Why no protests ?

Its been months now, since the Indian media first started reporting of an apparent slowdown in the country's economy. After bigger media houses, economists and investors picked up and magnified the story, external rating agencies have downgraded the country's prospects. Nobel prize winning laureates double checked, and confirmed. Banks are shutting down, and companies are downsizing.

After all of this, the question that is troubling me is: why isn't anyone protesting ?

In a country known to protest the slightest increase in fuel prices, it is ironical that Indians have not put forward an organized effort to call the government's bluff. All those people now unemployed, where are their protests ? The industries affected, why are their stocks still up ?

The severe lack of protests in the world's largest democracy is chilling. There is no validation for the reported slowdown. Has this democracy lost its voice ?

Marvellous Nonsense

Ill be very glad when this is over. The new Marvel movie is hitting theatres this week. Endgame. Fans are going crazy around the world. Fans are speculating non-stop. Fans are frustrated. Because fans cannot get enough tickets.

But I have never been a fan. Of these superhero movies.

For me , there is something weird seeing grown men wearing spandex and capes and cosplaying. And I am talking of the fans here. Its even worse seeing the actors playing these 'comics' on screen. Sure, they are getting paid hundreds of milllions for standing in front of green screens. But it is still weird seeing all this hype about superhero movies.

And now I see people discussing scenes and dialogues from the movies as if they were the classic movies from the fifties. Makes me puke, when I see them discuss charachter arcs and emotional vulnerabilites.

Its also amazing seeing the marvellous marketting machinery of hollywood at work. They are able to get crazy fans pay through their noses for first day tickets for these CGI-action movies, when movies with real stories, inspiring and memorable characters lie in the dust. They just don't make those kind of fun movies anymore.

Its also amazing when you realize that real superheroes don't really wear capes. I see them everyday. They were uniforms, and hats, and are always around to protect and serve.

Just get this over with. Until they think of the next superhero movie they can write up.

Australia’s consumer protection

Having lived in India all my life, there are things I got used to. Like dodgy customer service. You know, when you buy a product or service from the market, and it does not work as intended. Or when you place an order for something, and it does not get delivered on time. Over the years, I noticed private companies upping the quality of their customer service, public companies never cared. Ever rising competition between private companies, with the need to retain customers, and the risk of receiving ‘negative reviews’ in the era of social media, all led to private sellers trying to resolve their customer’s complaints.   This was unheard of a few decades back, when national television used to air public service announcements about consumer rights, and consumer courts. I just sort of assumed that the problem was India being a ‘developing’ nation, and such problems are not to be found in developed countries.

How wrong I was.

Australia is an eye opener. In terms of customer service and consumer rights, I think they are a few years behind. The people at sales counters are extremely cheerful, of course. IBut once they have made their sale, it falls back to ‘its-somebody-elses-problem’ mode. And this is one of those areas where reality lags expectations.

In India, larger companies run 7 day call centers. Some even 24/7, specially telecom , banks and travel companies. Surprisingly , most Australian businessess run only a 5 working day service on the weeks. And strictly 8am to 5pm. For after hours services, they have a voice mail system , where you could leave messages for them to service later. So if your rental car breaks down, you are on your own. Of if you want to know when your phone will be disconnected, you have to wait for them to respond to your email.

But the problem I think most consumers here are going to be unhappy about , is online orders.

I recently placed an order for a water filter, to be used on the tap on a kitchen sink. Such things are still expensive in this country, and the best deals are online.  The company is called truwater, and I think they are just resellers of products, and have no inventory of their own. I made the online payment, and the amount was promptly deducted from my account. The product was to shipped to my address in 1 week. But I failed to get it delivered even after 2 weeks. Finally, I made the call to their (non-existant) customer service line.

It went to voice mail.

I even emailed them. No response.

After 1 month of initial order placement, they finally reponded that they were facing issues with their supplier. And that the order will be delayed. Further.

I called them up, and this time somebody picked up.

I politely told them to cancel my order.  I was promplty told it cannot be done.

I then rudley asked for order cancellation. Out of the question. The lady  told me I would get an order update within a week.

So now is 5 weeks after order placement.

I decided to slow down. It was a water filter, after all.

But after 7 weeks, I was still told that the order would be further delayed.

I tried to contact someone via social media, or linked in. Tried various channels. And none worked.

Frustrated, I finally decided to google the one place that could help me. I googled:

“Australia consumer protection”

Turns out, Australia has a different consumer rights authority in each of its states. Since I was dealing with an NSW company, I ended up at the website if NSW Fairtrading.

After reading all their site documentation, I finally decided I qualified to raise an complaint with them.

I uploaded all my emails, and proof of payment. And stated my problem in detail. I guess they gave the company a call. Because my order was shipped the same week. And I received it the next monday !

I later had to call NSW Fairtrading to update them, and to close my complaint.

Thats all it took. A little nudge. And the bad boys had to oblige.  In the course of my investigation, I had found that lots of customers had faced a similiar issues with truwater.

Check Australia’s consumer rights site here. This page shows the small claims tribunal of all states.

So there you go. Before placing any online order with any unheard of company down under, look up their service review. And if they refuse to deliver, or to reverse payment, promply call up the fair trading onbudsman, or consumer protection group of that state.

Don’t wait. Customer service here is still in its nascent stages. But you do have rights.

The world’s fastest growing economy has the world’s most toxic air

 

Not surprised.

 

 

Sour apples

 

 

Its that time of the year again. Happens every time. Luxury electronic brand Apple announces their next series of overpriced, mostly re-used technology. And the world reacts in surprise to the new price. But not before they drool over the new design features. And sometime after that, the general public split into two. The fanboys and those who cannot afford to be fanboys.

Every year, there come articles where in 'experts' sit and debate as to why the new prices are exaggerated. Thats its not worth it. And how it is the best time to buy the previous version of Apple devices, which have just become a tad more affordable. Indian media is full of such articles. Its pathetic, how the media publish articles which they know people will search for. With the ever-falling Indian rupee, and heavy taxes from the government, the devices are now are as expensive as what was once the price of the cheapest car in the world.

Indians on twitter and facebook continue to rant the overpriced devices, creating new memes and trolls going into overtime.

I hate this, mainly becauses it messes up my news feed this time of the year. For some reason, google thinks I would be interested in these kind of news articles. I am not.

Grow up, Indian media. With only a 2% market for Apple products, that is a minority to cater to. India will always be the prime market for cheap Chinese products.

So what else can you get for over a thousand US dollars ? You could get a short term work visa to Australia for less than 500 USD !

Now ain't that something worth investing in ?

India’s GST is so complex, its a joke

 

And that is not my opinion, it is of the World Bank.  Their annual India development report paints a fuzzy greyish image of India’s  financial governance, not too patronizing, but not too harsh either. Here is the graph:

 

Its very weird seeing India featuring on the wrong side of the graph, while all the developed countries have a lower rate !!

The World Bank’ report provides that 49 countries employ single tax slab of GST, 28 countries use dual tax slab of GST, 5 nations including India apply four non-zero slabs of GST and rest of the countries (in list of 115 countries) enforce four or more slabs of GST. It was detected that as a consequence of the GST, firms are forced to bear increased administrative costs at a burdensome rate and the snail process of tax refund caused the firms to lock up the working capital.

The reason for high compliance costs is the prevalence of multiple tax rates mandating the firms the necessity to classify inputs and outputs based on the applicable tax rate.

Unfortunately, its already too late. They cannot make the system easier by adding more rules. Moroever , it is now a matter of political pride for the incumbent government to maintain the new rates system.

This is Weird

 

India still in denial of WannaCry

 

The second wave of the wannacry ransomeware attack is in full swing this week. Computers in 150 countries have been affected, specially China. But the Indian government , like always, has chosen to go to denial mode. Government and media are reporting that the threat is minimal, and systems are not affected. Reality is that lakhs of systems were already affected.

Just check the real time tracking of this attack.

 

Crude reality is that due to mass use of pirated software in India, reports of attacks will go unreported.  Meanwhile, ransomware incidents were reported from Kerala, Kolkata and Andhra Pradesh. However, no corporate office or institution came forward fearing that their brand image will take a hit if the news of their computers being infected goes public. The real impact of cyber attack in India can be only assessed later this week. The government too tried to dispel rumours about banking telecom or aviation being hit by the outbreak