Why Do these Mobile Phone Companies Market SIM cards that are Impossible to Handle?

Yesterday someone known to me told me his difficulty in changing his smart phone. His phone uses a SIM card that is bigger in size. When he purchased a new one, he found that he cannot use his old SIM because the new phone has a slot which can use only a nano SIM. As a layman, he could not understand the differences in the smart phones that are marketed now-a-days. And not all are tech savvy youngsters!

Yet another one told another story. When he tried to insert his miniature SIM with another phone, the latter got fire! Thankfully, it did not explode! 

And I my self have been thinking of this for quite some time. I too do have problems with this SIM handling in my phones.

Mobile and tablet phones are the craze of today's world. They all have a small key electronic embedded circuit marketed separately called the SIM. This part called the SIM stands for Subscriber Identification Module. It is the one that makes the telephone network companies market their telephone services separately from that of the phone manufacturers.

So this SIM is an electronic circuit embedded within a plastic strip with some metallic ends making contact with those of the mobile phone or tablet phone circuits.

For getting to know more about this you may search the internet or click here to read one good article. For more authentic information refer Wikipedia article on SIM.

SIM cards come in three different sizes commonly called the standard SIM, micro SIM and the nano SIM. I simply do not understand why these mobile phone designers thought it necessary to have these three different physical dimensions for this embedded electronic part. Why do they have to market the same circuit in three different sizes by cutting off the plastic that surrounds the metallic circuitry that remains with the same kind of size and architecture?

More interestingly why do they have to market it by telling us those exotic names that sound pretty hi-tech! 

As a customer using cell (mobile) phone, I am quite annoyed by this liberty taken by the mobile phone designers and their regulatory authorities world wide. As such, originally appearing SIM called the standard SIM in itself is so small to be handled properly due to its small size. Yet it was comparatively easier for even old people like me to get them inserted or removed from the phone modules.

As the phones started coming with smaller slots for SIM insertion, the mobile phone handling has become a nightmare for many users.

To make the things worse, the latest smart phones now come only with nano SIM slots. If you had your earlier SIM that is bigger in size, you probably cannot use it in your new phone unless you get your extra plastic of your earlier SIM cut precisely. Of course, they have come up with new SIM plastic resizing cutters to solve this problem. However, you need to have experts to do it. 

And once cut to small mini or nano size, using your SIM in a phone that has a bigger slot would be impossible. Of course, some fellows have come up with solutions for this problem too. There are precisely cut SIM holders that are plastics for making up the lost sizes of the SIMs.

Yet I consider this phone design strategy used by cell phone manufacturers a kind of user unfriendly tactics which is ridiculous and unjustified.

As a matter of principle, it is better to reject all smart phones that come only with mini, micro or nano slots only.

The smart phone market is already sinking due to high competition. Perhaps the high competition is forcing the manufacturers to come up with various kinds of gimmicks that are making the whole smartphone evolution so complex for the common people.

When such things keep happening, it will soon loose its charm. Once the charm is gone, smart phones may not charm the customers.

And that is not good for the phone companies. It will be better for them to make and market smart phones that are durable, safe and easier for their customers to take care by themselves.

Smart phones are not inexpensive items. They are definitely expensive. True, their prices are not as high as the ones that came in the past when compared to the technological advancements that they offer now. They have also become a necessary evil for all now-a-days. But that necessity of the common man should not become a lure for exploitation. The smart phone companies should not make and market so many models in succession without ensuring their long term servicing requirements.

High competition is forcing these companies to ignore such basic factors. They come up with different models every now and then because today's young and affluent generation consider cell phones as a personal status projection gadget rather than a functional gadget. Hardly few use all the technological things packed in a smart phone. But for status, all need all technology, style and brand.

But any thing in excess and without moderation would soon become a thing of rejection or allergy later. Smart phones are no exception. High marketing strategies in a technology advancing scene might bring utter failures. 

Incidences of some reputed smart phone batteries catching fire or exploding  in the recent past are examples that only indicate the pressure under which smart phone technology designers are working. Perhaps their top management brass might be pushing them to the wall that they forget even basic common sense.

I think the top management people of all cell phone companies need to come out of their corporate pseudo shells and think and act like humans. 

Will they listen to this small piece of advice from an ordinary user?

Only time would tell.

Bhupinder Singh Bhatia of Bhilai-The Mechanical Engineer Who Helps the Helpless With Ayurveda!

Some time ago I wrote a blog article here where I shared a personal experience of mine about a dreaded disease which is commonly referred as the suicide disease or trigeminal neuralgia. You can read that blog here!

I had the slightest thought then that this information would be of some help to several helpless people suffering from this extremely painful neuralgic pain syndrome who keep visiting modern medical doctors for getting all kinds of known pain management methods, though not quite successful always.

A few of them during this time had taken the pains to search out my contact information to know the whereabouts of my friend Mr. Bhupinder Singh Bhatia (B.S.Bhatia) of Bhilai so that they can contact him for getting the ayurvedic preparation that he had tried out successfully to treat my sister in law residing in Canada who was suffering from this dreadful disease.

Recently I had a visit to Bhilai wherein I met my old friend Mr Bhatia wherein I learnt about the successful administration of his ayurvedic preparation for every one who approached him taking my reference in this manner.

Since this ayurvedic preparation he had originally made by application of his technical mind coupled with the additional knowledge he had in ayurveda, has been now getting proved to be a successful cure for quite many people, I thought it would be prudent to publish some more information through this platform. This might help those who want such help to know about Mr Bhatia more and contact him directly.

 Above L-R: Mr Bhatia, the author and wife and Mrs Bhatia

Mr Bhatia had been my senior colleague in the erstwhile Bhilai Engineering and Design Bureau (BEDB), the engineering design and consultancy department of Bhilai Steel Plant that existed during 1972-2015 period. In fact it was a break away group from Central Engineering Design Bureau (CEDB) of Hindustan Steel Limited which managed the public sector integrated steel plants of India before it got further expanded and renamed as the Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL). Some time in 1972, the central government took actions to form a separate engineering company  the Metallurgical and Engineering Consultants Limited, now well known as Mecon Limited by getting CEDB isolated from Hindustan Steel Limited. While doing so, as several engineers working in CEDB at Bhilai were not keen to join the new company, it was decided to retain them within Hindustan Steel Limited in Bhilai by creating a new department called BEDB for catering to the needs of Bhilai Steel Plant. 

In 1986, the Bhilai Steel Plant management thought it prudent to expand BEDB with the induction of more young engineers and that caused me to get transferred to this department from the works area of Bhilai Steel Plant. It was here that I first met Mr Bhatia. He was a mechanical engineer having a couple of years more experience in the design and engineering side and I remember him as a pleasing and intelligent engineers always enthusiastic to solve various kinds of engineering problems that arouse in the steel plant. We worked in different areas of engineering specializations and soon we became good colleagues and friends. This much is written for the reader to get a broad idea regarding the initial professional background of Mr Bhatia.

Mr Bhatia was a learner and had a keen enthusiasm to learn new things. He was also a charming personality who was keen to surprise his colleagues and friends with his newly learnt things. I remember his hobbies during that period that involved homeopathy and the Japanese art of paper folding called origami. Perhaps his interest in learning new things got him attracted to the ancient Indian medical system, ayurveda, some time in the beginning of the Nineteen Nineties. 

As there was a shortage of Ayurveda training centers and also a shortage of trained Ayurveda physicians in those days, many north Indian state governments allowed interested candidates to learn the fundamentals of this system by various correspondence courses and also from traditional practitioners who imparted their knowledge through unconventional methods. Some state governments tested the knowledge and skills of such students by conducting periodic examinations and awarding the successful candidates with degrees like 'Ayurveda Ratna' which enabled the successful candidates to register themselves as registered medical practitioners (RMP) in Ayurveda. Ayurveda being a traditional knowledge, its mastery needed a good command of Hindi and Sanskrit. Mr Bhatia, being from a Sikh family settled in central India, had a good knowledge in these languages. 

It was another common friend of ours who imparted interest in Ayurveda in him. To be very frank, I too was interested, but my weak Hindi was an obstacle. This friend's family had been in the practice of Ayurveda. I remember him enticing we engineers to take up the study of this noble knowledge system of India so that we could unearth hidden treasures of ancient medicine for the benefit of people suffering from diseases with no cure in other medical systems.

My friend, Bhatia, took the challenge and within a couple of years he passed the Ayurveda Ratna examination which enabled him to get a licence to practice ayurveda as an RMP. I remember him taking the trouble to get the required permissions from the Bhilai Steel Plant management for venturing in to this profession during holidays and off times without affecting his normal duties as an engineering officer of the steel plant.

In the beginning things were not that easy. It was required to get experience. And I have been witnessing his progress in this field with sheer determination and hard work which he undertook as a dedicated hobby. Mr Bhatia has been a devout Sikh who attended Sikh satsangs (devotional group worship) every day evening where he religiously read and recited from the Sikh holy book, Guru Grandh Saheb. He had the blessing of his personal guru. All these helped him to master Ayurveda, especially in its branch which is known as the Raja Yog or the branch of Ayurveda that was privy to the rich and the royals.

He remained as my good friend all through out these years and he used to discuss the wonders of medicine system that Raja Yoga offered. The logical engineering mind with knowledge of modern science helped him to understand things better. When his system yielded success in treating diseases of many, he decided to be selective and doing his medical treatment hobby only for rare and incurable diseases where in he could experiment with his knowledge and experience.

And that was what he had been doing all these years. He employs his branch of Ayurveda system for bringing peace to many renowned people, bureaucrats, politicians, businessmen and the like who felt helpless with their unique health problems for which the modern medical field offered little.

Fortunately, there are many Ayurvedic pharma companies in India who produce basic Ayurveda medicines as per ancient books. However, many of these Raja Yog medicines employing what is called the Ras Chikitsa system are very expensive. Not only they are expensive, but their use without proper understanding of the physiological balance of the patients' body with respect to what is known as vat, pith and kaph would not normally yield any appreciable results. However, when a knowledgeable Ayurveda doctor like Mr Bhatia proportions these medicines according to the physiology of the patient concerned, wonders do take place.

Mr Bhatia got retired from Bhilai Steel Plant and he devotes more time now in serving those who desire to seek Ayurveda as an alternative for their physical or psychological ailments. As a matter of principle, he does not take any fee for his medical treatment. His services are free. However, the patients have to bear the costs of the medicines, which could be expensive in certain cases. 

Mr Bhatia lives in his residence which is located at Priyadarshini Parisar East, Bhilai, Chhattisgarh State. He can be contacted @ 91-9826176514 (Mobile and WhatsApp call)  

What Went Wrong with the 8/11/16 Indian Money (Mis)management?

My apologies for not publishing any blogs after the last one some time in April 2016.

In fact this year has been much eventful for me. It was the last year of my long professional career extending over 36 years in a government owned company. It is the Steel Authority of India Limited or SAIL in short. Unlike most engineers and professionals in the current IT-era, my generation belonged to an era when engineers and jobs were both scarce and when most of us never ever seriously thought of switching jobs once we got in to one with luck being at our side! Only those rare very ambitious ones from our lot tried switching jobs for betterment! I too remained honestly loyal to the one and only employer which made me sustain so long! It is not true to say that I never tried to leave my original governmental employer. Yes, I too got in to current of exodus to mushrooming private sector of the Nineteen nineties, but could not muster enough courage to do the final act, somehow.

That way fortunately or otherwise, I remained with SAIL all these years from 1980 to 2016. The company gave me opportunity to work in the Bhilai Steel Plant for over three decades and another half decade at Ranchi. I said goodbye to the professional career and shifted to my ancestral home place back in south India in the now urbanized village, Elanthoor, in Kerala.

Shifting residences is not anything easy in India. It is really painful and frustrating in many ways in this country due to several reasons. They are all unavoidable pains in a budding democracy and I do not wish to elaborate on those in this blog. Not continuing with my writing too was due to some of those frustrating obstacles!

Being a citizen who was compelled to shift residences quite frequently in the recent past, I have not been able to exercise my voting power as an adult Indian citizen. I had written about those in some of my blogs earlier. As is the case with several others, I haven't been a blind follower of any political party so far. I liked the government for doing good to the people and disliked when they did foolish things regardless of the political party lines of the government.

The proxy government under the leadership of Dr.Manmohan Singh as the PM in the past ten years has been more of a dislike than any like due to its inability to explain its honesty rightly to the people. Many, including me obviously found lack of leadership, honesty and guts to act when governmental actions were commonly thought as essential.

And that caused many unbiased citizens like me to look for hopeful alternatives and that was how we started developing a liking with the leadership of Narendra Modi, even while we disliked many ideologies and personalities that his political organization embraced.

And that tilt in the minds of the people catapulted Modi to the top seat of power and we expected miracles. But nothing spectacular never happened except the spectacular international diplomatic shows and endeavors of the new PM. The people, including me, did not lose patience. We knew that the new government needed time and experience!

And then the most spectacular thing suddenly happened on the 8th November 2016 night. Very dramatically the PM's face and voice beamed in the millions of household TV screens across the length and breadth of India! The PM announced his ambitious and very daring anti-corruption drive- the now infamous 'demonetization' drive! The government of India was withdrawing two largely circulated Indian paper currencies-the 500 and 1000 rupee notes with immediate effect with certain allowances! New 2000 rupee notes and 500 rupee notes would replace these cancelled currencies in a phased manner!

The PM requested the public to be patient for 50 days and to bear the inconveniences that might arise for this big and bold step by the government to wipe out black money and counterfeit currencies from the Indian monitory system. He explained the restrictions for people to withdraw cash from banks and ATMs.

We danced initially with joy as we found this daring PM taking daring action to clean Indian economy from its black labels! He had earlier taken similar steps to clean the Indian streets from its foul smell that had become the obvious characteristic of the Indian winds!

We were ready to face the odds for making this happen though some of us had our doubts deep in our minds. For example we could not digest the logic of withdrawing 1000 rupee notes with 2000 rupee notes! Yet we never doubted the wisdom of the all knowing government.

As the days went, the Indian people were realizing the great administrative blunder or mismanagement. They were witnessing the lack of planning within the governmental systems and the top bank, the Reserve Bank of India. People like me could not digest the fact that the Indian bureaucracy is so ineffective or unprofessional to handle this kind of a situation which is not in any way a herculean task. How could they do such a big administrative action without proper planning?

Withdrawing most of the existing currencies without making any alternative arrangements to replace those genuine cash? They have not undertaken any action for low denomination currencies. They have not thought about the ATMs and making changes in those machines and the systems with the banking system to dispense cash!

Neither they did any thing to make at least the educated and well to do Indian middle class to switch to cashless electronic money transactions! There have been no governmental rules or systems that ensured this.

As of now, the troubles of the people and increasing day by day. The most vulnerable are the citizens at the lower rungs of the society who earned their daily earnings in low denomination paper cash. The retail traders, the rural farmers, the daily wage earners and the like are all miserably affected. The Indian economy has come to a pathetic halt not because of shortage of money, but because of the inability of the government to make financial transactions possible wherever it was needed!

The inability of the government to dispense the worries of the people at this stage is more worrisome now. The news of infighting within the government and the political system have been enhancing the worries.

There are reports of large scale loss of employment especially in the unorganized sector. Whether this will percolate to the organized sector is something the regular employees of India keep watching tense-fully!

The long ques in the banks and ATMs in India are nothing encouraging to the Indian economy. The catch of unaccounted cash in the new currencies and the threat of the government with more penalties and punishments to the economic violators are not any thing that make India an investment friendly nation!

The nature of uncertainty in the economy is not anything good for a nation like India. No doubt, we need to tackle black money, counterfeits and black economy. But it should not be at the cost of the whole economy.

Will any one burn the house for fear of rats?

What could have gone wrong in this big administrative decision of the Indian government?

I think it is one typical case of administrative goof up just as the deeds done by Muhammad-bin-Tugluq a few centuries ago due to lack of well informed planning and unprofessional execution. Historians do admit the good intentions of Tugluq, though!

In the current case, if we observe unbiased, it is not difficult to find an unnecessary and undue encroachment by the political leadership in an administrative act that involved high degree of economic and financial complexities! Though the government is supreme, it was a job of the Reserve Bank of India and the latter should have done it professionally after due homework!

Instead what the people of India witnessed? The PM announcing the decision most dramatically at an awkward time in the news channels! And the man responsible for the final thing- the governor of the RBI was not to be seen anywhere!

And for that matter, the RBI boss was a new one. No doubt, he was an experienced professional in some other field. But he took the reigns of RBI only very recently. That kind of a time period is just not sufficient for any external management expert to master the complexities involved in the management of the central bank! With that short stint, he was obviously not in a position to advise the political and bureaucratic bosses with correct predictions and consequences even if he was consulted prior to the move!

And that explains why the RBI is very poorly equipped to deal with the consequences of the 8/11 demonetization act! Nothing surprising then to learn about the inadequate stock of currency printing paper and security inks with the security presses managed by the RBI! Nothing surprising to find the ATMs of the country cannot be equipped for the new paper currencies! Nor the failure of the Indian banking system to act foolproof post demonetization is also nothing surprising!

No one with the right kind of information would have ever thought that India is fully equipped for digital revolution to such an extent that it can do away with physical currency in just one stroke! No doubt, India has achieved much in the recent years with regard to its internet networks and electronic communication systems. But that is just not enough and can never replace the common money that the poor and ignorant majority Indians are still depended upon in the present times. At the most these are wishful thoughts for India for the future!

Unless the people are reasonably well to do with above poverty incomes and reasonable standards of living it is difficult for any government to honesty remove corruption. Under privileged masses are prone to be the poaching ground for the clever characterless people to perpetuate corruption! With India with its present levels of below poverty line and marginally above poverty line masses, the upper money making lots would keep their exploitation practices in so many ways so long as the latter change their evil mindsets! 

There are better alternatives and that is the need of the hour! Income tax raids and stricter punishments for black money would only make corruption money to change hands! It will not eliminate corruption! Why not the government encourage people to pay taxes honestly and honor the high tax payers with awards instead of threatening all tax payers with draconian punishments? Draconian rules are the first cause for corruption, in my humble opinion! And corruption is the first cause for black money and black economy! 

We may have moved to the 21st century, but with all those who enjoy power and position, the mindset remain as of the dark ages! The moment power and position are achieved, human mind tilts towards evil and begins to explore ways to exploit others instead of being of any good service to others!

Observe any man who occupies a powerful seat of power high or low. Observe his or her ways and manners. Is it not the same like the hawks or the wild hyena? Or may be of the cunning jackal? And watch the same person after he or she is removed from the seat of power!

And character cannot be brought in a man or woman just by education. Without character, there is potential of evil always. Developing good character in the people is a lengthy process that might take generations for full transformation. Yet, it is nothing non-achievable for the individuals! 

In this context some readers might remember what I had written some time ago: An attempt to eradicate corruption in any characterless society would bring about more corruption!

So what the PM should have done in the current situation?

He should have created a situation that encouraged good citizens to do their economic activities without fear or apprehension while making it difficult for those who are more prone to corrupt acts.

He should have eased the income tax rules and laws and created better systems and procedures for people to pay their taxes honestly and removed the draconian or complex return filing procedures for individuals while making it perhaps necessary only for business firms. Let the government tax all incomes at the source, but why should the individual tax payers troubled for keeping all mundane accounts and file the returns error free in a system that no Indian can do without external help? Obviously, such systems and procedures are made by tax officials when they are in power with the intention of enhancing their power! And such enhanced powers obviously become another source of corruption!

Why does the government keep agricultural incomes tax free for all? Is it not a good opportunity to convert big black money? How on earth someone check the validity of any one declaring a million or more income from a few acres of land that he or she holds without doing any farming at all? This one provision compels many to buy cheap farm lands and keep them barren or under utilized for tax evasion. Even if the farms yield big incomes, why such incomes should be tax tree? Small farm incomes should be tax free. But big farms should not be.

Why does the government extent many tax free privileges and perks to the government officials while no such things are available to employees in the private domains? Why does the government keep enhancing the salaries, perks and pensions of the government employees without any due consideration to spend any tax collections for any logical social benefits to the general public including the tax payers?

I remember a youth working in a private company in India asking me this question recently: Why should we pay income tax when the government does nothing for us from the tax so collected? Will the government pay us subsistence allowance if I lose my job tomorrow and become income less from the tax they collected from me earlier? And remember, the several developed nations in the present day world do have such schemes while the government of India does not subscribe to any such ideas.

The youngsters of India do not wish to hear from the government that they take taxes only for fighting wars or defending the borders. Of course, that is important. But concurrently, the government has to prove to the nation that every rupee they collect as taxes are spent wisely for the people! When the people realize, it more and more will honestly come forward to pay taxes!

But no doubt, it is not good for modern governments to function as goonda sarkars of the bygone past when the word sarkar was actually associated with danda or stick!

  

Let us hope the PM and his team recognize the anxiety of the silent and honest masses of India now and take some bold but honest corrective steps that make India and Indians shine!