Guru is God

Success mantra

2012-01-11T00:32:00.002+05:30

PhD is the new mantra for success.

It stands for be Passionate,feel Hunger for work or whatever you do and do it with Discipline! Follow the mantra and you are bound to succeed.

Benefit by staying focused on doing a great job -- rather than worrying about the next job, or the next promotion. Do a good job. Success and happiness will follow Inevitably

Tips to reduce petrol bills

2011-05-21T23:23:00.003+05:30

Motorists can make his/her drive pleasant experience in todays world of rising petrol prices. You cannot control the prices but there are ways to reduce burden on your pocket. Some tips to save petrol / diesel are
1)Increase vehicle efficiency by maintaining correct tyre pressure on regular basis.
2)Maintain speed with in correct gear. Don't rush maintain steady speed.
3)Lessen Air-conditioning use.
4)Turn Off your engine at signals.
5)Tune up engine by regular service.
6)Avoid traffic and throw away any unnecessary weight from your car.
7) Drive sensibly and enjoy life. Always have in mind that your loved ones are waiting for you at home.

Tax Ombudsman - new way for IT refund

2011-05-10T00:01:00.002+05:30

The Tax Ombudsman is an independent body,independent of the jurisdiction of the Income Tax department. It has been empowered to settle grievances and take up matters to the highest authority.Ombudsman handles
a)Delay or discrepancy in tax refunds
b)Impolite behaviour of tax officials
c)Interest waiver
d)Issues relating to allotment of Permanent Account Number
e)Non-credit of tax paid.

For more details check
http://www.incometaxindiapr.gov.in/incometaxindiacr/home.jsp?p1=ombudsman

Power of LOVE

2009-07-25T15:28:00.003+05:30

In Love, one plus one becomes one, not two. In deep love, the twoness disappears, mathematics is transcended; it becomes irrelevant. Two persons are are no more two, they become ONE. They start feeling functioning as a single organic body. This is only the Power of LOVE.

In LOVE two souls start adding life to years rather than years to their life.

All you wanted to know about GST

2009-07-09T23:48:00.002+05:30

One of the biggest taxation reforms in India -- the Goods and Service Tax (GST) -- is all set to integrate State economies and boost overall growth.

GST will create a single, unified Indian market to make the economy stronger.

Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee while presenting the Budget on July 6, 2009, said that GST would come into effect from April 2010.

The implementation of GST will lead to the abolition of other taxes such as octroi, Central Sales Tax, State-level sales tax, entry tax, stamp duty, telecom licence fees, turnover tax, tax on consumption or sale of electricity, taxes on transportation of goods and services, et cetera, thus avoiding multiple layers of taxation that currently exist in India.

What is GST?

Goods and Services Tax -- GST -- is a comprehensive tax levy on manufacture, sale and consumption of goods and services at a national level.

Through a tax credit mechanism, this tax is collected on value-added goods and services at each stage of sale or purchase in the supply chain.

The system allows the set-off of GST paid on the procurement of goods and services against the GST which is payable on the supply of goods or services. However, the end consumer bears this tax as he is the last person in the supply chain.

Experts say that GST is likely to improve tax collections and boost India's economic development by breaking tax barriers between States and integrating India through a uniform tax rate.

What are the benefits of GST?

Under GST, the taxation burden will be divided equitably between manufacturing and services, through a lower tax rate by increasing the tax base and minimising exemptions.

It is expected to help build a transparent and corruption-free tax administration. GST will be is levied only at the destination point, and not at various points (from manufacturing to retail outlets).

Currently, a manufacturer needs to pay tax when a finished product moves out from a factory, and it is again taxed at the retail outlet when sold.

How will it benefit the Centre and the States?

It is estimated that India will gain $15 billion a year by implementing the Goods and Services Tax as it would promote exports, raise employment and boost growth. It will divide the tax burden equitably between manufacturing and services.

What are the benefits of GST for individuals and companies?

In the GST system, both Central and State taxes will be collected at the point of sale. Both components (the Central and State GST) will be charged on the manufacturing cost. This will benefit individuals as prices are likely to come down. Lower prices will lead to more consumption, thereby helping companies.

What type of GST is proposed for India?

India is planning to implement a dual GST system. Under dual GST, a Central Goods and Services Tax (CGST) and a State Goods and Services Tax (SGST) will be levied on the taxable value of a transaction.

All goods and services, barring a few exceptions, will be brought into the GST base. There will be no distinction between goods and services.

Which other nations have a similar tax structure?

Almost 140 countries have already implemented the GST. Most of the countries have a unified GST system. Brazil and Canada follow a dual system where GST is levied by both the Union and the State governments.

France was the first country to introduce GST system in 1954.

Will this be an extra tax?

It will not be an additional tax. CGST will include central excise duty (Cenvat), service tax, and additional duties of customs at the central level; and value-added tax, central sales tax, entertainment tax, luxury tax, octroi, lottery taxes, electricity duty, state surcharges related to supply of goods and services and purchase tax at the State level.

What will be the rate of GST?

The combined GST rate is being discussed by government. The rate is expected around 14-16 per cent. After the total GST rate is arrived at, the States and the Centre will decide on the CGST and SGST rates.

Currently, services are taxed at 10 per cent and the combined charge indirect taxes on most goods is around 20 per cent.

Will goods and services cost more after this tax comes into force?

The prices are expected to fall in the long term as dealers might pass on the benefits of the reduced tax to consumers.

Why are some States against GST; will they lose money?

The governments of Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Tamil Nadu say that the information technology systems and the administrative infrastructure will not be ready by April 2010 to implement GST. States have sought assurances that their existing revenues will be protected.

The central government has offered to compensate States in case of a loss in revenues.

Some States fear that if the uniform tax rate is lower than their existing rates, it will hit their tax kitty. The government believes that dual GST will lead to better revenue collection for States.

However, backward and less-developed States could see a fall in tax collections. GST could see better revenue collection for some States as the consumption of goods and services will rise.

How will GST be implemented?

The empowered committee is likely to finalise the details of GST by August. But States have to sort out several issues like agreement on GST rates, constitutional amendments and holding talks with industry associations. Experts feel the drafting of legislation and the implementation of law will take time.

What are the items on which GST may not be applied?

Alcohol, tobacco, petroleum products are likely to be out of the GST regime.

How does securities transaction tax apply to you

2009-06-21T18:08:00.000+05:30

When the ministry of finance announced its Annual Budget for the year 2004-2005, it also announced a new tax which would be levied on capital gains on financial securities -- Securities Transaction Tax.

What is the Securities Transaction Tax?

The Securities Transaction Tax was introduced by Chapter VII of the Finance Act (No.2) Act, 2004. STT is a tax being levied on all transactions done on the stock exchanges.

Securities Transaction Tax is applicable on purchase or sale of equity shares, derivatives, equity-oriented funds and equity-oriented mutual funds.

How is STT applied?

STT is applied as following (effective from June 1st, 2005):

* For transactions in a recognised stock exchange in India:

a) Purchase/Sale of equity shares, units of equity oriented mutual fund (delivery based) -- 0.10%
b) Sale of equity shares, units of equity oriented mutual fund (non-delivery based) -- 0.02%
c) Sale of derivative -- 0.01%

* Sale of unit of an equity oriented fund to the mutual fund -- 0.2%

What items fall under the category of 'securities'?

'Securities' are defined under Section 2(h) of the Securities Contracts (Regulation) Act, 1956 (SCRA) to include:

* Shares, scrips, stocks, bonds, debentures, debenture stock or other marketable securities of a like nature in or of any incorporated company or other body corporate
* Derivatives
* Units or any other instrument issued by any collective investment scheme to the investors in such schemes
* Security receipt as defined in Section 2(zg) of the Securitisation and Reconstruction of Financial Assets and Enforcement of Security Interest Act, 2002
* Such other instruments as declared by the central government; and
* Rights or interest in securities
* Equity-oriented mutual funds (not debt-oriented mutual funds)

STT is not applicable in case of government securities, bonds, debentures and units of mutual fund other than equity oriented mutual fund.

What are the tax exemptions in regards to short term and long term capital gains?

Long-Term capital gains:

* For sale of equity shares, units of equity oriented mutual fund (delivery based), the gains are exempt from tax under section 10(38)
* For sale of unit of an equity oriented fund to the mutual fund, the gains are exempt from tax under section 10(38)

Short-Term capital gains:

* For sale of equity shares, units of equity oriented mutual fund (delivery based), the gains are taxable at the rate of 10% (+surchage +education cess) under section 111A
* For sale of unit of an equity oriented fund to the mutual fund, the gains are taxable at the rate of 10% (+surchage +education cess) under section 111A

Sales of equity shares, units of equity oriented mutual fund (non-delivery based) and sales of derivatives are both treated as business income. If income is shown as business income, one can claim tax rebate under section 88E.

Gilt funds can be double-edged swords

2009-06-14T14:08:00.001+05:30

With equity funds ruling the investors' preferences, other types of funds offered by the mutual fund houses have been totally ignored. One of them is gilt fund, which have not received the credit they deserved.

However, with the current market crash, the focus has been shifted to these funds. Here we take a look at these funds and whether you should include them in your portfolio.

What are gilt funds?
Gilt funds are nothing but debt funds that primarily invest in government securities (G-Secs). However they differ from conventional debt funds in that, while a traditional debt fund invests in all types of debt instruments, gilt funds have narrow investment objective. They just focus on G-Secs.

What are G-Secs?
G-Secs are government securities, produced by RBI on behalf of Indian government. Since they are sovereign paper, there are no credit risks associated with this investment.

Hence it is ideal for those looking for safety of their capital. But the biggest problem with G-Secs is that it is suitable only for large institutional investors, it effectively excludes small retail investors.

Gilt funds stepped in to provide these investors a low-cost way to invest in G-Secs. Investors can decide between short-term and long-term gilt funds, according to their investment time frame.

What returns can I expect from gilt funds?
While no investment option can guarantee returns, over the past one year, top-performing gilt funds have managed to generate returns exceeding 20%.

This is because in the recent times, the Reserve Bank of India [Get Quote] has introduced number of interest rate cuts. As there is an inverse relationship between the interest rates and the prices of bonds, reduction in interest rates, causes an increase in bond prices.

As a result, this has caused an increase in prices of long-term bonds and G-Secs. This has led to appreciation in NAVs of gilt funds, letting investors enjoy such stupendous returns.

I want to invest, but I need to understand the pros and cons of investing in gilt funds.

As with any other investment, gilt funds do have their own share of pros and cons.

Pros:
* Quite safe as the underlying investments are backed by government.
* Allows you to tap the G-sec market, which otherwise was open only to large players.
* Proves for effective diversification.

Cons:
* Interest rate risk
* Underlying securities are illiquid as they are not frequently traded. So if the fund manager opts for distress sell, to relieve redemption pressure, the fund may suffer loss.
* Makes ideal short-term investment as most of the funds tend to be volatile over longer investment time frame.

Should I invest in gilt funds?
To invest successfully in gilt funds, it is essential to watch the economic indicators that can predict the decrease in interest rates. Some essential factors leading to interest rate reduction are higher inflation, reduction in IIP (Index of Industrial Production), slow GDP growth and likelihood of reduction in corporate earnings.

Also consider your capacity to take risk, goal and fund's track record. Don't be swayed by only returns, as you may end up suffering losses

The basics of PPF

2009-03-25T22:58:00.002+05:30

It is that time of the year when most of us would have already made our decision as to where we will make our investments or would at least have had the chance of looking at different investment instruments.

At one point in time or the other we would have come across 'Public Provident Fund' as an effective investing instrument. But how much do we know about Public Provident Fund, or PPF?

What is the Public Provident Fund?

PPF is a long-term, government-backed small savings scheme of the Central government started with the objective of providing old age income security to the workers in the unorganised sector and self-employed individuals.

What is the interest rate offered through PPF?

Currently, the interest rate offered through PPF is around 8 per cent, which is compounded annually. Interest is calculated on the lowest balance between the fifth day and last day of the calendar month and is credited to the account on March 31 every year. So to derive the maximum, the deposits should be made between 1st and 5th day of the month.

What is duration of the investment?

People who are interested in liquidity or small-term gains would not be very keen about PPF because the duration for the investment is 15 years.

However, the effective period works out to 16 years i.e., the year of opening the account and adding 15 years to it. The contribution made in the 16th financial year will not earn any interest but one can take advantage of the tax rebate.

The account holder has an option to extend the PPF account for any period in a block of five years after the minimum duration elapses. The account holder can retain the account after maturity for any period without making any further deposits.

The balance in the account will continue to earn interest at normal rate as admissible on PPF account till the account is closed.

What is the minimum and maximum amount of deposit?

The minimum deposit that you can make into a PPF account in a year is Rs 500. The maximum is Rs 70,000.

Who can open a PPF account and where?

A PPF account can be opened by an individual (salaried or non-salaried) on his own behalf or on behalf of a minor of whom he is the guardian or on behalf of a Hindu Undivided Family (HUF) of which he is a member or on behalf of an association of persons or a body of individuals. An individual can open only one account for himself.

A PPF account can be opened with a minimum deposit of Rs 100 at any branch of the State Bank of India [Get Quote] or branches of its associated banks like the State Bank of Mysore [Get Quote] or Hyderabad. The account can also be opened at the branches of a few nationalized banks, like the Bank of India, Central Bank of India and Bank of Baroda [Get Quote], and at any head post office or general post office.

What are the tax benefits from PPF?

The amount you invest is eligible for deduction under the Rs 100,000 limit of Section 80C. On maturity, the entire amount including the interest is non-taxable.

Is it possible to withdraw the amount deposited at any time during the tenure?

Yes. You can take a loan on the PPF from the third year of opening your account to the sixth year. So, if the account is opened during the financial year 2009-10, the first loan can be taken during financial year 2011-12 (the financial year is from April 1 to March 31).

The loan amount will be up to a maximum of 25 per cent of the balance in your account at the end of the first financial year. You can make withdrawals during any one year from the sixth year.

You are allowed to withdraw 50 per cent of the balance at the end of the fourth year, preceding the year in which the amount is withdrawn or the end of the preceding year whichever is lower. For e.g., if the account was opened in 2000-01, and the first withdrawal was made during 2006-07, the amount you can withdraw is limited to 50 per cent of the balance as on March 31, 2003, or March 31, 2006, whichever is lower.

Sehwag hammers India's fastest ODI ton

2009-03-11T20:31:00.001+05:30

Swashbuckling opener Virender Sehwag hammered a 60-ball ton to eclipse Mohammad Azharuddin and register the fastest hundred in One-Day Internationals by an Indian in the fourth match against New Zealand [Images] in Hamilton, on Wednesday.

Batting on 97, Sehwag danced down the pitch and hit a Daniel Vettori delivery over the bowler's head to bring up his hundred with a big six in the 18th over of the rain-truncated match to better Azharuddin's 20-year-old mark by two balls.

Incidentally, Azharuddin's 62-ball 108, had also come against New Zealand in Baroda in 1988.

Sehwag had earlier smashed a 69-ball century against the Kiwis in Colombo in 2001.

The Indian now has the seventh fastest hundred in ODI history, with Pakistan's Shahid Afridi topping the chart with his 37-ball 102 against Sri Lanka in Nairobi in 1996.

Don't make a nuisance of yourself in the name of Holi

2009-03-11T20:27:00.003+05:30

Holi is the festival of colours, water balloons and revelry and Indians enjoyed it.

But let's face it, you need to exercise caution at the best of times -- Holi also spells skin ailments, altercations with strangers who are deluged with colour and massive hangovers for revellers who go overboard drinking bhang.

So, to make sure you have a healthy, happy experience celebrating tomorrow, we've put together a small list of dos and don'ts. Because good, clean -- well, as clean as possible, given the nature of the festival (!) -- fun is the order of the day.

Go the safe, organic way: First things first. Ensure your own wellbeing and that of your friends by opting for natural, organic colours as far as possible. Chemical powders are harsh on the skin and their side effects often catch up with you after you're done playing with them. Preferably, rub yourself down with baby oil before playing so that all the colour comes off your body easily. Wear old clothes that can be thrown away after playing around.

Set boundaries: Make a pact with everyone playing to limit yourself to acceptable Holi props. Often, what starts off with water balloons and colours ends up with people slinging muck and eggs at each other. And that kind of fun is not for everyone. So don't get carried away and ruin somebody else's good time. A vegetarian will not take kindly to being pelted with eggs and mud is unhygienic, it may cause a reaction with the skin or get in someone's eyes.

Don't pester bystanders: Don't assume an 'anything goes' attitude. Pelting strangers who are going about their business in and around your neighbourhood with colour and water, for instance, is a strict no-no. While you may be in the mood for fun, somebody else may not be and more often than not, altercations take place when passers-by are charged at. It ruins the celebrations and leaves everybody with a bad taste in their mouths. You don't want to drag somebody into the fray only to discover that one of his parents is in hospital and you upset him on his way there.

Show consideration towards people's property: Other than bystanders, make sure that you don't destroy people's property. Spraying water at someone's balcony in a bid to get him/ her to join you or pelting passing cars with eggs is not cool. Understand that you're severely inconveniencing people and have no right to manhandle anybody else's belongings; in the latter case, you may even cause a serious accident by obstructing a driver's vision.

Show some respect for the opposite sex: Guys, don't play rough with women in the name of the game and ladies, conduct yourself with decorum -- if you dish it out, be prepared to get it back. You can have a good time while still showing consideration towards each other.

Don't be a spoilsport: If you're not participating in the festivities, don't take to the street until the revelry are over. Chances are that even if people don't target you, the colour and water may be flung your way and your clothes will be ruined. If you're going to be a spoilsport about being dragged into it all, you'd rather keep yourself out of the way. If you're travelling by car, make sure that you roll your windows up and don't get annoyed if a little colour or water settles on your vehicle. It can be easily washed off.

Intoxication is a poor excuse for bad behaviour: A lot of people like to drink the intoxicating beverage bhang on Holi. Like all intoxicants, it can have serious effects on your health. The choice is yours, but remember, nothing in excess. If you must, make sure to have only as much as you can handle and don't start misbehaving -- getting intoxicated is no excuse to behave aggressive and loud. If you can't handle your drinks, it's better left untouched.

Don't impose on others: Don't try to force people into doing anything they are not comfortable doing and don't allow yourself to be convinced if you're reluctant either. Force-feeding people with bhang, dragging in folks who don't want to participate and creating a nuisance are not what Holi is about. Remember, to each his own.

Well, enough of the lecturing (!), but do keep these points in mind. That way, you'll have a great Holi and can create plenty of pleasant memories without creating a ruckus.

Have fun!

Does money make you happy, or does being happy make you money?

2009-03-06T19:31:00.000+05:30

“The base majority of IT professionals are satisfied at work with 4 out of 10 being either ‘very’ or ‘extremely’ satisfied with their jobs. Indeed, the results show a direct correlation between job satisfaction and the amount of money that one is paid. Since more money equals greater job satisfaction, one could infer that for some, money does buy happiness–at least at work.”

While I’m not denying money can put a smile on most people’s faces, I’m wondering if this may be a case of what came first — the chicken or the egg. Instead of considering that money buys happiness, how about thinking of it as more money comes to people who like their jobs. If you like your job, you’re more likely to put in that extra effort, which is recognized by your manager who, in turn, issues you raises. If you’re happy in your job, it may have something to do with the fact that your talent is recognized with positive attention from your managers and others in the company. And that positive attention results in more money.

On the other hand, if you’re unhappy with what you do, you’re less likely to respond readily to new intiatives, and your negative attitude might impact effective communication with your co-workers.

What do you guys think?

--Toni Bowers

Coping with the aftermath of layoffs

2009-02-08T20:51:00.004+05:30

Relief, guilt, grief and fear are all typical feelings of the employees who are left behind in an office after a wave of layoffs. It's easy to get mired in the emotions; it takes deliberate thought and action to manage in the workplace after colleagues have been let go. "To be a survivor, you have to act like one,".
People who survive difficult experiences and economic times are able to do so because they can imagine a time when things will change for the better.
Here's how to cope and position yourself in the office after a round of layoffs.

Confirm new business priorities. Not only does the number of employees change after a layoff, but often the direction of the business and the importance of various projects also change. Check in with managers at least one or two levels above you to find out what the highest priority work is now and ask for detailed descriptions of your new responsibilities, especially if you've taken on the work of a former colleague.

Take initiative. Now is the time to get out of your comfort zone at work and stretch yourself. At a time when there are fewer people to do the work, "look for projects and raise your hand for new assignments that need to be done. Managers will see you as someone who is willing to go the extra mile. You might also open yourself up to other opportunities by taking on new projects or picking up new skills.

Promote teamwork and collaboration. This isn't the time to hide out in your office or to try to fly under the radar. "You need to do just the opposite,". Often, after a layoff, two departments will be combined or responsibilities in one group will be shifted to another. Use the opportunity to forge alliances and work as part of a team to create new ways to get work done with fewer people. Find ways to stay engaged that will help you in your job as well as contributing to the overall health of the business. Consider renewing a relationship with a mentor or planning a casual office lunch.

Communicate constantly. During times of change, it's imperative to seek feedback from your managers and colleagues. You'll want to be sure you're doing high-priority work and that you're doing it effectively and productively. Start out with a formal request to get up to speed on what's expected from you, and follow up with face-to-face conversations in the weeks ahead.

Avoid negativity. Layoff survivors can easily fall into "pity parties" where they kvetch about the state of their workplace. "It's essential that you look for the positive things around you and realize that you have a choice about your morale,". Managers look for people they can count on during these times, whether it means handling more pressure, being a team player or being easy to work with. You want your manager to see you as having a personality that brings energy rather than zapping energy from the group.

Dookh ne eak pal saath na chora

2009-01-19T13:27:00.002+05:30

Dard ke daastaan badi lambi hai
Dookh ne eak pal saath na chhora

Sookh mujhe tarsaata raha
Door door se dekh khushi ko

Man ko mere behlata raha
Her taraf rang hai umang hai

Jahaan bhi dekho khushboo hai bahar hai
Tanha dil ko mai samjhata raha

Aur baharow ka mausam mujhe chidhata raha
Taskeen ka eak pal na mila

Chain mera her ghadi beaabroo mila
Apne haathow mei chehra chupaker

Andhere ka darr bhagata raha
Jab bhi dekhi perchai apni

Laga dost purana aagya

Has ke muskura ke mai mila
Uski chuppi bhram todta raha

Haath ke rekha mei dhoonda kavi toh
Dhoonda kavi taqdeer ke keetab mei

Eak chehra jo kho gya hai na mila
Mai panne der panne palatha raha

Kuch saans bachi thi aakhri
Sitamgaarh dekhta aake jara

Mai raastow pe teri her pal
Intzaar ke palkein bichhai rakha

Dookh ne eak pal saath na chora
Sookh mujhe tarsaata raha

THORI SEE KHUSIYAAN

2009-01-19T12:38:00.001+05:30

KAHAN SE LAAUN THORI SEE KHUSIYAAN

JAHAN BHER KE GAM MUJHKO MILE HAI

HASNA TOH JAISE BHULNE LAGA HOON MAI

AANSOO SARE MERI AANKHOW MEI BHRE HAI

MAANGTI HUI SE NAJAR MERI RAAT- DIN

DERWAJE SAARE KABSE BAND PADE HAI

MAI DHOONDTHA HEE REH GAYA MERE APNE

DUNIYAAN MEI SIRF SAARE PARAYE BASE HAI

DUSMAN MILTE HAI DOSTOW KE KHOJ MEI

AB HUM BHI SANGDIL JARA HO GAYE HAI

SAANS-SAANS MEI GHUTAN SE HOTI HAI

KAISE BATAYE KIS TARAH HUM JEE RAHE HAI

TADAP KE DAMM NIKAL JAYE TOH CHAIN HO

YAA KOI AUR BERBADIYAAN MERE LIYE HAI

Mera Saath.........

2009-01-19T12:32:00.000+05:30

मै तुम्हारे पास रहूँगी हर पल
धूप कभी तो कभी छौं (shade ) बनकर

दूर् हूँ तो इसलिये गम ना करना
पास रहूँगी सदा याद बनकर

किताबौ मे ढूंदते हो अस्तित्व अपना
उतर जाउन्गी हर्फ पे शब्द बनकर

ग़मे जुदाई मे कभी आंशू ना बहाना
खव्बौ मे होगी बस्लेयार ( date ) ख्वाईश बनकर

थक जो जाओगे तन्हा सफर मे
मेरी मुस्कान होगी दिल मे हौसले बनकर

मै ना रहूँगी इस जहाँ मे तो क्या ?
मेरा साया साथ होगा हमसफ़र बनकर

हो मुकम्मल ( complete ) ज़िंदगी तेरी , ख़ुशीयौ से
मेरी ये इल्तzआ है खुदा से दुआ बनकर

Three habits of highly ineffective employees

2008-12-30T15:58:00.000+05:30

OK, this one may hurt.

Think you have what it takes to dig a career hole for yourself and then stay there? If not, here are three tips that are sure to get you the kind of attention nobody really wants.

Miss deadlines: If each person in a company operated in an independent vacuum, a missed deadline might not be such a big deal. But, as you well know, almost every action of every employee has some kind of effect, either direct or indirect, on the performance of another employee. Let’s say Person A–that would be you–has four days to complete the first part of a project; Person B has four days to complete the second part; and Person C has been given three days before the ultimate out-the-door deadline.

Since you’re not that hung up on specifics like deadlines, you take an extra day to get your portion of the project done. Person B has now missed an opening window of time for getting his portion launched so he, in turn, borrows another day from the master schedule. Now poor old Person C finds himself at the end of the project, and his deadline is one day away. As in DEADLINE. Not Ailing Gray Area. Person C probably has to work late and miss his daughter’s soccer game where, as it turns out, she scores the winning goal. And it’s all your fault.

Complain too much: OK, look, most people like to complain. They do it more often out of frustration if they feel like it’s not feasible for them to take any real action — but that’s not letting you off the hook. Like it or not, your job is to make things happen for the company you work for. If you can find fault with everything that entails (everything legal, that is), your input will lose its value. Constant complainers have no credibility.

Of course, you complain because you think you know better than those who make the decisions. Maybe you do and maybe you don’t. Either way, you don’t want to get a reputation as the person who will point out all the bad aspects of every suggestion and have to be dragged kicking and screaming into every new endeavor. It’s exhausting for everyone you work with. Ultimately, no one will think of you as a discerning employee as much as they will think of you as a pain in the butt.

Be the company doormat: This is the Complainer’s polar opposite, but it’s just as toxic. Are you the guy who helps everyone? The one everyone knows they can dump work on because you’re so nice and capable? And if everyone likes you, they respect you, right? Wrong. Your manager probably interprets this helping tendency as an inability on your part to set boundaries. And, believe me, no one is going to foist any make-a-name projects on you–only the penny ante stuff they don’t want to do.

The ability to set boundaries is something you need to have if you want to move up in the company. And if you take nothing else away from this blog, know this: Those co-workers lining up to pawn work off on you will not set your boundaries for you.

Although your intentions are good, your desire to help everyone may result in your workload being too much to handle, which could make you a deadline-misser (see my first point), and you don’t want that. Another result is that, with things piled on as they are, you will do no one project really well.

In brief, finish on time, develop a streak of optimism, and learn to say no.

Why you must insure your wedding

2008-12-26T13:48:00.000+05:30

"The latest entrant into the insurance family is wedding insurance," I told my brother Prabhat who is getting married this year. His immediate response was: "What's the need of such an insurance cover?" But before i could answer, his next question was, "What is the premium and what is the term insured?"

Wedding insurance is for providing cover to protect you against any untoward incident on or before the wedding.

Whatever may be your financial status, weddings in India attract huge expenditure, what with it being a once-in-a-lifetime event. After some research, I knew wedding insurance is not that big in India as awareness is still quite low. Moreover, people shudder to even think of an unforeseen, unfortunate event happening around their own or their child's wedding.

Mostly, it is a case of: Let's not think about it; and nothing will happen. But considering the huge amounts at stake in such a short duration, it is advisable to protect yourself from any such incident.

In a nutshell, wedding insurance safeguards you financially against unforeseen events that could postpone or cancel the wedding.

A conversation with the relationship manager of Bajaj Allianz revealed that they have recently launched a wedding insurance package.

He said, "In case the wedding gets postponed or cancelled, there is a certain risk of monetary loss. Our package covers the specific risks related to weddings. But yes there are not many takers for the same till now; moreover the policy is not being marketed aggressively as well."

Normally the wedding insurance policy covers wedding cancellation / postponement due to fire or any natural disaster, accident of the bride / groom, accident of blood relations for a seven-day period (three days prior to the wedding date, the wedding date, and three days after the wedding date), damage to property including the venue, burglary, and even cases of food poisoning at the function.

Typical wedding insurance covers range from Rs 2 lakh to Rs 8 lakh and their indicative premiums range from Rs 3,770 to Rs 14,276.

What wedding insurance broadly covers?
Right from brides or grooms coming late to burglary of valuables, everything is covered. The biggest risk covered is non-availability of groom or bride owing to stranded transport or law and order problems. Any damage to building and contents due to fire or allied perils is also considered a ground for claims. Accidental death in family or that of close family friend is also covered.

Legal liability and third party damages are recognised as risks. There is cover against food poisoning too, which comes under public liability clause. In case wedding ornaments are lost, the policy stands.

Money kept in safes at the wedding residence also comes under insurance policy. It extends to the day after the nuptials. Burglary of valuables is covered for one day after the marriage, as it is assumed that people stay back the night after wedding.

What wedding insurance doesn't cover?
The insurance policy cannot be claimed if dispute arises between two families. There are a whole lot of exclusions, which prevent a wedding insurance claim from being accepted. A marriage under duress, criminal acts, misconduct, misrepresentation, willful negligence, insolvency and influence of drugs or alcohol are sufficient to exclude a policy.

Nuclear perils, radioactivity, war and war-like perils also come under exclusions. The fine print has to be read because damage to electricity through short-circuits or self-heating deprives you of policy benefits.

The wedding insurance policy does not cover 'cold feet', that is, when the bride and / or the groom change their mind at the wedding venue.

Also nothing can be done if bride and groom decide to run away! Nevertheless, you should find the wedding insurance bug catching on... There is just too much expense and value involved for that not to happen.

चिडिया और सफ़ेद गुलाब

2008-12-26T11:37:00.000+05:30

आओ सुनो एक कहानी

एक चिडिया को एक सफ़ेद गुलाब से प्यार हो गया , उसने गुलाब को प्रपोस किया ,
गुलाब ने जवाब दिया की जिस दिन मै लाल हो जाऊंगा उस दिन मै तुमसे प्यार करूँगा ,
जवाब सुनके चिडिया गुलाब के आस पास काँटों में लोटने लगी और उसके खून से गुलाब लाल हो गया,
ये देखके गुलाब ने भी उससे कहा की वो उससे प्यार करता है पर तब तक चिडिया मर चुकी थी

इसीलिए कहा गया है की सच्चे प्यार का कभी भी इम्तहान नहीं लेना चाहिए,
क्यूंकि सच्चा प्यार कभी इम्तहान का मोहताज नहीं होता है ,
ये वो फलसफा; है जो आँखों से बया होता है ,

ये जरूरी नहीं की तुम जिसे प्यार करो वो तुम्हे प्यार दे ,
बल्कि जरूरी ये है की जो तुम्हे प्यार करे तुम उसे जी भर कर प्यार दो,
फिर देखो ये दुनिया जन्नत सी लगेगी
प्यार खुदा की ही बन्दगी है ,खुदा भी प्यार करने वालो के साथ रहता है

खूबसूरती क्या है?

2008-12-26T11:36:00.000+05:30

मैने खुदा से पूछा कि खूबसूरती क्या है?
तो वो बोले ::::
खूबसूरत है वो लब जिन पर दूसरों के लिए एक दुआ है
खूबसूरत है वो मुस्कान जो दूसरों की खुशी देख कर खिल जाए
खूबसूरत है वो दिल जो किसी के दुख मे शामिल हो जाए और किसी के प्यार के रंग मे रंग जाए
खूबसूरत है वो जज़बात जो दूसरो की भावनाओं को समझे
खूबसूरत है वो एहसास जिस मे प्यार की मिठास हो
खूबसूरत है वो बातें जिनमे शामिल हों दोस्ती और प्यार की किस्से कहानियाँ
खूबसूरत है वो आँखे जिनमे कितने खूबसूरत ख्वाब समा जाएँ
खूबसूरत है वो आसूँ जो किसी के ग़म मे बह जाएँ
खूबसूरत है वो हाथ जो किसी के लिए मुश्किल के वक्त सहारा बन जाए
खूबसूरत है वो कदम जो अमन और शान्ति का रास्ता तय कर जाएँ
खूबसूरत है वो सोच जिस मे पूरी दुनिया की भलाई का ख्याल

D se dosti,
D se dushmani,
D se dil,
D se dard,
D se dillagi,
D se deewangi,
But...........
D se itna bhi door na ho jana ke
H se Hamara saath hi chhut jaye.

Sawaal paani ka nahin, pyaas ka hai.
Sawaal maut ka nahin, saans ka hai.
Dost to duniya mein bahut hai magar,
Sawaal dosti ka nahin VISHWAS ka hai..

मैत्री

2008-12-26T11:34:00.000+05:30

मैत्री हा असा एक धागा,
जो रक्ताची नातीच काय
पण परक्यालाही खेचून आणतो
आपल्याही मनाला जवळचा करून ठेवतो
आपल्या सुख-दु:खात तो स्वत:ला सामावून घेतो.

मैत्री करण्यासाठी नसावं
लागतं श्रीमंत आणि सुंदर
त्याच्यासाठी असावा लागतो
फ़क्त मैत्रीचा आदर

काहीजण मैत्री कशी करतात?
उबेसाठी शेकोटी पेटवतात अन
जणू शेकोटीची कसोटी पहातात.
स्वार्थासाठी मैत्री करतात अन
कामाच्या वेळेस फ़क्त आपलं म्हणतात.
शेकोटीत अन मैत्रीत फ़रक काय?
दोन्हीपण एकच जाणवतात.

मैत्री करणारे खूप भेटतील
परंतू निभावणारे कमी असतील
मग सांगा, खरे मित्र कसे असतील?

कधी भांडणाची साथ, कधी मैत्रीचा हात
कधी प्रेमाची बात, अशी असते निस्वार्थ मैत्रीची जात

या मैत्रीचा खरा अर्थ केव्हा कळतो?
नेत्रकडा ओलावल्या अन शब्द ओठांवरच अडखळला
मित्र या शब्दाचा अर्थ तो दूर गेल्यावर कळला....

Plenty at stake as top three sides go in to battle

2008-12-23T17:31:00.000+05:30

As well as looking to wrap up the series 2-0, India will look to regain the No. 2 spot in the ICC Test rankings with a win in the second Test against England in Mohali starting Friday. Having briefly secured the second spot with a 2-0 win against Australia in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in October-November, they were toppled by South Africa who beat Bangladesh 2-0 in the two-Test series at home, towards the end of last month.

The three points gained will put India above South Africa, who will then have to ensure a series win against Australia, the No. 1 team, in their contest starting Wednesday in Perth, to hold on to second spot. However, South Africa have the chance to go top if they whitewash Australia 3-0.

Australia have held on to the top spot despite the defeat in India, followed swiftly by a 2-0 series win in the Trans-Tasman Trophy at home to New Zealand. They are currently 13 points clear of South Africa, and 14 of India.

A 3-0 series win at home against South Africa will give them four points and stretch the gap ahead of no. 2 to 21 points. Any series win, in fact, will strengthen their position.

The Australia-South Africa series holds a number of incentives for the players as well. The South African pace duo of Dale Steyn (No. 2) and Makhaya Ntini (No. 4) will look to improve their positions among the top five Test bowlers, given that Australia's Stuart Clark (No. 3) has been ruled out of the first Test. Jacques Kallis will also look to widen the gap between him and Daniel Vettori at No. 2 in the Test allrounder rankings.

Michael Hussey, currently No. 4 in the Test batsmen rankings, will also look to move up the charts, and narrow the gap at the top. But he will hope that both, West Indies' Shivnarine Chanderpaul (No. 1) and Sri Lanka's Kumar Sangakkara (No. 2) falter this December, in the series away to New Zealand and Bangladesh respectively

Your 6 transactions that the taxman tracks

2008-12-17T15:40:00.001+05:30

When Priyanka Jhamanani (name changed) bought her friends' flight tickets for over Rs 125,000, the last thing on her mind was a notice from the income tax department.

Six months later, she was summoned by the IT department to explain the expenditure. Also, the notice asked her to meet an official and explain her source of funds.

"To catch tax evaders and prevent money laundering, the IT department has made a list of high value transaction. Notices are sent to consumers to explain these expenses, said K H Viswanathan, executive director, RSM Astute Consulting, a tax consultancy firm.

Experts explained that normally, the IT department sends notices to only those people whose yearly credit card transactions cross Rs 200,000.

But other than credit card companies, the Reserve Bank of India, banks, mutual funds and companies issuing shares and debentures need to file a report stating high-value transactions. This is done in form of an annual information report. Some even report the details every quarter.

Some of the yearly high-value transactions tracked by the IT authorities include:

1) Property purchase worth Rs 30 lakh (Rs 3 million) or more;

2) Deposits of over Rs 10 lakh (Rs 1 million)in a savings account;

3) Purchase of bonds of over Rs 5 lakh (Rs 500,000);

4) Investment in mutual funds of over Rs 2 lakh; (Rs 200,000);

5) Purchase of shares worth Rs 1 lakh (Rs 100,000) in a single company and;

6) Purchase of consumer durables like plasma television or expensive cars.

When faced with such a situation, you need to have all the documentation ready. "When IT called for an explanation, the person who has made such a transaction should carry all the documents supporting the source of funds. He also needs to carry his IT filings for the last financial year," said Kanu Doshi, a tax expert.

For instance, if the IT department calls to inquire on the purchase of a flat of over Rs 30 lakh, carry bank statement and documents that shows the loan amount.

"Make payments as much as possible through cheques or debit cards for large transactions and from an account that is your salary account. This will help to explain the source of money easily," explained Viswanathan. Further, if you have borrowed any money from a friend or relative for these purchases, take the loan in cheque. That would help clear any doubts.

To be on the safe side, mention all the high-value materials purchased while filing returns. This should include jewellery, expenditure on children's marriage, and others.

Sanskrit – a source of knowledge and wisdom or a dying heritage?

2008-12-16T14:24:00.001+05:30

Sanskrit, like Latin or Greek is the world’s one of the oldest and few classical languages. In present times, it is written in the Devnagri script and its grammar was set out in 500 BC. It is listed as one of India’s 23 official languages. The total number of people who speak Sanskrit does not exceed 50,000, whereas it is also a second language to less than 2 lakh people. In whatever limited numbers, besides India, it is also spoken in Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh, and some other areas of South and Southeast Asia. Like in the earlier mentioned counties, many Buddhist scholars in China, Japan, Thailand and Vietnam also speak and use Sanskrit. This is supported by the fact that all scriptures of Hindus, Jains and Budhists are written and recorded in Sanskrit. Books of Puranas, with Bhagavad Gita as one of them, are one of the most interesting collection of stories about the Hindu gods and goddesses written in Sanskrit. The fact that Vedas, India’s two most talked about epics, Mahabarat and Ramayan, the works of Kalidas, etc were all written in Sanskrit shows that Hindu philosophy and traditions revolve around Sanskrit based writings. Sanskrit was a vehicle of creativity and development. The work done in Sanskrit is huge - Vedas laid the foundation of Vedic literature and all Sanskrit literature thereafter. Classical Sanskrit literature contains rich poetry, is found in Indian Classical Music and literature, as well as scientific, (Indian plants and animal species, Indian astronomy and ancient Indian sciences), technical, philosophical and religious texts. Sanskrit has been extensively used in religion and philosophy, in grammar, phonetics, etymology and lexicography. Astronomy, astrology, sociology, arts and aesthetics, politics and sex are well explained in Sanskrit language. Sanskrit, one of the oldest languages is considered as the “mother of all languages”, as many languages of world have either evolved out of it or have been greatly influenced by it. At the same time, Sanskrit language, it is believed belongs to the Indo-European, Indo-Aryan language group, as there are too many words in European languages that are similar phonetically and in meaning to those in Sanskrit. Sanskrit is related to Asian and South East Asian culture and philosophy, as Latin and Greek to European. Sanskrit originated from the same source as Latin, Greek and Persian, what we now refer as the Indo European languages. Sanskrit language has a wonderful structure - more perfect than the Greek, more abundant than the Latin, and more elegantly refined than either. It bears such a stronger resemblance to both - verb roots as well as forms of grammar, that it possibly could not be an accident that these evolved from some common source. Unfortunately, this link no longer exists. Though, there are people who suggest that Sanskrit evolved from either Dravidian group of languages or an earlier version of Sanskrit spoken in the sub-continent. But, some of the most widely used words common among these languages suggest that they all came from the same source. Evolution of different words in each language and possible connection with similar words in other comparable languages provides irrefutable evidence of their common origin. Sanskrit today has practically turned in to a ceremonial language, mainly used in Hindu hymns (mantras) and Bhudhists and Jain scriptures, but unfortunately, not brought in day-to-day use.

Fresh grads: Focus on job content, not salary

2008-12-15T16:56:00.001+05:30

How the young working professionals and fresh graduates can prepare themselves for the current global economic situation.

The current job scenario
Earlier, there was a bit if arrogance in the fresh graduates because not one or two but three companies chased them. So, there was no seriousness about joining or staying in a company. Some of these graduates were very choosy because there were many jobs available. So, they took jobs for granted.

Attrition was high as they were hopping companies for small amounts. Those times are over.

What kind of jobs to take
I would suggest two things. My suggestion to them now is, choose a company that wants you and not the company you want. And, stay there. This is no time to jump around and experiment.

If you have a stable start in the beginning of your career, even if it is for a lower salary, it is okay. You should forego the idea that you would not work in Tier 2 cities, and that you would not work in lesser known companies.

You should look for job content that can add value to your experience. Only those who are doing well in the company will be kept in troubled times. Those who are not adding value will be under threat.

So, you choose a company where you can learn and contribute. When you are contributing, you are under less threat.

What companies look for during times of economic slowdown
When companies become very choosy during times like this, a fresh graduate has to be either from a good college or has to have good grades or good knowledge. When the chips are down, companies look for people who add value.

So, freshers should make sure that they learn to manage their own expectations. They should not lose heart. In some of the campuses, I see young people thinking their world has ended if they don't get a job. Don't get depressed.

Higher studies as an option
It is a risky proposition to go for a Masters just because you didn't get a job. If you want to add value to your qualifications, go for higher education.

Salary cuts
During the dotcom bust, many used to say, we will stay here even for a smaller salary. Maintaining a job became more important than asking for a raise. Once again, we see those times.

The next two quarters are very crucial. If the global economy continues to remain sluggish, it will be disastrous.

Banks cut home loan rates

2008-12-15T13:25:00.001+05:30

Public sector banks on Monday announced that home loans up to Rs 5 lakh (Rs 500,000) would be given at a maximum interest rate of 8.5 per cent, while those between Rs 5 lakh and Rs 20 lakh (Rs 500,000 and Rs 2 million) would be offered at 9.25 per cent.

Besides, the banks would not charge any processing fees and pre-payment charges for loans up to Rs 20 lakh, and would also provide free insurance cover, the Indian Banks Association said.

The package looks at reviving the demand in the housing industry.
# Interest rates not to exceed 8.5% for loans up to Rs 5 lakh
# Interest rates for loans between Rs 5 lakh and 20 lakh to be 9.25%.
# No processing fee or pre-payment charges, free insurance cover for loans up to Rs 20 lakh.
# PSU banks announce one percentage point cut in loans for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs).

However, it is not yet clear if the existing home loan borrowers will benefit from the special home loan schemes unveiled by state-owned banks on Monday.

Outlining the new housing loan package in accordance with the stimulus package announced by the government on December 7, State Bank of India chairman O P Bhatt said the interest rate under the two schemes could come down, but would not go up beyond the threshold limit of 8.5 and 9.25 per cent for a five-year period.

The offering under the packages would be made till June 30, next year, Bhatt said, adding that after the lock-in period of five years the borrowers could look in for free or floating rates that could change in accordance with market conditions.

To make the package attractive, the public sector banks would give the loans at a margin of 10 per cent up to Rs 5 lakh and 15 per cent for loans between Rs 5 lakh and Rs 20 lakh, and in either case, banks would offer free insurance cover, Bhatt said.

Leading private lenders, including ICICI Bank and HDFC, appeared favourably inclined to cut their rates, with sources saying the two lenders would study the PSU banks' package before taking a call.

Sources said any decision would be taken after ascertaining whether PSU banks are getting any government subsidy for implementing the package.

The banks have also decided to cut the lending rates for the micro and medium enterprises by 100 basis points.

DDA awaits go-ahead for draw of lots

2008-12-15T12:27:00.001+05:30

Many people who have applied for a flat in the DDA housing are interested to know when the draw will be carried out. This blog will continue to provide updates on this subject.

Draw of DDA Housing Scheme 2008 is on 16th Dec 2008

Here is a news item published in Hindustan times.

The Delhi Development Authority (DDA) is all set to conduct the draw of lots to its Housing Scheme 2008, launched on August 6 this year. All it awaits is a green signal from the State Election Commission (SEC). The SEC put in place a code when elections to the Rajinder Nagar seat were countermanded following the death of Bhartiya Janata Party legislature candidate P.C. Yogi. The code, in force till December 16, after the counting for the seat is over, disallows the DDA to draw lots before this date. “We have written to the SEC that since the Housing Scheme was launched before the code of conduct came into force on October 14, we should be allowed to conduct the draw of lots. A few lakh people have put in money in the Scheme and delaying the lottery is tantamount to harassing them,” said a DDA official on condition of anonymity. According to DDA’s official schedule, the agency had planned to hold the draw of lot for the flats before December 15.“We have completed all modalities like scrutinizing the application forms and will conduct the lottery as soon as we get the go-ahead from the election office.” said a senior official. Of the 12.64 lakh application forms, which were downloaded and sold, 5.60 lakh forms had been submitted in different banks authorized by the DDA by the time the scheme closed on September 16. The competition is going to be tough as there will be about 100 applicants for each of the 5010 flats, located in various Delhi localities.

Source::
http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/StoryPage.aspx?sectionName=IndiaSectionPage&id=fc35a88c-2776-43c8-b0a7-fd052973d1cf&&Headline=DDA+awaits+go-ahead+for+draw+of+lots

Work a Miracle in a needy Child's LIFE

2008-12-08T11:28:00.007+05:30

What is Child Sponsorship? ..it's all about giving a needy child the hope of a better future! Your gift of Rs.600/- every month provides a needy child with access to education, health and nutrition. Because of you, a needy child and the family can look forward to a future of dignity and hope!

Your support can make a world of difference!

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Five things your manager could be doing better

2008-12-05T15:30:00.001+05:30

don’t know your manager personally. He or she may be perfectly wonderful. And I’m not indicting all managers as being somehow deficient in their jobs. But chances are, all managers could use some strengthening in certain areas. Here are some ways most managers could improve:

1. Dealing with personnel problems sooner rather than later. Nothing demoralizes employees more than working with a co-worker who is a problem that no one will deal with, either because doing so would be “uncomfortable,” or the happiness of the team is just not a big priority to the manager. Basically, it ends up with the sub-par employee holding everyone emotionally hostage.

Although it’s never pleasant to deliver criticism, the burden should never outweigh the need. If someone is a personnel problem, he or she has to be responsible for the consequences. I’m not suggesting anything that would involve weaponry or a stockade. I’m not even saying that criticism should be blunt and loud, by any means; it can be finessed. But a manager should never be apologetic for having to criticize the work performance of a team member. If Employee A exhibits behaviors that negatively impact the rest of the staff, then Employee A needs to be made aware that it won’t be tolerated.

If not, what’s the message to the rest of the team? I can show up late, push my work off on others, be intimidating, be toxic, and watch YouTube videos all day at work. Who’s going to say anything?

2. Giving more positive feedback. Many managers operate from the assumption that their employees will know they’re doing OK as long as they aren’t reprimanded for something. This is not a productive way to operate. There are ways for staffers to infer that they’re doing a good job, but why should they have to do that? Many people don’t look at things from a “no news is good news” standpoint. You’d be surprised at how motivating it is for an employee to find out his or her performance is noticed for good reasons.

Good managers notice good performance — and they don’t just wait until performance review time rolls around to express their appreciation.

3. Leading more, managing less. Management establishes the framework for work, while leadership provides the inspiration for it. Successful IT managers learn to be both a good manager and leader, depending on the needs of the team and the situations they are addressing. How does one lead? First, communicate more. Although “meetings” have become four-letter words in most organizations, they really are essential in communicating the vision of the company and explaining how employees can work to make that vision come true.

Second, IT managers need to work harder toward establishing their group’s reputation in the company. This involves creating constructive partnerships with people in business management and other departments. Good IT managers act as their team’s PR agent.

4. Be an advocate for the team. Sometimes in an attempt to make the company vision happen and look good in the process, the overzealous manager will take on more and more work that he then promptly passes on to the team. The problem with this is that the team comes to feel that their manager is not an advocate for them, and that he hasn’t even bothered to see what’s already on their plate before he piles more on. Employees soon start to feel like it’s not so much what they’re doing for the company, but more about what they’re doing for their manager’s career. Good managers know their team’s bandwidth, and they learn to say no on their team’s behalf.

5. Be open to feedback. Strong managers don’t just pretend to be open to feedback — they listen to new ideas and discuss their pros and cons with the person who presents them. Good managers aren’t threatened by employees who have better ideas than they do. Good managers are also able to admit they’re wrong. They know that doing this is not the same as admitting they’re incompetent

Clearing Your Inbox

2008-12-02T09:54:00.000+05:30

Today I helped a colleague clear their inbox. I've kept a zero mail inbox for a few years. I forgot this wasn't common practice until a colleague said to me, "wow, your inbox doesn't scroll."

I didn't learn the zen of the zero mail inbox over night. As pathetic as this sounds, I've actually compared email practices over the years with several people to find some of the best practices that work over time. The last thing I wanted to do was waste time in email, if there were better ways. Some of my early managers also instilled in me that to be effective, I needed to master the basics. Put it another way, don't let administration get in the way of results.

Key Steps for a Clear Inbox

My overall approach is to turn actions into next steps, and keep stuff I've seen, out of the way of my incoming mail. Here's the key steps:

1. Filter out everything that's not directly to you. To do so, create an inbox rule to remove everything that's not directly To or CC you. As an exception, I do let my immediate team aliases fall through.
2. Create a folder for everything that's read. I have a folder to move everything I read and act on. This is how I make way for incoming.
3. Create a list for your actions. Having a separate list means you can list the actions in the sequence that makes sense for you, versus let the sequence in your inbox drive you.

Part of the key is acting on mail versus shuffling it. For a given mail, if I can act on it immediately, I do. If now's not the time, I add it to my list of actions. If it will take a bit of time, then I drag it to my calendar and schedule the time.

Anti-Patterns

I think it's important to note the anti-patterns:

1. Using your inbox as a large collection of action and semi-action items with varying priorities
2. Using your inbox as a pool of interspersed action and reference items
3. Adopting complicated mail and task management systems

26 things to do to strengthen internal security

2008-12-01T16:36:00.002+05:30

This incorporates some of the points coming to my mind, but is by no means a totally comprehensive list. I have deliberately not touched upon the Pakistan dimension. I would like to wait for some more details before commenting on the action that needs to be taken.

Point 1: Set up a national commission of professionals with no political agenda, in consultation with the Leader of the Opposition, to inquire into all the major terrorist strikes that have taken place in Indian territory outside Jammu & Kashmir since November 2007, and task it to submit its report within four months, with no extensions given. Its charter will be not the investigation of the criminal cases arising from these terrorist strikes, but the investigation of the deficiencies and sins of commission and omission in our counter-terrorism agencies at the Centre and in the states, which made these strikes possible.

Point 2: Induct proved experts in terrorism and counter-terrorism from the Intelligence Bureau, the state police and the Army into the R&AW at senior levels. Presently, the R&AW does not have any such expertise at senior levels. Of the four officers at the top of the pyramid, two are generalists, one is an expert in Pakistan (political) and the other in China (political).

Point 3: A similar induction from the state police and the Army would be necessary in the case of IB too. Since I have no personal knowledge of the officers at the top of its pyramid, I am not in a position to be specific.

Point 4: Make the IB the nodal point for all liaison with foreign intelligence and security agencies in respect of terrorism, instead of the R&AW. Give the IB direct access to all foreign internal intelligence and security agencies, instead of having to go through the R&AW.

Point 5: Have a common database on terrorism shared by the IB and the R&AW directly accessible by authorised officers of the two bodies through a secure password.

Point 6: Make the multi-disciplinary centre of the IB function as it was meant to function when it was created -- as a centre for the continuous identification of gaps and deficiencies in the available intelligence and for removing them and for effective follow-up action.

Point 7: Revive the covert action capability of the R&AW and strengthen it. Its charter should make it clear that it will operate only in foreign territory and not in Indian territory. Give it specific, time-bound tasks. All covert actions should be cleared and co-ordinated by the R&AW. Other agencies should not be allowed to indulge in covert actions.

Point 8: The National Security Guards was created as a special intervention force to deal with terrorist situations such as hijacking and hostage-taking. Stop using it for VIP security purposes. Station one battalion each of the NSG in Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai and Bengaluru. Ensure that its regional deployment does not affect its in-service training. Review the rapid response capability of the NSG in the light of the Mumbai experience and remove loopholes. In handling the Kandahar hijacking of 1999 and the Mumbai terrorist strikes, the delay in the response by the NSG would appear to have been due to a delay in getting an aircraft for moving the NSG personnel to Mumbai from Delhi.

Point 9:Give the police in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai and Bengaluru a special intervention capability to supplement that of the NSG.

Point 10: After the series of hijackings by the Khalistani terrorists in the early 1980s, Indira Gandhi had approved a proposal for training Indians in dealing with hostage situations and hostage negotiation techniques by foreign intelligence agencies, which have acknowledged expertise in these fields. The training slots offered by the foreign agencies have been largely monopolised by the IB and R&AW. The utilisation of these training slots and the selection of officers for the training should be decided by the NSA -- with one-third of the slots going to central agencies, one-third to the NSG and one-third to the state police. It is important to build up a core of terrorism and counter-terrorism expertise in all metro towns.

Point 11: The IB's multi-disciplinary centre should have a constantly updated database of all serving and retired officers at the Centre and in the states who had undergone overseas training, and also of all serving and retired officers and non-governmental figures who have expertise in terrorism and counter-terrorism so that their expertise could be tapped, when needed.

Point 12: Strengthen the role of the police stations in counter-terrorism in all major cities. Make it clear to all station house officers that their record in preventing acts of terrorism, in contributing to the investigation and prosecution of terrorism-related cases and in consequence management after a terrorist strike will be an important factor in assessing their suitability for further promotion. Revive and strengthen the beat system, revive and intensify the local inquiries for suspicious activities in all railway stations, bus termini, airports, hotels, inns and other places and improve police-community relations.

An important observation of the UK's security and intelligence committee of the prime minister, which enquired into the London [Images] blasts of July 2005, was that no counter-terrorism strategy will succeed unless it is based on the co-operation of the community from which the terrorists have arisen. The UK now has what they call a community-based counter-terrorism strategy. The willingness of different communities to co-operate will largely depend on the relations of the police officers at different levels with the leaders and prominent members of the communities.

Point 13: Adopt the British practice of having counter-terrorism security advisers in police stations. Post them in all urban police stations. Their job will be to constantly train the PS staff in the performance of their counter-terrorism duties, to improve relations with the communities and to closely interact with owners of public places such as hotels, restaurants, shopping malls etc and voluntarily advise them on the security precautions to be taken to prevent terrorist strikes on soft targets and to mitigate the consequences if strikes do take place despite the best efforts of the police to prevent them.

Point 14: Stop using the National Security Council Secretariat as a dumping ground for retired officers, who are favoured by the government. The NSCS cannot be effective in its role of national security management if it is not looked upon with respect by the serving officers. The serving officers look upon the retired officers of the NSCS as living in the past and in a make-believe world of their own totally cut off from the ground realities of today in national security management. The NSCS should be manned only by serving officers of acknowledged capability for thinking and action.

Point 15: Strengthen the role of the National Security Advisory Board as a government-sponsored think tank of non-governmental experts in security matters to assist the NSCA and the NSA. Give it specific terms of reference instead of letting it free lance as it often does. It should be discouraged from undertaking esoteric studies.

Point 16: Set up a separate Joint Intelligence Committee to deal with internal security. Assessment of intelligence having a bearing on internal security requires different expertise and different analytical tools than assessment of intelligence having a bearing on external security. In 1983, Indira Gandhi, then prime minister, bifurcated the JIC and created a separate JIC for internal security. Rajiv Gandhi reversed her decision. Her decision was wise and needs to be revived.

Point 17: Set up a national counter-terrorism centre under the national security adviser to ensure joint operational action in all terrorism-related matters. It can be patterned after a similar institution set up in the US under director, national intelligence after 9/11. The national commission set up by the US Congress to enquire into the 9/11 terrorist strikes had expressed the view that better co-ordination among the various agencies will not be enough and that what was required was a joint action command similar to the joint chiefs of staff in the armed forces. Its tasks should be to monitor intelligence collection by various agencies, avoid duplication of efforts and resources, integrate the intelligence flowing from different agencies and foreign agencies, analyse and assess the integrated intelligence and monitor follow-up action by the police, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and other concerned agencies.

Every agency is equally and jointly involved and responsible for the entire counter-terrorism process starting from collection to action on the intelligence collected. If such a system had existed, post-Mumbai complaints such as those of the Intelligence Bureau and R&AW that the advisories issued by them on the possibility of a sea-borne attack by the Lashkar e Tayiba on Mumbai were not acted upon by the Mumbai police would not have arisen because the IB and the R&AW would have been as responsible for follow-up action as the Mumbai police.

Point 18: The practice of the privileged direct access to the prime minister by the chiefs of the IB and R&AW, which came into force under Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi, should be vigorously enforced. This privileged direct access is utilised by the intelligence chiefs to bring their concerns over national security and over inaction by the agencies responsible for follow-up on their reports to the personal notice of the prime minister and seek his intervention. If the intelligence chiefs had brought to the notice of the prime minister the alleged inaction of the Mumbai police on their reports, he might have intervened and issued the required political directive to the chief minister of Maharashtra.

Point 19: Either create a separate ministry of internal security or strengthen the role of the existing department of internal security in the ministry of home affairs and make it responsible for dealing with internal security operationally under the over-all supervision of the home minister.

Point 20:Either create a separate federal terrorism investigation agency or empower the Central Bureau of Investigation to investigate all cases involving terrorism of a pan-Indian dimension. It need not take up cases where terrorism is confined to a single state or a small region such as terrorism in Jammu & Kashmir or the Al Umma in Tamil Nadu. It should be able to take up the cases for investigation without the need for prior permission from the governments of the states affected. It should not have any responsibility for investigating crimes other than terrorism. If its charter is expanded to cover other crimes too, there will be political opposition.

There is a lot of confusion about this concept of a federal terrorism investigation agency. Many critics ask when the IB is there, what is the need for another central agency. The IB is an intelligence collection agency and not an investigation agency. The IB has no locus standi in the Indian criminal laws. It collects intelligence and not evidence usable in a court of law. It cannot arrest and interrogate a suspect or search premises or perform other tasks of a similar nature, which can be performed only by police officers of the rank of station house officers. The IB officers are not recognised as equivalent to SHOs.

Point 21: Set up a taskforce consisting of three senior and distinguished directors-general of police and ask it to come up with a list of recommendations for strengthening the powers of the police in respect of prevention, investigation and prosecution of terrorism-related offences and the capabilities of the police in counter-terrorism and implement its recommendations. This is the only way of getting round the present political deadlock over the revival of the Prevention of Terrorism Act.

Point 22: Expedite the erection of the border fence on the border with Bangladesh without worrying about opposition from Bangladesh.

Point 23: Start a crash programme for the identification of illegal immigrants from Bangladesh and for deporting them. Ban the employment of immigrants from Bangladesh anywhere in Indian territory.

Point 24: Strict immigration control is an important part of counter-terrorism The post -9/11 safety of the US is partly due to the tightening up of immigration procedures and their strict enforcement. Among the best practices adopted by the US and emulated by others are: photographing and finger-printing of all foreigners on arrival, closer questioning of Pakistanis and persons of Pakistani origin etc. We have not yet adopted any of these practices. Hotels and other places of residence should be banned from giving rooms to persons without a departure card and without a valid immigration stamp in their passports. They should be required to take xerox copies of the first page and the page containing the immigration stamp of the passports of all foreigners and also the departure card stapled to the passport and send them to their local police station every morning.

All immigration relaxations introduced in the case of Pakistani and Bangladeshi nationals and persons of Pakistani and Bangladeshi origin should be cancelled with immediate effect. The requirement of police reporting by them should be rigorously enforced. It should be made obligatory for all persons hosting Pakistanis and Bangladeshis to report to the local police about their guests. A vigorous drive should be undertaken for tracing all Pakistanis and Bangladeshis overstaying in India after the expiry of their visas and for expelling them.

Point 25: The MEA's capability for terrorism-related diplomacy should be strengthened by creating a separate division for this purpose. It should continuously brief all foreign governments about the role of Pakistan and Bangladesh in supporting terrorism in Indian territory and press for action against them.

Point 26: The Mumbai strikes have revealed serious gaps in our maritime security on our Western coast. This is partly the result of our over-focus on the Look East policy and the neglect of the Look West dimension. This was corrected earlier this year. Despite this, there are apparently major gaps and an alleged failure by the naval and Coast Guard authorities to act on the reports of IB and R&AW about likely sea �borne threats from the LeT. The identification and removal of the gaps need immediate attention. The Mumbai offshore oil installations and the nuclear and space establishments on the Western coast are also vulnerable to sea-borne terrorist strikes.

Is baar nahin

2008-12-01T16:27:00.000+05:30

Is baar nahin

Is baar jab woh choti si bachchi mere paas apni kharonch le kar aayegi
Main usey phoo phoo kar nahin behlaoonga
Panapney doonga uski tees ko
Is baar nahin

Is baar jab main chehron par dard likha dekhoonga
Nahin gaoonga geet peeda bhula dene wale
Dard ko risney doonga,utarney doonga andar gehrey
Is baar nahin

Is baar main na marham lagaoonga
Na hi uthaoonga rui ke phahey
Aur na hi kahoonga ki tum aankein band karlo,gardan udhar kar lo main dawa lagata hoon
Dekhney doonga sabko hum sabko khuley nangey ghaav
Is baar nahin

Is baar jab uljhaney dekhoonga,chatpatahat dekhoonga
Nahin daudoonga uljhee door lapetney
Uljhaney doonga jab tak ulajh sake
Is baar nahin

Is baar karm ka hawala de kar nahin uthaoonga auzaar
Nahin karoonga phir se ek nayee shuruaat
Nahin banoonga misaal ek karmyogi ki
Nahin aaney doonga zindagi ko aasani se patri par
Utarney doonga usey keechad main,tedhey medhey raston pe
Nahin sookhney doonga deewaron par laga khoon
Halka nahin padney doonga uska rang
Is baar nahin banney doonga usey itna laachaar
Ki paan ki peek aur khoon ka fark hi khatm ho jaye
Is baar nahin

Is baar ghawon ko dekhna hai
Gaur se
Thoda lambe wakt tak
Kuch faisley
Aur uskey baad hausley
Kahin toh shuruat karni hi hogi
Is baar yahi tay kiya hai

... Prasoon Joshi

Mumbai is still a safe city, say expat CEOs

2008-12-01T12:22:00.000+05:30

Expatriate CEOs, many of whom have made Mumbai their first homes, may be unnerved by the three-day terror strike in Mumbai, but none of them feel Mumbai or other parts of India have become unsafe to live and work in.

"This is a dreadful attack but not unprecedented. In Bali, for instance, only foreigners were targeted. There have been major terrorist attacks in many cities of the world -- Madrid, London, New York," said Alan Rosling, executive director, Tata Sons, adding, "By world standards, Mumbai is a very safe city to travel around, even late at night and for women."

Many expat CEOs Business Standard spoke to echoed these views. "I have always felt safe in Mumbai. Unfortunately, today we live in world where these events happen everywhere. Terror has become a part of our life," said Wolfgang Prock-Shauer, CEO, Jet Airways, who has been living in India for three years.

KR Kim, vice-chairman and MD of consumer electronics firm Videocon Group, who lives in Delhi and Mumbai with his wife, said India is a big country with leaky borders and incidents, small or big, could happen.

"Politically, India is a stable country. In Thailand, there have been 19 coups. I have stayed in many countries, including in Latin America," he pointed out.

"It was brutal attack but just because of this we cannot say Mumbai or India is becoming dangerous," he added.

"In daily life, we don't feel insecure. These kinds of events are exceptional," said Kim, a former CEO of LG India who made the Korean brand a household name in India.

Not everyone feels as secure. Gary Bennett, the Indian CEO of insurance major Max New York Life, has spent nearly 1,000 nights between the Taj Mahal Hotel and Oberoi-Trident.

But he shudders at the thought of bringing his family to Mumbai. "I have been an expat for 14 years, stayed across Asia. Mumbai is part of my life� but I will think twice before bringing my wife and daughter to Mumbai," said Bennet.

Friends and family have been calling up, some asking them to come back. "Of course, mothers, wives and children will be concerned. But this can happen in London or New York; you need to take sensible precautions," said Rosling.

"Mumbai is incredibly resilient; the local community will get on with life. We appreciate this 'can-do' attitude," he said.

ATS chief, 2 other top police officers killed

2008-11-28T09:56:00.002+05:30

Three top Mumbai police officers, including two from the Anti-Terrorism Squad, were killed in Wednesday night's terror attack on the financial capital, top police sources confirmed.

ATS chief Hemant Karkare -- who was investigating the Malegaon blast case, Additional Commissioner Ashok Kamte and noted encounter specialist Vijay Salaskar and were killed in an incident outside Mumbai's Cama hospital, ATS sub-inspector Sudhir Dalvi, who was part of the operation led by the deceased, told rediff.com over phone.

"Our chief Karkare, my senior officer Salaskar and Adnl Commissioner of police Kamte died while engaging terrorists outside the Cama hospital. All of a sudden terrorists threw grenades at Karkare leading to chaos.

"We are unable to confirm whether they were fell to terrorist fire or were killed by a grenade attack,

Is this Indian Mujahideen's revenge on the ATS?

2008-11-28T09:54:00.000+05:30

Even as the police force and the Intelligence Bureau verify the Deccan Mujahideen's claims of orchestrating the Mumbai terror attacks, they are not ruling out the involvement of the Indian Mujahideen , an offshoot of the Students Islamic Movement of India.

The IB points out that the e-mail sent by the Indian Mujahideen in September had made revealed their animosity towards Mumbai and the Anti Terrorist Squad.

Following the terror attacks in Bangalore, Ahmedabad and New Delhi, there was a major crackdown on IM cadres across India and the Mumbai ATS was responsible for most such arrests.

'Terrorists may have come by boat'

The IM, in an email sent out in September, had warned the ATS against harassing Muslims in Mumbai and said that it was closely watching every move made by the squad.

In the email, the IM stated, "You ( the ATS) should know that your acts are not at all unnoticed; we are keeping an eye on you and just waiting for the right time to execute bloodshed. We are aware of your recent raids at Ansarnagar, Mograpada in Andheri and the harassment and trouble you created for the Muslims."

Latest: Over 100 hostages still trapped in Taj

"You threatened to murder them and you even misbehaved with the Muslim women and children," the email alleged.
"If your arrogance has reached this degree and if you think that you can scare us by your stunts, then let the IM warn the people of Mumbai that the ATS will be responsible for the deadly attacks on Mumbaikars in the future."

The Intelligence Bureau believes that the IM wanted to play it safe and hence has adopted a pseudo name of Deccan Mujahideen for this particular operation.

ATS chief, 2 other top police officers killed

Through this operation, the IM is trying to prove its mettle and sending out a message to the intelligence agencies that there is little that can be done to stop them.

Is there a better way to be handed a pink slip

2008-11-21T09:43:00.000+05:30

It’s never a good thing to be let go from a job. But, believe it or not, some ways are better than others.
I know what you’re probably thinking: What a ridiculous question. There is no gentle way to hand out a pink slip. There is no way to be told that “your services are no longer needed” but “here is the number to our local unemployment office” and/or “an explanation of why we won’t be offering severance packages this round” that doesn’t sting. Want to do it better? Don’t do it at all.

But, it is hard to argue that there aren’t better and worse ways to break bad news. Countless layoff horror stories abound- from IMs to being informed by security that you are just a “visitor” now and disabled network connections-suggesting that even the so-called smartest companies could use a little tutorial in how to break bad news with respect and tact.

1. Don’t spread layoffs over multiple rounds: Rounds of layoffs is a “horrible idea”, says Calcanis, because it creates massive fear and uncertainty inside of your organization.
2. Lay people off in a group, not individually: Calcanis found that telling people one-by-one was not more humane.
3. Don’t sugarcoat the rationale: Be 100 percent honest and upfront about why you chose to keep some people and not others.
4. Cutting jobs is better than cutting salaries: Rather than angering everyone in the organization by hurting all of their bottom lines, cut a few salaries altogether and leave the people you want to keep as happy as possible.
5. Give severance even if you don’t have to, and freelancer work, where you can: Be as generous as you can be, said Calcanis, and don’t forget these people when you start hiring again.
6. Lay people off at the end of the day: No need to keep people around until the end of the day or week. When they’re done, let them leave.
7. Get over it and get back to work: The reality is, everyone else needs to get back to work.

How about you? If you’ve ever been laid off, how do you think it could have been handled better?

Always factor in the pre payment charges before transferring your home loan to alternate banks

2008-11-06T12:28:00.000+05:30

After Diwali one can see the dip in Home loan rates as most of the commercial banks plan to cut down on home loan interest rates. Punjab National Bank (PNB) and Union Bank of India (UBI) have already slashed rates up to 50 basis points. UBI has cut rates by 50 basis points for loans up to Rs 30 lakh . But this reduction in rates may not hold good for all the types of loans. However the private loan providers like HDFC and ICICI prefer to wait and then make their move.
These rate cuts are due to a shift in the policy of RBI and the Government. After two years of credit tightening and the recent liquidity situation, there is a complete U turn in the credit policy of the government. In Home loans where one has opted for floating rate of interest , one gets the benefit of reduced rates even if the rate he has borrowed is different and vice versa.
But in last few years if there are cuts in Home loan rates they are usually given first to new borrowers and then to the existing customers. Banks pass on the reduced rates to the existing users after some time. With the fall in property prices and discounts by various property developers the customer is going to be the King again
In case of Personal loans, Car Loans the trend is still on the opposite way as the liquidity crunch and higher defaults in above segments prevent Banks to lower rates. Personal loans disbursals in the entire country are on the way down. A large number of private Banks have either stop sourcing Personal loans or have downsized there business. Car Loans is also going through the same phase.
From the government side,the efforts are now on to make sure Credit is available to the general public.The finance ministry sources said the government is in constant touch with commercial banks to ensure an easy liquidity for priority sector loans. "The government and the central bank have taken a series of measures to infuse liquidity into the system and there is no reason that the banks should be wary of providing credit to genuine borrowers even after that," an official said.
So, keep a close watch, and choose your best deal!!

How to be a happy employee

2008-11-03T11:30:00.001+05:30

Let's look at what might make an employee unhappy.

* Unfair rewards and recognition
* Office politics
* Un-cooperative team
* Unreasonable boss
* Insufficient compensation
* Constant threat to job security
* Lack of responsibility in the current job
* No clear career path
* Seating location
* Lack of basic facilities at workplace

And the list goes on and on. Some of these things may not really propel an employee to quit, but it might lead to negative energy which leads to low productivity. When an employee is under-productive he or she will be the first target when companies look for opportunities to give pink slips.

Being happy is always in your hands. A happy employee is more productive and gives more than an unhappy employee. So let's look at some ways to up the happiness factor.

1. Plan your week on Sunday night
Look at your work calendar and plan your week on Sunday night or Monday morning. This would include important meetings, deliverables, a brief summary of things that are pending from last week and any tasks to be achieved during the week. Though this might look like a time management tip, at the end of the week, on Friday night when you re-visit what you have achieved over the last five days, the satisfaction is immense.

2. Undertake activities that you are passionate about even though it might not be in your job profile
Start an initiative that you would love to do irrespective of whether it is required for you to do or not.

* Send a daily newsletter to your team on the topics that most of them will be interested.
* Do a presentation on the topic that you are passionate about.
* Organise a small sports event for your team.
* Call everyone in your team for a team coffee, breakfast or lunch break
* Appreciate colleagues in your team or in a cross-functional team who did a great job
* Write a poem on your team's achievements
* Arrange a potluck lunch

3. Do not indulge in the blame game
If something goes wrong do not blame others blindly. If you commit a mistake, do not hesitate to accept it. As Gauthama Buddha said, there are three things we can't hide for long: the sun, earth and the truth. Accepting your mistake gracefully will only make you look like a true professional and also give you the satisfaction of not cheating.

4. Communicate more often in person
Utilise all the opportunities where you can speak to an individual in person rather than e-mail or phone. But be aware of the other person's time and availability. Listening to a positive answer from a person will give you more happiness than if it is done over the phone or via e-mail.

5. Know what is happening at your workplace
Will this make a person happy? Truly, yes! Imagine a cricket team that doesn't know how many runs to score to win a match? More than losing the game, the player will never be interested or motivated to play well.

Attend all meetings that are addressed by the CEO to your immediate manager to know what is going to happen around you. It could be the company's growth plan or your department's next big project. Jack Welch mentions in his book Winning "every employee, not just the senior people, should know how a company is doing."

You will also get an extra edge if you are in a position to answer queries raised by your peers or juniors. This is not just for the good reasons, but bad reasons as well. You do not want to be the last employee to know if your company is laying off employees (in the worst case, if you are the one who is on that list).

6. Participate in organisation-level activities
This could be as simple as spending one weekend for a corporate social responsibility activity or attending a recruitment drive to help your HR team or arranging a technical/sports event at the organisational level. Most of these events will be successful as people do come on their own to contribute.

7. Have a hobby that keeps you busy and happy
Many people say their hobby is watching TV or listening to music or reading the newspaper. These aren't hobbies, they are just ways of passing the time. Some hobbies are evergreen and will keep you evergreen as well: dancing, painting, writing short stories, poems, blogs and sharing your experiences.

8. Take up a sport
While choosing a sport make sure that there is physical activity. There is the danger of becoming addicted to sports where there is less physical activity (like computer games, chess, cards etc). Physical activity keeps a person healthy and happy. If you pick up one sport well, you can represent your organisation in corporate sports event too.

9. Keep yourself away from office politics
Politics, as a practice, whatever its profession, has always been the systematic organization of hatreds. -- Henry Brooks Adams

Politics is everywhere and the office is no exception. Playing politics might be beneficial but only for the short term. So the best thing to do is play fair.

10. Wish and smile
More often than not, there are fair chances that the other person will smile back. This could be your security guard at the gate, your receptionist, your office boy, your CEO or your manager -- never forget to wish them and smile.

11. Volunteer for some activity

"The value of a man resides in what he gives and not in what he is capable of receiving." � Albert Einstein

Do at least one activity without expecting anything in return. There is no set frequency for this. This could be once in a day or once in a week or thrice in a week. It could be as simple as making tea at the office for your colleague, helping a colleague who is working in another department by using your skills, dropping your colleague at his door step in your car, going to your manager or colleague to ask if there is any help you can extend, contributing to technical or knowledge management communities in your organisation etc.

Employees, not hackers, cause most corporate data loss

2008-10-20T10:49:00.000+05:30

Majority of corporate data loss comes from risky employee actions and systemic failures at the corporate level when it comes to implementing comprehensive IT security policies. Now, a new study from Compuware reports new information that supports Trend Micro's conclusions from back in July. The unsung heroes in the IT department, it turns out, may be doing a better job stopping outside hackers than they get credit for.

According to a new study (PDF, info required) from Compuware, IT departments should take a bow—only 1 percent of corporate data losses this past year were due to hackers. Unfortunately, the good news mostly ends there. Negligent employees are far and away the largest cause of data breaches, but IT managers also listed outsourcing and malicious employees (possibly ex-employees as well, one assumes) as two significant reasons why data breaches often occur.

Compuware reports that of the 1,112 IT practitioners it surveyed, 79 percent reported that their organization had experienced at least one data breach. That's an extraordinarily high number, but there are several intervening variables that may have inflated it.

* Compuware does not completely define the term "data breach." It provides an indication of what it means by describing a data breach as "the loss or theft of information about individuals such as consumer data, customer information, employee records, and so forth." That definition is more than adequate for a general discussion or description, but fails to address certain meaningful nuances.
* Compuware does not filter its results by magnitude; a breach that affected two million people is treated equally to one that impacted just two.
* Compuware does not filter by severity; this is where the subtle nuances of definition I mentioned earlier come into play. We know that a data breach involves the loss or theft of consumer data or employee records, for example, but no information on what, precisely, was stolen or exposed. If I'm a customer of JC Penney, and someone steals the list of customers who bought there over the past 24 months, I'm unhappy. If that list contained my home phone number and address, I'm concerned. If, on the other hand, that list contained my phone number, address, Social Security number, and credit card information, I'm downright worried, and may wish to take immediate action.

I raise these variables because the "gotcha!" of this particular story—79 percent of companies reporting data breaches—has, in my view, been somewhat distorted in the reporting. Compuware's figures may be perfectly accurate, but I'd be careful when drawing any conclusions from them—not every data breach is of TJ Maxx proportions.

In general, Compuware's study seems well-grounded and covers a number of interesting topics. Asked where their efforts are typically focused post-breach, a large group—41 percent of those surveyed—indicated that they participate in investigating, categorizing, and verifying the particulars of the incident. 18 percent of respondents indicate they were involved in remediation activities, 16 percent were tasked with training and educating staff or personnel, 11 percent conducted a root-cause analysis, and 10 percent established an incident response team.

I'm not sure what to make of that last, since incident response teams are emergency groups trained to respond when an emergency occurs. The fact that so many respondents were involved in specifically establishing one implies that 10 percent of the organizations surveyed didn't have them to begin with. Note the relatively low number of IT employees who were asked to spend time training fellow workers, as this will be important later.

Next up, we've got what I personally consider to be the most interesting information in the report, for all that it's largely gone unreported by the press. Having ascertained the roles IT personnel are most likely to play in the event of a data breach, Compuware asked them how confident they are in their own organization's ability to respond to such an event.

The majority of IT workers surveyed are clearly less-than confident in their employer's ability to monitor and detect information theft, even though they themselves almost certainly play a role in such efforts; 56 percent of respondents labeled themselves either "Somewhat confident" or "Not confident." As for the "Unsure" category, it's hard to imagine that the security professionals who opted for this category are secretly "Very Confident" or "Confident." As for why the breaches themselves occur, there's one category that stands out in particular:

Asked to name the leading causes of data breaches, IT staff couldn't run for the negligence category fast enough. Combine this with the fact that most workers don't trust their company to monitor the occurrence of data theft and the fact that relatively few IT staffers are tasked with employee training post-breach, the entire corporate security model begins to sway suspiciously.

The majority of IT professionals surveyed don't believe their employers can adequately monitor company resources for data breaches or prevent these breaches from occurring. Who's causing the breaches? Negligent employees. Given these two facts, one would expect to see the number of IT staff involved in employee training to skyrocket post-breach, as the company attempts to plug the hole, but again, evidence suggests this isn't happening; the majority of IT staffers are involved in fixing the technical aspects of the problem, with relatively few addressing the root cause of the issue.

This obviously makes some sense, given that the IT department wasn't hired to teach Security 101, but it may also indicate that company management hasn't grasped the true root of the problem. It's easy to bring in a consultant for some remedial security training, but without the explicit involvement of the IT department, such training will inevitably focus more on general bad practices and less on the specific situations that may have exposed customer data in this particular case. There's nothing in Compuware's report, meanwhile, that suggests this loop is changing, or that IT workers today feel more confident in their company's ability to deal with a data breach than employees did five years ago.

The report ultimately suggests that the vast majority of companies have security models that are semifunctional at best. Accountability is a hit-or-miss affair, confidence in the system as a whole is minimal, and the flaws that contribute to data breaches aren't confined to any single level of an organization. Not the most optimistic Friday read, I'll admit, but the results aren't all that surprising, either.

Live-in: Some fear misuse, Some welcome it

2008-10-10T15:19:00.000+05:30

Maharashtra government's nod to the 'live-in' proposal, where in it considered giving the status of a 'wife' to a woman, if she is involved in such a relationship for a 'reasonable period', has received mixed reactions, raising fears of misuse.

Nishita John, a professional working in a consultancy firm feels that the government need not bring in legislation to regulate live-in relationships.

"If the relationship between the two individuals is consensual, then both should also consider how they will manage if the relationship should fail. It is not for the state to decide anything," she said.

Maharashtra government had approved the proposal on October 8, based on recommendations of the Justice Mallimath Committee which said if a man and a woman are living together as husband and wife for a 'reasonably long period', the man shall be deemed to have married the woman according to customary rights of either party.

The committee had also mooted that the definition of the word 'wife' under Section 125 of the CrPc, be amended to include a woman, living with the man like his wife for a 'reasonably long period'.

However, the definition of 'reasonably long period' is missing from the recommendation, which has left many worried on account of its worthiness and ramifications as it may be grossly misused.

"The period for which the couple live together should be clearly defined to ensure that it cannot be misused," Vivek Jaiswal, a software professional, said.

Indian cities have been seeing a growing number of live-in relationships, a concept once frowned upon as being too 'Western', and popular culture like films have also begun to accept the reality of its existence.

However, experts feel that the debate over the amendment was a larger one that extended beyond live-in relationships, which are more an urban phenomenon.

"The amendment would be more useful to women living in rural areas. In many areas polygamy still exists with no legal rights for the second wife under law," lawyer and women's right activist Veena Gowda said.

This new definition of a wife under the CrPC would provide some financial protection to women who are in relationships that are deemed as marriage by the society they live-in but have no legal standing, she said.

Pencil Vs. Pen

2008-09-29T11:48:00.004+05:30

Choice Pencil:

Disposable pens are made of plastic, which doesn't biodegrade and
is hazardous when burned. Excepting the metal bit around the eraser,
pencils naturally dispose of themselves when you sharpen them.

Better yet: Fountain pen

Who is King Mouse or Keyboard ?

2008-09-25T11:52:00.003+05:30

I consider myself to be a fairly fast typer, albeit it with two fingers. No matter how hard my teachers in computer classes at College classes would try, I never got the whole concept of touch-typing with all my fingers. However, I am sure that using my two fingers that I could now out type most all of my teachers. Although being able to type is an important skill I am not sure how important the ability to type fast is to people who choose a career in IT and focus on the Microsoft platform.

I was working in a cyber cafe yesterday with a friend of mine that works in IT but in the Linux space as a systems administrator. While I was finalising an upcoming Reporting Services course that I am delivering he was making changes to DNS for one of his clients. What amazed me was not the number of commands that he was typing but the sheer speed at which he was typing. When I asked what he was doing after feverishly typing for several minutes, he responded that he was still making DNS changes. As someone that worked as a systems administrator back in the NT 4 days, I know how easy it is to make a DNS change. Simply open DNS manger and with a couple clicks and typing a few IP addresses the change is made. In some ways I think that not working in a command line environment has meant that typing speeds have dropped, as there is no longer a need to type reams of commands to achieve something simple. Do you think fast typing is still a skill that a DBA should have?

Mouse is taking place of Keyboard but Keyboard is king!!

You will proud to be an Indian....

2008-09-24T10:02:00.004+05:30

A Pakistani man says...

The two Ambani brothers can buy 100 percent of every company
listed on the Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE) and would still be left
with $30 billion to spare. The four richest Indians can buy up all
goods and services produced over a year by 169 million Pakistanis
and still be left with $60 billion to spare. The four richest Indians
are now richer than the forty richest Chinese.

In November, Bombay Stock Exchange's benchmark Sensex flirted
with 20,000 points. As a consequence, Mukesh Ambani's Reliance
Industries became a $100 billion company (the entire KSE is
capitalized at $65 billion). Mukesh owns 48 percent of Reliance.

In November, comes Neeta's birthday. Neeta turned
forty-four three weeks ago. Look what she got from
her husband as her birthday present: A sixty-million
dollar jet with a custom fitted master bedroom, bathroom
with mood lighting, a sky bar, entertainment cabins,
satellite, television, wireless communication and a separate
cabin with game consoles. Neeta is Mukesh Ambani's wife,
and Mukesh is not India's richest but t he second richest.

Mukesh is now building his new home, Residence Antillia
(after a mythical, phantom island somewhere in the Atlantic
Ocean). At a cost of $1 billion this would be the most expensive
home on the face of the planet. At 173 meters tall Mukesh's new
family residence, for a family of six, will be the equivalent of a
60-storeyed building. The first six floors are reserved for parking.
The seventh floor is for ca servicing and maintenance. The eighth
floor houses a mini-theatre. Then there's a health club, a gym and
a swimming pool. Two floors are reserved for Ambani family's guests.
Four flo ors above the guest floors are family floors all with a superb
view of the Arabian Sea. On top of everything are three helipads.
A staff of 600 is expected to care for the family and their family home.

In 2004, India became the 3rd most attractive foreign direct
investment destination. Pakistan wasn't even in the top 25 countries.
In 2004, the United Nations, the representative body of 192 sovereign
member states, had requested the Election Commission of India to
assist the UN in the holding elections in Al Jumhuriyah al Iraqiyah
and Dowlat-e Eslami-ye Afghanestan. Why the Election Commission
of India and not the Election Commission of Pakistan? After all,
Islamabad i closer to Kabul than is Delhi.

Imagine, 12 percent of all American scientists are of Indian origin;
38 percent of doctors in America are Indian; 36 percent of NASA
scientists are Indians; 34 percent of Microsoft employees are Indians;
and 28 percent of IBM employees are Indians.

For the record: Sabeer Bhatia created and founded Hotmail. Sun
Microsystems was founded by Vinod Khosla. The Intel Pentium
processor, that runs 90 percent of all computers, was fathered by
Vinod Dham. Rajiv Gupta co-invented Hewlett Packard's E-speak
project. Four out of ten Silicon Valley start-ups are run by Indians.
Bolly wood produces 800 movies per year and s ix Indian ladies
have won Miss Universe/Miss World titles over the past 10 years.

For the record: Azim Premji, the richest Muslim entrepreneur on
the face of the planet, wa born in Bombay and now lives in
Bangalore.India now has more than three dozen billionaires;
Pakistan has none (not a single dollar billionaire).

The other amazing aspect is the rapid pace at which India is
creating wealth. In 2002, Dhirubhai Ambani, Mukesh and
Anil Ambani's father, left his two sons a fortune worth $2.8 billion.
In 2007, their combined wealth stood at $94 billion. On 29 October
2007, as a result of the stock market rally and the appreciation of
the Indian rupee, Mukesh became the richest person in the world,
with net worth climbing to US$63.2 billion (Bill Gates, the richest
American, stands at around $56 billion).

Indians and Pakistanis have the same Y-chromosome haplogroup.
We have the same genetic sequence and the same genetic marker
(namely: M124). We have the same DNA molecule, the same DNA
sequence. Our culture our traditions and our cuisine are all the same.
We watch the same movies and sing the same songs. What is it that
Indians have and we don't?

INDIANS ELECT THEIR LEADERS

US meltdown: 5 lessons for investors

2008-09-22T12:15:00.001+05:30

The stunning collapse of Lehman Brothers and the crisis engulfing Wall Street is having an impact across the world. There could be several more developments over the next few months that might make things more difficult.

For investors, this is an important period to learn from such developments. This will ensure that they are not in a tough situation in the future. Here are five such important lessons.

Every investment has risk: Typically, during good times, investors tend to ignore the risk element in a paper and focus only on returns.

Investors in equities stand to lose their entire money, if the company goes down. The plunging shares prices of Lehman Brothers, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae to one dollar proves that entire market capitalisations can simply get wiped out.

Even debt market products get badly hit on account of the write-down of the debt that they hold. So, a portfolio needs to be as diversified as possible to insulate a person for such situations.

Everything is interlinked: From the price of a stock to an insurance policy, everything is linked. A fall in the price of a particular stock in Europe could mean the overseas mutual fund, where you have invested, is likely to see a fall in its net asset value. Even an insurance policy with a domestic company, which has a foreign partner, can be adversely impacted.

The latter implies you will lose your premiums as well as your cover. While such risks cannot be avoided, a portfolio that contains only domestic stocks or an insurance company may sound safe, but there is no guarantee that it will not be impacted adversely.

Diversify, the only mantra for retirement planning: The result of all the financial planning is gauged by the final corpus that you are able to create for retirement.

A sufficiently-big nest will ensure that there are adequate funds during the sunset years. Many people, even those who are in the financial sector, make the basic mistake of putting all their eggs in one basket.

Many a time, employees buy shares of their own companies thinking that being an insider they are privy to the most-sensitive information. This could lead to a great risk, if suddenly something were to go wrong.

The solution again is diversification. Having exposure to local equities, international equities, debt, commodities together would be a better idea to create a sound portfolio that will weather tough times. And even within each of these areas, spread the money across investment options.

Treat your career like an investment: Most people do not pay the right amount of attention to their career or working life. Just like an investment that needs constant monitoring and analysis, there is a need to monitor the career in the same manner. Most people are shocked when they lose their jobs.

The better way is to be prepared for the worst. That will help to insulate you from any career related problem.

Also, concentration on issues like upgrading skills through training, attending conferences and seminars and networking will help to improve your career. Yes, all these cost money. However, the returns over the years are much more.

Save during good times: Most importantly, when the earnings are high, save well. Good times are not for ever. Creating a meaningful portfolio or a simple savings corpus would be of great help during bad times. Proper investments will ensure that there are reserves that can be used during emergencies.

A sum of Rs 10,000 saved each month for 25 years growing at 15 per cent annually will give rise to a corpus of Rs 2.55 crore (Rs 25.5 million). All this money can be rather useful when the cash flow actually stops. Arnav Pandya

E-mail etiquette for your Mobile devices

2008-09-19T14:33:00.003+05:30

Don't compose and converse at the same time. I’ve seen it many times, and so have you. Someone who is multitasking—talking on the phone, typing an e-mail, and who knows what else. (Yes, I’ve seen eating, drinking, and grooming.) "If you must answer or type a message, please excuse yourself," says Oliver Mims, who hosts the online etiquette series "Proper Ollie." "Do not type and carry on a conversation at the same time." And why not? It's just bad manners. You wouldn't imagine talking to someone on the phone and in person at the same time, would you?
Take your time—or better yet, wait. Related to the distraction problem above, if you’ve ever been on the receiving end of a message hastily typed from a smartphone, you know what I'm talking about. The message is riddled with typographical errors and appears abrupt. "People are so anxious to answer on the spot that they sacrifice the quality of their communication, which wouldn’t be the case had they waited to respond," says Pamela Holland, co-author of "Help! Was That a Career Limiting Move?"
Don't keep the device on 24/7. Even though being accessible all day and night can be good for business, it can ultimately be bad for you. In my earlier version of this column, short battery lives meant it was impractical to keep a smartphone powered "on" all day, but that's increasingly not the case. Just because you can be wired all the time, don't submit to the temptation. We all know the impact of "always connected" lifestyles on our personal health.
Mind your Ps and Qs. Technology can be a blessing and a curse. My PDA, for example, can finish words by trying to guess what I wanted to say. Pay close attention to this "helpful" feature, because it doesn’t always guess correctly. Ditto for automatic spell-check features.

Whether you’re sending or receiving e-mail from a mobile device, one rule holds true: If you're aware of your surroundings, and aware of other people, you're far less likely to offend anyone. That's how I see it.

"When people are mindful of being considerate and respectful of
those around them, they usually make the right social decisions."

Productivity Without E-mail

2008-09-16T12:53:00.001+05:30

Over the last two days I have been focusing on prototype of a new Project. In order to ensure that I was not distracted I turned off all interruptions. Everything from e-mail to instant messenger and even my cell phone were turned off so that there were no external distractions at all. To be perfectly honest the last two days have been the most productive days that I have had for a long time. I know that much of my day can be spent sitting in Outlook, meaning that by the end of the day I feel like I have achieved nothing more that add a dozen or more tasks to my To Do list. The last two days have been a liberating experience; I have felt that by cutting the umbilical cord to my inbox I have achieved so much. Looking at the number of unread messages I now have, though, has taken the shine off breaking free.

I sometimes think that e-mail is more of a distraction then a productivity tool. I am a big fan of picking up the phone and calling someone. Often a phone call will only take a few minutes whereas an e-mail conversation can take numerous e-mails to archive the same result. Do you think that e-mail is productivity tool or just another distraction we can often do without?

Tips to protect your WiFi from hackers

2008-09-15T13:44:00.002+05:30

It could any one of us. Wake up one morning to discover that the Indian Mujahideen has hacked into our Internet account and sent out a chilling mail claiming responsibility for a terror attack on the nation.

The e-mails sent out in the aftermath of the Delhi and Ahmedabad blasts reveal that the Indian Mujhahideen hacked into unsecure WiFi networks to send out the terror e-mail.

Internet users could adopt the following methods to ensure that s/he is safe.

Disabling the SSID broadcast. To some extent this makes it difficult for the hacker to detect the presence of a WiFi access point.

Enable MAC address filter. Each network interface has a unique MAC address, by filtering it, one can to an extent control which machines can use the access point.

Turn on WPA/WEP encryption. This ensures that traffic between a legitimate machine and an access point is not readable.

Change default admin passwords for access points.

Ensure access points are placed securely. In the centre of a room/office etc to minimise its signal strength outside the office.

Even after following the above precautions, your WiFI account could be compromised and hence, the things to look at are:

Monitor usage of the access point. Have a clear inventory and knowledge about the position of each access point.

Monitor the usage of the Internet link, to know what traffic is going out. For example, some corporate block e-mail providers like yahoo or hotmail. Hence, even if the access point is compromised, the hacker may not be able to use public e-mail systems.

Consider a specific security policy for wireless networks. For example, most companies primarily use wired networks in the office as the primary media. Access points are used in common areas like conferences rooms etc. Hence, strict policies can be deployed on wireless networks as compared to wired networks.

Role of Digital Forensics:

Digital Forensics means the analysis of electronic media to detect forgery or manipulation. It is used to identify possible culprits and also to gather legal evidence to be used for prosecution.

Digital Forensics is a highly-specialised area and if not done using the right skills and tools could lead to evidence being deleted or not usable in the court of law. It is similar to that of criminal forensics and hence needs special skills and tools. Hence, it would be advisable for companies to understand their responsibility and the do's and don'ts during a breach.

Public e-mails systems have limited information about its users and normally provide it to law enforcement agencies on special request. This information is picked up during e-mail ID creation, usage etc.

Most usual information picked up is the source of the Internet Protocol, which can be masked using techniques like using others' WiFi networks. Hence, unless e-mail providers enable higher security mechanisms like special authentication while creating users not much can be done. It is not easy for e-mail providers to do this as, by definition, these e-mail systems are free and open for people to use.

Pathetic handling of Delhi blasts' aftermath

2008-09-15T10:11:00.004+05:30

Half an hour after the first blast in New Delhi on Saturday, the NDTV 24/7 telecast telling visuals that said it all. We just don't know how to handle the aftermath of the terror attacks which we don't know how to forestall.

Take, for example, the young woman in a yellow top and black trousers, hurt in the bombing of the Connaught Place's Central Park. She was shown being carried away, four persons holding a limb each to a police vehicle several yards away in Connaught Place. She was dripping blood, her head snapped back under its own weight and in agony.

No stretcher in sight, no ambulance within miles and crowds who should have scattered to safety and enable the police to do their job, such as the job they do -- ham-handed, impulsive, not to a drill that would maximise results.

One does not know what happened to the poor young woman. Such victims are threatened with death less because of the injuries but more due to the way she was handled by well-meaning but perhaps misguided people. We may actually be pushing up the death toll and bolster the designs of the terrorists. And the State owes something better to its citizens.

Cut to the train blasts in Mumbai on July 11, 2006. Scores of people, badly mauled, were seen carried away in bed sheets thrown at the impromptu rescuers from homes along the railway tracks. Persons with a limb torn away were carted away in auto-rickshaws by good Samaritans, the ride being given free.

Speed, one accepts, is of the essence. But the means also has to be proper so that the good intent does not translate to death or further complications. It is as if the disaster managers don't even know that there is something called the Golden Hour when best support is required, even before the person is reached to the hospital. That is why modern civilisations -- we are living in one, aren't we? -- has the concept called an ambulance.

This kind of speedy but amateurish shift of the hurt, dying and the dead has been seen in every location where the terrorist struck by seting off explosions -- Hyderabad, Bangalore, Jaipur , Ahemedabad and now Delhi. This mishandling and the delays in being attended to on reaching the hospitals, I bet, are the causes of several deaths. Or permanent damage to the body.

Why?

Because, we have just not got our act together, despite the country having had a high-powered committee, headed by Sharad Pawar to outline how disaster management ought to be because of his experience of handling the aftermath of the March 12, 1993 serial blasts in Mumbai.

Now cut to the scenes outside the various train stations in London after the July 7, 2005 train bombings. Not an individual who needed medical help was just carried away any which way. Fully equipped ambulances with paramedics on board moved in with stretchers and ensured that help was fully professional. Within minutes plastic tents for on-the-spot support was set up.

It is here that we fall short; grievously so, in fact.

There are other critical phases of post-terrorist attacks where we fail abysmally, though there have been a few instances of positive gains made in policing. Here is the brief, very brief, positive list:

One, the Indian security agencies have now learnt to zero-in on the suspect computers or their routers used to send out terror threats or claims owning up attacks and IP addresses are located.

Two, in Surat, bomb after bomb which did not go off were found and defused, bomb by bomb, without any untoward collateral damage.

However, and unfortunately, there is not much to be added to this list because, apart from Afzal Guru and those convicted in the Mumbai's 1993 blasts, how many terrorists have been brought to book? Even Afzal Guru's death sentence remains to be carried out.

Now, let us look at the negative list of our so called anti-terror policing.

In Surat, in their hurry to unload and defuse the bombs found in the cars left on Surat roads, the police obliterated every fingerprint on it. These prints would have been valuable to fixing the involvement of people who otherwise would get the benefit of doubt and be let off for want of evidence.

This sleight of hand is now a thing of the past because the Indian Mujahedeen has made it a habit to announce its ownership of the dastardly acts. Now, it has even started sending e-mails minutes the blasts it sets off, saving the police the task of speculating as to who did it.

Take again the failure of the close-circuit cameras set up on the toll plazas on the highways going out of Mumbai. They caught not a single car that was stolen from Navi Mumbai for use in Ahmedabad and Surat because, as a senior police official of Thane district adjoining Gujarat explained, 'They were all at angles to photograph trucks' and not cars which are low-slung in comparison.

Equally galling was the -- yes, well meaning but potentially hazardous -- way a constable grabbed the plastic bag containing a bomb from two rag pickers in Delhi on Saturday, using a stone to crush the clock that was a timer. He saved lives, but he may have jeopardised those in the vicinity. Who knows, instead of disarming, he may have even set off an explosion. Where, pray, were the bomb disposal squads?

Policemen just do not have the means to chase the clues, and my feeling is that if there are suspects who have been brought to courts, then they are those who have confessed because of the third degree and those confessions found their way to the charge sheets. The good old policing is just dead.

Therefore, I have a more humane suggestion. Before we learn to catch the terrorist and then use any law against them, let us learn to handle those innocents who fall victim to the terrorists. Or else, we would be only shadow boxing.

What can Rs.3 do?

2008-09-10T16:36:00.002+05:30

Have you ever wondered what Rs.3 can do?

A smoke for the chimneys called smokers perhaps, a strand of flowers for the women folk, a sachet of shampoo for most of us and maybe a few toffees for kidos but am sure we don’t add up a few of these 3’s to make our livelihood!

Quite stark isn’t it? To think people actually sell various things for Rs.3 and try and eke out a living. We in Mumbai have these frail ladies young, massively malnourished kids trying to sell us the ‘nazar’ mirchi and nimbus for Rs.3! What an irony that they are trying to ward off the evil spirits while trying to resurrect their own – just for Rs.3!

Ever imagined how many of those ‘3’s they have to sell to make a living, to feed themselves, their families and their hopes?

I was quite stunned when one I saw one of these ladies come to me, in pouring rain, shivering and eyes filled with hope to sell me one of those, my belief apart, have never bothered to buy one till that time. Laziness to take my wallet out, indifference to the ‘product’ and sheer apathy never made me buy one of those, but that day somehow I managed to take a tenner and hand it to her. Having strung the ‘nazar utaru’ on my car she came to me and I handed over the note, imagine my utter disbelief when she was trying to add up all the little change she had to give me back the balance. Only a tyrant could have taken that money back. I closed my window and could catch a surprised, confused but am sure expectant look on her face.

They are so many kids around who sell peanuts for a pittance, gees how many packets they have to sell to even earn Rs.20 a day as commission, you feel so dam helpless, you feel so guilty for having spent more on a meal than it actually deserves, you feel fortunate that you can have meal when and what you want – gosh we are so lucky! Three bucks, in fact even ten often mean nothing to us but it means so much to them, it can mean a decent meal at least on that day. I keep poking at my pockets to give these kids some money all the time, never mind the argument of “don’t encourage begging” and all that bull, the fact is that there is a boy/girl(old man/woman) who does not have food at that point, does not have clothes to protect him and am very sure he’d be playing, eating Maggi or Kellogs or watching Pogo if he had a choice. To hell with these arguments, he/she’s a child and deserves ALL our empathy at that moment and they deserve to be given that.

It is sometimes so easy to feel happy and make others happy too! Like when you give a dozen banana’s to a hungry chap or buy up all the peanut packets he has in his hand or ask the rate of what he’s trying to sell give him the money and not take the product, or give a brand new t shirt to somebody, boy there are so many ways …….next time you see somebody in need try and discover a way to feel happy, you cant start with as little as Rs.3, trust me!

And yes Rs.3 has so much more value to me now!!

Beware of counterfeit notes

2008-09-10T12:19:00.000+05:30

To pay his son's school fees, Suryabhanu Pratap (name changed) withdrew Rs 5,000 from his private bank's automatic teller machine. A day later, the school called him to inform that they had found four fake Rs 500 notes in the amount deposited.

"I was scared and felt completely humiliated," says Pratap. He quietly went back to the school next day and exchanged the notes. Why didn't he inform the bank or the police?

Reading the signs

Serial numbers are printed with fluorescent ink, which can be seen when viewed under a ultraviolet lens

Floral design on the left side - half the denomination of the currency will be printed on the front side and the other half on the back side. If seen against bright light, the complete denomination appears

Just below the floral print, a mark is made in intaglio (a kind of printing, where the image is slightly raised) for the visually-impaired to identify the denomination. For the Rs 500 note, the mark is a circle, for the Rs 100, it is a triangle and a square for the Rs 50

Similarly, a portrait of Mahatma Gandhi, the RBI seal, a guarantee and promise clause, a Ashoka Pillar emblem on the left and RBI Governor's signature are all printed on intaglio

A band printed on the right side contains a latent image of the denomination of the banknote. The numeral appears when the currency is held horizontally at eye level

A wide security thread with inscriptions "Bharat" in Hindi and "RBI" runs through the banknote. The thread fluoresces on both sides in ultraviolet light

"I had no way to prove that the money was withdrawn from the bank ATM. I also did not want to get involved in any police investigations," Pratap claims. The notes were torn and thrown in the nearest ditch - a loss of Rs 2,000.

Banks, on their part, said that that it is in the "rarest of rare cases" that someone finds counterfeit notes in the money withdrawn from an ATM. "The notes to be deposited in the ATM go through a series of checks to be ATM-fit. Counterfeit currencies, if any, are detected during these checks," said Jitendra Balakrishnan, deputy managing director, IDBI Bank. However, though banks keep the record of the serial numbers of new notes being put into the machine, there is no record of older notes.

There has been huge rise in the number of counterfeit notes in the last one year. According to recent RBI data, the value of fake currency detected in 2007-08 rose by 137 per cent to Rs 5.5 crore (Rs 55 million) from 2.4 crore (Rs 24 million) in the previous financial year. And for hapless victims like Pratap, there is nothing much that can be done.

"The police can investigate with the bank only if the notes are in a series," Robin Matthew, a criminal advocate, says. Since the possession of fake currency is a criminal offense, even the possession of a single note can lead to serious trouble.

So what should you do when counterfeit currency is encountered? A senior RBI official says, "If the currency notes have come from the bank, either from an ATM or direct withdrawal, the customer should lodge a police complain and mention the source of the currency." After that, the currency is either destroyed or sent to RBI for further investigations, if the police are unable to establish the bank as the source.

When banks find counterfeits during a deposit, the teller confiscates it and destroys it in front of the customer. Later, an application is filed at the local police station giving the details of the currency and customer details, according to KVS Manian, group head, retail liabilities and branch banking, Kotak Mahindra Bank [Get Quote].

An official letter is sent to the customer, whose notes have been destroyed, with the serial numbers. There is no mechanism to ensure that the customer gets his money back and nor are there any guidelines or rules to protect the customer from this problem. "The game is all about passing the buck. So, whoever is in possession of the fake currency, is the culprit," a senior banker said requesting anonymity.

Beef Vs. Chicken

2008-09-09T11:52:00.006+05:30

Choice: Chicken
If you're a carnivore with an eye toward environmentalism, your best
bet is to eat more chicken. According to a 2005 study published by
Earth Interactions, cattle accounts for over 67 times more non-CO2
greenhouse gas emissions, including methane gas and nitrous oxide,
than its feathered counterpart. Not only that, but one pound of beef
also requires a significant amount more feed and water to produce
than an equal weight of chicken.

Go whole hog: Become a vegetarian.

Getting A Millionaire's Mindset

2008-09-09T11:13:00.003+05:30

Let's face it; we all don't make millions of dollars a year, and the odds are that most of us won't receive a large windfall inheritance either. However, that doesn't mean that we can't build sizeable wealth - it'll just take some time. If you're young, time is on your side and retiring a millionaire is achievable. Read on for some tips on how to increase your savings and work toward this goal.

Stop Senseless Spending
Unfortunately, people have a habit of spending their hard-earned cash on goods and services that they don't need. Even relatively small expenses, such as indulging in a gourmet coffee from a premium coffee shop every morning, can really add up - and decrease the amount of money you can save. Larger expenses on luxury items also prevent many people from putting money into savings each month.
That said, it's important to realize that it's usually not just one item or one habit that must be cut out in order to accumulate sizable wealth (although it may be). Usually, in order to become wealthy one must adopt a disciplined lifestyle and budget. This means that people who are looking to build their nest eggs need to make sacrifices somewhere - this may mean eating out less frequently, using public transportation to get to work and/or cutting back on extra, unnecessary expenses.
This doesn't mean that you shouldn't go out and have fun, but you should try to do things in moderation - and set a budget if you hope to save money. Fortunately, particularly if you start saving young, saving up a sizeable nest egg only requires a few minor (and relatively painless) adjustments to your spending habits.

Fund Retirement Plans ASAP
When individuals earn money, their first responsibility is to pay current expenses such as the rent or mortgage expenses, food and other necessities. Once these expenses have been covered, the next step should be to fund a retirement plan or some other tax-advantaged vehicle.
Unfortunately, retirement planning is an afterthought for many young people. Early doing means you can contribute less money overall and actually end up with significantly more in the end than someone who put in much more money but started later.

Improve Tax Awareness
Sometimes, individuals think that doing their own taxes will save them money. In some cases, they might be right. However, in other cases it may actually end up costing them money because they fail to take advantage of the many deductions available to them.
Try to become more educated as far as what types of items are deductible. You should also understand when it makes sense to move away from the standard deduction and start itemizing your return.
However, if you're not willing or able to become very well educated filing your own income tax, it may actually pay to hire some help, particularly if you are self employed, own a business or have other circumstances that complicate your tax return.

Renting Versus Buying
At some point in our lives, many of us rent a home or an apartment because we cannot afford to purchase a home, or because we aren't sure where we want to live for the longer term. And that's fine. However, renting is often not a good long-term investment because buying a home is a good way to build equity.
Unless you intend to move in a short period of time, it generally makes sense to consider putting a down payment on a home. (At least you would likely build up some equity over time and the foundation for a nest egg.

Buying Expensive Cars
There's nothing wrong with purchasing a luxury vehicle. However, individuals who spend an inordinate amount of their incomes on a vehicle are doing themselves a disservice - especially since this asset depreciates in value so rapidly.
How rapidly does a car depreciate?
Obviously, this depends on the make, model, year and demand for the vehicle, but a general rule is that a new car loses 15-20% of its value per year. So, a two-year old car will be worth 80-85% of its purchase price; a three-year old car will be worth 80-85% of its two-year-old value.
In short, especially when you are young, consider buying something practical and dependable that has low monthly payments - or that you can pay for in cash. In the long run, this will mean you'll have more money to put toward your savings - an asset that will appreciate, rather than depreciate like your car.

Don't Sell Yourself Short
Some individuals are extremely loyal to their employers and will stay with them for years without seeing their incomes take a jump. This can be a mistake, as increasing your income is an excellent way to boost your rate of saving.
Always keep your eye out for other opportunities and try not to sell yourself short. Work hard and find an employer who will compensate you for your work ethic, skills and experience.

Bottom Line
You don't have to win the lottery to see seven figures in your bank account. For most people, the only way to achieve this is to save it. You don't have to live like a pauper to build an adequate nest egg and retire comfortably. If you start early, spend wisely and save diligently, your million-dollar dreams are well within reach.

by Glenn Curtis.

Glenn Curtis started his career as an equity analyst at Cantone Research, a New Jersey-based regional brokerage firm. He has since worked as an equity analyst and a financial writer at a number of print/web publications and brokerage firms including Registered Representative Magazine, Advanced Trading Magazine, Worldlyinvestor.com, RealMoney.com, TheStreet.com and Prudential Securities. Curtis has also held Series 6,7,24 and 63 securities licenses.

Google Chrome, Google's Browser

2008-09-03T11:11:00.007+05:30

Download from http://www.google.com/chrome

Google Chrome is Google’s open source browser project

The browser will include a JavaScript Virtual Machine called V8, built from scratch by a team in Denmark, and open-sourced as well so other browsers could include it. One aim of V8 was to speed up JavaScript performance in the browser, as it’s such an important component on the web today. Google also say they’re using a “multi-process design” which they say means “a bit more memory up front” but over time also “less memory bloat.” When web pages or plug-ins do use a lot of memory, you can spot them in Chrome’s task manager, “placing blame where blame belongs.”
Google Chrome will use special tabs. Instead of traditional tabs like those seen in Firefox, Chrome puts the tab buttons on the upper side of the window, not below the address bar.
The browser has an address bar with auto-completion features. Called ’omnibox’, Google says it offers search suggestions, top pages you’ve visited, pages you didn’t visit but which are popular amd more. The omnibox (“omni” is a prefix meaning “all”, as in “omniscient” – “all-knowing”) also lets you enter e.g. “digital camera” if the title of the page you visited was “Canon Digital Camera”. Additionally, the omnibox lets you search a website of which it captured the search box; you need to type the site’s name into the address bar, like “amazon”, and then hit the tab key and enter your search keywords.
As a default homepage Chrome presents you with a kind of “speed dial” feature, similar to the one of Opera. On that page you will see your most visited webpages as 9 screenshot thumbnails. To the side, you will also see a couple of your recent searches and your recently bookmarked pages, as well as recently closed tabs.
Chrome has a privacy mode; Google says you can create an “incognito” window “and nothing that occurs in that window is ever logged on your computer.” The latest version of Internet Explorer calls this InPrivate. Google’s use-case for when you might want to use the “incognito” feature is e.g. to keep a surprise gift a secret. As far as Microsoft’s InPrivate mode is concerned, people also speculated it was a “porn mode.”
Web apps can be launched in their own browser window without address bar and toolbar. Mozilla has a project called Prism that aims to do similar (though doing so may train users into accepting non-URL windows as safe or into ignoring the URL, which could increase the effectiveness of phishing attacks).
To fight malware and phishing attempts, Chrome is constantly downloading lists of harmful sites. Google also promises that whatever runs in a tab is sandboxed so that it won’t affect your machine and can be safely closed. Plugins the user installed may escape this security model, Google admits.

Shut Down Vs. Leave Your Computer Running

2008-09-01T11:14:00.006+05:30

Choice: Leave it running

Every time you power up a computer, it's like giving the device a minor
heart attack. Electricity surges through delicate circuits, flash-heating
them and causing expansion. Immobile hard drives quickly spin up
from a stop to speeds exceeding thousands of rotations a minute.
Rebooting several times a day is a good way to wear out your
machine fast and considering the nasty,Eco-unfriendly process
required to make a new PC, the green thing to do is to keep the one
you have as long as possible. Besides, in stand-by mode, modern
PCs don't consume much power anyway. Please Ditch that
old tube monitor for an energy-efficient LCD model.

Touchy Story - Wrong Number !!!

2008-08-29T15:20:00.003+05:30

It was the day of her son's XII results and she was so tensed. She

sat beside him while he logged on the website with his registration

no. "Ma", he screamed in excitement," I scored 1191, with centum in

4 subjects.I cant believe it. " She kinda became numb in my

excitement. Her eyes became wet. She kissed him on his forehead

and smiled. Soon they realized that he stood first in the state. Oh,

her joy knew no bounds when Reporters and media persons soon

swamped her house for interviews and photos. She was so honored

to join him in the snaps. She wanted to call her

"wrong-number- friend" to tell him the news......She was so excited.

He was someone whom she has known for more than 20 years.

She still did not remember when they became friends, but certainly

cannot forget the first day he called her when she blasted him for

giving her so many wrong calls.....after that he had called up a week

later asking apology, for he had now got the right no of his friend

whom he wanted to talk to . They spoke for an hour that day...even

without knowing each other's names.Though he kept pestering her to

reveal her name she never did and so he kept a name...Sweety. She

used to get so shy whenever he called her 'Sweety'. She was doing

first year of BSc. Maths then, and he was a Computer Engineering student.

From then he used to call her very often . They almost discussed

everything ..By the final year of her college, they probably were in

love, but she had been cautious. She was in a dilemma whether to

tell him. But what if he was of a different religion? Does she have

the courage to talk to her parents about it? ........all these questions

ran through her mind.

She decided tat she'll not talk to him thereafter. When he called

next time she lied to him that she was going to Delhi for her post

graduation. He gave her his office number and asked her to ring

him up once she reach there.

She never called .......

A couple of months later her marriage got fixed with a guy of her

parent's choice. She was not happy but she did not complain;

rather accepted it as an obedient daughter. At times she felt she

missed her wrong- number- friend...... .Her hubby was a moody

person; she has hardly spent any good time with him- but he was

genuine indeed and never bothered her personal space. After

2 years they had a boy... Yet,she was not very happy with her

married life... One day she happened to browse through her

diary and found that she still had her old friend's office phone

no that he had given her. she dialed it and spoke with him. He

said he was married and got a kid too. She was happy for him

though in the bottom of the heart she felt bad that she could

not marry him.From then she used to occasionally call him

on that number. She never gave him hers as I felt that would

put her in trouble.. And till today she almost shared everything

with him including her relationship with her hubby..... today she

was so happy and wanted to call him. Just then she got a call.

"Your husband met with an accident and died on the spot".

She banged the phone down. She broke. She did not call her

friend.....She somehow started feeling guilty. She has never tried

to talk to him properly when he was alive or moved close with

him.... She felt that she had been a bad wife........A couple of years

passed and one day her son brought home a Bengali girl and said

they wanted to get married. She got them married as she did not

want her son to go through what she did.She decided to give her

son his father's room and started clearing it. There was a phone

book. She gently opened it to find, "Wrong No Sweety -26579785"

God always puts the right numbers together. Its we who interpret it wrong!!!!!

House Vs. Apartment & Build Vs. Buy A Home

2008-08-22T11:56:00.004+05:30

Choice: Apartment
Apartments are not only smaller and more fuel-efficient to heat and
cool,they also tend to be located near or in metro centers. That
means apartment dwellers are more likely to use public
transportation and less likely to drive long, carbon-burning
distances to work.

Choice: Buy
For all the advances in energy-efficient home design, it still requires
more energy to build a home from scratch than to move into an
existing one. From transporting materials to powering saws and
drills, construction is energy-intensive. If you want to save money
on utility bills, consider retrofitting an older home with new insulation,
low-flow shower heads and faucet aerators.

Cricket should not be part of Olympics

2008-08-18T10:50:00.003+05:30

Cricketers might be excited at the idea of competing in Olympics. I fear that Cricket would "hamper" prospects of individual disciplines which wait for the Games to showcase their talents to the world.

Team sports like cricket should not be included in the Olympics. Olympics is a personal game where sportsman tries to excel within himself. It would be unfair to include cricket in the Olympics as the players of other sports, especially of individual events wait for the single day to happen and show their talents.

Cricket wherever is popular, hampers other sports, but it is the governments who should take corrective measures to ensure that individual sports also get their due,.

Olympics is the lifeline. The player waits for this day after long four years to showcase his talent and also to let the world know about him. India is going to make history in Boxing at Beijing.

Tragedies that strengthened India

2008-08-14T14:22:00.003+05:30

If experience is a great teacher, independent India is its most proficient pupil. In the 60 years since the birth of our nation, we have faced devastating natural calamities like floods and droughts which recur almost annually, crises like communal riots and ethnic violence, assassinations, and even a brief period of emergency, when civil rights were revoked. To this, add the perennial problems of poverty and population, and the daily dance of death led by terrorists and secessionists. Yet the essential spirit of India remains unbowed, unbroken. Despite all these problems, we are now well on way to claim our place at the world's top table. As we celebrate our 60th birthday, we bring to you some events which shook us, some which rattled our very foundations, but failed to break us.

For Indians the flag is life.

2008-08-14T11:09:00.004+05:30

The flag: For being the country's most powerful symbol

For Indians the flag is life. It's life. The national life. It should generate enthusiasm, should generate integrity. It generates love for the nation.

August 15, 1947, the most important day in the history of India, the day when the long suppressed nation found utterance, it was the day when India got independence from the British rule. The stroke of the midnight brought with it a ray of new hope for India, as our first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru said, the world was asleep but India awoke to life and freedom. A new nation was born! Since then August 15 is celebrated as the independence day in India every year.

Happy Independance!!!

Tricolor, the flag of India, is a representative of the independent Republic of India. A symbol that embeds in itself the history of India's long struggle for Independence Day, it was adopted as the national flag of India in its present form on July 22, 1947. Serving as the national flag of Dominion of India from 15th August 1947 to 25th January 1950, it thereafter became the national flag of the Indian Republic. First of all designed by Sister Nivedita, the flag of India passed through many stages before it was finally adopted by the Constituent Assembly of India as the national flag of India.

The journey of Indian flag started in 1904 when sister Nivedita, an Irish disciple of Swami Vivekananda, designed the first flag for India. This flag, containing red and yellow color stripes and Bonde Mataram written on it came to be known as Sister Nivedita's flag. The next version of the India flag came in 1907, it was designed by Madam Bhikaji Cama, Veer Savarkar and Shyamji Krishna Varma and had three stripes of - green, saffron and red color.

In 1916, Pingali Venkayya designed a flag with two colors and a 'charkha' drawn across them. This design was not much appreciated as the religious interpretation of the colors resulted in it being associated with only Hindu and Muslim communities. In 1917 and 1921 two other modifications of the national flag came into being the former was adopted by the Home Rule League as their official flag.

Finally in 1931, Pingali Venkayya came out with another modified version for flag of India, which had three color stripes of saffron, white and green. The white color stripe in the middle had a Charkha. This flag, considered to be the representative of all the communities of India was taken as the official flag of the Indian National Congress. This flag was adopted as the National Flag of India with minor modifications- Charkha was replaced by the 'Dharma Chakra' in the middle of the white stripe.

On July 22, 1947 when the flag was taken as the national flag of India, it acquired a new meaning, from the representative of the different communities of India, it became the representative of a nation. The three colors of the India flag have special significance. Topmost saffron color represents valor, sacrifice and renunciation of Indians whereas the middle white color is the symbol of purity and India's belief in peaceful co-existence while the lowermost green color signifies prosperity. A national symbol of India, Indian flag commands utmost respect from every Indian and is a binding force for all the countrymen across the globe.

Some Important facts:

The ratio of the width of the flag to its length is 2:3
The Indian flag is made up of just one fabric, Khadi.
When the national flag is carried in a procession or parade, as per the Flag Code of India, it shall be on the marching right or in front of the center of the line, if there is a line of other flags.
The flag cannot be used as clothing below the wais

$100-laptop dream can transform India-China

2008-08-13T10:19:00.003+05:30

Imagine a world in which every school-going child owns a laptop, no matter how poor his or her family is. In India alone, this would mean well over 300 million units. Sounds like a pipedream, right?

The One Laptop Per Child scheme is, on the face, a simple one: provide affordable ($100 or Rs 4,200), low-energy consuming (less than 2 watts), rugged laptops (called the XO laptop) to children in remote and impoverished areas.

The laptops come with built-in wireless (wi-fi) capability, so that children can create what's called a 'mesh wi-fi network' that keeps them interconnected. They've achieved three parts of the four-pronged plan, Negroponte says, but the current price of Rs 8,000 is nearly twice the Rs 4,200 that the group envisages.

Even the poor in India and China have integrated the mobile phone into their lives, and that perhaps mobile phone technology is better suited in this part of the world, Negroponte is quick to reply: "The mobile phone brings connectivity. That's a good thing. But a handheld device is not an educational device. It's not an appropriate size for reading."

It's the goal of educators for their students to eventually surpass them. The computer is the best tool mankind has invented to achieve this. . . These kids aren't suffering from a lack of capability. They're suffering from a lack of opportunity."

Which life is best.... bachelor life or married life ?

2008-08-12T14:24:00.000+05:30

Both are having their own advantages as well as disadvantages,

As in bachelor life, u are like a free bird, and no much responsibilites and no boundaries and no limits but that is also having disadvantages such as without boundaries and limites u are free to do anything manytime u may do things which is not correct,

Where as in married life, it is full of responsibilites, u will have some one to share your thoughts your love and your view,

Things Money can't buy

2008-08-12T14:07:00.001+05:30

1. Family and friends

The greenbacks won't bring you any closer to your family if you are far too busy earning them. Nor will they guarantee your family understands you at all. (Mummy's cooking is a sub-group in this 'things you can't buy anywhere' list.)

There are exceptions to this. You might just pay off irritating in-laws to stay out of your hair, or order a hit on them. But in the normal course...

With friends, it works the same way, only more so. If your wealth draws them, they aren't real. If they don't stay, or your life has no place for them, you are on your own. With real friends, you've almost got it made.

2. Home

Get married, start a family, have kids. Will they grow up into fine people? Have you got the hang of father/motherhood? Is your home really your castle, a cocoon of comfort? Or is it just a house with people in it? The card really stops here.

3. Happiness

Alright, cliched, but it gets truer as the years pass. There is always something missing whether you are on the beach at Algarve or adding the newest antique wood furniture to your collection. If you can't get at the root of it, everything you can get is merely a narcotic.

4. Peace

Here is the big one, ever since they started asking smart questions to beauty contestants. The small peace is inside your head and that is elusive enough to come by, for which you have antacids and Ketorol, which only push it away for another day. Also think world peace and other big matters. What if they nuke the city? Kidding.

5. Immortality

If you can make it for three decades on top of the Forbes list, that is a measure of fame. But to be truly immortal requires other things, other ways of striving. Ever wondered how some dirt-poor hardscrabble guys have instant recall value centuries afterwards? And literal immortality is yet several pages farther in human civilisation's sci-fi book

6. Respect

You can smirk at the poor ants down below on the street, but they will pull faces behind your back if you are the sort who is perpetually asking for it. Dignity is the most fragile of public possessions. And God help you if they know about the skeletons in your closet or that you were called Stinky as a kid. This is one asset you really need to work on all the time to earn...

7. Talent

Another cliched, misused, misunderstood word, like creativity, and maybe no one knows what it is anymore, but you are either born with it or not. No way you can get a bill of sale on this one. What you do with it is of course your business. History has been very frequently marked with astonishing examples of creativity outdoing... well, money and everything else. Possibly the best example is Lenoardo da Vinci and a certain portrait of a woman. He took 16 years to paint it, did not bother to name it, packed it with himself wherever he travelled in Europe, refused to sell it to kings and counts. It was ultimately sold by his assistant after he died. Someone down the line decided to call it the Mona Lisa [Images].

At the other end of the example is Vincent Van Gogh. All that talent and he sold just one painting of the nearly thousand he made, struggling with poverty all along. Didn't make a difference either way: in 1990, his Portrait of Dr Gachet went under the hammer for a current equivalent of $ 136.1 million, making it the fourth most expensive painting ever sold.

8. Health

Sure healthcare costs being the way they are, you need all the money you can lay your hands on when it comes to facing the bills and pills and the doctor scaring you with a dozen different possible diseases you have never heard about. But, viewed sanely, a good efficient treatment is not that much of a substitute for a good healthy life. Isn't it better not to need healthcare in the first place?

9. Love

It matters, that little empty feeling when you are sitting with a Sauvignon Blanc (for choice) on your balcony on a Saturday evening and twenty sober thoughts in your head, and no one to tell them to. That feeling of intense loneliness can neither be bought off, papered over or told to keep quiet and leave the room. Someone says, "Money can't buy love, but with all the other things it can, I'll give love a miss." Your call. You still have the Sauvignon Blanc...

10. Character

In case it matters. It is a sneaky creature, goes by other strange names like virtue and righteousness and at one time, if we remember reading correctly, a certain generation used to call it "true wealth". We don't really know whether it is around in these times but if you are looking to have it, it has to come from within. Or some such thing...

Meanwhile, enjoy what you have, but as John Buchan says, "Sit easy on your comforts."

Goldfinger Bindra makes history

2008-08-12T09:57:00.001+05:30

Abhinav Bindra made history on Monday when he won India's first ever individual Olympic gold medal with a thrilling come-from-behind victory the men's 10 metres air rifle event in Beijing.

Bindra was fourth after qualifying but had a brilliant final round and even hit a near perfect 10.8 on his last visit to pull in front of Henri Hakkinen of Finland, who dropped to bronze with a poor final shot of 9.7.

That allowed China's Zhu Qinan, the defending Olympic champion and heavy favourite, to pass him on his final shot and win the silver medal.

India's last Olympic gold medal was from hockey (8th gold) at the 1980 Moscow Olympics. Bindra's feat betters the silver medal effort of double trap shooter Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore at the Athens Games in 2004.

Why Should You go to College?

2008-07-04T15:27:00.000+05:30

One important answer to this question is more opportunity. As opposed to generations of the past, high school graduates today are unable to obtain the number of high-paying jobs that were once available. The U.S. has been transformed from a manufacturing-based economy to an economy based on knowledge, and the importance of a college education today can be compared to that of a high school education forty years ago. It serves as the gateway to better options and more opportunity.

There are additional reasons as to why it is important to go to college. When students experience a post secondary education, they have the opportunity to read books and listen to the lectures of top experts in their fields. This stimulation encourages students to think, ask questions, and explore new ideas, which allows for additional growth and development and provides college graduates with an edge in the job market over those who have not experienced a higher education.

The importance of a college education is also accentuated because of the opportunity to gain valuable resources during your tenure. The more connections which are collected during your college career, the more options you will have when you begin your job search. Once you have ended your job search and have started your career, however, the importance of a college education has not been exhausted. Having a college degree often provides for greater promotion opportunity.

So, why should you go to college? The reasoning does not begin and end with the job aspect. A good education is beneficial from many different viewpoints, and while the importance of a college education is quite evident for many high school students, what is often not as clear is how they will pay for that education.

Skincare tips for the monsoon

2008-06-23T13:51:00.001+05:30

While the monsoons bring a welcome respite from summer heat, they also pose a lot of challenges to healthy skin. The heat-induced rashes of summertime give way to the humidity-induced problems of the rainy season. If you are health-conscious and take a few simple precautions, you can save yourself a lot of misery over bad skin.

The biggest skin complaint during the monsoon has to be fungal infections. A fungus thrives in humidity -- wet skin folds rubbing against each other get macerated easily, providing easy entry to fungi and yeast. As a result, you develop itchy, circular, reddish, flaking patches on the body, especially in skin folds at the groin (Jock Itch), underarms and around the breast in women.

Fungal infections can also affect your feet, especially if you wear closed shoes all day. Staying dry is the best way to avoid them. Carry a set of dry clothes and footwear to the office and change immediately if you've gotten drenched on your way.

Once you are seated at your desk, take your shoes and socks off to allow air circulation around your feet. Wear sandals or floaters as far as possible. Use plenty of dusting talc to prevent accumulation of sweat and moisture in skin folds. Those prone to repeated fungal infections can use medicated powders like Absorb, Mycoderm etc.

Athlete's Foot is a combined bacterial and fungal infection that affects people whose feet stay wet for hours, especially after exposure to dirty water. Starting from the toes, the skin turns whitish or greenish, itches terribly and there may even be a foul-smelling discharge or pus.

Prevent this by thoroughly washing your feet with soap and hot water after wading through stagnant water and then dry them completely. If the water was particularly dirty, it's advisable after the wash to soak your feet for a few minutes in a tub of warm water with three or four cap-fulls of betadine solution added to it. This is a powerful Povidone-iodine based disinfectant and can also be added to the last few mugfulls of your bath water if you've had to battle through a flood like the terrible 20/7 ordeal back in 2005 -- in such cases, it's also recommended that you consult your dermatologist regarding an oral antibiotic.

Scabies is another common infection that preys on both children and adults during the monsoon -- it is caused by a mite infestation. If your child complains about a body itch that intensifies at night and you see a few red bumps or a rash on his/her hands, wrists, underarms, abdomen, groin and buttocks, then rush to the dermatologist -- this condition is highly contagious and invariably spreads to the family if not treated properly.

Sickly, dull, oily-looking skin is common during the rainy season. Nondescript itching also occurs occasionally. A few additional tips on how to keep your complexion glowing:

Use a face scrub twice a week to exfoliate.

Avoid heavy moisturising creams or oily foundations and cream-based colour makeup. Use a light mousse or a matte compact or simply a few drops of calamine lotion as a makeup base.

A facewash containing alpha hydroxyl acid (like Ahaglow) helps to freshen the skin, but do not use it more than once a day.

Use a toner each time you wash your face to close the pores and restore your skin's pH balance.

Chemical peels (skin treatment performed by dermatologists) are also an excellent way to freshen up dull skin and the monsoon is the best weather for them -- there is no risk of sun exposure and sensitivity after the peeling session. There are a variety of peels available nowadays -- skin-lightening peels, acne peels, peels for sensitive skin, arginine peels for under-eye circles etc. Ask your dermatologist for details.

Have a healthy monsoon!

5 career needs of every professional

2008-06-13T16:26:00.000+05:30

In today's economy, you need to evolve constantly if you want your career to go places. If you don't, there is every possibility that one of your colleagues/ classmates will walk away with the coveted position that you aspired to.

So how does one add value to oneself? Here are five steps that will meet all your career advancement needs:

Self learning

Learning is an ongoing lifelong process, we learn a little from everything we do. Career advancement requires a structured form of learning. If you are aspiring to a higher role within or outside your organisation, you need to identify the competency that role demands and go about acquiring the same. Some of the best-managed companies provide such learning tools to their employees.

Self assessment

Know yourself and where you stand -- it's important if you're planning your own growth chart. We are assessed by others whenever we are interviewed for job openings and promotions, so stay one step ahead and assess yourself first. You need to work on areas where there is room for improvement. If you come from a technology background, for example and you think you have mastered a particular technological tool, go ahead and get certified. This will add a lot of value to your professional standing and will pay off richly in future.

Peer discussions

Life's lessons are learned through community interaction and that holds true for our professional lives too. Whenever you get time off from your busy schedule, utilise it positively by interacting with your peers and discussing common areas of interest. If you can't meet up in person, use the Internet -- there are lots of professional networking portals and some of them have large numbers of qualified professionals as members. This informal knowledge-gathering complements the disciplined self-learning approach discussed above.

Career counselling

Everyone needs expert advice and counselling from time to time. We hear about godfathers and political gurus all the time, but unfortunately we do not recognise the relevance of professional mentors, thanks to the job opportunities economic growth has brought to India. There are, however, several intelligent folk who model their careers along similar lines as their seniors and heed the latter's advice in matters involving career growth. Sometimes it's also a good idea to opt for career counselling -- it helps one identify which professional path has the maximum scope for growth and job satisfaction.

Look before you leap

Several youngsters take up new jobs/designations because they offer better monetary compensation. If you are clear about your career growth pattern, monetary return should be a secondary criterion -- first comes future growth potential. You also need to verify offers made to you by potential employers or your boss -- discuss your new responsibilities thoroughly and only if you are completely convinced should you take up the new challenge.

Triumph of the underdog -IPL 2008

2008-06-02T14:06:00.003+05:30

IPL- 2008: Despite its share of controversies and the heady mix of glamour and cricket, the Indian Premier League's first edition would be best remembered for the triumph of the underdog wherein a retired spin legend inspired the cheapest franchisee of the event to an unexpected title win.

Shane Warne, considered by many as the best captain never to lead Australia, led a pack of unheralded players to a Rs 4.8 crore prize cheque.

Shaun Marsh, son of Australian great Geoff Marsh, became the most successful batsman of the tournament and the left-hander was the undisputed choice for the Orange Cap, meant for the event's highest run-getter, with 616 runs.

Sohail Tanvir (left) -- the wrong-footed pacer from Pakistan -- competed with the likes of Glenn McGrath and Muttiah Muralitharan to take the purple cap for the top wicket-taker with 22 wickets.

Australia's Shane Watson, who played a key role in Rajasthan Royal's title triumph, was declared the man of the tournament with 474 runs, including four half centuries, and 17 wickets.

There is no Indian, what you think!!!.

Kick the butt before you kick the bucket!

2008-05-31T14:57:00.000+05:30

So you think it's cool to light up and puff away at a cancer stick, do you?

And the younger you are, the more attention you tend to get when you're smoking a cigarette -- even disapproving glances give you some kind of satisfaction, as long as it's not an elder relative or family member who catches you doing it and reports straight back to Daddy!

Well, World No-Tobacco Day 2008 is coming up on May 31, so we thought we'd bring young smokers the lowdown on the ill effects of smoking.

According to research, nine out of 10 tobacco users start before they're 18 years old (www.kidshealth.org). And yes, with all the wordly wisdom of their teenage years, they believe that they'll never get addicted to it.

But the fact is that you do get addicted and your body suffers, because tobacco is poison and cigarettes are small doses of it!

Yes, yes, you've heard about the heart risks, the increased possibilty of cancer and emphysema, but that always happens to someone else, right?

Wrong! And besides these more serious concerns, here's a number of other health issues ranging from the trivial to the life-threatening that are sure to make youngsters sit up and take notice!

Bad breath, tooth decay and gum disease

Of course, smoking leads to cigarette breath, given that you're breathing in smoke and nicotine and most folks find the odour rather unpleasant. But it's very likely your breath will remain bad for a long time after you've smoked and may cause a permanent problem.

Cigarettes cause a build up of nicotine and tar on the teeth, tongue and inner lining of the cheeks; they also hamper the secretion of saliva, which leads to the growth of bacteria in the mouth (www.gumsurgery.com). These bacteria are the reason behind bad breath, so the next time you pucker up for a goodnight kiss after a date, you'll know the reason why your partner is holding his/ her nose shut!

Other than bad breath, the bacteria in your mouth can also cause unsightly yellow stains on your teeth and in some cases, gum disease.

Wrinkled, damaged skin

So a pimple on your face usually calls for drastic measures?

Here's a heads-up on what smoking can do to your skin -- you may be 25, but cigarettes could have you looking 10 years older!

Because smoking tightens the blood vessels, it does not allow the requisite oxygen and nutrients from nourishing the skin. As a result, your skin may acquire a pale yellowish tinge. Also, instead of remaining supple, it becomes more prone to premature wrinkles, because nicotine has a damaging effect on your skin's collagen and elastin too (www.mayoclinic.com).

Sexual dysfunction

Yes, smoking does affect your performance in the sack!

This is applicable to men, because as mentioned previously, smoking restricts the blood vessels, which in turn inhibits the flow of blood to the penis. As a result, erectile dysfunction, or the inability to sustain an erection, occurs.

Cigarettes can also create problems for those who are trying for a baby. Women smokers take longer to conceive -- chances of pregnancy are reduced by 10 to 40 percent. As for men, besides hampered sexual performance, smoking leads to reduced fertility -- it damages the sperm and causes a reduced sperm-count (www.atihealthnet.com).

Hampered overall immunity

Research has shown that smokers are more susceptible to illnesses and infections than non-smokers. You are particularly more prone to respiratory disorders like common colds, asthma, bronchitis etc. Also, cigarettes tend to kill one's hunger and a lot of youngsters smoke to curb their appetites, thereby depriving their bodies of vital foods and nutrition. This also leads to reduced immunity (www.kidshealth.org).

Life-threatening health concerns

If all the above hasn't convinced you to quit smoking, maybe the mention of the following life-threatening diseases will:

~ Researchers have found that even smokers who are in still their teens have severely damaged blood vessels and cells which result in chronic bronchitis, heart disease and strokes.

~ Smoking is the main reason behind various forms of cancer in the lungs, mouth, throat, bladder, pancreas, and kidney.

~ The more you smoke, the larger the chance that it will ultimately lead to your death. One in three smokers die as a result of the habit and several more suffer from debilitating diseases (www.youngwomenshealth.org). So look at it this way -- if nine of your friends are addicted to cigarettes, three of them will die if all of you don't quit!

So think twice before you light up again -- you'd rather kick the butt than kick the bucket!

Why your boss is overpaid

2008-05-16T10:39:00.000+05:30

It is a typical 'Dilbert' strip. The boss announces, "Our CEO has voluntarily slashed his pay from $6 million per year to $4 million. In a written statement, he said he wants to 'share the pain.' Do you feel better now?" A downtrodden intern replies, "I make my underpants from sandwich bags."

But that's office life, is it not? Bosses make obscene sums of money, while downtrodden cubicle slaves toil almost without reward. It might seem insane, but economists have a surprise for us: The insanity reflects nothing more than cool economic logic. There is method in the madness.

The ugly truth is that your boss is probably overpaid--and it's for your benefit, not his. Why? It might be because he isn't being paid for the work he does but, rather, to inspire you. In other words, we work our socks off in underpaying jobs in the hope that one day we'll win the rat race and become overpaid fat cats ourselves. Economists call this "tournament theory."

After all, managers find it hard to spot an excellent performance. It is a rare job where workers can be fairly paid according to some objective criteria.

There are some exceptions, of course. Critics and audiences may disagree about the literary merits of Dan Brown's bestseller, The Da Vinci Code. Yet from a business point of view, the success is easy to measure. He has sold about 40 million books and is rewarded with a payment for each one.

The economists Edward Lazear (recently appointed to chair the Council of Economic Advisors) and the late Sherwin Rosen argued, in a hugely influential paper published 25 years ago, that tournaments are an integral and often invisible part of the workplace. Workers are frequently ranked relative to each other and promoted not for being good at their jobs but for being better than their rivals. It is a natural response to the difficulty of true performance pay.

Tournaments also help protect workers against risks they cannot control. Companies can be affected by recessions, unexpected competition and hurricanes. As long as every worker is equally affected, the incentives to try hard remain the same. Trying to encourage performance through, say, stock options would unnecessarily expose workers to risks without really encouraging them to work harder.

Promotion tournaments sound sensible: Good workers are promoted, less capable workers are not. Yet the widespread use of tournaments also goes a long way toward explaining the frustrations of office life.

First, one way for you to win is for your colleagues to lose. Companies that rely too heavily on competition to determine promotions may find that their employees discover that the most efficient way of winning a promotion is by sabotaging the efforts of their rivals. You don't need economic theory to spot that risk.

The second, and more counterintuitive, prediction of tournament theory is that the more luck is involved in work, the larger the pay gaps should be between the winners and the losers. If Jack's promotion is 90 per cent luck and 10 per cent effort, Jack may be inclined to goof off--unless, of course, the rewards for promotion are absolutely astronomical. And they sometimes are.

Tournaments also demand increasingly absurd pay packages as workers get higher up the hierarchy. At the lowest level, a promotion may not need to carry much of a pay increase, because it opens up the possibility of future, lucrative promotions. Nearer the end of your career, only a fat check is likely to spur you on.

Finally, tournament theory also helps to explain why insiders, not outsiders, get cushy jobs. You thought it was all about the old-boy network, but in fact, the logical reason for promoting insiders is clear: These jobs are designed to keep your workforce motivated.

Lazear and Rozen's tournament theory has stood the test of time and been supported by many subsequent pieces of empirical research. It also passes the smell test: The more grotesque your boss's pay and the less he has to do to earn it, the bigger the motivation for you to work for a promotion. As Lazear wrote in his book, Personnel Economics for Managers, "The salary of the vice president acts not so much as motivation for the vice president as it does as motivation for the assistant vice presidents."

Economists don't even pretend that your boss deserves his salary. Suddenly, everything is clear.

What ails Bangalore's Royal Challengers (RC)?

2008-05-15T16:18:00.001+05:30

The Indian Premier League is a new phenomenon in the Indian sports scene for its sheer commercial blitzkrieg. The demigods of Indian and international cricket were auctioned to the highest bidder, mostly top industrialists and film stars, and certain icon players were bought for dizzying amounts. As the matches began, some team owners expected returns on their investment. Only, several of these players and teams didn't perform as expected, Bangalore's Royal Challengers being one of them. In this case, it has led to a public spat between captain Rahul Dravid and team owner Vijay Mallya, who has squarely blamed him for the team's losses. He even called the Royal Challengers to a Test team. Victories and losses were part of the game before; But today, when a cricket team has become an investment, looks like some bosses of the game will not tolerate a string of defeats.

Negotiating salary? Important tips

2008-05-15T16:13:00.001+05:30

When Prateek Dhawan took the offer to join a new company, he was quite happy with the CTC salary that was offered to him.

However, after the first month, when the salary cheque came, he was shocked with the numbers. His actual take-home was slightly more than his previous salary. And, Dhawan is not alone.There are many of us who get lured with the numbers that show in our CTC package, but when the actual take-home salary comes in our hand, it causes a lot of heartache. It is therefore very important that when you are negotiating the salary, you should have a clear idea about numbers. A good way to achieve this is by using tax saving strategies that would reduce your burden.

Ah! those slips that snip

The first thing to look for is the different heads in your salary package. Heads like performance incentive sound challenging, but they are always taxed. Special allowances, added with conveyance and phone reimbursement, also attract tax.

Often, there is a notion among salary-earners that a lesser basic pay and high allowances may bring down income tax burden. However, it is best if you avoid this approach. A reduced basic salary leads to a lower provident fund, which is a forced saving for your future.

Anyone who gets many allowances must combine all of them under a single head. Put car allowance, books reimbursement, house rent allowance, office travel allowance, phone, vehicle and staying in hotels under on head, which straight away lowers your tax bill. Call this consolidated allowance.

Allowances that help

Always go for conveyance allowance. A sum of Rs 800 a month is tax-free. Even if your office does not give conveyance allowance, you can ask for a reduced basic pay and additional conveyance allowance. This move can cut down tax outgo.

Daily allowance, wherever allowed, must be grabbed with both hands because it carries total tax exemption. Professional tax, up to Rs 2,500, is also unencumbered by tax. Also, office loans for car or personal reasons can be used to avoid taxation to a great extent.

Policies that pay

Employees State Insurance Scheme, if available, must be compulsorily availed. Unlike LIC schemes, the amount is absolutely free from income tax. Fidelity Guarantee Scheme is another insurance plan that is completely tax-free.

Even if you are contributing to a Public Provident Fund, a salaried individual must also opt for Employers Provident Fund, because this also doesn't attract tax. Many salaried people are unaware that a loan for medical treatment is exempt from income tax under Rule 3 A, but make sure that your medical insurance policy is not utilised.

Avoiding FBT

The fringe benefit tax can be avoided if you own a car and the company pays for maintenance and petrol bills. The most profitable way to claim HRA is to ask the company to take a house on lease, which is owned by any of your relatives. If it's your parents, who don't have any income, it works completely to your advantage.

It is because, on one hand, you claim HRA and they, having zero income, don't have to pay any tax. In fact, even if they have some income, but less than the stipulated base limit of Rs 220,000 a year (assuming they are retired), they would gain from the situation. The maximum benefit occurs when the rent is over 20 per cent of your salary.

When gift vouchers are given, insist on taking them under the employee welfare scheme.

Mobile phone bills are considered a perquisite and taxed, causing your office to fret a lot. You can again offer tax counselling by suggesting a simple trick.

The mobile phone bills can be placed under "recurring operative expenditure" head. All taxes are eliminated at one stroke. At home, leased phone landlines installed at the company's behest and cost, allows you to get rid of paying tax on calls.

Travel expenses and hotel stays are taxed under FBT. In fact, even a conference to discuss reducing tax incidence on perquisites will also be taxed! However, by not showing the expenditure as conference/seminar and calling it "convention" would remove the tax burden.

The office may want to give meals, breakfast or tiffin, but FBT fear precludes an employer from extending this perquisite to staff. Why not have an office "food and beverage" account? Show the claim in the income tax return.

The FBT will not apply, at all. Finally, soft furnishings for a house (such as curtains and table cloth), which give the abode a decent appearance for entertaining guests who drop in for official duties, can be shown as expenses. They also qualify for tax exemption.

Tendulkar hoping to play May 14 IPL match

2008-05-08T16:39:00.000+05:30

Eager to make his debut in the ongoing Indian Premier League Twenty20 tournament, after missing seven matches because of a groin injury, Sachin Tendulkar said on Wednesday he is hopeful turning out for the Mumbai Indians' team when it takes on Chennai Super Kings on May 14.

Watching his teammates fight it out with Rajasthan Royals in Wednesday's IPL tie in Mumbai, the home team's regular skipper, however, said he will take the field only if fully fit.

"I can tell you roughly that I'm targetting the next match," Tendulkar said.

"If I'm in the middle, I should be able to compete; for if I'm not able to compete, I'll be letting down the team," said the ace batsman from Mumbai.

Tendulkar also gave the thumbs up to the IPL, dubbing it the biggest event ever in the history of cricket.

"Without a doubt (this is the biggest event in cricket's history). It has taken the game virtually to all the households in the world. If cricket is looking forward to go global, this is the format. It's a three-hour entertainment, which the entire family can watch together," he said.

Tendulkar believes tournaments like the IPL have the potential to bring in new audience.

"Earlier, people wanted to watch a match but found it difficult to devote the entire day. I think Twenty20 is also bringing families together. I mean, how many times you otherwise see all the family members watching a cricket match together?"

Morning sex can keep you hale and hearty

2008-05-08T16:27:00.000+05:30

A steamy sex session in the morning can keep you in good health, say researchers.

According to a research from Queen's University in Belfast, a good morning session at least three times a week, decreases the risk of heart attack or stroke by half and a regular session improves circulation, thereby reducing blood pressure.

According to a study in New Scientist, a steamy session twice a week enhances IgA, an antibody that provides protection against microbes that multiply in body secretions, reports The Sun.

Morning sex also helps in alleviating arthritis and migraine. It burns around 300 calories an hour that simultaneously diminishes the risk of developing diabetes.

Moreover, an American study involving 300 sexually active women whose partners did not use condoms revealed that they were less prone to depression.

Sex increases the production of testosterone that provides stronger bones and muscles thus helping to stave off osteoporosis.

A good morning session can make the hair shine and skin glow by raising the output of oestrogen and other hormones associated with it.

According to Yale School of Medicine researchers, it can aid in averting endometriosis, a condition where the tissue that normally lines the uterus, grows in other parts of the pelvis.

However, the researchers have also warned that having sex more than three times a week can have a negative impact on our immune system thus lowering its resistance

Daily investment through mutual funds

2008-05-08T15:53:00.001+05:30

The advantages of investing through the systematic investment plans route are well documented. To recapitulate, SIP is a method wherein you invest a predetermined fixed sum of money every month, irrespective of the state of the market.

For instance, if you want to invest a total of Rs 60,000 in an equity mutual fund scheme a year, you can either do it by putting in a lump sum or through the SIP route of Rs 5,000 every month for 12 months. This amount can be invested on a predetermined day of every month like the fifth or the tenth day.

The biggest advantage for the investor is that there is rupee cost averaging. That is, when the market goes down, more units of the scheme can be purchased because of a lower net asset value. However, most companies have SIP schemes that allow you to invest on different dates of the month.

Last year, ING Mutual fund introduced a product called Zoom investment Pack or ZIP. The unique feature of this product is that it is a daily SIP. An investor can make a bulk investment in the ING liquid fund and a transfer is made to any of the equity funds of ING Mutual on a daily basis.

The features are as follows:

Affordability: The minimum investment required is as low as Rs 5,000. The investor can choose to invest just Rs 99 per day.
Volatility: Captures daily market movement.
Convenience: Since the investment is made as a systematic transfer plan (STP), only one form needs to be filled.

According to a back-testing done by the fund house, the performance of the daily ZIP is as follows:

They have undertaken a study of the performance of three time periods that include stable market, rising market and falling market conditions by investing through an STP in ING Domestic Opportunities Fund. Also, this performance has been compared with ING Domestic Opportunities fund.

The benefits are apparent in stable and falling markets�ZIP outperformed. However, in a rising market, investment through SIP will always underperform because fresh investments are made at higher NAVs.

The Indian equity markets have witnessed a turbulent period in the last quarter. While the Sensex has moved from 20,300 points in January 1, 2008 to 16,721 points on April 24, 2008, the volatility during the period has been very high. A product like ZIP can capture the daily movement in the Sensex for the investors' advantage.

10 ways to get the best out of your credit card

2007-07-03T17:15:00.000+05:30

Buying something expensive is no longer a problem. From that designer outfit to the most recent gizmos, you can get it all with a swipe of a credit card. But is it as simple as it sounds? Should you get carried away with those flashy ads and promos telling you how easy it is to buy stuff? Let's find out.
Whether dining at a restaurant, doing your grocery shopping or making the latest purchase, the most convenient mode of payment today is the credit card.
But wait a second before you swipe it -- do you know how to make the best use of your card? Which brings me to another question -- do you ever wonder why so many banks chase you with the offer of a free card? The answer is simple; it's the hefty interest rate (as much as 36 per cent per annum) that they charge when you don't pay your credit card bill on time. This interest is a lucrative source of revenue for them.

Understanding credit cards
A credit card is issued by a bank or a credit card company; it permits you to make purchases or pay your bills without using physical cash. The most important benefit is that you get a leeway of 20 to 50 days to make your payment after you use the card. Your bill is calculated from the date of billing. The time between each billing cycle -- which is the billing date between one month and the next -- is known as the 'interest free period'; however, if you do not pay your bill on time, you will be charged a hefty interest.

The second flexibility that you get is the choice to make the payment either at one go or on a monthly installment basis. Though this option becomes more feasible in terms of easy payment, watch out for the interest rate that can go up to 35-43 per cent annually.

Ask yourself basic questions
~ Why do I need a credit card?
~ Is it because it is easier not to have to deal with cash or is it because everyone else has one?
You must realise there is no such thing as a 'free lunch'. Why would anyone offer free credit cards or even free add-on cards? Add-on cards are offered to you if you pay your bills regularly or have a good payment history. These cards can be in the name of your father/ mother/ spouse/ child; they can use the add-on card for making purchases. It functions exactly like your own credit card. Of course, the purchases are billed to the main credit card owner's account.

Whenever you swipe your card, it comes to you at a cost. You use the credit card to your advantage when you clear your bill within the 'interest free period', which is generally between 20-50 days (depending on the billing cycle).
Credit cards broadly fall under four categories -- regular, silver, gold, platinum. Each offers more facilities and each is more expensive.
Before you make up your mind to own one, do not forget to run a search on the maximum benefits you could avail of under a particular card. For instance, some credit cards offer discounts on airfares, retail shopping, etc.
So, while choosing the right card for yourself, know the costs involved and the benefits you can enjoy.
What else should you know
Once you start using your credit card, the card company sends you a monthly statement list of the purchases/ payments you have made with the card. You will have to pay this bill within a certain number of days. Don't ever forget that you will be charged a high interest rate if you don't pay your bill on time, that is before your due date.
Generally, a credit card finds a place in your wallet because of its 'free credit period', also known as the 'grace period'. This means you don't actually pay for something as soon as you buy it using your card. You pay for it when the credit card bill is delivered to you.

The number of 'free' days that you get depends on the statement date and the transaction date. Generally, a time frame of 20 days is given, but if you plan purchases smartly, you may end up getting even 50 days of credit. This means that, if your billing date is today and you buy something tomorrow, you could get 50 days of credit. However, if your billing date is today, and you bought something using your credit card two days ago, you will only get a benefit of 22 days.
Make the best of your card
1. Pay your bill before the due date. If you are not able to do so, use the transfer balance facility through which you can transfer the balance amount on your bill to another credit card issuer and pay fewer charges.
2. Do not use the cash advance feature (where you can withdraw cash against your card just like an ATM) unless it is very crucial; the amount you withdraw does not qualify for an interest free period. The interest rate charged on such withdrawals ranges from 25-30 per cent per annum.
3. Know your credit card's billing cycle, the actual date of when it begins and ends. Make your purchases in such a manner that you get maximum free credit days.
4. Don't own multiple cards. Stick to a maximum of two cards. More than that and you will find it difficult to keep a track of how much money you are spending.
5. Always clear your credit card bills at least seven days before the due date to avoid being hit with a late fee.
6. Before you choose your credit card, take suggestions from your friends/ relatives.
7. Keep the receipts you get when you use your card; use these to check your bill when it is mailed to you.
8. Keep your card and your 16 digit credit card number confidential.
9. If you have more than one, carry only those that you think you will need when you leave the house.
10. Look out for cards that give you the highest free credit period.

Married? 7 money tips you must know

2007-07-03T17:11:00.000+05:30

Managing finances is furthest from the mind when wedding bells are tolling. But, once the honeymoon is over and couples start the business of day-to-day living, money begins to matter.
And if you aren't in step with your partner when it comes to spending, savings and investment, money can become a major marital issue in a marriage.
Here are seven tips on how couples can avoid arguments over money and plan for a secure future together.

1. Set common objectives
Once married, you have to plan a common future with your partner. Agree on the broad goals: buying a home, children's education and marriage, and retirement.
Once you've agreed upon this, you can work out the details -- how big a house you want, how big a loan you can afford, and how much to save for the downpayment.
You may not see eye to eye with your spouse on many of these details, but they can be easily ironed out in pursuit of common objectives.

2. Share information
In many cases, it's usually one partner who plays the primary role in managing finances.
Nadish Bhatia, group accounts director, Lintas, takes the investment decisions for his family because his wife Deepika, who works at Mumbai's National Centre for Performing Arts, "is just not inclined towards it and believes that I will do a better job of it."
Regardless of who takes the decisions, both partners must discuss all investment and spending decisions and be equally aware of the shape of their finances.
Take the case of Ujjal and Aparna Bhattacharya, who have been married for five years and work in software and production engineering respectively.
While it's Ujjal who takes most of the financial decisions, he keeps Aparna in the loop as he thinks it fosters mutual understanding.
Responsible spending and accountability is a must for married people. Tell your spouse when you're spending something. You don't need to show him/ her your purse before you step out, but returning home with an LCD TV or a diamond ring one fine day without informing your spouse is a no-no.

3. Bank on togetherness
Do you need to keep separate bank accounts or go in for a joint one?
Separate accounts are good for couples who want a degree of independence and not be in one another's way all the time, which can be a liberating experience. But a joint account has distinct advantages. For one, it creates a sense of togetherness and unity, which is vital for a successful marriage.
There are some practical advantages as well. For instance, both partners can operate it to spend on household expenses. And, since all the records are in one place, it's easier to keep tabs on spending.
It's also helpful when either partner is irresponsible with the finances. You can immediately find out if your spouse has spent huge amounts and curtail such spending. Most couples we spoke to swore by a joint account for household expenses.
Another option is to take the middle path, and have separate accounts and a joint one for some expenses. You and your partner can decide on how much each puts into the joint account, depending on how much you earn and your monthly expenses. This way, you have a degree of independence while retaining that sense of togetherness.
Suparn Verma, debutant director of the just-released film Ek Khilaadi Ek Haseena, shares the household expenses with his wife Radhika, an HR consultant. The two put in a predetermined amount into a joint account that's used to meet expenses. "One of us may put in smaller amounts sometimes, but that's never been an issue between us. It's a marriage after all, not some business relationship," says Verma.

4. Manage differences
Often partners may have different investing styles. While you may be a high-risk, high-return investor, preferring to invest in stocks, real estate, company deposits and the like, your partner could be conservative and prefer safer options like bank and post office deposits.
Devang Shah, Mumbai-based certified financial planner, points out the example of a client who favoured the stockmarket, while his wife was into art.
Says Ujjal: "I go for the stock market when I want to invest, while my wife likes to play safe with LIC policies and fixed deposits. Of late, however, she has taken an interest in stocks and asked me to invest some of her money in them."
"It's not like it's your money or my money. It's our money and we are working towards making it grow. Ideally, there should be openness between partners. When one partner comes up with a smart idea, the other should be open to consider it. There shouldn't be any ego hassle," says Bhatia. "If you are able to complement each other financially and can help your partner in turning his or her dream into reality, then it's simply great!" he adds.
If conflicts do arise, the smart thing to do is to keep separate investment kitties. Shah says men and women may have unique investing styles. "Women have a holistic approach to financial planning, while men are keen on making fast gains," he says.

5. Talk while you spend
While partners look at many factors to figure out whether they are compatible or not -- physically, temperamentally, mentally -- financial compatibility is the last thing on their minds. Aparna, for example, feels that Ujjal sometimes spends too much. She balances it by saving a bulk of her earnings in low-risk options.
Says Shah: "Both partners should understand the financial decisions taken by them as a couple, since their implications are felt by both." He encourages his clients to visit him along with their spouses. An open talk with the financial advisor, he says, will "spur healthy discussions at home."

6. Stick to a budget
There are many advantages of having a monthly budget. The most important is that you can keep expenses in check and find out when you are straying from your financial roadmap. It also helps you stick to your savings target, since your spending has already been predetermined.
Network engineer Yezdi Rabadi and his fashion designer wife Amrita meticulously maintain an account of their monthly expenses and stick to a budget. "We fix a ceiling for our expenses. Though we exceed the figure more often than not, it allows us some kind of control over our money," says Rabadi.

7. Plan your estate
Estate planning is important for couples, says Shah. Make sure you have a will. Most people avoid making a will or procrastinate over it, causing problems for their successors.
In addition, name your spouse as a nominee for every investment you make individually. "Put your will in place and decide on a power of attorney for your spouse in case of untimely death. Most importantly, plan all this when you are in the best state of mind".

Top 5 career mistakes

2007-07-03T17:05:00.000+05:30

1. Going by scores
This is the most common and biggest mistake one can make.
"Many factors determine one's choice of career -- aptitude, personality, interests and skills -- apart from scoring high marks in one subject or the other.
"You may score good marks in a particular subject like Math. But can you visualise yourself crunching numbers for the next 20 to 30 years?" asks Parveen Shaikh, head psychologist with YoungBuzz, a career counselling and manpower development organisation that runs a state-of-the-art career development centre in Mumbai.
This, coupled with a laidback 'let the results come' attitude, can lead to wrong career moves, says Shaikh. "You cannot let your one-time marks decide your whole future."

2. Succumbing to parental/ peer pressure
Your best friend has decided to study engineering and you blindly follow suit without taking into account your interest or aptitude for such a technical stream.
Or your parents are doctors so you want to become one as well.
But that is no reason to choose your career.
"These days, I think it is more often the herd instinct or peer pressure that influences one's choice of career rather than parental interference," observes Manju Malkhani, head of HR, HDFC.
She adds, "Most parents are liberal and educated enough to let their children choose their own area of interests.
"If you want an MBA in Finance or Personnel, what are you doing at an engineering college [assuming your friends are doing engineering]?"
Also, a wrong career move based on peer pressure may lead to disastrous results. "You are often stuck in a groove and stagnate for want of better options or motivation to change for the better,"

3. Lack of focus or back-up plans
You must have clarity of vision or a fixed goal when it comes to pursuing career plans, feels G Vedamani, CEO, Retailers' Association of India.
Vedamani has worked as a management expert in retail operations in corporate houses like Bata India, Shoppers' Stop and Crossroads among others, and has also taught at Welingkar's, Mumbai, and the Mudra Institute of Communication, Ahmedabad.
He bemoans the lack of well-planned career objectives and a back-up plan among today's youth.
"Simply put, one can singlemindedly aspire to pursue medicine if one so wishes. But if you don't get an admission into a course of your choice, you should have alternate plans and not drift aimlessly into something or the other.
"Planning -- be it for the future or a viable back-up plan -- is the key factor in planning your career in today's job market," he says

4. Resistance to change/ non-flexibility
This is a given: Change is a constant factor in your career; you must be prepared for it.
Subhrojit Mullik is a consultant for business development at BEA Systems. An IIM-Calcutta alumni, he has moved from consumer marketing to the financial sector to the IT sector to consultancy over the last 17 years.
He believes change is a key factor for progress and adds, "Several factors determine one's decision to change -- the need for a bigger creative/ challenging field, monetary incentives or the sheer necessity to survive."
When you plan to take the plunge, you must have the answers to the following questions:
1. Will this lead to a greater professional/ personal growth?
2. Am I good at learning new skills and delivering fast?
If you can sniff out the right opportunities and incentives within the prevailing conditions, you need not look beyond your immediate sector of specialisation.
Change need not be only lateral or only vertical. It can combine both, and more!

5. You need not work before you specialise
Gaining some work experience before enrolling in a specialised course might not be extremely popular in India, what with the current scramble to enroll in management, computer and other institutes catering to specialised streams.
But this is very much a global phenomenon.
"If you want to study management -- any aspect of it -- why not work in a company for a few years, gain practical knowledge and then learn to apply them in a better way?" asks Hima Bindu, manager-admissions at the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad.
"Management study focuses greatly on practical case studies. Mere theorising does not really help you get there."
Similarly, if you want to join a designing or a hotel management course, it would help if you have worked as an apprentice or an assistant at a good hotel/ restaturant/ fashion store before deciding to pursue a full-time career course in the same.

Video resumes: Make an impression!

2007-07-03T16:54:00.000+05:30

Video what?
Why would anyone ever want to send a video to a prospective employer? In the past, there may have been reasons why people did not send video resumes, but in an age where qualifications come by the dozen, the only way to grab attention is to employ a unique method of showcasing your skills.
Video resumes have been around for a while, but are only now gaining popularity. With the acceptance of the online medium, there are those radical professionals who have uploaded their resumes on various sites, many which are open to all, YouTube being one of them.

Why go video?
It's time to break tradition and change perceptions. I'm not saying that the immaculate white piece of paper, which summarises your life's achievements, should be thrown away. But wouldn't it make twice the impact if your resume were accompanied with a more personal showcase?
Video employs audio as well as the visual medium; which stimulates a greater interest in the viewer. And just by making the video, you have already conveyed your determination and effort level to an employer. This does not guarantee you a job, but it does say you will go that extra mile.
This is also a welcome change for HR departments. After reading repetitive text, sometimes when the summary of qualifications is presented in another manner it breaks the monotony. It gives the employer a chance to see, hear and have a greater experience of what to expect from you -- all before even meeting you. Monster.com (an online job site) has recognised the impact a video resume can have and provides its users with this convenience. So now, along with uploading your normal resume, you can upload your video resume.

Making your own video resume
Action speaks! And this is no rocket science. All you need is a good script (to make sure your video resume doesn't put them to sleep) and a smart editor (in case you want to make it a little film or an ad of yourself).
There are many ways of doing this. You can shoot it yourself, have friends help you or go to professionals if you see fit, but ideally it is best to try it yourself. More than anything, this will boost your confidence and prepare you for future interviews. Moreover, you can watch your body language and tweak it to convey and inspire confidence.
~ Step one: Draft a script, decide what you want to say and how you want to say it.~ Step two: Get your camera ready. Arrange for a handycam if you don't have one.~ Step three: Start shooting. You can take as many shots as you wish, if you plan to edit the video.~ Step four: Edit out the flaws and make your video perfect (or as close to it as you can get).~ Step five: Send it out or post it on the internet.
While shooting, look at the camera and do not let your vision drift. If needed, practice before the shoot. It is imperative that you get it right. The wrong words and dodgy body language will have a detrimental effect.
After all this effort, you will have learned a lot more about yourself -- you can view yourself as you would be viewed by your employers. So, modify your approach to what you think would be appreciated by a would-be employer.
Remember, keep your video resume as short as possible, preferably under two minutes. And if you can say everything in 30 seconds, that makes it even better. This is based on the fact that it takes about 30 seconds to peruse through a resume, and a video resume may not be too well received if it takes up extra time.

See more on video
Like all coins, this too has its flip side. With video resumes, one of the drawbacks is that it leaves room for bias, or can create the existence of one. But this is an insignificant issue. Bias, whether you use a video resume or a more conventional one, can creep in at any point.
There are those who have impressed employers and bagged their dream jobs. There are also those who have faltered, but don't let that hold you back. Video resumes are the future, just as e-mail succeeded the postal service and mobiles have revolutionised the communications world.
We have to constantly move forward, and in a world where the competition is constantly improvising, video resumes seem to be the logical evolution of the simple paper resume. The theme to your video could highlight the creativity inherent in every one of us. So, get those cameras rolling because there is a world of opportunity waiting for the picture-perfect employee

How to remotely connect through Program

2007-07-03T14:26:00.000+05:30

How to remotely connect through Program

string sCommand = System.Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("SystemRoot") + "\\system32\\mstsc.exe";
System.Diagnostics.Process.Start(sCommand, " /v:machinename /w:1024 /h:768");
System.Diagnostics.Process.Start( sCommand, " /v:machinename /w:1024 /h:768");

System.Diagnostics.Process.Start(@\\machinename\rdc\default.rdp);