Worst taxis in the world. It's Bangkok without doubt.

I am not talking about the Drivers, Taxis, Cost, Infra or any specific thing but the overall experience. The source is nothing but purely on my observation and limited travel experience over a decade mainly in Asia Pac. So here it goes.

• India

Ugly: Hardware, Cleanliness & Safety.

The experience sucks here due to Hardware (quality of the vehicle) but situation improved thanks to Uber, Ola kind. Most of these cars are new but depending on the luck you would still get in to a dirty car with wrapped plastic over head rests.

Seatbelts are either purely for Display purposes or doesn't exist. The built quality of these cars are just a surrounded sheet metal so do not expect grand safety features. Also the Drivers are poorly trained, and the lack of enforcement tend to make the ride scary at times. 

Average: Communication, Traffic & Professionalism

Majority of the Drivers are able to communicate in English, so communication is not a major issue but the accent, variation of address/name tend to confuse but I never had an issue thanks to the servitude nature of many Drivers Still acceptable IMHO. The only issue is the "expectation" of Tips/Gratuities makes professionalism in to average. That's something the society need to change.

Traffic can be terrible but it can be planned to avoid major disruptions and its either on par or better than majority nation. 

Great: Availability, & Cost

Once again, thanks to Uber, Ola & similar apps the availability of taxis are amazing. I never had to wait more than 10 min in any of the places I have been to. Most of the times in less than 5 min, I can get in to the taxi. Cost is not bad and great compared to the other costs in India (India is a very expensive place to live, work, travel)

Tips: Get a Uber Black or Similar Premium version to be sure about Safety, Communication and the 30 min traffic jam bearable. 

• Indonesia

Ugly: Traffic, 

Major problem in Indonesia is Traffic. Nothing else. So plan your schedule based on traffic and nothing else matters. Don't be surprised if a 5 KM ride ends up you sitting in the taxi for 2 hours during peak hours.

Average: Availability, Cleanliness, Safety, & Communication

Bluebird is everywhere, and majority are Toyota vios kind of stuff or MPV. Seat belts do exists, and if you want to go with Silverbird or Goldbird then you can enjoy the mini vans. 

In the ride sharing, Grab appears to be popular or aggressive, but the cars tend to be old and drivers tend to cancel the booking very frequently. Uber is not bad w.r.t cancellations but cars are much better.  Majority of the Drivers are able to speak few words of English but never expect any mis understanding or problems because of language. the folks are very professional.  

Great: Hardware, Professionalism, & Cost

Typical hardware is Toyota, or similar and large cars are very popular due to "car is for family". So either the normal street hail taxis or ride sharing, the chances are high to get a new, good vehicle. Indonesians are very friendly people and I never experienced any rude behaviour or a driver trying to demand extra money.

Lastly this is one of the cheapest place to ride in a Mercedes for an hour or so for less than 20 bucks. 

Tips: Plan your travel based on "Traffic". Get a Uber Black or Grab Premium or Silverbird to spend some quality time in calls, chit chat with your friends

• Thailand

Ugly: Safety, Professionalism, Cost, Availability, Traffic & Communication.

No meter, and expected to pay double is the norm in BKK. If you get a taxi with meter on by default, just pinch yourself to wake up from the dream. Majority of the drivers are not trained properly (guess farmers trying to make some extra money), can't speak or understand English (or pretend), extremely good at taking long routes, and have no change at all or receipts. 

Thailand has one of the worst road mortality rates in the world and combined with lack of training this makes us to worry about the safety. 

I can go on with the negative experiences and unfortunately I do not have a single positive experience to talk here. Even Uber, Grab couldnt make a difference here. 

Average: Cleanliness & Hardware

Majority of the cars are clean enough and new hardware. Especially those that's going to the Airport (was told there is a rule of max 5 years age for the cars going to Airport). 

Great: ??

None IMHO. 

Tips: Uber Black or Grab Premium or Hotel Car (if you can afford..)

• Malaysia

Ugly: Professionalism & Traffic

Taxis in KL are not that bad actually. Reasonably priced, clean but the drivers can be rude depending on your luck. Rush hour traffic is getting to be close to jakarta/bangkok level of disaster so watch out the schedule, destination. 

Average: Cost, Safety, Cleanliness & Hardware

If there is one market where Uber/Grab changed, then that would be Malaysia. Be it KL or JB or Pengang, the kind of difference Uber/Grab made was enormous. Not only in terms of quality of vehicles, but overall change is great. It's still the same old Perdua or Proton cars with occasional Japanese but the overall quality is much better now. 

Great: Availability & Communication

Taxis are available almost any time of the day. 

Too much over action by Prime Minister Tour organising committee

See the below list. Now, I am not sure I even want to read it. Forget about going to the event. I am expecting a total chaos at the meeting and venue with the too much over action. Is this happening in Singapore? We have various country leaders meeting people in Singapore, and never see such laundry list. Anyway, no food allowed and expect people to sit for 5 hours inside the expo, or you can't even leave the place. Good luck with that.

Thanks for wasting tax payers money, but no thanks Mr. PM.

1. Entry Passes/Invitations are NON TRANSFERABLE
2. Please bring a print out of the Entry Pass bearing your name.
3. Please bring the identification that you provided upon registration for the event i.e. NRIC/FIN/Passport to the venue. We will require original identification card for verification. Photocopies will not be permitted.
4. Please note that only individuals with Entry Passes/Invitations and the relevant ID will be permitted to enter the venue. NO ID = NO ENTRY.
5. There will be airport class security at Singapore EXPO and all the rules that apply for airport security shall apply here as well. 
6. Please arrive early as the event has free seating and the average screening time could exceed 30 mins.
7. Please do not bring any of the items listed as “not permitted” on your Entry Passes/Invitation:
a)     No outside food and drinks or water bottles are allowed. Water and snacks will be provided free of charge inside the Halls.
b)     Umbrellas, sharp objects, cigarette lighters are NOT allowed.
c)     Still Cameras and Video Cameras will NOT be permitted.
d)     Mobile phones are allowed. No selfie sticks will be allowed.
e)     Small ladies’ handbags are allowed.

8. You will be asked to dispose of any items that are not permitted before being granted access to the Halls.
10. There is limited food available at the EXPO and as mentioned, food and drink will not be permitted inside the Halls. Water and snacks will be provided free of charge inside the Halls however we advise you to eat and come!
11. Once you enter the Hall, you will not be able to leave until the end of PM Modi’s speech. Restrooms are accessible from inside the Halls and additional portable toilets will be available towards the rear of the Venue.

Income tax collections: A very good lesson India can learn from Singapore

Source: CNA

Singapore shared that in FY2014/15 the Income tax collections grown by 16% and hit SGD 8.9 Billion. This is close to 2.1% of the nations GDP.

On the other hand, India tax collections for FY13/14 it stood at 242856 crores or SGD 53.9 Billion and budgeted for FY14/15 are at 63.1 Billion. From GDP point of ratio this is approx 3.3% of the GDP.

If we see the maximum income without paying any tax in Singapore is SGD 20,000(after deductions), and in India it is INR 250,000 or SGD 6,000.

However if we take the median income of a person in singapore, the effective tax rate is less than 10%. For the same, in India it is higher than 20%. By the way the common man on street in Singapore get "potable tap water, fresh air (except the few weeks of haze contributed by Indonesia) and never go hungry". On top of it there is heavily subsidised healthcare, education and scholarships. I didn't even have to mention the safety & security in the country.

I can easily say (my deduction could be challenged and I am no way posses any insider knowledge) the problem in India is the tax system itself is designed to be backwardish and not for an asian economy. We have to keep it simple and we have to make it easy, and transparent. Unfortunately the people who are honest and paying income tax will end up paying from their noses while those so called business man, big industrialists, and many other unorganized industries end up paying zero tax.

Finally the IRAS (Tax collection body in Singapore) shared another interesting fact.

" It cost 0.8c to collect $1 in tax revenue and they owe this to using technology and simplifying the process".

That's probably the best every anybody could hope for. But knowing Singapore, they would reduce it next year by few percentage points.

Emotional messages, Whatsapp spam and fooling the youth with inaccurate information

Just received this Whatsapp message from a friend. Full text below and not worth even spending a couple of minutes.

Basically it tells the Indian youth to boycott Chinese good and crush them because they fought with India once, and still supporting Pakistan.. Shame on the people who are sharing this..First of all

• Devaluation doesnt work as mentioned and by no means RMB is devaluated by 30%. It's around 3-4% (Source: WSJ)
• Secondly, India is not even close to the claim of biggest market. It's USA and based on 2014 stats, India is not even in the top 10 list(Sources: Wikipedia, Hindu). It's actually less than 1% of China GDP(2013 numbers of 65B bilateral trade vs 6807B GDP). 
• Finally, if people want to stop using Chinese goods then there won't be any whatsapp users left in India. Essentially all electronic goods, communication stuff used in telcos are from China.

So enjoy the silence guys.

ATTENTION GUYS....
Must read..Must share..
Today China is the under the threat of economical slump. So china has devaluated its currency by 30%. According to the global economists, china will face economical slowdown by decreasing the prices of products by its domestic industries . so Chinese products will be available in very cheaper rate in Indian and other markets.
     But this is time to weaken Chinese economy, which we can do. Coz India is the biggest market for the china across the globe. China is making the business of 6.2 million crore of Indian rupees per annum by Indian market.
       And as we know china is claiming on Indian territory and acquiring border areas,It seems that china is in war stance with India. Also China is supporting Pakistan indirectly to counter India to become a sub-continental leader.
       Hence this is the time to crush Chinese economy, hence I am requesting to each and every Indian that Do not buy any Chinese product for upcoming one month at least. It will be great if you will not buy product ever which is Made in China.Even here to make an appeal to all Indian Merchants and retailers that plz do not make business by Chinese products for upcoming one month as those products are going to be more cheaper.
       This is the time to slap china and to become A Patriotic Indian. Lets do it for Nation.
Guys,India is having 37% of whatsapp users out of its total population ( source: Gadget of telecommunications),out which 92% users are youngsters. We are sharing tonnes of useless messages daily. But as much as you spread this message ,that much will be the useful to your future itself.We should avail each n every chance to counter against the powerful enemy like China.
     As the responsible citizen of The Republic of India, I am requesting you to make this message viral. Do not miss a single contact from your phone book.
      Your deed of not buying Chinese products and to tell the same to others is equally important to the Nation as the service by An Indian Soldier on our boarders!
               || Jay bharat ||

The new drama about quality in Indian mobile space

Source: multiple (IBN, LR, COAI & TRAI..)


It is a known fact that most of the things in India are about Quantity rather than quality. I wouldn't blame anyone but it is more of cultural thing. People tend to talk 'big' things and 'large' stuff. So same way the telcom industry started to fight for numbers, and what they ignored is the 'quality' aspect. So while I can't tell if India offers the cheapest rates I can certainly tell that India offers the worst quality in emerging markets. Be it the voice quality (half codec), or Data (be it 4G, 3G, 2G or whatever), or consistent experience or billing.

So recently there is a fight between regulatory bodies and operators about Dropped Calls. Based on some surveys the DCR is > 12% vs Allowed rate of <3%. By the way did I mentioned that majority of nations follow a DCR of < 1% ? Singapore operators CDR/DCR is approx 0.3 (Source. IDA). Before one jump on to say that Singapore is a small country, I need to share that Singapore is far more complex than many large nations. The coverage quality, dense urban environment, and volume makes it far more complex.

Having said that, I must say the biggest problem in Indian industry is the basic infra. Be it the continuos power supply, fibre connectivity to the base station, quality labour and management.

• Power: I better stop talking about as this is pretty common and known to the world. India has been talking about exponential growth in power production for the last twenty years. It will be the same even after 20 years (yeah, am a pessimist when it comes to some topics)

• Fibre connectivity: Biggest problem with this is the chaotic situation at the ground. Who owns the duct or drainage or street poles in India. Everyone with a mouth and shoulder power. So the TELCO may get permission from the state government, but the local municipal / corporation authorities may well reject and cut the fibre. Or vice versa. Or even worse, the Corporation may approve but another department from the corporation may cut it off. During one of my recent meeting with a large operator, I was told that on average there are  8 intentional fibre cuts in a day in New Delhi alone. That's a huge issues.
• Lastly the people who became less pragmatic. Very subjective topic to open but as long as the operators/leadership focusses on short term benefits and run the business as a profit generating machine without strong engineering/fundamental skills within, it is going to be a tough ride.

As long as the fundamental problems are not addressed, this issue going to be there for a long time. Hopefully either TRAI or GOV bodies will come up with some guidelines on duct usage (or passive infrastructure provisioning). 

Wish there is a mental shift: Entitlement to Pragmatic, and realstic

What makes people from some other countries like Singapore or Korea to Indians. Very simple, I saw majority of these people questioning their government for their rights, and going with the real world. In India, we tend to demand others for our 'stuff'. We pay taxes through our nose, but we do not question the bad quality in public schools, but send our kids to private schools. Then strike for pay hike; same with health care. Thanks to political parties who just treat public money as their own money, the vicious cycle is going on forever.

I saw this news from sakshi, where a school teacher is complaining that the current CM is not doing his job, and not increasing the pay. The expenditure is

• Rent: 4,500
• Daily necessities : 4,000
• Milk: 1,500
• Rice: 2,000
• Education: 10,000
• Medical: 2,000
• Clothes: 2,000
• Gas: 400
• Utilities: 450
• Travel: 1,000
• Entertainment: 600
• Cable: 150
• Mobile: 500
• Vegetables: 1,500
• Others: 3,000
• Total: 33,600

First of all this is a totally made up story IMHO. Anyway, still one question on why on earth a school teacher who is getting paid by the tax payers want to send his/her kids to private schools and spend 10,000 every month? 

If the justification is that the quality is bad, then why can't we close down all these schools and remove the teachers? That would save pretty good amount for the tax payers. 

The expenditure is equal to $550 per month which makes it on par with many other asian nations monthly expenditure. 

Average Malaysia school teacher makes $ 1,124 month. Are we trying to say that our cost of living, or living standards are higher than Malaysia which warrant such salaries ?

FDI Inflows to India increased by 26% in 2014..

But wait, the final position is not even in the top ten nations but far beyond. Here goes the top ten nations which are darlings..

Source: UNCTAD

Interestingly small nations like Singapore & Hongkong received 81 & 111 Billion respectively while India received 36 Billion. 

Tough job ahead Mr.Modi and all other regional leaders. Got to triple the numbers very very soon. If not the situation would be worse when the 'hype' goes off. 

Sports - India: Russel peters may be correct

There is a show where Russel Peters joked about Indians - sports.

If we see the performance in CWG 2014, or any sport shows that's not far from truth. I just tried to put the CWG medal tally and the top countries list across...  Here is the map where we stood much below than countries like NZ, AU, EN..

By the way anyone dare to draw a graph for Olympics ?

Indian city trying to offer WiFi - A city where pollution is 10x of China, Potable water guarantees diarrhoea & building collapse and kill people.

Source: NDTV

Good money making opportunity for the new government & IT firms. A city where one can't find potable water, or good sanitation or 'safe air to breathe', the government wants to give WiFi to public.

Shame on the leaders, and media for even publishing it. First focus on basic needs/rights. Indian is in such dire state due to this 'wrong priorities'.

Not even a single city offering WiFi realized that the invested money is worth the tax payers money. Be it SFO or Singapore or any other place on the planet. There is/are no tangible benefits demonstrated in any manner. So why the Gov is trying? No one knows.

But I can say, shame on you leaders. 

Narendra Modi - Prime Minister of India.

A happy day it was and I can't forget it so easily. The way Mr. Modi started the campaign, the way he systematized, the way he cared for every single vote and the projection of 'image'. Whatever it is, it's going to be a 'metric' to be measured against in the near future.

Now, I see some of his priorities are going in the much needed direction. i.e. Basic Infra. Glad to hear that, and I am sure solar, alternative energy production would gain a huge support in India. So does the japanese companies and investments.

Here is a wish list I am keen to see. These are no means in an order or priority. Also I am excluding the basic infra as it is almost 'given'. So Roads, Electricity and Clean water is not included.

• "clean & green" mindset. Create a culture of 'cleanliness' in the mindset of our children. The current generation is so spoiled, not an easy task to get rid of the mindset. Love to see a clean india atleast in 2050.
• Reduce "cost base" of Indian manufacturing or services. Today India is a very expensive place to tour, or travel to, or even to do business.
• Change the mindset of "private=bad"; or "companies=profit". The job of company is to make profit and employees are getting paid for it. No company = no job. Get away from communist, 70's mindset where companies means eating the flesh and drinking the blood of poor people.
• Create "nationalism". Start from the top and children. So one case, would love to see Modi to do a symbolic change to Mahindra instead of "A.B. Vajayee" introduced B.M.W. 
• Create good relations with Asia and create "Asia First"
• Make North-East "real part" of India. Hope to see India is a place where every Indian can live irrespective of religion, language or region.
• Reduce/remove the huge bureaucracy created by decades of in-efficiency. Good example, is putting an "automatic ticketing machine" but employing two people to issue tickets from the machine. What a waste. 
• Reduce Tax burden but expand the tax net. A study done by M&S showed that even a 7% GST on every transaction could remove all other personal and consumption taxes in India.
• 
  

Networked Readiness Index (NRI) by World Economic Forum - India, IT power house?? with ranking of 83rd??

Source: WEFORUM

** the website seems not updated yet as the data is still showing from 2013 **

I see the 2014 market release and India took 84th position. Both Finland, Singapore, Sweden, Netherlands, Norway kept their top positions sequentially from last year.

Horrible part is the "emerging" economies fail to invest and use the technology to grow. But these countries see the 'IT' for money making, spectrum as huge asset to monetize but not to benefit the end user. Look at India, virtually "codes" the world programming lines but couldnt improve the necessary infra to support internal growth and markets.

MH 370 - Surprised to see such a huge confusion. Is it none of the nations monitoring their borders?

I am not sure what's going on with the MH-370 Flight. But I am really surprised with the state of FAILED security of all the nations.

If I're to take the call that the flight went missing around Vietnam, then I can understand the "failed" radar monitoring from Vietnam. They are still running soviet era, Vietnam war remnants infra.

Based on the second case, if the flight indeed crossed Malay peninsula then what exactly happening with the Malaysian Airforce or Army? Nobody working on monitoring their borders?

If I go to the final case (as of today) and take that the flight went near Andaman. This is a huge disappointment. India got a huge deployment in Andaman & Nicobar, and they are supposed to be on very high alert 24x7 under a "central command" covering Army, Navy & Airforce. Also the Bay Of Bengal is monitored (or atleast on paper) from Visakapatnam, a Coastal City in South-East India which is Indian Navy eastern command centre.  Aslo their Spy Satellite should be watching very closely on both Arabian Sea & Bay Of Bengal. In this case, the satellite missed? Or its busy broadcasting movies and cricket?

Total failure from them?

Or is it "intentionally" hiding the information from public?

I can only say there is only one Country who is sad & happy at this stage. Must be China, sad to see such a tragedy to its people; but happy to learn that the entire south & south-east asia forces are not watching their borders. Forget about Stealth, just a huge 777 can't be identified by them.

Only one word to close. DISAPPOINTED.

India - Going back to mediaeval period

What a sad state of politics in this great country. I won't blame the politicians but the PEOPLE who are quite educated, and have seen the world but who failed to understand a simple thing that "Strength is in Unity".

I've seen a comedy bit in a movie recently. Some folks asks a foreign tourist, "How is India, and indian hospitality". Seemingly american, he answers the question - India is good but I haven't seen Indians in India and neither experienced Indian hospitality. And elaborates,

- I've seen North India, South India, then
- I've seen Punjabi culture, Punjabi food, Tamil culture, Tamil food, Jain food, Bengali food, Gujarati Thali, Assamese dance, Rajasthani heritage.

But I am yet to see anything Indian.

----Sad but true----.

When the world is breaking boundaries and trying to remove barriers, we are creating new. For the whole benefit of some people selfish reasons. If we're to go by the 'political news', Indian political parties are supporting new small states. Based on Wiki, and other news the list seems to add atleast 50 more states. Which means 80 states in India.

One may say, this is the decentralization which India needs badly. But the problem is this is something like creating new boundaries administratively and increasing the cost unnecessarily. We are already wasting spending close to 17% on public administration(Reference - TOI/Link is dead but will update). If you've the reference which stated post budget 2014 with Salaries, Administrative spending/board, plz share).

YET THE MASSES YET TO SEE GOVERNMENT WORKING FOR THEM

So how much more burden is added on the middle class of India to support these new states, bureaucracy ? Why can't we simply keep the linguistic states as it is? 

Air Quality in India

Here is a screenshot captured. Actually if you ever been to India & China one could easily see the horrible air quality in Indian cities. Be it the Metro cities like Mumbai, Delhi or 2nd tier cities like Hyderabad or Pune or Towns far from any industries - the air quality in India is so horrible, it's hard to feel that India can solve this problem any time soon.

Even in highly advanced places like Gurgaon (kind of all MNC's setup their offices here near New Delhi) or Bangalore where the crowd is supposed to be highly educated and IT folks - the problem is the same. I can see smog filled skies, dusty roads, and horrible vehicular pollution.
Why is it so?

The case of Devyani Khobragade - Many unanswered questions, but the way India handled need tons of improvement

I am not sure what happened behind the scenes or the 'political' motives or 'religion motives' or 'national motives' or 'racial motives' but I can say the way this case has been handled by India - The image of India & it's citizen dropped to a new low.

The views of many Indians and my Ex-Indian (Indian origin, PIO, etc) friends are that India over-reacted and tried hard to protect a criminal with fake news, emotionally driven news articles in media, and unnecessary hype.

The claims of the accused is not proven and for the details Wiki got an updated article here.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devyani_Khobragade_incident

After reading through the document and going through Indian and American news papers, I can only deduce that both are at fault
- USA, for going 'extra-mile' to prove one as a criminal. I won't agree that it's the fault of USA for keeping the diplomat in prison with other criminals or hand-cuffing, or physical checkup as faults here. This is a standard process and the hue & cry is due to "indian VIP culture".
- India, for everything else. Be it the fake documents, false claims and most importantly the loose attitude when it comes to signatures, and taking oath, lying, false documentation, mis-representation of news and emotional reporting.

Shame on the Bureaucrats and Media for giving a different picture to the nation. Trying to protect a criminal with massive resources and money. It's all tax-payers money and shows if you are a well connected person, the nation can save you. But the poor people, workers in Middle East, Asean countries - they are left to suffer. 

Indira Gandhi International Airport - New Delhi

Finally, I got to experience the new Terminal-3 building and New Delhi due to a business trip. I was expecting a memorable experience as it does with India all the times. So for the better part, India is changing and now one can see the heavy investments (that's coming at a huge cost to the user ofcourse) in infra.

Here are some images I've taken at airport and once you get out of airport you can take a taxi right out at the terminal building. I got warned that during peak hours, the queue can be quite long and it may take an hour or so to get one. So being paranoid, I've booked a taxi/online reservation with merucabs. It's painful as it needs a Indian Mobile number but finally with few phone calls managed to get one. I was told there are some other operators like quickcabs, megacabs & easycabs but the recommendation was Meru. But trust me this is where things started to go give 'experiences'.

When I entered the taxi, it's like entering a vehicle which was just excavated from some desert. I could see 'sand' at the vehicle floor, then the seats are really dirty with lots and lots of dirt. I can understand why. These taxi operators/drivers tend to run without AirCon and within few weeks or months, the dust just adds up to the vehicle weight. I doubt they wash it periodically too.

Anyway, the hotel is not very far and the free way seems to be good. But wait.. there comes the "manual toll booth".. Where we ended up waiting for 15-20 min. And I can see vehicles making some huge u-turns as the contractors build the highway without any 'elevated exit'.

Hotel was nice and clean. No complaints but compliments only. On the otherhand the price we paid could have given us a Suit room in Thailand or other asian places. so "NO VALUE for Money".

The horrible part was the "traffic" and "pollution". Be it the dust or vehicular or noise or whatever.. One can name it and you can feel it. A five minute walk on the outside would definitely make you cough once, unless you are used to it.

I saw huge buildings and offices like Bharti Airtel, Ericsson, Nokia etc. But the worst part is these people can build buildings and invest billions but can't work with government to "create proper walkways, or approach roads".. So much for taking care of their own employees. Most of these places have no parking for visitors which adds up to the horror.

And on the road it seems the saying still goes true. "THERE ARE NO RULES ON INDIAN ROADS". So you can see a car slowly driving in the opposite direction of the highway, or taking sudden stops or turns etc. Also people trying to sell you cheap stuff like some beads or sun shades etc are maneuvering their way in the slow moving traffic.

Food is not bad and Delhi/surrounding areas offer wonderful food. Also, I am not surprised to see "chinese" food almost every where. Infact I saw more Non-Indian food than Indian food in entire Gurgaon.

Most of the people, I've interacted are well polished and professional. This is one change probably due to the high-end firms in Gurgaon, as I've a terrible scene at airport. A kid started to vomit at the airport while hundreds of folks watching. The parents (must be going on a vacation) are just watching and the horror doesn't stop there. They washed the kid with a bottle of water at the same spot.. :|

So it's a mix of good and bad experiences. Probably my next visit, I'd plan to visit some historic places around Delhi and post it..(Also hope to see some improvements in people, pollution & policies)

Socialism vs Capitalism. India still dreaming that it can flourish with Socialist policies..

Source: Armstrongeconomics..

http://armstrongeconomics.com/2013/11/06/socialism-brought-home/


No wonder, India is in such a dire state. Even salt is sold at prices of $3/KG.. Problem is still many Indians believe "capitalism=evil". If we ask the same guys to share their assets or even offer some help, then the reality comes out. The mindset is simple, "everyone else should give and share" but not me.

Like the workers always fight and destroy their own company properties for "better pay" because 'cost of living" went up. Who caused the problem? It's not the company they are working for but the outside forces. Also majority of people put the "wants" ahead of 'needs'. Like sending to private schools, going to private hospitals etc. One may say the quality is the issue, but when we are paying taxes and can't afford (point is affordability and choice) why can't one question and get the entitlement?

Anyway, I have little hope that one day India will overcome these issues. As more and more educated people coming to rule this country, the worse it is becoming. because they are not god fearing, law abiding (they know how to bypass it) and smart folks but doing only for their own benefit..

********************************************************************************
An economics professor at a local college made a statement that he had never failed a single student before, but had recently failed an entire class. That class had insisted that Obama’s socialism worked and that no one would be poor and no one would be rich, a great equalizer.
The professor then said, “OK, we will have an experiment in this class on Obama’s plan”.. All grades will be averaged and everyone will receive the same grade so no one will fail and no one will receive an A…. (substituting grades for dollars – something closer to home and more readily understood by all).
After the first test, the grades were averaged and everyone got a B. The students who studied hard were upset and the students who studied little were happy. As the second test rolled around, the students who studied little had studied even less and the ones who studied hard decided they wanted a free ride too so they studied little.
The second test average was a D! No one was happy. When the 3rd test rolled around, the average was an F.
As the tests proceeded, the scores never increased as bickering, blame and name-calling all resulted in hard feelings and no one would study for the benefit of anyone else.
To their great surprise, ALL FAILED and the professor told them that socialism would also ultimately fail because when the reward is great, the effort to succeed is great, but when government takes all the reward away, no one will try or want to succeed. Could not be any simpler than that.
Here are possibly the 5 key points about such an experiment:

1. You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity.
2. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving.
3. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else.
4. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it!

5. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that is the beginning of the end of any nation.

Doing Business - India ranks all time low at 134.

Source: Doing Business report by world bank

Well, what to say. India ranks at 134, which is worse than Bangladesh (130), Sri Lanka (85), Nepal (105) and even Pakistan (110). It shows where exactly we are in terms of business friendliness. Be it the corruption at top or lack of 'productivity' at workers level, unnecessary strikes by unions, and most importantly the mindset of people. i.e. No wrong to tax business but give free stuff to people.

Some Interesting items and comments:

Based on cross sectional regression analysis and controlling for a large number of factors that affect unemployment, he shows that labor regulations in India’s retail sector undermine job creation. He further notes that labor reforms  could  increase  employment  in the retail sector by as much as 22% for an average store—a significant effect given that the retail sector is India’s second largest  employer..

* Starting a business rank - 174 (bottom 5)

* Dealing with construction permits - 182 (bottom 5)

* Paying taxes - 158

    - time to pay taxes - 243 days

* Trading across borders - 132

* Enforcing contracts - 186 (bottom 3). Only Bangladesh & Timor-leste scored worse than us.

India property show in Singapore - More golden than gold..

http://www.propertyguru.com.sg/events-ips2

"Golden than Gold" - an asset class which depreciated 21% YTD.. that summarizes what Indian real estate returns for many folks in foreign currency in the last 5 years.

Then Indian rupee - Probably the worst performing currency in the world this year. What would you have when you combined the "Currency risks" with sky high property prices of India, 10-12% interest rates on mortgages, 1-1.5% yield,

Ok, now the scary stuff: Government changing laws, and potentially charging retroactive taxes. Most of the Indian house holds are paying 3-5 years old electricity charges, because there was a mistake in calculation 3-5 years ago.
Also "no guarantee" that the asset will be on your name after an year;

Finally, limited legal ways to bring back money to Singapore or overseas. If you can, then extremely high taxes (30% tax on rental income/interest income on NRO accounts), or 10% spread Forex rates through banks.

My conclusion: Invest in Singapore or some other 'safe' markets. If you can take risk for higher returns, then invest in US. or go Forex markets.

Real estate in India - Bleeding ground for locals. So as a foreigner what can you expect..

Times Points - TOI or Times Of India new reward scheme

Source: here

Below the FAQ copied from website. It is a good and somewhat different idea to bring traffic to website. I am sure there is significant difference as based on number of comments posted and the not bad points.

So the idea goes like this.

• When you visit an article you'll get 1 point. 
• For comment 5 points. 
• When someone likes or recommends another 1 or 2 points. 
• Facebook or Twitter share will get 5 points for each share

So if you post average 20 comments a day you may get 150 points (assuming 20x1 for visit + 20x5 for comment + average 1.5 likes or recommend). So in a month you'll get 4500 points and you can redeem gifts. For example Adidas 3x deo is worth ~5200 points. In the market it's going for ~500. So approximately 1 poitn is 10paisa or 10 points = 1INR.

Not a bad deel as it can pay for your broadband bill :)

But the downside is the system is very buggy. Many a times, you'll see the points are not getting updated, your login is not loading, or the system asking you to confirm email address multiple times etc.

Still worth a try if you spend lots of time reading news. By the way one tip is make sure you've adblock installed on your firefox/chrome. Their model is simply based on ad prints or ad revenue so the site is filled with ads. 

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