Hi Friends, Periodically would change track and write on different everyday topics….inter-spread between the regular Good to Great editions.
India Shining!!! Or is it?
Well – recently went to the Shastri Bhavan for renewing my Passport – was quite a sight!!
The queue for the online registration on the ground floor was quite lengthy – with the queue coming out of the building on to the parking lot
- thank God there is a huge parking lot or else the queue would have gone on to the road; the recent "Incident" seems to have pushed the touts / travel agents back…or has it??. The weather gods at this time also heat things up.
People inside the passport office are at least officially wary to support – things were mentioned like "Passport which are being followed up are specially investigated and so it is better to just to apply through the normal process", "Don’t know if the phones are tapped" Hmmm…
Don’t know how long this "truthfulness" will be there…reminds me so much of the "Indian" movie..
Moving on to the first floor…that’s where the people for the Tatkal applications are to stand…has a peculiar system – just like railways, there Is a limited number of "application" received – people come in at 4.30 AM to reserve seats for a 10 AM token number allotment – here again
a few agents are able to keep "Nominees" for the people who can "afford"…
Ok, token number allotment is a 2 minute process…but given the number of seats, people need to come in at least 5-1/2 hours early…hmm!!!
Lets move to the second floor where the applications are scrutinised – 2 vociferous guards control the crowd from the staircase (from where another queue for this process starts) – there are various types of passport applications and "smart" people often by-pass the queue and sail through. You can get outshouted and moved back, but if you are lucky after 1-2 hours you can
Clear the queue and move into the Application scrutiny area…
There is another queue here and another 2 hours….if you have gone through a travel agent – probably your documentation is great..
You can clear the actual verification process in 5-10 minutes or else missing documentation needs to be corrected and the process is repeated partially
From the Second floor steps above…..
Hey – the process is not complete yet….once you have validated your documents, you have to stand in another queue for remitting the fees. Luckily this queue is not big (overstaffed?), given that the other process takes so much time – and the flow to this queue only trickles in.
Okay – everything done; now waiting for my passport… and maybe a travel?
Wow – working in IT and ITES companies, all of you would be so used to
SLA (Service Level agreements),
TAT (turn around time – for each process)
Six Sigma – (Problem & solutions)
Each of us, I am sure each of us would have a few 100 improvement suggestions in this entire process…Straight line flow, double handling of documents, Line balancing, load balancing…wow!!!
Would my customers accept this level of service…hmmm…something to think about!!
More thoughts:
– India is in the forefront of IT development - perhaps opportunities to make things more automated ….
- PII / SPID – terms we would say take extra care (even in our sleep) while handling the documents…again there is so much of papers
Freely floating around, it makes you wonder
Perhaps things will change – It is only a matter of time, but how much time is the Question!!! Hopefully the "Bureaucracy" tag that India is so famous for….can be changed if "People" really work on some small things which could have huge impact on the way things are handled.
-- and Only then we can proudly say India Shining!!!
Purple patches:
Same process is being followed for everyone – for AAM aadmi to the richest or the most connected!!! Or is it??
* Saw Succhi of X- Radio Mirchi – no she was not in the queue – arrived, announced her arrival and informed the guard of the "Senior" whom she has spoken to…walked straight in…and Out!!!
- The online passport website is quite cool – pretty neat and fast and also lets you know the status very effectively.
For a common man......India can defenitely shine Brighter if.....
India Shining!!! Or is it?
Well – recently went to the Shastri Bhavan for renewing my Passport – was quite a sight!!
The queue for the online registration on the ground floor was quite lengthy – with the queue coming out of the building on to the parking lot- thank God there is a huge parking lot or else the queue would have gone on to the road; the recent "Incident" seems to have pushed the touts / travel agents back…or has it??. The weather gods at this time also heat things up.
People inside the passport office are at least officially wary to support – things were mentioned like "Passport which are being followed up are specially investigated and so it is better to just to apply through the normal process", "Don’t know if the phones are tapped" Hmmm…
Don’t know how long this "truthfulness" will be there…reminds me so much of the "Indian" movie..
Moving on to the first floor…that’s where the people for the Tatkal applications are to stand…has a peculiar system – just like railways, there Is a limited number of "application" received – people come in at 4.30 AM to reserve seats for a 10 AM token number allotment – here againa few agents are able to keep "Nominees" for the people who can "afford"…
Ok, token number allotment is a 2 minute process…but given the number of seats, people need to come in at least 5-1/2 hours early…hmm!!!
Lets move to the second floor where the applications are scrutinised – 2 vociferous guards control the crowd from the staircase (from where another queue for this process starts) – there are various types of passport applications and "smart" people often by-pass the queue and sail through. You can get outshouted and moved back, but if you are lucky after 1-2 hours you canClear the queue and move into the Application scrutiny area…
There is another queue here and another 2 hours….if you have gone through a travel agent – probably your documentation is great..
You can clear the actual verification process in 5-10 minutes or else missing documentation needs to be corrected and the process is repeated partially
From the Second floor steps above…..
Hey – the process is not complete yet….once you have validated your documents, you have to stand in another queue for remitting the fees. Luckily this queue is not big (overstaffed?), given that the other process takes so much time – and the flow to this queue only trickles in.
Okay – everything done; now waiting for my passport… and maybe a travel?Wow – working in IT and ITES companies, all of you would be so used to
SLA (Service Level agreements),
TAT (turn around time – for each process)
Six Sigma – (Problem & solutions)
Each of us, I am sure each of us would have a few 100 improvement suggestions in this entire process…Straight line flow, double handling of documents, Line balancing, load balancing…wow!!!
Would my customers accept this level of service…hmmm…something to think about!!
More thoughts:
– India is in the forefront of IT development - perhaps opportunities to make things more automated ….
- PII / SPID – terms we would say take extra care (even in our sleep) while handling the documents…again there is so much of papers
Freely floating around, it makes you wonder
Perhaps things will change – It is only a matter of time, but how much time is the Question!!! Hopefully the "Bureaucracy" tag that India is so famous for….can be changed if "People" really work on some small things which could have huge impact on the way things are handled.
-- and Only then we can proudly say India Shining!!!
Purple patches:
Same process is being followed for everyone – for AAM aadmi to the richest or the most connected!!! Or is it??
* Saw Succhi of X- Radio Mirchi – no she was not in the queue – arrived, announced her arrival and informed the guard of the "Senior" whom she has spoken to…walked straight in…and Out!!!
- The online passport website is quite cool – pretty neat and fast and also lets you know the status very effectively.
For a common man......India can defenitely shine Brighter if.....
