Let us make the City Green !!

28th July 2009

Dear all,

The Isha Foundation is spearheading an ambitious campaign to plant and care for One Lakh trees in Chennai city before the end of 2009, with the active involvement of different members of the community.

The below-mentioned write-up from the Isha Foundation gives you more details.

This is our chance to help balance the Earth's environment in a small way. Let us make the best use of it!

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Project GreenHands – Green Your Own Street Campaign

This is an opportunity for every individual to actually do something significant to reverse the damage to the Earth’s environment. ‘Green Your Own Street’ is an ambitious tree planting campaign under Project GreenHands of Isha Foundation, to plant and care for One Lakh trees in Chennai by December 31, 2009, with the help of company employees & their families. This could also be targeted and done on a single day to create more awareness.

Objectives

1. To get all corporate employees and their families sensitised about the environment.

2. Greening Chennai in one shot by getting at least 1 lakh trees planted.

3. Get the whole population of Chennai sensitised by staging such a dramatic event.

Methodology

- Chiefs of companies in & around Chennai are approached to get their company enrolled in the campaign. It is important that the program is not just supported but even pushed strongly by the top management to ensure that employees take the necessary efforts to participate meaningfully.

- Each employee is sent information (through email) as to why every individual needs to act to save our environment by planting and nurturing at least one tree. The mail will also carry instructions on how to select a suitable planting site, how to plant and care for a tree.

- Just 20 minutes from each employee could green the entire city of Chennai. All he or she does is:

1. Walk along the road where they stay, to identify one suitable planting location in their own street or neighbourhood & provide this information to their company & Isha by filling in a form on-line.

2. Each employee would sponsor a seedling (@Rs.25) and ensure its planting in the identified location.

3. It would then be cared for either by the employee or one of his neighbours, who agrees to water the seedling regularly. The house or shop in front of the tree would be the best suited to plant and care for it.

4. If required, to ensure safety of the tree, the employee also needs to locate a sponsor for a tree guard, which may cost about Rs.750 to buy and install. Any bank or shop or office in the area could oblige and their name could be put on the tree guard. Most trees planted within Chennai, however, may not require a tree guard, as stray cows/ goats are no longer prevalent.

- Isha would provide the following support:

a. Consolidate the seedling requirements from various companies and obtain the statutory permissions wherever necessary from Chennai Corporation for planting in the identified sites

b. Raise seedlings in Isha’s nurseries in order to create the necessary varieties of seedlings at very low cost. Tree varieties suitable for Chennai would be grown which can be planted in narrow spaces such as compounds and street sides without damaging walls and which need very little water to grow.

c. Supply the required number of seedlings to the employees at their workplace at cost (Rs. 20 per seedling + transport, totalling about Rs. 25 per seedling).

d. Organise for getting tree guards made and transported to the employee’s workplace. However these would be paid for by the employees or the sponsors identified by them.

- This whole event would need to be given wide visibility to spread this awareness to the entire population of Chennai and create a Chennai that remains green forever.

Timelines: To ensure planting in December, 09, the nursery has to be started by end-August. So the enrolment of companies needs to happen by mid-August and registration of employees by end-August.

Contact: To enlist your company, pls contact Mr. Vinod Hari at hari_vinod@hotmail.com or +91 98410 48949.

The Life Saving Question

Young King Arthur was ambushed and imprisoned by the monarch of a neighboring kingdom. The monarch could have killed him but was moved by Arthur's youth and ideals. So, the monarch offered him his freedom, as long as he could answer a very difficult question. Arthur would have a year to figure out the answer and, if after a year, he still had no answer, he would be put to death.

The question was: "What do women really want?"

Such a question would perplex even the most knowledgeable man, and to young Arthur, it seemed an impossible query. But, since it was better than death, he accepted the monarch's proposition to have an answer by year's end.

He returned to his kingdom and began to poll everyone: the princess, the priests, the wise men, and even the court jester. He spoke with everyone, but no one could give him a satisfactory answer.

Many people advised him to consult the old witch, for only she would have the answer. But the price would be high as the witch was famous throughout the kingdom for the exorbitant prices she charged.

The last day of the year arrived and Arthur had no choice but to talk to the witch. She agreed to answer the question, but he would have to agree to her price first.. The old witch wanted to marry Sir Lancelot, the most noble of the Knights of the Round Table, and Arthur's closest friend!

Young Arthur was horrified. She was hunchbacked and hideous, had only one tooth, smelled like sewage, made obscene noises, etc. He had never encountered such a repugnant creature in all his life. He refused to force his friend to marry her and endure such a terrible burden, but Lancelot, learning of the proposal, spoke with Arthur. He said nothing was too big a sacrifice compared to Arthur's life and the preservation of the Round Table.

Hence, a wedding was proclaimed and the witch answered Arthur's question thus: "What a woman really wants," she said, "is to be in charge of her own life." Everyone in the kingdom instantly knew that the witch had uttered a great truth and that Arthur's life would be spared.

And so it was, the neighboring monarch granted Arthur his freedom and Lancelot and the witch had a wonderful wedding.

The honeymoon hour approached and Lancelot, steeling himself for a horrific experience, entered the bedroom. But, what a sight awaited him. The most beautiful woman he had ever seen, lay before him on the bed. The astounded Lancelot asked what had happened. The beauty replied that since he had been so kind to her when she appeared as a witch, she would henceforth be her horrible deformed self only half the time and the beautiful maiden the other half.

"Which would you prefer? she asked him. "Beautiful during the day or at night?"

Lancelot pondered the predicament. During the day he could have a beautiful woman to show off to his friends, but at night, in the privacy of his castle, an old witch! Or, would he prefer having a hideous witch during the day, but by night a beautiful woman for him to enjoy wondrous, intimate moments with?

(If you are a man reading this ...) What would YOUR choice be?

(If you are a woman reading this ..) What would YOUR MAN'S choice be?

What Lancelot chose is below.

BUT ... make YOUR choice before you see below. OKAY?

Noble Lancelot, knowing the answer the witch gave Arthur to his question, said that he would let HER to make the choice herself.

Upon hearing this, she announced that she would be beautiful all the time because he had respected her enough to let her be in charge of her own life.

My speech about impact of Union Budget (2009-10) on Personal Finance:

Kizhakku Pathipagam, in association with Fundsindia.com, conducts a weekly workshop on Personal Finance. Topic for the last session was about impact of Union Budget on Personal Finance.

Earlier, when I read the news on the blog of Mr. Badri Seshadri (founder of Kizhakku Pathipagam), I was thinking of attending the session as a participant (if time permits).

But to my surprise, I was honoured to receive an invitation from him to deliver a speech to the participants and to have an inter-active session for clarifying their doubts.

Immediately after he blogged announcing my speech for the forthcoming session, I started receiving congrats-calls from many readers whom we both know in common.

I should mention that the program went really fine and the inter-active session was very energetic. Pls check Badri's after-session blog post here.

Here’s the link where you could find the audio file of entire recording. Pls listen the audio link and correct me if I was wrong on any of the points discussed.

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN THE AUDIO FILE

Mr. Badri Seshadri complemented me a book which is the tamil version (published by Kizhakku Pathipagam) of a popular book written by Jeffrey Archer titled "Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less".

Believe what you feel

On this day, Morrie says that he has an exercise for us to try. We are to stand, facing away from our classmates, and fall backward, relying on another student to catch us.

Most of us are uncomfortable with this, and we cannot let go for more than a few inches before stopping ourselves. We laugh in embarrassment.

Finally, one student, a thin, quiet, dark-haired girl whom I notice almost always wears bulky, white fisherman sweaters, crosses her arms over her chest, closes her eyes, leans back, and does not flinch.

For a moment, I am sure she is going to thump on the floor. At the last instant, her assigned partner grabs her head and shoulders and pull her up harshly.

“Whoa!” several students yell. Some clap. Morrie finally smiles.

“You see”, he says to the girl, “you closed your eye, and that was the difference.

Sometimes you cannot believe what you see; you have to believe what you feel.

And if you are ever going to have other people trust you, you must feel that you can trust them too – even when you're in the dark, even when you're falling".

The Mouse Trap :

A mouse looked through the crack in the wall to see the farmer and his wife open a package. "What food might this contain?" the mouse wondered. He was devastated to discover it was a mousetrap.

Retreating to the farmyard, the mouse proclaimed the warning: "There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!"

The chicken clucked and scratched, raised her head and said "Mr.Mouse, I can tell this is a grave concern to you, but it is of no consequence to me. I cannot be bothered by it."

The mouse turned to the pig and told him "There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!" The pig sympathized, but said "I am so very sorry, Mr.Mouse, but there is nothing I can do about it but pray. Be assured you are in my prayers."

The mouse turned to the cow and said "There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!" The cow said "Wow, Mr. Mouse. I'm sorry for you, but it's no skin off my nose."

So, the mouse returned to the house, head down and dejected, to face the farmer's mousetrap alone.

That very night a sound was heard throughout the house - like the sound of a mousetrap catching its prey. The farmer's wife rushed to see what was caught. In the darkness, she did not see it was a venomous snake whose tail the trap had caught. The snake bit the farmer's wife. The farmer rushed her to the hospital and she returned home with a fever.

Everyone knows you treat a fever with fresh chicken soup, so the farmer took his hatchet to the farmyard for the soup's main ingredient. But his wife's sickness continued, so friends and neighbors came to sit with her around the clock.

To feed them, the farmer butchered the pig. The farmer's wife did not get well; she died. So many people came for her funeral; the farmer had the cow slaughtered to provide enough meat for all of them.

The mouse looked upon it all from his crack in the wall with great sadness. So, the next time you hear someone is facing a problem and think it doesn't concern you, remember: when one of us is threatened, we are all at risk. We are all involved in this journey called life. We must keep an eye out for one another and make an extra effort to encourage one another. Each of us is a vital thread in another person's tapestry.

Life Equations

OFFICE ARITHMETIC
Smart boss + smart employee = profit
Smart boss + dumb employee = production
Dumb boss + smart employee = promotion
Dumb boss + dumb employee = overtime

SHOPPING MATHS
A man will pay $2 for a $1 item he needs.
A woman will pay $1 for a $2 item that she doesn't need.

GENERAL EQUATIONS & STATISTICS
A woman worries about the future until she gets a husband.
A man never worries about the future until he gets a wife.
A successful man is one who makes more money than his wife can spend.
A successful woman is one who can find such a man.

ROMANCE MATHEMATICS
Smart man + smart woman = romance
Smart man + dumb woman = affair
Dumb man + smart woman = marriage
Dumb man + dumb woman = pregnancy

HAPPINESS
To be happy with a man, you must understand him a lot and love him a little.
To be happy with a woman, you must love her a lot and not try to understand her at all.

LONGEVITY
Married men live longer than single men do, but married men are a lot more willing to die.

PROPENSITY TO CHANGE
A woman marries a man expecting he will change, but he doesn't.
A man marries a woman expecting that she won't change, and she does.

DISCUSSION TECHNIQUE
A woman has the last word in any argument.
Anything a man says after that is the beginning of a new argument.

HOW TO STOP PEOPLE FROM BUGGING YOU ABOUT GETTING MARRIED
Old aunts used to come up to me at weddings, poking me in the ribs and cackling, telling me, "You're next. “They stopped after I started doing the same thing to them at funerals.

Budget Implications Analysed (FY 2009-10)

This year's union budget FY 2009-10 (AY10-11) did not bring many expected reliefs and cheers for the common taxpayers and has provided some marginal reliefs. Here is a brief perspective of various income tax changes in budget:

Basic Exemption Limit:

• Rs.2.40lacs for Senior citizens (earlier Rs.2.25 lacs). This will provide a tax relief of about Rs.1545.
• Rs.1.90lacs for Women/ Females (earlier Rs.1.80lacs). This will provide a tax relief of about Rs.1030.
• Rs.1.60lacs for All other category of Individual tax payers (earlier Rs.1.50lacs). This will provide a tax relief of about Rs.1030.

Surcharge Scrapped:

• Surcharge on Income tax has been scrapped. Individuals having taxable invomce over Rs.10 lacs will benefit more from this as their tax incidence at the highest slab has declined to 30.09% from 33.99% (savings of about 3.9%)

FBT Scrapped (Plus & Minus):

• FBT has been scrapped for companies. This could result in tax on many employee benefit perks to be shifted to employees. The list of perks is yet to be released, but major perks affected could be ESOP (employee stock options) and contributions to super-annuation funds etc.

Deductions:

• Deductions u/s 80DD in respect of maintenance, including medical treatment, of a dependent who is a person with severe disability has been increased to Rs.1 lac from the present limit of Rs.75,000
• Deductions u/s 80E in respect of interest on loans taken for pursuing higher education in specified fields of study has been extended to cover all fields of study, including vocational studies, pursued after completion of schooling

Gift Income:

• Non-cash gifts will be taxed. As per the new proposal, any non cash gift (e.g. property, shares and securities, jewellery, archeological collections, paintings and gold etc.) received from a non-relative where the value is in excess of Rs 50,000 in a particular year will be considered as income in the hands of the recipient. However, the proposal provides for some exclusion, which includes receipts on occasion of a marriage or by will or inheritance or from certain specified authorities (educational or medical institutions among others)

Other Important Highlights:

• If you don’t have a permanent account number (PAN), your tax deducted at source (TDS) could be higher. The penal rate will be a minimum 20%.
• Saral-2 is likely to re-introduced soon

Budget expectations

As the countdown commences for the presentation of the Union Budget, the first of the reelected United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government on 6th July 2009, the stock market expectations remain high. The capital market is of the view that the government can stimulate the economy, reinforce fiscal prudence and yet enhance social welfare programmes. We are less optimistic and though we believe the government would announce some stimulus packages for the economy, fiscal deficit constraints would limit the efficacy of such proposals.

On excise duty

In order to bring about a spurt in the economy, the government brought down the general excise duty rate from 14% to 8% since December 2008 through couple of stimulus packages. Post excise duty cut the two wheeler segment and compact car segment has seen revival in sales volume. We expect the government would not like to tinker with sales volume recovery in these segments and therefore maintain "status quo" on the existing excise duty rates. However if the government decides otherwise and plans for partial/complete roll-back on the excise cuts, in that case it would be negative for the two wheeler and small car players.

The large car manufacturers are hoping for lowering down of excise duty in line with excise duty rates on small cars. We do not expect the excise duty rates on large cars would be changed because the customers of such cars are less sensitive to price changes and therefore bringing down the excise duty rate may not necessarily increase demand for large cars.

On depreciation

Due to slowdown in the economy, the commercial vehicles sector was the worst hit during FY09. In order to provide a demand push, the government through its second stimulus package announced accelerated depreciationof 50% on commercial vehicles purchased between Januray-March2009. Players in CV segments are expecting that the accelerated depreciation benefit be extended beyond 31st March2009. Due to continuing economic slowdown the CV sales continue to remain under pressure, and we therefore expect that the benefit of accelerated depreciation would be extended beyond 31st March2009.

Overall, we believe that the budget would be neutral for the auto sector as we do not foresee any direct measures (except for CV) would be announced in the budget that benefits the auto sector. Indirectly, the sector can benefitfrom additional farm loan waiver and improved financing scenario.

Banking:

Increase in foreign direct investments in insurance sector from present 26% to 49%:

We expect the Finance Minister to increase FDI limit in domestic insurance sector to 49% to facilitate much needed fund infusion for future growth.

Expectation of 50-75 bps reduction in government small saving interest rates:

We expect the FM to reduce small saving interest rates to provide room to commercial banks to further cut their deposit and lending rates.

Permission to infrastructure sector lenders to issue tax free bonds:

We expect FM to permit infrastructure lenders likes (PFC, IDFC etc.) to issue tax free bonds to increase their resources base; if permitted infrastructure lenders would benefit but the commercial banks would be at slight disadvantage.

Increase in limit of tax deduction on interest payment on housing loans:

We expect that the budget may propose to increase limit of tax deduction on interest payment on housing loans from present level of Rs 0.15 mn to make housing loans more attractive.

Overall, we expect that the budget to be positive for the banking industry at large. Considering the sharp run-up in stock prices, we are negatively biased on Indian banking sector.

Cement:

Restoration of excise duty from current 8% to 12%

Government has reduced the excise duty from 12% to 8% during the year to stimulate the cement demand. But cement industry has increased the cement price driven by strong demand. We believe the excise duty would be restored at 12% which has negative impact for the industry.

Abatement on excise duty

Currently excise duty on cement is based on MRP and industry gets abatement whenever excise duty is based on MRP. However we don't expect the abatement on excise duty would be given in this budget.

Abolition of import duty on pet-coke and coal

Coal is the major fuel for the production of cement. Currently there is 5% import duty on coal and pet coke. We expect the import duty on pet coke would be abolished from 5% to nil. The abolition of import duty would reduce the operational cost for the cement industry.

Subsidy on freight cost on export of cement and clinker

Most plants are in the hinterland which makes the export unviable due to higher freight cost. We believe the industry would be in capacity surplus in H2FY10. Hence the government may provide the freight subsidy to make export viable.

We expect primarily the budget would be negative for the sector. However indirectly it would benefit through increase in allocation for various infrastructure schemes.

Construction:

Increased allocation under various infrastructures schemes:

Clarification on section 80IA benefit

There is varying interpretation of section 80IA to claim the benefit (Currently allowed to developers of project). We believe section 80IA benefit would be clarified and construction companies would be included under the purview.

Re-introduction of tax benefit u/s 10 (23G)

The income of the companies engaged in infrastructure projects by way of debt or equity was exempted from tax under Section 10(23G) which was removed. We believe the exemption would be re-introduced which will bring down the interest cost of the funds for the infrastructure companies as the lending institutions may pass on the benefit or otherwise improve the interest in funding for infra projects.

We expect the budget to be positive for the sector.

Fertiliser:

1. The Government may announce incentives for green field expansion for urea capacities.
2. The government may also announce assured feedstock supply and minimum assured returns on new urea capacities.
3. Currently, the government disburse subsidy in cash as well as in bonds. In budget 2009-10, the Government may introduce full cash payment of subsidies.

We expect the budget to be Positive for the sector.

Infrastructure:

Higher budgetary allocation in Infrastructure development schemes

Road development to get a new face with higher allocation

Steps to ease out infrastructure funding

Setup monitoring units

Social Infrastructure focus to continue

Multiplex:

Rationalization of Entertainment Tax

Removal of service tax on rentals paid on immovable property

Real Estate:

Resume tax exemption under section 80 IB (10) to promote mass housing

Increase the tenure of tax holiday to hotels under section 80ID

Increase the exemption limit of home loan interest payable under section 24 (b)

This section deals with exemption on interest payable by home loan buyers for self-occupied houses. Currently, the exemption stands to the extent of Rs 150,000. We expect that the government could extend this to at least Rs 300,000. This will not only help the middle class home buyers in payment of their existing home loans but also encourage first time home buyers.

Service tax provisions relating to real estate

It has been clarified that no service tax should be levied in case pre-construction sale of residential complex where the seller and the buyer enter into an 'agreement to sell'. We expect that a similar clarification can be issued for pre-construction sale of commercial complexes as well.

Lower and uniform stamp duty rates