Modi’s critical moment: What can India learn from Brazil?
In 2014, citizens of the two biggest democracies in the BRICS club – Brazil and India – went to the polls to elect their leaders. India chose Prime Minister Narendra …
Read MoreAuthor: India Writes Network
Banking reforms: How to cure KYC headache?
A far-reaching reform would be to use the PAN database for giving KYC clearances for banking and investment services as well. Do we really need three separate and parallel systems for customer data for tax, banks and mutual funds? Merging the KYC process of the banking and investment services into the PAN system of the Tax department would greatly improve efficiency all around. Indian citizens and thousands of NRI/PIOs and foreigners would be spared the nuisance of doing the KYC process which simply reuses the same data and does not add any value.
Prime Minister Modi is to be lauded for pushing against bureaucratic resistance in giving millions of Indians access to the banking system through the Jan Dhan Yojana. When reforms are proposed there is opposition from the establishment. But where a decision is made, the bureaucracy will find a way to implement it. Now the prime minister has the chance to simplify and streamlining the outdated, repetitive and inefficient KYC process by basing it on a single database of the PAN system. This will save an enormous amount of time and money for customers, bank employees, and be more effective in tracking down tax evaders and criminals. He will be thanked for this service by millions of users.
India damns Hafiz Saeed’s diatribes, decries mainstreaming of terrorism
Amid a deepening chill in the prickly India-Pakistan relations, the Mumbai carnage mastermind Hafiz Saeed’s virulent anti-India diatribe at a rally staged at a national monument in Lahore is only going to exacerbate strained ties between the two estranged South Asian neighbours.
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Gender balancing the disaster management
This year’s Kashmir and North-East floods, following last year’s Uttrakhand tragedy, have yet again highlighted the shortcomings in our disaster management and rehabilitation strategies — at the national and state …
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George R.R. Martin: Of architects and gardeners
I think there are two types of writers, the architects and the gardeners. The architects plan everything ahead of time, like an architect building a house. They know how many …
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India sends aircraft and ships to assist water crisis-hit Maldives
Maldives, the Indian Ocean archipelago better known for its pretty-as-picture sunsets and coral islands, has sunk into a severe water crisis after a fire erupted in its only desalination plant. …
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Marcel Proust: Reading oneself, self-recognition
Every reader, as he reads, is actually the reader of himself. The writer’s work is only a kind of optical instrument he provides the reader so he can discern what …
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Marguerite Duras: Wipe things out
When it’s in a book I don’t think it’ll hurt any more …exist any more. One of the things writing does is wipe things out. Replace them. ― Marguerite Duras, …
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Why Marine Police remains the weakest link in India’s coastal security system?
The inauguration of the Information Management and Analysis Centre (IMAC) at Gurgaon on November 23, 2014 is yet another step in the implementation of a series of security measures announced …
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Is China’s dealings with the world set to change?
Change seems to be afoot in China’s dealings with the world. At a major conference on foreign affairs in Beijing on November 28-29, President Xi Jinping called on his colleagues to create a “more enabling environment” for China’s development. Xi’s remarks are nuanced and balanced and seek to distance China from its brash and assertive posture which has generated considerable unease in the regions neighbouring China.
At another level, China is signalling that it is a big power and wants to be seen in a more benign light as one, rather than being feared and distrusted , as it is at present.
At a third level, it also reflects a Chinese understanding that despite its impressive capabilities, it is still a relatively passive power as is evident from the Chinese absence in dealing with any of the serious global crises like Ukraine, Syria or Afghanistan.