An open letter to the would-be wife of an Ethmotican by another Ethmotican

Dear Madam,

First of all we would like to congratulate you in advance and wish you a very happy and adventurous married life ahead.  Yes - it will be happy + adventurous since you have made the choice of getting married to one of the founding fathers of Ethmos (please don't kill him for becoming a father before marriage!).

We don't know how much you really know or understand him.  But let us tell you one thing that you are one of the rarest of the rare, fewest of the few on Earth who has had the opportunity to meet and marry a person in whose mind the ideas of Ethmos grew, who coined the name Ethmos, whose is one of the most knowledgeable and intelligent persons that we have ever known and yet so humble and gentle that he even treats his many mentally-retarded seniors with utmost respect.  We know that he may be rash or maverick at times, especially while talking, but then if you appreciate, that is the mark of a true genius who does not want to compromise on quality and character and again if you appreciate this, character is something very very rare a commodity nowadays since God has also started reducing that quantity drastically in the humans which are manufactured these days.

So what is that a man of character has different?  A man of character will care for you although he may or may not show it in front of you, but he will care for you nonetheless; he will never lie to you or cheat you and will always make sure that you are given the utmost priority in his life after his work.  And when we talk about work - please don't feel bad when he is too busy working because if you understand it, please understand that whatever he is working is first for both of you and your family and second for making this world a better place to live in.  There is a higher mission to Ethmos that was his idea and brainchild - to make Ethmos a think-tank rather than a dry consulting service - a think-tank which gives opinions and reports on virtually everything of importance going on around in our country and the world - It was HE who brought the paradigm change to Ethmos and made Ethmos as it is today and We will always be indebted to him to this for our lives.  In layman terms, he created what is to Finance & Economy as Google is to internet and Microsoft/IBM/Intel is to software.  If that is a small feat, then really sorry to waste your time!

We also want to caution you that he may get bouts of serious "thinking mania" wherein a person is so deeply engrossed in thought processes that he may miss to do routine things like keeping newspapers in place, properly keep dresses in the cupboard, keep plates and glasses correctly on the dining/kitchen table, and many "important chores" that "regular and normal" people do.  But since an Ethmotican is no normal being in the sense of being "normal", please do not expect this from him.

And finally we would like to assure you and guarantee you just one thing and we are sure that even if you do not believe us now, you will agree with us 5 years from now, that you are marrying one of the best and most gentleman to have ever walked on this planet and that he will keep you happy and fulfill all your ambitions in more than enough and sufficient ways that you can ever imagine of in your dreams.  We guarantee you that you will be getting to see and enjoy many places (inland as well as foreign - and that will be through Ethmos and not through his present job!), dine in some of the best restaurants around the world, get the best in the world in anything you can think of, and what not and whatever you can ever imagine of.  We grandly welcome you to the Ethmos family and wish that your addition will further take us to the new horizons of success and you find your best partner in our maverick friend who has proved time and again that he is what you get when you try to put life into the Kohinoor diamond.

Happy Ethmos to you!

Prem Ratan Dhan Paayo - A first hand review by Mr. Nobody !

Now now...we are entering into totally unchartered waters over here....from hardcore economics, finance, administration, politics, and governance to bollywood and entertainment.  But then what to do, we had the misfortune of watching this movie by Shri. Sooraj Barjatiya since we had no other better thing to do on a Diwali/New Year combo holiday.  We went inside the hallowed halls with an expectation to spend some quality time watching a movie and set our mental burdens aside, immerse in the movie and forget our personal problems (of course, everybody goes to the movie for more or less the same purpose only!).  We did come out of our problems because we had a bigger problem in our hand in the form of the never-ending movie with more songs than there are stars in the Milky Way and the worst of all - the actors are singing songs for literally no rhyme or reason.

The dresses worn by near about all the characters were as if they were designed by imprinting the colorful frogs, snakes, and butterflies from the Amazon rain forests - they were bright and colorful of course but then in the real world, who wears such clothes on a routine basis.  Oh yeah! You may argue that Mr. Barjatiya was trying to portray a royal family but then the portrayal was not up to the mark because even royals don't do theatrics and circus as he has shown in the movie.

And the worst part was that the movie lacked any logical sense even in the terms of "movie logic" like hero jumping 20 feet without assistance, sidekicks or gundaas of villains getting flat with one punch while the main villain not even getting a scratch even after multiple punches & kicks by the hero, et al.  In this movie, at the end, in one scene the villain was punched out by the first Salman Khan and in the next scene itself the villain miraculously appears on top of the dome-shaped mansion (which is supposed to be made of glass!) and falls to his death (he he he...that was the best comic scene in the movie and you can get at least 10% paisa vasool for that!).  In another scene, the step-sister of "another" Salmaan Khan just tears off the "original" land documents handed over by him to show her love and affection towards him!  Great Job Jerko!!

And the worst of the worst part was the lady Sonam Kappoor who could not control herself from singing every now and then to express her "feelings" and depress our feelings.

Finally - just one advise - if at all you want to go and watch this nearly 4-hour-long torture, better take some aspirin pills for headache, Combiflam for body ache since your body will get nearly numb by sitting for such a long time, and if it is possible (but we highly recommend this!), then take an inflatable bed so that in case you can't tolerate it more, you can at least sleep in the air conditioned hall.

We do appreciate Shri. Sooraj Barjatiya's timing of release of the movie since he knows that the entire Bharat will be sitting with no better business to do than watching his movie with their families.  Plus there will be no newspapers on Friday (due to Diwali holidays) to show his movie's review, which is the prime reason why we are putting our review just to warn our country's citizens.  We highly recommend this movie to our Police forces like CBI, NSA, etc. for torturing the hard-core terrorists.  Believe us - it WILL work - and if you don't believe us - then go for yourself and watch the movie but please know that you have been warned!

THE ABC MODEL OF BANKING - PART II

Our first article in this series wherein we had proposed a radically new model of banking was received very well by our readers.  Herein we are providing an extension of the same idea and proposing some more betterment and improvement in our system of banking.  As we always say, our emphasis on banking is only for the sole reason that it is the banking system which is at the heart of the economy (in literal sense!) which pumps money and circulates money into the system and thus keeps the economic systems of the world running.  Just like a healthy heart is required for a healthy body, a healthy banking is required for a healthy economy.

DIGITAL BHARAT : APNA MITRA – new age of banking

Are our rural households digitized enough to call Bharat a digitized Bharat?  Here we are not talking about the internet.og initiative of web giants like Facebook. We cannot call Bharat digitized if our rural and semi urban population have to stand in a queue in front of Bank, Tehsildar office, Taluka panchayat etc.

A secured payment gate way is the need of the hour. We are discussing the digitization solely from the bank perspective. In the age of mobile banking, internet banking and phone banking where is the banking?.  An illiterate person is still facing the issue while opening a bank account, withdrawing the money and sending the money. We call for a one stop solution. Whenever the rural Bharat customers come to the bank, they face a hell lot of issue regarding transfer of money and it’s not because of bank or bank staff it is because of the stringent KYC rules, which majority of the layman rural public are unaware of. Why we require PAN card when a simple and strong document such as Aadhar card is there?  It’s high time to appreciate the use of Aadhar card.

 HASSLE-FREE ACCOUNT OPENING

As mentioned in our first article, even an illiterate person can open an account without signing a paper work. Mr Nobody has come up with a digitization solution for banking in our Bharat.  Just go to APNA MITRA [ Name of a banking Kiosk ] and One Mitra [ Business correspondent – any government/bank  appointed person ] will be there who will help in opening of account . Just provide Aadhar card number and biometric signature [ thumb imprint ].  If both match then automatically the kiosk will show nearest bank and its branch;  if user wants to select some other bank, then that option will also be there . Click on submit and go to the concerned banks' business correspondent [ BC}. BC will issue the passbook with Aadhar no as the Unique Customer Identification number (to prevent duplication of the same person opening accounts in multiple banks) and a bank-specific account number.  While issuing the passbook, the BC has to ensure the nomination of the account.. The data collected at the Kisok will be updated at the back end of various banks in batch at the midnight so that customer will not face any issue. Probably by this, everyone can have a bank account especially an illiterate person.

THE NEW PAYMENT GATEWAY MODEL

For the new payment system we propose a system of BIDN or the Beneficiary Identification Detail Number which is nothing but a type of PIN (or personal identification number) that you use for withdrawing cash from your ATM, etc.  It is scientifically proven that generally a person can remember well without mixing up any number upto 4 to 5 digits and hence the PIN is normally kept at 4 digits.  A similar PIN or BDIN can be issued to all account holders that will help them receive cash from others just by sharing their BDIN with their benefactors.  The transfer system should be something like this:-
->Person will go to kiosk and put his/her thumb on biometric panel.

->Aadhar card and corresponding bank accounts will be displayed

->Select a bank account

->Go to transfer section

->Enter the BIDN [Beneficiary Identification Detail Number]

->Select the account

->Put the amount and click on transfer.

->Click on submit.

Aadhar card no is having all the details such as name, phone no, Date of Birth , Address and Biometric. So if we create a central clearing center where central database will be maintained containing bank account number and aadhar card, kiosk will be setup at the place of  high security such as police station , bus stand , railway station, airport , hospital , public offices and banks etc  where the  threat perception will be low , so that user will be able to do the transaction peacefully. The whole network will be under the supervision of the central bank under the vertical of central clearing system.  User should be in possession of BIDN number [Beneficary identification detail number] of beneficiary before doing the transaction of sending the money.  In case of government and corporate accounts, the user has to request for BIDN himself /herself.  For generation of BIDN the beneficiary can call a toll free number constituted by the central clearing system where IVR will ask to put the Aadhar card number and account number.  If the three fields, i.e. registered mobile number, Aadhar card number, and account number will match then, BIDN will be messaged to the user on the registered mobile number.  If user is not using the registered mobile number, then IVR will ask the user to pitch in date of birth and registered mobile no to create a secure framework.  After receiving the BIDN the sender has go to a nearest kiosk , wherein he / she has to put his/her thumb imprint and Aadhar no to login. After logging in, the central clearing system will display all the account numbers the user is maintaining with different banks. User has to choose the desired account number, put the amount, BIDN and submit.  Money will be transferred immediately.

This particular system can be used for ECS [ electronic clearing System ] as well.  We appreciate the services of IMPS for sending the money, but for rural and semi urban population a simpler payment solution might be more helpful.  Probably after reading the article readers might think that Mr Nobody has come up with another junk , but it is fact if we are unable to increase the economic status of rural and semi urban households we will not be able to achieve the dream of digitized Bharat.  And for this to happen it is also required that all the government departments such as revenue and land records can also come up with a functionality to get the requisite documents online thus leading to decrease in corruption and an increase in efficiency.

A Happy Ethmos to All!

A brand new legal and constitutional framework is the need of the hour for our Bharat - An Ethmos analysis

THE PRESENT LEGAL & CONSTITUTIONAL SYSTEM OF BHARAT -
We are back again and this time we are heading into the rough waters of politics again and again repeat our same disclaimer that we want to inform and generate a healthy debate over this issue and not to create a ripple, hungama, or scandal in our Bharat.  What we are raising over here is a very valid point and we want our fellow Bharatiya people to at least have a thought about what we want to say.  So here goes:-

The present constitutional and legal system of our country are a direct offshoot of the erstwhile British era.  Our constitution has been framed by taking into consideration all the "good" points from all the major democratic systems of the world; but it is a matter of fact that the base template of our constitution is nothing but the Government of India Act 1935.  After the creation of our constitution, there have been a total of 100 amendments to the same so far as on August 2015.  Strange that a country of nearly 100 Billion find every thing hunky dory in our legal framework except a mere 100 points to change in a span of nearly 70 years!  Anyways, that's again not the point - sorry for the distraction.

Our point is that the British era legal systems were framed, particularly the GoI Act 1935, in order to just delay the departure of British from their colonies like Bharat.  They wanted to create a legal framework wherein it would become next to impossible for a common Bharatiya to get justice and extremely easy for the lawmakers to bend, interpret, and implement the laws as per their whims and fancies so that there is minimal "technolegal" resistance from the then "intelligentia" of Bharat who wanted to free our country through "legal" means (which was nothing but negotiating with a hungry wolf by calling it for a tea party hoping that it won't eat you!).  So, the Britishers just made circulatory laws and went on creating committees and commissions for creating more circulars and interpretations of the previously made laws.  This led to the creation of a huge amount of literature regarding even simple subjects like theft or robbery (cases which are pretty straightforward and where the chances of ill-intentions are on a rare basis).  This huge literature in turn lead to delaying of judgements and thus delaying of justice for the common poor Bharatiyas who had no where to approach in order to get justice.  Ultimately this was the cause for the huge resentment in the masses and the various revolutions that took place in the country.  Justice delayed is nothing but justice denied and when justice is denied to someone who is true, where will s/he ultimately go rather than taking up justice in his/her own hands - which will ultimately increase the crime rate in the society.

WHAT WE SUGGEST?

Nothing but a lean and mean constitutional system wherein the judgement systems are fair, fast, and transparent.  How to do this in the present scenario?

1.  The best step would be ask suggestion and public opinion regarding changes to be brought in various Acts and sections of the law and make it more "Bharat" oriented rather than any community or section oriented.

2.  There are presently more than 3 Crore cases pending in total in all the courts in our country.  If you consider even the minimum number of two contesting individuals for each case then also it translates into nearly 6 Crore people seeking justice in our Bharat, which is nothing but nearly 4.6% of our population.  So you can say that out of every 100 person in our country a minimum of 4-5 people are victims of some or the other injustice.  And as the old saying goes, one rotten fruit can destroy the entire basket - imagine what 4 to 5 discontented people can do if somebody gives a vent to their discontent?

3.  What we suggest is that the present system of British era courts need to be changed.  There should be at least one junior judge in every police chowki in our country who will be looking after the investigation in tandem with the police and deliver instant justice based on prima facie evidence.  For example, if a person is coming to the police with the complaint of being beaten up in public, at least the police and the judge can arrest the culprit and give him "primary punishment" instantly based on witness accounts.  Anyways, you will be doing the same thing after 6 to 8 months of paperwork and summoning of the culprit but then presently what happens is that the culprit simply manipulates the witnesses and gets away.  This is how gundaraj is formed in many small towns and villages in our rural badlands!

4.  All "small-level cases" like theft, beating, chain-snatching, etc. wherein no physical injury or death or any major economic loss has happened can be dealt at this junior judicial level only at the police chowki itself and that need not be escalated to the higher judiciary.  This will free the already time-strapped judges to concentrate on higher-level criminal and civil cases and dispose them speedily.  The same can be applied to Section 138 cases (cheque bounce cases) because majority of the pending cases in our courts relate to the same.

There are many other options and suggestions that we would like to offer but due to space constraints, we will be discussing the same in our coming articles.  But what is required is the will of the people to implement this and change our Bharat for the better - if not for us, then at least for our children so that they can live in a safe, sound, fair, and transparent environment.

High bad loans due to poor credit appraisal skill of banks - RBI - An Ethmos analysis

So after giving a totally new model of banking (we call it the ABC Model), we are back again to court some controversy over here.  We are telling from our own experience in the banking and other government sectors that bankers are some of the most meekest people in our country, which is the primary reason why they are being used more or less by everyone, ranging from the political class to the aam junta as a hanging bell on the door of a temple which can be banged by anyone.  Don't believe us?  Just try misbehaving with any banker in any bank and there is a very good probability that you will be treated in the best of Gandhian fashion and even after repeated insults, shouts, tantrums, and name-callings - all that you will get in return is a "Thank you Sir" at the end.  And now try the same "bang bang" in any other government office and just make sure that you bid a good hearty adieu to your family before you do so, because in all probabilities, you will end up behind the bars for a pretty long time.  Now, the reasons for the same are much much many and we don't want to extrapolate on them.  Our point is something else - we just wanted to highlight that bankers are being made a "Mandir ka Ghanta" one more time (anyways, they are much used to it by now and just don't care!) by the RBI itself who believes that the poor credit appraisal skills are the reason behind the rising NPAs in the present banking ecosystem.  Please click here to read the complete article.

You tell banks not to take No Objection Certificates for "small loans" up to Rs. 1 lac in case of agriculture sector since there are credit information companies who give the entire janam kundalis of the borrowers and hence the banker need not take any other precaution.  But just for your information dear RBI, CIBIL is heavily dependent on the PAN card and Aadhar card data, whose penetration is hardly only 30% to 40% in our country of nearly 1.3 billion population.  We can give you live examples of people who are defaulters in various banks and yet their CIBIL score comes out to be -1.  And the worst part; there are thugs who just take a loan from a bank, rotate the money, and then close the account before the due date - thus increasing their CIBIL scores to rocketing levels; but in reality they are nothing but thugs after all, who do no productive work or add anything to the GDP of the country except doing the work of inflating the already inflated prices by rotation of public money.  For the poor common banker, these thugs are HNI customers at prima facie inspection!

In case of agriculture, you tell that up to Rs. 1 lac loan and for MSME, up to Rs. 10 lac, no collateral security needs to be obtained.  We are sorry to say but we are working really really hard to save our entire life savings in your banks and what you are telling banks is to just distribute our money like "prasad" at a temple?  What if the borrower avails multiple finance from various banks using the CIBIL loopholes to his advantage? Rs. 10 lacs from 10 banks can amount to Rs. 1 Crore if I am correct in my primary school mathematics.

So, again back to our point Oh Great RBI - please show - and not guide- the aam banker how to lend by issuing clear-cut guidelines on appraisal techniques and if required tell your officers, who are nothing less than Knights in Shining Armours for the poor bankers, to sanction a few loans themselves by actually signing the sanction letter and shoulder some responsibility themselves also - if not for anything, then just for the adrenaline rush that you receive during the various sleepless nights when you think - "Did I just give a loan to a wrong person?"

Just for a change - A Caustic Ethmos to all!

The paradox of a hypothetical country - Mr. Nobody's perspective

Hello All!  I am back again with my idiosyncrasies again - after a long gap of more than 1 month.  Sorry for the same but to tell the truth, I just slept and rested for all these days.  So, before I begin my next round of Nobodisms, here is my disclaimer:-  The views expressed herein are of Nobody and they do not resemble or intend to resemble any quark, boson, electron, proton, neutron, atom, molecule, compound, human, non-human, living, non-living, taluka, district, state, country, continent, or anything within the confines of this universe and beyond it (this includes what lies beyond the black holes too)...whew....I hope I covered more or less anything to indemnify myself with any future attacks or litigations!  So here goes:-

Today I wanted to discuss about the paradox of a hypothetical society living in an hypothetical country.  A society that is plagued with corruption - not only at the government level but much much deeper; at the basic society level.  Better to explain with examples:-

You would have already heard this; but just for the sake of repetition.  The society follows a system wherein the doer of any economic activity stands to gain more had his activity produce the exact opposite results as it is expected to deliver.  For example, a doctor treats you to make you well but if you get well soon, how will he make his living.  A lawyer wants you to take out of any legal issue but if the legal issue is solved fast, then how will the lawyer get his fees perpetually with every new hearing the case is postponed for.  A banker lends you money with the expectation that you will repay the same within the prescribed time limit only - neither before (because it will lead to loss of interest for him) nor after (because then he will be left with no further money to lend).  A politician when in power wants to do maximum development or at least give an impression that he is working for the development so that he is retained in power in the coming elections but then if everything is developed and hunky dory, where are the avenues to eat money through illegal means!  A policeman's duty is to make sure the society remains crime-free, but then if the same is achieved, then where are the green avenues to make money by manipulation of cases for the highest bidder!  A teacher is bound to teach each and every student is in his/her class regardless of any discrimination but still what s/he does is to open his/her private tuition classes and concentrate only on his/her "personal customers."

In short, the root cause of these problems is the underlying fact that in all the cases, the incentive of "not doing the work/duty" is more than that of "doing" and the worst part is that there is more incentive in just "showing or acting" that you are doing your work/duty but actually and in fact doing the exact opposite.  For example, a cop showing that he is busy investigating a complaint that you have filed but in fact, he may be eating money from the accused himself so as to find new ways and means to get him out of the legal muck.  If he is an honest cop, he will only eat money from one side but there are very few good men left nowadays and generally the cops will eat from both ways, i.e. from the accused and the victims.

But the paradox is not just present in the public (government) systems alone.  This paradox is just the tip of the iceberg and it is actually the manifestation of the deep-rooted hypocrisy that runs in the blood of our Bharatiya society.  Everybody want their children to grow up as responsible, truth-speaking, law-abiding citizens but more or less everyone behaves exactly the opposite.  They don't mind over-speeding on the roads with their family in their vehicles, spitting and littering on the roads in front of their children, telling their children to lie on their behalf whenever anybody calls from the office, blatantly lying to others and fooling them and afterwards boasting the same in front of their wives and of course, children also.  Doing the theft of their legally payable taxes by various means and measures (which we have already discussed in our previous topics) and telling others that the government officials are corrupt!

And the baap of all paradoxes - our icon of justice - a blindfolded lady with a weighing scale in one hand and a sword in the other hand - actually it should symbolize that justice is blind and is done without any partiality.  But in practicality for all means, what actually happens is that justice is actually deaf and dumb and only sees what is there in front of it in the form of documentary proofs and witnesses and nothing and absolutely nothing else.  That is to say, if you are cheated by someone and the cheater did not give you a written proof of this cheating exploits, you have practically no way of getting justice in our great Bharat!

The problems are pathetic and the solutions are more so, but still we will try our best to find something for our junta.

Till then, Happy Ethmos to all!