Author: Dr. Prakash R. Kota

GST Portal Errors – Why is the Indian Government not Truthful?

I’ve wasted several man days trying to get the DSC (digital signature) working in the GST portal. A few months back I spent a lot of time getting it working on Windows 10, on which I had specifically installed Google Chrome for this purpose. With all the automatic updates and changes, we could not get the DSC working again, since last week. I’ve been tinkering for a few days and I realized that the problem is with the GST technical implementation.

The GST portal and department has not been truthful to the people of India. Just imagine, if we could have spent the wasted time with our families and loved ones, instead of fixing the DSC problem, which is not our own making.

Deceit #1
You have to look at the GST System Requirements to understand what the government wants from you. It stipulates that you need – Desktop Browser: Internet Explorer 10+/ Chrome 49+ or Firefox 45+. There is no qualification on the OS – whether it is Windows 10, 8, 7 and so on or Mac OS Mountain Lion, High Sierra or whatever.

After following all the guidelines on the GST System Requirements page, I realized that I was wasting my time. While signing with the DSC, I was continuing to get an error that the GST page was unable to connect to the server. I read several online Help pages, but it was just not working.

I began thinking from first principles. The browser has to first communicate with a Java application called emSigner. This application, emSigner, is the GST’s so called server, that is able to communicate with your digital signature token, which is typically purchased by you and provided to you on a USB drive. If the browser is unable to communicate with the emSigner, then it means that the Java interface will not function.

In my case, I was running Windows 10. I had 3 browsers installed- Microsoft Edge (updated in Feb 2018), Google Chrome (Version 63.0.3239.132) and FireFox (57.0.1). At least my Chrome and FireFox comply with the requirements of the GST portal (Chrome 49+ or Firefox 45+).

Next, I checked whether java communication is enabled in the brower, by typing https://java.com/verify in the browser address bar. To my surprise, Chrome 63+ and Firefox 57+ gives feedback that Java is not compatible with it.

So, is it truthful for the Government of India and GST to publish such inaccurate system requirements on its GST portal? Is it fair for it to mislead Indian businesses?

Forget Microsoft Edge, Java is not even supported. Instead, in Windows 10, you have an option to open a page in the legacy Internet Explorer (IE). Apparently, Java does work in IE. For brevity, I’ll refer you all to a solution posted on another blog site post.

Deceit#2
Assuming that everything is working correctly (browser, emSigner and your DSC token), my team is often running into a problem of not being able to access the GST portal server, for submission. This is another strange problem.

I did some digging around and found that Infosys was awarded the contract to implement the GST portal technology. The Indian Government contracted them for Rs. 1380 crores. Further, about 40 lakh businesses filed GST returns in July 2017, when it first started. It is also reported that in October 2017, about 50.1 lakh businesses filed GST returns and that the collections were about Rs. 83,346 crores (US $ 23 billion).

These 50 lakh (5 million) business have to file GST returns in three forms – GSTR-1 (details of all sales made and itemization of individual sales invoices), GSTR-2 (details of all purchases made and itemization of purchase invoices) and GSTR-3 (summary reconciliation of GSTR-1 and GSTR-2 and determines whether a company has to pay net taxes or receive a credit). This is a heck of a lot of data! Just imagine, a typical average might be about 500 Invoices (purchases and sales) for a company and we have about 5 million companies, for a total of 2.5 billion invoices. Multiply these 2.5 billion invoices with about 10 data points for each invoice and we have about 25 billion data points per month. All this data has to stored on Government Servers for years together, practically forever, hopefully.

What is the kind of investment required to maintain such huge mounts of data? One needs state-of-the-art data centers, that are reliable and secure. I only know that Infosys was paid Rs. 1380 crore (US $0.2 billion) for the implementation. I am not in the know of how much the Indian Government has spent on the GST data center or where it is. For comparison, Google invests about US $11 billion each year and Facebook about US $2.5 billion each year on their data centers. How much do you think the Indian Government has spent on its GST data centers? I hazard an estimate – probably a few hundred million dollars at the most and certainly not a billion dollars.

If I were to take an educated guess, the Indian businesses are struggling to file and access the GST portal due to sub-standard and poor technology infrastructure – both in terms of inadequate server hardware and terrible software technology.

Way forward
In my opinion the Indian Government has to be honest and transparent with its citizens. It should humbly tell us how much it has spent on server hardware and software. It should be honest about using current and relevant software technology, and also communicate it clearly to Indian businesses.

Knowing very well that the browsers (Edge, IE, Chrome, FireFox) have deprecated Java, they should have abandoned it and used the latest industry standard web technologies. They knew this before GST was introduced (July 2017), but they still went ahead with Java. Is this being honest?

Most importantly, I don’t want the Indian politicians gloating about how they have implemented GST and using hyperbole of catching dishonest businesses. I want the Indian Government to be first honest with the people. If it is honest, people of India will also automatically be honest. It is this type of culture that is needed today in India, to transform itself into a progressive country.

Is the Government of India up for this challenge?

Bellandur Lake – NGT Order Illegal…

Bellandur Lake NGT Order Illegal
This is absolutely brilliant!

A friend called me about an hour ago and told me that the High Court of Karnataka had stayed all the Orders issued by the National Green Tribunal (NGT), New Delhi, regarding Bellandur Lake!

The Order was issued today (15 June 2017) by the Chief Justice of Karnataka, Honorable Subro Kamal Mukherjee, and Honorable Justice P.S. Dinesh Kumar, in Writ Petition WP 25881/2017, filed by Shashi Distilleries Pvt. Ltd., Bangalore.
This is the gist of the matter. I have not read the petition, but this is what I was told by a reliable source. Apparently, the National Green Tribunal, New Delhi, has no jurisdiction over the city of Bangalore! Hence, all the Orders passed by it with respect to Bellandur Lake, which is situated in the city, is null and void.

As always, I’m shocked, but not surprised, by this blatant Abuse of Power. How can the Justices at the NGT not know that they do not have jurisdiction over the city of Bangalore? Even kids know what they can do and what they can’t.
I had contended in my earlier posts that the Closure Order by the Karnataka State Pollution Board (KSPCB) was illegal and violated the fundamental rights guaranteed by Article 21, of the Constitution of India. As such 488 industries were closed for 40 days (05 May 2017 to 15 Jun 2017) and BESCOM had even disconnected electric power. At a minimum, 25,000 employees lost their livelihood for 40 days. Further, the credibility, reputation, goodwill and brand of the 488 industries have taken a severe beating. Some of them will never recover from the economic losses. I would dare to say that the damages are in excess of Rs. 1000 crores. Will someone pay for it?

Now, let’s wait and see if there is any sense of urgency by the Government of Karnataka, KSPCB and BESCOM to connect back the electricity to these 488 industries and restore their livelihood.

Bellandur Lake now needs the correct medicine to come alive. This time around, the Government of Karnataka, the BWSSB, BDA, Bangalore Urban Development, BBMP and the KSPCB, should get the job done right.

We are all watching – the 12 million people of Bangalore and the citizens of the world!

Sharing Water with Tamil Nadu – in pictures …

This is a visual supplement to my article:

Environmental Chicanery – Bangalore’s Shit, Tamil Nadu’s Water (https://indiachallenges.com/2017/06/06/environmental-chicanery-bangalores-shit-tamil-nadus-water/)

Journey of Bangalore Sewage from Bellandur Lake to the Bay of Bengal:

The right half of Bangalore (mustard circles) lets out approximately half the sewage of the city, which is 1000 MLD and which contains about 650 MLD of untreated sewage. This stream first collects in the Bellandur Lake and overflows into the Varthur Lake.

Bellandur Varthur Map

From here, it meanders south for about 40 Km to Kelavarapelli Reservoir. The outflow from here is designated as the “Then Pennai River”, which is also known as the “Ponnaiyar River”.

Kelavarapelli Reservoir

Soon after, it crosses the Karnataka – Tamil Nadu border.

Then Pennai Karnataka Tamil Nadu Border.JPG

The water travels to the Krishnagiri Dam, further south, which is about 60 Km from the Keleavarapelli Reservoir.

Krishnagiri Reservoir

It journey’s on for another 106 Km south-east to the Sathanur Reservoir, in the heart of Tamil Nadu.

Sathanur Reservoir.JPG

It then follows the south-easterly gradient for another 116 Km and drains into the Bay of Bengal at Cuddalore, in Tamil Nadu. This part of the sewage from Bangalore thus traverses a path of about 322 Km.

Then Pennai River Ends.JPG

Journey of Bangalore Sewage from Sankey Tank to the Bay of Bengal:

The left half of Bangalore (purple circles) again discharges about 1000 MLD of sewage and 650 MLD of untreated sewage. The birth place is near the Sankey Tank in Bangalore, which is in the uber-rich part of the city and the stream gets the privilege of being called the “Vrishabhavathi River.”

Sankey Tank

It travels south-west, along parts of the Bangalore-Mysore highway, for 34 Km and flows into the Vrishabhavathi Reservoir. When you exit Bangalore, en route to Mysore, you get a nasty stench from this river. It’s common knowledge that this is because of untreated sewage water.

Vrishabhavathi Reservoir

It continues from the Reservoir and travels 19 Km and joins the Arkavathi River (orange circles).

VB meets Arkavathi

From this point, it travers another 41 Km southwards and meets the great Kaveri (Cauvery) River, near the Mugguru Forest and Mekedatu.

Arkavati meets Kaveri

The Kaveri literally bisects the two States. But, here is the exact point where the river crosses the two States.

Kaveri Karnataka TN Border

It journeys on, in a south-westerly direction, into Tamil Nadu and flows into the Stanley Reservoir (Mettur Dam).

Stanley Reservoir

From here, the Kaveri River travels a long distance of about 220 Km and forks off at Tiruchirapalli, into two streams.

Kaveri Kollidam Split

One stream splits to the top as the Kollidam River and drains into the Bay of Bengal at Chidambaram, after traveling 104 Km.

Kollidam BoB

The other splits to the bottom, still as the famed Kaveri River, and travels about 107 Km, and eventually ends in the Bay of Bengal at Kaveripattanam. This part of the Bangalore sewage traverses about 421 Km.

Kaveri Ends

Can we all do something so that our Bangalore sewage does not end up at these end points?

Environmental Chicanery – Bangalore’s Sewage, Tamil Nadu’s Water

Bangalore TN Big Map

For a live Google Map, one that you can zoom in and journey the path of Bangalore’s sewage effluent’s travel through Tamil Nadu, see https://drive.google.com/open?id=1xUmQ-4eVglPGpKv50EntpdY6jSQ&usp=sharing

Google Maps has been a recent curiosity for me. It’s lately turned into a minor obsession. I can fly like an eagle, sitting on my computer and I can see the truth. I don’t need the Government of India to tell me about the state of our rivers and its pollution. I don’t need the media to give me an elevator pitch. I want to see it with my own eyes. You too can!

I’ll prove that all of our Bangalore sewage (shit, urine, soaps, household chemicals) is flushed into two major rivers, the Kaveri (Cauvery) and Thenpennai. It travels through the whole width of Tamil Nadu, providing water for drinking and irrigation. The people of Tamil Nadu have been hoodwinked by the Government of Karnataka.

Bangalore has a population of 12 million [1]. It is listed as the 18^th most populous city in the world! The Cauvery (Kaveri) river water project supplies 1350 MLD (million liters per day), which is augmented by water from other sources, including bore wells [3]. The BWSSB (Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board) states that the personal consumption is 165 liters/day. Based on this data, the people of Bangalore consume 1980 MLD. This is also the amount of sewage discharge per day.

Let’s compute a few more things. The average human feces, as per Britanica, is 100 to 250 grams/day [4]. A paper published in the National Institute of Health (US Department of Health and Human Services) lists the median fecal wet mass as 128 grams/day/person and urine at 1.42 liters/day [5]. Based on this data, I’ve estimated that Bangalore produces 1,536,000 Kg/day (1536 tones/day) of human feces (shit) and 17,040,000 Kg/day (17,040 tones/day) of urine.

We the people of Bangalore, just like others in the world, use soaps and shampoos for bathing, detergents for washing clothes and household chemicals (phenyls/phenols/acids/alkali/alcohols/ketones). Let me go on the low side and consider that we consume a very small amount, say 10 grams/day. This is 120,000 Kg/day (120 tones/day) of soaps, detergents and household chemicals.

In summary, the people of Bangalore are discharging 1980 MLD (1980,000,000 liters/day) of consumed water as waste, that is contaminated with 1,536,000 Kg/day (1536 tones/day) of human feces (shit), 17,040,000 Kg/day (17,040 tones/day) of urine and 120,000 Kg (120 tones/day) of soaps/detergents/household chemicals. This is a total of about 2000 MLD (million liters per day) of sewage!

Just try to visualize it. You have seen the large metal containers on trucks and on ships. They are about 20 feet in length, 8 feet wide and 8.5 feet high. In terms of trucks, the city discharges 52,105 trucks of sewage water, 40 trucks of shit, 448 trucks of urine and 3 trucks of soaps. This is a total of 52,597 trucks of sewage!

The BWBSSB proudly lists on its web site that it has 14 STP’s (sewage treatment plants) in Bangalore, for a total processing capacity of 721 MLD. The total sewage discharged is 2000 MLD.

This means 1279 MLD (1279,000,000 Kg) of sewage is discharged untreated. The actual amount is more, since the Bangalore STP’s have been documented to be dysfunctional and not operating to rated capacities. For simplicity, I will take the untreated sewage to discharge 1300 MLD.

This is a massive amount to let out and this is a real environmental disaster. The real sad part is that it is let out into two major rivers, the Thenpennai and Kaveri, that traverse through the heart of the State of Tamil Nadu.

The right half of Bangalore (see the interactive Google Map, mustard circles) lets out approximately half the sewage, which is 1000 MLD and which contains about 650 MLD of untreated sewage. This stream first collects in the Bellandur Lake and overflows into the Varthur Lake. From here, it meanders south for about 40 Km to Kelavarapelli Reservoir. The outflow from here is designated as the “Then Pennai River”, which is also known as the “Ponnaiyar River”. It then flows to the Krishnagiri Dam, further south, which is about 60 Km from the Keleavarapelli Reservoir. It journey’s on for another 106 Km south-east to the Sathanur Reservoir, in the heart of Tamil Nadu. It then follows the south-easterly gradient for another 116 Km and drains into the Bay of Bengal at Cuddalore, in Tamil Nadu. This part of the sewage from Bangalore thus traverses a path of about 322 Km.

The left half of Bangalore (see the interactive Google Map, purple circles) again discharges about 1000 MLD of sewage and 650 MLD of untreated sewage. The birth place is near the Sankey Tank in Bangalore, which is in the uber-rich part of the city and the stream gets the privilege of being called the “Vrishabhavathi River.” It travels south-west, along parts of the Bangalore-Mysore highway, for 34 Km and flows into the Vrishabhavathi Reservoir. When you exit Bangalore, en route to Mysore, you get a nasty stench from this river. It’s common knowledge that this is because of untreated sewage water. It continues from the Reservoir and travels 19 Km and joins the Arkavathi River (orange circles). From this point, it travers another 41 Km southwards and meets the great Kaveri (Cauvery) River, near the Mugguru Forest and Mekedatu. It journeys on, in a south-westerly direction, into Tamil Nadu and flows into the Stanley Reservoir (Mettur Dam). From here, the Kaveri River travels a long distance of about 220 Km and forks off at Tiruchirapalli. One stream splits to the top as the Kollidam River and drains into the Bay of Bengal at Chidambaram, after traveling 104 Km. The other splits to the bottom, still as the famed Kaveri River, and travels about 107 Km and ends in the Bay of Bengal at Kaveripattanam. This part of the Bangalore sewage traverses about 421 Km.

I really hope that the above details will help you zoom into the Google Map and traverse the wondrous paths of the Bangalore sewage.

This is a national disaster. I just hope the people of Tamil Nadu can forgive the negligence of the city of Bangalore and the State of Karnataka. It is irresponsible for the State of Karnataka to discharge its sewage water, with no regard to the welfare of the people of India.

What will happen now? Should the State of Tamil Nadu sue the State of Karnataka and the city of Bangalore in the National Green Tribunal (NGT)? Will the NGT, without application of mind, ask the people of Bangalore to stop defecating (shit, urine), stop taking bath (soaps), stop washing clothes (detergents) and stop cleaning their homes (household chemicals)? Should the people of Bangalore stop living?

My answer is a resounding NO! We need to solve this environmental catastrophe. The simple solution is to ensure that every drop of sewage is treated in STP’s using the latest technology, before discharging it. I have computed earlier that Bangalore has an immediate need for additional STP’s to process 1300 MLD of untreated sewage waste. These types of problems have been solved, both in India and in other countries. The technology is well known and well proven. What is needed is the will of the Government of Karnataka to be honest and do the right thing. They should stop using shoddy third rate stupid science and use its power to provide the best solutions for a stable and sustainable environment.

I can’t help but think of Uncle Ben telling Spiderman – “With great power comes great responsibility!”

References

[1] Population of Bangalore – http://indiapopulation2017.in/population-of-bengaluru-2017.html

[2] http://worldpopulationreview.com/world-cities/bangalore-population/

[3] BWSSB – https://bwssb.gov.in/content/about-bwssb-2

[4] Britanica feces – https://www.britannica.com/science/feces

[5] NIH feces paper – https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4500995/

For a visual journey of this article please see my next post:

https://indiachallenges.com/2017/06/06/sharing-water-with-tamil-nadu-in-pictures/