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The Filipino-made Salamander amphibious tricycle

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Meet the top 10 transgender models

It's beautiful to be a transgender and these models are proof!

Earlier this week we told you the story of how Rudrani Chettri is all set to launch India's first transgender modelling agency.

While we laud the 37-year-old for her courageous move, let's take a look at these 10 transgender models who are making waves abroad.

1. Andreja Pejic

Photograph: Courtesy Carlos Alvarez/Getty Images

Meet Andreja Pejic!

She is a mainstay on the ramp -– a supermodel, she has modelled both men's and women's wear.

Andreja reportedly told a magazine that as a kid she would look at her mother put make-up on and envy her. "I would be feeling that's what I want to do when I grow up," she'd added.

She made history in 2015 by becoming the first transgender model to feature in the American Vogue.

The supermodel gained fame as an androgynous model in the late 2000s and was also Jean Paul Gaultier's muse.

2. Carmen Carrera

Photograph: Courtesy Ben Gabbe/Getty Images

It was after Carmen Carrera's appearance in RuPaul's Drag Race in 2012 that she shot to instant fame.

There was also a petition called for to make her Victoria's Secret's first transgender angel.

An actress and model, Carmen has been actively working for trans rights and HIV awareness. She has walked the ramp at several fashion weeks and was a part of the New York Fashion Week 2016.

She has appeared in several high-end magazine covers and has also walked the LA Fashion Week ramp.

3. Lea T

Photograph: Courtesy Tullio M. Puglia/Getty Images

This Brazilian model is the face of American hair-care brand Redken.

The first transgender model to front a global cosmetics brand, she has also modelled for Givenchy.

She was pictured in a passionate locked embrace with Kate Moss on the cover of Love Magazine.

4. Arisce Wanzer

Photograph: Courtesy Courtesy Arisce Wanzer/Facebook

She is the face of Kenneth Cole.

An advocate of transgender rights, she has walked for plenty of Miami Fashion Weeks.

5. Geena Rocero

Photograph: Courtesy Michael Loccisano/Getty Images

Geena was a successful swimsuit model for 12 years before she came out as a transgender during a TED talk.

She underwent a sex reassignment surgery at the age of 19.

6. Ines Rau

Photograph: Courtesy Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images

This French-born model has posed for Playboy's Art Issue.

In 2013, Ines Rau's nude photo-shoot with model Tyson Beckford for a luxury magazine grabbed eyeballs.

7. Isis King

Photograph: Courtesy Gary Gershoff/Getty Images

Isis was the first transgender model to feature in America's Next Top Model.

She has walked the ramp for various fashion shows and in 2012 she became the first transgender to model for American Apparel.

8. Hari Nef

Photograph: Courtesy Randy Shropshire/Getty Images

This 22-year-old model is the first trans woman to get signed by top modelling agency, IMG Worldwide.

With an edgy, androgynous fashion sense, she has walked the ramp for Gucci.

9. Valentijn De Hingh

Photographer: Courtesy Valentijn De Hingh/Instagram

Valentijn De Hingh has walked the runway for high-profile designers like Maison Martin Margiela and Comme de Garcons.

She also graced the covers of Love Magazine and Vogue Italia.

10. Jenna Talackova

Photograph: Courtesy Mark Blinch / Reuters

In 2012, Jenna Talackova was disqualified by the Miss Universe Organisation for not being a 'naturally-born women'.

She has modelled extensively in Canada and featured in the cover of Elle Canada. She has also modelled for a PETA campaign.

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India beat Australia in Sydney, complete 3-0 rout

Images from the third and final T20 International between Australia and India at the Sydney Cricket Ground.

IMAGE: Suresh Raina of India and Yuvraj Singh of India celebrate victory with teammates in the third T20 against Australia in Sydney. Photograph: Matt King/Getty Images

India beat Australia by seven wickets in the third and final Twenty20 match at the Sydney Cricket Ground to win the series 3-0.

Chasing a formidable 198 to complete a clean sweep, the visitors won with the final ball of their innings, Suresh Raina (49 not out) hitting the winning boundary.

- Scorecard

Besides recording their highest run-chase ever on Australian soil, the win also promoted Mahendra Singh Dhoni's boys to the
top of the ICC T20 rankings and they now lead the table in the shortest and the longest format.

This also happened to be India's second highest run-chase after they overhauled 202 against Sri Lanka at Rajkot back in 2010.

IMAGE: Shane Watson of Australia (right) celebrates with teammate Travis Head after scoring a century. Photograph: Matt King/Getty Images

Earlier, stand-in captain Shane Watson pulverised a mediocre Indian bowling to smash an unbeaten 124 as Australia scored a commendable 197 for five.

The seasoned all-rounder played only 71 balls hitting 10 fours and half a dozen of sixes carrying his bat through the innings after winning the toss. Such was Watson's dominance that the next best score was 26 from Travis Head. 

Indian bowlers who were impressive in the first two games were belted out of the park as Australian batsmen hit a total of 16 boundaries and seven sixes in their innings.

The hit pair of Ravichandran Ashwin (1-36) and Ravindra Jadeja (1-41) gave away 77 runs in their quota of eight overs together.

Watson proceeded to score his maiden T20I hundred, surpassing his previous best of 81. It was also the highest score by a captain, besting Faf du Plessis' 111.

IMAGE: Rohit Sharma of India celebrates and acknowledges the crowd after scoring a half century during the Sydney T20. Photograph: Mark Metcalfe/Getty Images

Chasing a seemingly improbable target, India began in an impressive manner, adding 46 runs off their first 20 ball, thanks largely to a 9-ball 26 by Shikhar Dhawan.

Shaun Tait (0-46) and Scott Boland (0-34) were taken to the cleaners.

Watson had the Delhi batsman caught behind in his first over. However, the in-form Kohli then joined Rohit Sharma at the duo maintained the scoring rate, adding 78 runs (off just 55 balls) for the second wicket.

The duo was gathering runs at pace as the Indian 100-mark came up in only 9.4 overs. Rohit reached his ninth T20 fifty in the process.

An impressive Cameron Boyce (2-28) had Rohit (52) caught by Watson at midwicket. 

IMAGE: Virat Kohli of India bats during the Sydney T20 against Australia. Photograph: Matt King/Getty Images

Kohli completed yet another half century (50).

It was his 12th T20I half century.

In fact, Kohli's aggregate of 199, from the three matches, was impressive enough to win him the player of the series honour.

However, Boyce did manage to get him out immediately after, the batsman deflecting the ball onto his stumps.  

IMAGE: Suresh Raina of India (left) celebrates hitting the winning runs on the last ball of the match with Yuvraj Singh during the Sydney T20. Photograph: Matt King/Getty Images

Raina and Yuvraj Singh (15 not out) kept their cool as they blasted the required 17 runs off the final over to chase down a mammoth target.

Rookie Andrew Tye was given the final over by Watson with 17 runs to get with a shaky Yuvraj batting for the first time in the series on strike. He had scratched his way to five off nine balls before whipping a delivery on the pads over fine leg for a boundary.

With 13 needed from five balls, it was vintage Yuvraj as he rocked back and smashed Tye over deep mid-wicket for a six to bring the equation down to 7 from four balls. Yuvraj and Raina - his 25-ball effort had half a dozen fours and a six - then scampered home for a single to make it six from three balls. 

A couple of doubles from Raina made it two from the last ball as all the fielders were brought inside the circle. The UP left-hander kept his cool as he slashed it over point and the Indian dug-out erupted in wild celebrations as the players rushed to the ground to congratulate the duo. 

'GST is the Brahmastra for the Indian economy'

'2017-2018 will be one of the best years for the country.'

'The wheel has finally started moving in the right direction. It should pick up momentum in the next 8 to 9 months to have a positive impact on the economy'

IMAGE: 'India's poor infrastructure is the biggest challenge for 'Make in India' to succeed,' says ASSOCHAM President Sunil Kanoria.

Sunil Kanoria, the president of The Associated Chambers of Commerce & Industry of India, tells Shobha Warrier/Rediff.com in in an exclusive interview that the Modi government needs to address a few issues to ensure that India grows at 8% consistently.

Kanoria, bottom, left, the co-founder and vice-chairman, Srei Infrastrcture Finance Ltd, wants the Goods and Sales Tax to be introduced in the pure form and not diluted to give leverage to some states that are into manufacturing.

From the industry's perspective, do you see the Indian economy in a positive note now?

I would say it is getting positive slowly. From 2010 onwards, because of poor administration, the judiciary had to intervene in every aspect like the 2G verdict and the coal scam.

With so many scams getting exposed every day, and the retrospective tax issue, the entire atmosphere was so negative that many international investors lost huge amounts of money.

The five years of policy paralysis, poor governance and wrong activism had a massive impact on India's economy and businesses.

The damage done during the period was so huge that it is taking time to come out of it. Everyone around was frustrated and there were high hopes when this government came to power in 2014.

True, it is taking time for this government to correct all the wrongs, but they are taking the right steps by making some corrections in the regulatory framework and by ushering in transparency in governance.

We are starting to see some changes. For example, in the road sector, projects were stuck, but now they are getting released and work has started once again.

The damage was huge and people were badly bruised in terms of high debt and heavy leverage Industry, thus, needs a large amount of capital to kickstart everything. Capital has started coming in as Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been able to market India very well.

Global investors are looking at India with renewed interest and foreign funds have started flowing. The increase in foreign direct investment during the past 6 to 9 months is impressive.

How much did the intolerance debate affect business and India's image?

India is such a tolerant country that we tolerate intolerance. Are we not talking about it? Are there not debates on intolerance in the media and in Parliament?

The intolerance debate has not affected business at all. We may have witnessed a few stray incidents, but that does not give anyone the right to label the country as intolerant.

As a country, we have tolerated everything. Our scriptures teach us tolerance.

I don't think these incidents have affected India's image. India's image is quite positive and strong internationally. Yes, India has its problems and challenges, and India cannot be what China is. It cannot suddenly grow at 10 per cent.

You said India couldn't be China. Is it because we are a democracy?

Yes. We are a strong democracy and the country has its own pulls and pushes. It is not an easy task to govern India. But even if we are able to grow at 8 per cent consistently over a long period of time, it will be very good.

Is 8 per cent consistent growth possible?

I think it is possible.

Which sector must India concentrate on to attain 8 per cent overall growth? Where do you see the growth happening?

The key sector is infrastructure. India's poor infrastructure is the biggest challenge for 'Make in India' to succeed. The rebuilding process will happen through government expenditure as many suffered losses through public-private partnerships.

When you start building infrastructure, it has a multiplier effect. It will have 15 to 20 per cent effect on the economy as you are creating an asset and distributing wealth. It is the core driver and the onus is on the government.

Of course, public-private partnership will also work, but it is the government who has to kick-start the process, and thankfully that has happened.

IMAGE: 'Let the central government concentrate on infrastructure asset creation. Let them build roads for the benefit of the nation,' says ASSOCHAM President Sunil Kanoria.

Nitin Gadkari says the government is building 14 kms of road per day, and by March, they hope to take it up to 30 kms. Are you happy with this?

The road sector alone cannot kick-start the economy. The Railways also is quite proactive and the ground effects will soon be evident. Many other projects are also off the ground in terms of regulatory framework, which is a good sign.

New projects are being awarded now. Most of the contractors do not have capacity because of past problems. But that problem is now being overcome and new sponsors and new contractors are joining the fray.

Though slowly, the wheel has finally started moving in the right direction and it should pick up momentum in the next 8 to 9 months to have a positive impact on the economy.

China is described as the manufacturing capital of the world. Will Modi's 'Make in India' campaign work?

It will take time for the world to accept it. There are plenty of bottlenecks, which need to be corrected -- like the ease in doing business, the tax regime, and, of course, the GST Bill. The GST Bill is particularly critical.

You are saying the GST Bill is critical while some others say GST is not the Nirvana of the Indian economy.

I would say GST is the Brahmastra that is needed for the economy. The Indian tax system has divided India into different states. Doing business between different states in the country is a nightmare.

Comparatively, it is easier to do business in different countries. Engaging in export and import is easier than doing business within the country.

The GST, is thus, the key thread that will link all the states and conducting business will be easier.

It is very important that the GST is introduced in pure form and not diluted to give leverage to some states that are into manufacturing.

There is a proposal to give different rates to the states that manufacture. Such a proposal will kill the bill. It must be reasonable in terms of rates but not a distorted one.

You mean a GST Bill in the right form can transform the Indian economy?

Yes, it can. I feel the country can have at least 1-1 ½ per cent more growth because of this. For 'Make in India' to happen and international investors to come in, such a bill is absolutely essential. For them, the market is the entire country and not different states.

You may have production in one place and consumption in some other place, so it is essential to ensure easy movement of goods across the country.

Are you hopeful of the GST Bill getting passed?

All parliamentarians should understand that for India to grow, the GST is very important. We appeal to all of them to realise this and rise above their political differences and think about the country.

There were talks about the Land Acquisition Bill in the last session of Parliament, but now you don't hear a whisper. Is it not important for economic growth?

According to me, the Land Acquisition Bill should have been looked at in a different manner. As land is a local subject, you should allow state governments to take a decision on this.

If a state does not create a good policy, industries won't go there. Industry will go to a place where the state is interested in development and welcomes businesses.

Let the central government concentrate on infrastructure asset creation. Let them build roads for the benefit of the nation.

The criticism against the Modi government is that it is selling India to the capitalists and multinationals. How do you respond to this?

It is a wrong thing to say. It is also a very old, wrong, thinking. Nobody is selling the country and it is not feasible to sell the country.

You are attracting capital and bringing in resources and not selling or becoming slaves to multinationals.

Unless you bring in enterprise, how do you create jobs?

You must understand good capitalism is beneficial for the development of the poor.

Those who expected Modi to provide jobs are now getting restless...

After the economic tsunami of the past, most of the people were either in the ICU or on ventilator and they were in pain.

When you are in pain, you expect the doctor to give you an injection and hope for an immediate cure. But it doesn't happen that way. If the disease is too advanced, it takes time to cure.

I am sure when this government occupied the hot seat, they didn't know what kind of mess they were going to face. To correct the mess, you have to take the entire system together.

People expected Narendra Modi to clear all the mess at one go. One thing is clear: The actions taken so far and the guidance given by the Modi government is in the right direction in terms of ease of doing business with transparency as the key driver.

What this government is doing today will result in a stronger foundation tomorrow.

Wherever he goes, Modi talks about no corruption in his government. As a business person, from the industry's point of view, has corruption come down and is there more transparency today?

I would say corruption has come down from what it was in the past.

How long do you think it will take India to see some results?

I feel by the second half of 2016, we will start seeing results. 2017-2018 will be one of the best years for the country.

The pain of innovation

The power to cause societal pain, at least to some segments of society, is intrinsic to the nature of technological innovation, says Ajit Balakrishnan.

Whenever the talk about innovation bubbles up into a fever, as it is currently doing in India, I abandon my normal route to work from Colaba to Mahim through pretty Marine Drive and take the inner route, through Chinchpokli and Jacob's Circle.

I do this to catch a glimpse of what is now called Kasturba Hospital and bring myself back to the ground.

The Kasturba Hospital was built in 1892 as The City Fever Hospital.

In the late 19th Century, the city, then called Bombay, was struck by a series of epidemics: malaria, cholera, Spanish influenza, and, most of all, the bubonic plague.

Why Bombay? It was then, like today, India's most internationally connected city and ships carrying infected people from Hong Kong brought these diseases, and spread from Bombay city to the rest of western and northern India.

In Bombay city alone nearly 200,000 people died in that last decade of the 19th century.

The innovation called "vaccines" was still a decade away, so the British colonial government of that time started enforcing the only measure governments of that time knew against such epidemics -- isolating the infected people in hospitals such as The City Fever Hospital to limit the spread of these diseases.

Widespread protests erupted against this enforced segregation. In Poona, the British official in charge of enforcing this segregation, W C Rand, was assassinated to the applause of many nationalists.

What was an innovative measure to combat a deadly epidemic, in fact the only known measure at that time, was interpreted as yet another act against Indians by the colonial government.

The protests around this were a clear accelerator to the Indian Independence movement.

Everyone loves innovation, but, what is often not recognised is that innovations, particularly the really big ones, cause societal crises which can then be harnessed by astute politicians for their causes.

In a similar vein, in the early years of the 20th century, the synthesis of indigo from synthetic sources through innovations in chemistry caused hardships to the indigo growers of Champaran in Bihar -- whose protests Gandhiji went on to lead, gaining him prominence in India's nascent Independence movement.

The Congress party's flag, which was used to rally all Indians to the Independence movement to drive out the British colonial government, had for many decades a charkha, the hand spinning wheel, a symbol of indigenous technology that was made obsolete by the arrival of the Spinning Jenny and the use of machines that could multiply productivity manifold.

The power to cause societal pain, at least to some segments of society, is intrinsic to the nature of technological innovation.

For that reason, more often than not, it creates forces that push back and create not only new leaders, be it Tilak in Poona or Gandhi in Champaran, but also protests from novelists and poets.

The late 18th century innovations in yarn spinning and textile weaving that we now know of as the First Industrial Revolution, created immense changes in English society -- and the work of poets like William Wordsworth and novelists like Charles Dickens in novels such as Hard Times is the response of many at that time who yearned for an idealised, simpler past.

What is intrinsic to technological innovation that causes pain to some segments of society? This arises from the "disruptive" nature of genuine innovation.

Clayton Christensen of the Harvard Business School was the first to point out how this disruptive innovation process works.

When they first appear, disruptive innovations may be considered inferior by most; typically, the best customers are not willing to switch to the new offering even when its prices are substantially lower.

But there are other customers who value the low price and often lower features.

Thus, the arrival of machine-spun yarn at much lower prices was ignored by the spinners in 19th century India.

The arrival of relatively crude textiles which could not even remotely match the exquisite handloom sarees was ignored by handloom weavers.

The arrival of chemistry as science brought indigo from coal tar and much lower prices and was ignored by people who were thriving on growing the indigo plant.

When the lower price version spreads it does two things -- on the one hand it makes it affordable to vast new sections of the population; on the other hand, it impoverishes the incumbents who continue their high-price, high-quality product till it's too late.

What are the promises and threats of the current technologies of the internet and web that we see swirling all around us?

Many observers view this wrongly as "e-commerce", a way of locating, selecting, buying and getting delivery of heavily discounted products.

It is much more than that. It is essentially the promise of making all kinds of professional services ultra-cheap and of even higher quality than today.

These technologies will make, for instance, financial, legal, medical and educational services of very high quality available at a fraction of their current prices.

This is bound to make the lives of the average citizen much easier -- but it will also mean a drastic reduction in the numbers and incomes of bankers, lawyers, doctors and teachers.

This is not going to happen without massive societal pushback.

When I passed by Kasturba hospital, today, I paused and tried to imagine what it would take to hasten this era of affordable financial services, justice, medicine and education without succumbing to societal pushback.

Ajit Balakrishnan, founder and CEO of Rediff.com, is the author of The Wave Rider, A Chronicle of the Information Age. You can reach him at ajitb@rediffmail.com

GSTN: The solution to India's tax problems

'Through the use of technology, the GSTN will tip the balance in favour of compliance rather than tax evasion, lowering the barriers for entry into the tax payment system while making it much harder to cheat on payments,' says Nandan Nilekani and Viral Shah.

The Goods and Services Tax Network is a new institution created specifically to act as the central technology platform that will implement the GST.

Given that the power to impose and collect taxes is spread across the central and state governments, any attempt to build a centralised technology platform could be seen as a ploy to alter the balance of this power, creating instant opposition.

One way to negate such potential dissent was as simple as choosing the appropriate name for the project. GSTN doesn't exactly make for a catchy acronym, especially for a project that aims to completely transform India's tax landscape.

However, there's more to the name than meets the eye; a neutral term like 'network' doesn't convey a threat, while terms like 'authority', 'India' or 'national' would imply a power shift towards the centre.

'Network' helped us convey our goal of the GSTN being only the plumbing that brought together all the stakeholders in the tax ecosystem, with no participation in any Centre-state power struggles.

From day one, one of the biggest implementation-level concerns with the GST centred around the actual process of revenue collection. It was not clear to the states whether the Centre would collect the revenue and if the Centre would share it with them promptly, or more likely late or never at all.

Fund flows from the Centre to the state have historically been delayed and intermittent, unable to provide much-needed support when state economies are struggling.

It is this history that has led to today's complex taxation system and has left our states deeply suspicious of sharing revenue collection powers with the Centre.

The loss of control over their own revenues was an unattractive proposition and, given that many states have tight finances, any delay in collections could adversely affect their functioning.

To address these concerns, the GSTN has been designed as a non-profit company jointly owned by the central and state governments, with professional management.

By design, the government is not a majority stakeholder, allowing for the company to hire a professional team.

The structure of the GSTN does not disturb the balance of power, and provides much-needed support to both the government and the people; revenue collection departments will find their work simplified through professional technology services and people will avail of a customer-friendly set-up that transforms the adversarial relationship between the taxpayer and the authorities.

It also grants a great deal of flexibility, allowing the organisation to invest in choosing the right people for the task of building a complex, highly scalable technology platform.

The creation of an institution such as the GSTN also solves another thorny issue -- that of the taxation of interstate commerce. A common and neutral body that is jointly controlled by all stakeholders can settle interstate tax claims in a well-defined, timely and taxpayer-friendly manner.

While these decisions gave a sound footing to the fledgling institution, it wouldn't be government without its fair share of petty bureaucratic squabbles.

Nandan strongly recommended that the chairman be drawn from the government, while the CEO be a professional from the private sector; he wryly recalls, 'One of the most heated discussions around implementing such a landmark reform was whether the heads of the organisation ought to be from the Indian Administrative Service or the Indian Revenue Service.'

At the heart of the GSTN lies the technology platform that powers the implementation, operation and oversight of the GST.

Coming up with a design for this platform was the mission of a group with another of those catchy government-issued names -- the Empowered Group on IT Infrastructure on GST.

Under Nandan's chairmanship, this group presented a report to the government in September 2010 which outlined the proposed system’s design philosophy, key features and operational goals. It would need a professional, highly experienced team to build a platform capable of processing hundreds of millions of transactions for millions of taxpayers.

One of the main aims of the GSTN is to make life simpler for both the taxpayer and the tax administrative authorities.

As far as the taxpayer is concerned, the filing of tax returns and the payment of taxes should be a simple, uniform process, irrespective of location and the size of the taxpayer's business.

Hence, the GSTN's technology platform should make it easy for the taxpayer to comply with the law without necessitating extra effort on their part.

By implementing a uniform set of policies to be administered across the Centre and individual states, the GSTN will also significantly reduce the costs and administrative machinery required to implement and enforce tax laws.

The transparency conferred by the use of technology will help to plug leaks, eliminate tax fraud and enable easy auditing. Data from this system can be mined and analysed to improve tax collection.

Ultimately, however, the GSTN architecture must recognise and respect the Constitutional autonomy granted to the states and should not blur the constitutionally drawn boundaries between state and Centre.

Building the GSTN requires us to address the needs and concerns of all those who will be stakeholders in the system.

Small taxpayers cannot be expected to immediately adopt an entirely electronic tax payment and processing system and there should be extensive education and training to make the process as smooth as possible.

Corporate taxpayers tend to operate across the country and have to grapple with different tax regimes in different states. They usually have sophisticated in-house software systems to handle the complexity of tax processing and payment.

These systems must be made compatible with the GSTN by issuing a uniform set of standards to corporate tax software providers. These standards should also be implemented across all states, making it easier for state authorities to collect tax and implement policies.

Tax collection, after all, is about actually collecting money, and hence the Reserve Bank of India and other banks should be able to freely work with the GSTN to get taxpayer information and process payments.

There are four key processes that the GSTN needs to implement, connecting the stakeholders we described above.

The first is the registration of taxpayers. Since the PAN card is already a common ID used for paying income tax, it can be reused for the GST, without going to the pointless trouble and expense of creating a new, GST-specific ID format.

Using the PAN number has the added benefit of reconciling direct and indirect taxes paid by every entity and creating a comprehensive record of every taxpayer's payment history, making it easier to audit payments and catch any instances of fraud.

The second important process in tax collection is the processing of challans. A challan is a payment instrument used to pay taxes to the government. Both the monetary payment and the associated challan are deposited at collecting banks, which then forward them to the respective tax administrations.

Finally, all taxpayers are required to file their returns so that the Centre and states can both assess whether taxpayers have computed, collected and deposited their taxes correctly.

These three processes -- taxpayer registration, challan submission and the filing of tax returns -- can be completely automated and integrated with various tax-preparation software packages.

Beyond these, there are various other processes such as processing of refunds, taxpayer audits and appeals, which also need automation and integration with the revenue collection systems of the centre and states.

The fourth key process, and perhaps one of the most important and interesting ones, is the administration of the interstate GST settlement.

Keeping in line with the destination-based taxation design of GST, in the case of interstate commerce, the GSTN computes how much tax each state owes each other, and settles the accounts of states.

While the GSTN can build this complex system that connects with all the stakeholders, defines all the interfaces and provides a multitude of services to each stakeholder, the business rules -- tax rates, negative lists, special categories and other such issues -- can be decided independently by the government and simply uploaded into the system and even changed as necessary.

Policy-making and policy administration are thus cleanly separated, making the system far easier to operate.

Just as in the case of the state-level VAT, all buyers and sellers in the GSTN system will also be linked, raising the barriers to fraud and providing a significant revenue boost for the government.

The GSTN can easily use data mining techniques to detect tax fraud -- for example, the wrongful usage of tax rules or the creation of non-existent dealers to claim illegal benefits -- and plug the leaks that exist in the current system.

Through the use of technology, the GSTN will tip the balance in favour of compliance rather than tax evasion, lowering the barriers for entry into the tax payment system while making it much harder to cheat on payments.

This is the exact opposite of the approaches taken so far, where the emphasis is on vetting users before allowing them to pay tax, while fraud detection systems remain largely inefficient and vulnerable to cheating.

Honest taxpayers will find the new system more transparent, cheaper and far easier to use, whereas evaders will be caught more readily and suffer punishment.

The GSTN works as a self-policing system in which attempts at evasion are automatically flagged, making compliance easy and our tax payment systems transparent.

Implementing the GSTN can lead to an estimated 20 per cent increase in tax collections, which could work out to the tune of Rs 300 billion in additional revenue for the government, enough to pay the annual bill of the nation's Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme.

Excerpted from Rebooting India, Realizing A Billion Aspirations, by Nandan Nilekani and Viral Shah, Allen Lane, published by Penguin India, with the publisher's kind permission