Delhi, short visit

Happy New Year 2012

I am visiting Delhi from 3-7th Jan 2012 on a short business trip. Basically, it’s an annual progress catch up of our new Delhi office and I’ll have some free time in evening and early morning to catch up with school friends as well.

FDI – India, Communist and Opposition

India have enjoyed democracy and freedom since 1947 when English were forced to leave the land. The country where 1/8th of total population on Earth lives couldn’t achieve anything remarkable except three wars, egoistic nuclear program and foundation of corruption in first 25 year from freedom. Our GDP was hardly 100,000M USD and with 1/8th of total population it sounds puny. My parents grew up in that India. Where people enjoyed freedom but still felt helpless about reforms in India. But is freedom was that’s all we wanted, when I asked to my parents: Answer was surprisingly yes.

I born in 1984 time when communism was shattered by people revolution in central Europe. India at that time was getting worst though we enjoyed mixed economy but it wasn’t sustainable. When USSR collapsed which was a setback for all communist governance in India and abroad. Foreign goods starts pouring to Indian market it was simply a question of allowing foreign brands to sell their stuff in India. But it wasn’t easy.

I left India in 2007. India at peak of it’s IT surprise. People start traveling abroad in large number and started to influence India system. Corruption is on it’s peak, poor standard of living haunting their memory of the life they lived in US or Europe and the truth is only IT cannot bring reforms to India’s economy. Our last 3 governments considering FDI in retail finally decided that they are going to allow 51% FDI in retail. Which is what most of the retail companies were looking for from last 2 decades.

Just like all Indian stories, that’s not the end there are villains: communists and opposition. Communists in India always talked about protecting the poor but what actually they were able to protect was their power in Indian political system. I had hard time to understand why communists are successful in some province in India. They replaced God with Stalin, there are no caste and no humiliation, which in some part of India have been always a problem. Instead, I expected that these idiotic people stereotype would eventually go as we evolve. Opposition is nothing strange, they just have to oppose to everything without being responsible and that’s what people do when they are not in power.

Why they cries? It’s a global world with equal opportunities in trade. Instead of sit back and say “we can do everything by our own”. We should be part of globalization. We wants to export but we don’t want to import. We want lame agricultural system where crop goes bad and framer suicides instead of better logistic and product distribution system. Nothing comes without it’s own shortcomings but they are far too small than the benefits to every Indian.

India (anti) corruption movement

Every Indian is frustrated by corruption and now it has become very clear from Anna Hazare movement against corruption. Shunned by government, it has grown to the mass level and yesterday when I heard from my sister “Support Anna” I was very concerned on that quote and decided to write this post.

First, India is very democratic country, debating on stuff is in our blood. We have got freedom of speed which is very well respected in educated Indian society. Now a days, it’s a debatable question in India but in any country if you try to subvert constitutional system then you’ll be penalized. So why all hype?

Recent economic reforms have accelerated corruption in India, also people are becoming smarter and more aware to expose scandals. Corruption are at all levels in India. Most people victimized by local policemem, office clerks and social ignorance. But “Strong Janpal Bill” is what we lacks? It’s rather novice to say that “Support Anna” – anti corruption movement when people do bribe in daily life. Another kind of corruption is when social funds are misused, here “Strong Janpal bill” might help? but I am not sure at which level. We need to think about root cause instead adding one more system.

Second, at root level people still suffer from racism (cast system), illiteracy and awareness but instead of fighting these fundamental problem which would probably erase corruption in future, we decided to hit hard by Anti-corruption movement. Without knowing the cause, how can we fix the problem and secondly, I don’t think that a bill would vanish corruption in jiffy.

I do not believe that this bill would make much difference, though I believe as we evolve one day India will be among least corrupt country, now to achieve this we need to end racism, illiteracy and remove various layers in public dealing. In my opinion, Technology is going to play large role instead of Anna Hazare to wipe out corruption from India.

I prefer to stay out of non-travel post but it looks like I have no time for it. Recently, I traveled to lots of forests and Lake regions in Poland.

PS: An ideal ways to replace corruption are
1. Replace all govt officials with Androids. “Technology”
2. Implant a chip to every Indian citizen. “UUID”
3. Use Artificial Intelligence to train Indian citizen. “Education”
4. Get rid of money based economy .. instead adapt different economic model which is contribution based or technology based. “LOL”

India India

I’ll be in India for next two weeks. It’s more business cum personal trip. I am also planning to visit Kerala for couple of days to get some fresh air and rain

Delhi again

A small office trip arrives and I’ll be visiting Delhi, Coimbatore and Chennai. It’s my first trip to deep southern India. It’s quite short and I am already packed with the tasks which I need to do, still I’d spend some time meeting family and friends.

India and Unique Identification Number

I think this blog is inappropriate for discussing, India and UID project (Unique Identification Number). I recently had look at Mr. Nadan interview on NDTV about this project, despite his public saying it seems people are still confused with “ID Card” and “Unique Identification Number”. Again I’ll repeat UID is NOT an ID Card its just an identification number which will go to your various documents like Birth certificate, voter ID card, Pan Card etc.

Concept of national ID is not new US have got defacto SSN (Social Security Number), in Poland there is PESEL (personal identification number) which drastically reduce paper work, for example In India, when you go to open a bank account they ask you to bring an “identity proof” ha! I need to prove who I am. It’s rediculous but thats the way things works in India. If you’re aware how to twists paper work then you can even get 10 credit cards in India.

Idea of UID is a watchdog on citizen activities and bring poor people a bit near. Now, how it’s going to help poor people, though I was quite skeptic initially that its going to benefit poor and as I can see here in Europe, I think it’d really help poor if its easy to get this number. The fundamental advantage of UID is that you don’t have to prove who you are to various institution e.g banks, tax authorities, immigration authorities etc.

Estonia is first country which connected its UniqueID and ID cards to an OpenID. For those who are not aware of OpenID (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenID ) its an authorization process specially for web but can be extended to other application. Let me explain you in simple words say you have a Gmail account and all Gmail Accounts have issued a unique ID which is a URL (https://www.google.com/accounts/o8/ud) so now if you comes to a website which accepts OpenID and if you provide your uniqueID URL then it’ll authenticate you from OpenID provider in this case Google.

It would be great if India UniqueID will be OpenID enabled. Estonia has successfully implemented national ID – OpenID connection. If you are XYZ ABC with an Estonian UID 42004010123456 then your OpenID is https://openid.ee/e/xyz.abc.42004010123456 (https://openid.ee/e/name.surname.uid)

Biometric is really cool and we should do in this way but more things are happening around us, in order to bring egovernence to common citizen OpenID is an open platform for both government and non government world. I hope Mr. Nandan have already thought about it.

Czesc India – 10th April to 8th May

Finally all set for our India trip. We planned couple of times but we couldn’t this time all set, visas, shopping, tickets. On 10th April we are leaving from Gdansk and early morning we’ll be in India. We’ll be visiting back home, Delhi, Agra, Jaipur/Valley of flowers and Leh.

Schengen Agreement – Where the hell is free movement?

UPDATE: This post may contain some information which is no longer valid. According to latest updates, Schengen states are no longer issue D+C Visas and D Visa is now treated as D+C Visa. In short person entitled with D Visa can now visit schenegen states for first 3 months from date of issue.

Recently, I stuck with my renewal of residence permit in Poland and all I got was “D” Polish national visa. Which allows me to stay only on territory of Poland, but wait I have a trip to India, I bought ticket and everything has already planned. Immigration officer told me that Its multiple entry visa which allows to leave Poland and re-enter without any problem, in case of argument just show old residence card.

So far so good, my Lufthansa flight from Gdansk-Munich-Delhi-Munich-Gdansk has connection in Munich. Many European countries uses bad practice while issuing visa. In case of national legislation they issue “D” national visa which is limited to schengen state which issued that visa, and if it has picture and visa code then it also allows you one visa free 5 day transit to reach schengen state who issued that visa from other schengen state.

So, I was worried because it only allows “ONE” visa free transit when contacted German consulate in Delhi, they mentioned “Indian passport holding any visa issued by EU/EEA doesnt require Airport transit visa” so i was very happy that everything is in motion.

A week before departure, I just voluntarily contacted German embassy in Warsaw and their answer was like this “Sir, You need Schengen Short stay visa, if you are on national visa and you have connection from Munich”. I said what? I’ll be transiting via air just 1 hr layover in Munich and Officer nicely explained me why I need short stay visa instead of VTA/ATV or transit visa. Flights from one schengen state to another schengen state is considered as local flights, they dont have any immigration check points and more funny thing is “Schengen airports / gates are considered as schengen territory not transit territory”, well that’s ridiculous. In short it stay if you have got “D” visa then you are stuck in that schengen state which issued that visa.

In real schengen agreement is not complete it lacks completeness. They cannot issue me transit visa because i’ll be entering again in Poland after one month via Munich and transit visa doesn’t have number of days. So, they said only solution is to give you Short stay tourist visa, well that’s even more ridiculous but it’d work in my case.

In 2002 EU Parliament approved a proposal to provide some solution to this kind of problem by issuing “D+C” visa. D+C visa provides all features of national visa plus it include 90 days stay in other schengen state from the date of first entry in schengen zone. Practically it doesn’t work, because national legislation takes lot of time in some countries it even exceeds 6 month and in other cases embassies even dont issue D+C visa either they dont know what the hell it is or they just dont want to issue them or they are lazy to follow schengen visa procedure and add information to SIS.

Recently, A new proposal has been made to EU Parliament regarding providing completence to free movement regarding non-EU citizens. Proposal says “Long term D visa would have same effect as residence permits, so a non-EU citizen would be entitled 90 days visa free entry in schengen states in half year without visa, just like residence permit” and “Consulates should propagate D visa information in SIS(schengen informaion system”. It makes sense, both proposal aims to provide free movement without compromising on security issues and incase if any state need to issue visa to someone on personal interest then they can use “VTL” limited territory schengen visa.

Around 3 years ago, a delegation of junior high school students from India got invitation from France to visit and learn french in France. This delegation booked flight via Delhi-Munich-Frankfurt-Paris instead of staright Delhi-France. They went to french embassy and they got “D” visa for35 days with a stamp that they cannot apply for residence permit on this visa. And like other people they have that misconception that they can travel to whole europe on that visa which said “France” instead “Schengen States”. They reached Munich and immigration officer  enquired that where you are heading they said france. But its from Frankfurt and how you gonna take Munich-Frankfurt flight he replied. School teacher was completely blank, German Immigration officer asked them to return back from next earliest flight to Delhi. But its completely unfair, we dont know whats going on behind curtains, we are just going for an educational trip, yellow-pale school teacher replied. German immigration officer couldn’t understand why french embassy issued a D visa for short stay and agreed to talk to higher officer. After a long talk they have been issued a transit visa so that they can take this flight from Frankfurt, its really rare if doesnt happens oftenly, but thanks to Germany authorities who understand that Indian doesn’t have pocket full of euros they earns hardly 200 euro a month in home country. After arrival in France, instead correcting visa french authorities acted like a stubborn child and said “Indian embassy in France is doing similar things, they are not issuing work permits and visa as fast as they should” huh! its really childish. French doen’t understand that India has huge population and selling county again is not in our agenda. We don’t want hypermarkets like Carrfour in India taking all money to France, its  like socialism in past when English people dominated India for around 250 years. So, India is very careful regarding foreign investments etc.

So back to the story, I need schegen visa for just 1 hour layover in Munich. I went to Germany consulate in Warsaw, a nice lady gave me all requirement list, I needed a schengen health insurance, bank balance, 60 euro fee etc all requirements which are necessary for schengen visa. Next day I went with all those papers and met with two Chinese workers in Poland who had similar situation but the only difference was my flight is after one week and their was scheduled at 10:35 same morning. Good news they got visa on 9:10 but I am still skeptic about if they could catch that flight since airport is very far. At 9:40 I got my transit so called “tourist visum”. It was really quick. I must say German are really processing visa application faster and better. I called that visa “A visa to your own home”.

http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CELEX:52009PC0091:EN:HTML

http://www.hindu.com/2006/03/17/stories/2006031703041200.htm

Beautiful Triangle – Budapest – Kosice – Smizany – Poprad

In summer, We were planning to go home, but due to some hitches I scrapped it. We had to travel somewhere so I decided to visit Hungary and Slovakia. We made a quick plan and left Berlin with my fiance. As expected it was comfortable air route to Budapest from Berlin.

We landed in Budapest; It was too hot to tolerate in September you wouldn’t expect hot summer pondering into your body. Another thing was language difference, though I found people in Budapest have decent knowledge of English. So, we left airport on Bus to nearest metro station and  single journey ticket cost 270 Forint. After that we decided to buy all day ticket(its quite hard to buy it on airport itself, we tried but couldn’t). It cost us 1500 Forint. We already had reservation in an apartment house, “Astoria Apartment home” and we were on a way to find it. We arrived at Astoria Metro Station and start searching “Building 8″; It was quite hard to find, because they have a bit odd old fashion numbering, which means all even buildings are on right and odd are on left. After some calls we finally reached there.

Marton, the owner/manager of “Astoria Home” Young 24 year old chap, gave a brief into of the city and what we could see in one day. We left home to some food; unfortunately we ended up with a restaurant in “Vaci Ut” which is one of the most expensive street in Hungary. We had royal 6000 Forint Dinner which doesn’t worth that money and even included 600 forint as tip and snobby staff. After an expensive dinner we go budget for next few hours, we went to Keleti and bought our tickets to Kosice(SK) which cost us around 5000 Forint with reservation for 3.5 Hrs train journey. We came back home, bought some cheese, bread and Goose spread for rest of the night and visited Elizabeth Bridge and near by. It was quite tiring day and tomorrow we were planning to go to Smizany in between Kosice and Poprad. We slept early for journey ahead.

It was beautiful hot morning, we left early to Keleti. Train was on time and waiting on platform. We get into it and next 3 hrs I was looking outside train, muzzling why they have steel like water storage tank and looking beautiful chuch and terrain. We arrived Koscie on time and next train to Spisska Nova Ves was in another 5 mins, we rushed to ticket counter and bought ticket very quickly and then sit in some train which we weren’t sure that going to Spisska Nova Ves. My Fiance speaks Polish so she was familer with Slovkian, its quite similar. In train, there was one man and one young couple, while they were looking at us, we’re wondering weather we were in night train or not. We’re sitting in A/C box, which I thought that’s a mistake in 270 SKK. We reached Spisska Nova Ves, it looks like a calm city nothing much on roads a bit like country side, old railway station, nice bus stand, very helpful people. Next bus was in another 1 hour so we decided to take taxi in 100 SKK. It was “Maria Pension House” where we were supposed to stay. Owner of that Pension house is a lady “Maria” with his husband “Peter” and their daughter “Julie”, nice family. We had long talk regarding Trip which also include “what the hell i am doing in slovakia” and “why i am studying in Poland” and some personal questions that “where we gonna live after wedding etc”. I was the first Indian which probably stayed there, closest was one from Sri Lanka stayed there in 1995. Our room was prepared and I just couldn’t wait for a quick nap on fluffy bed, though I was quite hungry. Ania suggested me to go and eat something, in hunt on some Slovakia food, we ended up with a nice Slovakia Restaurant, where either boys or old men where digging beer and vodka. Lately some ladies and families joined it. We ordered “Pierogi” which is also an Polish traditional dish, as we couldn’t figure out what to eat and we were too hungry to think. It was end of day two, we walked around, looked at some apple tree in sun and then returned to base.

(To be continued …)

Budapest and then Slovakia

Tomorrow I am leaving to Budapest and then Slovakia. Its more cultural and leisure trip. Will write more from there.