Trip to Madurai:

It’s been 2 years since Cogzidel was born. Hence, I planned a trip to my Madurai Branch for three days from 8th to 10th of September 2010. Since my JP miles were about to expire, I redeemed the available points for the airline tickets to and fro Madurai (but was charged the airport taxes).

08.09.2010

Many interesting incidents / surprises / tensional stuff happened.

Normally, I don’t blog these kinds of experiences, mainly for lack of interest and time. But today something made to feel blogging my travel experience (may be, the impact of my good friend Anand Nataraj who is a regular blogger).

Please do not ask me whether my travel experience will be useful to you (I’m just sharing it as I thought of doing so). If you really think you learnt something from this, I would be happy.

Here it goes:

- Yesterday, I booked a car with Fastrack Call Taxi service for the airport drop (pick up time 5:15 am) today. To my surprise, Fastrack guy came an hour in advance, but irritated me saying he would switch on the Meter. After blasting and explaining him that it was he who came early and hence, charging me for the same is unfair, it was resolved.

- When I came down from my apartment, I noticed that they had sent me an Innova (instead of Indica I asked for). Also, was told that I’d be charged Innova rates only, while it was their mistake. They simply quote that they don’t have any other vehicle and hence had sent this vehicle. I appreciate that they have arranged some other vehicle, but insisting for Innova rates for a single-person-travel is a non-sense. Again shouted and got it resolved.

- Driver drove rashly and was about to hit a motor-cyclist, but escaped narrowly.

- Reached Airport about an hour before departure, but thrilled to see the passenger crowd there.

- Took 15 minutes for baggage screening, 15 minutes on the queue for Boarding pass

- Heard some Jet Airways Airport officer telling some passenger that the departure gate would be closed in a short while for Madurai passengers

- With a little tension, approached him and told that I’m a Jet Privilege Member and whether he can help to get the boarding pass quickly. He acted really fast, took me to a counter, insisted the counter staff to issue me a Boarding pass immediately

- Then came another shock, the queue for the Security Check was very long and thought that I would definitely be late as it was just 20 minutes before departure

- Airport personnel suggested me to have the security check done at the first floor (as there won’t be much crowd like Ground floor) and asked me to come down after the check

- I went and stood up in the queue in First Floor. Then realised that if there was a calling (by the airport managers who orally call the passengers for boarding) for the Madurai passengers to board the flight, I might miss it as I was in the first floor.

- Hence, came down and stood in the queue on Ground Floor

- Noticed that celebrities like GK Vasan, Karthik Chidambaram, T. Rajender and Vairamuthu were given permission for special entrance to Security Check as the flight was about to depart

- I insisted the security personnel that I should also be permitted as my flight was about to be take off

- Notably, the special permission queue is also long and it took about 10 minutes there.

- Finally, boarded the flight at about 5 minutes before the departure

- I don’t normally get tensed for these kinds of matters as I have travelled a lot and have faced many situations like this before. Since I wanted to stick to my travel plan, I was a little nervous.

Inside the aircraft:

Normally flight attendants used to check whether seat belts are fastened and seats are set straight by the passengers. Today, it didn’t happen. No idea, why.

No free meal on board, hence ordered a sandwich and bottle of water, the hostess charged me 170 bucks. Expensive. Hardly very few on the aircraft ordered something to eat.

All passengers were given a scratch card which contained an array of products like Music System, watch, camera, sunglass etc. with pricing. We were informed that we can scratch the card and claim the product mentioned in it for free. Only the handling charges of Rs. 599 would be collected. Since each product was rated above Rs. 2,000, passengers felt like it is a nice offer. Like many others, I scratched the card, and found that I was the lucky winner of Sunglasses.

After landing at Madurai Airport, went to the AVA counter and saw all products being displayed. Without showing him the scratch card, I pointed at the Sunglass and asked him how much that costs, he said “Just 600 rupees, Sir”. Then I realised that all the products listed over there cost 600 rupees each, but as a matter of marketing tactic, they made such trick of quoting the high price on the scratch card and offering it the passengers as free but collecting the sale money in the name of handling charges. Wah, what a brilliant idea ?

Behaviour of people inside the aircraft:

a) Mobile usage: People (especially businessmen) keep on talking over phone loudly (in spite of the fact that the hostess repeatedly requesting them to switch off their mobile)

b) Handling hand baggages: Many passengers (who want to keep their hand baggage in to the loft) handle the baggage already kept inside in a bad manner in order to create space for keeping their bags. I have seen many who keep their heavy bags over the laptop bags of other passengers, without knowing that it might cause damage.

c) Fastening the seat belt: Many people feel that fastening the seat belt is for a formality. They don’t understand the need. The moment flight lands in to the airport, we can hear the sounds of all people unfastening their seat belts.

d) Likewise, immediately after landing, you can see almost everyone switching on the mobile as if they can’t wait for few more minutes

e) Also, many have the habit of standing up immediately after the plane lands as if the doors will be opened specially for them. They all should understand that the crowd should move out in the same order of their row seating. This avoids dashing with each other indecently.

Madurai Airport:

Madurai Airport is a funny one. You won’t feel it like an Airport at all. Tiny and not crowded. You can see the aerodrome from the entry gate itself.

In about 10 minutes after we all landed, the airport was empty. When I was waiting for my colleague to pick me up, I noticed that after morning flight, the next flight is in the after noon. The Airport was completely empty except few staff who where chit-chatting and playing. A guy was switching off the fans and lights. The security person asked me when could I leave and when I asked why, said “We will have to lock the Airport till the noon, Sir” – first time for me to hear like that. But he was generous to let me wait till my colleague arrived.

Headed straight to my Madurai Branch and continued my usual swimming in the work pool.

Cogzidel Consultancy Services Pvt Ltd

Cogzidel is a Business Process Consulting & Management company. It renders the following services:

- Accounting Services (including Internal Audit)

- Payroll Processing

- Company Incorporation

- LLP Registration

- Registration of society / trust / partnership firm

- Employee-friendly Tax planning

- Filing IT returns

- Obtaining PAN / TAN

- Statutory compliances – PF / ESI / Sales Tax / Service Tax / STPI etc

- Trademark / Patent Registration

- Business Incubation Services

- Bootstrapping

Contact details:

Person In-charge: Bala Murugan

E-mail Id : bala@cogzidel.com

Address : 6/32, Vasudevapuran Street, Rangarajapuram, West Mambalam, Chennai – 600 033.

Telephone : +91.44.64990102

Website : http://www.cogzidel.in

RBS - Cogzidel's first product launched

RBS – Cogzidel’s first product was launched on late hours of 25th March, 2009 at 23.45 IST. It is a proud and exciting moment for the entire Cogzidel team. I take this opportunity to thank Senthil Guru who started the project and Sathick Basha who took over from Senthil and completed the mission. I must also thank Pandi who assisted Sathick, Saravanan for CSS work, Major Karthik for his design, Bala Subramaniyam for managing and getting the product out successfully, last but not least it is our Bala Krishnan for his commitment and passion he contributed a lot encouraging the team and he acted as System Analyst for the project.

RBS is an abbreviation for Reverse Bidding System, it is a bidding system which is developed by taking inspiration from scriptlance.com. We have more features in mind to make the product unique and we will be evolving the product in a phased manner by releasing update at frequent intervals which will be bundled with new features and patches.

Product is launched under Creative Common license and is offered for free. This must be a bonanza for webmasters. We are offering the project for free to create more entrepreneurs & webmasters. You can think why we are offering it for free, let me explain it with an example,

“A has one rupee and B has one rupee… Both exchange that rupee… They go home with one rupee each!

But if A has one idea and B has one idea… Both exchange that idea… They go home with two ideas.”

Same way when we offer something for free lots of people will try it and it will create an eco-system where it will create lots of opportunity for many people and ideas will be flowing. So, we want to create such a eco-system and that is why we are offering the product for free.

In coming days, I think there will be lots of success stories and I wish it happens soon.

Procedures for foreign investments in India on certain sectors

Here's my write up about this subject published in www.cogzidel.in

Investments in Small Scale Industrial (SSI) units

SSI is an undertaking in which the investment in fixed assets in plant and machinery whether held on ownership terms on lease or on hire purchase does not exceed Rs 10 million.

A company which is a SSI unit and which is not engaged in any activity under the prohibited category may issue equity / preference shares or fully convertible debentures to a foreign investor, to the extent of .....click here to read through.....

Govt to raise threshold limit for appointing Company Secretary to Rs 5 Cr

Considering the shortage of company secretaries, the government is planning to relax rules for corporates on employing a full time company secretary but their apex body ICSI is opposing the move.

At present, companies with a paid-up capital of Rs 2 crore are required to hire a full time company secretary. The government is planning to amend the Companies Act and raise the threshold limit on equity capital from Rs 2 crore to Rs 5 crore for employing a full time secretary.

Once the proposal is approved, companies with less than Rs 5 crore paid-up capital need not employ a full time company secretary and instead they can hire one on temporary basis, the officials in the know of the matter said.

The proposal is aimed at addressing the problem of shortage of company secretary in the country.

There are 31,705 companies with a paid-up capital of Rs two crore plus, whereas there are only around 15,000 qualified company secretary, making it difficult for many companies to appoint a whole-time company secretary, the officials said.

The government is planning to amend the Companies Act, 1956, which lays down the criterion for employing a whole-time company secretary, in this regard.

According to Section 383 (A) of the Companies Act, 1956, "every company having paid up capital of Rs 2 crore shall have whole-time secretaries and where the Board of directors of any such company comprises only two directors, either of them shall be the secretary of the company".

However, there is a huge gap between the availability of company secretary and their demand by companies. As per the officials, there are 19,582 qualified members of the Institute of Company Secretaries of India (ICSI), of which not even 50 per cent are in employment.

The officials said, "the companies above Rs 5 crore threshold are only 15,000 so it would be prudent to fill the demand-supply mismatch like this".

The move is going to benefit around 16,000 companies as they are not required to employ a whole-time company secretary, which would save cost for them.

However, ICSI President opines differently. "We don't want the limit to be enhanced right now. Large companies are properly governed, it is the small and medium size companies which need good governance," ICSI President Keyoor Bakshi said.

"We will write to the government requesting them not to raise the limit right now. With the economic slowdown, it may not be a right time for such a decision," Bakshi said.

He said as far as the shortage of company secretaries is concerned, the institute has seen an increase in the number of applications this year, with enrolment increasing by 50 per cent this year. Over a period of two years, the gap will be filled, Bakshi said.

This year, 35,000 students enrolled for the course of company secretaries as a result of various awareness campaign organised by the institute. Also, the ICSI is planning to increase its office count from 70 to around 150, which will promote the course, Bakshi said.

Courtesy: 'The Hindu'