Avinash Meetoo

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Avinash Meetoo

The Importance of Managing Money

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ra·tion·al : based on or in accordance with reason or logic

It is public knowledge that quite a lot of Mauritian families are in debt, 75% of them it would seem (but I can’t find an official online source for that percentage).

According to me, this is partly because people are not taught the basics of finance when they are kids and, when they become adults, they sometimes become irrational in their behaviour and in their relationship with money. For instance, a lot of us buy things that we don’t need. There is fad at this moment in Mauritius to get an iPhone 6, a Samsung Galaxy S6 or a LG G4 at Rs 30,000 no matter whether we need such a powerful device (and can use it properly) or not. And, as you have surely noticed, Ébène is the cathedral of expensive clothes, shoes, cars and other gimmicks that don’t contribute one iota to our happiness levels but which cost a lot of money.

Fortunately, today, I overheard some people talking:

  1. One was explaining the mechanism of loans to his friends. He was telling them how compound interests worked. How it was rational to settle a loan early (if possible of course) so as not to pay a lot of interest. And, interestingly, he also mentioned that he had asked his bank to reduce his credit card limit in order for him to spend less every month.
  2. Crossing the road, I heard another guy having a phone conversation with a friend or a family member. He was explaining how irrational it was to buy something by contracting a debt. He was explaining that if he only had Rs 2500 and he had to buy something (hopefully useful) at Rs 5000, he would wait another month to have the Rs 5000 instead of buying through higher purchase (because of the very high interest rates).

I was amazed. My first impression that people lacked financial judgement was clearly wrong. Apparently, some of us are very rational as far as money is concerned. And these people are willing to share their knowledge with others.

This is a very good thing for the future of the Mauritian society.

What do you think?

A Smarter Mauritius

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The talk of the town in Mauritius at this moment (apart from the various scandals) is the concept of the Smart City, which is nicely explained by this infographics available on the Board of Investment website. A Smart City and, by extension, a Smart Mauritius, has to have:

  • A Smart Environment where people can practice Smart Living (in other words, respect nature and live with less stress)
  • Smart Mobility (use the car only when needed and maximise public transportation and bicycles like in most occidental cities)
  • Smart Citizens who have been educated through Smart Education
  • A Smart Government (which is not only preoccupied with the next elections but rather the development and advancement of the country as a whole)
  • Smart Businesses (which can develop new products and enter new markets by innovating)
  • Smart Infrastructure (which can sustain and satisfy future demands)
  • and Smart Utility (so that the country does not suffer from brownouts or droughts in the future)

Naturally, it is not smart to believe that we can transform our country into a Smart Country just by bringing in some consultants and praying that building some morcellements and roads will suffice. The key to making Mauritius a Smart Mauritius is the population of the country.

Our education system needs to be drastically changed so that anyone who finishes schools (at any level: primary, secondary or tertiary) is a Smart Person:

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A Smart Person as shown above (courtesy of an infographics by the Huffington Post) is:

  • Intelligent
  • Brilliant
  • Knowledgeable
  • Intellectual
  • Competent
  • Innovative
  • Confident
  • Professional
  • and a bit Arrogant too (or is that Self-Belief?)

Personally, I am sure that our education system can be revamped to produce such Smart People provided we better use (in the good sense of the phrase) Smart Lecturers, Smart Teachers and Smart Educators, foreigners or not. In my opinion, there are a number of excellent educators in the country but we need to supplement them with excellent educators from abroad (like Singapore did in fact a decade ago).

Students need to be Smart Students too. They need to focus more on Knowledge, Skills and the Joy of Learning instead of going to tuition, passing exams and obtaining a certificate.

Focusing on STEM subjects (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) is also mandatory. The Smart World is a technological world and a country like Mauritius cannot afford not to have Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths professionals of sufficient caliber.

[Thanks to Sachin to bring art and culture to my attention: Developing the artistic talents and culture of the population, especially young people, is mandatory too. Like all humanists, I really think that everyone has the capacity to do wonderful things provided (1) she discovers and develops her talent and (2) she is given the possibility / opportunity to contribute, disrupt and bring much-needed changes.]

Is that too much to ask? What do you think?

The new Mauritian National Identity Card

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As from 1st October 2013, all citizens of the Republic of Mauritius, who already have an ID card, should replace it with a new ID card.

The vision

The Government wants to provide all Mauritians with a high-security ID card linked to a new population database to serve as an ID document to prove identity and to allow more secure and reliable access to government e-services.

With this new form of identification and authentication, we will only need to carry one identity document instead of multiple documents. Maybe we won’t need to have our driving licenses with us all the time as all policemen will have identity card readers and real-time access to the population database. Another stated benefit is that people will also be able to access Governmental eservices at home or at work using their personal identity card readers.

What data is stored?

As pictured above, the following information is going to be printed on the front of the card:

  • A black and white photo
  • The ID Number
  • Surname, first name and surname at birth
  • Gender (“M”, “F”)
  • Date of birth
  • Signature
  • SC logo for Senior Citizens to access benefits such as the bus pass

On the back of the card, we will have:

  • A barcode, presumably to make the ID card number easier to read by a machine
  • A card control number, presumably to check whether the ID card number (encoded in the barcode) has been read properly
  • The ID Number of the person again
  • The Date of issue
  • The name in case there is not enough space to print the name on the front side of the card

In addition to the printed information, the ID card is a smart card and contains a chip which will store the following data:

  • The photo, ID number, surname, first name, surname at birth, gender, date of birth
  • The residential address
  • Four fingerprint templates (2 thumb and 2 index fingerprints by default)
  • A digital certificate

Note that the residential address is not printed on the card. Someone stealing your ID card won’t know where you live…

What is a fingerprint template?

The chip will only store a mathematical model (i.e. a “template”) of the fingerprint, not an actual image. This is mainly for two reasons: (1) the amount of data to be stored is smaller and (2) this makes for faster processing time.

My interpretation of this is that someone accessing a very secure e-service will have to go through a two-step authentication procedure. First, the person will have to insert the ID card in an identity card reader to prove ownership of the card. Secondly, the person will have to scan his fingerprint to prove his identity. This eliminates the case of someone stealing the card of someone else and impersonating him or her. Could this two-step authentication be done otherwise i.e. without resorting to fingerprints? Yes, by using, say, retinal scanners or similar invasive and expensive techniques. My point is that fingerprints are not that bad…

What about data safety?

A digital certificate is stored in the chip of the ID card. This is to ensure that an identity card reader can only read the data on an ID card when validated through the Mauritius National Identity Scheme (MNIS) Certificate Authority. In other words, all stored data is encrypted on the ID card and can only be unencrypted by an identity card reader if and only if the MNIS Certificate Authority approves that.

Furthermore, the whole system is protected by security appliances, access controls mechanisms, security policies, physical security, etc.

It looks like a lot of thoughts has gone into making the system as secure as possible.

The new ID card will only justify its high cost when…

This new ID card will cost a fortune and people need to understand that it is only a means of identifying and authenticating someone.

We will only have a good return on this massive investment if and only if most Governmental services become e-services. It’s high time that we, Mauritians, stop wasting our time having to go to Port-Louis, Phoenix or Ebène just to submit a form. Will this happen soon? I have some doubts…

In conclusion

  • The ID card is nothing to worry about in principle.
  • Most Governmental services need to become e-services soon or else we’re just wasting tons on money.

[All pictures courtesy of the Mauritian National Identity Card website]