We always suspected that the left hand of government, rarely knows what the right hand is doing – which is why so many ministries seem to be working at cross purposes – with the harassed citizen caught in between. Our worst suspicions were confirmed last week, when the Income Tax department slipped in a new ‘guideline’ to its chakravyuha or maze, of rules for the taxpayer.
Taxpayers will now have to acquire yet another number to go with their tax returns, in addition to the Permanent Account Number or PAN. This is to be called Document Identification Number or DIN. It is ‘mandatory in respect of every notice, order, letter or any correspondence” with the department by taxpayers.
“DIN will be generated by the I-T department and will be useful for error-free filing of returns, claiming refunds and other communication with the department, by the assessee”, reports the Press Trust of India, quoting a senior Finance Ministry official. Wasn’t the PAN number supposed to do all this?

During the Chidambaram regime in the Finance Ministry, the PAN number was forced upon law abiding with a maniacal zeal, forcing hundreds of thousands of citizens to apply for one, even when there was absolutely no chance they would ever earn enough to have to pay income tax. This was done by making the PAN number, a necessary condition for a host of other innocuous, one-time transactions of pathetically small nature. Now, his successor, has seen fit to foist one more numb(er)ing burden on honest tax payers, who, if they are the pettiest of traders, are already having to apply for and have to quote a TAN ( Tax deduction and collection Account Number).
The geniuses in the finance ministry are perhaps unaware, that the acronym DIN is already taken by another ministry – Company Affairs – which has mandated a Director Identification Number for all directors of public and private corporate entities. You can imagine the scope for confusion. In any case, it is a truly weird dispensation that feels the need of two numbers to identify one person’s tax return.
Even more bizarrely, this latest exercise in numerical excess, comes a time when India has already mandated a Unique Identification number (UID) or Aadhar for every resident and is spending millions of rupees to implement this scheme. The UID was – or so they told us -- meant to create a unique identity for every Indian resident, one that would be absolutely fool proof, backed by cutting-edge biometrics and available for verification in an instant. It was an IT-driven, sensible, step towards the future.
The Income Tax department’s latest diktat, is a retrograde move in the reverse direction, making nonsense of all claims that we are a technologically advanced nation, with efficient administrative practices. It is an idea that seems to have come from hidebound brains who still think that more paperwork equals progress.

Azim Premji, gives IT all away: In arguably the largest philanthropic gesture India has seen, Azim Premji, founder-Chairman of Indian Infotech leader, Wipro, has announced that he will transfer 213 million equity shares (at a current market price valued approximately at Rs 88.4 billion) of Wipro Ltd., held by him to an irrevocable trust. http://www.indiatechonline.com/viewimage.php?id=199
India-born Arogyaswamy Paulraj, Emeritus Professor of Electrical Engineering at Stanford University and a key contributor to the technology of WiMAX has been honoured by the Institution of Electronics and Electrical Engineers with the prestigious Alexander Graham Bell Medal for 2011. http://www.indiatechonline.com/ieee-honour-for-a.-paulraj-12.php

LTE demo: Wireless Broadband Business Services, one of Qualcomm's India LTE Venture entities, and leading telecom provider of technology Ericsson joined hands to demonstrate LTE TDD mobility at 2.3 GHz in an outdoor environment in India. http://www.indiatechonline.com/viewimage.php?id=198

A hundred thousand ‘temps’ drive Indian business
The Indian arm of Switzerland-based global human resources leader Adecco, has become the first ever Human Resources provider in the country, to cross the landmark of 100,000 temporary staff on its rolls making it one of the largest private sector employers. It represents one in seven of the parent company's total temp strength
http://www.indiatechonline.com/adecco-india-crosses-100,000-temp--mark-363.php
NetApp marks 10 years in India with leap into the Cloud: “Manage your data—not your hardware!"
http://www.indiatechonline.com/netapp-10-years-in-india-201.php

Transcend Information has brought the company’s first 64 GBSDXC memory card to India. The Transcend Ultimate 64 GB SDXC can support individual files larger than 4 GB and can be used for recording full High Definition video content. Transcend has also launched in India, a 64 GB moldel in its UltraSpeed series USB Flash thumb drive.
http://www.indiatechonline.com/transcend-64-gb-flash-devices-66.php  

B2B marketer, Paul Writer has released the first report and reference on the technology public relations landscape in India. The “Red Book of Tech PR” The report finds that India’s best known PR firms with a technology focus are Text 100, 20:20 Media, Genesis Burson-Marsteller, The Practice and Perfect Relations. However it finds that 46% of PR clients are unlikely to recommend their agencies and that 40 % had a PR relationship of a year or less.
http://www.indiatechonline.com/paul-writer-red-book-of-indian-tech-pr-69.php  

An MP4 audio-video player for less than Rs 3000.

Chennai-headquartered Top Notch Infotronix have launched a handy and affordable audio-video digital media player under their Zebronix brand. The “ZEBMATE Cinema 3.0” comes with a 3 inch colour TFT screen with a 400 by 240 pixel resolution and 4GB of storage. It weighs just 46 grams and has a USB connector.
http://www.indiatechonline.com/zebronix--zebmate-cinema-3.0-review-67.php  

Indian Cloud Computing market: small now, but growing fast: IDC. The India Public Cloud Computing market is estimated to be worth US$ 66.7 million in 2009 and is projected to grow at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 40% over the next five years to $ 541m by 2014 says market intelligence and advisory firm IDC.
http://www.indiatechonline.com/idc-indian-cloud-computing-market-report-2010-366.php  

Animation is good bet but gaming is way to go: Deloitte study The Indian animation and gaming industry will be worth $ 2.5 billion over the next three years, a study by global consultants Deloitte, finds. The market was valued at around $ 750 million in 2009. We connect you to the 36-page report http://www.indiatechonline.com/deloitte-study-on-indian-entertainment-industry-2010-364.php  

All the other numbers about the Indian IT sector in our exclusive snapshot  http://www.indiatechonline.com/snapshot.php  

5th India Digital Summit 2010 New Delhi 7-8 December 2010 Taj Mansingh Hotel
Internet and Mobile Association of India with IndiaTimes.com www.aimai.in  
National Conference on E-Government & E-Societ (NCEGOVS-2010) Allahabad Dec.11-12, 2010
Jointly Organised by Computer Society of India (Div. III – Sc. Applications & CSI-Sig on E-Governance)Computer Society of India, Allahabad http://csi-allahabad.org  
International Symposium of Information Systems Hyderabad, Dec 18-19 2010, Indian School of Business.
The Srini Raju Centre for Information Technology and the Networked Economy (SRITNE) at the Indian School of Business (ISB) hosts the fifth edition of the highly successful ISIS All aspects of theoretical and empirical research in information systems, especially those related to the globalisation of information technology development and outsourcing of business processes, are appropriate for this Conference. http://www.isb.edu/sritne/isis2010/  
Conference onPublic Private Partnerships: Current Challenges and the Way Forward Bangalore 21 December, 2010, Hotel Taj Westend, www.aima-ind.org  
ISA Vision Summit Bangalore, Feb 21-22 2011, Taj Westend Hotel
The flagship annual event of the Indian Semiconductor Association. www.isaonline.org  
International World Wide Web conference Hyderabad, March 28 –Apr 1 2011, HICC
The World Wide Web Conference is the de-facto platform for innovators to come together for designing and building the next wave of technologies for the Web.
http://www.www2011india.com  
Broadband World Forum Asia Kuala Lumpur Malyasia, 10—11 May 2011, Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre
The region’s largest broadband event
http://www.broadbandworldforum.com/asia  
CommunicAsia 2011 Singapore, 21-24 June 2011, Marina Bay Sands
Asia’s largest knowledge based ICT platform, comes to a new venue in Singapore this time. CommunicAsia2011 will feature key and emerging technologies from backhaul network, systems integration to software and applications to the end users. EnterpriseIT2011, held in conjunction with CommunicAsia2011 and BroadcastAsia2011. http://www.communicasia.com/the-event  
 
Are you organising an upcoming conference or trade show in the Middle East/Asia/Pac region that will interest the Indian infotech community? Send us the details in a mail to feedback@indiatechonline.com  with Event Watch in the subject line and we will be happy to feature it in this section.

Book Review: "India's Silicon Plateau: Development of Information and Communication Technology in Bangalore By R. C. Mascarenhas . Reviewed in BUSINESS WORLD by Sanjiv Kataria, strategic communications and PR counsel. “The book is a lot more than a treasure trove of information, even to an Indian IT industry watcher of 25 years and a frequent visitor to the 'city of gardens', as it delves into the history of erstwhile 'Mysore state', renamed Karnataka. The book very systematically brings alive the story of the burgeoning IT industry, with Bangalore-based companies contributing nearly 36 per cent to India's software exports…”
http://www.businessworld.in/bw/2010_11_22_Building_An_IT_City.html  

POSTED 2010-12-04

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