Technology

e-Tax & e-Cash Disbursement – An Insight into Progress

by

etax and eCash Disbursement IndiaThis is the Final Part of the Three Part Article on e-Initiatives in India. Read Part 1 – e-Governance & Digital Offices Part 2 covered – e-Records and Rights for Citizens, Judicial Systems and other e-Citizen projects. Today we’ll cover the electronic tax bases initiatives and electronic / mobile money disbursement.

The digitization of direct and indirect tax functions has simplified the filing of records, maintaining compliance and getting tax refunds. Electronic filings also make it easier to track noncompliance and tax evasion by mixing and matching various databases. As information and money get digitized, it is becoming easier to tax the two non-digital entities: (1) people (individuals or companies) and (2) goods and services. Earlier (1) the activities of economic actors, (2) their tax returns and (3) their money were paper-based. This made it difficult to match the economic activities with the money trail.

Indians now primarily file their taxes

Read more

e-Records in India – Citizens Rights, Judicial System etc

by

e-Records for Indian CitizensIn continuation of your Three Part Post on e-Governance in India [Read First Part – Digital offices in India] Today we’ll see which Citizen Services have gone digital in India.

The first aspect of digitization is the coming online of the Indian identity. The most visible face of this is the Unique Identity (UID) Aadhar Card that is being rolled out across India. As we will note in the next chapter, most Indians are expected to have their IDs online and bio-metrically recorded by the end of FY2014. However, even before the UID came into existence, Indians have looked up to their Government to provide them with documents of identity. UID can and will eventually provide the link to the various identities that Indians carry. If the databases of various departments speak with each other, they can create a comprehensive profile of every Indian.

In many states, the local state government provides basic infrastructure facilities like water and electricity and hence records of such bills indicate not just

Read more

eGovernance & Digital Offices of Indian Government – Progressing Slowly

by

eGovernance in IndiaThe Indian Government is increasingly coming closer to its citizens and businesses. Power brokers who would work their way through the Government system are giving way to professionals who help the masses to connect with their Government through a digital system. Three big digitization programs are taking place: (1) identity of Indians, (2) interaction portals of Government agencies and (3) money transactions (cash and property). The changes are transforming the way Indians and its Government interact.

We’ll explain these initiatives beginning with 1) G2B and G2C interactions, 2) Citizens e-Records & Rights 3) e-Tax and e-Cash.

G2B and G2C – Govt to Business / Govt to Citizens
India, which has emerged as the global hub of the IT industry, has been late in leveraging IT for local governance. A virtual world where both interaction and money are digitized makes the task of making the government accountable much easier. Government services in general – is progressively being made easier as

Read more

How to use Airtel Free Zone Mobile Internet for Accessing Google, Gmail, Google+

by

Here is a Step By Step Illustration on How to use Airtel Free Zone Mobile Internet for Accessing Google, Gmail, Google+

Point your phone’s browser to airtel.in/freezone ; click “Enter Free Zone” to access Google’s search engine, billions of Web
sites, Gmail and Google+ without paying for data as shown below.Airtel Google FreeZone

Read more

Peek Into Infoedge Investee Companies – Zomato, MeritNation, MyDala

by

Meritnation - Infoedge CompanyInfoedge has invested a total of Rs2.8 bn, in nine Internet start-ups since listing in 2007. Of these, detailed financials for two companies, namely Zomato and Meritnation. Management views these as high risk-high return investments. It believes the benefits derived from even one success story could completely outweigh the losses on others. Further, it believes these are necessary to keep attracting people with new ideas and to stay ahead of the competition.

The largest investee companies, namely Zomato and Meritnation, appear well-funded for now. Both of these are tiny compared to international comparable. They are seeing strong

Read more

How will Amazon Fresh Impact Offline Grocerry Retailers ?

by

Amazon Fresh - Online Grocery Retailing ModelAfter testing for 6 years in Seattle, Amazon launched AmazonFresh in LA, which is the beginning of Amazon’s grocery expansion efforts to potentially all large metro areas in the coming years. The grocery category is a ~$600bn opportunity in the U.S., but Amazon’s strategy will likely target the top 20 metro areas (MSAs) by population, which we estimate is a $220bn opportunity.

Some of the Attributes to AmazonFresh that may differentiate it from its competitors and diminish the negative impact of AmazonFresh include – charging fees ($7.99-$9.99 per deliver below $100), Amazon Prime Fresh program (high $299 upfront fee), opportunity to sell non-grocery products that have higher margins, third party marketplace and AmazonFresh may target a higher income customer.

Read more

Growth of Internet on PC, SmartPhone, Tablet in Japan

by

Internet-Growth-JapanThe Electronics and Gadget Savvy Japan witnessed from the second half of the 1990s through the first half of the 2000s where most people used PCs to go online. Growth in Internet use today, however, is being driven by rapid proliferation of smartphones. The number of people going online via PCs in Japan broadly plateaued in 2012 at around 97mn. In contrast, smartphone penetration at end-FY12 was only 33% so Japan is still in the midst of smartphone proliferation. The Chart on the left shows a Decade of Growth of PC Vs SmartPhone vs Tablets used to go Online.

The number of Internet-capable devices in Japan has risen by 50% compared

Read more

Lack of M&A Telecom Policy will hurt new entrants and benefit incumbents

by

Indian Telecom Policy Lacks Mergers AcquistionIn an attempt to capture the possible Revenue Market Share gains, we perform a circle-wise analysis to capture the possible gains for the company. We expect incumbents RMS to improve in established circles.

We highlight that we have relied on incremental market share as a key criteria to determine the steady revenue market share for all circles. Separately, we assume that new GSM entrants will continue to lose market share given their stretched balance sheets and inability to benefit from any meaningful Mergers & Acquisitions (we don’t expect any near-term clarity on M&A policy and this will prevent new entrants being disruptive/gaining scale).

In addition, we expect the

Read more

PlayStation 4 and the Xbox One Console Pricing

by

PS4-Multiplayer-gamesSony and Microsoft exhibited their respective consoles, the PlayStation 4 and the Xbox One, at the Electronic Entertainment Expo. Significantly, the companies indicated that the PS4 will sell for $399 compared to $499 for the Xbox One. Bloomberg reported that pre-orders for the PS4 exceed those for the Xbox One at both Amazon and Gamestop and cited the Xbox One’s restrictions on game sharing as a drawback for the console.

According to Bloomberg, Sony has delayed a decision to begin selling its console in Asia before the end of the year in order to
meet strong demand from the US and Europe.

Read more

Comparison of Mobile Money Transfer vs Postal Money Order

by

The Internal Remittances Market in India is to the tune of USD 40 Bn with money flowing from Urban to Rural Parts of India. The Following Chart Shows the Comparison of Mobile money Transfer vs Indian Postal Money Order on Parameters such as, Min requirement, Limits on Transaction, Technology, Advantage and Dis-advantage.

Read more