Smart Accounts - Smart Savings

Continuing my previous post titled "Smart Accounts", I am writing adding to that idea here.

I was "Grocery" shopping with my wife at my favorite place in Gurgaon (Spencer's Hyper - Megacity Mall) when this tiny small idea crossed my mind. We all buy stuff like mats, utensils, water filters etc that have a short lifespan of say 6-12 months. Then we need to buy them again either because of their condition or a new upgraded product is in the market.

The idea is to create sub accounts inside the main account in which people can save small amount of money for each of these items. So if you 3 items that you want to change in the next 12 months, you start saving for them from the day you bought this one:

12 months LifeSpan
Door Mats (3) - 1200
Non-Stick Pan - 1500
Water Filter - 1900
Save: 4600/12 = 384/month


2 years Lifespan
Desktop - 30,000
Inverter Batteries - 8000
Mobile Phone - 12000
Save: 50,000/24 = 2084/month

The total amount i.e. 2084 + 384 will be transferred automatically to these sub accounts after the user sets them. Banks can calculate the actual interest that the person will earn when he starts putting this amount aside every month (e.g. according to 3.5% on Saving Bank Account). The total interest and the reduced number of EMIs can also be shown. For e.g. @ 3.5% per annum rate of interest, the total interest earned in 23 months will be around Rs. 2065 so 1 EMI will be reduced. Other options such as the benefit of starting an Mutual Fund SIP can also be shown which can yield an attractive interest rate of close to 10% per annum.

Time Camera and Time Snap

As Sumeet was discussing about how much he wants to work on Image Processing, a thought crossed my mind. Can we ever have a "Time Camera"? A Time Camera will not shoot pictures but will capture that moment in time when the button is clicked.

For e.g. you are standing in front of Taj Mahal and you take a picture with the Time Camera. The Time Camera will save that exact moment in time i.e. evrything that is happening around the world at that moment. Now when you check that "Time Snap" on you PC or some other device, you will see a 3D representation showing Taj Mahal as the starting picture. You can then, using a sophisticated software that can walk you around in a 3D environment, go anywhere and see what was happening at that particular moment. For instance what was happenning at the "Times Square. NewYork, when you clicked that picture or what was cooking in your neighbour's kitchen at that time.

I don;t know will it ever be a reality but looking at how fast we are moving ahead with technology, I believe we will might have a Time Camera by next century.

The New Year - TWENTY TEN

Another new year, the last year went so fast. It's going to me the most memorable year of my life as I I became a father of a sweet daughter in May last year. And who can forget all the sleepless nights preparing Nan-1, Nan-2 and Cerelac for my sweetu in the middle of the night, playing with her till 2:00 AM in the morning and finally yawning all over the place in the office then. It has been a great great year for me.

I did a lot of Cooking and Programming this year (the two things that I enjoy the most) and hope to keep the spirits high this year too. I have a lot of great plans for this new year that I missed the last time. A major thing.... major... if I can complete it this year

Save fuel with tyre pressure

A good "green" and very low cost idea of saving fuel can be to make checking of type pressure mandatory whenever a person refuels his vehicle. This will save a very small part of the fuel but will certainly be useful.

For example:

- If suppose the type pressure affects both the mileage/litre and emissions by 2%

- An average person drives around 500 Kms/month, 12 Km/litre is the average mileage of a vehicle

- We have 2 crore vehicles in India of which around 5% run on low type pressure

(Affected Average/litre) * (Average litres burnt/month) * number of vehicles

(2/100 * 12) * (500/12) * 10,00,000 = approx Kms of fuel every month

= 1,00,00,000 (I crore Kms) of fuel can be saved every month

The figure would be much larger if all the vehicles in the world are taken into account.

Traveller Goggles

I was watching this show named "Chew" today on Travel and Living when this thought came to my mind. It was showing a street food market in Taiwan and tourists were checking out on the different food items. There were a number of shops and banners in their local language.

I thought of having a pair of glasses that a tourist will put on and will see everything in local language converted to his language of choice. Be it shop names, traffic signals, other messages. It would be a really helpful invention for all of us.

Updated: 17-Aug-2011
Here it comes: Google Goggles
The Android App can scan text and translate it on your phone.

Updated: 28 Februrary 2014
After almost 5 years this thing is now a reality :)

Post by Wonderful Engineering.

Happy New Year

A very happy new year to you all. One of my resolutions for this year is to keep my blog fresh by adding new content at least every week.

Cooking is one of my hobbies and you will soon start seeing new entries related to it. Whatever I cook I just want to make it a little special by adding a pinch of my *perfection* in it. I make Sandwiches to Omelette, Kathal to masala papads, assorted vegetables, macaroni, bharwa baingan and many more. Olive oil is my favorite for the last 6 months and I really enjoy its aroma even in Aloo-Tamatar...

Check out, I will be posting with photographs...

Smart Accounts

I am the kind of person who will regularly check the his bank accounts to make sure they macth with his expense sheet (yes I have a Google spreadsheet that I use as my expense planner). Whenever I check my bank account I wonder if the expense sheet can be built into the account itself. When I sign my car EMI, Rent and Mobile bill cheques every month, I have to make sure that the sum (EMI, Rent and Bill) is there until the cheques are cleared, recalculating the amout left with me every time I check my account online.

Something as simple as a list built into the online account can make life much easier. The amount in his account will never be altered in any way but the data will be manageable and be used in different ways.

The bank can however use this personal data(with the consent of the user) to offer him different schemes. For e.g. A user spends Rs. 6500 on car EMI, this data can be used for different offers on financing a new/old car, replacing it with new ones etc. Same is the case with investment details.



There are a loads of services that can be offered to a user based on his account information.