Tech For Seva - My Experience

Recently I volunteered for Tech for Seva conference. I would like to share my experinces through this blog.

Tech for Seva is the initiative to bring Volunteer Organizations (VO/NGOs), CSR (Corporates) and Scientific/Technical Community on one platform.This conference was held on Sept 28th and 29th 2013. This conference was inaugurated by Dr. Anil Kakodkar and we had the privilege to hear from highly acclaimed speakers during this conference.

Following were the themes of the conference.

1. Livelihood

2. Health

3. Environment

4. Education

There were nearly 100 speakers for different themes as noted above.As I was part of the Livelihood theme I could not attend presntations in other themes. I would like to give more details about the livelihood theme below.

Livelihood covered following themes

1. Agricultural mechanization

2. Non Timber Forest Products (NTFP)

3. Seed conservation

1. Agricultural Mechanization:- Some of the topics covered under this theme are women drudgery,mechanization of different day to day work of farmers,safety equipments for farmers etc.The audience could see from the presentations there is lot of research being done to reduce women drudgery, increase productivity of farmers, safety of farming, improve health etc. Some of the session were supported by pictures and videos. The speakers in this theme were from various background from research organization/researchers to actual innovators for mechanization. It was really sad to see the drudgery and hardship of women who work on farms along with living conditions.At the same time it is great to see dedicated organizations/researchers working on reducing the drudgery by coming up with safety equipements (coats, glouses,equipements). Some of the equipements which were showcaused would help women to improve the posture, reduce hardship, help improve health conditions etc. Some of the speakers I would call them real engineers/innovators as they have developed mechanized equipement to reduce hardship and improve productivity.

2. Non Timber Forest Products (NTFP):- This theme covered various topics from necessacity of NTFP for increasing the income,health etc of tribal area population to different means of increasing the productivity of NTFP. In this theme one could learn the potential of different NTFP like leaves,medicinal plants,oilseeds,bamboo,honey,silk etc for increasing the income for better livelihood. This session also covered the next steps like industry investment,training,etc which could be taken up for improvement of tribal areas. The tribal communinity in many parts of India is dependent on NTFP and there is immediate need to provide good support to this community so that the income of the population can be increased.

3. Seeds :- This theme covered topics like seed conservation, local seeds, commercial seeds,seed banks etc. The speakers in this theme presented the necessity of conservation of local seeds, importance of seed banks, Ex-situ, in-situ etc. There were speakers who actually are conserving 50 to 200 different seeds. They provided good insight into how the conservation can be improved through seed banks, community initiative, Govt intervention. This theme also covered topics by farmers who have developed different seeds. We were fortunate to see Red ladyfinger as one of the products developed by a farmer.

Since I grew up in urban area and never had a chance to closely look into the farming side, the above topics really enlighetened me with different prospects of life and I remembered former prime minister Shri.Lal Bahadur Shastri slogan "Jai Jawan Jai Kisan". It is the army which protects us from the enemy and it is the farmers who protect us within our country with good vegetables,grains,etc. The daily food we take is all coming from farmers. We should be thankful to the farmer community for the food we eat everyday.

I think there is lot of potential in betterment of life of farmers through some of the initiative recommended during the coference. Some of them are list below for readers reference.

1. Using mechanized equipments/tools to reduce hardship and improve productivity

2. Improving the health of farmers by providing safety equipements

3. Improving the NTFP through industry investments,export tie-ups,training programs etc

4. Improving the seed conservation through seed banks, community initiatives, Govt inetrvention, Industry investment.

Youtube video links are provided below....

Day 1 sessions

Day 1 Session 1

Day 1 Session 2

Day 2 Session

Day 2 Session 1

ICICI Bank –Customer Service at its Worst

Recently I experienced one of the worst customer services with ICICI bank. I wanted to install iMobile application on my mobile to make my life simpler. But with the customer service of ICICI it has become a huge task.

I downloaded and installed iMobile application on my mobile. For making it work we need to request for activation code by sending a SMS as given below

“imobile iphone” to 5676766 . This SMS costs Rs 3/SMS.

I sent a SMS as directed. I received an error message “Requested Information could not be retrieved. Please try later”. As the message was not giving me exact issue I sent many messages without knowing it costs Rs 3 per SMS

Finally I called up the 24 hours customer service numbers as given below.
Pune: 9890478000 / 9021667777
I called up 9021667777 first and after authentication I was directed to a customer service agent. Agent was not able to hear anything from my side. This happened for 4-5 times. Every time I had to hang up and call back. Then I tried 9890478000. The authentication did not work for 2-3 times due to system not available. After few tries I was finally able to connect to Customer Service Agent. The agent then directed me to the imobile agent. The lady on the call asked me few questions which I was able to address. She asked me to send SMS to 56767661 instead of the number provided on the application. She informed me that the message costs Rs 3 per SMS. I’d already sent more than 50 SMSs without knowing there is cost associated with it. They should mention this in the application so that user can restrict themselves from sending multiple messages for unknown errors. The lady then tried few things at her end but there was no fruitful outcome. She said customer service agent will connect you to resolve the problem and hung up.

After few days I received the call from ICICI bank asking me if my problem is resolved. I said it is not yet resolved. So the agent asked me to provide local landline number so that he call up on that number. I realized that as he’s calling on mobile, the cost would go up if he’s calling from landline number. So he was saving cost for ICICI. But for customers ICICI has mobile number which actually costs more when calling from landline number. I’m not sure why they do not create a toll free number. I told him I’ve sent enough SMSs already and I’m not going to send any more SMSs. He was not sure what was the problem and informed me he would call back after 30 minutes to give the activation code. I’m still waiting for that call from the agent.

Major issues I see with the process

1. Mobile numbers being used instead of toll free numbers for customer care. It is the cost to the customers.
2. Sending SMS costs Rs 3 per SMS. This information should be provided in the application
3. The error messages do not provide any clarification on the issue. Customers keep on sending messages.
4. What is the reason for activation process? I use HDFC bank application through Wifi without any issues. The process to install and get it working was very simple with HDFC.

My IT Refund

I wanted to share the information I found while working on my IT return refund.

I filed online IT return on 22/7/2012 for the year 2011-2012. I sent the ITR V form through Indian postal service.

After waiting for some days I got to know that my IT return is transferred to local office in Pune as they needed few clarifications. And my journey to find new things started with goal to get the refund.

First of all I’d to find the ward office belonging to my PAN

https://incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in/e-Filing/Services/KnowYourPanLink.html

Jurisdiction column gives you the WARD number.

I visited the WARD office 7(4) after finding the location of the office using the link below.

http://www.incometaxindia.gov.in/ao/loc_state.asp

I saw multiple locations and I called the numbers provided to find WARD 7(4) location. Luckily my ward office was very near to my location.

My First Visit

Documents carried

1.       ITR V form

2.       Form 16

I reached office by 10.00 am and found that the officers come in at 11.30 am. J

I enquired about the refund. The person at the desk was able to find the details using my PAN. He found that there is demand of 35K + from me to IT dept. As per my ITR V, I was supposed to receive refund of 10K +. So the IT dept person informed me to submit a rectification request. I wrote and submitted the rectification application along with Form 16 and ITR V form. When you submit a letter to IT dept they provide acknowledgement on the Xerox of the application. Please keep the acknowledgement for further communication with IT Dept.

My Second Visit

I visited the IT office to check the status of my refund. This time I reached office at 11.30 am and still the responsible person was not in the office. J I waited till 12.15 pm and the lady informed me that my company has not posted the TDS and I need to enquire within my company.

I contacted the payroll dept in my company and enquired about the TDS. The payroll person informed me to pull the Form 26AS as it has all the information of the TDS posted to IT department.

Form 26AS

This form can be available at three places.

1.       https://www.tdscpc.gov.in/ : This is the best place to pull the Form 26AS   

2.       Internet banking – view Tax Credit link from your Internet banking.

3.       https://incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in/ : once you logon you have link to view Form 26AS

Registering to https://www.tdscpc.gov.in/ : You have to fill in the following details to register for this site as the tax payer.

                PAN Number, date of birth,Last name

There are 2 options to validate the details. Option 1 is to be used. Please refer your Form 16 for the details on this section.

TAN number of the deductor : Refer to Form 16 for this number

Type of deduction: TDS Salary option has to be selected if your salaried employee

Month and Year: The details are to be filled using Annexure B (details of TDS and deposited  with central government account through challan) . Select any one line item to fill the details. For selecting the month please select End of Quarter. If the amount is posted for October select September as the month.

TDS/TCS Amount: The details are to be filled using Annexure B (details of TDS and deposited  with central government account through challan). Select same line item as above to fill the details.

Registration process is very simple once you are done with step 1.

If you run into any issues please call toll free 1800 103 0344.

Once you registered, you will receive an email and also a SMS. There are 2 activation codes (Email and SMS) which need to be used for activation.

You can download the form once you have activated your account.

My Third and Final Visit

Document carried

1.       Form 26AS

I visited the office and reached at around 12.15 pm but still the responsible person was not at office. J. Once the lady was in the office she informed me that I’d to visit NSDL to get the TDS posted to my account. I got the NSDL office address from the lady and visited the office. They informed that the NSDL is no more responsible for TDS postings and it is been transferred to TDSCPC (TRACES). The toll free number is provided above.

I called up TDSCPC and they informed me to contact Central CPC Bangalore. I contacted the Bangalore office and they informed me to connect with local office. I was back to square one.

I visited the local IT Office and informed the lady at the desk that I’ve the 26AS and it should be the proof that the TDS is posted to Govt account. The lady talked to her manager and he informed to rectify the account if 26AS is available. The lady rectified the account and input my bank details for refund and informed me that the refund should be available in 8-10 working days.

At the end all is well that ends well.

Nikon Raw Images - Post Processing

I've been using Nikon D5000 for some time but never got chance to do some research on post processing of RAW images (.NEF files). Recently I did some research and here's my finding, if it could help anyone interested to do some post processing for free. I works great...

OS requirement
1) Windows XP SP3 (I haven't tried this on any other)

Software

1) GIMP 2.8
2) UFRaw 0.18

You can find the GIMP software available at the link below for installation.This is a free software which is more like Adobe Photoshop. GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program)

http://www.gimp.org/downloads/

Once this was installed I was able process .JPG images. But then I've been saving RAW format for some time without knowing I can process them in future. I found the solution, to use UFRaw to process RAW files  (.NEF).

UFRaw(Unidentified Flying Raw)  is free software available through sourceforge.net at the link below

http://ufraw.sourceforge.net/Install.html#MS

Installed the UFRaw but it was not working and searched the net for solution. I found the solution below.UFRaw supports wide range of raw images taken from different cameras.

http://registry.gimp.org/node/26260

Refer to 7th July 2012 post by jgauthier52 for solution on the above link.

After following the steps provided as per above post I could get UFRaw working.

I'm new to post processing and need to do more study before I post more detailed findings.

For now I hope this should help someone to start without any investment for software.

Happy post processing.

240V to 120V Conversion - Simple steps

As more and more people work overseas (outside India) especially USA, there is lot of demand for importing electronic goods(TV,Gaming Console, etc) from USA.There are few questions when we plan to import goods from USA as given below.
1) What is the voltage supported in India?
2) Is there a necessity to buy transformer from USA for voltage conversion?
3) Do I need to buy the video format converter( NTSC to PAL etc)?

This blog may be helpful for people looking for connecting the 120V products with 240 V supply in India and answers to some of the questions raised above.

Items available
1) Onkyo home theatre system with Receiver
2) Sony TV (LED HDTV)
3) Sony DVD player
4) WII Gaming Console
5) DISH TV HDTV connection

Items Required
1) 240V to 120V Transforemers   2 Nos (350W and 500W)
2) Extension cable with multiple switches 2 Nos
3) HDMI Cable 2 Nos
4) RGB Cable 2 Nos
5) Cables for connecting speakers( provided by Onkyo). You may need to have your own cables if the room is big.

The circuit diagram is given below

  

Special Tips
1) There is no need to bring the transformers from USA
2) Video format (PAL,NTSC etc). Dish TV in India provides the set top box which can be used for any format. No need to buy a converter. One disadvantage is you have to stick to Dish TV service.
3) Read through all the manuals before you start with the setup.
4) Transformers are available in Pune with Kings Electronics. Address provided below.
461, Near Pasodya Vithoba Temple, Budhwar Peth, Pune - 411002
 +(91)-9922018989 | 24455199 | 66029545 +(91)-(20)-24455199