13 April, 2009

Re-usability? Good or Bad?

Kisan Vikas Patra (KVP) is a Post Office Savings Scheme that doubles your money in 8 years and 7 months with the advantage of premature withdrawal. KVP is sold through all Head Post Offices and other authorised post offices throughout India.


I happened to take a 8 years 7 months KVP for one of my cousins for Rs.50,000. I was given 5 Certificates worth Rs.10,000 each. I was surprised to see the 5 1/2 year Kisan Vikas Patra as the top heading on these certificates. What the heck! I thought that by investing in a 8 years 7 months KVP, my cousin would be the proud owner of Rs.1,00,000 at the end of that duration. Now the Post Master had erroneously given me the 5 1/2 year KVP. I rushed back to him showing him the top heading as though I was handed over incorrect certificates. He calmly explained that they have been using 5 1/2 year Kisan Vikas Patra certificates for 8 years 7 months KVP with a differentiator that the Post Office Seal would specify the duration as 8 years 7 months instead of 5 1/2 years.


I wonder why the government is printing and re-printing 5 1/2 year KVP certficates though this KVP has been shelved long ago and the latest offering is 8 years 7 months KVP? The Post Master answered that these certificates were printed a decade ago. Heights or Re-usability I guess!


Such incidents happen quite often in our Testing Industry as well. We more often cling to existing norms, rules and regulations, processes etc without questioning the value that these bring along in our daily working life. We need to question the existence of each and every such thing that is outdated and hence invalid. We should not follow anything outdated in the name of re-using them if they dont bring any value add to the work that we do . I could not withdraw the KVP though :-(.


Happy Testing,

Pari - http://curioustester.blogspot.com/

6 comments:

  1. Hi,
    Could you confirm for me the procedure of KVP. When one invets, let's say Rs. 5000, is he issued certificates worth Rs. 10,000 right away, as used to be the procedure for Indira VP, or is he issued just Rs. 5000 certificate which would be worth Rs. 10,000 after 8 years.
    Thanks.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Anonymous,
    If you invest Rs. 5000, you would either be given 5 certificates of Rs. 1000 or 1 certificate of Rs. 5000 . On each of these certificates, the maturity amount is mentioned as appropriate(double the amount). For eg. If you are given 1 certificate of Rs. 5000, then the maturity amount is specified as Rs. 10000 in the certificate itself at the time of issue. From what you said about Indira VP, it looks to me like a better way of handling such schemes. Thanks for letting me know :-)

    Happy Investing,
    Regards,
    Pari

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi Pari,

    Nice comments :-)

    May be those were printed in bulk sometime ago and then the scheme/investment duration might have got changed. Anyway that looks like a minor issue and a workaround is there as they have a seal which specify the correct duration about the maturity. There might be a purpose in using those old certificates like
    - It's un-economical in wasting those certificates which are already printed.
    - It might consume time in ordering specific quality of a paper and then printing them.
    - there might not be an effective way of recycling the unwanted papers/certificates?
    - This helps in reduction in deforestation which inturn a good step wrt global warming.

    When compared to such ideas and the workaround they have now, will it affect much wrt the schemes and conditions? :-)

    Hope you got what i wanted to convey :-)

    Cheers,
    Vijay...

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hi Pari,

    btw if you are relating this story to reusability of a software component, then i don't think the theme of this story suits or convey the corrct message. The blog heading and the message you are trying to convey are not relating. It's just my thought. May be i am misinterpreting things or not able to understand the concept here!!!

    Cheers,
    Vijay...

    ReplyDelete
  5. @Vijay
    The blog heading and the message you are trying to convey are not relating.


    Agreed. This was when I was taking baby steps in blogging. I think I have improved over a period of time.

    Regards,
    Parimala Shankaraiah

    ReplyDelete
  6. Hi Every one !!!

    You all must check your KVP's serial with your post office as if taken with any agent it could be "FAKE"

    You know during the period of 1995-1998 blank KVP worth R s. tWo hUnDrEd cr.were stolen from railway when in transit.

    So,be carefull....

    ReplyDelete