Applying passport in tatkal quota in India

(26-1-2015 India-as-superpower) - Many of the passport applicants have not so good experience of applying passport in India. Since now taking an appointment for passport application is automated and available online, It has become much easier now to get an Indian passport.

Recently I applied passport for my minor son and thought of penning down all the sequence of events/steps which everyone has to follow while applying for minor's passport under tatkal service.

Following are the steps which a person has to undergo while applying for minor's passport under tatkal seva:

1. Get online appointment: One has to sign-up for the government of India, ministry of external affairs website passport application website. After sign up one has to fill all the fields required for fresh passport application and fill all the fields for minor applicant. User has two options for filling up passport form:

a)Download form and fill it offline and then upload it after completing the form
b) fill and save the data online.

Both the methods need good internet connection. There are some 4-5 screens which would ask for information needed for completing the application, Press SAVE button after filling all the mandatory fields of each page. Once you have entered all the data then verify it's correctness and press SAVE and SUBMIT button. This would save your information and give you a ARN number. Now click on pay fees and book appointment link. You would probably get appointment of next working day, If applying tatkal quota. If you are applying under normal quota then you would get slot available on closest date(which can be 10 days away). Since I applied for appointment on saturday, I got appointment for monday morning.

2. Gather your required documents: I started gathering below mentioned documents needed for minor's passport for tatkal passport:
a) Passport copy of both parents (front and back page). If Spouse name is endorsed on at least one of the parents passport then police verification is not needed

b) Birth Certificate of minor: Carry a photocopy and original birth certificate of minor applicant.
c) Marriage certificate of parents: Marriage certificate is not mentioned on governments website but is often asked by documents collector/verifier at the suvidha center.
d) Identity proof/address proof of parents: Carry Identity proofs of parents(aadhar card, ration card, voter card, landline bill, bank passbook) would do. I gave Aadhar card for me and spouse.
e) Annexure H on plain paper: Fill the annexure H declaration and print it on a plain paper(A4 size).
f) Notary attested Annexure I: Annexure I declaration by parents is needed for applying minors passport in tatkal category, get it attested by notary. This costs INR 100 at my city and 10-15 mins to get it from courts. Carry the original parents passport's, marriage certificate, address proof's, minor applicants birth certificate. Stack all the documents in a file and keep printout of appointment letter along-with it.

3. Reach designated PSK: On your day of appointment for passport, it is advised to reach the Passport seva kendra at least 15 mins in advance to your scheduled timing.

4. Get your appointment letter checked: Security personal at entry of PSK would ask for your appointment letter and check the timings and would allow you to enter the Passport seva kendra. Now the whole process would passport application process would take at least an hour.

5. Get token number: When you get entry to PSK then you have to go to counter and get token number for your appointment. Person at counter would ask for all the documents which I have mentioned in step 2 and check the originals too. Then they would give you token number. for applying in tatkal your token is prefixed with letter 'T' followed by number.

6. Document uploading and completion: Next step is going to counter number starting with 'A'. There are numerous A counters inside a PSK. Here they would collect all the photocopies of documents and upload it to their database. Person would get your biometrics, thumb impression in case of minors. It is generally done in 15-20 mins

7. Document verification: After completing counter 'A' formalities, you have to wait till the tv screen shows a 'B' counter number against your token number. Once it is displayed goto corresponding counter 'B' and get your original documents verified. Time taken is generally 5-10 mins.

8. Grant Section Counter 'C': After finishing document verification at counter B, wait till your token number is assigned to officer at counter 'C', C number counter's are passport grant counters and may verify your documents again. Time taken 5-10 mins.

9. You are done: After counter C processes your file, you would get a receipt for passport application and minor's passport would arrive in 3-5 day's time at your address mentioned while filling the online passport form. This is because of no police verification step involved in case of minor's passport.

Hope that now you would get a good pre-understanding of passport application process and different steps involved in it. If you feel like thanking for this post then do press like button or share this post with friends.

Falling global Oil prices and USA link to it

Greetings from India-as-superpower blog

As an Indian the news about falling crude oil prices bring cheers on our face as it reduces our oil import bill, and since petrol and diesel prices are now linked to market directly it reduces the retail prices, It also helps the Ruling party which increases excise rates on petrol to fill their money chests. We all are very happy and so are almost all of the oil importing countries. Other thing which makes us even more happy is that the prices would reduce further till mid 2015 and if Indian government feels that their pockets have no space left for further excise duty hike we might see further decrease in retail prices of both petrol and diesel in coming weeks.

The big question which arises is :

Why are prices of oil falling and who is doing this and why?

Answer to this question is not very difficult and is infact a single word - USA, Now why US would do this? and answer to this is to get more control/share of global oil market. I would explain the 'How' part in following text.

This all starts from what is known as shale oil, which is a substitute for crude oil. United States of America has world's largest deposit of shale oil and gas, and US oil companies such as Shell have started producing shale oil from oil shale on commercial level if I iterate their words 'shale oil exploration can be sustained at cost as low as $18 per barrel. Don't be too happy now as it might never reach to this level(even in present scenario). USA is flooding market/using shale oil and has drastically reduced it's oil import bill, thus forcing prices to fall and make other OPEC countries to cut oil production.

World is currently witnessing over supply of oil, which is much more then what it needs. Since the demand and supply principle is basic for pricing of any commodity, hence fall in price is very logical. At this stage next question which comes to our mind is quite obvious:

Why would oil producing countries do nothing in controlling the supply?

Answer to this question is again a single word - USA, and I'll explain why USA would do this. US has started commercial exploration of oil shale and it needs market for it. Present global oil supply market share is very well divided between Middle east, Iran, Russia, Venezuela and Iraq apart from some other small suppliers. USA wants to increase it's share and then govern the whole oil pricing globally. Hence it has flooded the markets with shale oil. Since it has deep pockets it can sustain any price levels for much more time when compared to conventional oil producers of the world.

There is also political factors involved in this which is further forcing USA to refrain from cutting oil supply. Iran, Russia, Venezuela are not allies of USA and are rather against it diplomatically, economically, politically(you can add more terms here), Venezuela has 95 percent of government revenues coming from oil export, Russia has 70 percent of money coming from oil export. Falling oil prices have already playing it's intent with ruble down by 60 percent. Russia's attack on Ukraine is probably the reason. budget deficits of these three countries are rising and soon economies would see major cuts in government spending . This fall would also weaken Iraq and Syria (including the areas controlled by ISIS) as this terror organization would get too less money from oil which they sell.

Oil producing countries (OPEC) have decided to refrain from cutting output fearing that US would increase shale oil output further and get hold of their present market share. Hence in long term what I feel is that falling oil prices shall have a positive effect on world and oil importing countries as these countries(including India) would contain their budget deficit.

Probably by 2020 USA would become biggest oil produces of the world and would be called 'Saudi America' sounds funny but is very effective.

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