Judicial delays: A systematic issue or a conspiracy caused by criminalisation of politics?

    Today the Hon. CJI made headline for a very different reason. He shared his emotions, which may be anger, helplessness or even frustration on the poor condition of Indian Judicial System with crores of pending cases and drought like scarcity of judges and related infrastructure. Where cases per judge are in thousands and time period for cases goes is not in just months or years but decades.
The data on pendency is available on National Judicial Data Grid (NJDG) and some perspective on Criminalisation of politics can be found in this article in The Hindu. 
    Data suggests that a criminal has more chances of winning an election than a clean candidate. And a party is also more likely to field a crorepati criminal rather than a clean candidate. Only in reserved category (SC/ST) seats, candidates with clean background (and also non-crorepati's) have more chances of winning. In 16th Lok Sabha we have 34% MPs facing criminal charges, up from 24 and 30 in 2004 and 2009 respectively. The trend is clearly visible. In some states, 40-50% MLAs are facing criminal charges. Law commission's 244th report  on electoral disqualification deals with this issue in length and propose many suitable reforms. 
What is interesting is that the action of Civil Society (eg. PUCL) and Supreme Court's laudable decisions in PILs that have done a lot positive in the direction of reducing criminalisation of politics. Be it mandatory disclosure of pending cases and income , or declaring section 8(4) of RPA unconstitutional, that allowed convicted members to appeal, such initiative have shown hope. But we still have made very little progress. May be that's why the present political system is so keen to reform judiciary rather than implementing the already suggested (and many accepted) reforms by various commissions and committees.
    Amidst all this, it's perplexing that while we seem to be a very keen country on reforms,we keep talking about doing business index, investor friendly environment and a clean bharat and so on, three basic reforms in our democratic system, that are 1) reforms in Criminal Justice System, 2) Police reforms and 3) Electoral reforms are pending for so long! (And let's not even talk about Health and Education and save that for some other day.) Should we really be surprised at all. Isn't it so clear! It's the beneficiary of the present system who are the biggest hurdle in the way of any reform or progress. Why criminal-politician-rich-corrupt nexus would want to have these reforms and would make it difficult for themselves to keep a hold on power. How can we expect a legislator who himself or herself is facing criminal charges to make laws for an efficient police and an effective criminal justice system. What is more devastating is that even the people has given up hope and the data on winnability of criminals indicates nothing but that. May be people think that unless the real power is being wielded by the criminals, there is no point in wasting their vote in electing a few clean people. Moreover, when the majority is criminal and corrupt , what would a few be able to do. If this mindset has crept in, it is really a sad thing and should not be allowed to happen. Unless we have democracy in the political parties, we can not have real democracy.
    The sad thing is that , all these things are known, well discussed and understood and yet are unable to pass through the systematic inertia. These are not even election issues. The governments have been successfully diverting attention from governance deficit to mundane emotional issues. Events like IPL water wastage instead of failure in managing water, and sloganism instead of substantial issues have got more public attention. People are more emotional than rational. May be that is why our CJI made an emotional appeal as nothing else have worked yet. I think it is the time to go beyond merely saying "Justice delayed is.... justice denied". We have to ask for it, as if it is a matter of life and death! (wait a minute, isn't it already).

A simple proposition for increasing tax base and simplifying tax regime in India

    In India very small percentage of people (less than one third can be a rough guess) earn enough to pay tax and even a smaller percentage (less than 5%) actually pay. We have a small tax to GDP ratio (about 18%). 
There are two strange things. The famous 80:20 rule applies here too. Rather it become 90:10. Of those who pay tax, 90% pay 10% of the tax (those earning below 5 lakh per annum) and 90% of tax come from very rich that are less than 10% of the taxpayer population.
And secondly, as clear from tax GDP ratio , its the indirect tax which plays a huge role in total tax collection.
Two main reasons i think why tax collection are,
1. the tax rates are too high and 
2. poor perception of government due to corruption. People think the govt is taking almost a third of their income and wasting it.
I think the tax rates for lower income group should be minimized so that people can have a better standard of living. They anyways pay a lot of indirect tax whenever they purchase any product or service. I have this proposition of lower tax rates with mandatory investment in long term bonds. My idea seems very simplistic but I think we should at least think in this direction. It is just the first draft and is open to suggestions and revisions based on advice of experts.

Instead of taxing, make it mandatory to invest in long term bonds for social and physical infrastructure. This will include govt. bonds, municipal bonds, long term infra bonds and long term (5 yr +) deposits etc. When people will invest in municipal bonds, they will be able to see how that fund is utilized and will have an ownership feeling.
My proposal is like this.

Annual income (Rs.)
Tax rates
Exemption detail
Target 
Upto 3 lakh
No tax

Low income population
3-10 lakh
10%
Exemption on investment in insurance and long term bonds upto Rs 2 lakh
The tax seems to be less but we will remove all other exemptions like LTA HRA etc and overall process will be greatly simplified
Most of service class population
Purpose is to simpify tax process for 5-10 lakh Rs income group
10-20 lakh
15%
-minimum 10% of income above 10 lakh to be invested mandatorily 
-More exemption on upto 30% of income above 10 lakh, that is upto 3 lakh) for long term investment
-5% surcharge on tax on income above 10 lakh
Middle class with white color jobs, professionals
(Removing HRA and home loan exemption would balance the lower rate of tax. This will help reduce interest rates and inflation in real state sector)


Now focus on rich who does not pay tax. its better to make certain part of income to be mandatorily invested instead of taxed
special tax saving bonds with moderate return should be made for them
20-50 lakh
20%
-minimum 10% of income above 20 lakh to be invested mandatorily (in addition to mandatory investment of 1 lakh in previous slab)
-exemption on upto 30% of income above 20 lakh(that is upto 9 lakh max) on long term investment (in addition to 3 lakh exemption of previous slab)
-10% surcharge on tax on income above 20 lakh
high income professionals

(encourage investment and avoid tax evasion)
50 lakh
 to 2 cr
25%
-minimum 10% of income above 50 lakh to be  mandatorily invested (in addition to 4 lakh)
-more exemption upto 30% above 50 lakh
-10% surcharge on tax on income above 50 lakh
small businessmen who do everything to avoid taxes, investment in capital infrastructure can be exempted
2 crore
and above
30%
-minimum 10% of income above 2 cr to be invested (in addition to 19 lakh)
-up to 30% of income above 2 cr can be invested in long term bonds without tax
-more rebate can be given on special bonds above 1cr value for tax saving purpose only that may have low returns (say 5%)
Instead of 30% tax, make 30% investment. even if rerun is low, tax saving itself is 30%.

With lower tax rates some simplification should also be done to balance that. All exemptions on HRA, LTA etc should be removed and only insurance (health and general), PF and pension fund should be exempted. HRA contribute to higher rent and ultimately the landlord or the home loan giving bank get what the govt. should have got. Exemption on Home loan should also be removed as it also contribute to high home prices and high interest rates which makes real estate even more costlier and contribute in making a bubble in this sector. Simplified calculation would help easier assessment and greater compliance.

This will solve many problems,
1. with lower tax rate, tax base will increase
2. presently banks are stressed because they are financing long term projects while there income is from small term saving accounts. We must have a separate long term fund in terms of a strong bond market to fund long term infrastructure projects.
3. the purpose of tax is to invest in social infrastructure. If we make people invest directly in these developments, people will be more willing to pay tax.
4. the black money would be redirected to white economy and bubble of real estate will also come deflate  as black money has a huge role in high real estate prices.
5. A municipal/panchayat level fund mgmt body can be created to utilise this fund in local area and infra dev like hospital, road , transport, water mgmt etc. This will provide better infrastructure investment in local area governance.


We need to have a change of mindset about how we tax our citizen and how much value we provide to them from the tax they give to the government.

Note:
Some idea of data from this blog

Internet not working: some troubleshooting tips

Connecting to internet sometime becomes so frustrating that you curse your laptop. Sometimes I have spend hours to connect to internet specially when I switch between multiple wifi networks.
Here are some common troubleshooting tips when connecting to wifi network.

Before starting, first check if every thing is on, you know, your wifi router in on, WLAN is activated, wifi adapter of your laptop is enabled. If everything is fine, try to Switch off modem and all internet devices for at least one minute and then switch on.  Then roll up your sleeves and try following options:

A. FIRST THING TO DO: Auto repair
first go automatic, simply right click on the network icon at right bottom of you screen (near the clock) and select "Diagnose and Repair" or you may have something similar like "Troubleshoot". This will take care of most of the problems.
You can also find this option from Control Panel > Network and Sharing Center.



After this open Network and Sharing Center and it still shows cross in your network map. click on that cross, it will also repair.

B. NOT CONNECTING TO WIFI NETWORK
1. check name of the network, if it is same as an old network you were connected to, there would be a conflict. E.g.: If you have your home network named DLink and the new network also has same name, it wont connect until you delete old network setting. Better keep different names for different networks. Make it personalised but dont make it too personal as it is being broadcast. ALWAYS PUT A PASSWORD (WPA key) on your wifi network.
 Go to Network > Network & Sharing Center > Manage Wireless Network
delete old network OR update WPA password for same name

C. wifi Network not in the list of available network
1. check your router, there is button which enable/disable WLAN
2. if you know how to configure router setting, check WLAN settings
3. enable/disable wife adapter of your laptop

D. connected to network but INTERNET NOT WORKING
This should be taken care by option A of "Diagnose and Repair".
After that try these
1. open command prompt ("cmd" in run menu) in admin mode (Run As Administrator)
try these ipconfig commands
type "ipconfig /help" to know what this command does.  To reset ip address try these. first command will show current ip settings
1. ipconfig
2. ipconfig /all
3. ipconfig /release
4. ipconfig /renew

DNS not working. Can't open even www.google.com even when internet connection seems fine. This is my recent discovery , when net is well connected but cant resolve DNS
try  this
1. ipconfig /flushdns
2. ipconfig /registerdns

you can try playing with services, restarting DHCP, DNS, Network connection services etc. This may help sometime.

(some good options here for DNS error etc
https://www.wiknix.com/how-to-fix-err_connection_refused-in-chrome/
use these commands
ipconfig /release
ipconfig /all
ipconfig /flushdns
ipconfig /renew

netsh int ip set dns
netsh winsock reset
then restart computer
)

E. Net is connected but browser giving SECURITY CERTIFICATE ERROR
1. check the date and time setting. this is most common problem in older system that are unable to sync the clock properly.
Click on clock (right bottom of your screen) , Set the correct date and time by changing date and time setting.
Go to Internet Time > Change settings > update time

F. Sharing internet from mobile phone
USB internet is as costly as mobile data. So better use your mobiles "hot-spot", "internet tethering" or "internet sharing" options and use it as a wifi router. just play around "settings" in your mobile and you will find some option to share you mobile's data connection. Dont forget to put a password for your network.

This should help. Still try google for the specific problem you have using other device which is still connected to internet. You will find some help. Its not rocket science after all. :)

Goa trip.. why it leaves you with a wish to come again..

Finally I visited Goa...it is like a pilgrimage compulsory for the youth. If you had been on a holiday in India and not been to Goa..well you have not had a real holiday at all! The relax and joyful environment that you get there is unmatched. Its just in the air..you feel as if you are in a different country...(not to be taken otherwise..India is a beautiful country but the environment in Goa is altogether different).

My Goa trip was a mix of traveling and holidaying. But 4 days seemed too less. And I learned a lot about how could have I made better of these four days. So i am sharing some simple plan and some learning for my and your next trip to Goa. Remember, No one can visit Goa only once...and if you have not visited it again..you have not really got the feel of Goa....it just can't be.

North vs South Goa : well it's not that great of a confusion. North is full of crowd , always in a festival mode. If you want to stay on a calm beach, why would you visit Goa, you can go to Kerala as well. So to get the real spirit of Goa. I would recommend North Goa. If you have a plan for more than 4 days. Then may be you can take a car or taxi and go to Palolem beach.

In North Goa, Candolim and Calangute are the most popular beaches. Anjuna is also good but i could not get time for that. Better stay nearby a beach to enjoy morning and night there. But remember, the whole of coastline is beach but the real fun area is the main designated beach site. So follow the road signs. Try to cover the whole beach , and not just a corner of it. Initially I made this mistake assuming the beach was the area near my hotel while just a few hundred meters away the scene was totally different. And every beach is different. Don't assume a beach is just a beach. 
I was under the impression that morning and evening are the best time for the beach. In feb, when I visited, it was too hot in afternoon so i though of traveling instead of going to beach. And this turned out to be the most stupid decision and i wasted one day. Next day I accidentally visited the beach in afternoon and it was awesome. The cool breeze has made the sunshine's effect redundant. Beside, at Candolim beach, you get a bench for 200 Rs, you can bring your own food and drinks. Just lay down, get a massage, go for some water sport..have fun..you can spend whole afternoon on one beach.
The sunset is awesome at the Calangute beach. Try to be there between 6 to 7 pm . Water sports are available on all main beaches.

Aguada Fort is a must visit place. "Dil chahta hai" movie scenes were shot here. It's good place for photo-shoot. You can get cheap hats from here. Its hot there so be there at morning.

In South Goa, Palolem is the best beach. Colva, that is midway from north to south, is also a calm beach. Palolem is about 80 Km from Calangute and takes about 3 hours to get there. So you should start latest by 10 am so that you can have lunch at Palolem and come back by night. 

Panjim is famous for casino and wine shop. I could not visit but next time I plan to.

Now some tips:
Time to visit: Between October and February. Try to be there at the time of Carnival but make sure to have advance bookings in you are having a family trip. For bachelors, there is ample space in Goa.

Booking: you can  use websites www.booking.com  and www.airbnb.com . It would be better to make a call to hotel/Guest house to inquire in detail.
For bachelors, Book a guest house, you will get a place to sleep but no room service. In about 1500rs you can get a decent guest house.
For family, if you are a honeymoon couple, or have kids with you, go to a resort. you will get in around 5-6k. Rates depends on location and season.

Food: Goa is a non-vegetarian state. Now a lot of vegetarian restaurant have come up. Specially south Indian ones. VegetariansDon't even think about vegetarian food from the beach shacks. Vegetarian is good only in proper restaurants on main part of beach or main road. In shacks, you will get smell of sea food in everything.

Traveling: Roads and traffic is good. You can easily get scooty or car. For car there are two types, private (illegal) renting with white plates and no bills. And yellow official rent a cab service. I took few numbers , try them. Make a call for proper details and do more google.
Mr.  Dev: his number is 96 eight nine 58 04 three one. ( He is a chauffeur at a taxi service).
Caution: Be careful, In case of accident you might have to pay full damage. Clearly talk about terms and conditions before booking.
Airport drop: From Calangute, Its Rs 1300. Try to book self-driven car that you can drop at airport. From airport you get a taxi for 900 rs to Colungate but if you are booking a self driven car, it would be better to get it at airport or at least you will a pickup from airport in Rs 500 by that guy.
Airport: Reach at least two hour before flight time. Goa airport is too crowded and poorly managed. It will take at least an hour from Baggage screening to check-in to security check before you can finally go for boarding.

Dress: Its beach..so always have beachwear and swimwear when go to beach. Keep one extra if you get too wet and its not too hot to try soon. You can easily get cheap short pants (200-400Rs) and swim suits (200-600Rs) and t-shirts there. Take a cover/polythene for you phone, purse and camera.

Itinerary : Try to land before 2 PM. It takes 2 hours from Dabolim airport to reach Calangute/Candolim. If you come late, you will miss your evening and no point in paying for night stay only. And on west coast , its the sunset that's more beautiful. Best time to swim at beach is morning and afternoon.
Come at least for 4 nights. Stay near Calangute or Candolim beach. Calangute residency is right at the main beach area, its owned by Goa Tourism.
At least one day, spend whole day at one beach . Chill out.
Second Day: visit second beache. Go to carnival. Visit Agauda fort.
Third day: Rest of beaches.
Fourth day: Go to Palolem. keep whole day for it. You can go to casino while coming back but you might need to arrange for stay and travel accordingly.
Fifth day and so on: do whatever you like.

There is something for everyone in Goa. For tourists (specially foreigners), they come to chill out with cheap stay and cheep beer and ample sunlight. Spend whole day idling at beach.
For Family/couples, beautiful beaches, water-sports and carnivals.
For lone travelers, lonely beaches to stay in a lap of nature with serenity of the sea.
When I left Goa..the feeling was Go ..Goa..Gone!!!

A reply to Mark's advertorial on free basics and net neutrality


    Surprisingly facebook is trying too hard to portray free basics as internet. Full page ads in leading newspapers and editorials (more like advertorials) to let people believe that free basics is a charity that facebook want to do to help poor Indians. If instead of spending crores in those ads, facbook would have given free data poor people, it would have helped them get internet access but that's not their real agenda.
I have put my comment in bold inline with Mark's advertorial in Times of India. I also used some of the arguments given in various newspaper editorials. 

From 
"Free Basics protects net neutrality" by Mark Zuckerberg

To connect a billion people, India must choose facts over fiction
In every society, there are certain basic services that are so important for people’s wellbeing that we expect everyone to be able to access them freely.
We have collections of free basic books. They’re called libraries. They don’t contain every book, but they still provide a world of good.
We have free basic healthcare. Public hospitals don’t offer every treatment, but they still save lives.
We have free basic education. Every child deserves to go to school.

ME: Internet cannot provide health without doctors, education without teachers.
Khan Academy , CrashCourse and thousands  of youtube instructors and teachers are doing great job of providing free education . That would not have been possible without a neutral ISP (Internet Service Provider). Net Neutrality is essential for keeping the internet as it is, promoting freedom, encouraging innovation and generating value.

And in the 21st century, everyone also deserves access to the tools and information that can help them to achieve all those other public services, and all their fundamental social and economic rights.
That’s why everyone also deserves access to free basic internet services.

ME: Yes, free basic “Internet” and not “free basics”. Mark is again using terms “internet” and “free basics” interchangeably as he was using internet.org for internet.

We know that when people have access to the internet they also get access to jobs, education, healthcare, communication. We know that for every 10 people connected to the internet, roughly one is lifted out of poverty. We know that for India to make progress, more than 1 billion people need to be connected to the internet.
That’s not theory. That’s fact.
Another fact – when people have access to free basic internet services, these quickly overcome the digital divide.
Research shows that the biggest barriers to connecting people are affordability and awareness of the internet. Many people can’t afford to start using the internet. But even if they could, they don’t necessarily know how it can change their lives.
Over the last year Facebook has worked with mobile operators, app developers and civil society to overcome these barriers in India and more than 30 other countries. We launched Free Basics, a set of basic internet services for things like education, healthcare, jobs and communication that people can use without paying for data.

ME:Yes, issue is affordability and awareness, and that’s exactly why everyone deserves access to whole of internet. (it’s because of you I have to say “whole of internet” , Internet ceases to be itself as soon as it’s not whole but a part of it. Internet is internet, you can’t take out a part from it and still call it internet. How can one person decide what is “basic” internet??

More than 35 operators have launched Free Basics and 15 million people have come online. And half the people who use Free Basics to go online for the first time pay to access the full internet within 30 days.

ME:This does not make sense. If they are ready to pay for internet then why they came on freebasics? Most likely they have started with free basics because they had no internet access as no ISP was there. If they had a choice why won’t they use internet.

So the data is clear. Free Basics is a bridge to the full internet and digital equality. Data from more than five years of other programs that offer free access to Facebook, WhatsApp and other services shows the same.
If we accept that everyone deserves access to the internet, then we must surely support free basic internet services. That’s why more than 30 countries have recognized Free Basics as a program consistent with net neutrality and good for consumers.

ME:Well, It’s clear that you want people to get internet, and apparently you don’t have any commercial interest, then why don’t you just give them the real internet instead of FreeBasics of internet.org?

Who could possibly be against this?
Surprisingly, over the last year there’s been a big debate about this in India.
Instead of wanting to give people access to some basic internet services for free, critics of the program continue to spread false claims – even if that means leaving behind a billion people.

ME: Wow, what an emotional call! How suddenly so much love for those billion people? This is from a company which, in spite of having 125 million Indian subscribers, refuses to be sued in India, claiming to be an American company and therefore outside the purview of Indian law. Nor does it pay any tax in India. And what is basic internet again?

Instead of recognizing the fact that Free Basics is opening up the whole internet, they continue to claim – falsely – that this will make the internet more like a walled garden.
Instead of welcoming Free Basics as an open platform that will partner with any telco, and allows any developer to offer services to people for free, they claim – falsely – that this will give people less choice.
Instead of recognizing that Free Basics fully respects net neutrality, they claim – falsely – the exact opposite.
A few months ago I learned about a farmer in Maharashtra called Ganesh.
Last year Ganesh started using Free Basics. He found weather information to prepare for monsoon season. He looked up commodity prices to get better deals. Now Ganesh is investing in new crops and livestock.

ME:And who provided commodity prices, weather information etc?? It’s the government. And how he was supposed to access it? Through Internet. A lot of info is on internet, not on freebasics? If you would have given him internet, he would have done even better. Why the facebook is coming between the information and the user? you are first yourself creating a gap and then claiming to  make a bridge to fill that gap. 

Critics of free basic internet services should remember that everything we’re doing is about serving people like Ganesh. This isn’t about Facebook’s commercial interests – there aren’t even any ads in the version of Facebook in Free Basics. If people lose access to free basic services they will simply lose access to the opportunities offered by the internet today.
Right now the TRAI is inviting the public to help decide whether free basic internet services should be offered in India.
For those who care about India’s future, it’s worth answering some questions to determine what is best for the unconnected in India.

 ME: Why private companies are so much concerned about public services. Can you really do that? You can help the government to do that by paying taxes properly. As Evgeny Morozov said, “This is the Internet monopolies’ agenda of hidden and mass-scale privatisation of public services”. Instead of people demanding that the state provide access to various services  from drinking water to transport and communications  people are being led to believe that a few capitalists from Silicon Valley will provide all these services. We will have Internet connectivity instead of education, and Uber will provide private taxis, instead of public transport. To paraphrase Marie Antoinette, let the people have cake instead of bread.

What reason is there for denying people free access to vital services for communication, education, healthcare, employment, farming and women’s rights?

How does Ganesh being able to better tend his crops hurt the internet?

ME: Really, this is all you want but still want to limit access to internet?
It’s not Ganesh, my friend, it’s you who is hurting internet.

We’ve heard legitimate concerns in the past, and we’ve quickly addressed those. We’re open to other approaches and encourage innovation. But today this program is creating huge benefits for people and the entire internet ecosystem. There’s no valid basis for denying people the choice to use Free Basics, and that’s what thousands of people across India have chosen to tell TRAI over the last few weeks.

ME:People didn’t choose that, you misled them! You never told that clicking a button would send a mail to TRAI. You never explained how FreeBasics is not in violation of net neutrality.

Choose facts over false claims. Everyone deserves access to the internet. Free basic internet services can help achieve this. Free Basics should stay to help achieve digital equality for India.

 ME: Digital equality will come for lower data prices.  The main barrier to Internet connectivity is the high cost of data services in the country. If we use purchasing power parity as a basis, India has expensive data services compared to most countries. So instead of giving people select websites, give them free data. There are various models of doing this. 
Why are you so keen to monopolise access to internet, oh, let me correct myself, you are not providing access to internet, you are breaking it up and selling parts of internet. Are you still not clear that the very reason facebook exists is that there is a free internet.


 Everyone, please take a informed decision. Raise your voice to save the internet. for more , please read newspaper editorials on net neutrality and visit the website http://www.savetheinternet.in/
some links: