PoCI (pronounced "posse") - Power to the Citizens of India

Illegal parking and civil inaction.

In India, illegal parking is rampant yet nobody says anything. The reason is multi-fold. 

1. Indians and citizens around the world have given up their power to the central governments and the governments in turn empower the police but fail to empower the citizens. This is blatant disempowerment of the Indian citizenry.
2. Now the police, especially in India, who are not voted for their position by the citizens are not answerable to the citizens. 
3. Those illegally parking are fully aware of this dynamic they take full advantage of this mechanism and bribe the police and know the victims' last option has come to an end. They no longer need to be afraid of the police. 

We intend to make those parking illegally afraid of the common citizen. We intend to empower the common citizen. We intend to reduce the power of local police to take bribes. 

1. We intend to empower the common citizen to take photos of illegally parked vehicles on the government website. 
2. We intend to be the app that allows it. 
3. For this service to the government, the government pays the citizens a percentage of the amount on the tickets raised. 
4. We take a percentage of that payment for the tickets raised. 
5. On the government end, we provide the infrastructure for this to take place. 
6. The amount will be collected from the tickets raised for illegal parking which will fund the operations of the government end. 

Citizens of all Indian Tier 1. Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities. They have roads to drive but the roads are usually choked by illegal parking on either side of the road. This slows traffic and creates road rage some even carry to home and to bed. The lack of rules and lack of responsibility to fellow citizens is endemic in India. People park in front of houses that are not theirs, and shops open shops without any parking for customers. The government refuses to impose reasonable parking rules before, during and after construction and before approving planning or approving a business to set up a shop. Everyone is expected to adjust as the police are either overwhelmed or paid off. 

Under the current system, an ordinary citizen is powerless. We have been systematically disempowered. The police have been empowered, but they are paid illegally not to bother. 

The team is well-versed in the problem and the solution. The problems the solution will present and how to address the problems that arise out of the solutions. 

We do have technical skills. Even if we do not have it, the project can be outsourced to a more technical team or a higher technical team can be developed internally. India has enough talent to work with. 

The solution requires government involvement and cooperation. But the problem is the government has a high inertia for the status quo. It needs a solution that is approved by someone higher. But higher does not always mean higher in the government. Someone with better credentials. But being selected here, they get to know that the solution is viable and has merit. 

Under the current system, you complaint to the police, and by the time the police comes either that vehicle is  no longer there or the vehicle owner bribes the police. Usually the police do not record the complaint as this will be on record and try to solve it off record. This creates a unique advantage to take bribes. I will not say the system was created exclusively to bribe the police but that is what the system has become. 

We are creating a record of the complaint and it is not to the police in the local station but to the central system, which cannot be bribed but a penalty has to be paid. 

Because people can bribe the victim doesn't have a voice, generally those parking illegally tend to be rude and uncivil and rather uncaring about the fellow citizens. This can be easily changed when they start looking be cautious for anyone with a smart phone. 

Engaging is civil action has never been rewarding. It is usually unpaid and you get a pat on back at best and worse kicke in the balls. An auto driver was killed in India for asking someone not to urinate in public. This discourages people to engage in civil action. We are paying those engaging in civil action. We are creating a frame work for civil engagement are rewarding civil action. 

Financial and Business Goals

1 st year impact goal is to be present in 1 city.

In 5 years in every Tier 1 and tier 2 city at least.

Objective goals. 

1. Many unemployed youths in India a smartphone will make a living using our app

2. Shops and commercial buildings will start providing parking in the overall design

3. Cities will start designing standards for building approvals and soon shop approvals. 

4. Cities currently do not allow any parking in designing cities (public parking is almost non-existent in India.) This we hope will reverse. As much as people require a recreational area so do shoppers need to park their cars and bikes. We didn't want to say it but apparently have to. 

5. Amount of power a local constable has in collecting bribes will reduce. 

1. If the municipal authorities start writing laws to include the number of parking spaces required in the building codes we believe we have made an impact

2. If the municipal authorities designate parking spaces in the cities this too will be an achievement. 

Currently, the citizens of India are pretty disempowered. If the number of downloads and usage of our app increases that itself is an improvement and an achievement and a movement towards the goal. 

As the usage of our app increases the number of parking violations and other traffic violations will come down as will the corruption of the police.

Citizen engagement in the governing process is what is being achieved here. 

1. Inputs: We are allowing the citizens to take photos and police the neighbourhood, an opportunity non-existent before our intervention. 

2. Outputs:  This empowers the citizens to police their surroundings. Until our app, they are mere spectators of violations around them. 

3. Outcomes: Parking violators and traffic violators tend to be warier about their neighbours and the need to be in compliance with the law

4. Evidence:  Since we haven’t yet implemented it quantitative data is unavailable. 

In our app, we use, 

1. image technology to take evidence of the photo

2. We use location technology like GPS to ensure the correct place the image was taken. 

3. We use the cloud to process our images. We also use humans to authenticate the images. Either at a call centre or as a distributed service. 

I am working on fundamentals at this point. That is the constitution. We intend to merit oriented and am hoping to be diversified as the city demographics allow us to be. 

1. Key Resources

People, Finance and Activities

1.  An agreement with the government

2. Software, APP, server-side set-up 

• Key Stakeholders

1. Company

2. Government

3. Citizens

1. Making the app

2. The incremental cost of cloud computing

1. Maintaining software

2. Maintaining the relationship with the Government

                        Citizen empowerment

1. App 

1. The idea is to develop similar software for other areas of government control

Will collect 20% of the fee 

The total revenue expected for PoCI is around INR 60772.5 million p.a.at 1% of the market share. With a potential to increase to 10% with exclusivity

1. Benefits

Having the public take care of this issue by themselves by reporting any violation via an app 

Each user will be rewarded for a valid no-parking violation made via the app

1. More empowerment to the common citizens. 

2. Less burden to the police

3. More compliance by the public

1. Segments

   1. Beneficiary

      1. Government

      2. Citizens

   2. Customer

      1. Citizens

      2. Government

2.  Value Proposition

   1. User Value proposition

We provide incentives for the citizens, through a simple mobile application, who take a valid snap of a wrongly parked vehicle, with the help of government authorities. we provide towing facilities and also show nearby parking slots for vehicles through the app.

1. The government has a lesser burden of employing more police for traffic control

2. Technology means lesser corruption

3. More control and records

4. Citizens get a voice

1. Impact measures

   1. Current tickets raised vs future tickets raised

   2. Current fees collected vs future fees collected

2. Customer Value proposition (Citizens)

   1. Empowerment of citizens

   2. Income source for the unemployed. 

• Many times we observe vehicles parked in no parking spots even in presence of the cautionary “No Parking” Board.

• This leads to many traffic-related issues.

• Traffic authorities cannot prevent every vehicle from violating this issue at every place 24/7.

• Having the public take care of this issue by themselves by reporting any violation via an app 

• Each user (citizen) will be rewarded for a valid no-parking violation made via the app

• The traffic authorities will send the ticket to the violators. The violators will pay the fee. Of rs 1000 (current price in India in 2023)

• Of the thousand collected 30% were shared with the citizens or informers

• Another 20% is paid to the app. 

By our estimate, this app's income will be around 60 billion INR per annum at 1% of the market covered and increase to 600 billion INR at 10% of the market. 

Caveat: unlike other tech companies we see revenues falling in the medium to the long term. 

Currently, we are at a conceptual stage so this does not apply. 

However, in a similar service provider has been providing CC camera service to the Police and has been economically viable in Telangana and AP.