The most fundamental progress that technology has made over the past few decades is a dramatic increase in computing power coupled with a reduction in the cost of storage. Such progress has enabled us to run algorithms and code over swathes of data and at a fraction of the cost, thus yielding what some may consider more insights. Consequently, we are able to find patterns in large amounts of data. This, by some limited definition, is construed as intelligence and has been demonstrated in specific classes of activities such as detecting diabetes from retinal scans, driving cars, playing games, etc. In these cases, software can emulate human behaviour and perhaps even exceed human capabilities. But the fact is that we have not yet invented any new magic wand to make software “think” on its own or have any sense of “consciousness”, in the way humans do.
The limitation is grounded in the fact that software still operates, for the most part, on the paradigm of Gigo (garbage in garbage out), meaning it mostly only does whatever we tell it to and is biased based on whatever data we train it with. Give it incorrect data and it will pick up incorrect patterns.
But the vision and aspiration of computer science has always been to build a machine that can “accurately” emulate human “intelligence”. However, we still have a long way to go before we can build a software system that is functionally capable the same way a human is. Software “intelligence”, though defined in academic circles, has been fairly misused (and misunderstood) in popular reporting, giving people the impression that software can do just about anything a human being can. This notion is fundamentally misguided. We are not there. Or at least not yet. The gap between software and the human mind is still massive.
These gaps help to deflate claims that artificial intelligence (AI) and automation are ready to take over people’s jobs, and about the potential for mass unemployment, particularly in the Indian IT industry. This industry employs a couple of million people, largely consisting of our middle class, and recently it has been called out by commentators as being under threat from automation.
But automating away this labour force is not an easy task. Computer scientist believe in the superiority of silicon (computers) over carbon (humans), the work and study over the past few years in this industry have given reasons to pause and consider the unique contributions and value that humans bring to the table in enabling businesses the world over. Automating these unique attributes requires emulating the same human value.
In the case of the IT industry, for example, professionals perform a range of activities, from understanding customers’ business requirements to writing code, maintaining software systems and processing transactions. Working in teams, they perform a variety of different actions touching several information systems, coordinate with each other, navigate uncertain or changing scenarios, report to their managers, take bottom- line responsibilities for their respective systems, are accountable and serve customers across the globe. All these activities engender a deep sense of trust and confidence among their customers the world over.
At an individual level, each has traits such as intuition, experience, common sense, and an ability to identify and fix the unusual. These are fundamental traits that all humans share, though, admittedly, some more than others. Even in the most seemingly “robotic” of tasks, each human has the potential and ability to apply these traits without necessarily being told to do so a priori, traits that are inherent to each one of us, and ultimately create trust and confidence in our colleagues. This trust and confidence are the fuel that all businesses run on. Therefore, it has always been about more than just following “simple” rules.
Hence, any attempt by “intelligent” software at automating all that work done by a single individual or an entire team of humans must involve recreating the same trust and confidence. This necessarily requires addressing the whole gamut of these activities that humans perform on a regular basis and with similar human traits, but in software. This is no longer about small piecemeal tasks that are easy to automate. It must involve emulating the same traits of common sense, intuition, teamwork, communication, and an ability to deal with the unexpected.
Therefore, the next stage of innovation in computer science will be not just to make software run faster but also about how to get software to emulate more human-like traits and ultimately become truly trustworthy (like humans).
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Petrol in India is cheaper than in countries like Hong Kong, Germany and the UK but costlier than in China, Brazil, Japan, the US, Russia, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, a Bank of Baroda Economics Research report showed.
Rising fuel prices in India have led to considerable debate on which government, state or central, should be lowering their taxes to keep prices under control.
The rise in fuel prices is mainly due to the global price of crude oil (raw material for making petrol and diesel) going up. Further, a stronger dollar has added to the cost of crude oil.
Amongst comparable countries (per capita wise), prices in India are higher than those in Vietnam, Kenya, Ukraine, Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Venezuela. Countries that are major oil producers have much lower prices.
In the report, the Philippines has a comparable petrol price but has a per capita income higher than India by over 50 per cent.
Countries which have a lower per capita income like Kenya, Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, and Venezuela have much lower prices of petrol and hence are impacted less than India.
“Therefore there is still a strong case for the government to consider lowering the taxes on fuel to protect the interest of the people,” the report argued.
India is the world’s third-biggest oil consuming and importing nation. It imports 85 per cent of its oil needs and so prices retail fuel at import parity rates.
With the global surge in energy prices, the cost of producing petrol, diesel and other petroleum products also went up for oil companies in India.
They raised petrol and diesel prices by Rs 10 a litre in just over a fortnight beginning March 22 but hit a pause button soon after as the move faced criticism and the opposition parties asked the government to cut taxes instead.
India imports most of its oil from a group of countries called the ‘OPEC +’ (i.e, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Russia, etc), which produces 40% of the world’s crude oil.
As they have the power to dictate fuel supply and prices, their decision of limiting the global supply reduces supply in India, thus raising prices
The government charges about 167% tax (excise) on petrol and 129% on diesel as compared to US (20%), UK (62%), Italy and Germany (65%).
The abominable excise duty is 2/3rd of the cost, and the base price, dealer commission and freight form the rest.
Here is an approximate break-up (in Rs):
a)Base Price | 39 |
b)Freight | 0.34 |
c) Price Charged to Dealers = (a+b) | 39.34 |
d) Excise Duty | 40.17 |
e) Dealer Commission | 4.68 |
f) VAT | 25.35 |
g) Retail Selling Price | 109.54 |
Looked closely, much of the cost of petrol and diesel is due to higher tax rate by govt, specifically excise duty.
So the question is why government is not reducing the prices ?
India, being a developing country, it does require gigantic amount of funding for its infrastructure projects as well as welfare schemes.
However, we as a society is yet to be tax-compliant. Many people evade the direct tax and that’s the reason why govt’s hands are tied. Govt. needs the money to fund various programs and at the same time it is not generating enough revenue from direct taxes.
That’s the reason why, govt is bumping up its revenue through higher indirect taxes such as GST or excise duty as in the case of petrol and diesel.
Direct taxes are progressive as it taxes according to an individuals’ income however indirect tax such as excise duty or GST are regressive in the sense that the poorest of the poor and richest of the rich have to pay the same amount.
Does not matter, if you are an auto-driver or owner of a Mercedes, end of the day both pay the same price for petrol/diesel-that’s why it is regressive in nature.
But unlike direct tax where tax evasion is rampant, indirect tax can not be evaded due to their very nature and as long as huge no of Indians keep evading direct taxes, indirect tax such as excise duty will be difficult for the govt to reduce, because it may reduce the revenue and hamper may programs of the govt.