects him with his Digital Locker , he will be prompted to " read out " his document
Later on , he will be enabled to " View " his document online and EDIT it , wherever " Speech-to-Text " software has made any mistakes

Dear Ravishankarji ,

I urge you to evaluate the alternatives suggested by me , before taking a final decision

with  regards,

hemen  parekh

Mumbai


(M) 0 - 98,67,55,08,08


May 25 , 2015

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Make  it  A  Reality


Objective of tomorrow's MINT closed door event ( as reported in Ads ) is :


"...to examine the implications of this vision  and propose what's needed to make it a reality  "


Here is one of the things that I think is needed :


Treat MII ( Make In India ) on par with MOM ( Mars Orbital Mission )

We have all seen MOM control room on TV , with dozens of scientists glued to respective computer screens , monitoring every aspect of the Mission

And , whenever required , taking " Course Correction Actions " in real time


For MII ( Make In India ) too , we need such  Control Rooms

One at the HUB ( in DIPP ) and one each in State Capitals ( Spokes )

The concerned officers will monitor :


>    Web Site Traffic ( better than Google Web Analytics )
  
      Who is visiting from where and looking at which pages , and doing what , and for how long ...etc


>    Message Traffic

       From server log of B2B web site , monitor which FOREIGN COMPANIES are blasting ( We are interested to talk to you ) messages to

       which INDIAN COMPANIES


>    Action Traffic

       B2B server sending out ( within ONE MINUTE ) , full details of above-mentioned messages to,

       *    Indian Diplomatic Missions abroad to get in touch with the Message-Sending FOREIGN COMPANIES , offering instant help

       *    Chief Ministers / Industry Ministers / Industry Commissioners etc of the STATE GOVERNMENTS , where Message-Receiving INDIAN

             COMPANIES are located ( - expect a fierce / healthy competition amongst States to locate project in their States ! )


>    Project Monitoring

      Implementation of each project ( above a certain value ) being  monitored using PERT technique ( Mr Rice would appreciate this )



To make MOM , a " reality " , cost the country , some Rs 430 Crores - and time of some 100 scientists

I believe CONTROL ROOMS ( War Rooms ? ) of Make In India , may not cost more than Rs 43 Crores ( - all put together )

And some company like Infosys / TCS / Wipro , may be able to construct - and operationalize  - such rooms ( Hardware and Software included )

within 3 months - given the challenge to raise our " Ease of Doing Business " rank from 142 to 42  !




*    hemen   parekh   /   18   Nov   2014

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Thursday, 3 April 2014

E - Governance ?


Can e-Governance help eliminate corruption  ?


Most certainly


Look at the following , partial list of Central and State Agencies set up to fight fraud , money-laundering , corruption , tax-evasion , economic crimes etc :



>  Public Accounts Committee           (  PAC  )


>  Central Vigilance Commission        (  CVC  )


>  Central Information Commission     (  CIC  )


>  Research and Analysis Wing           (  RAW  )


>  Serious Fraud Investigation Office   (  SFIO  )


>  Information Bureau                        (  IB   )


>  Economic Offence Wing                   (  EOW  )


>  Central Bureau of Investigation        (  CBI  )


>  Department of Revenue Intelligence (  DIR  )


>  Comptroller and Auditor General       (  CAG  )


>  Anti Corruption Bureaus ( States ).... (  ACB  )


>  Enforcement Directorate                    (  ED   )


>  Lok  Ayuktas    (  States   )


>  Lok Pal           ( Central  )




Despite such an army of Agencies , how do corrupt manage to get away  ?


Or , in case caught , manage to delay delivery of punishment for years  ?


No doubt , there must be several reasons , including , inter - agency rivalry to get credit - something difficult to eliminate altogether


But , I believe , the most important reason is :



Lack of a COMMON  / COMPUTERIZED database of all offences / cases / persons being investigated


And , which is readily " Accessible " to all of these Agencies , all over the country ( 24 * 365 )



Already , every Agency compiles huge dossiers on " Suspects " in its own 
" Departmental Database " , which is never shared with other Agencies ,
leading to ,


>   Huge amount of duplication of efforts / information


>   Fractured / scattered profiles of " Suspects "


>   Enormous waste of time / resources



What will help  ?



>  Dismantling of individual departmental databases


>  Merging of all Agency-wise databases into a SINGLE / UNIQUE database


>  All Agencies to enter their findings / data / info into this COMMON
     database , with nothing preserved on local computers


All data-entry FORMS to be ONLINE . No paper forms at all


>  All local computers connected to ultra-secure Network ( Encrypted )


>  " Access Rights " to individuals , based on Biometric Identification




Will BJP want to make this , a prominent promise in their Poll-Manifesto , likely to be released on 7th April  ?  ( Congress /  AAP missed this boat  ! )


It is high time political parties stop talking of motherhood in vague terms and start telling the voters ,


" If you vote us to power , this is precisely what we will do , to bring about E-GOVERNANCE  - and do it within 6 months of assuming power "



*  hemen  parekh  (  04  April  2014  /  Mumbai )

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