How and where not to use IT

When I have more time, I’d like to dissect this news item – BMTC`s satellite tracking system goes off-track – more closely. For now, I’m reproducing snippets

At a time when navigation toolmakers are busy speaking of the global positioning system (GPS) technology and its future in the Indian market, the state-owned Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) has some sour news to share.

It has posted a loss of Rs 1.42 crore after its experiments with the on-line and off-line tracking of buses over GPS failed — a pointer to how the marriage of technology and commerce can go terribly wrong because of a lack of foresight and faulty planning.

The BMTC implemented the off-line vehicle tracking system using GPS in March 1999 in technical collaboration with Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) to monitor trip operations of buses hired from private operators and automatically calculating hire charges according to the kilometre covered on a daily basis. GPS units were installed on 200 buses.

But data collection turned out to be a cumbersome process, as it required personnel to physically go to each bus and download the data.

“In the absence of the provision for automatic generation of reports, a large number of staff was required to analyse data and prepare reports, which took two-three days. Such delayed information was far from useful as it was not available on a real-time basis for taking corrective action,” the CAG stated. In 2003, the BMTC decided to scrap the off-line system, resulting in the wastage of Rs 79.50 lakh.

Story continues..

Subsequently, the BMTC switched over to on-line vehicle tracking system designed to track the movement of a bus via satellite through the radio frequency signals from the on-bus transmitter unit. The captured data was to be sent to the control centre using GSM technology at an interval of 10 seconds.

The BMTC issued a letter of intent in February 2004 in favour of Arya Omnitalk Wireless Solutions Limited (AOTWSL), Bangalore, for installing on-line GPS technology on 2,000 buses at the rate of Rs 1,102 per bus per month for a period of five years. But the implementation of technology was easier said than done.

The CAG explained: “The GPS tracking facility was reported to have inherent limitations like a loss of connectivity due to selective availability of satellite constellation; buses not being in the direct and unobstructed line of sight with the satellite as large parts of the travel paths had dense tree covers, flyovers and bridges; between a cluster of high-rise buildings or while buses were parked under a shelter.”

Apart for these, technical problems like jamming of communication lines due to overload and cellular service not being available in the mofussil areas had resulted in disruption in service.

“Tracking data had not been continuos on many occasions and there were many gaps in the trip data,” the CAG said.

Fatuous India-related US consultancy services spending set to cross US$1 BILLION this year. No kidding! I swear it!

In a study that costs US$ 10,000 to read, Access Market International, a consultancy which describes itself as “The Leader in Global SMB Actionable Market Intelligence” and “Go-To-Market Strategy” (huh?) says that “Indian small and medium businesses (SMBs) are on track to spend $1.26 billion on Internet-related products and services this year.”

Snippets from the study from our friendly neighbourhood Hindu Business Line who, I dearly hope, did not waste their good money buying such junk.

The study states that the while the Internet has become “a way of life” for medium businesses, barely 25 per cent of small businesses currently have an Internet connection. However, small businesses are embracing the Internet by “leaps and bounds”.

The study states that the penetration of Internet-enabled small businesses is anticipated to rise by more than four percentage points in the current year.

More than 50 per cent of the SMBs said they were in favour of an improvement in Internet speed. Thirty-seven per cent of the respondents said they would like to opt for a total revamp of their Internet access infrastructure such as replacing or upgrading their Internet access routers. Affordability and availability have increased broadband usage with BSNL/MTNL enjoying an SMB penetration of 44 per cent and 33 per cent, respectively. They are followed by VSNL, Tata Teleservices and Reliance.

The study states that SMBs are also heavily dependent on information sources such as vendor Web sites and search engines for gaining awareness about IT products and services.

So.. people in small and medium business are using google. Who knew. They are in fact, in favour of (and not against) improving internet speed. Hallelujah! This is so stupidly banal, that it MUST be dressed up in a title as fruity as “Go-to-market” strategy.

I think the secret to saying anything in this world and being taken seriously, is to insert mention US$ 1 billion in relation to anything you are talking about. US$ 1 billion is a sufficiently fatly rounded monetary figure that makes it hard to ignore.

Here’s another sterling example of corporate fat-headedness dressed up as market research. The Nielsen Company reports:

“Entertainment-themed websites are the most popular with mobile Internet users in the growing Brazil, Russia, India and China (BRIC) mobile markets,

Entertainment, gaming and music websites rank among the top five categories visited in all four BRIC countries, unlike the mature markets like America and Europe, where information and news draw the most mobile Internet browsing.

Mature markets?! F#@# !! I feel like a disgraced schoolboy sitting here in this godawful immature market that prefers to use the internet for fun.

Sorry if I sound overly contemptuous.. I can’t help picking on wooly-headed ‘corporate research”

Update:
Here’s one from the Assocham assessment on ‘E-governance initiatives’

Releasing the Assocham assessment, its Secretary General D. S. Rawat
said, “A country’s e-readiness measures the current state of its ICT
infrastructure and the degree to which its consumers, businesses and
governments are able to capitalise on Internet-based opportunities. It
determines the degree to which a country is prepared to participate in
the networked world. The States have been rated on parameters: network
access, e-learning, network society, e-governance and network economy”.

BSA Bullshit – How 10% reduction of PC Software piracy in India could lead to additional $200 million tax revenues in US

This is in response to the verbal diarrhea periodically expelled by Microsoft and its Business Software Alliance cohorts suggesting that reducing piracy in India will lead to “Economic Benefits” – including enhanced tax collections to the tune of 200 million USD (now who could say no to that).

Fact is, most big software manufacturers never pay tax in India. Here’s how.
1) Most major software houses’ campuses are located in Software Technology Parks which have been enjoying a 10 year tax holiday since 1999 (extended till 2010). This means that any software that they develop in India and transfer to their parent undertakings abroad are 100% exempt from any taxation. (The normal rate of tax on income from royalty payments is about 10%.)

2) The same finished-software is then resold in India in “shrink wrap” packages. Another tax evasion occurs here. Most shrink-wrapped software that is sold to you, is sold via a chain of extensive distribution agreements instead of directly by the company’s unit in India. You buy Ms Windows from a distributor and not from MS India directly. This is done so that the “permanent establishment” in respect of the software unit sold is the US company and not MS India. By virtue of double taxation avoidance agreements (DTAAs), these companies classify such income as “business income” – taxable in the foreign country – rather than ‘royalties’ that are taxable in India. The implications of this loot are staggeringly high. The recent fight between the CBDT and Microsoft is a case in point where Microsoft has refused to pay income tax to the tune of 700 crore rupees (roughly USD 175 million).(Although the Income Tax Tribunal in this case has insisted that Microsoft is liable to pay the amount, the weight of legal authority seems to suggests that this demand will be overturned in appeal)

So in effect, the current BSA “study” (defying any relation to ‘reality’ that the word might ordinarily indicate) proposes to increase the amount of tax it can loot from India in addition to the USD 175 million that it already does to nearly 375 million through curbs on piracy.

Game’s up BSA^TM. Since I don’t want to doubt your OH-so-genuine concern for my country’s “economic benefits”, howzabout you just pay us the nearly $175 million you’re funnelling away to the US? And we don’t even have to touch piracy. Pay up, or Shut up.

UPDATE: There’s a really good article about this at Rediff.

BSA Bullshit – How 10% reduction of PC Software piracy in India could lead to additional $200 million tax revenues in US

This is in response to the verbal diarrhea periodically expelled by Microsoft and its Business Software Alliance cohorts suggesting that reducing piracy in India will lead to “Economic Benefits” – including enhanced tax collections to the tune of 200 million USD (now who could say no to that).

Fact is, most big software manufacturers never pay tax in India. Here’s how.
1) Most major software houses’ campuses are located in Software Technology Parks which have been enjoying a 10 year tax holiday since 1999 (extended till 2010). This means that any software that they develop in India and transfer to their parent undertakings abroad are 100% exempt from any taxation. (The normal rate of tax on income from royalty payments is about 10%.)

2) The same finished-software is then resold in India in “shrink wrap” packages. Another tax evasion occurs here. Most shrink-wrapped software that is sold to you, is sold via a chain of extensive distribution agreements instead of directly by the company’s unit in India. You buy Ms Windows from a distributor and not from MS India directly. This is done so that the “permanent establishment” in respect of the software unit sold is the US company and not MS India. By virtue of double taxation avoidance agreements (DTAAs), these companies classify such income as “business income” – taxable in the foreign country – rather than ‘royalties’ that are taxable in India. The implications of this loot are staggeringly high. The recent fight between the CBDT and Microsoft is a case in point where Microsoft has refused to pay income tax to the tune of 700 crore rupees (roughly USD 175 million).(Although the Income Tax Tribunal in this case has insisted that Microsoft is liable to pay the amount, the weight of legal authority seems to suggests that this demand will be overturned in appeal)

So in effect, the current BSA “study” (defying any relation to ‘reality’ that the word might ordinarily indicate) proposes to increase the amount of tax it can loot from India in addition to the USD 175 million that it already does to nearly 375 million through curbs on piracy.

Game’s up BSA^TM. Since I don’t want to doubt your OH-so-genuine concern for my country’s “economic benefits”, howzabout you just pay us the nearly $175 million you’re funnelling away to the US? And we don’t even have to touch piracy. Pay up, or Shut up.

UPDATE: There’s a really good article about this at Rediff.

Dot Vs.Blackberry – Round 3 and 4

The Hindu Business Line reports today that “the Department of Telecom has asked telecom operators not to provide certain features offered by Research In Motion’s (RIM) BlackBerry until monitoring systems are put in place.” It is not known what “certain” features are exactly, but “industry sources indicated that e-mails sent from one Blackberry to another Blackberry may be barred.”

Gee.. Emails huh? That’s all? Waittaminute.. isn’t that all one does with a Blackberry!?

Currently, talks are on directly between Research In Motion – owners of the Blackberry technology and the DoT after ‘GSM operators opted out of Blackberry talks‘

At a meeting held last week, RIM requested that it be allowed to discuss its plans to address the security concerns directly with Government authorities instead of going through the mobile operators. Sources said that RIM officials were concerned that since the topic of discussion was sensitive for security purposes, the proceedings of the meeting may be leaked out to the media in case the operators were also involved. While representatives of the various mobile operators were present during the meeting last week, RIM executives and DoT officers met separately in another room.
..

Sources within the GSM camp said that with only 2 lakh Blackberry users, there is no crisis even if the service was banned. They also pointed out that there were many other handset devices available today which provides similar type of services though the security levels may not match up to that of a Blackberry.

So.. what’s the big fuss about again?