2008/2 « Sharing the Collections of Dilip Prakash

Monday, February 25, 2008

incOme taX in India important tiPs

1.80C

Qualifying products: NSC, notified bank deposits and post office time deposits, EPF and PPF, ELSS, life insurance plans, deferred pension plans

Mandatory requirements: Payment has to be made before 31 March 2008

Who can avail the deduction: Individuals and HUF (both resident and non-resident)

How much: Cannot exceed Rs 1 lakh.

2. 80CCC

Qualifying products: Pension plans of life insurers

Mandatory requirements: Payment has to be made before 31 March 2008

Who can avail the deduction: Individuals

How much: Within the overall limit of Section 80C (up to Rs 1 lakh)

3. 80D

Qualifying products: Medical insurance policies taken for self, spouse, dependant parents or children, or any member of HUF

Mandatory requirements: Premium should be paid through a cheque out of income chargeable to tax

Who can avail the deduction: Individuals, HUF

How much: Up to Rs 15,000; senior citizens can claim up to Rs 20,000

4. 80DD

Qualifying products: Expenses on the medical treatment of a dependent who is a person with a disability

Mandatory requirements: Certification by a medical authority

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Who can avail the deduction: Resident individual or HUF

How much: Up to Rs 50,000, or up to Rs 75,000 if the dependant is a person with severe disability

5. 80DDB

Qualifying products:Expenses on the medical treatment of a specified disease (cancer, AIDS, neurological diseases, chronic renal failure and more)

Mandatory requirements:Certificate in Form No. 10-I to be submitted along with the income tax return form. Deduction is available if the amount is actually paid for treatment

Who can avail the deduction: Resident individuals or HUF

How much: Rs 40,000 (if the person treated upon is less than 65 years of age), or Rs 60,000

6. 80E

Qualifying products: Payment of interest on loan taken for higher studies

Mandatory requirements: Deduction is available in the year in which repayment starts and only for eight immediately succeeding assessment years

Who can avail the deduction: Individuals

How much: Deduction available on the total interest portion of education loan, the principal repayment gets no tax advantage

7. 80G

Qualifying products: Donations to certain funds and charitable institutions

Mandatory requirements: Not applicable

Who can avail the deduction: Resident individuals or HUF

How much:50 or 100 per cent deduction on the entire donated amount, or 50 or 100 per cent deduction subject to 10 per cent of gross total income

8. 80GG

Qualifying products: Rent paid for residential purpose

Mandatory requirements: Should not be getting house rent allowance. Actual rent paid is in excess of 10% of the total income

Who can avail the deduction: Self-employed or salaried

How much: Excess of actual rent paid over 10 per cent of GTI, or 25 per cent of GTI, or Rs 2,000 per month, whichever is the lowest

9. 80U

Qualifying products: Expenses incurred on self, if disabled

Mandatory requirements: Certification by a medical authority to be furnished along with the income tax return form

Who can avail the deduction: Resident individuals

How much: Rs 50,000 for a person with disability, Rs 75,000 for a person with severe disability (disability of over 80 per cent)

Posted by dilipprakash at 08:44:05 | Permanent Link | Comments (0) |

Monday, February 18, 2008

No, no I want him; No, no I want her!

IN THE BEGINNING, God created men and women. The men were without finesse and poise, and ignorance was upon them — or, at least, that’s what the women thought. God felt sorry for the men, who looked cluttered, dirty, filthy, grimy, and grubby. And, God said, "Let there be metrosexuality," and there was metrosexuality! God seeing that metrosexuality was good, separated the metrosexuals from the ignoramus — the few who refused to look at the light or the mirror. And, finally, God said, “Let the naive machos take a back seat,” and so it came to pass.

In the meanwhile, the metrosexuals, who were gifted with an aesthetic sense and left with an ugly amount of time and money, went about the task of changing the image of men. They hit the spas and beauty salons with a vengeance. They got themselves manicured, pedicured and waxed. They got their craggy faces scrubbed, exfoliated, massaged, and preened. They got their skin re-hydrated and moisturized.

They splurged money on fairness creams, styling gels, concealers, tanning powder, beard-shaders, and lipsticks. They chose their designer wears with care and concern. One of the metrosexual icons went on to act in an ad, showing him enjoying a bath in a tub filled with rose petals, with the screen sirens, whom the ad once featured, in attendance.

The women, who used to complain that men smelt like a pair of used socks, were surprised when one fine day the men came out of the beauty salons prim and proper and fluttered their mascaraed eyelashes. A few women were worried by this sudden development, but a majority of them welcomed the new-looking men and their designer labels. At least, men would not hereafter cringe when it came to spending on cosmetics, the women reasoned.

Lo and behold! The men and women started splurging on cosmetics and designer-wears. Looking good never looked so good before, they thought.

God saw this, and God did not like what he saw. He could not tell them apart. He could not tell who was Eve and who was Adam. He thought that the metrosexual man, instead of complementing the woman, was trying to dethrone her and occupy her place. He thought of Adam dressed in fig leaves. "That was much better," He muttered to Himself. Then, God said, “It is not good that the men should be like this." He let confusion enter the minds of women.

The next morning some women thought that the metrosexuals looked like sissies and duly shifted their allegiance to the retrosexuals. A few women thought that the retrosexuals were Neanderthals who wore their sloppy looks and slimy attitude on their filthy sleeves. The others wondered to which category those brawny bods with no brains belonged.

Some craved for the good old types — men who looked unkempt, unshaven, dirty, speckled, stained, smudged, soiled, spotted, sullied, and immaculate in their crudeness and cussedness. And, each woman wondered whether that was what she really wanted. They could not say for sure. The confused men, who were waiting for the Freudian slip from the women, were left wondering, “What do women really want?”

When God found the men and women trapped thus in that Babel of confusions and counter-confusions, He knew He had done His work, and decided to take a day off.

Posted by dilipprakash at 09:01:57 | Permanent Link | Comments (0) |

Friday, February 15, 2008

Do we really need Valentine’s Day?

“AS LONG as I and my girlfriend are together, each day is a Valentine’s Day for us. This day but the profundity of emotions for each other holds the utmost value, isn’t it?” asks Nitin, a 21-year-old student. And indeed he is correct. Love is an unimpeded feeling that disapproves of getting caged behind the bars of certain days.

Apparently Rose Day falls on February 7, which is followed by Propose Day, Chocolate Day, Teddy Day, Promise Day, Kiss Day and Hug Day – strictly in that order, until February 14 emerges when Valentine’s Day rolls in and puts the so-called lovey-dovey days to rest. Why do we ‘ritualise’ these asinine and childish days, which have been spawned in the west? Aren’t these days outshining the real meaning of love and shooting down its charisma?

“Though I don’t very much believe in rejoicing these days, but don’t mind these either,” asserts Naveen, a 23-year-old relationship manager in a bank. Ask him which days among the lot he celebrated with his girlfriend this year, he chirps, “I give her a rose every time we meet… she doesn’t need a soft toy as she herself is one… I’m the chocolate lover amongst us and we celebrate the Propose Day every year. On the day I actually proposed to her eight years back – all in all, we don’t need fixed dates to relish such special moments.”

Sheetal, a GE Money employee, holds different views altogether, “I enjoy celebrating few of these days like Chocolate Day and Teddy Day, as I get loads of chocolates and soft toys, though I have to reciprocate as well. But it’s worth doing so once in a year.”

Now that takes us to another (rather real) facet – ‘once in a year’. Yes, we do celebrate these days once in a year, wherein Valentine’s Day always tops the charts, as it is savoured annually the world over without fail. And at the first flush of the next morning, it becomes history! But the passion of love inside hearts still prevails… throughout the year.

If we scan these days by the names and try to decipher the significance they possibly could hold, we arrive at no good point. Let’s start with Rose Day. What does that mean, in the first place? Are we allowed to pluck roses on this day to gift to our spouse, which is generally against law on the ‘ordinary’ days? Likewise, does Propose Day spread the message that one has got the right of proposing to the one he thinks he is in love with (and if he misses the chance this year, he has lost it for another 364 days)?

And who will demystify the mystery of Chocolate Day? Are the nagging mothers behind the idea of making this day, so that the deprived kids could, with full right, dig teeth into their favourite chocolates? So are the queries about rest of the fêted days – Teddy Day, Promise Day, Kiss Day and Hug Day - unanswered.

A rose followed by a chocolate, a soft toy wrapped into the promises of scores of kisses and hugs are not enough for one to approve of a lover’s proposal. Love is not a mere ‘weekly’ affair, but the long-term bond is what one looks forward to, and that comes from mutual understanding and compatibility, but not from such phony days.

Posted by dilipprakash at 09:05:37 | Permanent Link | Comments (0) |

Thursday, February 14, 2008

Story of Valentines Day

February 14th is Valentines Day

- a worldwide celebration of love and romance, marked by giving red roses and chocolate hearts or by sending valentines .
Often derided as a "Hallmark holiday," Valentines Day - also known as Saint Valentines Day - is certainly a boom for greeting card companies, florists

and chocolatiers. But long before the mass marketing, Valentines Day was still a high point for courtly love.So, how and where did the holiday get its start? And who is Saint Valentine and why has he become the symbol for love?

For starters, Saint Valentine is probably not just one man, but rather any of a number of martyred saints named Valentine or Valentinus, derived from the Latin word for valor. According to Christian tradition, all of these Saint Valentines are believed to have been martyred on February 14.

The first Valentinus, Valentine of Rome, was a priest and doctor, who treated even those patients who could not afford to pay him. The second Saint Valentine was beheaded for protecting Christians from the Romans. And the third is Valentine of Terni, a bishop believed killed during the persecution of Emperor Aurelian.

While these saints likely bestowed upon Valentines Day its name, they still do not explain the holiday's love connection. To understand that, one has to go back even further in history - to the Romans.
Historians believe that the holiday of love derives its origins from the ancient Roman feast of Lupercalia. On February 15, the Romans celebrated the Feast of Lupercus, to honor and thank the wolf god who watched over the Roman shepherds and their flocks.
While Lupercus doesn't seem to have much to do with romance, there was a number of fertility customs associated with his feast. In one of these rituals, women would put their names on slips of paper in a box, to be drawn out by men. The two would then be coupled up for the duration of the festival - or for the rest of the year in some cases. This fertility-friendly feast gives some clue as to the romantic - or at least procreative - nature of the holiday. But we don't celebrate Saint Lupercus Day on February 14th. So, how did the Valentine saints become associated with the Roman god?

Legend has it that in the 3rd century, the Roman emperor Claudius II banned marriages to prevent draft dodgers. Only single men had to go into the army - and too many young men were getting married.
A Christian priest named Valentinus of Rome ignored the ban, continuing to officiate marriages in secret. Valentinus was caught and sentenced to death - an order carried out on February 14. Another story tells of a priest named Valentinus who was jailed and later executed for helping Christians. He fell for his jailer's daughter and sent her plaintiff love notes signed "from your Valentine".
In the late 5th century, Emperor Gelasius declared February 14th a holy day in honor of Valentinus (probably the first, but perhaps the second), allowing Christianity to adopt some of the love day customs previously associated with paganism.
The traditions were reworked, however, to honor the Christian martyrs. For example, instead of boys pulling girls' names from boxes, both boys and girls chose names of martyred saints to emulate for the year.
It took nearly nine centuries, until the advent of the Renaissance, for Valentines Day to return to its earlier love-based roots. With Romantic art, poetry and music flourishing, the time was ripe for a celebration of love.