Should I move to India ?

India has changed a lot in last couple of year and so people outside the country thinking its a good time to come back and settle down.

I moved to India recently and As per my experience and calculation , you should think 100times before you move back to India. Dont feel I am regretting or anything but calculations worked in favor of India for me... so You need to do your own calculations and planning.

Few thing you should consider :

Are you planning to move to India because of family ?
This will make sense if you want to take care of your parents and they can live with you. So see if that is feasible as lot of people I know are from near by place where there are no job opportunities and parents may not interested in moving to some metro.

My friends ?
If you are reading this blog , I am assuming you are away from you India since 4-5 yrs. In the fast running and busy life, thats a very big gap and good chances that you lost touch with lot of friends. But once you join any firm here , you will make some with time :)

Do you have a house in a big city where you planning to settle ?
Settling means having your own house, with all that reality boom , owning a house can be a dream. I know you will say what about recession prices. But my dear friend there is no such thing in the city like hyd and bangalore.. if you willing to drive 40 km in India to work then you have an option. Go to some online websites and checkout prices.

Also for those who do have a parent house , evaluate options if you will be able to manage in that house, as it may be old or too far from your work place , or may be too many families living in same house.

Check howz job market and big companies ?
This is same as #1 point, make sure you have options available for growth.

How about salary ?
I am sure all of you will be intrested in knowing about this. As I have worked both in India and USA , considering that average salary in US and India, rough guess on savings will be a dip upto 50% in case you are only one working , and can be a dip upto 70% if you and your spouse both were earning. This can be a big impact if you have some financial obligation in India.

How much India has changes ?
When we are away from country for sometime, then we just recall good times and forget all problems we use to have. In case you want to know if India has changed or not. I can give you some idea. WATER and ELECTRICITY cut is still part of life.. Once in a while you will find PEOPLE beating each other on roads as both of them were expert drivers.. TRAFFIC situation is not improved much...infact we have more UN EDUCATED drivers on the road. Shopping experience is better now.

Is there anything better ?
I know not everything is bad here. As I said you can be back with your family. Also if you are lucky you might be able to trace out your school and college friends ( no virtual meeting on orkut and facebook ). Also you can start your own dream business parallely. You can count on your kids in future :). What else :)

LifeStyle ?
Usually most of Desi's dont have any such thing anyway :) . Maintaining a second hand car and renting cheapest apartment in the locality is actually not called life style... but you can rent house at decent price anywhere in cities. If you owned a house in USA then I am sure you will be able to buy a house in India. Schools are good here, costly also. You have lot of places to shop , theaters and hang out places.

SHOULD I MOVE or NOT
If all is going well, career , money and stability wise +
your parents visit you often , then DONT MOVE back.

Visa Issues ?
In case you are facing VISA issues then you can parallely apply for other countries like AUS ,Singapore and Dubai.

Online money transfer USA to India

I have been to USA for sometime and one of the thing we all use is online money transfer service from USA account to Indian account for loan payments and other reasons.

I am writing here to share my experience with different service providers I used in pasted to do such remittances.

Exchange rate :
Everyone is the key factor which people take into considering on to move the money right away or wait a little bit, I am no different.

I usually check Exchange Rates to get an idea on current market rates. All the providers promise to transfer at ZERO fee but usually you will rates less than market rate by 20 paisa to 50 paisa. That's how they charge the fee.

So check the difference your provider have and find which one is providing you best rates.

Time it takes:
I am sure this is the biggest pain in this whole process. Time it takes from when you start the transaction from the point you have it in your account vary a lot from one provider to another.

In my past experience there are few sub factors which drives this in your favor or against.

Bank Deposit / Cash Pickup / Draft :
Usually Bank Deposit and Cash Pickup's are much faster then Drafts, which will take its own time to deliver ( consider how efficient courier services we have in india ).

Bank itself :
If you want to transfer to HDFC in india then use HDFC remittance service, same apply to SBI and ICICI remittance. Across bank usually adds upto 2-3 more days.

My Experience :
With my experience I am rating services I have used in past.

XOOM.com ( 4.5/5 ) - good exchange rates - fastest service with rates locked. One time they delivered in 23hrs.

ICICI - best rates - too slow - end to end average 8 days - no guarantee of exchange rates

HDFC - slow - good rates - end to end average 8 days - no guarantee of exchange rates

SBI - ok ok - end to end average 5 days - no guarantee of exchange rates

Remit2India - haven't tried , leave feedback if you have

Online website and User Experience

Scenario
Now the life is changed and we have to deal with computer and online websites for each and every thing, every day. This list is limited to sites which are transaction based to keep it short.

Here's my experience on the websites, I have rated them depending upon following criteria's

1. Ease of Usage on Regular basis
2. Support - ( Easy to do password reset / customer care )
3. Look and Feel
4. Different Browser Support ( IE , Firefox , Chrome etc )
5. Landing Page - Advance Alerts for Servers Upgrades / Offers etc

Awesome ( 5/5 )

Bank of America
Citibank
Mint

Above Average ( 4/5 )

ICICI
LIC India
HDFC Bank
HP Gas

Average ( 3/5 )
Bharat Gas
AP Online
AP Transport
Axis Bank
Airtel World Portal

Below Average ( 2/5 )

Passport Government

Pathetic ( 1/5 )

ESeva Hyderabad

Applying for a fresh passport

Scenario:
Actually I do have a passport , but this is from my experience applying passport for my sister.

Solution:
With the online system in place its really not a big deal.

BROKERS or NO BROKERS:
As long as you have all the documents , you are good and no need to pay heavy amount to AGENTS. In my experience going through BROKERS does not guarantee a passport.

Steps:

1. Read what all you need to apply a passport Details , Forms

2. Book an online slot at Online Slot Booking

3. Visit the Passport office on the booked date. Usually there is a long queue, so be patient.( Optionally )Passport office also have some counters by retired people who charge 30-40Rs and will validate all your documents to avoid any problem.

Also you can visit to your nearest main post office and send all the documents via Speed Post.

4.Once submitted you can start tracking the status of your passport Status Update

5. There will be police verification and with due regard be ready to make them happy ( GHANDHI JI ).

6. Once police verification is done it will take few weeks before post man will show up with a big smile which means ( GHANDHI JI ). Make him happy and you have you passport.

Very Very important:
-- Check all the details of you passport at-least 3-4 times and if possible ask a friend to review it also.

-- Make sure all the name spellings / address etc is 100% as per the verification documents. If your certificates/documents have middle name etc, do mention in application form. Overall no mis-matches.

-- In case your address is hard to locate , don't forgot to mention a landmark otherwise police man will come and return back.

Getting a new Learner Licence

Scenario:
Its a long story why I don't have a licence but I wanted one , so applied for it

Process:
You can get lot of information including sample test and learning material here on Driving Test

It was very simple , yes it is.

Use firefox browser as you will need to do online transactions.

Booking a slot :

1. Go to AP Transport website and look for Online Services.

2. Click on the Licence menu > Learner Licence Test ( Direct Link )

3. Go ahead and book the slot.

4. I made the payment through online banking but u can make payment using eseva also.

5. Print the receipt.

Things to carry

1. Copy of Proof of Identification ( Passport , Pan , etc )
2. Copy of Date of Birth Proof ( Passport etc )
3. Copy of Address Proof ( Utility bill , passport )
4. Receipt for Booked slot
5. Download and fill form 1 and form 2 and print them. This need to be done even though Receipt shows a Form 2 filled. ( Forms )

Make sure to carry originals for validation purpose

Preparing for the test:

Try to arrive to the center 1 hrs earlier.
1. Buy the licence book to take some model tests and understand all the signs.
2. Be in line 30 min prior to your slot.

Rest they will call your name to take the test.

Best of luck .. exam was simple specially after reading the book.. took me only 4 min to complete.

Let me know if you need any help..

Doubts
You can contact AP Transport by calling

TRANSPORT COMMISSIONER
Transport Bhavan
Khairatabad, Hyderabad - 500 082
Andhra Pradesh, INDIA.

Phone : +91-40 2332-1283
E-Mail Id : info@aptransport.org

or

If you are having any type of issues in booking slot or online payment etc..
then directly call +91 40 2337 0081

Next Steps
1. Once you get the learner licence , make sure all details are correct on it
2. As soon as you reach home, book the slot for your DRIVING Test in advance to avoid delays at same website above.

Taking a new mobile connection

Scenario:
Now you must be thinking whats so great to blog about taking a mobile connection. It is , because every bad experience teaches you more than a good one.

Process:
Even though it is so simple to get a new connection these days but lot of small small things will frustrate you. With so many agents in every nook and corner its hard to trust anyone.

Documents :
Usually you need following documents
-- Identification Proof , can be PAN , Voters ID , Passport etc
-- Address Proof - Electric Bill , Land line Bill etc
-- Photo - passport size

What my experience says :
1. Understand the plan very well for which you are opting, Local STD SMS Roaming etc all the charges

2. Don't take the connection with the agent who has a fix shop/spot so that you can trace him in case of issues.

3. Don't give originals of supporting document in any case

4. Make sure to have a XEROX of application you are submitting

5. Don't leave it to agent to fill the form specially Plan choices , Address and other important info as you will suffer a lot for his/her mistake in future.

6. In case of any security deposit amount , make sure to make the check in the name of Mobile provider company and not individual. Avoid CASH business.

7. Check charges and process to change plan in future. This is very important and don't miss this one out.

Some more tips on usage :
1. In our virtually busy world we don't have time to look at bill details. Make sure to review the 1st few bills in detail

2. Register online on the provide website for alerts to avoid overdue bill payments charges.

3. In case you planning to cancel an existing cancel, make sure to call helpline and settle all the dues by paying outstanding amount get a reference number for the request. You will thank me for this :)