Emmigration Officials Tearing Up Pages of Passport!

Stories have been circulating through emails. Here's a report of the same that came in Mid Day.

NRIs say passport pages are torn at Indian airports

Mumbai:

pic for representation

The next time you are flying abroad make sure you check your passport thoroughly for any ripped off pages. At least 20 NRI groups in the US and Canada have complained that the visa pages in their passports are tampered with at some Indian airports. On their next entry to India, they say they are detained and harassed and they have to pay a lot of money to get out of the mess.

Said Amsterdam-based doctor Chandrashekhar Rao, "It happened to my brother, an Indian citizen, with a 10-year, multiple-entry visa to the US. When he arrived in Amsterdam from Bangalore, an immigration official in Amsterdam found his visa page torn and as a precaution warned him not to visit the US." Rao has since started a blog to inform all Indians in Holland of the possible dangers awaiting them at Indian airports.

Rao's brother later entered the US through Niagara airport in Canada, where the official granted entry since most digits of the visa number were still clearly visible (despite the page being partly torn). "Now, he is going through the pain of applying for a new American visa. The immigration people are crazy. It is a huge fraud," added Rao.

Over the past six months, over 90 NRIs have complained to Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs (MOIA) and External Affairs. "There are certain complaints that are being probed. But it is not a scam as it is being alleged," said an MOIA spokesperson. Immigration officials at Mumbai and Delhi airports refused to comment, terming the allegations as bogus.

Sneak

In their complaint, the NRIs have alleged that at the time of the passenger's departure, the duty officer sneakily tears away one of the pages from the passport while stamping it.

"When the passenger leaves the immigration counter, the incident is keyed into the system to alert all international airports across India. So, the next time the passenger returns to India he or she can be immediately detained," said Hyderabad-born Arifuddin. Arifuddin, who works in Jeddah, got a taste of this when his wife's passport was found torn. The family, which returned to India, is now fighting the case in court.

What happens

>15 to 20 cases are reported each month
> Harassment depends on the passenger's period of stay abroad, his income and standing
>If a passenger tries to argue, then he is sure to be detained
> Once the page is torn, the passport immediately becomes a 'marked one'

How to insure your health and get your premium back if you don't claim

I've been trying to find out a good health insurance for the past one week, and been visiting blogs and sites about it. I realized that the money we pay as premium is gone into thin air if we don't make any claims. The paltry sum offered as addition to sum assured isn't a good enough incentive not to make any claims.

However, I found one company that offers health insurance with a moneyback option. That was Tata AIG. Their critical insurance plan called Life Health Investor keeps you insured against 12 critical illnesses and against death. The miracle is that they will give your premiums back if you don't make any claim. Quite a good policy to keep. Now, that's what an innovative product look like!

A Marketing Lesson from Church Auctions

It's funny that we can observe the most interesting marketing insights in our daily life itself yet we don't recognize most of them. It's also funny that we notice something happening right in front of us when somebody else tells us about it.

I read about the role of social or peer pressure in buying decisions and the fear of losing vs the joy of winning. I had this going on at the back of my mind the whole day. Towards evening, I met a few neighbors of mine at the frontyard and began talking about Christmas and the festivities going on, especially as they were avid churchgoers.

They said most churches conduct auctions to raise money for charity and even small items raise money many times more than its true price as people bid higher and higher in religious fervour. Though interesting from a marketing perspective, it's something they said right after the discussion about church auctions that amused me. Talking about one of their relatives, one of them said "It's a shame that he hasn't paid the money due to the church from last year's auction." All of their family members supported this statement with affirmative nods.

I thought, "Great! What a nice way to market things!" People's fear of failure or loss is much greater than their sense of bargain. I say this from a truly marketing frame of mind. Therefore, I believe it's better to tell a customer as to what he stands to lose along with what he stands to gain in a deal to sway them your way.

I think people's fear of losing is much higher than their joy in winning something; more so when there is social or peer pressure involved. If the church can use it, I think God wouldn't mind us poor marketing souls using that too.... It should be true... bcoz I know I do so many things out of pure social pressure... like going to work in the morning :-) Disclaimer: If anybody from my workplace is reading this, this is not true, and thinking so is equal to blasphemy!

What happens when we organize?

Most power occurs because one side is better organized than the other. Labor is usually less well organized than management, criminals are usually less well organized than the police and customers are always less well organized than producers.

The internet promises to change that. It does it occasionally, sort of randomly. Sometimes, users will rise up and complain (as they did at Facebook). Or voters will organize online and hurt (or help) a politician or candidate.

Wikipedia works because so many contributors figured out how to self-organize into a group that produced something far more useful than a traditionally organized document.

I think we're at the earliest possible beginning of the changes we're going to see because of this sort of grass roots coordination.

Simple example: the Starbucks in Larchmont, NY keeps their thermostat at 64 degrees. And the stores in Breckenridge, Colorado keep their doors wide open all winter. If you're raging mad about energy waste, you could say something. And nothing would happen. But if customers organized and ten people said something or a hundred people said something... boom, new rules.

The system doesn't know what to do with a movement.

Link to the original post by Seth is given below.

http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2008/04/what-happens-wh.html