Forms for all needs, on a CD

Remember the time when collecting information on a subject meant running from pillar to post, from the nearby library to the neighbour's home, wading through reams of matter?

That was before technology made things easy. Now you go to www.google.com and type 'eating habits of red-haired apes' and you get 114 possible explanations in 0.29 seconds.

Also, remember the days when you were part of serpentine queues, baking in the hot sun outside a government office, awaiting your turn to buy some application form? Again, that was before technology made things easy.

Now you can sit in the cool comfort of your office or home and get it all. Just insert a compact disc into the personal computer, select the form you want, take an output on the printer -- or even fill out and submit the form online.

New Delhi-based Hi-Tech Services offers one such CD that contains more than 4,000 forms.

"It covers more than 250 Acts and topics, and has more than 30,000 pages of material. Forms can be filled on the computer and you can get the printout that is as good as a form you get from any government office," says Manjit Singh, director of Hi-Tech.

Priced at Rs 500, the CD contains forms related to income tax, wealth tax, excise, customs, the Reserve Bank of India, the Director General of Foreign Trade, company laws, expenditure tax, service tax, sales tax, MTNL, BSNL, export promotion councils, Bureau of Indian Standards ,etc.

There are also forms for those dealing with the financial markets -- stuff related to the Securities and Exchange Board of India, mutual funds, insurance and share transactions.

Forms under various Acts -- such as the Factories Act, ESI, gratuity, copyright, patent, trademark, cyber law, co-operative societies -- can be downloaded from the CD. They open in Acrobat Reader and are easy to print.

The CD also offers legal help: documents related to legal deeds, lease, mortgage, bonds, will, partnerships and gift deeds, joint ventures, hire purchases and general agreements can be printed too.

That's not all: soft copies of passport, visa, ration card, railway reservation, social, education, driving licence, motor vehicle registration, birth certificate and electricity connection forms too are there.

The CDs also contain the maps of India and world, STD codes and data on banks in India and abroad.

"Just buy one CD and all the forms and a lot of information is yours. Moreover, the forms can be filled electronically, so handwriting is eliminated. The printouts will be neat and legible," Singh said. This is the first edition of the CD database.

A more comprehensive and updated CD will be published in September. "All our existing customers, who have bought or will buy the current CD will get the new edition at a discounted price. Initially we plan to publish new CDs every year, but later, we will launch them every six months," Singh said.

Meantime, another New Delhi-based company, M-com Software Technology Pvt Ltd, has launched its CD. Through it, customers can receive notifications pertaining to Exim Policy, DGFT, customs, central excise and service tax. Sunita Rana of M-com said the CEXIM CD, is updated every fortnight with the latest amendments.

"The CD is useful to businessmen, exporters, importers, clearing agents, manufacturers, management consultants and legal practitioners," Rana said.

The CEXIM CD contains comprehensive information on DGFT notifications, circulars, public notices, DEPB rates, standard input-output norms, drawback rates, appendices, custom and central excise tariffs, notifications and circulars, service tax circulars, the full Exim Policy 2003 and Exim Procedure 2003.

"Over 13,000 pages of material can be retrieved through a specially designed search engine," Rana said.

The company offers three pricing plans for the CDs. They range from Rs 2,700 to Rs 10,800, depending on the number of CDs and frequency of updates.

Apart from these two, there are a number of companies providing specialised information on CDs on a host of topics such as court judgements, tax matters, non-resident Indians, American and Chinese companies, business in the Gulf etc.

CD contacts: Hi-Tech Services J-7 / 24 Rajouri Garden, New Delhi 110027. Tel: 2519 4304 / 2519 4306 / 2591 7659 Fax: 2511 1752; M-com Software Technology Pvt Ltd, B-2/118D Safdarjung Enclave New Delhi-110029 Tel: 011-30937308/09,35805072 Fax: 91-11-27193219 Email: m-comsoft@touchtelindia.net