I'm Impressed

Now this is a perfect case of getting impressed simply because you do not expect it, not because you think its impossible. Here's my salute to the PAN issuing authority of India:

• August 13 : I apply for PAN, pay online and get an immediate acknowledgement and directions on what to do next
• August 20 : I send the documents (lazy me, delay by a week)
• August 24 : They receive the courier (info. from my courier service)
• August 26 : PAN authorities tell me they have scanned my documents and have forwarded the application to IT department
• August 28 : IT department dispatches my PAN card, sends me an email to that effect with the courier service (Blue Dart, OMG they must be spending everything on postage!) and the tracking no. details.
• September 1 : I get my PAN

The total cost for this for me was Rs. 179 (Rs. 94 for the PAN and Rs. 85 for postage of documents by courier). Awesome, really awesome. Here's the link for applying online:

https://tin.tin.nsdl.com/pan/index.html

Would be glad to be of help to anyone in the process. (That's because a highly inefficient financial service provider kept delaying my application for more than a month here in Bangalore and as vendetta, I want to destroy this market for the "agents". Hehe, evil me.)