Section 80c

Earlier I have published Tax Planning for 2009 - Part 1. The previous post explains the basic stuff on tax savings using the home loans and the fixed deposit schemes. It doesn’t look into any specific section of the income tax act. This part of the article will be looking into section 80c of the income tax act. Section 80c is the important provisions and provide maximum of Rs.100000 savings under this section alone. So, it is better every one to understand the different options available under section 80c. Total amount of Rs.100000 can be divided into many different investments based on your interest and the financial status. I will explore the various options inside this particular section 80c and suggest you the investment plans. I would like to answer all your queries, please post it in the comments section. You can subscribe to our future articles here.

Tax Planning for 2009 - Part 2

Blog is moved to own domain

HI Folks,

Finally I have created own domain name for my personal blog. All the posts are migrated to new domain name HiKrish. It is powered by Wordpress platform. I will stop blogging in this site. My future posts will be in the new site.

General Tips For Switch to Mac From Windows

Sales of Apple's Macintosh computers have been growing much faster than PC sales overall, with many new Mac buyers switching from years of using Windows computers. For that reason, every month I get emails from readers asking about the differences in using the Windows and Macintosh operating systems.

While the Windows and Mac user interfaces are broadly similar, they do have subtle variations in day-to-day use that require some re-education for switchers. And because there are so many fewer Mac users than Windows users, help from friends and co-workers can be harder to obtain than it is for people switching the other way, to Windows from Mac.

So, here's a quick tip sheet explaining a few of the most common differences in the daily use of Windows XP, from which most people would be switching, and Apple's Mac OS X Leopard, which switchers would be adopting.

This column isn't an argument for making the switch to a Mac, merely an attempt to help those who have done so, or who are considering doing so. Of course, all Macs currently sold can run Windows and Windows programs concurrently with the Mac operating system. But this guide is for folks who intend to use their Macs primarily with Leopard, not Windows.

Menu Bars: In Windows, each program typically has its own menu bar. On the Mac, there's a single menu bar at the top of the screen that changes, depending on which program you are actively using. More>>

Rajnikanth's Next Movie - Kuselan

Kuselan is a forthcoming bilingual drama being directed by P. Vasu, who with Kuselan, will direct his fifth feature film featuring Rajnikanth. Rajnikanth, playing a guest role, is the one of the few common actors in the bi-lingual, the others including Nayantara and Meena, which is to be made into Tamil as Kuselan and Telugu as Kathanayukudu respectively. Various other regional actors have been signed up for the film, with Pasupathy, Meena, Prabhu Ganesan, Vadivelu, Santhanam and Livingston playing roles in the Tamil version, whilst, Jagapati Babu, Sunil and Brahmanandam portray roles in the Telugu version. Whilst, G. V. Prakash Kumar and Arvind Krishna have confirmed their parts as members of the technical crew. The film which is expected to be released in July 2008, will be produced by prominent director, K. Balachandar for the Tamil version and Ashwini Dutt for its Telugu version. The film is a remake of the Malayalam movie, Kadha Parayumbhol.

Firefox download record official

Mozilla has officially made history with a new Guinness world record for the largest number of software downloads in a 24-hour period.

The final record breaking 8,002,530 downloads for Firefox 3.0 took place in June with parties in over 25 countries.

"The enthusiasm and creativity of Firefox fans was key to making this happen" said Marketing head Paul Kim.

Gareth Deaves of Guinness World Records called it "an extremely impressive accomplishment".

The official figure was confirmed after logs from download servers were audited and checked to ensure duplicate and unfinished downloads were not counted.

Mr Kim told the BBC: "The notion of going for a world record, as gooky and nutty as it may have sounded, was a really sticky idea.

"It was an idea that translated really well across national borders and to all different kinds of people around the world."More>>

iPhone's launch to impact Nokia - India

Handset major Nokia Corporation’s global president and CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo on Thursday said that the launch of Apple’s iconic iPhone in India would have an impact on the company here, “When iPhone comes to India, it adds to our competitors here. The entry of a new product in the market creates customer interest and it, therefore, impacts us in India,” Mr Kallasvuo said.

Nokia is the market leader in India and commands a 60% marketshare in the handset space. The company has so far largely remained unchallenged in India as it continues to extend the lead over its rivals in the domestic market.

At the same time, Mr Kallasvuo pointed out that consumer interest in iPhone would lead to an increased awareness on many of the concepts and features available on Nokia’s handsets.

Earlier this month, both Bharti and Vodafone had announced that they would soon be offering the new and cheaper version of iPhone to their customers by the year-end. More>>

Apple considering slider-style iPhone?

That's what The Register thinks, reporting Monday that Apple has shown off prototypes of an iPhone with a hardware keyboard to certain executives at wireless operators. The current iPhone famously comes with only one hardware button that returns the user to the home screen, with the rest of the buttons enabled in software.

The lack of a hardware keyboard is said to be a detriment for business users who are hooked on their BlackBerrys, and the iPhone's touch-screen keyboard certainly does take some getting used to in the first couple of weeks. The report suggests that a hardware-keyboard iPhone will be out around this time next year assuming Apple can work out the kinks.

I can't decide what I think about this notion. It's not completely out of the question that Apple would at least be thinking about a slider-style phone; some designs are quite popular with young and old alike. And we've long expected Apple to eventually release a family of iPhones similar to its strategy for the iPod product line, with different form factors and capabilities targeted at different groups.More>>

Google Ad Deal Is Under Scrutiny

The Justice Department has opened a formal antitrust investigation into a deal struck last month that would allow the Internet titan Google to provide some search advertising for Yahoo, according to sources familiar with the inquiry.
Investigators are planning to demand documents not only from Google and Yahoo, but also from other large companies in the Internet and media industries, said the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing.

Google and Yahoo officials have said since the deal's announcement that they would delay its implementation for a voluntary Justice Department review. But a formal investigation signals that the department may have found some cause for concern. More>>

Hewlett-Packard clears U.S. hurdle to EDS purchase

Hewlett-Packard cleared an antitrust hurdle in its $13.2 billion purchase of Electronic Data Systems. A waiting period under U.S. law passed without any request for additional information from regulators, Hewlett-Packard said Monday. This indicates there's no opposition to the deal. The purchase would more than double the computer maker's revenue from services, challenging IBM. The transaction is HP's largest since the $18.9 billion takeover of Compaq Computer, led by Chief Executive Mark Hurd's predecessor, Carly Fiorina. The acquisition still requires approval from EDS investors and European antitrust authorities, Hewlett-Packard said. HP will pay $25 a share in cash, or 33 percent more than EDS's closing price May 9, before the companies said they were in talks.

Microsoft confirmed an agreement to buy Powerset, one of the leaders in semantic search

As rumored last week, Microsoft, with the notion of a Yahoo deal receding quickly in the rear-view mirror, is taking another tack in its efforts to stem the dominance of Google search -- rather than playing catch up, it wants to try leapfrog. Today, Microsoft confirmed an agreement to buy Powerset, one of the leaders in semantic search, which attempts to glean the context and intent of a search rather than just matching keywords against the content of ranked pages. Details of the deal weren't revealed, but the price is rumored to be in the $100 million neighborhood. "We're buying Powerset first and foremost because we're impressed with the people there," Microsoft's Live Search blog said. "We came away impressed by their smarts, their experience, their passion for search, and a shared vision. That shared vision is to take Search to the next level by adding understanding of the intent and meaning behind the words in searches and webpages."

There are challenges aplenty in the strategy. Semantic search is a non-trivial exercise involving the honing of the technology and the re-indexing of the searchable Web, and semantic analysis of a page is much more computing-intensive than simply scanning text. On its own, Powerset had been limited to demonstrating its proof of concept in searches through the finite world of Wikipedia. Microsoft has the infrastructure and the war chest to expand that reach, first, perhaps, in vertical search categories where semantic search has done the best so far. It will be a while before the success of this approach can be judged, and there's always the chance that Google might innovate or buy its way into the same territory, but Microsoft needed to do something to try to pull its search share out of single digits, and this looks like as good a bet as any. "Microsoft's acquisition of Powerset makes perfect sense and is probably the best shot at a disruptive technology that might allow it to leapfrog Google," said Andrei Hagiu, assistant professor of strategy, focusing on technology, at Harvard Business School.

Adobe Makes Flash Searchable

For years the big problem with Flash-based websites is that they could not be properly indexed by search engines. Flash websites have been favored by marketers and advertisers for a long time, because of the ability to create rich, interactive Web experiences. However for most other businesses, particularly those with a lot of information on their website (let's face it, that's everyone except marketers and advertisers), Flash has been nearly an automatic 'no' for website development. That may be about to change.

Adobe announced today that it is teaming up with major search engines - notably Google and Yahoo - to "dramatically improve search results of dynamic Web content and rich Internet applications (RIAs)." In a press statement, Adobe said that it is "providing optimized Adobe Flash Player technology to Google and Yahoo! to enhance search engine indexing of the Flash file format (SWF) and uncover information that is currently undiscoverable by search engines."

Adobe claims that it will provide more relevant search results and rankings for RIA content. In a separate blog post, Google announced that it has launched a "Flash indexing algorithm", which will result in better search results. More>>

Will Enterprise welcome Mac's presence?

As we know Mac is the best and simple easy to use opertating system in the earth. But, it is not stolen as many desktops in the Enterprise arena, may be this is because of their focus only on individual users. But this time it takes very serious into the Enterprise, Enterprise Desktop Alliance showcase the power of using Macs in the corporate environment. It says

By leveraging the suite of capabilities that EDA solutions offer, an enterprise can easily integrate Macs and achieve the same level of control, security, policy compliance, and services that they currently have with their Windows platforms.

We have to wait and see the reaction from the Big companies whether they welcome mac into their environment. Obviously I will rise my hand If my manager asks my opinion :)

Leopard Rises from XP's Ashes

Windows XP officially exits the OEM and retail channels after today. Let the Leopard and Vista competition really begin.

Windows XP won't completely go away, but it will be increasingly more difficult to find, and that could be very good for Apple. Because if computer buyers don't want Windows Vista, they'll have to look elsewhere. Can you say Mac OS X 10.5?

Here's the no-nonsense explanation about XP availability:

• Today is the last day OEMs can offer Windows XP PCs.
• System builders, which buy the software from distributors, can ship XP PCs through the end of January.
• OEMs can offer XP as a "downgrade" option for PCs shipping with Vista Business or Ultimate, but usually at extra cost.
• OEMs can still ship Windows XP Home on ultralow-powered notebooks like the Asus Eee PC.
• Businesses buying Microsoft software through some volume-licensing programs can use "downgrade" rights to reimage Vista PCs with Windows XP.

XP's exit from OEM and retail channels comes at a time when Vista isn't doing so well. Microsoft boasts 150 million Vista licenses shipped, but the number loses its impact in the context of PC shipments.

Between Jan. 1, 2007 and March 31, 2008, PC manufacturers shipped approximately 342 million PCs worldwide, according to published Gartner figures. However, the figures include x86 servers. Being as generous as possible to Microsoft, I lop off 42 million units, to account for x86 servers and computer sales during the first 29 days of January 2007, when Vista wasn't yet available on new PCs.

That works out to about 300 million PCs during the same time Microsoft shipped 140 million Vista licenses. Typically, Microsoft sells about 80 percent of Windows licenses on new PCs. Being, again, generous to Microsoft, I figure 112 million Vista licenses. Based on this arguably loose estimate, Windows Vista shipped on about 37 percent of the 300 million PCs. I strongly suspect that one-third would be a more accurate number.More>>

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Microsoft to stop selling Windows XP on Monday

Microsoft Corp. is scheduled to stop selling its Windows XP operating system to retailers and major computer makers Monday, despite protests from a slice of PC users who don't want to be forced into using XP's successor, Vista. Once computers loaded with XP have been cleared from the inventory of PC makers such as Dell Inc. and Hewlett-Packard Co., consumers who can't live without the old operating system on their new machine will have to buy Vista Ultimate or Vista Business and then legally "downgrade" to XP. Microsoft will still allow smaller mom-and-pop PC builder shops to buy XP for resale through the end of January. A version of XP will also remain available for ultra-low-cost PCs such as the Asus Eee PC. A group of vocal computer users who rallied around a "Save XP" petition posted on the industry news site InfoWorld had been clamoring for Microsoft to keep selling XP until its next operating system, Windows 7, is available. The software maker has said it expects to release Windows 7 sometime in 2009. Last week, Microsoft said it would provide full technical support for six-year-old Windows XP through 2009, and limited support through 2014.

Mysore stands third among Tier III cities

Though there's a feeling that Mysore has lagged in advancing as a happening city over the last 3-4 years, here comes a morale-boosting report, which places Mysore third among the top 10 Tier III cities in the country in job offerings.

A study by the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Assocham) reveals that Mysore ranked third with 11.08 percent of the share of jobs among the top 10 Tier III cities. Automobile, insurance, pharmaceutical, manufacturing and education were the top five employment-generating sectors. It is interesting to note IT does not figure in the top five sectors.

The first two of the 10 among the Tier III cities go to Ranchi with 13.80 and Mangalore with 11.60. Energy, construction, metals, electronics and telecom are the job growth areas in Ranchi while Mangalore lead in automobiles, insurance, pharmaceutical, manufacturing and education sectors like of Mysore.

After Mysore, the cities of Raipur, Udaipur and Aurangabad top the chart with fourth, fifth and sixth ranks respectively. Patiala, Jalandhar, Meerut and Vishakhapatnam occupy the last four places respectively.

Mysore is one of the four small cities, which provided maximum vacancies in the automobile sector. This expanding sector is speeding towards the small cities where two wheelers and low cost four wheelers are in high demand. Pondicherry, Aurangabad, Vishakhapatnam and Mysore were the four top Tier III cities in order.

The study says, of the 30 lead sectors that provided the maximum jobs to young aspirants between January and March 2008, financial services outpaced the IT sector in Tier II and Tier III cities.

The study titled ‘Job Trendz: Across Cities and Sectors' found that these tier II and tier III cities have cornered 18.5 percent and 21.5 percent share of the job space respectively. The high cost of manpower and capacity constraints in the big cities is pushing industry towards small cities for job creation

The study was based on the sample of 32,000 vacancies posted by around 3,500 companies in the national and regional dailies, journals and job portals during the three-month period.

A change in the job trend is observed in small cities while traditionally the maximum job openings used to be concentrated in IT sector, but in Tier II and Tier III cities, financial services have taken over it.

Mangalore lead the top three tier III cities followed by Pondicherry and Aurangabad by providing the highest job openings in finance related jobs. It led also in IT sector, which posted the second largest share of vacancies. The other two low-cost cities, which offered maximum job avenues, are Jalandhar and Aurangabad. Mangalore also led in FMCG sector over Amirtsar, Ranchi and Udaipur.

13 Indian cos among world's 500 most valued firms

Thirteen Indian firms, led by Reliance Industries, have made to the list of world's 500 most valued companies compiled by the UK business daily Financial Times, even as 12 of them fell down from their previous rankings amid weak stock market trends.

Excluding tobacco-to-consumer goods major ITC, all the 12 Indian companies present on the list, including RIL, ONGC, NTPC, SBI, Bharti Airtel, DLF and Reliance Communications, saw their rankings drop in the latest FT Global 500 list, topped by American energy giant ExxonMobil with a market value of 452.5 billion dollars.

FT publishes the list based on the market capitalisation of the companies at the end of every quarter and the latest rankings are based on March-end figures for this year. The previous list was based on market cap figures at the end of December 2007.

In the global list, ExxonMobil has replaced China's PetroChia as the most valued firm, while US industrial conglomerate GE has retained its third position. Other firms in the top 10 include Gazprom, China Mobile, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Microsoft, AT&T, Royal Dutch Shell and P&G.

Among the Indian companies, Mukesh Ambani-led RIL has been ranked the highest at 80th, down 15 places from 65th earlier, with a market cap of 82 billion dollars.

RIL is followed by state-run ONGC at 148th (down from 115), public sector power major NTPC at 206th (down from 163), Sunil Mittal-led telecom giant Bharti Airtel at 218th (down from 193), realty major DLF at 329th (down from 195) and Anil Ambani-led Reliance Communications at 350th position (down from 252). However, ITC climbed six spots to the 484th place, with a market value of 19.38 billion dollars.

Dasavatharam - Purpose and Explaination for ten Avatars

One thing we had noticed is that people didnt get the real subtext and reason for the various roles and hence the title. If you knew the real dasavatharams of Lord Vishnu and their characters you can appreciate the script more.

1. Krishna avatar - Vincent Poovaraghavan

Lord krishna is actually a dalit, he is dark-skinned [shyamalam]. He saved draupadi when she was being violated and he was the actual diplomat in mahabharatham. Lord krishna dies of an arrow striking his lower leg. Now look at how vincent was introduced.. he appears when asin is about to be molested and he saves her like draupadi. Vincent is the dalit diplomat, fights for land issue [soil issue to be exact] and dies from the metal rod striking his leg. Oh even five of vincent's men are drugged at P.Vasu'sresidence.. sounds familiar???

2. Balarama avatar - Balarama naidu

This is an easy given. as the name suggests and the role personifies you can easily get it.

3. Mathsya avatar - Ranagaraja nambi

nambi is thrown into water in an act of trying to save lord from being thrown into sea, though vainly. what more clue do you want?

4. Varaha avatar - Krishnaveni paatti

During the mukunda song, krishnaveni paatti does varaha avatar in the shadow puppetry. The frame freezes on it for a second. there is the clue.
Moreover, in varaha avatar lord actually hides earth so as to protect life forms. Here too krishnaveni hides the germs - life form inside the statue so as to protect.

5. Vamana avatar - Kalifulla khan

Remember in vamana avatar, lord vishnu takes the vishvaroopa, that is the giant form! Hence the giant kalifulla here symbolises vamana avatar.

6. Parasurama avatar - Christian Fletcher

Parasurama is actually on an angry killing spree and killed 21 generations of the particular kshatriya vamsa. Hence the real KILLER... Guess what thats what our Fletcher is! He comes around with the gun [modern upgrade for axe] and kills everyone around. I have to check if he kills 21 people though. :-D

7. Narasimha avatar - Shingen Narahashi

first of all the name itself is a play on the words singam [means lion in tamil] and narasimha [the avatar being symbolised]. Lord Narasimha manifests himelf to kill the bad guy and he also teaches prahaladha. In the movie, he shows up to kill the killer fletcher! and is also a teacher..

Lord Narasimha had to kill the asura with bare hands and hence the martial arts exponent here.. get it?

8. Rama avatar - Avatar Singh

Lord Rama stands for the one man one woman maxim, kind of symbolising true love.. Here Avatar portrays that spirit by saying that he loves his woman more than anything and wants to live for her.


9. Koorma avatar –George Bush

This is the most loose adaptation I couldn't clearly comprehend. But if you look at the real koorma avatar, the lord is the turtle/tortoise that helps in stirring the ksheera sagara and bringing out the amruth. This essentially creates war among the devas and asuras. Similarly today Bush facilitates war between you know whom... May be Kamal also indicates that this avatar is a bit dumb like the tortoise...

10. Kalki avatar - Govindaraj Ramasamy

As you know, the hero in kaliyug can be none other than the Kalki avatar!!!

Creativity is Rare ..but when people fails to understand your creativity,then its either the problem with the creator or with the viewer.In the case of movies,its for all kind of viewers.The movie has to reach them.Demanding the viewer to reveal the esence of the movie may some time result in failure!!! Anyway " DASAVATHARAM " By Kamal Hassan was indeed a good attempt!!

'.wow': ICANN to allow almost any domain suffix

At its meeting in Paris, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), a not-for-profit organization that oversees the naming scheme for web sites, voted to accept a proposal that will allow companies to purchase new top-level domain names ending in almost whatever suffix they choose.

So, for example, instead of being restricted to sites ending in .com or .org., eBay could have a site that ends in .ebay, or New York City could end its website address with .nyc.

The new naming process will begin in 2009. The first suffixes will probably be given to businesses and other major organizations. Countries are expected to keep their specific suffixes, but, as in the example above, cities could also get individualized URLs, such as .london or .chicago.

In an effort to deter cybersquatters, the organization is likely to charge a hefty price for the new names. Some experts have estimated that the new domain names could cost anywhere from $50,000 (£25,200) to $100,000 or more. ICANN plans to give companies with trademarked names priority for those names.

The group also voted to allow public comment on a proposal that would enable countries to use non-English script. For example, companies could use Chinese or Arabic script to identify their web sites.

Paul Twomey, chief executive of ICANN, told the BBC earlier this week that allowing the new naming conventions would create new "real estate" on the internet.

However, some experts have expressed concerns that the decision could result in a gold-rush mentality. While trademarked names will only be available to holders of those trademarks, there are many common words that people may want to register as web site suffixes, such as '.sex'.

The suffix .xxx was rejected by ICANN last year, but it could also prove to be a popular suffix under the more relaxed policy. However, Twomey told Agence France-Press that the organization will still try to block or reject any domain name that it deems inappropriate for security or moral reasons.

Who Will Fill Bill Gates’ Shoes?

Bill Gates is retiring as an employee of Microsoft to focus on his philanthropic foundation. More than any other single person, Gates defined the PC era. His products touch nearly every computer user on the planet. And he created what is still the biggest technology wealth machine in Microsoft. But now that he is leaving, who will fill his shoes?

I don’t mean who will fill his shoes at Microsoft. Gates stepped back from day-to-day management years ago, handing his business responsibilities to CEO Steve Ballmer and technology responsibilities to chief software architect Ray Ozzie. What I mean is: Who will carry on his legacy and define the current Web era of computing?

It is unlikely there will ever be another Bill Gates if for the only reason that Gates’ influence stemmed from his control of the computing platform of choice (the PC, through Windows). The computing platform of choice today is the Web, and no single person or company can control that. But there are plenty of Web company founders out there—from large companies to small startups—that are turning the Web into a platform for applications and creating new kinds of software as a result.More>>

Bill Gates: how a geek changed the world

Bill Gates ends his full-time job at Microsoft on a Friday afternoon and the company opens for business after the weekend as if nothing has changed.

At least, that is how Gates' successors want to play it.

The 'transition', as it is called inside the company, was announced two years ago.

On the face of it, the only difference after 27 June will be that Gates will be non-executive chairman rather than executive chairman, spending just one day a week on Microsoft business.

Seamless transition?

The new leaders, none much younger than Gates himself, mix warm tributes to their founder with reassurances that all will be fine without him. More>>

Bill Gates says good bye

On June 15, 2006, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates, Chief Research and Strategy Officer Craig Mundie, Chief Software Architect Ray Ozzie and CEO Steve Ballmer pose after Bill announces his plans to phase himself out of the company. June 27,2008 was his last working day at Microsoft.