Long Term Infrastructure Bonds

Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee had announced a new tax deduction (Section 80CCF) of 20,000 INR for investment made into special infrastructure related bonds in 2010-11 budget. Some of the key feaures and notification are as follow:

• This bonds will be called “Long Term Infrastructure Bond”
• Application can be by individual or HUF only but not by minor through Guardians.
• An Individual or HUF can invest Rs. 20,000/- in a Financial year to avail deduction under section 80CCF
• Rs. 20000/- limit is in addition to 100000/- limit of section 80C, 80CCC, 80CCD
• Tenure of the Bonds will be 10 Years.
• Lock-in period is 5 years, after 5 years investor can withdraw money from the bonds
• After lock-in period, Investor can take loan against these Bonds.
• Self attested PAN copy of 1st holder is compulsory.
• Bonds are not tax free. Interest is taxable in the hands of investor. But no TDS will be deducted from interest.
• Demat is compulsory. Joint holders can apply as per same order of Demat a/c . Application without demat a/c details will be rejected.
• Minimum Application  amount is Rs 5000/- & multiples there off for each option.
• Maximum benefit to an investor shall be Rs. 20,000/- under section 80CCF of the Income Tax Act, 1942

As of now, available offering in the section are from IFCI (Industrial Finance Corporation of India) & IDFC (Infrastructure Development Finance Corporation).

Fixed Deposits Interest rate comparison

Updated Regularly - Latest, recent

Banks started increasing Interest Rates on the fixed deposits again.  Most of them are already effective if you open a new one. Here are the links to have a quick view:

• SBI
• HDFC
• Axis
• ICICI
• Kotak Mahindra
• HSBC
• Citibank
• Standard Chartered
• IDBI
• Corporation Bank
• Syndicate Bank
• PNB Banks
•  seems to be giving the highest interest as of now.

Other Sources: http://www.maduraidirectory.com/bandf/interest.php

File Income Tax yourself

It is time to file income tax for the last financial year. There are many online & offline services to file return on behalf of you just in exchange of 250-300 INR. However, people need to run behind them even after they file the tax for the acknowledgement and all, which takes quite time, though you free yourself from the hassle of financial complexity to understand Form-16 and information except salaried income, like income from other sources, short term gains, TDS (tax deducted at sources), income from Employee stocks options etc.

However, If you pay a little more attention to the article, you will find that filing Tax is not that complex either. Income Tax of India, provies xls utiilities supported by different Macros, which automatically do the validations for your inputs & provide a list of options for a certain fields with validate & non-validate information. Tax can be filed using this facilities in the following steps:

1. Open https://incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in/
2. Go to e-filling A.Y. 2010-11 => Individual, HUF
3. Go to "Download Return Preparation Software" section and download the relevant form e.g. ITR-1 for Salaried
4. Be ready with Form-16 (salary info, TAN, Employer info etc), TDS etc forms, if Any & PAN Card number
5. Fill up the excel and do the validation before moving to next sheet in the xls
6. Generate xml after validating all the fields.
7. Upload the XML to the same site.
8. A version of the IT return form will be given to you.
9. If form is not submitted with a valid digital signature, take a printout
10. Mail it to the CPC office, after putting
11. Check for a confirmation at given email id as well
12. Your acknowledgement will be mailed to you later.

Related:

Enabling Macro in xls : http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/change-macro-security-settings-in-excel-HP010096919.aspx

Flight Data Recorder

While the search of black box is going on for the recently crashed flight in Mangalore, where 158 people got killed, I had curiosity, why this blackbox so important? I retrieved some information as follows.

Black Box in a flight, aka Flight Data Recorder (FDR) holds a store of data often crucial to air crash investigators looking to find the cause od a disaster or accident.

Why are they placed at the rear of the aircraft?

Putting them in the back of the aircraaft increases their chance of survival. The precise location of a black box depends on the individual plane. Typically, the tail of the aircraft is the last portion of the aircraft to impact.

How it is built?

Using three layers of materials, the crash survivable memory units (CSMU) in a solid state Black box insulates and protects the stack of memory boards that store the digitised information. To make sure CSMUs are strong they are subject to rigororous tests like crash impact, pin drop, static crush, fire test, deep sea submersion, salt water submersion & fluid immmersion etc.

What is the history?

One of the earliest and proven attempts at a data recorder was made by Francois Hussenot and Paul Beaudouin in1939 at the Marignane flight test center, France, with their type HB flight recorder. This was an essantially photograph based device, because record was made on a scrolling eight meters long by 88 mm wide photographic film. After its evolution, in 1960, after the crashof an aircraft at Mackay, the inquiry judge strongly recommended that flight recorders be installed in all airlines Ustralia the be came the first country in teh world to make cockpit-voice recording compulsory.

Source: DNA

On a dark and foggy night

On a dark and foggy night, a small figure lay huddled on the railway tracks leading to the Chennai station. At once I was held back to see someone in that position during midnight with no one around. With curiosity taking the front seat, I went near the body and tried to investigate it.

There was blood all over the body which was lying face down. It seemed that a ruthless blow by the last train could have caused the end of this body which seemed to be that of a guy of around my age. Amidst the gory blood flow, I could see a folded white envelope which was fluttering in the midnight wind.

Carefully I took the blood stained envelope and was surprised to see the phrase “appraisal letter” on it. With curiosity rising every moment, I wasted no time in opening the envelope to see if I can find some details about the dead guy. The tag around the body’s neck and the jazzy appraisal cover gave me the hint that he might be a software engineer.

I opened the envelope to find a shining paper on which the appraisal details where typed in flying colors. Thunders broke into my ears and lightening struck my heart when I saw the appraisal amount of the dead guy!!! My God, it was not even, as much as the cost of the letter on which the appraisal details were printed…

My heart poured out for the guy and huge calls were heard inside my mind saying “no wonder, this guy died such a miserable death”… As a fellow worker in the same industry,

I thought I should mourn for him for the sake of respect and stood there with a heavy heart thinking of the shock that he would have experienced when his manager had placed the appraisal letter in his hand. I am sure his heart would have stopped and eyes would have gone blank for few seconds looking at the near to nothing increment in his salary.

While I mourned for him, for a second my hands froze to see the employee’s name in the appraisal letter… Hey, what a strange co-incidence, this guy’s name is same as mine, including the initials. This was interesting. With some mental strength, I turned the body upside down and found myself fainted for a second. The guy not only had my name, but also looked exactly like me. Same looks, same built, same name…. it was me who was dead there!!! While I was lost in that shock, I felt someone patting on my shoulders. My heart stopped completely,

I could not breathe and sprung in fear to see who was behind… Splash!!! Went the glass of water on my laptop screen as I came out of my wild dream to see my manager standing behind my chair patting on my shoulder saying, “Wake up man! Come to meeting room. I have your appraisal letter ready”..

Déjà vu !!!

Source : email

Classic Exercises On Lateral Thinking - Solutions

SOLUTIONS [*questions]:

1. The man is very, very short and can only reach halfway up the elevator buttons. However, if it is raining then he will have his umbrella with him and can press the higher buttons with it.

2. The surgeon was his mother.

3. It was day time.

4. At the time she went into labor, the mother of the twins was traveling by ship. The older twin, Terry, was born first early on March 1st. The ship then crossed a time zone and Kerry, the younger twin, was born on February the 28th. Therefore, the younger twin celebrates her birthday two days before her older brother.

5. A square manhole cover can be turned and dropped down the diagonal of the manhole. A round manhole cannot be dropped down the manhole. So for safety and practicality, all manhole covers should be round.

6. The poison in the punch came from the ice cubes. When the man drank the punch, the ice was fully frozen. Gradually it melted, poisoning the punch.

7. The letter "e," which is the most common letter in the English language, does not appear once in the long paragraph.

8. They were two of a set of triplets (or quadruplets, etc.). This puzzle stumps many people. They try outlandish solutions involving test-tube babies or surrogate mothers. Why does the brain search for complex solutions when there is a much simpler one available?

9. The man had hiccups. The barman recognized this from his speech and drew the gun in order to give him a shock. It worked and cured the hiccups--so the man no longer needed the water. The is a simple puzzle to state but a difficult one to solve. It is a perfect example of a seemingly irrational and incongruous situation having a simple and complete explanation. Amazingly this classic puzzle seems to work in different cultures and languages.

10. The third. Lions that haven't eaten in three years are dead.

11. The woman was a photographer. She shot a picture of her husband, developed it, and hung it up to dry.

12. Freeze them first. Take them out of the jugs and put the ice in the barrel. You will be able to tell which water came from which jug.

13. The answer is Charcoal.

14. Sure you can: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow!

ALTERNATE SOLUTIONS:

4. Because one of them did not necessarily celebrate their birthday on the day they were born, but celebrated later or earlier. Much simpler than having Mom giving birth while crossing the International Date Line and tossing in a Leap Year and the like. Needlessly complicated.

6. Because he was the one who put the poison in the punch. Of course he wouldn't drink any *after* he poisoned it. Who goes to the effort of making poison ice cubes, except Bond villains and those bad guys in the "Encyclopedia Brown" mystery stories we read in elementary school?

8. Because they were adopted. It's a coincidence they were born on the same exact day. OK, so Occam's Razor could be applied equally to both solutions...

Source: http://wilk4.com/humor/humore14.htm

Classic Exercises On Lateral Thinking - Questions

QUESTIONS:

1. There is a man who lives on the top floor of a very tall building. Everyday he gets the elevator down to the ground floor to leave the building to go to work. Upon returning from work though, he can only travel half way up in the lift and has to walk the rest of the way unless it's raining! Why?

This is probably the best known and most celebrated of all lateral thinking puzzles. It is a true classic. Although there are many possible solutions which fit the initial conditions, only the canonical answer is truly satisfying.

2. A man and his son are in a car accident. The father dies on the scene, but the child is rushed to the hospital. When he arrives the surgeon says, "I can't operate on this boy, he is my son!" How can this be?

3. A man is wearing black. Black shoes, socks, trousers, coat, gloves and ski mask. He is walking down a back street with all the street lamps off. A black car is coming towards him with its light off but somehow manages to stop in time. How did the driver see the man?

4. One day Kerry celebrated her birthday. Two days later her older twin brother, Terry, celebrated his birthday. How?

5.. Why is it better to have round manhole covers than square ones? This is logical rather than lateral, but it is a good puzzle that can be solved by lateral thinking techniques. It is supposedly used by a very well-known software company as an interview question for prospective employees.

6. A man went to a party and drank some of the punch. He then left early. Everyone else at the party who drank the punch subsequently died of poisoning. Why did the man not die?

7. This is an unusual paragraph. I'm curious how quickly you can find out what is so unusual about it. It looks so plain you would think nothing was wrong with it. In fact, nothing is wrong with it! It is unusual though. Study it, and think about it, but you still may not find anything odd. But if you work at it a bit, you might find out.

8. A woman had two sons who were born on the same hour of the same day of the same year. But they were not twins. How could this be so?

9. A man walks into a bar and asks the barman for a glass of water. The barman pulls out a gun and points it at the man. The man says 'Thank you' and walks out. This puzzle claims to be the best of the genre. It is simple in its statement, absolutely baffling and yet with a completely satisfying solution. Most people struggle very hard to solve this one yet they like the answer when they hear it or have the satisfaction of figuring it out.

10. A murderer is condemned to death. He has to choose between three rooms. The first is full of raging fires, the second is full of assassins with loaded guns, and the third is full of lions that haven't eaten in 3 years. Which room is safest for him?

11. A woman shoots her husband. Then she holds him under water for over 5 minutes. Finally, she hangs him. But 5 minutes later they both go out together and enjoy a wonderful dinner together. How can this be?

12. There are two plastic jugs filled with water. How could you put all of this water into a barrel, without using the jugs or any dividers, and still tell which water came from which jug?

13. What is black when you buy it, red when you use it, and gray when you throw it away?

14. Can you name three consecutive days without using the words Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, or Sunday? (or day names in any other language)

Solutions in next blog.

Source: http://wilk4.com/humor/humore14.htm