HERE IS A WAY TO LEAD THE WORLD

Quarterly  Labour  Survey  :  A  Still-born  Child  ?

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Economic Times ( 21 March 2017 ) carries following news report :

“ PMO Nudges Statistics Ministry to Start Quarterly Survey of Labour Force “

The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) has prodded the statistics ministry to begin a periodic survey of the country’s labour force which has been pending for a while now. 

The survey will provide the government better information on the country’s labour force, helping it plan policies better. One of the promises of the Narendra Modi government is more job creation. 

The statistics ministry planned to conduct the quarterly Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) and the country’s first survey using tablet computers last year, but the process got delayed due to lack of resources 

The technology-driven survey will be conducted by researchers using tablets and guided by what’s known as computer-assisted personal interviewing (CAPI) technique. 

At present, employment data is only available through NSSO surveys done every five years. Not only is it limited to a few sectors, but also based on the Annual Survey of Industries which only captures the employees of the registered factories. 

It is supported by the quick quarterly employment surveys the Labour Bureau has been doing since the global economic crisis of 2008. 

However, these cover only select sectors of the economy at the enterprise level to assess the impact of economic slowdown on employment in India. 

These numbers are insufficient to assess the state of the economy. 

Developed countries such as the US come out with monthly employment data. 

MY  TAKE  :

Conducting surveys like this ( manually / going around the entire country / asking questions / typing out answers in tablets / compiling findings / plotting graphs etc ) is ARCHAIC  , to say the least  !

Just look at the technologies available today , to simplify / automate all the processes :

Smart Phones ( with bio-metric identification including Face Recognition / Blue Tooth / RFID / NFC / ever-powerful Voice Assistants , Photo-video capabilities / Language Translation Apps / ability to transfer data without towers  etc ) 

Google Maps , capable of seeing everything , everywhere and showing it

Cloud based Data 

Artificial Intelligence 

Everyone present on Social Media , everyone exchanging Messages on WhatsAp - Twitter 

Everyone being “ watched / recorded “ by ubiquitous CCTV cameras

Everything getting connected with everything else through Internet of Things ( IP V 6.0 ) providing 50,000 TRILLION URLS to every human being on the Earth

AND THESE TECHNOLOGIES ARE IMPROVING BY THE HOUR AND SOLVING PROBLEMS WHICH WERE CONSIDERED UNSOLVABLE JUST ONE HOUR AGO !

Dear Shri Dattatreya Bangaruji / Shri Prakash Jawadekarji / Shri T C Anantji :

I urge you to ask our Scientists / Engineers / Software Guys , if they too believe that the RIGHT WAY to conduct LABOUR SURVEYS is “ NOT TO CONDUCT “ surveys , by implementing the suggestion in my following Blog / E mail :

Wednesday, 1 June 2016

From BAD to MAD

BAD   =   Biometric Attendance Device

MAD   =   Mobile Attendance Device

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Most people think the greatest contribution of Bill Gates ( onetime CEO of Microsoft ) was " MS Operating System "

I think , it was his book " Business @ the Speed of Thought "

Current CEO of Microsoft is a PIO named Satya Nadela

What is his contribution ?

What he said during his talk in Delhi on 30 May , called ,

" Tech for Good , Ideas for India " :

 He cited the example of how NASA scientists were not able to see the Rover move on Mars but the holographic output of the Rover is right there in their office.

Nadella also met two young developers, one of them a 17-year-old who has figured out how to take data from NASA , conflate it with other information and see the spread of algae in Bay of Bengal. “Here’s a student who is taking information that is available, bringing it together—he wanted to have a real impact right here in terms of how we managed our climate,” he said.

Nadella wrapped up by summing Microsoft’s mission in India.

" It is about really celebrating the technologies that you all in India create. In fact, I want us to be the platform creators that foster the ingenuity of what is happening in India,” he said.

Here is my idea of a technology that we need to create for a better India :

Today EMPLOYEE ATTENDANCE SYSTEMS in India work at three levels as follows :

#   ENTIRELY MANUAL

     Attendance Register and Wage/Salary payment in cash or by Cheque

#   PARTLY AUTOMATED

     Punch cards or Bio-metric recording of attendance but manual calculation

     of wages / salaries and payment by cash or cheque

#   FULLY AUTOMATED

     Bio-metric Attendance Devices ( BAD ) , integrated with a home-grown or

     bought-out Salary Payment Software , running on a local Server.

     Salary payments could be by cheques or thru Electronic Transfer to

     concerned employee's bank account

Once in a while , if a company has several establishments within a city , those local servers are connected to a Central Server , doing all processing

In a rare case ( although , I am not aware of any ) , it may be that all the local servers of all the establishments of a company , all over the country , are networked with its central computer in its head-quarter

Now imagine this :

#  All smart phones to evolve as Bio-metric Attendance Devices , with built-in

    Bio-metric Recorders , GPS , a mobile attendance App ( called MAD ? )

#  App to have 2 buttons ( Green = IN  /  Red = OUT )

#  Employee to touch IN upon reaching his work-station and touch OUT ,

    while leaving work place , at the end of work-shift . That's all  !

#  Being GPS enabled , buttons will get activated ONLY when the employee

    has reached the work place ( not while he is on his way ! )

#  All 100 million establishments in India ( factories / offices / shops / clinics

    NGOs / Govt Depts ) to ensure that the MAD app is installed on the smart

    phone of each employee , when he joins

   

#  All of these smart phones to be connected ( IoT ? ) , with the Servers of ,

    *  Labour Ministries ( Central and States )

    *  HRD Ministry ( Central )

    *  Skills Development Ministry / NSDC

    *  Finance Ministries ( Central + States )

    *  NITI Aayog

    *  Income Tax Department

    *  Any other server that you may want to

#   MAD app is integrated with a STANDARD / COMMON , software system

     for computing daily wages / monthly salaries of ALL the persons working

     in those 100 million establishments ( whether they are casual /

     contractual  / trainee / apprentice / probationer / permanent / retained

#   As each person joins in any of these establishments , data re  that

     person must be inputted by the Employer into the App , such as :

   

     *  Name / Contact Details / DOB / Aadhar Card No / Employee Number

         ( Each unique Employee Number will be auto-generated by the

         common Salary Payment Software , running on IT Dept Server )

     *   Employee's Jandhan Yojana Bank Account Number for salary EC

     *   Employer's Jandhan bank account / Unique Employer Number

     *   Payment Mode ( Hourly / Daily / Monthly Rated , wages / salaries )

     *   Leave provisions / PF rate / TDS rate / Allowances / Reimbursements

     *   Any other relevant data ( either about employee of for employer )

WHAT  ARE  THE  ADVANTAGES  ?

#   For employees , no need to file a separate annual Income Tax Return

#   Direct deposit of PF / TDS amounts into bank accounts of Govt Depts

#   Direct Benefit Transfer ( DBT ) to every Employer for Stipend Subsidy ,

     based on number of total trainees / apprentices employed

#   Total number of employees in India ( category / region / industry )

#   Employment Density ( Industry wise / Region wise / Skill wise etc )

#   Net Employment Growth Rate ( weekly - monthly / Industry-wise )

#   Co-relation with no of persons graduating at various levels

#   Data about those Unemployed ( " Graduating " less " Employed " )

#   Overtime Statistics ( Use / Abuse )

#   Work-hour Analysis ( Ave hours / week - month )

#   Wage / Salary Rates ( Rs per hour ) - Industry wise / Region wise

     ( of great interest to Foreign Investors looking to bring down

       manufacturing costs , by outsourcing to India / manufacturing in India )

#   Compliance with labour laws / tax laws / Apprentice Act etc

#   Job Market Forecasts through BIG DATA ANALYTIC ( region / industry )

#   Demographic  Profiles of employees  ( Rural to Urban migration )

#   Per Capita Income Growth for persons using MAD app  ( MOM / YOY )

#   Changing composition between Blue Collar and White Collar employees

Then there could be many other benefits not envisaged now

Here is an opportunity for :

 *  Manufacturers of Smart Phones

     To shrink stationary / bulky / common , bio-metric devices to mobile /

     small / personalized / hand-held devices

    { Remember ?  

If you don't make yourself obsolete , someone else will  }

*  Tech Start Ups

     To come up with the Mobile App ( MAD ) / Technology Platform

*  NDA Government

    To implement what Shri Narendra Modiji said on 15 July 2015 :

   "  If China is like a manufacturing factory of the World , India should

    become the human resource capital of the World .

   That should be our target and we should lay emphasis on that . 

   We should have a futuristic vision and prepare plans for the next ten years "

  

   MAD  could well be an important element  of  that  " JAM PLAN "  !

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23   March  2017

www.hemenparekh.in / blogs