Since #NeetPaperLeak has shaken the country and its masterminds are getting nabbed by CBI, let us delve into the reality of Educational Crony Capitalism cutely described as #EdTech

I hail from the town Latur, very famous for being a “factory” of Engineering and Medical entrants, often described as “Mini Kota.” When it all began in the 1990s as an experiment to bring better results by Rajarshi Shahu College (11th and 12th), the “Latur Pattern” flourished, as dedicated, focused and strategic study methods helped many students crack the Medical and Engineering entrance exams. Milking on the waves of students wanting to enter the Shahu College, followed by Dayanand College, coaching classes flourished as well.

One of the main accused, Mr Shivraj Motegaonkar is the most famous name for Chemistry. Back in my days, there were more names as well, like Dhote-Shirsath, Reddy Ma’am, PV Physics classes etc. Somehow Motegaonkar risen above all in the last decade and he aptly used the technological upgrade, established his brand name across Maharashtra, so much that the Pune’s city buses started flexing his name instead of Pune’s grand maesters of MPSC. That’s how grately he captured the market. Reportedly, his annual turnover is over 100 crores and has very close ties with local leaders.

There remains a thin line between an educator and a businessman and almost every famous tutor in India crosses this line. Motegaonkar did nothing different, just a bit more nasty. He had a crazy possessiveness for getting as many national rankers as possible so that his students keep increasing, and his profits skyrocket. It is this hunger that might have compelled him to engage in this paper leak scam. He’s anyways a member of big national syndicate so it is amateur to put it all on him, but it is likes of these people why students’ dreams shatter.

To be fair, Motegaonkar is widely regarded as an effective teacher and many students genuinely benefited from his coaching. That is precisely what makes the allegations more disturbing. Trust is highest in education, and betrayal there cuts deepest.

EdTech was meant to simplify learning, improve accessibility, and make quality education affordable. Khan Sir from Patna, at least so far, exemplifies how scale and affordability can coexist in a win-win model. Motegaonkar, too, possessed the influence and capacity to build something transformative, universities, affordable institutions, or a broader educational ecosystem. Instead, what was once a cluster of pulse mills in Latur is today widely known as “Tuition Area,” a significant portion of which is reportedly owned by him.

Crony Capitalism is exactly this, progressing business at the cost of the very purpose why it was started. Be it Latur, Kota, Pune, Mukharjee Nagar (Delhi), Hyderabad…..these educational capitalists are worsening things for nothing. The order needs restoration, hopefully now it happens!

The post NEET Paper Leak Saga – Educational Crony Capitalism appeared first on Words Of DPM.

Introduction

The recent GST Council Meeting held at Jaisalmer on 21st December 2024 concluded with some decisions that left the taxpayers confused. One of the key decisions was the levy of GST on caramelised popcorn at 18%. Apart from clarifying what the exact rate structure of popcorn is, this blog will also delve deep into the bureaucratic approach that is being implemented in the GST-related decisions, which is apparently quite contrary to ‘Good and Simple Tax’ and the ‘anti red-tapism’ flags hoisted by the current government.

Rate of GST on Popcorn

Any kind of Popcorn when sold loose – 5%

Salty or any flavoured popcorn except caramel when sold in a packaged form – 12%

Caramelised popcorn when sold in a packaged form – 18%.

It is not that these rates affect the consumption in general. Popcorn is a snack and not a necessity thay prices of which impact general livelihood of people. It is the complexity of rate structure which is being criticised and rightly so, it needs to be.

For some reason, packaged ready-to-eat namkeens are taxed at 12% (saving grace, as they were taxed at 18% until the rate was reduced in 54th GST Council Meeting). Now the thing is, if you sell any savoury item which is salted and has some other spices & flavours in loose form, it attracts 5% GST. So what difference does the branding and packaging make? It is the HSN (Harmonised System of Nomenclature) codes according to which the items are divided into various chapters and headings and specific rates are assigned to them accordingly. HSN codes comply with the international nomenclature system.

Since packaged popcorn is also namkeen, it is taxed under the same heading as other packaged/branded savoury items at 12%.

Caramel popcorn on the other hand, are now taxed at 18% because it has “added sugar”, and foods items with added sugar are taxed at 18%. 

Purpose and the Perspectives

What can be the purpose behind taxing sugary products higher than salty products? Is that to encourage people to eat less sugar as India is already a diabetes capital? But how has taxing sugary products high changed the scenario so far? Diabetes cases are on the rise and is now found amongst youngsters as well. Taxing sugary products higher is definitely not an answer to curb people’s tendency to consume more sugar.

What causes more frustration is honourable Finance Minister’s way of looking at these issues. As if the GST Council which consists of all the state finance ministers with the Union Finance Minister as its head wasn’t enough, smaller issues are handed over to Group of Ministers (GoM). These Group of Ministers hold meetings prior to GST council meeting. Now understand how it goes. There’s an issue on the table regarding revision of GST rate or exemption of a particular item. A GoM consisting of state finance ministers is formed to decide on the same. GoM schedules meetings and discusses the same. ‘GoM fails to form consensus’ has been the common outcome of most of these meetings during the second half of 2024. Since GoM doesn’t decide, it cannot submit its report to council. Without GoM, council cannot recommend and without Council’s recommendation, the Union Government cannot roll out the changes or amend the law accordingly. Crucial matters which affect the industry, taxpayers, common citizens, the poor and middle class, ease of doing business, ultimately the economy in general are stuck in this vicious bureaucratic circle. A system which may look comprehensive and democratic prima facie, has all the characters of bureaucracy. A funny scene from the web series Panchayat is very much relatable here.

The frequent meetings of the GoMs and their demand for more time to study on crucial aspects which are already affecting the economy adversely and need to be decided upon, is causing more damage than it is actually helping. Three GST Council Meetings are over, the budget of 2024 came by, the 2025-26 budget is around the corner but the exemption of GST on insurance premia remains unresolved. What did the honourable Finance Minister say in the press briefing after 55th GST Council Meeting regarding this? Some key words were ‘procedure’, ‘multiple aspects’, ‘more time is required’. A bureaucrat turned Finance Minister may have a smooth hand for policy execution and yes, India’s macro economy is doing exceptionally well under her tenure but it is this structural havoc which is making taxpayers lives a living hell. As much stereotypical it may sound but the truth is that the minister who’s not chosen in an election is less likely to be people-centric and might care more about ‘following the procedures’ than actually making things work. The way our Prime Minister Modi ji thinks out of the box and doesn’t really care about rules and procedures if the action has better and positive impact, this aspect is clearly missing in FM Sitharaman. She is indeed an intelligent woman and a very experienced one as well, but she needs to throw the bureaucratic luggage and be more people-centric. Perhaps then we might get to see her not caring about procedures and taking decisions lightning-fast.

But it’s  not always Sitharaman. GST Council takes any decision with a consensus from finance ministers of all the states and if the states are not agreeing on something, how can the issue be resolved. This is exactly where a ‘leader’ is required, to form a consensus. State finance ministers can be from opposition parties as well. It is a democratic art to convince the opposition and Modi, Shah Gadkari are the subject matter experts in this thing.

The Litigation Cycle and GST Officers’ Questionable Expertise

There is one more aspect because of which the GST is struggling to be a Good and Simple Tax’ and it is litigation. Small traders get notices. Most of them lack the knowledge about GST portal and have outsourced their GST  compliance to CAs and other tax practitioners. If such professionals, out of their inherent limitation, ignore the notices received by clients and forget to inform the client about it, the taxpayers fail to respond to such notice and an order is arbitrarily passed without hearing the taxpayer out. High Courts of almost all states have tired of remanding such matters to adjudicate and appellate authorities for hearing the petitioner. Many times, the authorities pass an erroneous order by applying the wrong provisions of GST law or by not considering taxpayers response. Even the appellate authorities tend to uphold such erroneous orders. High Courts then interpret the law and pass a judgment. This litigation havoc is being caused by the flawed bureaucracy. Let us take a look at how these GST officers are selected.

1. Group A officers are selected through UPSC

2. Group B and C officers are selected through SSC

3. There is no compulsion to have a bachelor’s degree in commerce with taxation as a speciality to be a GST Officer of any rank.

4. The training is provided on the job.

And this, my friends, is the biggest mistake. The authorities in charge of literally shutting down the businesses of taxpayers may or may not have extensive knowledge of the GST law. How and why is it more important to test a would-be GST officer’s history and civics knowledge than to actually recruit an experienced candidate? Why is there no bar of commerce graduation for anyone to be a GST Officer and why are the candidates from other streams even allowed to appear for exams? First of all, why is there not a separate exam altogether with specific qualification and other pre requisites, designed specifically to recruit experienced, well versed and most importantly, legally literate candidates? When are we going to fix literally basic issues which hinder the execution of law in India?

It is not like that people aren’t at fault or that the government gets all the blame. Multiple crores of GST frauds are also being unearthed and DGGI is doing a wonderful job in that regard. But there are some issues hurting the taxpayers and eventually the economy. We need to fix them foremost.

Some Possible Solutions

1. Separate recruitment for taxation authorities with commerce graduation as a necessary criteria, disallowing any other stream.
2. CA, CS and CMAs should be given preference. The dropouts of such professional degrees having Articleship/Internship experience must also be given higher preference
3. The head of GST Council should be some with great leadership qualities. Forming a consensus is a skill required foremost for this post. Nirmala Sitharaman may continue to be the Finance Minister but GST Council should be headed by someone else.
4. Substance should be given to impact rather than procedures.
5. If GST Council fails to form a consensus on any issue for three meetings in a row, the matter should be handed over to the parliament.
6. The members of GST Council should be called out and penalised internally for non cooperation on crucial issues.

There can be more and better solutions, but if only we try to pop the bureaucratic corn, we’ll get to see a really Good and Simple Tax in execution.

Warm Regards,

Dnyanesh Make The DPM

The post GST – Pop the Bureaucratic Corn! appeared first on Words Of DPM.

Being a member of the Institute, I can assert that the future necessitates a paradigm change in how the Accounting Profession is perceived; it urges a shift in mindset to look beyond traditional number crunching and harnessing of members’ incalculable magnitude of capacities toward emphasizing the Accountancy Profession’s growth prospects by capitalizing on the abundant opportunities for advancement that the economy currently provides.

Scope for a Chartered Accountant – Different Roles, Different Names:

The scope of a Chartered Accountant’s work has grown so broad and includes so many activities that a CA is sometimes perceived as an enigma. A CA can begin his or her career with a single area with specialization or can provide all services under one roof. Depending upon the area of interests i.e. whether to work in Industry or in a Firm, following options can be intricated.

Top Verticals

• Banks (Both private and public) (as Analysts, Associates, Officers, Mangers, President, Directors, etc.)
• Domestic and foreign Public Limited Companies and Private Companies (In Accounting and Finance Departments) (as In-charge/ Head of Department, etc)
• Auditing Firms (such as Big 4s, Partnership Firms) (As Auditor, Analyst, etc)
• Finance Companies, Mutual Funds, Portfolio Management Companies, Investment Houses, Stock Broking Firms (Throughout all the functions)
• Legal firms, Legal houses, Patent Firms, attorneys, Trade Mark and Copyright Registers (As authorised representatives for tax payers, Arbitrator, Registrar, Signing Authority)
• Private Practice- Own office where you can work in all the areas you want to. (Direct tax, Indirect Taxes, Investment consultant, Project Financing, Auditor, etc.)

Prospects Abroad: 

Institute of Chartered Accountants of India is well recognized by Institute of England, Wales and Australia. There is also a good opportunity in abroad for the aspirants, whereas the Institute of Chartered Accountant of India has tied-up with its Canadian, Singapore and Irish counterparts to permit the Indian professionals to work on various assignments in these nations.

Want to be part of this overwhelming journey and join one of the top professions in the world?

Let’s check out the eligibility criteria:

It is widely assumed that only students of commerce should enrol in a CA programme. However, CA being a very practical course, students from both science and arts backgrounds can benefit and have a successful career. Students in the sciences and arts must put in extra effort to understand some complex accounting nuances and to gain a basic understanding of finance. But it can be easily concluded that anyone can be successful CA, if they are ready to toil.

If you have interest in Mathematics, Finance, Money management, forecasting, Accounting or Auditing – then this is your area. Anybody who is 10+2 passed can enroll after his 10+2 he can directly enroll for entrance exam or any graduate from any discipline can enroll directly in this curriculum.

You can follow our link below to get details about how to proceed for enrollment and various stages of CA curriculum along with other requirements:

https://resource.cdn.icai.org/19323ca_atcourse260510.pdf

45785bos35964.pdf (icai.org)

Revamps Needed:

Reforms are a never-ending topic of debate. The world is changing, and the rate of change is increasing by the day. When I bought educational DVDs for the 8th Standard syllabus 11 years ago, I never imagined there would be Unacademy, Udemy, BYJU’s, Vedantu, and so on. The modes of education are undergoing radical transformation. As a result, CA Course must also keep up. So what are the revamps that we could do? (PS: these are only suggestions)

• ICITSS and Advanced ICITSS trainings should be more professional, and their design should be revised to ensure that students’ technical and soft skills are properly levelled. While students are trained on basic technical skills such as spreadsheets, cloud computing, and office automation at ICITSS level, next up levels (e.g. Advanced excel, tableau, etc) shall be targeted in Adv ICITSS.
• Examining patterns can also be redesigned. Exams such as the CA Foundation and either group of the CA Intermediate should be held online at designated centres. This ensures that there is as little human intervention as possible in the assessment of students. The first two levels must be made more focused on practical assessment, almost all questions be case-study based in line with real time scenarios.

• Perhaps the most unmet need of almost all CA Aspirants undergoing articleship is an increase in the minimum stipend. It is estimated that 50-60% of all CA students are undergoing articleship in metro cities such as Pune, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Delhi (and all its satellite cities), Bengaluru, Chennai, Ahmadabad, and Kolkata. The average monthly living cost in almost every city is ₹ 8000-10000, and what do students get? A monthly stipend of ₹ 2500? Despite the fact that education is important, meeting basic living expenses is a compelling reason to revise the minimum stipend. In Tier I cities, the minimum stipend for the first year of articleship should, in my opinion, begin at ₹ 8000 per month and ₹ 5000 per month for Tier -II cities.

Stereotypes in CA and ways to break them:

The existing stereotypes in accounting profession have developed a relation with the national context that affects the students’ attitude towards the accounting profession. Here, Let’s discuss a few of them:

1. First and foremost, becoming a CA will allow you to earn a lot of money; money never comes sitting idle; it all depends on your hard work, the area of your work, and the type of organisation you work for. No one is giving you money just because you are a CA
2. CA Exam is a Hercules task. No, this is not true; nothing worthwhile comes easily, so you must work hard; however, it becomes difficult because people prefer to do things haphazardly. And, if you provide what the Institute seeks, you will hit the nail on the head!
3. All CA’s manipulate the financial data and earn money from wrong sources. This is a completely false assertion. A Chartered Accountant must work extremely hard to ensure that no room for error exists, that the statements are error-free, and that the true picture is depicted in the reports. If we eliminate a few, all CAs are ought to perform their duties with utmost responsibility, as there are stringent actions for any professional negligence.
4. There are Only Numbers to Deal. Numbers are important, but that does not mean that we only deal with numbers. Over the course of three years of articleship, CAs are trained to meet a broad skill set. Furthermore, we motivate, lead, work on existing projects for larger brands, and hone negotiation skills for multi-million-pound deals.
5. A CA has no scope other than Audit and Taxation. Going unconventional needs thinking out of the box. As mentioned earlier, Financial Modelling, Risk Management, Business Automation, Investment Advisory are just a few examples, CA profession is capable of providing skilled experts in many areas.
6. CAs lag behind MBAs in Communication: Perhaps the lamest stereotype that is still alive. From Dhivya Suryadevara, the current CFO of Stripe and former CFO of General Motors, from Rakesh Jhunjhunwala, India’s Warren Buffett, to ministers like Piyush Goyal and Suresh Prabhu, Chartered Accountants have been in almost all the sectors that need high level of communication skills.

To overcome old stereotypes, the Chartered Accountants of India have created a new brand. They have provided equal opportunities regardless of caste, creed, gender, geographical location, or even financial background. This title is open to anyone from anywhere in the world. So, if you want to start a career as a CA professional, go ahead and do it without hesitation.

Overall, our vibrant CA Profession is highly valued and respected. To maintain our prestige and financial edge, we must work hard together to adapt to the radical changes that the world is undergoing. As a Chartered Accountant, it gives me great honour to wish all the CAs and CA students a very happy Chartered Accountants Day!!!

Written with bucketful of wishes by

CA Apurva Porwal.

The post CA Day Special – The Aurora of Chartered Accountants appeared first on Words Of DPM.

There are close to 200 nations in the world and as much currencies. In the 20th century, the US Dollar risen above all of them to be the global currency. The world is coming even closer and for that, world is looking forward for a digital currency, or a number of digital currencies that can act as legal tender across the border without any hindrance. This need gave birth to the idea of Cryptocurrency.The world seems to be undergoing some really serious changes as we face the pandemic. Many things will surely change, many will be replaced. Cryptocurrency is one of the biggest changes out there, waiting for us to cope up with. Let’s get to know more about it.

How Cryptocurrencies Work?

Here are some technical details that may help you understand the back end of cryptocurrency.

The Blockchain Technology

It is a real-time, peer-to-peer distributed immutable database that provides security, immutability, and transparency. It is a decentralized distributed ledger that is completely open to anyone and is a continuously growing.
Decentralized ledger means a widely distributed server. In a distributed server there is no central server or system. Instead, they are widely distributed over millions of computers amongst the users themselves, connected by a network called Blockchain.

How Does Blockchain Work?

In every transaction of Blockchain “Consensus Protocol” or “Consensus Algorithm” is used which happens to be the backbone of Blockchain. This algorithm is simply a procedure through which all the blocks of Blockchain reach the common agreement of the present state.By this protocol, every new block that is added to the database is the one and only version, which is authenticated by all the blocks in the Blockchain.
Any unauthorized access to this network is controlled by the Public Key Cryptography infrastructure or PKI Technology in short. All in all, the mechanism and it’s security, both are decentralized. PKI Technology uses “Hashing Function” in the Blockchain Network to ensure security. Each block contains some data, its own unique hash and hash of the previous block. In simple words, hash means digital fingerprint, which looks like this.

Once the block is created, its hash is calculated. Changing a little data inside the block causes the complete change in the hash. Thus, any malicious activity can be easily detected.
Data stored inside the Blockchain depends on the type of application infrastructure and what type of Blockchain is used. For example, Bitcoin blockchain stores data of the transaction records, sender’s address, receiver’s address, amount in bitcoins and some other technical information.
This entire process effectively creates the “Chain of Blocks”

Take the above image for example. Here we have a chain of three blocks. Block no. 3 points Block no. 2 and Block no. 2 points Block no. 1. Now if someone has tempered with the second Block, this causes a change of hash of the Block. Thus previous hash stored by the Block no. 3 becomes invalid.

The distributed ledger calculates hundreds of thousands of hashes per second thus series of Blockchains are also calculated again and an invalid block is corrected and added on the real time. This method is known as the Proof-of-Work mechanism.

What is Bitcoin Mining?

Mining is an activity carried out by network participants, which involves Proof-of-Work and results in the new coins as rewards for miners who successfully carry out Proof-of-Work for each new block. Proof-of-Work requires a hefty number of calculations done by the computer aimed at solving cryptographic hash puzzles.
These are the same calculations explained earlier enabling the network to function and to continue exchanging transaction messages with other network participants through Blockchain. More number of miners joins the network, more difficult it is to mine a bitcoin.
But miners don’t just generate new Bitcoins, they also use their computers to verify transactions. On verifying transactions miners get a small amount of fee out of that transaction.

Some Highly Valued and Massively Transacted Cryptocurrencies

1) Bitcoin

Bitcoin is the first word which comes to our mind when we hear the word cryptocurrencies, and of course the most widely used cryptocurrency in the world. There are some interesting stories behind the birth of Bitcoin. Started off in 2009 by Satoshi Nakamoto, this pioneer of open source, peer to peer decentralized currency went on crossing all the upper limits and changed the scenarios and formulae of global investment and trading.
Bitcoin is limited. There are only 21 million or 21000000 Bitcoins, almost 90% of which have already being mined up. Though experts believe that the last Bitcoin will be mined up in the year 2140! However, Bitcoin will still be there for investment or trade even for smaller numbers. One Bitcoin consists of 1000000 bits and a Bitcoin can be divided up to 8 decimal places.
Bitcoin is perhaps the slowest amongst all the most widely used cryptocurrencies. It has a block creation time of 10 minutes.
Bitcoin is a fully open source currency. Anyone can review its code or develop it.
As of today, one bitcoin costs $ 55095 or ₹ 4105086.

2) Ethereum

Ethereum is the second most widely used cryptocurrency in the world followed by Bitcoin. Ether introduces 18 million new tokens every year, making it close to unlimited. It also claims to have ‘Programmable Blockchain’, thus claims to be better than Bitcoin. Ether gives two kinds of services based on security and privacy protocols viz. Mainnet Ether and Private Ether. While private Ether provides utmost privacy to one’s enterprise data, it is costlier compared to that of Mainnet Ether. The marginal cost is based mainly on the labour to set up and maintain the separate blockchain for privacy.
Ether also gives a variant of token in which there is a fixed value for every Ether Token you purchase. One can also convert their variable Ethers to Fixed ones in order to secure the investment. With a block creation time of 25 seconds, Ether is way faster than Bitcoin.
As of now, one Ethereum is $ 2123.07 or ₹ 158255.

3) Tether

Tether is perhaps the most controversial cryptocurrency out there. It has also been alleged that Tether is there just to fuel up Bitcoin. According to the New York Attorney General, Tether lied all the time that every Tether token is backed by a US Dollar. However, Tether happens to be the third most widely used cryptocurrency, all the same, may be because it is trustful since it is a stable currency, fixed at 1 Tether = 1 USD. Tether still claims to have backing of 74% Cash for all the Tokens mined.
It charges for every transaction above $100000. The fee for fiat deposit of every transaction above $ 100000 is 0.1% and the same for fiat withdrawal is higher of 0.1% or $ 1000.
Tether also issues tokens backed by Gold. Tether claims to have the equivalent amount of Gold in a safe vault at Switzerland.
As of now, one Tether Gold (XAUT) is worth $ 1804 or ₹ 134454. Tether (normal) is always fixed at $1.00.

4) Dogecoin

Invented by Billy Markus and Jackson Palmer for fun, over a famous meme of a Japanese dog of the breed Shiba Inu, the first token of Dogecoin was released on December 6th,2013. Dogecoin has unlimited supply of tokens. Though it was initially started with the intent of fun, Dogecoin has seriously jumped into the competition after Elon Musk openly presented his interest in the said cryptocurrency through a tweet dated April 1st, 2021. Since then, Dogecoin has jumped around 180% within less than a month. Block creation time being 1 minute, Dogecoin is quite faster.
Dogecoin gives two wallets. Multi Doge for light transactions and faster user experience, the other being Dogecoin core, for premium usage. As of now, one Dogecoin is worth $ 0.29 or around ₹ 22.

5) Litecoin

Litecoin is often regarded as a clone of Bitcoin. It is one of the oldest and thus widely used cryptocurrencies. It has a limited supply of 84 Million tokens. The block creation time of Litecoin is 2.5 minutes. As of now, one Litecoin is worth $ 265 or ₹ 19721

What is the legal status of Crypto Currency as of now?

In November 2017, a high-level Inter-Ministerial Committee was formed to study the issues surrounding virtual currencies and make recommendations for future actions. The Inter-Ministerial Committee has proposed a draft Bill that bans cryptocurrencies, criminalizes cryptocurrency-related activities in India, and regulates official digital currency.

In particular, the Bill prohibits the use of cryptocurrency for:

• Use as a medium of exchange, store of value or unit of account,
• Use as a payment system,
• Providing services such as registering, trading, selling, or clearing of cryptocurrency to individuals,
• Trading it with other currencies,
• Issuing financial products related to it,
• Using it as a basis of credit,
• Issuing it as a means of raising funds and,
• Issuing it as a means for investment.

The Bill provides for the following offences and penalties:

Any subsequent conviction for any offence under the Bill would be punishable by a fine and imprisonment for 5-10 years, according to the Bill. Besides, attempting to commit an offence will result in a penalty of 50% of the maximum term of imprisonment for the offence, or the applicable fine, or both. All offences punishable with a fine may be compounded. Offenses involving the use of cryptocurrency in the issuance of related financial products or the issuance of cryptocurrency as a means of raising funds or investment would be cognizable and non-bailable. All other offences would be bailable and non-cognizable.
The maximum fine imposed by the Bill is the greater of (a) three times the loss caused and (b) three times the person’s gain. If the person’s loss or gain cannot be determined, the maximum fine for acquiring, storing, or disposing of cryptocurrency will be one lakh rupees. For all other offences, the maximum fine will be up to Rs. 25 lakh. To give effect to the offences, the Bill amends the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002.

Disclosure requirements of cryptocurrency holdings by the Companies:

As a result of the Crypto Ban and high voluminous crypto transactions, In July 2019, Many Individuals who have invested in Cryptocurrencies, started getting notices of Summons u/s 131 of The Income Tax Act, 1961 from the Income Tax department of India. Indian crypto users have been asked to meet the officials in person within one week along with the list of documents and to produce evidence as required.
Last week, the Indian Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) issued a notification requiring companies to disclose crypto trading and investments made during the fiscal year. These disclosures will be required beginning on April 1, 2021-22, the start of India’s fiscal year.
Every company that “traded or invested in cryptocurrency or virtual currency during the fiscal year” is required to report “profit or loss on transactions involving cryptocurrency or virtual currency,” “amount of currency held as of the reporting date,” and “deposits or advances from any person for trading or investing in cryptocurrency or virtual currency.” Crypto companies in India shall welcome the new requirements by the government, believing that it legitimizes cryptocurrency transactions.

Can Cryptocurrency Replace Paper Currency?

Though there are many challenges in replacing cryptocurrencies with paper currency, Cryptocurrency does have the potential to satisfy the functions of money. Thus, some users expect them to replace paper currency in the long run, but various central banks and monetary authorities are against such replacement and they have enough reasons not to let crypto currencies become legal tender of exchange, the prominent being it’s decentralized nature, leading to lack of authority by a central body.

The skyrocketing surges in the values of prominent Cryptocurrencies during the pandemic has made people take interest in private digital money.
For now, Cryptocurrencies are nothing more of an emerging alternative option to the stock investments and a payment mechanism similar to UPI and Credit cards.

All in all, we cannot really expect Crypto to replace the paper currency, but the future is for sure unpredictable.

Warm Regards,
Team Words of DPM

Jointly written by
Atharva Chowkidar
Dnyanesh Make
CA Apurva Porwal
Vitthal Bang

References

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blockchain
• https://anders.com/blockchain/hash.html
• https://anders.com/blockchain/blockchain.html
• https://www.blockchain.com/
• https://bitcoin.org/en/
• https://ethereum.org/en/
• https://tether.to/
• https://dogecoin.com/
• https://litecoin.org/
• https://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/cryptocurrency.asp

The post Cryptocurrency – The Radical Change is Here appeared first on Words Of DPM.

The Covid-19 lockdown has gifted us with a plethora of creative ideas that have led to the creation of replacements for the majority of physical tasks that were previously only performed in person. One of the positive effects of the Covid-19 lockout was the delivery of packages to your doorstep, whether it was food, groceries, or shopping products. Previously, you had to go to the vendor to pick up your package, but now the bhajiwalas, from whom we used to buy vegetables, are taking orders through WhatsApp. They simply give us a list of the vegetables and fruits they will be selling tomorrow, along with their prices. Haven’t India changed? Have you ever imagined that one day, those merchants who have never used a cell phone for anything other than incoming and outgoing calls will be keeping inventory of their goods solely on a mobile phone? Grocery store owners who used to throw tantrums when it came to home deliveries have begun taking orders over the phone and providing customized home deliveries.

Online Grocery Shopping

Things have changed know? These new ways of conducting business, such as e-commerce, mobile apps, and real-time customer service through online portals, have narrowed the world for us. We’ve devised a method for visiting a physical market and purchasing groceries, vegetables, fruits, and other items through online shopping.

Yes, indeed! You have correctly got me! We’ve grown accustomed to receiving these services with ease, at the touch of a button. Humans have always desired to make their lives easier by inventions. And as his life becomes more comfortable, he seeks out new options and choices, and this hypothesis has given birth to a brand new market child, namely “KIRANA” (Online Grocery Market).

Consumer is the King

“The consumer is king,” as the saying goes, and these choices have proved it:

1. Choose the website from which you want to put an order: Amazon Pantry, BigBasket, Grofers, Nature’s Basket, Flipkart Grocery, Zopnow, Spencers, Easyday, Reliance Mart, Paytm Mall, Grocery, Patanjali, StarQuik.
2. Choose the place where you want your things shipped, such as a monthly shopping list for your friends and family.
3. Decide which vendor you want to buy groceries from.
4. Decide on the product name you want to use.
5. Choose discounts and package deals, as well as customization options based on the intent, location, and personal preferences.
6. Choose your preferred method of payment: debit cards, credit cards, your online wallet, net banking, or cash on delivery.
7. If the product does not suit you, decide whether to use it or return it.

Statistical gist of E-commerce Platforms

Amid the anxiety surrounding the possibility of a second lockdown due to a new strain of Covid-19 2.0, new retail entrants are looking for ways to launch an online grocery company that will provide customers with high-end grocery choices. Amazon was first, followed by Flipkart, and then Bigbasket.

Owing to their market penetration strategies, these behemoths didn’t face much competition at first, but when the Reliance Group (Reliance Mart) announced its agreement with the Future Group (Big Bazar), the market began to swing. Jio Mart’s entry has shaken the Indian e-commerce market to its heart. According to an IMARC estimate, the Indian online grocery market will be worth $3.02 billion in 2020. Who wouldn’t be enticed by such statistics?

What if you are a retailer or wholesaler rather than a customer? No worries…we have options for you as well!! The entry of Jio mart into online grocery Market tempted a slew of enthusiastic entrepreneurs to join in. These networks have modified their tactics to absorb cities in addition to grabbing more customers. Kirana King’s “Udaan” is the most recent example. Jio Mart and Udaan have used every market penetration strategy known to man, leaving no space for consumers to flee. Jio Mart also allows you to order KIRANA through WHATSAPP!! These startups have targeted not just the retail consumer market, but also the wholesale market. They’ve made deals with local grocery store owners in small towns and villages, and they’ve integrated them into the giant network of B2B (Business-to-Business) e-commerce platform. Consumers now just need to go to the respective Mart’s website and specify the spot where they want their groceries shipped. In order to provide more personalized services, a vendor selection option is also available, keeping the seller-buyer relationship in mind. You can now order groceries online from your favorite vendor and have them delivered to your home or office. What role did these policies play in the growth of these organizations? Let’s have a sneak peak:

Which is preferred?- Online or Offline grocery shopping

But have you wondered what next? In 2020, buying things from online sources was a need, people didn’t have option because they could not step out their houses. But now when the lockdown lifted up and we are free to wander everywhere, what has happened to us? I had conducted a survey in which I asked people, “Do you prefer to shop for groceries online OR in a store?” If we draw a conclusion from the first half of our article, the response would be choice 1, which is online grocery shopping… Just wait, there’s more!!! Don’t jump to conclusions right away; there’s a lot more to learn…

I polled over 200 people, and here is what I discovered..

Factors affecting online and offline shopping decision

What has led to such turnaround in entire scenario? Why do people want to go downstairs and walk and wait in line to pay and then buy a product instead of pressing buttons? Isn’t it tedious? No it is not! Why? Because we are so habituated to real time services that we cannot wait for 1-2 days to deliver a product. Grocery is a necessity. Furthermore, since there is no need to stockpile groceries due to the lockdown, people now choose to buy groceries in limited quantities as required. Delivery charges are one of the most significant costs associated with purchasing a single item for less than the specified order amount. Why would someone pay delivery charges that are higher than the cost of the actual product, particularly when he has to wait for the item to be shipped when he could just walk to a nearby store and get the item right away?

Another thing that was found was that online grocery platforms were mostly used in cases where people were placing large orders of various items. To escape shipping charges, e-commerce websites will direct your attention to their premium services; however, to become a premium customer, you must pay a premium fee, which a rare consumer cannot afford to pay for just a few orders. Despite the quality assurance of the goods offered on these online sites, some consumers have experienced quality problems, this brings disgrace towards the site through mouth publicity.

Even though we see the booming online grocers, there are budget, cost, patience and psychological factors that are ought to influence your decision. So, what are you waiting for? Be the KING and grab your KIRANA..!!

…and do comment where have you bought it from till then I will fetch a new story for you..

Written with Warm Regards by

–Apurva Porwal

Bibliography for financial data:

www.statista.com
www.craft.co
www.nasdaq.com
www.moneycontrol.com
www.inc42.com
www.financialexpress.com
www.pixabay.com

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A report of McKinsey Global Institute mentions, “We estimate that between 400 million and 800 million individuals could be displaced by automation and need to find new jobs by 2030 globally, based on our most rapid report of automation adoption scenarios.” The report also says that the demand for professionals (accounting & finance) in India will drastically come down to about 46% of the demand now.

Is Automating the Processes Really Important?

No, but we will surely end up paying the cost for not automating it, which maybe by losing our jobs, maybe losing certain work assignments. It is not like if we don’t automate, others too won’t. But it is like everyone will be bound to automate processes and tasks after a certain period of time. And let us all not forget that the pandemic of COVID-19 has taught us a lot in these terms that we all are now dependent on technology in all spheres of our life be it personal or professional meetings, work, collaboration, be it any task, activity or process, everything has now become online, on the cloud for us and gradually with the help of artificial intelligence (AI), our tasks and processes will be automated soon, too.
There are various AI frameworks and tools already in the market viz. AWS, AI-ONE, Deeplearning4j, Azure, PyTorch, UiPath, etc. These tools not only do help us with to automate our tasks, activities, and processes but also help us interact with our clients, business partners, customers, team members, and literally everyone using the chatbots and related tools.
Earlier the world was focused on humans to learn and to plan and then to execute the tasks given and now it is for the machines to go through the same. Machine learning is an AI application that supports the systems to automatically learn and improve from experience without being specifically programmed for it. Machine learning focuses on the access of data and using it to learn for themselves through the development of computer programs.
The concept of robots is not new as the first autonomous robots were created by William Grey Walter in the history of automation in 1948. These two ‘tortoises’ were: Elmer and Elsie. These robots found find their way around obstacles without human intervention by following the light and making use of a bump sensor. The success in the interaction of these light and touch inputs enabled robots to work, also helped us to understand our own nervous system better. Alan Turing in 1950 formulated and designed a way to measure the ‘intelligence’ of a machine, which tested the thinking ability of a machine. The above test is famously known as The Turing Test and is in use still today.

Business Process Automation or BPA

Business Process Automation or BPA (recently becoming known as robotic process automation or RPA) is becoming more refined, efficient, and turning out to be productive. Today, automation software has become a necessity rather than a luxury. Its widespread use is optimising employee time and work, and leading to enormous resource and time-saving. We experience AI & automation in our daily routine activities too, be it on Twitter, in emails, in our video games, and so on. We have AI assistants in our phones, in our cars, and in our homes. Siri doesn’t always give us the answer, Alexa occasionally makes mistakes in hearing us. Recently in 2016, we saw the failure that was of Microsoft’s Tay. But despite these shortfalls and failures, AI and automation are more versatile now than ever before. And they’re developing and improving by the day.

What is BPA?

BPA automates business processes – either simple tasks or multi-layered workflows and domains. You might have heard it called robotic process automation, which refers to the notion of “software bots” or implies AI input which in short catalyses the activities and processes. Either way, the automation of business processes typically involves an automation platform, design and flow, formulae and syntax, multiple system integrations, and a series of conditional processing rules (If this happens, then do that).

How Will BPA be of Use to Us at Business?

BPA is useful for activities and process, big and small. First, it can take monotonous, mundane, or repetitive tasks on hand and help us save our time there. But it’s also capable of handling complex tasks and orchestrating larger workflows (i.e., ones that involve a series of steps and actions across multiple applications) and don’t be surprised if it does it wonderfully. In fact, one of the best things about automation software is that it is so flexible and customisable and also can be programmed accordingly. BPA is not an out of the box solution at all. It’s more of a personalized platform that you control. You develop a structure and set rules for the software to follow, and you design workflows to cover the tasks you want to automate. Then, BPA does its work. This means that BPA can help you with any particular area or all areas of your business, from customer management to sales processes to IT workflows to accounting and bookkeeping and various other tasks and processes. It’s really up to us. So, automation will do whatever you need it to do so that you can save time and resources and use them to focus on the more challenging and higher value tasks.

RPA in Use

RPA is also said to as a system to manage data of transactions flowing from a myriad of systems and applications related to IT. At several large multinational companies, automation is fully in process, in the accounting and finance departments assisting accountants finance executives in the analysis of their company. Most of the automation in finance is deployed in cash applications and invoice creation for international orders to cash and in various other tasks too. Director of Finance, Bob Kurpershoek, at NBC Universal says: “The volume of our transactions is high, and the processes are quite standardized. Therefore the combination of these two makes the return on investment of putting a robot in place very positive.

When Will Accounting be Automated?

Accounting is being automated right now. Software like Accounting Seed, Automation Anywhere, Auto Entry, etc are leading the way in delivering accurate, streamlined financial management and access to real-time data to make better decisions faster. Does this eliminate the human factor? Will accountants be replaced by robots? Not at all. Automated accounting software simply helps businesses and financial professionals to get automated yet customized reports and being more productive in lesser time and then to save the time of the executives and human resources to do their job more efficiently.
We’ve come a long way and have had a lot of changes in the accounting and bookkeeping domain. The creation of the double-entry bookkeeping was probably the last innovation in accounting. That was over 500 years ago! Now is the age of automation, and, accounting is at the forefront. Accounting automation focuses on the lifecycle of entire accounting, not just one part of financial management but everything related to which means that the entire process of accounting, the capturing, manipulating, and interpreting of data (transactions), is done by software, with less dependence on manual transactional entries by people

How should we determine what type of automation is best for us?

There’s no right answer to this! Firstly, the companies range in size, in terms of both revenue and budget matters. This means that even a company with significant revenue might not have the budget or need for accounting automation. Secondly, companies span many different industries usually which means that accounting processes can be specialized based on the core operations of a business, and therefore require different capabilities.

The Way Forward & What Next?

The automation history, despite a few obstacles along its way, has seen a lot of success in a short period. It continues to grow and evolve even today, providing us with more creative and innovation-based solutions, interactive AI, and assists in unraveling the secrets of the universe. It’s impossible to know if the science fiction writers wrote right about a robot rebellion in the future and we will only come to know this in the near future and the years to come. What’s clear is that the future looks to be automated, gradually but fully. The current and future tech is really exciting, we should not forget the history of automation or the work that it has taken to get us where we are today which has really proved to be of very much use and productiveness to us.
Automation is on a rise in across all the industries and in all the parts of the world. We can see them in customer experience, product development, manufacturing and operations, and other processes and departments too. They’re on the job in legal and HR and now gradually into finance and accounts as well. In our motive of improving efficiency, being more productive without, and of course sacrificing quality, automation is a new suite of technology tools you can put to work. As organizations look to continue with their automation journey in the digital world (referring to the human-driven process vs RPA image above taken from a report of ACCA Global), here are some steps to consider as prescribed by ACCA Global in their report: Learn more; Build a list of opportunities; Identify pilot possibilities; Pilot projects; Scale that works. So, let us all Start now; Explore; Learn; Invest, have an automated environment in place, and Focus on our core tasks!

Thanking You,

CA Karan Chandwani

Chartered Accountant, Trainer and Mentor

Owner and Proprietor at Karan Chandwani & Co.

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What is Network Marketing and how does it work?

Started off in the early 20^th century, California Vitamin Company (Today’s Nutrilite) and California Perfume Company used such techniques in their marketing. The history is, to be precise, disputed in this regard. But if we go after the present-day structure of MLMs, it is quite obvious that this must belong to the era when there’s no other media to market but people and their ‘word of mouth’.

So basically in an MLM, there’s a chain of salespersons between the company and the consumers. All these people in chain do not get a single penny as a salary, they’re rather subject to binary commission. That means a salesperson or a distributor can add up to 2 or 3 sub-distributors down his line and he can charge a commission on all of their sales.

Checkout the following diagram:

Like a tree diagram, distributors can keep on adding the sub-distributors and they can also add some more sub-distributors to make it a larger a network, to reach more and more end consumers. Eventually, everyone will keep paying to their upstreams or upper line distributors and the upper line distributors will do the same with their upper line distributors. Company will earn huge profits and so will the distributors. A larger customer base and a motivated team of distributors or salespersons is one of the biggest advantages of MLM from the company’s point of view. From a distributor’s point of view, he’ll have to invest a lot of his efforts, time and skills in reaching more number of customers and adding new distributors to the chain. The results will compound the effect. Checkout the following video by the founder of Badabusiness.com and motivational speaker Dr. Vivek Bindra.

Network Marketing Companies in India and around the world

Some of the prominent global MLM Companies are Amway, Oriflamme, Herbalife, Forever Living etc. An MLM company may deal in any kind of product. Predominantly they deal in nutritional products, cosmetics, travel agencies and even stationeries. The famous network marketing companies in India are Ebiz, Naswiz, Herbalife, Amway etc.

The truth about Network Marketing

Now let’s come to the main subject. Though this marketing technique is as per what explained above, it does not go straight that way. Most of these companies are straightaway fraudsters. They do not have a good product. Forget about a good product, it is questionable if they really have a product, a production department, a factory or an outsourcing of production for that matter. The answer is a big no. They do not care for production. Their main aim is to loot poor teenagers’ money. They hire some so called motivational speakers who would go to the colleges, call for motivational sessions etc and these speakers brainwash the innocent college students and unemployed youth. They ask them to dream big. They insert funny and illogical measurements of achievement into these college going kids. For example, they’ll ask anyone of the attendees what is their favourite car. Obviously these college going kids will answer with Audi or Mercedes. They further ask what if you own it someday? Now here is the catch. This middle class teenager has never actually thought of owing a car of his dream anytime sooner. Now that he has been incepted with the idea of actually owing a car and getting rich, he falls for the trap. Now they ask to pay anything between ₹ 10000 to ₹ 15000. They say if you add two or three more people, you get your money with profit. More they add to the network, more profit they earn. Once they pay the amount, they only get back if they add two more people. Most of the times they don’t even get their money back at all. Now these victims realise that they have been defrauded, they try to mitigate their loss by adding more people to the chain. So what people they try to add? Their own friends, family members, cousins etc. All of them suffer major losses under these fraudulent schemes. Checkout this discussion by CA Neeraj Arora with Prakhar Gupta.

Why is Network Marketing dangerous?

This is indeed not a question after all the explanations given above, but we need to understand the patterns of these frauds. Many of these fraud companies don’t even offer a job, they just run away with the money. Some of them do offer a job but  they don’t get paid enough. They also do unpaid jobs just to recover the money they have invested initially. We know that terrorists are brainwashed in their camps before they’re sent to their missions. Same goes with Network Marketing, the only difference is you don’t kill anyone, you kill your precious time, money and friendships. In 2019, the CEO of Ebiz, Mr. Pawan Malhan has been arrested for a fraud of ₹ 5000 crores. That’s nowhere a small amount. Just imagine how much money has been defrauded by all such fraudulent companies over the period of time? Collectively it makes a huge difference. Let’s assume at least 10000 crores. Now imagine how much does it cost to build a new world class University or a Research Center in the country? That’d have helped our country get ahead in education and would have saved many people from being looted. That’s how these companies are making a negative impact on our economy and playing with the lives of our youth.

How to stop these fraud MLM companies?

The only cure for this, is to say No. They’ll ask you to decide in few minutes, say no. They’ll do everything in their capacity to persuade you, straightaway reject them. As well as, spread this message to all the college students, teenagers and unemployed people out there. Ask colleges and function halls not to allow the seminars of these companies and ask government to impose strict action against all of them.

Conclusion

Despite the fact that MLM is a legal way to increase business, the frequency of companies being fraudulent in it, is at least 90% and thus, in my opinion, MLM should altogether be banned in India. Such fraud companies should be heavily fined and their CEO’s and promoters should be severely punished after a thorough investigation.

Warm Regards,

Dnyanesh Make “the DPM”

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