Tuesday, December 8, 2015

Offline Google Maps

Offline Google Maps:
Have you used it already? I did not until last week. I had heard about it somewhere, but when I was disconnected from internet for multiple days, i realized how difficult it was. As soon as I got internet i found how to use it offline on mobile.
Just in case you need it as well:
1. Open maps app and click on the side bar(3 horizontal lines at the left top)
2. Select 'Offline Areas' option,
3. Select the '+' at the bottom right
4. choose an area. you can choose a very big area and download,
Note:
1. But it has a limitation, For eg. it cant get the whole of TN in one offline area, so i did choose multiple offline areas that collectively covered the entire TN.
2. The download size would be easily more than 100/200 mb, it will infact show the estimated data size when you select the area. So do this when you are on good internet speed and be aware of how much it will cost you, home wifi might be a good option
3. Please remember that GPS will work without internet, so now anywhere you roam around TN with maps navigation offline, ofcourse no live traffic data.
4. Offline areas have an expiry timeline of 30 days. You have to update them.
Until now I used to frequent switching on and off internet on my phone whenever i traveled by car to make sure i dont lose much battery and it costed me unnecessary data cost as well. What a shame!!! Better late than never.


Edit:
It seems this feature was released only last month,  rolled out 10th of Nov, 2015  https://googleblog.blogspot.in/2015/11/navigate-and-search-real-world-online.html

Sunday, November 29, 2015

Why would anyone want to leave comforts of US and return to India?

My Quora answer:

I started working for an Indian IT service company 11 years back. Had no idea about importance of on-site travel until one HR tried to downplay it and say life is not all about money...bla bla . I was not getting it, why would anyone want to leave their place to work ? so my friend then explained the $ numbers.

After 4 yrs, finally I got the opportunity. What a time, I had 3 personal loans on me by then and supporting my family that is not the usual nuclear type, have 4 siblings. Had my crush engaged with someone else recently then. 

I loved America, all the infrastructure, order, public services, most importantly the vacation options to travel around the many states. I made it to most of them except Florida in my 2 years. Especially when you start driving yourself, America is a triple awesome place. I saved just enough unlike many other colleagues who saved every penny possible. Like I never cooked on work days, spent at food court, took 2 coffees at office daily, weekends at an Indian restaurant or cooking with friends for fun. But I had no booze or smoking habit. 

Every 9 months l took 3 weeks (total 2) vacation to India, am very sure I was probably one of the 100s to travel home like that who worked for an Indian IT at onsite. 9 months gap so that I get good 3 weeks, I didn't even bother when some colleagues warned me about possible end of my onsite trip if I took vacation. Most of the stay, I shared my apartment with only one other person so that I got enough privacy.

All was well, even work wise though I had my rough times like spending 15 hrs, I got comfortable later. And then the emptiness slowly started swallowing me. Your friends keep changing, though I never worried, I could not understand what am doing for my life at US and why am doing it. Because once the original debts were done I had no idea why I was there. Most others planned about saving for buying a house. Fortunately or unfortunately I never thought about that till then. And there were problems at home as well, so I had to plan my home trip. But the dryness was so high, I decided I will not come back again. I didn't tell you, had felt so bad to stand in line at the US embassy for my VISA, had not realized it until I went and stood there in line and all the stories you hear about the VISA allocations and approvals go around your brain bothering you. Never once I felt it as home. Its only a place for vacation. 
I planned to come home and take a better paying job so that I could earn enough to pay the seed money for the home loan. 

After I returned, with no money at hand except a cheap plot for less than 3 lakhs at home town as the only saving, it took more than 3 yrs for me to buy a home on loan, while my other friends had got second by then. I have no regrets anyways, life is all about living not about accumulating wealth. A friend after spending years at US says, he couldn't imagine living in India, the garbage, public apathy, infrastructure deficiencies ...I can understand him, I don't have a problem with his choice. To me, life is not about living the most comfortable way, its about how you survive/live every moment . There is no way I could take my parents and live in America, I have to face the challenges living with them in India. That's what is worth living to me. Life is not just about me. While I had watched how my parents burnt themselves every minute to grow the 5 of us, it is naturally the choice for me.

Every moment I missed sitting at US was indeed a loss , but for a reason. And that reason doesn't exist for now. Its not just the family, its the soil, the sun light, the air everything I missed, I realized my yearning for the land whenever I landed at chennai from US be it vacation or for good. 

I do miss America, for a vacation

Twisted Intolerance Debate

Whole Intolerance debate is twisted to have the wrong premise. It is not the nation that is protested against, but the elected government, which has only 5 years mandate. Read it again, protest is against the government, irrespective of whether they made it explicit or not, I mean the protesters.

Why are they protesting government? Because all those so called sporadic events are triggered by miscreants who identify themselves with the ruling party. And the supreme ruler, the elected representative, gives very reluctant condemnation (?) without any significant impact . the ruler even felicitates the Twitter abusers who abuse any critic of the ruler, check with his party mate Arun shourie on this.

Why is it twisted? It is twisted so that you get mass appeal, defame and demoralize protesters, and any one who wants to support could be defamed and character assassinated as well. This is simple and same logic they follow for any criticism. Any criticism of ruling party or candidate is twisted as against nation, and ask them to go Pakistan.

Again, it is not the number of incidents, it is the people behind those incidents and who stand along with them.

Why only this govt? Did miscreants of past incidents before this govt had so much of strong and open allegiance with the ruling party? May be individuals who did business malpractice did have but not any national level organization capable of triggering incidents across the country.

So the last govt was great? Hey you just throwed it out giving it a historic defeat, that too after so much of public protests against. Unfortunately for that govt they couldn't twist the corruption context as against the nation, though they still tried an extent.

Does the protesters have any right to protest? Govt runs by the tax every citizen pays and are bound to criticism and condemnation. Government is the servant of the public, including the prime ruler, unfortunately!

Edit based on FB discussion:

Did the same people protest against intolerance in 1975?
1975. - emergency period. Are you saying ppl did not oppose Indira? They dint throw her out? Again at any point of time, there is a critical issue that is amidst multiple issues to which focus naturally gets to. When was the last time, a govt is seen openly supporting activities of fringe elements? When your own govt running on your money , is seen standing along with fringe elements, wouldn't ppl be scared irrespective of any violence happened or not?

Why aren't people asking respective CMs?
They neither explicitly mentioned PM either. In fact couple I know clearly said both state and central govts should restore confidence

Why all this intolerance protests are only in 2015?
Ppl do protest and oppose any or every govt on any critical issue. It was about corruption last govt, now it is intolerance. Why don't you question your reasoning which thinks only this protest as manufactured. Just because every opposition party tried exploiting the protesters, doesn't mean the protest is invalid

How can you conclude which is manufactured and which is not? based on facts or based on perception or biases?
By history, only the winners write what is fact and what is not. And people are aware so they pick resonance, I mean that wavelength which they agree with .

Tuesday, July 14, 2015

Why start a relationship that will end?

Every single relationship has to end, does that mean you should keep away from them?
Your life is gonna end, will you keep away from it?

Saturday, June 27, 2015

Let the better sense prevail

By religious beliefs am aware that Hari and Haran could give birth. But scientifically, after discussions and some reading I understand it is not unnatural to be homosexual, in fact some animals are homosexual as well. So I logically accept the homosexuals.

But I hope people who are heterosexual don't get misguided and force themselves into homosexuality just to join a trending hashtag. Let the better sense prevail

Sunday, June 21, 2015

Yoga condolences

My deep condolences to people today especially those working with Indian government, It's a pathetic day for you and Yoga both!

Saturday, June 13, 2015

Atal Pension Yojana review

What is Atal Pension Yojana?
Atal Pension Yojana (APY), a pension scheme for citizens of India focused on the
unorganised sector workers. Under the APY, guaranteed minimum pension of Rs.
1,000/-, 2,000/-, 3,000/-, 4,000 and 5,000/- per month will be given at the age of 60
years depending on the contributions by the subscribers.

Who can subscribe to APY?
Any Citizen of India can join APY scheme. The following are the eligibility criteria,
i The age of the subscriber should be between 18 - 40 years.
ii He / She should have a savings bank account/ open a savings bank account.
iii The prospective applicant should be in possession of mobile number and its
details are to be furnished to the bank during registration.

A. On attaining the age of 60 years:
The exit from APY is permitted at the age with 100% annuitisation of pension wealth. On exit, pension would be available to the subscriber.

B. In case of death of the Subscriber due to any cause:
In case of death of subscriber pension would be available to the spouse and on the death of both of them (subscriber and spouse), the pension corpus would be returned to his nominee.

My Review of the Scheme:
I looked at the indicative returns, For eg., if your age is 30 and if you are looking for a pension of 5000 after reaching 60, govt asks you to pay rs 577 every month from age 30 till your 60. On 60, you start getting pension of 5k. When you and your spouse expire, total indicative corpus of 8.5L is returned to your nominee by govt.
If you calculate the RD of the money 577 you deposit for an annual  interest of 8%, you get 8.5L after 30 years and an 8% annual interest on this 8.5L will get you approx returns of 60k which is what is divided for 12 months and  given to you by govt.as pension

So the overall returns on your money is 8%, which is decent compared to any annuity scheme available. But dont forget that PPF has annual interest rate 8.75%, thought that would vary every year, it still could be higher than 8%.

To also note, APY does not fall under 80C deductions yet to my knowledge.

http://financialservices.gov.in/APY.asp

Thursday, June 11, 2015

Beware of UV exposure

These days my smartphone alerts me on high UV index. I checked and found that this index helps you be aware and UV effects and protect yourself with sunscreen and avoiding sun exposure time ...etc
if your smartphone doesnt show, you can directly check it on accuweather.com for your city, and i see Indian cities easily above 5, chennai at 8!
"The UV Index scale used in the United States conforms with international guidelines for UVI reporting established by the World Health Organization"
A UV Index reading of 0 to 2 means low danger from the sun's UV rays for the average person.
3 to 5 means moderate risk of harm from unprotected sun exposure.
6 to 7 means high risk of harm from unprotected sun exposure. Protection against skin and eye damage is needed.
8 to 10 means very high risk of harm from unprotected sun exposure. Take extra precautions because unprotected skin and eyes will be damaged and can burn quickly.
11 or more means extreme risk of harm from unprotected sun exposure. Take all precautions because unprotected skin and eyes can burn in minutes.
Precautions when high UV:
Minimize sun exposure between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m.
If outdoors, seek shade and wear protective clothing, a wide-brimmed hat, and UV-blocking sunglasses.
Generously apply broad spectrum SPF 30+ sunscreen every 2 hours, even on cloudy days, and after swimming or sweating.
Watch out for bright surfaces, like sand, water and snow, which reflect UV and increase exposure.

More: http://www2.epa.gov/sunwise/uv-index-scale

Sunday, June 7, 2015

1st birthday craze

1st birthday craze

Now this is the hottest business everywhere. People spend in lakhs, cost includes hall, food, gift, return gift (for those kids who come with gifts)...especially this has become a necessity in apartments/housing societies....
Some people, as I hear, are even celebrating monthly birthdays, as in every month after birth the same day till first bday!
Though I myself appreciate celebrations as a means to gather people to transact in many ways, socialize, fun, entertain.....etc....not sure if it really is worth the spending when the celebration is actually for 2 to 3 hrs max.
Is this really necessary? Dont we do this only to show off our financial status? Arent we or the kids all get nothing effectively from it? Is there an alternate form of celebration? I mean some worthy celebration other than charities/NGOs, with relatives and friends?

By any chance does it have any positive effect at all that I fail to see?

When i raised this issue on FB, the reasons that come out are, primarily social pressure to show off, to declare my capability, also when kids grow they start demanding themselves and the other kids in the apartment could also put pressure. Some cases there is a need when you move to a new apartment and have to create a neighborhood network.

And there are also people who limit the expenses to actual need of the celebration with whom i dont have any arguments.

When we already junked so many meaningful celebrations, especially marriage, for the sake of show-off, should we add more?

As a friend put it, this flashy show-off attitude doesn't stop at just first birthday, it continues with the parents in admitting their kids to international schools just because someone else they knew did it and burden their kids, buy costly consumer electronics, furniture for home, ...etc., it slowly spoils the real purpose of a family and home

My argument is, if you want to celebrate with society and you are well enough to spend, why instead group plan a trip to a zoo or a historic temple...or something similar that has a value.

Are we showing our kids that we are slaves to the society that we live? Shouldn't we inspire our kids instead to stand and deliver beyond all social obstacles?

Thanks to Prashanth, Lakshmikanth, John, Daffy for joining the discussion on FB

Friday, June 5, 2015

A discussion on Term Insurance

This post is a consolidation of a discussion i had with friends online and offline about why term insurance and which one is best.

Why life insurance ?
Am going to be blunt here, if you die suddenly, insurance company would pay an assured sum to help your family recover financially

Why term insurance?
There are endowment, money back, pension and term plans. Endowment plans(others are similar) provide a lump sum but that is 10 times lesser compared to a term insurance for the same payment of premium. But that is at a cost here, term insurance pays your family only if you die, so if you survive the policy term then all the money you paid is gone and you get back nothing. What you get is an assurance of money, a 'big' money, at the cost of loosing it all after the policy term. How much could you loose if you survive? For eg (all approx numbers)., it could be 375000 for a regular yearly payment policy of 25 years for a cover of 1cr and 2 lakhs if you choose the single payment. But when you compare the potential assurance that you get, premium that you could lose is still logical. Term insurance is the real insurance. 

To understand better, let me give you a comparison, I already have an endowment plan (like LIC Jeevan Anand) for a sum assurance of 5L, after 26 years i would get approx 10L inclusive of bonus for which i pay 20k every year, but this 10L after 26 years or any time even before that might not be enough for my family to survive for more than a year or 2.
Had I instead taken a term insurance for the same 5L, my premium would have been Rs 1850(approx) only, the rest 18150 could have been placed under recurring deposit of 8% which would mature to 15L after 25 yrs. So 15L + insurance of 5L at the same 20K, you tell me now, which is right?

As my friend Suresh put it, "Endowment plan = term plan + fixed deposit..... Small portion from your annual fee goes to term plan and the rest are invested in debt which will return 8℅". Effective total returns on your premium could be 6%.


Better, as another friend Saravanan put it, the potentially best financial security is to have "Term Insurance + PPF", since neither interest nor maturity of PPF comes under taxable income unlike deposits. Endowment plans make no sense if you have this option.

Go for Term Insurance, but avoid going for single payment, as a friend reasons, lets say you die in 2 years and had you paid yearly you would have spent less than 30K for a 1 crore sum assurance instead of 2L 

There are attractive endowment life insurances: (If you still wanna go for)
A friend has an endowment insurance for a death cover of 40L for 40 years paying 4L in 2 years. Same on maturity after 40 Years can get him 10L sum assured + bonus that could be some 10-15L, totaling to 25L. Just pause for a min and think, who effectively will use that money that comes after 40 yrs (>70)? But instead, on his own analysis, had he taken a term insurance paying 15k yearly, he could easily get a cover of 1 crore and the rest 3.85L would fetch better deposit interest returns in 40 years(>1c). So if you take endowment, makes good sense to take it for lesser years like 20 instead of 40 so you would get the money in hand at a time you could effectively use instead of after 40 years. A term insurance should be for as max number of years as possible

What about housing? Aren't they an alternative financial assurances?
One friend asked, if you can buy a home/flat and create wealth, what is the need for term insurance at all?
While I puzzled myself at the question, another friend answered, with term insurance you just spend 2 lakhs (hdfc single premium plan) for a cover of 1 crore for 30 years compared to a Flat of 40L, add to that the loan interest.

What about Mutual Fund SIP? SIP or any investment option, never is comparable to insurance. Insurance is a completely different category. Investments sure create wealth but you comparatively invest multiple times the money that you would do on a term insurance for a similar financial assurance. 

When is the right time to buy term insurance?
The time is Now. I suggest you take term insurance ASAP, especially before 30, because every year that you delay, around Rs 1000 increases in the yearly premium
People delay term insurance because in the end of the policy term, you get nothing. There could already be 1 or 2 endowment life insurance plans and some investments, that is the same reason i have delayed it as well and now i regret after all analysis and discussions, it is more than itching when I think what happens if i suddenly die

What is the best term insurance plan?
On my research and recommendations from friends, looks like HDFC click 2 protect plus is best in this category....they offer term up to 40 yrs and more, they provide more flexibility and additions compared to others.

I looked at LIC's e-term (online) which is costliest compared to ICICI or HDFC but has best claim settlement ratio. So key is the 'Claim Settlement Ratio' which simply means, higher the value of CSR, lesser the difficulty for your family in getting the settlement on your demise.

Also looked at ICICI icare brochure which gives instant online term insurance without even medicals but the moneylife article below details you more on the caveats, suggests you to avoid it if you are a healthy non-smoker and make sure to choose a term plan with medical check up, 

IMPORTANCE of MEDICAL CHECK UP:
From the below moneylife article:"a medical check-up is a good idea from the customers’ perspective. A check-up can’t catch all the medical problems and claims can still be rejected on non-disclosure grounds, but there is some proof with the customer in case the claim goes into litigation in case of claims rejection. Whether the product will have higher claim rejections due to lack of a medical test cannot be predicted at this time, but a customer aware of insurance intricacies would rather buy an insurance cover with a medical check-up rather than having the convenience of buying ‘instant’ life insurance."

http://www.moneylife.in/article/icici-pru-icare-delivers-instant-online-term-insurance-but-watch-out-for-some-caveats/20593.html

Thanks to my friends Ravi, Jitendra, Nandini, Antony, Suresh, John and Saravanan for involving in the discussion and providing valuable inputs

Who is your best friend?

Who advices and pressures you to pick a term insurance and PPF ASAP. By the way for you, it is me the best friend if you have read it till here! ;-)

Disclaimer:
All details provided in this blog post are done in good faith to help everyone. Please do your research before concluding any decision. i accept no liability for the content of this blog post, or for the consequences of any actions taken on the basis of the information provided here in this blog post. 
-Ragavendran

Thursday, June 4, 2015

How useful is a second home loan in terms of tax benefit?


In my understanding, question itself is wrong. Investing and spending are different. So any investment irrespective of tax benefits, is advantageous for you as you grow your wealth. Tax benefits that you receive should be considered as a bonus, which you probably get for 5 years assuming you close the loan after that.

Saturday, May 30, 2015

How about reservation for women?

How about reservation for women?

In today's times, for me, it looks like the time has come to give back everything that women were deprived off. More, may be the time has come for the society to answer or pay back for its oppression of women until now, not just give back its pay back!

More similar to how well we now pay back the lower castes. We make sure every person from every current and future generation of the lower caste family gets the reservation because every past generation member of his family were oppressed irrespective of how rich and well-to-do they are today and tomorrow. Isnt it fair deal to screw the upper caste irrespective of how brilliant and hard working he is, how poor and suffering he has become, and that probably because his/her parent got screwed by reservation? Lets make sure the lower caste dad of today asks his child to put very less effort and assure him/her of bright future while the upper caste dad is sure he and his children are screwed because some a...hole screwed up from his castes in the past enjoyed his life. (by the way i belong to BC)

Oh, am I missing the original topic of women reservation? No, absolutely not! Just because we made sure no women in any our families of the past were allowed to go out and earn, forcing them cruelly to do the kitchen work, its time to pay them back by giving reservation in every job that exists. Screw all male, screw all families. Just do the right thing, pay back. Just dont bother to care who in the family in particular is more efficient to earn, does it really help to get the both to work? fuck all the logical questions. It doesnt matter if logically not all women could become Sania or MS Subbulakshmi or Aishwarya or Kangana just like not all men would not become NRN or Sachin or Aamir. Women should go to work, because its time, even if it means to screw the parents and parent-in-laws, yes screw their retirement life forcing them to baby-sit, baby-feed and more importantly drive the kids to-and-fro daycares and schools, screwing their health, you have the added advantage of not paying them a penny if they have pension coming, hehehe!

We were all a..holes, we never celebrated women anywhere ever, never praised, never appreciated, never kept them as the source of energy at home, yes nothing. So its time to pay back. Not just parliament but reservations everywhere.

Wednesday, May 27, 2015

அவள்

அவள் வளைவுகளும் நெலிவுகளும்
இணையில்லா மென்மையும் 
எல்லையற்ற வசீகரமும்
என்னொளி மழுங்கச்செய்தாள்
நினைக்க நினைக்க திகட்டாத இன்பமவள்
வீழ்ந்து விட்டேன் நிரந்தரமாய்
இந்த வரம் போதவில்லை
ஈரேழு பிறப்பும் கேட்பேன்
அவளுடன் வாழ முடியுமெனில்

தமிழ்

Friday, May 15, 2015

Asus zenfone 2 ZE551ML review

Asus zenfone 2 ZE551ML (4 GB RAM, 2.3 GHz Processor, 64 GB ROM)

Just got it yesterday

I bought the ASUS flip cover as well that costed 1.3k. Whomever didn't buy this are missing beautiful additional features that the cover gives, like attending the call, date, time, weather, photo , all without flipping the cover, Material is with good grip too 

Also my 3g sim works pretty faster than it worked on Nexus 4

On call sound works just ok, Nexus 4 was better. This is significant issue for me

Camera has lots of features and customizations and so far so good, don't see any lag that some had pointed. Yet to try low light photos, but auto exposure adjustment is impressive. Flash seems powerful though haven't used it effectively

Battery charges super fast with the boost master adapter. Battery drains when i keep the display on with lots of apps, yet to be sure if it is a real issue

Lots of RAM already consumed, but still haven't got an issue out of it

Got a 64gb samsung card and all my photos and new apps go there

Lots of minute UI features does give good feel

Touch and display are good. Take screenshot by choosing the option from dropdown shortcut. Double tap wakeup is handy too

Overall its more than worth the money!

Update after 4 days 18:05:2015:

One thing i missed to call out is that, my friend dropped the phone while opening the pack on a carpet floor at a height of 3 feet and nothing happened to the screen or phone

I see that the battery is absolutely fine with normal 3g and phone call use. Works fine with long calls as well

I don't play games so no idea.

Call quality is average for sure. Nexus 4 was better as I said earlier. Literally no use of the speaker on call at all, so low volume.

So many in built minute features impress me as i discover them one by one, for eg, the voice recorder on call, call-back or sms option for missed calls on notification itself, configurable Quick settings drop down, wifi metering in addition to cellular data metering, auto switch off of hotspot after inactivity, ASUS gallery integration with all cloud and social accounts like G+, FB, G Drive...etc, Thank God, if not for the Asus Gallery have to depend on memory drinking G+ to have the G photos enabled.


Sunday, March 29, 2015

Witness to a beauty


There is a street in tamilnadu where every house in the street has one or the other flowering plants, fruit bearing trees, green leaves that you can cook, even betel leaves...etc. Beauty, I did witness, is anyone in the street can pluck flowers or fruits from anyone's else's, dont even ask for permission.

I dont know about others but I believe this is one beautiful way of co-existence.

It is called Mullai Street, Cuddalore

Monday, March 9, 2015

Where is the Family?

This is the bigger problem i wanted to mean in my previous post as well


Am attempting to acknowledge a problem in this post and not trying to address it with a solution. This attempt is limited to my personal experience and observations. No blaming anyone here for its beyond anyone's control.

We are almost in the last stages of the transition where it has become a rare newspaper article to find a happy combined family in India.

While both husband and wife work to earn a living, individuality has taken more priority. Most of the cases, both earn because there is no other option.  And the kids are becoming affordability in terms of money and effort. Ofcourse some grand-pas and grand-mas are available by default who are, at the best, emotionally forced to take the burden of handling the grand children. I start late to work because of flexible timings, i walk 25 mins to office, on my way i notice the dry, unpleasant, suffering but well-to-do(financially) faces of the retired elderly who take back their grand children back home from the day-cares, i dint need an additional mind reader. I dont know if they had their own plans if not dreams of their retirement life, they dont have that luxury anyways, in some cases they might even have to stay away from their spouses to work for their grand children. Let us not even dare say whether elderly actually need financial and physical support and care from their children. Grand-Children seem happier though. But are they aware of what they miss? they wont and they will grow to manifest the new reality.

Whats wrong with the new reality? isn't it how west already works? isn't that the next level of living ? Let us forget west for a minute, take the same situation before and after transition. We mostly had our males working in the combined family, children got the love and care directly from home, spouses took care of each other more easily, you had so many people at home to share the financial and physical burden. Am ofcourse talking about an ideal family where everyone worked for the welfare of the family, the more self-centered the more lonely one would want to be. I cant imagine an individual having a problem that would be unattended by someone in the family. There wasn't a need for separate child care, elderly care, home care...etc. Now compare that to today's well intentioned nuclear couples as a family. Both give good space to each other, respect each other, kids to the healthiest school, get to share the home loan burden, go for the 2nd and 3rd apartments to secure the future living, buy everything that is buyable, do better than the next apartment guy, oh wait am all talking about materials, what about the love that family would need? i don't know, it probably lives in phone calls and weekend restaurants once in a while, child might prefer the nanny's face than mom's, have no luxury to take care of parents even if they would want to, instead of everyone working for the family, its individuals could be on contract for his/her own individual reason. But going back to past is childish! really ? why should pleasantness be past?

Am I blaming it all on working women? No, am blaming everyone including the economy which forces everyone in the family into working mode most of the times. Am keeping aside those who work because of individuality and attitude. But individuality naturally comes up with everyone who starts working. there is no harm except the family thing takes a beating. Why dont we have a situation where just one person works for the family irrespective of the gender which would suffice without traveling abroad staying away from spouse, kids and parents. And they say it would take 70 years more for the women to earn at par with men. It is more than 9-6 job most of the times, to add, the commute to work could consume more of your life than spouse. Not anymore people are surprised to get to diabetes, BP, heart and knee problems at the early ages. Purpose of survival becomes survival

Shouldn't we anyways sacrifice something to get something else in life? Exactly, what are we sacrificing to get what?

Sunday, March 8, 2015

Andhra women

1. How come andhra girls are so innocent and polite to their husbands. Have witnessed many so far irrespective of whether she works or not.They all seem to belong to my mom's generation. Its a complete surrender to the family. What happened to tamilnadu? used to think both states are of similar mindset. Dont know if thats advantageous or not
2. I only wish i belonged to andhra
Note: Statements 1 & 2 are Not related

Wednesday, March 4, 2015

Honor Holly Review

Please note this is an initial review on a 3 days use. Will edit to add more when necessary.

Bought this for my mom and I own Nexus 4 already. So ....

1. Display and screen size is really good
2. Touch is good enough but doesnt get near Nexus 4
3. its thinner and not heavy.
4. Battery seems fine
5. Camera has lots of features, including a live photo, which i am yet to understand fully. I did not try outdoor photos yet but indoor neither bad nor great. Yet to try video as well
6. You can put your photo as wallpaper after login but not on the lock screen, it is restricted by a standard set of images.
7. home screen and back buttons arent lighted, thats a pain
8. There is no separate Apps section/screen unlike Nexus 4. You either install on home or uninstall
9. Sound is very average on call and speaker. yet to try music on headset
10. comes with preloaded flipkart apps. i dont like that i couldnt remove them
11. I did not try games, have no plans to try in future either

All good enough for my mom ....

Tuesday, February 10, 2015

Real Challenges of AAP


1. One Man Show:
How will AAP get over it? its not what AAP would want to survive with
2. Sustainable system change to corruption:
Though AAP won capitalising on 49 days rule, fact is that corruptions came back immediately after the last AAP fell. Infact am not even confident of a Lokpal fixing corruption, it would also work only until AAP is in rule. The real solution is having a collective social conscience which works consistently to repel corruption from society. Am not aware of a lokpal that keeps corruption low at US. In my view, its not Lokpal but the AAP, the real solution that should expand. So how will AAP convince the hardcore supporters of other parties who are worried about the loyalty than about real issues of the day?
3. Money
AAP could manage only 50% of their target 30cr this election, where and how will they get money from to expand to other states?
With the amount of creativity, intelligence and eagerness to learn, am hopeful of AAP leading the show

Brief of Direct and Indirect Taxes in India

Nature of taxes before 1991
1. Highly complex excise and custom duties with lots of exemptions
2. High peak income tax with a max of 80%
3. Very low tax payer base since low income consumers are more
4. Sales tax cumulation made the final cost of production very high
5. Low tax payer compliance
All above led to reduction in total tax collection year on year
In 1991, the government set up a special committee, the Raja Chelliah Committee on Tax Reforms, to review the country's tax system. Its mandate was to make recommendations to make the tax system more elastic and broad based, and to suggest means required for simplifying existing laws and regulations to facilitate better enforcement and compliance.
The government has implemented a large number of recommendations such as:
1 drastic reduction in customs and excise duties
2 lowering of corporate tax rates
3 simplifying income tax return filing procedures
4 levying taxes on services like insurance, stock brokering and telephones.
5 Increase the tax payer base
6. Reducing income tax rate and have slabs

“Chelliah’s recommendations is instrumental in bringing down the peak income tax rates from about 80 per cent to a simple and easy-to-administer three rate regime with the peak rate currently capped at 30 per cent,” said Pulin Nayak, of the Delhi School of Economics who have worked closely with Padma Vibhushan recipient.

Over a period of time, service tax expanded to many areas and increased, currently it applies to all services that are not part of the "Negative List"

VAT - governed by state govt
The rates can be as low as 5 percent and as high as 20 percent depending upon the states. Moreover, VAT for food items and drink are different. Many restaurants might club food items and drink and charge a flat rate on the total bill. In such cases, it is good to ask for separate bills for food and drinks. This should clearly show the different VAT for both the items.
TN VAT rate:
Where hoteliers etc do not exercise the compounding option, the VAT rate will be 12.5 per cent of taxable turnover in the case of recognised star hotels and four per cent in the case of others.
Service Tax - governed by central govt.
Service tax is same in all states. It is 12.36 percent on the 40 percent of the bill ( = 4.94 percent on the total bill). Hence whenever you see service tax on the total bill exceeding about 5 percent, you can question it.
In my specific case:
4.94% service of total bill + 12.5% of VAT on Food + 20% on special (drinks in my case I guess)
= total 83
Source: Internet
eg: 
1. http://www.moneycontrol.com/master_your_money/stocks_news_consumption.php?autono=927376
2. http://www.indolink.com/consulate/iebo/indtaxid.htm

Disclaimer: Please refer the above details at your own risk. I do not claim any accuracy of the Information provided above and also not liable for any loss in any form on the usage of the above information by any person or organisation or anyone or anything in any form.