Category: Information

Incredible India


Points to Ponder in a country where rich become rich and  poor becomes poorer;
  • We live in a nation where Rice is Rs.40/- per kg and Sim Card is free.
  • Pizza reaches home faster than Ambulance and Police.
  • Car loan @ 5% but education loan @ 12%.
  • Students with 45% get in elite institutions thru quota system and those with 90% get out because of merit.
  • Where a millionaire can buy a cricket team instead of donating the money to any charity. 2 IPL teams are auctioned at 3300 crores and we are still a poor country where people starve for 2 square meals per day.
  • Where the footwear, we wear, are sold in AC showrooms, but vegetables, that we eat, are sold on the footpath.
  • Where everybody wants to be famous but nobody wants to follow the path to be famous.
  • Assembly complex buildings are getting ready within one year while public transport bridges alone take several years to be completed.
  • Where we make lemon juices with artificial flavors and dish wash liquids with real lemon. Think about it!

Support Anna Hazare


“The world suffers a lot. Not because of the violence of bad people, But because of the silence of good people!”- Napoleon

There is no point in just saying “I Love my India” , raise your voice for right demands.

Anna Hazare fasts unto death starting 5th April.
He is demanding enactment of a strong anti-corruption law – Jan Lokpal
Bill – to ensure swiftness and certainty of punishment to the corrupt.
Will his fast have any impact on the deaf  Government of India?

Yes, it certainly would. Because, last time when Anna sat on fast –

• 6 corrupt ministers in Maharashtra had to resign
• 400 corrupt officers were dismissed from job
• 2002 – Maharashtra RTI Act was passed
• 2006 – Central Government withdrew its proposal to amend Central RTI Act

Now Anna is fasting to demand Jan Lokpal Bill.
JAN LOKPAL BILL will act as deterrent and instill fear in the minds of
corrupt people.

What can you do?

“Let the whole nation pray for a corruption free India. Collective prayers are very powerful. Let the whole nation pray against
corruption,” appeals Anna Hazare.

“Lets reach Jantar Mantar in thousands, in lakhs from 5th April. I will be there – day and night – with Anna. We will all sleep on the roads of Jantar Mantar. Anna’s fast can change India’s history. Can’t you take a few days off from your work and be a part of it?” Arvind Kejriwal

“Send us a missed call at 02261550789 to stay updated about this movement. Forward this mail to everyone,”
– Kiran Bedi

Across India, join Sri Sri Ravishankar, Swami Agnivesh, Arch Bishop of Delhi Vincent Concessao, Mahmood A Madani, Kiran Bedi, J M Lyngdoh, Shanti Bhushan, Prashant Bhushan, Arvind Kejriwal, Mufti Shamoom Qasmi, Mallika Sarabhai, Arun Bhatia, Sunita Godara, Swami Ramdev, All India Bank Employees Federation, PAN IIT Alumni Association, Common
Cause, Foundation for Restoration of National Values and many other prominent organizations and leaders, as India comes out on the streets!

200+ CITIES WILL RALLY BEHIND ANNA!

Salient features of Jan Lokpal Bill

Drafted by Justice Santosh Hegde, Prashant Bhushan and Arvind Kejriwal, this Bill has been refined on the basis of feedback received from public on website and after series of public consultations. It has also been vetted by and is supported by Shanti Bhushan, J M Lyngdoh, Kiran Bedi, Anna Hazare etc. It was sent to the PM and all
CMs on 1st December.

1. An institution called LOKPAL at the centre and LOKAYUKTA in each state will be set up

2. Like Supreme Court and Election Commission, they will be completely independent of the governments. No minister or bureaucrat will be able to influence their investigations.

3. Cases against corrupt people will not linger on for years anymore: Investigations in any case will have to be completed in one year. Trial should be completed in next one year so that the corrupt politician, officer or judge is sent to jail within two years.

4. The loss that a corrupt person caused to the government will be recovered at the time of conviction.

5. How will it help a common citizen: If any work of any citizen is not done in prescribed time in any government office, Lokpal will impose financial penalty on guilty officers, which will be given as compensation to the complainant.

6. So, you could approach Lokpal if your ration card or passport or voter card is not being made or if police is not registering your case or any other work is not being done in prescribed time. Lokpal will have to get it done in a month’s time. You could also report any case of corruption to Lokpal like ration being siphoned off, poor quality roads been constructed or panchayat funds being siphoned off. Lokpal will have to complete its investigations in a year, trial will be over in next one year and the guilty will go to jail within two years.

7. But won’t the government appoint corrupt and weak people as Lokpal members? That won’t be possible because its members will be selected by judges, citizens and constitutional authorities and not by politicians, through a completely transparent and participatory process.

8. What if some officer in Lokpal becomes corrupt? The entire functioning of Lokpal/ Lokayukta will be completely transparent. Any complaint against any officer of Lokpal shall be investigated and the officer dismissed within two months.

9. What will happen to existing anti-corruption agencies? CVC, departmental vigilance and anti-corruption branch of CBI will be
merged into Lokpal. Lokpal will have complete powers and machinery to independently investigate and prosecute any officer, judge or politician.

PLS CIRCULATE THIS MAIL WIDELY

(This movement is neither affiliated nor aligned to any political party)

India Against Corruption: A-119, Kaushambi, Ghaziabad, UP | 09718500606

JAI HIND

Program on Entrepreneurship


XIME, one of the premier Business Schools in Bangalore holding AICTE’s top accreditation and Business India’s A++ rating in its latest survey, is pleased to announce its 11th training programme in Entrepreneurship Development from April 04 to 30, 2011.

This programme is backed by XIME’s considerable wealth of experience in the teaching of Entrepreneurship over the years by some of XIME’s faculty and also consultants to SMEs.. It will be run at the attractive XIME campus in the heart of the Electronics City of Bangalore.

The diverse aspects of the programme will be covered through sessions at XIME for four weeks followed by a week of Business plan preparation and mentoring.

The broad spectrum of subjects to be covered in the first four weeks will include computer training, followed by lectures on various topics in Entrepreneurship, functional areas of Business, and Key Managerial Skills. The lectures will be interactive in nature and designed to ensure active participation by the trainees. Considerable emphasis will be given on opportunity identification and business plan preparation.

1. Entrepreneurship Competencies
2. I.T Tools & Solutions in Small Business Management
3. Business Opportunity Identification
4. Development of Detailed Project Report
5. Complimentary Skills Development
6. Key functional areas
7. Liaisoning with Promotional Agencies
8. Mentor Programme

There will be a number of experience sharing sessions on successes and failures in small enterprise management.
Interested people can contact Mr.Venkatesh (09845020538 or venkat@xime.org).  For more details plz visit:  http://www.xime.org/edp.asp

Facebook Lures & Punishes


I’ve been barred from adding friends for 5 times… So, here is how you are punished;

First Time – 1 day Ban
Second Time – 4 days Ban
Third Time – 8 Days Ban
Fourth Time – 16 days Ban
Fifth Time – 30 days Ban

Ban for sending friend request to unknown people… But every-time when I add a friend I get a list of suggestions who are my friends friend and more importantly they list only Girl Friends in the suggestion box… I cant understand what sort of a trap it is… If I get banned for next time I think it should be for 60 days :)…

Look at the screenshot which lists only girls are recommendations / suggestions;

Rediff.com posts news the previous day


Now it is 2 PM Valentines day. Rediff’s WAP site started posting tomorrow’s news today itself ;)…

Here is a ScreenShot taken from my BlackBerry…

Corruption in India


Corruption in India for last 2 decades if around 80 Lakh Crore… Though the list includes Private scams too we have to blame the government for the lapses to control those scams… Here is the list of scams…

  • 2G spectrum scam: Rs 176,000 crore
  • Ramalinga Raju: Rs 8,000 crore
  • Harshad Mehta: Rs 5,000 crore
  • Hassan Ali Khan: Rs 39,120 crore
  • Money stashed away in Swiss banks: Rs 21 lakh crore
  • Teak plantation swindle Rs 8,000 crore
  • Ketan Parekh: Rs 1,000 crore
  • Fertiliser import scam Rs 1,300 crore
  • Sugar import scam of 1994: Rs 650 crore
  • Meghalaya Forest scam of 1995: Rs 300 crore
  • Urea scam of 1996: Rs 133 crore
  • Bihar fodder scam of 1996: Rs 950 crore
  • Scorpene submarine scam Rs 18,978 crore
  • Army ration pilferage scam of 2008 Rs 5,000 crore
  • Bihar land scandal in 1997: Rs 400 crore
  • Bihar flood relief scam of 2005: Rs 17 crore
  • Sukh Ram telecom scam in 1997: Rs 1,500 crore
  • C R Bhansali: Rs 1,200 crore
  • SNC Lavalin power project scam in 1997: Rs 374 crore
  • IPO scam: Rs 1,000 crore estimated
  • Abdul Karim Telgi: Rs 500 crore
  • The Jharkhand medical equipment scam Rs 130 crore
  • Punjab’s City Centre project scam in 2006: Rs 1,500 crore
  • Taj Corridor scam of 2006: Rs 175 crore
  • State Bank of Saurashtra scam in 2008: Rs 95 crore
  • Rice export scam of 2009: Rs 2,500 crore
  • Orissa mine scam in 2009: Rs 7,000 crore
  • Madhu Koda mining scam of 2009: Rs 4,000 crore
  • Preferential allotment scam of 1995: Rs 5,000 crore
  • Yugoslav Dinar scam of 1995: Rs 400 crore
  • Cobbler scam: Rs 1,000 crore
  • Dinesh Dalmia: Rs 595 crore
  • Virendra Rastogi: Rs 43 crore
  • The UTI scam: Rs 32 crore
  • Uday Goyal: Rs 210 crore
  • Sanjay Agarwal: Rs 600 crore

Lemon Kills Cancer Cells


This is the latest in medicine, effective for cancer!

Lemon (Citrus) is a miraculous product to kill cancer cells. It is 10,000 times stronger than chemotherapy.

Why do we not know about that?
Because there are laboratories interested in making a synthetic version that will bring them huge profits. You can now help a friend in need by letting him/her know that lemon juice is beneficial in preventing the disease. Its taste is pleasant and it does not produce the horrific effects of chemotherapy.

How many people will die while this closely guarded secret is kept, so as not to jeopardize the beneficial multimillionaires large corporations?
As you know, the lemon tree is known for its varieties of lemons and limes. You can eat the fruit in different ways: you can eat the pulp, juice press, prepare drinks, sorbets, pastries, etc.

It is credited with many virtues, but the most interesting is the effect it produces on cysts and tumors. This plant is a proven remedy against cancers of all types. Some say it is very useful in all variants of cancer. It is considered also as an anti microbial spectrum against bacterial infections and fungi, effective against internal parasites and worms, it regulates blood pressure which is too high and an antidepressant, combats stress and nervous disorders.

The source of this information is fascinating: it comes from one of the largest drug manufacturers in the world, says that after more than 20 laboratory tests since 1970, the extracts revealed that: It destroys the malignant cells in 12 cancers, including colon, breast, prostate, lung and pancreas.

The compounds of this tree showed 10,000 times better than the product Adriamycin, a drug normally used chemotherapeutic in the world, slowing the growth of cancer cells. And what is even more astonishing: this type of therapy with lemon extract only destroys malignant cancer cells and it does not affect healthy cells.

Fallen for Deals Mania


Groupon has changed the way we shop on the net and it has created a platform which benefits the vendor & the buyer… For thouse who have no idea about the concept here is how it works;

Groupon.com is a site where in a vendor can display his product or service for a massive discount on a commitment of getting specific number of purchase.

Example if I’m a Vendor selling Jeans… I post a discount of X percentage (most cases it is more than 80%… I commit for that percentage of discount if 100 people commit to buy the product… Deal succeeds if number of people reach 100 else it gets cancelled…

Also there are some vendors who give massive discounts even if there is no minimum guarantee of purchase…

Since I run a Web Development company I got lots of request to develop a site similar to Groupon… I’ve been waiting for a long time to get something similar in India… Also I was following couple of sites based on Groupon concept… For last two months this wave has caught up in India… Following are the sites which I’m aware of;

  • SnapDeal.Com
  • DealIvore.Com
  • Sosasta.Com

Latest sensation among those 3 sites is Sosasta.Com which is acquired by Groupon.com for $10 million… But SnapDeal.Com must be the market leader because he updates atleast 2 new deals per day for almost all major cities… This month I’ve purchased 4 deals & I’m happy about the the deal I got from Big Brands…

  • Got a deal for Rs.299 for a Ayurvedic Massage from Apollo Ayurvedic Centre which was worth Rs.1650 from SnapDeal.Com…
  • Got a deal for Rs.149 for Salsa Classes for a month worth Rs.750 from SnapDeal.Com…
  • Got a deal for Rs.289 for 8 Classes to learn Hindi worth Rs.750 from SnapDeal.Com…
  • Got a deal for Rs.66 for Teeth Scaling & General Dental Checkup worth Rs.650 at Vasan Dental Care from DealIvore.Com…

I’m very much thrilled for getting such massive discounts and I’m expecting more such offers in days to come…

How a credit card works when you shop??


Priya: I want to buy a Sony digital camera costing Rs.20,000, but I don?t have any cash right now.

Raj: Why don?t you use your ICICI Bank credit card? Never heard them say ? Hum Hain Na ??

Priya: I am quite skeptic about using these cards. I pay using the card, get a bill after 30 days and pay after another 20 days. This is a maximum of 50 days interest free loan. Why does any bank do it?

If I borrow Rs.20,000 on personal loan at 11%.
Interest to be paid for 50 days = Rs. 20,000 * 11% * (50/365) = Rs. 301.40.

Here the bank is giving me a loan without interest when I use the credit card. Something is wrong somewhere!

Raj: Well? let me tell you how it works when you use your card to pay for the camera.

  • You present your ICICI Bank credit card ? a VISA card.
  • Sony World swipes your card on a machine provided by Citibank. Lets call Citibank ? the acquirer bank and the process of Sony World swiping the card on that machine ? requesting authorization .
  • Citibank communicates with the card issuer ? ICICI Bank through VISA Network to check if the card is valid and has the required credit limit.
  • ICICI Bank reviews and approves / declines which is communicated back to Sony World.
  • You sign a receipt called Sales Draft given by Citibank. This is the obligation on your part to pay the money to ICICI Bank. Data on this receipt can be captured electronically and transmitted.

At the end of day or at the end of some period Sony World chooses:

  • Sony World submits the receipt you signed to Citibank who pays Sony World the money. Sony World pays Citibank a fee called Merchant Discount . Let us say this is 6% of the sale value = 6% * 20,000 = Rs. 1200
  • Citibank sends the receipt electronically to a Visa data center which in turn sends it to ICICI Bank.
  • ICICI Bank transfers the money to a settlement bank which in turn transfers the funds to Citibank.
  • Citibank pays ICICI Bank an Interchange Fee of 4% of the;
    • sale value = 4% * 20,000 = Rs. 800
  • 20 to 50 days later ICICI Bank gets the money from you ? and you don?t pay the interest!!

Priya: Interesting! So Sony World pays more than the interest that I should have paid for the loan that I take. I, as a cardholder have the following benefits

  1. Convenience of not having to carry cash.
  2. Credit availability ? free of interest.

However what benefits does Sony World get for paying so much money?
Isn’t it more profitable for them to take cash?
They can save as much as Rs.1200.

Raj: Certainly. Some retail outlets offer you discounts if you pay by cash, don’t they?

However when you don?t count the money that you are spending, you tend to buy more! Cards encourage this ?
called impulse purchase .

If you did not have access to credit, you would not have bought the camera this month ? or may be not any time soon either. By accepting cards, the merchant is actually extending you credit at the risk of the card issuer. He pays money to the banks to carry that risk.

Priya: So ICICI Bank uses this money to pay back to us when they announce 5% cash back. They insist that the Sales draft that I sign at the retailer should also be from ICICI Bank. This means they are saving on the Interchange Fee and also pay me a part of the Merchant Discount that they get.

Raj: Exactly! If you have noticed, ICICI Bank gives you the cash back in the next credit card statement. They keep the ?cash back? money for a maximum of 60 days before passing on a part to you. This accrues them interest too.

Say if ICICI Bank earns an interest of 6% per annum for the cash they carry ?

they get Rs.1000 * 6% * (60/365) = Rs. 10

That is not huge, but money nevertheless. And when you consider that almost everyone in this city shops with a credit card these days, it is a big sum.

Priya: And that also explains why banks tie up with petrol pumps? like ICICI Bank has tied up with HPCL and I could re-fuel there without having to pay the fuel surcharge of 2.5%. The card issuer and the acquiring bank is the same and that saves interchange fees.

Raj: Good! You seem to have figured out how it all works! Let me summarize:

[All the numbers used to explain concepts in this article must be treated only as an example. Merchant Discounts may vary from bank to bank. Interchange Fee is regulated by VISA and MasterCard]