FACTS TO MAKE EVERY INDIAN PROUD:
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Q. Who is the co-founder of Sun Microsystems?
A. Vinod Khosla
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Q. Who is the creator of Pentium chip (needs no introduction as 90% of the today's computers run on it)?
A. Vinod Dahm
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Q. Who is the third richest man on the world?
A. According to the latest report on Fortune Magazine, it is Lakshmi Mittal.
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Q. Who is the founder and creator of Hotmail (Hotmail is world's No.1 web based email program)?
A. Sabeer Bhatia
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Q. Who is the president of AT & T-Bell Labs (AT & T-Bell Labs is the creator of program languages such as C, C++, Unix to name a few)?
A. Arun Netravalli
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Q. Who is the GM of Hewlett Packard?
A. Rajiv Gupta
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Q. Who is the new MTD (Microsoft Testing Director) of Windows 2000, responsible to iron out all initial problems?
A. Sanjay Tejwrika
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Q. Who are the Chief Executives of CitiBank, Mckensey & Stanchart?
A. Victor Menezes, Rajat Gupta, and Rana Talwar.
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Q. We Indians are the wealthiest among all ethnic groups in America, even faring better than the whites and the natives.
There are 3.22 millions of Indians in USA (1.5% of population) . YET,
38% of doctors in USA are Indians.
12% scientists in USA are Indians.
36% of NASA scientists are Indians.
34% of Microsoft employees are Indians.
28% of IBM employees are Indians.
17% of INTEL scientists are Indians.
13% of XEROX employees are Indians.
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Some of the following facts may be known to you. These facts were recently published in a German magazine, which deals with WORLD HISTORY FACTS ABOUT INDIA.
1. India never invaded any country in her last 1000 years of history.
2. India invented the Number system. Zero was invented by Aryabhatta.
3. The world's first University was established in. M Takshila in 700BCore than 10,500 students from all over the world studied more than 60 subjects. The University of Nalanda built in the 4th century BC was one of the greatest achievements of ancient India in the field of education.
4. According to the Forbes magazine, Sanskrit is the most suitable language for computer software.
5. Ayurveda is the earliest school of medicine known to humans.
6. Although western media portray modern images of India as poverty striken and underdeveloped through political corruption, India was once the richest empire on earth.
7. The art of navigation was born in the river Sindh 5000 years ago. The very word "Navigation" is derived from the Sanskrit word NAVGATIH.
8. The value of pi was first calculated by Budhayana, and he explained the concept of what is now known as the Pythagorean Theorem. British scholars have last year (1999) officially published that Budhayan's works dates to the 6 th Century which is long before the European mathematicians.
9. Algebra, trigonometry and calculus came from India. Quadratic equations were by Sridharacharya in the 11 th Century; the largest numbers the Greeks and the Romans used were 106 whereas Indians used numbers as big as 10 53.
10. According to the Gemmological Institute of America, up until 1896, India was the only source of diamonds to the world.
11. USA based IEEE has proved what has been a century-old suspicion amongst academics that the pioneer of wireless communication was Professor Jagdeesh Bose and not Marconi.
12. The earliest reservoir and dam for irrigation was built in Saurashtra.
13. Chess was invented in India.
14. Sushruta is the father of surgery. 2600 years ago he and health scientists of his time conducted surgeries like cesareans, cataract, fractures and urinary stones. Usage of anaesthesia was well known in ancient India.
15. When many cultures in the world were only nomadic forest dwellers over 5000 years ago, Indians established Harappan culture in Sindhu Valley (Indus Valley Civilisation).
16. The place value system, the decimal system was developed in India in 100 BC.
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Quotes about India:
We owe a lot to the Indians, who taught us how to count, without which no worthwhile scientific discovery could have been made - Albert Einstein.
India is the cradle of the human race, the birthplace of human speech, the mother of history, the grandmother of legend and the great grand mother of tradition - Mark Twain.
If there is one place on the face of earth where all dreams of living men have found a home from the very earliest days when man began the dream of existence, it is India - French scholar Romain Rolland.
India conquered and dominated China culturally for 20 centuries without ever having to send a single soldier across her border – Hu Shih (former Chinese ambassador to USA).
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Monday, January 21, 2008
The 10 biggest falls in the Indian stock market history:
May 18, 2006: The Sensex registered a fall of 826 points (6.76 per cent) to close at 11,391, it's biggest ever, following heavy selling by FIIs, retail investors and a weakness in global markets.
April 28, 1992: The Sensex registered a fall of 570 points (12.77 per cent) to close at 3,870, it's second-largest, following the coming to light of the Harshad Mehta securities scam.
May 17, 2004: Another Monday. Sensex dropped by 565 points, its third biggest fall ever, to close at 4,505. With the NDA out of power and the Left parties, part of the UPA coalition government, flexing their muscle, the Sensex witnessed its second-biggest intra-day fall of 842 points, twice attracting suspension of trading. At close, however, it regained some of its lost ground.
May 15, 2006: The market fell by 463 points to 11,822 points.
May 22, 2006: Sensex slumped by 457 points to 10,482.
May 19, 2006: Sensex slumped by 453 points to 10,939.
April 4, 2000: Sensex slumped by 361 points to 4,691.
May 12, 1992: Indian stock markets plunged 334 points to fall to 3,086.
May 14, 2004: Sensex lost 330 points to fall to 5,070.
May 6, 1992: Losing 327 points, the Sensex fell to 3,561 points
May 18, 2006: The Sensex registered a fall of 826 points (6.76 per cent) to close at 11,391, it's biggest ever, following heavy selling by FIIs, retail investors and a weakness in global markets.
April 28, 1992: The Sensex registered a fall of 570 points (12.77 per cent) to close at 3,870, it's second-largest, following the coming to light of the Harshad Mehta securities scam.
May 17, 2004: Another Monday. Sensex dropped by 565 points, its third biggest fall ever, to close at 4,505. With the NDA out of power and the Left parties, part of the UPA coalition government, flexing their muscle, the Sensex witnessed its second-biggest intra-day fall of 842 points, twice attracting suspension of trading. At close, however, it regained some of its lost ground.
May 15, 2006: The market fell by 463 points to 11,822 points.
May 22, 2006: Sensex slumped by 457 points to 10,482.
May 19, 2006: Sensex slumped by 453 points to 10,939.
April 4, 2000: Sensex slumped by 361 points to 4,691.
May 12, 1992: Indian stock markets plunged 334 points to fall to 3,086.
May 14, 2004: Sensex lost 330 points to fall to 5,070.
May 6, 1992: Losing 327 points, the Sensex fell to 3,561 points
Monday, January 07, 2008
Came across this news through my friend and as usual, just thought of sharing with you.
ESOPs benefits not taxable at source: SC
The Supreme Court has ruled that the benefit given to the staff of a company under the employees' stock option scheme cannot be considered as taxable income and the company was not obliged to deduct tax at source.
The court thus dismissed the appeal of the Commissioner of Income Tax, Bangalore against the judgment of the Karnataka high court which had ruled in favour of Infosys Technologies.
The company had created Technologies Employees Welfare Trust and allotted 7.5 lakh (750,000) warrants at Rs 1 each. Such warrants could be used after a five-year lock-in period to obtain shares. The plan was floated because of buy-back problems where employees left their jobs for one reason or the other. The stock exchange was informed that the shares were non-transferable.
The tax authorities, however, determined that the total amount paid by the employees while exercising their option was Rs 6.64 crore (Rs 66.4 million) whereas the market value of those shares was Rs 171 crore (Rs 1.71 billion). The difference was treated as 'perquisite value' on which TDS was charged at 30 per cent.
The company was treated as a defaulter for not deducting the perquisite value of Rs 165 crore (Rs 1.65 billion). The tax tribunal and the high court, however, held in favour of Infosys [Get Quote] when it moved the courts.
Dismissing the appeal of the tax authorities, the Supreme Court bench headed by Justice S H Kapadia ruled that the company was not bound to deduct tax on the amount earned by its employees from exercise of stock option granted to them through the trust.
"Warrant is a right without obligation to buy. Therefore, perquisite cannot be said to accrue at the time when the warrants were granted," the judgment explained.
The employee could resign, and there was no certainty that his option would be exercised after the lock-in period. "The benefit if any which arose on the date when the option stood exercised was only a notional benefit whose value was unascertainable."
The change in law introduced in the Finance Act in 2000 was not retrospective, the court asserted. The benefit was prospective and unless a benefit was in the nature of income it was not taxable. There was no legislative support to consider the benefit given in this case to the employees as income chargeable under the head 'salaries', the judgment concluded.
ESOPs benefits not taxable at source: SC
The Supreme Court has ruled that the benefit given to the staff of a company under the employees' stock option scheme cannot be considered as taxable income and the company was not obliged to deduct tax at source.
The court thus dismissed the appeal of the Commissioner of Income Tax, Bangalore against the judgment of the Karnataka high court which had ruled in favour of Infosys Technologies.
The company had created Technologies Employees Welfare Trust and allotted 7.5 lakh (750,000) warrants at Rs 1 each. Such warrants could be used after a five-year lock-in period to obtain shares. The plan was floated because of buy-back problems where employees left their jobs for one reason or the other. The stock exchange was informed that the shares were non-transferable.
The tax authorities, however, determined that the total amount paid by the employees while exercising their option was Rs 6.64 crore (Rs 66.4 million) whereas the market value of those shares was Rs 171 crore (Rs 1.71 billion). The difference was treated as 'perquisite value' on which TDS was charged at 30 per cent.
The company was treated as a defaulter for not deducting the perquisite value of Rs 165 crore (Rs 1.65 billion). The tax tribunal and the high court, however, held in favour of Infosys [Get Quote] when it moved the courts.
Dismissing the appeal of the tax authorities, the Supreme Court bench headed by Justice S H Kapadia ruled that the company was not bound to deduct tax on the amount earned by its employees from exercise of stock option granted to them through the trust.
"Warrant is a right without obligation to buy. Therefore, perquisite cannot be said to accrue at the time when the warrants were granted," the judgment explained.
The employee could resign, and there was no certainty that his option would be exercised after the lock-in period. "The benefit if any which arose on the date when the option stood exercised was only a notional benefit whose value was unascertainable."
The change in law introduced in the Finance Act in 2000 was not retrospective, the court asserted. The benefit was prospective and unless a benefit was in the nature of income it was not taxable. There was no legislative support to consider the benefit given in this case to the employees as income chargeable under the head 'salaries', the judgment concluded.
Bill Gates says:
"People are often curious about which applications and technology I use, and if there are features in the new version of Office that have changed the way I work. Without a doubt, Office 2007 enables me to get my work done more easily and quickly than before.
If you visit my office, you will probably notice right away that I have three large flat screen displays that sit together and are synchronized so they work like a single very wide display. The large display area enables me to work very efficiently. I keep my Outlook 2007 Inbox open on the screen to the left so I can see new messages as they come in. I usually have the message or document that I'm currently reading or writing in the center screen. The screen on the right is where I have room to open up a browser or look at a document that someone has sent me in e-mail.
I spend the majority of my time communicating with colleagues, customers, and partners. As a result, Outlook is the application that I use the most. I receive about 100 e-mail messages per day from Microsoft employees, and many more from customers and partners.
It's very important that I hear what people think about our products and our company. Yet I need to balance that against the very real risk of information overload from all the e-mail that I receive. The advances we made in Outlook 2007 for filtering, rules, and search folders have made it much easier to manage my e-mail than before, especially because so much happens automatically once I've set everything up.
A great thing is that all my voice mail, faxes, and even instant messages are sent to my Outlook Inbox using our unified communications technology. Another important feature of unified communications that we have integrated into Office applications is presence and identity. That means I can always tell at a glance whether the person I need to get in touch with is available or not.
One change to Outlook that I appreciate is tasks are now integrated with how I view my calendar. Before Office 2007, I never used the Outlook task feature, but now that tasks are automatically added to my calendar, it makes it much easier to stay on top of the important things I need to do.
Working with other people efficiently and effectively is more important than ever, not just for Microsoft but for any organization. I find that SharePoint, a software program that enables people to easily create internal Web sites so they can collaborate on projects, has become indispensable.
For example, each year I do something called ThinkWeek where anybody in the company can submit a paper about an idea they have to change the way our company works or to pursue a new development project. We used to rely primarily on printed documents, but now it's simple for us to create a Web site to manage the entire process. This year, more than 350 papers were submitted. Not only did I read and comment on many of them, but other technical leaders from across the company were able to go up to the ThinkWeek Web site and add their thoughts. This has led to many lively discussions and started numerous new projects, something that was much harder to do when everything was on paper.
This release of SharePoint also has many social networking features that I find enormously helpful. In addition to searching any corporate intranet site for documents, SharePoint now enables me to search for specific people based on their expertise, job title, or the department they work in. Also, employees can easily create personal Web sites where they can post photos and list their experiences and interests. SharePoint even automatically associates every document with its author, and explains his relationship to other employees on the same team and in his department. So SharePoint makes it far easier to quickly identify the two or three people who are experts in parallel computing, for example, even though there are more than 80,000 employees at Microsoft now.
Of course, collaborating often means meeting with my colleagues in person or remotely over the Internet via Office LiveMeeting. I always take a lot of notes about ideas to think about or things to follow up on. I try to bring my Tablet PC to meetings as often as possible so that I can use OneNote 2007 to write notes in ink that can later be searched or converted to text. Even if I forget my Tablet, I can scan a document or piece of paper and add that image to OneNote. One of the nice new features in OneNote 2007 is that it automatically recognizes the text in those scanned documents, so that it's easy to search for them later.
Then there are times when I really want to drill down into an industry or market trend. The new business intelligence and data visualization tools in Excel 2007 and SharePoint are fantastic for accessing the kind of data that used to be hard to find because it was stored in back-end databases, and then dig through that data to gain some real insights into what is going on. Now I can easily take a look at how a change to something like our assumptions about customer demand might affect the market for a certain product.
Taken together, the improvements in Office 2007 have certainly had a large impact on the way I work. I seem to discover a new feature or a better way of doing something almost every day, and I am hopeful that many of you will find the new Office to be as useful as I do".
About the author
William (Bill) H. Gates is chairman of Microsoft Corporation, the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.
On June 15, 2006, Microsoft announced that effective July 2008, Gates will transition out of a day-to-day role in the company to spend more time on his global health and education work at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. After July 2008 Gates will continue to serve as Microsoft’s chairman and an advisor on key development projects.
Under Gates' leadership, Microsoft's mission has been to continually advance and improve software technology, and to make it easier, more cost-effective and more enjoyable for people to use computers. The company is committed to a long-term view, reflected in its investment of approximately $7.1 billion on research and development in the 2007 fiscal year.
"People are often curious about which applications and technology I use, and if there are features in the new version of Office that have changed the way I work. Without a doubt, Office 2007 enables me to get my work done more easily and quickly than before.
If you visit my office, you will probably notice right away that I have three large flat screen displays that sit together and are synchronized so they work like a single very wide display. The large display area enables me to work very efficiently. I keep my Outlook 2007 Inbox open on the screen to the left so I can see new messages as they come in. I usually have the message or document that I'm currently reading or writing in the center screen. The screen on the right is where I have room to open up a browser or look at a document that someone has sent me in e-mail.
I spend the majority of my time communicating with colleagues, customers, and partners. As a result, Outlook is the application that I use the most. I receive about 100 e-mail messages per day from Microsoft employees, and many more from customers and partners.
It's very important that I hear what people think about our products and our company. Yet I need to balance that against the very real risk of information overload from all the e-mail that I receive. The advances we made in Outlook 2007 for filtering, rules, and search folders have made it much easier to manage my e-mail than before, especially because so much happens automatically once I've set everything up.
A great thing is that all my voice mail, faxes, and even instant messages are sent to my Outlook Inbox using our unified communications technology. Another important feature of unified communications that we have integrated into Office applications is presence and identity. That means I can always tell at a glance whether the person I need to get in touch with is available or not.
One change to Outlook that I appreciate is tasks are now integrated with how I view my calendar. Before Office 2007, I never used the Outlook task feature, but now that tasks are automatically added to my calendar, it makes it much easier to stay on top of the important things I need to do.
Working with other people efficiently and effectively is more important than ever, not just for Microsoft but for any organization. I find that SharePoint, a software program that enables people to easily create internal Web sites so they can collaborate on projects, has become indispensable.
For example, each year I do something called ThinkWeek where anybody in the company can submit a paper about an idea they have to change the way our company works or to pursue a new development project. We used to rely primarily on printed documents, but now it's simple for us to create a Web site to manage the entire process. This year, more than 350 papers were submitted. Not only did I read and comment on many of them, but other technical leaders from across the company were able to go up to the ThinkWeek Web site and add their thoughts. This has led to many lively discussions and started numerous new projects, something that was much harder to do when everything was on paper.
This release of SharePoint also has many social networking features that I find enormously helpful. In addition to searching any corporate intranet site for documents, SharePoint now enables me to search for specific people based on their expertise, job title, or the department they work in. Also, employees can easily create personal Web sites where they can post photos and list their experiences and interests. SharePoint even automatically associates every document with its author, and explains his relationship to other employees on the same team and in his department. So SharePoint makes it far easier to quickly identify the two or three people who are experts in parallel computing, for example, even though there are more than 80,000 employees at Microsoft now.
Of course, collaborating often means meeting with my colleagues in person or remotely over the Internet via Office LiveMeeting. I always take a lot of notes about ideas to think about or things to follow up on. I try to bring my Tablet PC to meetings as often as possible so that I can use OneNote 2007 to write notes in ink that can later be searched or converted to text. Even if I forget my Tablet, I can scan a document or piece of paper and add that image to OneNote. One of the nice new features in OneNote 2007 is that it automatically recognizes the text in those scanned documents, so that it's easy to search for them later.
Then there are times when I really want to drill down into an industry or market trend. The new business intelligence and data visualization tools in Excel 2007 and SharePoint are fantastic for accessing the kind of data that used to be hard to find because it was stored in back-end databases, and then dig through that data to gain some real insights into what is going on. Now I can easily take a look at how a change to something like our assumptions about customer demand might affect the market for a certain product.
Taken together, the improvements in Office 2007 have certainly had a large impact on the way I work. I seem to discover a new feature or a better way of doing something almost every day, and I am hopeful that many of you will find the new Office to be as useful as I do".
About the author
William (Bill) H. Gates is chairman of Microsoft Corporation, the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.
On June 15, 2006, Microsoft announced that effective July 2008, Gates will transition out of a day-to-day role in the company to spend more time on his global health and education work at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. After July 2008 Gates will continue to serve as Microsoft’s chairman and an advisor on key development projects.
Under Gates' leadership, Microsoft's mission has been to continually advance and improve software technology, and to make it easier, more cost-effective and more enjoyable for people to use computers. The company is committed to a long-term view, reflected in its investment of approximately $7.1 billion on research and development in the 2007 fiscal year.
I came across this article and thought that I should share it with you…….It’s about the mistakes that the employees of Microsoft commit…….
Even Microsoft employees are not immune from the everyday pitfalls and mistakes that everyone is bound to make at work. Read Philip Su's hilarious take on how some of us Office "experts" make the same mistakes our customers do ... over and over again.
A question I frequently get from all my readers (yes, both of you!) is, "What's it like working at Microsoft?" Most people imagine that life at The Big One must be like working in a Geekalicious Nirvana. Everyone wears 3D goggles ("It's a Unix system! I know this!") and goes by handles like Crash Override and Acid Burn. Specifications are written in I33t. DeLoreans equipped with Mr. Fusions are the cars of choice. That sort of thing.
When I tell strangers that I work at Microsoft, I see the gears turning in their heads as they contemplate their next question. Inevitably, they ask one of the following:
"Have you been in Bill's house?" Usually, it's the 12-year-old in the bunch that asks this. No, I have not, but I have been on his lawn. Yes, all interns were invited; no, I did not talk with him; yes, I gorged myself on free food. None of this is half is interesting to the stranger, however, as the story of the intern who was forced out of Bill's house in handcuffs after running in during a "bathroom break" to make a phone call to his mom. "Hi mom! You'll never guess where I'm at right...ow! OUCH!" But I digress.
"Wow — can I drive your Ferrari?" This is a perennial favorite with the provisional driver's license crowd. They quickly lose interest once I fondly mention my '98 Honda Accord (V6! Too fast! Too furious!).
"Hey, my Outlook's not working…" "I don't understand the thing in Excel where you [verb] the [noun] with your [relative/neighbor] using [ctrl/alt/shift][F7/Enter/NumLock]..." It's a veritable MadLib of questions of the pattern, "In [Microsoft product of choice], how do I [some important thing that should be easy to do but isn't at all obvious]?"
The last type of question is by far the most common, especially with the airport crowd. But these strangers base their questions on a critically-flawed premise: They assume that Microsoft employees actually know how to use Microsoft products.
So without further ado, and to show you that we struggle with technology just like everyone else, here are the Top 7 Microsoft Employee Bungles using Microsoft Office that I've witnessed.
Top 7 employee bungles using Office
1. Opening dangerous attachments. Viruses like Melissa ("I love you!") were a huge problem at Microsoft. The kicker about it is that everyone acted flabbergasted and incredulous. "What sort of idiot clicks on these things?!" It's like Hootie and the Blowfish: the best-selling debut album of all time has no fans. Have you ever met a single person who admitted to owning Cracked Rear View? Same with Melissa.
2. Forgetting to include attachments. This is the evil twin of #1: in addition to clicking on harmful attachments, we forget to include useful attachments. So when you see an email with the subject "Foolproof Plan for World Peace — Part Deux," don't get too excited. As awesome as the plan probably is, it's almost definitely not attached to the email.
3. Replying-all to huge mailing lists. Any email to a large alias inevitably results in someone (no doubt a proud Hootie CD owner) replying to everyone. The threads are always the same. Something rather mundane or obscure is sent to thousands of people. Then the fan mail starts pouring in:
"Why am I on this list?"
"Unsubscribe."
"Please also remove me!"
"Please stop replying to everyone — there are thousands of people on this alias."
"Me too!"
"SERIOUSLY — STOP REPLYING ALL!"
"Why are you shouting?"
"We never talk anymore."
The most famous of these threads at Microsoft started on a mysterious distribution list called "Bedlam DL3." 25,000 employees, 15.5 million e-mails, 195 GB of bandwidth, busted network. T-shirts were printed to commemorate the event.
4. Putting aliases in the "To:" field in order to see who's in them. To see names on an alias, you can put the alias in the "To:" field of an email and double-click it ... if you're a complete idiot. A friend of mine ("Jimmy") almost got fired by an executive for doing this. A product that this executive was in charge of was getting cancelled, but her team didn't yet know it. When Jimmy heard the scoop, he wrote his boss an e-mail that essentially said, "Hey there, so-and-so's team is getting canned. Here are the only three people worth keeping..." He then proceeded to add so-and-so's entire team to the "To:" line in order to find out the names of the "only three people worth keeping." The rest of what happened is left as an exercise to the reader.
5. Projecting a PowerPoint presentation. The amount of time wasted at Microsoft sitting in conference rooms waiting for the presenter to get the slides to work is mind-boggling. Does the projector handle your resolution? Press Fn-F5! Click the little icon in the lower left to resume your slide show. Not that icon! The other one! Oh, the screen saver's kicked in. Your laptop's suspending!
6. Getting instant messages (IMs) during presentations. Once the presentation is going, IM notifications inevitably pop up on the screen. This tends to happen most when you're presenting in front of hundreds of people. "Yo! How did the [blind-date/colonoscopy/armed-robbery] go?" "Hi, [term of endearment]! I can't wait to [verb] your [adjective][noun] [now/tonight/again/forever]!" I'm told that the latest version of Office fixes this. Let's hope so.
NOTE From the Editor: In 2007 Office system, Desktop Alerts for incoming e-mail messages are turned off by default when you run a PowerPoint 2007 presentation. See Turn Desktop Alerts on or off for more info.
7. Using Excel to cover up Unreal Tournament. Well, I've only seen this once, but it's so eponymous that it deserves to be celebrated. A few years ago, one of my team members frantically maximized Excel as I walked into his office. As I began discussing a technical issue with him, sounds of gunfire, grenades, and general human suffering erupted from his speakers. I had a difficult decision to make while recovering from my brief initial confusion: Do I acknowledge what was already mutually embarrassing and awkward, or do I ignore the obvious? I decided to conduct our technical discussion with the idyllic calm of a wartime correspondent. To his credit, I now know that should push come to shove, my team member could calmly discuss a spec during Armageddon without batting an eyelash.
As you can see, Microsoft employees are often just as befuddled as everyone else. It would blow your mind if you could hear how frequently basic Office tips are shared in my hallway at work. Spend a day here, and you'll find it impossible to believe that we're all Office mavens marching lockstep towards a streamlined plan for world dominion.
Then again, Office 2007 is far easier to use. I'm impressed by the many improvements in its user interface. So in a funny way, perhaps we're no longer as harmless as we used to be. World dominion may be within our grasp after all. If we could only remember to attach our plan in email…
About the author
Philip Su is a development manager in Microsoft Search. He has also been a developer in Office, MSN, and Windows. In his copious free time, Philip co-authored Building Tablet PC Applications, taught classes at the University of Washington, and managed to almost get fired twice. For more random wackiness about Philip, see his annually-updated blog.
Even Microsoft employees are not immune from the everyday pitfalls and mistakes that everyone is bound to make at work. Read Philip Su's hilarious take on how some of us Office "experts" make the same mistakes our customers do ... over and over again.
A question I frequently get from all my readers (yes, both of you!) is, "What's it like working at Microsoft?" Most people imagine that life at The Big One must be like working in a Geekalicious Nirvana. Everyone wears 3D goggles ("It's a Unix system! I know this!") and goes by handles like Crash Override and Acid Burn. Specifications are written in I33t. DeLoreans equipped with Mr. Fusions are the cars of choice. That sort of thing.
When I tell strangers that I work at Microsoft, I see the gears turning in their heads as they contemplate their next question. Inevitably, they ask one of the following:
"Have you been in Bill's house?" Usually, it's the 12-year-old in the bunch that asks this. No, I have not, but I have been on his lawn. Yes, all interns were invited; no, I did not talk with him; yes, I gorged myself on free food. None of this is half is interesting to the stranger, however, as the story of the intern who was forced out of Bill's house in handcuffs after running in during a "bathroom break" to make a phone call to his mom. "Hi mom! You'll never guess where I'm at right...ow! OUCH!" But I digress.
"Wow — can I drive your Ferrari?" This is a perennial favorite with the provisional driver's license crowd. They quickly lose interest once I fondly mention my '98 Honda Accord (V6! Too fast! Too furious!).
"Hey, my Outlook's not working…" "I don't understand the thing in Excel where you [verb] the [noun] with your [relative/neighbor] using [ctrl/alt/shift][F7/Enter/NumLock]..." It's a veritable MadLib of questions of the pattern, "In [Microsoft product of choice], how do I [some important thing that should be easy to do but isn't at all obvious]?"
The last type of question is by far the most common, especially with the airport crowd. But these strangers base their questions on a critically-flawed premise: They assume that Microsoft employees actually know how to use Microsoft products.
So without further ado, and to show you that we struggle with technology just like everyone else, here are the Top 7 Microsoft Employee Bungles using Microsoft Office that I've witnessed.
Top 7 employee bungles using Office
1. Opening dangerous attachments. Viruses like Melissa ("I love you!") were a huge problem at Microsoft. The kicker about it is that everyone acted flabbergasted and incredulous. "What sort of idiot clicks on these things?!" It's like Hootie and the Blowfish: the best-selling debut album of all time has no fans. Have you ever met a single person who admitted to owning Cracked Rear View? Same with Melissa.
2. Forgetting to include attachments. This is the evil twin of #1: in addition to clicking on harmful attachments, we forget to include useful attachments. So when you see an email with the subject "Foolproof Plan for World Peace — Part Deux," don't get too excited. As awesome as the plan probably is, it's almost definitely not attached to the email.
3. Replying-all to huge mailing lists. Any email to a large alias inevitably results in someone (no doubt a proud Hootie CD owner) replying to everyone. The threads are always the same. Something rather mundane or obscure is sent to thousands of people. Then the fan mail starts pouring in:
"Why am I on this list?"
"Unsubscribe."
"Please also remove me!"
"Please stop replying to everyone — there are thousands of people on this alias."
"Me too!"
"SERIOUSLY — STOP REPLYING ALL!"
"Why are you shouting?"
"We never talk anymore."
The most famous of these threads at Microsoft started on a mysterious distribution list called "Bedlam DL3." 25,000 employees, 15.5 million e-mails, 195 GB of bandwidth, busted network. T-shirts were printed to commemorate the event.
4. Putting aliases in the "To:" field in order to see who's in them. To see names on an alias, you can put the alias in the "To:" field of an email and double-click it ... if you're a complete idiot. A friend of mine ("Jimmy") almost got fired by an executive for doing this. A product that this executive was in charge of was getting cancelled, but her team didn't yet know it. When Jimmy heard the scoop, he wrote his boss an e-mail that essentially said, "Hey there, so-and-so's team is getting canned. Here are the only three people worth keeping..." He then proceeded to add so-and-so's entire team to the "To:" line in order to find out the names of the "only three people worth keeping." The rest of what happened is left as an exercise to the reader.
5. Projecting a PowerPoint presentation. The amount of time wasted at Microsoft sitting in conference rooms waiting for the presenter to get the slides to work is mind-boggling. Does the projector handle your resolution? Press Fn-F5! Click the little icon in the lower left to resume your slide show. Not that icon! The other one! Oh, the screen saver's kicked in. Your laptop's suspending!
6. Getting instant messages (IMs) during presentations. Once the presentation is going, IM notifications inevitably pop up on the screen. This tends to happen most when you're presenting in front of hundreds of people. "Yo! How did the [blind-date/colonoscopy/armed-robbery] go?" "Hi, [term of endearment]! I can't wait to [verb] your [adjective][noun] [now/tonight/again/forever]!" I'm told that the latest version of Office fixes this. Let's hope so.
NOTE From the Editor: In 2007 Office system, Desktop Alerts for incoming e-mail messages are turned off by default when you run a PowerPoint 2007 presentation. See Turn Desktop Alerts on or off for more info.
7. Using Excel to cover up Unreal Tournament. Well, I've only seen this once, but it's so eponymous that it deserves to be celebrated. A few years ago, one of my team members frantically maximized Excel as I walked into his office. As I began discussing a technical issue with him, sounds of gunfire, grenades, and general human suffering erupted from his speakers. I had a difficult decision to make while recovering from my brief initial confusion: Do I acknowledge what was already mutually embarrassing and awkward, or do I ignore the obvious? I decided to conduct our technical discussion with the idyllic calm of a wartime correspondent. To his credit, I now know that should push come to shove, my team member could calmly discuss a spec during Armageddon without batting an eyelash.
As you can see, Microsoft employees are often just as befuddled as everyone else. It would blow your mind if you could hear how frequently basic Office tips are shared in my hallway at work. Spend a day here, and you'll find it impossible to believe that we're all Office mavens marching lockstep towards a streamlined plan for world dominion.
Then again, Office 2007 is far easier to use. I'm impressed by the many improvements in its user interface. So in a funny way, perhaps we're no longer as harmless as we used to be. World dominion may be within our grasp after all. If we could only remember to attach our plan in email…
About the author
Philip Su is a development manager in Microsoft Search. He has also been a developer in Office, MSN, and Windows. In his copious free time, Philip co-authored Building Tablet PC Applications, taught classes at the University of Washington, and managed to almost get fired twice. For more random wackiness about Philip, see his annually-updated blog.
Thursday, November 29, 2007
Marriage of ex-collegue on 25th Nov 2007 at Guruvayoor:
One of our ex-collegues - Santhosh invited us for his wedding which happened last week in Guruvayoor Temple.
Me, Hari joined them in Chennai Central Station to Thrissur.
Sai and Deena came from Bangalore and got us in Thissur.
Nakul came from Madurai.
Kannan Devendran came from Trivandrum.
We went to Chotanikarai Bagavathy Amman Temple on Saturday, the 24th Nov.
ON 25th, after attending the marriage, we had a good dharshan of Lord Krishna in Guruvayoor. Did shopping and bought many stuffs.
It was a fun-filling trip and we all enjoyed to the maximum core. Hope to have a trip like this again quite soon.
Few photographs:
One of our ex-collegues - Santhosh invited us for his wedding which happened last week in Guruvayoor Temple.
Me, Hari joined them in Chennai Central Station to Thrissur.
Sai and Deena came from Bangalore and got us in Thissur.
Nakul came from Madurai.
Kannan Devendran came from Trivandrum.
We went to Chotanikarai Bagavathy Amman Temple on Saturday, the 24th Nov.
ON 25th, after attending the marriage, we had a good dharshan of Lord Krishna in Guruvayoor. Did shopping and bought many stuffs.
It was a fun-filling trip and we all enjoyed to the maximum core. Hope to have a trip like this again quite soon.
Few photographs:
History of Accounting:
Bookkeeping and record-keeping methods, created in response to the development of trade and commerce, are preserved from ancient and medieval sources. Double-entry bookkeeping began in the commercial city-states of medieval Italy and was well developed by the time of the earliest preserved double-entry books, from 1340 in Genoa.
The first published accounting work was written in 1494 by the Venetian monk Luca Pacioli. Although it disseminated rather than created knowledge about double-entry bookkeeping, Pacioli's work summarized principles that have remained essentially unchanged. Additional accounting works were published during the 16th century in Italian, German, Dutch, French, and English, and these works included early formulations of the concepts of assets, liabilities, and income.
The Industrial Revolution of the mid-1700s created a need for accounting techniques that would be adequate to handle mechanization, factory-manufacturing operations, and the mass production of goods and services. With the emergence in the mid-19th century of large, publicly owned business corporations, owned by absentee stockholders and administered by professional managers, the role of accounting was further redefined.
Starting in the mid-20th century, machines—particularly computers—performed many of the bookkeeping functions that are vital to accounting systems. The widespread use of computers broadened the scope of bookkeeping, and the term data processing now frequently encompasses bookkeeping.
Bookkeeping and record-keeping methods, created in response to the development of trade and commerce, are preserved from ancient and medieval sources. Double-entry bookkeeping began in the commercial city-states of medieval Italy and was well developed by the time of the earliest preserved double-entry books, from 1340 in Genoa.
The first published accounting work was written in 1494 by the Venetian monk Luca Pacioli. Although it disseminated rather than created knowledge about double-entry bookkeeping, Pacioli's work summarized principles that have remained essentially unchanged. Additional accounting works were published during the 16th century in Italian, German, Dutch, French, and English, and these works included early formulations of the concepts of assets, liabilities, and income.
The Industrial Revolution of the mid-1700s created a need for accounting techniques that would be adequate to handle mechanization, factory-manufacturing operations, and the mass production of goods and services. With the emergence in the mid-19th century of large, publicly owned business corporations, owned by absentee stockholders and administered by professional managers, the role of accounting was further redefined.
Starting in the mid-20th century, machines—particularly computers—performed many of the bookkeeping functions that are vital to accounting systems. The widespread use of computers broadened the scope of bookkeeping, and the term data processing now frequently encompasses bookkeeping.
Alert on Tax Saving Efforts:
The Govt. of India has signed a contract with IBM for Rs.205 crores to create database of 375 lakhs income tax assessees based in Mumbai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Chennai and Ahmedabad. IBM was to start this work from Sep 2007.
Further, this year Income Tax dept has not been accepting TDS certificates, donation receipts etc. along with income tax returns. This tends to believe that Indian Income tax dept is coming in position to cross verify all your claims electronically.
An assessee can be issued notice of scrutiny for a period of 6 yrs. If you can't satisfy your ITO about genuineness of your return or payment of taxes, you could be asked to pay addl. tax with interest and the IT dept is empowered to levy 300% penalty.
One needs to engage efficient CA to attend scrutiny. An efficient CA may charge Rs.2,000/= or more per hour for time he devotes for visits to Income tax office and the time he spends in his office for preparation of replies. The CA's bill may come for more than Rs.25,000/=.
This year and last year income tax dept has issued plenty of notices to small income assessees whose capital is big.
Normally, the ITO gives tension to assessees. During scrutiny, he can ask for your passbooks and can verify correctness of your claims and in the process may come across various other issues.
Saving Rs.1,00,000/= in tax is no wise decision looking to the gravity and contract to IBM for creating database.
The Govt. of India has signed a contract with IBM for Rs.205 crores to create database of 375 lakhs income tax assessees based in Mumbai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Chennai and Ahmedabad. IBM was to start this work from Sep 2007.
Further, this year Income Tax dept has not been accepting TDS certificates, donation receipts etc. along with income tax returns. This tends to believe that Indian Income tax dept is coming in position to cross verify all your claims electronically.
An assessee can be issued notice of scrutiny for a period of 6 yrs. If you can't satisfy your ITO about genuineness of your return or payment of taxes, you could be asked to pay addl. tax with interest and the IT dept is empowered to levy 300% penalty.
One needs to engage efficient CA to attend scrutiny. An efficient CA may charge Rs.2,000/= or more per hour for time he devotes for visits to Income tax office and the time he spends in his office for preparation of replies. The CA's bill may come for more than Rs.25,000/=.
This year and last year income tax dept has issued plenty of notices to small income assessees whose capital is big.
Normally, the ITO gives tension to assessees. During scrutiny, he can ask for your passbooks and can verify correctness of your claims and in the process may come across various other issues.
Saving Rs.1,00,000/= in tax is no wise decision looking to the gravity and contract to IBM for creating database.
Friday, August 03, 2007
Are we really comfortable with the Government authorities?
Just thought of sharing couple of my incidents happened recently with Government officials……
As we all very much know, most of the Govt officials who interact with public do NOT themselves know the procedures to be followed and very importantly, details relating to latest developments like on-line returns, forms downloading from web sites, change in formats of forms / challans etc.
Recently, for making one of the high value payments to “Ministry of Corporate Affairs”, I faced lot of troubles and notably, nobody was able to help me.
It’s some thing like this, when we file our return for this purpose on-line, it auto-generates a challan with pre-filled details. We’ll have to print this and submit to any one of the authorized bank branches along with a cheque / DD for the applicable fee within 3 days, (will be invalid otherwise).
Problems faced:
a) The link on their website for knowing the authorized bank branches was / is not working.
b) When we enquired with the MCA office, no body knew the answer.
c) I checked up with various consultants whom I know, but they are also not sure about this but got me a list of banks, which ‘might’ accept this payment.
d) Sent my admin assistant to these banks and invariably, every bank was unable to accept this payment quoting their own idiotic reasons (all b’coz that they were not clearly instructed by the Govt officials)
i) Some says they are not authorized to accept (in spite of the fact that MCA says they are one of the authorized branches),
ii) Some says cheques are not allowed – only DDs or cash deposits are allowed (the other joint authorized signatory was in London and being high value payment cash deposit was also not possible)
iii) Some says that the cheque has to be drawn in a different name (but the form which was generated by the MCA site clearly indicates a different name, and I strictly followed that thinking that the bankers would create problems otherwise)
e) Then I checked up with another consultant in Chennai. He says that he used to make these payments in ICICI, Nungambakkam Branch. Then, I had no solution except to send the stuff to my ex-admin manager and requested him to submit it immediately since that was the last day. Though he was in hectic work schedule, was able to help me.
Another incident was / is regarding the remittance of service tax. (Need to write a separate blog about the levy of service tax, hence let me talk here only the fuss I faced in remitting the same).
I think that Service Tax authorities spend their most of the time in changing the formats of forms, challans etc very often. To our surprise, every time we remit the monies, there is a change in format with a strict instruction to all banks that old formats should not be accepted. For which, they should also let public know the new format. But what we usually hear is “Format is changed now, but we are not sure about the new one”.
When I remitted this time in Chennai in a format (which itself is a recently changed one and downloaded from the web site of Service Tax), the counter girl said “format is changed and you could try Income Tax Office for the new form”. I told that this is the downloaded form, but she said they are instructed not to accept a different format.
Then I went to Income Tax Dept and checked up about this… “Chanceless, we haven’t changed the format and also, we don’t sell forms”…. Yes, this is what I heard from the superintendent there. Since talking to him will of absolutely no use to me, I went to a law book selling shop and bought those forms whatever they had then and went back again to bank (which took about an hour in this traffic, also that it was raining).
This form insists for more details with a note that these details can be accessed to their web site. Then I called up my colleague to check the website and let me know these details. He called me back in few minutes and told these are not available on this site. I just filled up the form with whatever details I had and submitted to the bank, by clearly freezing my mind that when the concerned officials come back to me for any missing information, I’ll show who I am.
What I’m trying to say here is that taking a corporate decision for any statutory obligation is not so simple. We need to talk to various people like auditors, company secretaries, tax authorities, internal management guys at various hierarchies. After these are done, payment of concerned fees / amount is the last stage which completes the transaction and is supposed to be simple. But the situation is that we face more trouble in remitting the monies to Govt. than deciding the whole objective. Ironically, if the payment is not made on time, our Govt authorities are very perfect in threatening the corporates with penalty, interest, imprisonment etc.
“wat ? wat ? I can’t hear you clearly… “Seeking the help of Information Officer………”
Ha ha, good joke………we are in India man. What we expect from Govt Officials is to do some basic stuff, which they are supposed to do, for which seeking the help of an officer is something senseless effort. Anyway, would like to know whether any one has got justice through Information Officer anywhere in India.
Just thought of sharing couple of my incidents happened recently with Government officials……
As we all very much know, most of the Govt officials who interact with public do NOT themselves know the procedures to be followed and very importantly, details relating to latest developments like on-line returns, forms downloading from web sites, change in formats of forms / challans etc.
Recently, for making one of the high value payments to “Ministry of Corporate Affairs”, I faced lot of troubles and notably, nobody was able to help me.
It’s some thing like this, when we file our return for this purpose on-line, it auto-generates a challan with pre-filled details. We’ll have to print this and submit to any one of the authorized bank branches along with a cheque / DD for the applicable fee within 3 days, (will be invalid otherwise).
Problems faced:
a) The link on their website for knowing the authorized bank branches was / is not working.
b) When we enquired with the MCA office, no body knew the answer.
c) I checked up with various consultants whom I know, but they are also not sure about this but got me a list of banks, which ‘might’ accept this payment.
d) Sent my admin assistant to these banks and invariably, every bank was unable to accept this payment quoting their own idiotic reasons (all b’coz that they were not clearly instructed by the Govt officials)
i) Some says they are not authorized to accept (in spite of the fact that MCA says they are one of the authorized branches),
ii) Some says cheques are not allowed – only DDs or cash deposits are allowed (the other joint authorized signatory was in London and being high value payment cash deposit was also not possible)
iii) Some says that the cheque has to be drawn in a different name (but the form which was generated by the MCA site clearly indicates a different name, and I strictly followed that thinking that the bankers would create problems otherwise)
e) Then I checked up with another consultant in Chennai. He says that he used to make these payments in ICICI, Nungambakkam Branch. Then, I had no solution except to send the stuff to my ex-admin manager and requested him to submit it immediately since that was the last day. Though he was in hectic work schedule, was able to help me.
Another incident was / is regarding the remittance of service tax. (Need to write a separate blog about the levy of service tax, hence let me talk here only the fuss I faced in remitting the same).
I think that Service Tax authorities spend their most of the time in changing the formats of forms, challans etc very often. To our surprise, every time we remit the monies, there is a change in format with a strict instruction to all banks that old formats should not be accepted. For which, they should also let public know the new format. But what we usually hear is “Format is changed now, but we are not sure about the new one”.
When I remitted this time in Chennai in a format (which itself is a recently changed one and downloaded from the web site of Service Tax), the counter girl said “format is changed and you could try Income Tax Office for the new form”. I told that this is the downloaded form, but she said they are instructed not to accept a different format.
Then I went to Income Tax Dept and checked up about this… “Chanceless, we haven’t changed the format and also, we don’t sell forms”…. Yes, this is what I heard from the superintendent there. Since talking to him will of absolutely no use to me, I went to a law book selling shop and bought those forms whatever they had then and went back again to bank (which took about an hour in this traffic, also that it was raining).
This form insists for more details with a note that these details can be accessed to their web site. Then I called up my colleague to check the website and let me know these details. He called me back in few minutes and told these are not available on this site. I just filled up the form with whatever details I had and submitted to the bank, by clearly freezing my mind that when the concerned officials come back to me for any missing information, I’ll show who I am.
What I’m trying to say here is that taking a corporate decision for any statutory obligation is not so simple. We need to talk to various people like auditors, company secretaries, tax authorities, internal management guys at various hierarchies. After these are done, payment of concerned fees / amount is the last stage which completes the transaction and is supposed to be simple. But the situation is that we face more trouble in remitting the monies to Govt. than deciding the whole objective. Ironically, if the payment is not made on time, our Govt authorities are very perfect in threatening the corporates with penalty, interest, imprisonment etc.
“wat ? wat ? I can’t hear you clearly… “Seeking the help of Information Officer………”
Ha ha, good joke………we are in India man. What we expect from Govt Officials is to do some basic stuff, which they are supposed to do, for which seeking the help of an officer is something senseless effort. Anyway, would like to know whether any one has got justice through Information Officer anywhere in India.
Friday, July 27, 2007
Code of Bank's commitment to Customers
Many of us might be interested to know what exactly is the code of bank's commitment to customers............
For those who are looking for the answer and also about various rules and regulations about banking in India, here's the link........
Click here
Many of us might be interested to know what exactly is the code of bank's commitment to customers............
For those who are looking for the answer and also about various rules and regulations about banking in India, here's the link........
Click here
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
Yesterday, the 17th day of July 2007, was a memorable day for about 20 employees in Cricinfo (which includes me too).
We were all awarded for "Long Term Achievement".
Those who had completed 4 yrs and 6 yrs of service were complemented with Tropy; and 4 & 6 gms of Gold Coin respectively (and of course, respectfully :-).
Friday, July 06, 2007
Investing in Mutual Funds ? - Impossible without Income Tax Permanent Account Number:
Till July 1,2007, only those people who invested in Mutual Funds for amounts more than Rs. 50,000 were needed to quote their IT PAN on the application. To avoid quoting this number and to be on a safer side, our people were wisely splitting the investments in to various parts either in their names or in the names of their relatives.
But, how long the Govt will sleep ?
Quoting IT PAN has been made mandatory by SEBI with effect from 2nd July 2007 for Capital markets and Mutual Fund investments irrespective of the amount of investment.
So, whether the investment is in your name or other's name, it doesn't matter anymore.
Photocopy of the PAN Card of the applicant has to be attached along with the application, without which it can't be processed.
It means that, if you want to invest but don't have PAN, you can do so only after applying for PAN. Of course, photocopy of acknowledged PAN application can be attached alongwith the investment application till the time you are allotted the number.
Till July 1,2007, only those people who invested in Mutual Funds for amounts more than Rs. 50,000 were needed to quote their IT PAN on the application. To avoid quoting this number and to be on a safer side, our people were wisely splitting the investments in to various parts either in their names or in the names of their relatives.
But, how long the Govt will sleep ?
Quoting IT PAN has been made mandatory by SEBI with effect from 2nd July 2007 for Capital markets and Mutual Fund investments irrespective of the amount of investment.
So, whether the investment is in your name or other's name, it doesn't matter anymore.
Photocopy of the PAN Card of the applicant has to be attached along with the application, without which it can't be processed.
It means that, if you want to invest but don't have PAN, you can do so only after applying for PAN. Of course, photocopy of acknowledged PAN application can be attached alongwith the investment application till the time you are allotted the number.
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
There was lot of action in the stock markets yesterday with a volatile swing on selling and buying activities and the sensex closed with a moderate gain of 13 points.
There was buying in Capital Goods stocks.
BHEL extended its gain for the second consecutive day.
Oil company stocks also rose for the second day.
Banking stocks ended lower and other Indices closed flat or lower.
The rupee shed 0.6 paise against the Dollar.
The crude settled at $68/bbl.
The markets are expected to remain volatile in the next few days ahead of the expiry of Futures & Derivatives contract for the current month.
There was buying in Capital Goods stocks.
BHEL extended its gain for the second consecutive day.
Oil company stocks also rose for the second day.
Banking stocks ended lower and other Indices closed flat or lower.
The rupee shed 0.6 paise against the Dollar.
The crude settled at $68/bbl.
The markets are expected to remain volatile in the next few days ahead of the expiry of Futures & Derivatives contract for the current month.
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
Market update:
The markets closed on a positive note on monday at 14,487 with a gain of 20 points over the previous close on the back of roll over of derivatives position, amid weak Global cues.
The markets were pushed up by index weight scrips like ONGC & BHARTI AIRTEL. There was also support from Capital goods heavy weights L&T & BHEL.
Oil stocks were on the limelight and closed higher.
BEML's FPO price was fixed at 1020-1090. Midcap stocks ended higher and the midcap index closed at a new high.
Banking and technology stocks however closed on a negative territory.
The rupee came under pressure and closed as 40.88 to a Dollar due to monthend purchase by the importers and the oil marketing companies.
The crude was traded around $68/bbl.
The markets closed on a positive note on monday at 14,487 with a gain of 20 points over the previous close on the back of roll over of derivatives position, amid weak Global cues.
The markets were pushed up by index weight scrips like ONGC & BHARTI AIRTEL. There was also support from Capital goods heavy weights L&T & BHEL.
Oil stocks were on the limelight and closed higher.
BEML's FPO price was fixed at 1020-1090. Midcap stocks ended higher and the midcap index closed at a new high.
Banking and technology stocks however closed on a negative territory.
The rupee came under pressure and closed as 40.88 to a Dollar due to monthend purchase by the importers and the oil marketing companies.
The crude was traded around $68/bbl.
Thursday, June 21, 2007
Sivaji - cool or fool ?
Had a chance to watch this movie with about 20 colleagues in Urvashi Theatre (Bangalore) - and like everyone, with high expectations.
Pluses: Rajni, Rajni and Rajni
Minuses: rest all........ (except Music and art)
I feel that -
a) the flow of scenes are not good,
b) some of the scenes are unbelievably exaggerated,
c) Rajni has not done certain scenes well which he could have done better,
d) Shankar's punch is present only on scenes referred in point b above
One good news for Rajni fans about this movis is that his styles are awesome and available throughout the movie which entertains everyone....
He uses the word 'Cooool' very often in the movie, but for those who are ditched, it sounds like 'Fooool' :-)
Had a chance to watch this movie with about 20 colleagues in Urvashi Theatre (Bangalore) - and like everyone, with high expectations.
Pluses: Rajni, Rajni and Rajni
Minuses: rest all........ (except Music and art)
I feel that -
a) the flow of scenes are not good,
b) some of the scenes are unbelievably exaggerated,
c) Rajni has not done certain scenes well which he could have done better,
d) Shankar's punch is present only on scenes referred in point b above
One good news for Rajni fans about this movis is that his styles are awesome and available throughout the movie which entertains everyone....
He uses the word 'Cooool' very often in the movie, but for those who are ditched, it sounds like 'Fooool' :-)
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
The market opened higher and hit an Intra day high of 14283 mirroring a firm trend in Asian markets.
Nevertheless, the market dropped 83 points at the close and ended at 14080.34 on concerns that FII may pare their holdings following a circular from CBDT differentiating between trading and investment stocks for taxation purpose.
All the Indices closed negative except bankex.
The rupee surged ahead and closed as 40.78 /$
Additional News: The IPO of ICICI Bank opens today with a price band of Rs.885-950.
Nevertheless, the market dropped 83 points at the close and ended at 14080.34 on concerns that FII may pare their holdings following a circular from CBDT differentiating between trading and investment stocks for taxation purpose.
All the Indices closed negative except bankex.
The rupee surged ahead and closed as 40.78 /$
Additional News: The IPO of ICICI Bank opens today with a price band of Rs.885-950.
Friday, June 15, 2007
Subject: ESPN acquires Cricinfo effective from June 8, 2007
The Wisden Group has agreed to sell Cricinfo to ESPN, one of the world's leading multimedia providers of sports content and entertainment.
Cricinfo and ESPN have worked together for a number of years so there is an existing relationship between the two businesses.
They are delighted to be acquiring Cricinfo, as their existing, highly regarded online sports portfolio does not include a dedicated cricket site.
Cricinfo has developed and flourished over the last three or four years and we are a strong and successful business.
The Wisden Group board has decided to sell now because they believe that Cricinfo will flourish in an environment dedicated to sports broadcasting and entertainment.
Also that Cricinfo can be an important element of ESPN's international development and sees fantastic benefits for Cricinfo in terms of content as well as in terms of expertise and experience in our core business.
ESPN is a multinational business with offices around the world, but for the immediate future Cricinfo offices will continue to operate normally and there will be no changes to the day-to-day running of the business.
The Wisden Group has agreed to sell Cricinfo to ESPN, one of the world's leading multimedia providers of sports content and entertainment.
Cricinfo and ESPN have worked together for a number of years so there is an existing relationship between the two businesses.
They are delighted to be acquiring Cricinfo, as their existing, highly regarded online sports portfolio does not include a dedicated cricket site.
Cricinfo has developed and flourished over the last three or four years and we are a strong and successful business.
The Wisden Group board has decided to sell now because they believe that Cricinfo will flourish in an environment dedicated to sports broadcasting and entertainment.
Also that Cricinfo can be an important element of ESPN's international development and sees fantastic benefits for Cricinfo in terms of content as well as in terms of expertise and experience in our core business.
ESPN is a multinational business with offices around the world, but for the immediate future Cricinfo offices will continue to operate normally and there will be no changes to the day-to-day running of the business.
Launch of NFO "Reliance Equity Advantage Fund- An open-ended Diversified Equity Scheme "
NFO dates
Opens on: 12th June 07
Closes on: 10th July 07A brief on the product...
Sector weightage of Reliance Equity Advantage Fund will mirror exactly that of Nifty on a
Monthly basis.
80% of stocks within each sector will be constituents of Nifty, though not necessarily with their Nifty weights
20% of stocks can be non-Nifty in each sector to provide the additional Alpha possibilities and opportunities
Flexibility of going short exists, but on a net basis sector weightages will be maintained in line with Nifty
NFO dates
Opens on: 12th June 07
Closes on: 10th July 07A brief on the product...
Sector weightage of Reliance Equity Advantage Fund will mirror exactly that of Nifty on a
Monthly basis.
80% of stocks within each sector will be constituents of Nifty, though not necessarily with their Nifty weights
20% of stocks can be non-Nifty in each sector to provide the additional Alpha possibilities and opportunities
Flexibility of going short exists, but on a net basis sector weightages will be maintained in line with Nifty
Monday, July 10, 2006
I read this article on rediff and thought of blogging the same, perhaps for the reason that it supports accountants :-)
Tax deduction? Not the Accountant’s fault
If you are a salaried person, you are likely to be fretting about your employer deducting large chunks from your salary as TDS (tax deduction at source). Every year, your employer's accountant would nag you about tax saving investments made.
Unfair, did you say? It is not entirely so. The employer has his reasons to be officious. Under the Income Tax Act, it is the duty of an employer to deduct tax from the salary paid to its employee. Whether the employer is an individual, a partnership firm, a trust or a company, they have to deduct tax at source from salary. The status of the employer is not relevant.
Now, the IT Act lays down elaborate steps to be followed by an employer while deducting the tax (popularly known as TDS) from the salaries. There are various constraints on the employer.
To start with, there are deadlines for TDS payment to the government; for issuing the TDS certificates (Form 16) to the employees; for filing quarterly e-TDS returns, and many more of such legalities. Plus, there are various penalties and interests that an employer has to pay if there is a default. These detailed procedures might in part explain why most employers are paranoid when it comes to TDS.
The Process
To calculate the TDS for each employee, an employer typically follows these steps:
Estimating the gross salary for the entire year;
Estimating the exemptions from the salary income;
Adding any other income, declared by the employee;
Calculating the amounts of deductions from the salary income based on the declaration given by the employee;
Calculating the tax on the net income of the employee;
Deducting the tax equally over 12 months of the year;
Paying TDS to the government every month by the 7th of next month, filing e-TDS return every quarter;
Issue Form 16 (TDS certificate) to each employee.
Estimating the exemptions from the salary income;
Adding any other income, declared by the employee;
Calculating the amounts of deductions from the salary income based on the declaration given by the employee;
Calculating the tax on the net income of the employee;
Deducting the tax equally over 12 months of the year;
Paying TDS to the government every month by the 7th of next month, filing e-TDS return every quarter;
Issue Form 16 (TDS certificate) to each employee.
Computing salary income:
To compute total income under the head of 'income from salaries', there are various items of income that form part of salary. Salary includes the basic salary, advance salary, the wages, pension, fees, commissions, bonus, taxable gratuity, leave salary, leave encashment salary (not otherwise exempt), profits in lieu of salary, taxable house rent allowance and other taxable allowances.
Not all allowances and perquisites received by an employee are liable to income tax. Some of the allowances and perquisites are totally exempt from income tax, some are partially exempt, while others are fully taxable. There are separate limits and conditions for exemptions for various allowances.
For example, house rent allowance (HRA), leave travel allowance (LTA), medical reimbursements, conveyance allowance each have a different limit and a different set of rules. An employer has to apply each set of rules and limits before deciding what is exempt and what is not.
Tax to be evenly deducted:
What is important for an employee to understand is that the employer is supposed to deduct tax equally over the entire 12 months. Thus, if the total tax to be deducted from the salary for the year is Rs 12,000, then the employer is supposed to deduct Rs 1,000 every month and pay that to the government. If he fails in this, he is penalised.
TDS on other income:
A salaried person is also liable to pay income tax on income from other sources like interest, capital gains and rental income. These are computed under different sections of the Income Tax Act. An employee has the option of declaring his other income to the employer, so that the tax on that income can also get deducted from the salary income. By doing so, the employee can avoid the formalities of paying advance tax (which would have to be paid if the tax is not deducted at source).
Deductions allowed:
After the gross salary is calculated and the exemptions given, the deductions under Section 16 of the IT Act have to be made. Earlier, employees were entitled to standard deduction. Now, that is no longer available. The only deduction remaining is dues paid as professional tax. The balance figure is the amount of taxable salary.
From the taxable salary, the employer can then reduce the deductions permissible under Chapter VI-A of the Income Tax Act. Simply put, he will allow the following deductions:
Under Section 80C: for the various tax saving investments like PPF, life insurance premium, among others.
Under Section 80CCC: for investments in pension schemes by life insurers.
Under Section 80D: for mediclaim premium.
Under Section 80DD: expenses incurred for medical treatment or amount deposited under any scheme framed by the LIC/UTI approved insurer/administrator, for a dependant with ordinary disability or severe disability.
Under Section 80E: interest on loans for education.
Under Section 80GG: for house rent paid.
Under Section 80U: a deduction of Rs 50,000 in respect of a person who at any time during the previous year is certified by a medical authority to be a person with a disability.
Under Section 80CCC: for investments in pension schemes by life insurers.
Under Section 80D: for mediclaim premium.
Under Section 80DD: expenses incurred for medical treatment or amount deposited under any scheme framed by the LIC/UTI approved insurer/administrator, for a dependant with ordinary disability or severe disability.
Under Section 80E: interest on loans for education.
Under Section 80GG: for house rent paid.
Under Section 80U: a deduction of Rs 50,000 in respect of a person who at any time during the previous year is certified by a medical authority to be a person with a disability.
Another important deduction that an employer is allowed to make from the income pertains to the interest on housing loans up to a maximum of Rs 1.5 lakh per year. Of course, for this, just as for other deductions, the employee would have to furnish proof to the employer. It may be noted that there are limits laid down in the
Income Tax Act for each of these sections.
Deductions not allowed:
One important point to be noted here is that although a taxpayer may be entitled to several deductions from his income for the purpose of TDS from salary, the employer cannot reduce all the deductions.
He can give credit only for those deductions that are mentioned in the annual circular issued by the government. Thus, a taxpayer may have given a donation to say, CRY and for this, he would be entitled to deduction under Section 80G. However, while calculating TDS from salary, the employer is not allowed to take this into consideration. As far as donations are concerned, an employer is allowed to take into consideration only donations given to the Prime Minister's Relief Fund and a few other similar donations.
The employer has to then calculate the tax payable on this income and deduct this tax in equal monthly installments. Tax is to be deducted by the employer at the time of payment of salary or at the time of credit of the salary whichever is earlier. Tax will be deducted only if the total income of the employee exceeds the threshold limit of Rs 1 lakh in case of male employees, Rs 1.35 lakh in case of female employees and Rs 1.85 lakh in the case of senior citizens.
One-time payments:
In some situations, one-time payments are made during the year -- for example, bonus, incentives, joining bonus, and the like. The tax payable on such an amount would be deducted immediately. For example, if an employee is in the top tax bracket (that is 30 per cent) and his income is more than Rs 10 lakh, and gets a Diwali bonus of Rs 1 lakh, then the employer would deduct Rs 33,660 (Rs 30,000 as tax and Rs 3,000 as surcharge at 10 per cent on the tax and Rs 660 as education cess at 2 per cent on the tax plus surcharge) from the bonus/increment and pay the net amount to him.
If the employer fails to deduct the whole or any part of the TDS, then he shall be liable to pay simple interest at 12 per cent on the amount not deducted or short deducted.
The Timing
After the tax is deducted, the employer has to pay it to the government within 7 days from the end of the month. At the end of the year, the employer has to issue the salary certificate to the employee. While doing this, the employer has to quote the correct permanent account number (PAN) of the employee in the certificate. If the correct PAN is not quoted or if the same is not quoted at all then the employer is penalised.
So if you were thinking that the nosy accountants in your office were too eager to hack your salary to pay to the government, you have to give them the benefit of doubt. Deducting tax from salary is as painful, if not more, for the employer as it is to the employee.
Monday, June 05, 2006
Comments regarding removal or continuance of exemptions and deductions under the Income Tax Act, 1961.
Government is committed to simplify the tax laws, minimize the distortions within the tax structure and broaden the tax base. In this context, tax incentives in the form of various exemptions and deductions are being reviewed. Government is keen to involve all stakeholders in this exercise.
Accordingly, existing exemptions and deductions under the Income Tax Act, 1961 are listed below and comments with supporting rationale for their removal or continuance may be sent by e-mail or post by 5th July , 2006 to:
Ms. Anita Kapur, Joint Secretary, TPL-I, Room No. 147-B/I, North Block, New Delhi.
e-mail: jstpl1@nic.in or
Ms. Monica Bhatia, Director, TPL-I, Room No. 147-D, North Block, New Delhi.
e-mail: dirtpl1@nic.in or
Ms. Pragya S. Saxena, Director, TPL-II, Room No. 147-E, North Block, New Delhi.
e-mail: dirtpl2@nic.in
Government is committed to simplify the tax laws, minimize the distortions within the tax structure and broaden the tax base. In this context, tax incentives in the form of various exemptions and deductions are being reviewed. Government is keen to involve all stakeholders in this exercise.
Accordingly, existing exemptions and deductions under the Income Tax Act, 1961 are listed below and comments with supporting rationale for their removal or continuance may be sent by e-mail or post by 5th July , 2006 to:
Ms. Anita Kapur, Joint Secretary, TPL-I, Room No. 147-B/I, North Block, New Delhi.
e-mail: jstpl1@nic.in or
Ms. Monica Bhatia, Director, TPL-I, Room No. 147-D, North Block, New Delhi.
e-mail: dirtpl1@nic.in or
Ms. Pragya S. Saxena, Director, TPL-II, Room No. 147-E, North Block, New Delhi.
e-mail: dirtpl2@nic.in
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