Ravi Bhat

India's IT/ITES Sector To Take A Hit?

2009-03-27T22:49:00.001-07:00

This has been buzzing ever since the beginning of recession & Obama making into the White House.
Let me share the actual organization's perspective on this, following chart was released by IBM themselves & not some XYZ survey/management firm!

Just to add even Mercedes Benz plans to grow its R&D 5 times in India! For more see link.

Ok the charts says we have tough competition from China. I personally believe we have an edge especially on the Business Moral & Ethics ground compared to nations like China & other few Asia Pacific countries.
With what I have learned from few of my peer's experiences, Chinese companies don't haste from stealing IP or to put in layman terms source code/ ideas etc. Let us face it, their Government is not open as ours to even think of resolving that.

All we need to for now, would be to stand strong in these tough times. :)

No Entry Load on MFs

2008-03-18T21:36:00.000-07:00

I didn't know this until, I bumped into this page!
SEBI has waived entry load, if customer directly approaches companies to buy their MF units. Normally we buy through an agent or AMCs, who charge us the entry load.
Imagine an MF with entry load of 2.5%, so if you are investing say 1,00,000 you loose 2,500!
Just wanted make sure what Online trading service providers has to say, read this for ICICI Direct. Which clearly states, that there would not be any waiver in entry load.
So how do u save? Approach directly to mutual fund houses be SBIMF or RELMF or any of your choice & buy it online or approach to their centers in your city.

Mutual Funds v/s Equities

2008-03-12T04:23:00.000-07:00

...
Its been long since I have posted any thing here! I got caught up with work.
Anyways, meanwhile I got my demat account opened & invested little bit of money in almost all sectors.
Recently markets didn't do well, so didn't the rest of the worlds for that matter.
Being almost a month old in "Equity Trading Industry", I feel investing in Mutual funds is better than investing in equities if you are employed!

Why ?

- You get distracted by your usual day job work. Trust me apart from my normal VNC/telnet clients the BSE charts is always open. Am in such a rush to take advantage of the market, I keep looking at the different stocks frequently in a day. Its very important to find balance among both of them!
- You can take care of your investments only if you know "How Markets REALLY Work". I am really surprised by the "Surprise" element of the stock market! I have seen a lot of fund managers and analysts statements being contradicted.
- Investing systematically in mutual funds (technically known as SIP) doesn't only average out your investment despite market fluctuations but also could turn into additional income along with your salary.

But again, there are few catches here,

- You don't get to choose stocks of your choice! However today there are sector focused MFs as well. Its good to invest in different sectors. Have faith on MF fund managers! ;)
- Liquidity, be careful before you invest to any MFs, check for any lock in periods or in other words how long do u have to wait to redeem your MF units.
- Entry & Exit costs, this is a fee charged either when u buy units or redeem them. These are usually pretty less & reasonable. Not investing in MFs for sake of saving this cost is stupid because either way u will have to pay brokerage fees for trading equities as well!
- Its not necessary if either of equity (in your Mf's portfolio) price miraculously doubles overnight would shoot up the unit price (NAV) correspondingly!
- Finally you can certainly earn more by trading equities than compared to MF returns, but with a lot of research time & risk attached with it!

So how do I pic my MFs?
I refer http://www.valueresearchonline.com/ for evaluating MFs. Credibility of the site I cant assure, but I know a lot of investors & web portal (ICICI Direct) refer the same.

Please drop in your comments or suggestions on the same, I would love to hear and revisit my assumptions.

Happy Investing!

Reliance Power IPO

2008-01-15T02:23:00.000-08:00

Wow! What a day at the office. It almost buzzed like a BSE rocking the Dalal Street!
Reliance Power IPO was subscribed for almost 9 times it actual number of shares (average of groups as ofnow) & expected to grow even more later.

My colleagues sitting around my cubicle went nuts & kept talking about the same whole day! Many of them bid almost equal to their one month salary & few over Lakhs!
They all bid for 450 Rs per share & rumors are already that shares are gonna be of 1000 Rs each when they are listed! Almost Twice!
However few didn't bid at all, I asked them why? Responses I got:
1) I don't think its ever gonna cross 500 Rs.
2) The company yet to setup 6 projects which "really" can make some difference! In short no good products/outputs as of now.
3) I don't like Anil Ambani! He is too young & I dont think he knows what he is doing!

Thats when even I got curious, and started learning much more about it. Whats part payment & full payment! Whats a phase value & issue price ,etc and alot of jargons(which of them i have already forgotten).

I knew little about how it works... But today I felt for once, why shouldn't it work! Economy can raise only if cash inflow raises, so is the reverse!
I didn't have much cash reserve to try my hands & bid for few!

Anyways am planning to get into the field & learn & prosper hopefully! ;)
Wish me luck!

Skoda Fabia

2008-01-07T21:26:00.000-08:00

Skoda's Fabia has finally been launched in India!

Both the diesel & petrol variants come in 1.4 liter engines.Diesel being of TDI kind delivers 69 bhp & Petrol MPI engine delivers 85 bhp.

Yeah in case you feel, nothing much under the hood?
Skoda is known for well built, durable & safety, so is Fabia.

Check out the link for more details:
http://www.fabiafeelspecial.com/skodafabia.pdf

Later this year, Indian roads can expect Maruti Suzuki's Swift Sedan Saloon, by the way they have removed Esteem from their pipeline!
More down the lane of the hatchback class expect Honda's Pirus, Fiat's Bravo & 500 and Tata's One Lakh Car!

Google Pain!

2007-11-12T21:19:00.000-08:00

By now all of us must have faced this issue...

Google Page Rankings , Google Adsense & Adwords ... And all the cheap tricks used to gain Traffic has devastated the purpose of Google!

I used to search stuffs in Google with the right keywords & few small hacks to get what I wanted, but now its horrible! The first searched link many times lands up into a web page filled with Google ads or some other affiliate ads, which I call the "Greedy Page"!

Thats when I switched to searching in http://blogsearch.google.com/, hoping at least would find something worth. It worked well for a while but then cheap spammer & money making ideas exploited the blogging space too. You will find blogspot URLs of no sense, but filled all the possible keywords to throw relevant Google Ads!

Today looking for right info without much pain is a myth!

Today as the spiders and robots gets smarter, so are the greedy web masters!
Auto updating scripts to keep gaining attention of the spiders, which has made it really tough to spiders to judge the web page's worthiness!

One solution would be providing the Google PageRank for all the links provided in the search. Users can hit links based on their ranks. That would reduce the effort of landing up on a "Greedy page"!

Thinking of IT Career in India?

2007-08-29T06:26:00.000-07:00

Hi all out there!
You might be a fresh Graduate out of college or an unhappy employee, in case you were wondering which IT company would you like work with?

'Your Prayers Are Heard'

Here is a summary of "Dataquest Top 20 IT employers list" 2007 report

Overall Toppers :

#1 TCS
#2 HCL Infosystems
#3 iGate
#4 RMSI
#5 Synechron

Wipro couldn't make into TOP 20 list!
Infosys however slipped by 4 ranks compared to last year's survey, yet managed within Top Ten. Here is a worth reading quote in the report -

" The employees of Infosys ranked their company very low on several parameters like growth opportunities, compensation and relevance of perks and benefits.

Ironically, among the rest of the 2,844 employees of this industry-wide survey—those not working in Infosys—Infosys topped the votes as their dream company to work for! "

Well when it came to 'Company Image' and 'Organization Culture'

HCL Infosystems, RMSI, iGate and Tavant Technologies turned to be amongst the top, out which major of them have small employee base!
Not to be left out Cognizant made upto 11th postion despite of huge employee base, thanks to management support for Individual growth!
On the other hand Infosys, Aricent, Geometric software, Ness Technologies and Cybage were hitting the bottom of the list.

Read the detailed report

Let me know your comments on the same!

Favicon for my Blog

2007-08-20T22:43:00.000-07:00

In case you still not able to make out what does my post heading means then please look upto the address bar! Do you find a icon to left of my blog's url?

Well thats called a "Favicon" among webmasters. Its an additional prop to make your website more impressing! Just like in our desktops, we have our own wallpapers & screen savers, so is in the case of websites normally have their own Logo. Its adds up more professional look to the website by having their logo on the URL address bar.

Well normally 16x16 pixels is the standard resolution, however 32x32 & 64x64 pixels resolution should work fine with latest browsers.

1) Just think of a image of your choice to be your favicon.
2) Use a picture tool like Irfanview (freeware) to resize the image to desired resoultion & save the file as favicon.ico
3) Locate for the "head" tag on your webpage or blog (html source) & paste the same <link href='location/favicon.ico' rel='shortcut icon'/>
the 'location' refers to the URL where your favicon.ico is hosted.(In my case its hosted on geocities.yahoo.com)
Remember copy the same before "head" tags ends!

Yeah now my favicon is animated. So let me tell how did i do it? I found a website which gave an option of creating a favicon online!
Just upload your image & you can add some text, you will find a zip file to be downloaded which will have your favicon & a gif file. It also contains a txt file, which will guide you with steps to be followed to include those on your website or blog!

Wild Hogs (2007)

2007-08-05T23:32:00.000-07:00

If you want to cheer up for a whole week ahead on a lazy Sunday afternoon you must watch this movie...
Wild Hogs is simply funny & hilarious. Thanks to all the characters who have been bought to life by the actors.
I still can think of few scenes that would make me laugh...

Its a story of four men who are being through Middle Age Crisis & they head to a road trip (on some serious cruisers) which changes their lives. Humor is not just in words but much more in physical!

Good stuff kidos!

My Rating : 4/5 (Must Watch It!)

India Again In 8th Wonder !

2007-07-11T22:14:00.000-07:00

Date: 07/07/07

Bipasha Basu Announces Seven Wonders of the world...

Ya thats soccer super star Cristiano Ronaldo announcing Mexico's Chichen Itza Pyramid...

Somewhere after 48 hrs ...

.
.
.

Date 09/07/2007 -
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.
.

The 8th wonder...

Now the most ironical part... John Abraham just off premiered his movie "The Goal"!

Broadband Speed Test

2007-03-29T08:34:00.000-07:00

Today I finally got my broadband connection from TATA Indicom (aka VSNL).
I had asked for a 256 kbps unlimited package. Now since I pay them some 1000 bucks for that of course I wanted to test how much do they keep their promise...
I remember alot of people complaining about this ISP especially in the RT Nagar area of B'lore.

Anyways I googled on the speed test sites which can give me some good idea about the speed...

So here is the test results!

Tester -------------------> Downlink / Uplink

1) bandwidthplace.com --> 238 / NA
2) Speedtest.net ------------>126 / 130
3) Speakeasy.net ----------> 410 / 246

So the result gave me a totally surprising figures...
One either too high or too less!

Probably these site owners or network junkies may have their own explanations... I accept them all...

But for the time let me stick to the result of the first tester , coz i dont have second thoughts of the poor ISP!

Aint I Good Hearted! ;)

Digg-In Blogger

2007-03-21T23:21:00.000-07:00

Simple steps to integrate Digg on your Blog!

Go to Template> Edit HTML
Select the checkbox and Enable Expand Widget Templates
Grep the following in the code:

Replace with the following code:
In case you need the conventional digg button :
In case you want sleek & compact version of it (just as mine! if you have noticed!)
Final Step is save your changes & hope if people used your Digg Button! :)

*Note for Morons: Please ignore http://ravirbhat.blogspot.com as shown above in the images.Its just to say that image belongs to me!

Thinking of getting a Credit Card...?

2007-01-18T04:54:00.000-08:00

Credit Cards

To begin with, not all credit cards are alike. So it pays to shop for the terms that you need in interest rate, functions, and benefits. Additionally credit card companies themselves calculate charges and apply benefits in different ways. You need to read the disclosure's fine print to determine how your particular card works.

When selecting a card, you need a card to fit your purpose. Perhaps you need a card as a convenience and you plan to pay the entire balance every month. In this case bonuses are more important than the interest rate. On the other hand, perhaps you tend to carry a balance and therefore need a low interest rate. Maybe you want a card that lets you pile up purchase points or frequent flyer miles. These are factors to consider when choosing a credit card.

Another consideration is that bonuses may have drawbacks as well as perks. Flyer mile cards, auto discount cards, and such are not in business to lose money. They may have higher interest rates, enrollment fees, limiting features, or benefits paying only after a selected plateau. Bonuses are not the only area requiring that you check the fine print. Sometimes that "low interest rate" is an introductory offer only. In other cases if you are late on your payment, low rates disappear for future purchases.

The bottom line is you need to know the terms before agreeing to the card. You should know as a minimum:

The annual percentage rate

Grace period to pay the full balance without being charged interest

If there are any annual fees

How finance charges are calculated

If there are any transaction charges for such things as balance transfer, late payments, cash advance, going over your limit, etc.

More...

Microsoft Zune : Teaser

2006-12-06T20:35:00.000-08:00

Don't miss this... Craig Ferguson is one of most hilarious, late night tv show chatter box...
His comments on Microsoft Zune....
(In case you are not able to see the video just hit the refresh button again)

Java to be Open?

2006-12-05T21:00:00.000-08:00

Well, finally my "fantasy" of understanding the actual implementation of Virtual Machine has come to an end I guess.
Sun has opened up Java under GNU General Public License version 2.
Whats GNU General Public License version 2? Even I don't know for the moment but will find it out ;)
Hence is the urge to know does it really work within is what I always thought of!
Hope this would lead to much better & efficient framework for Java!

* Keep an eye on http://www.sun.com/software/opensource/java/

Need For Speed : Carbon

2006-11-21T20:31:00.000-08:00

Hey all you gaming freaks .. Check out the new NFS:Carbon..Let It Rip...

About the game...
What starts in the city is settled in the canyons in Need for Speed Carbon. It immerses you in the world's most dangerous, adrenaline-filled form of street racing. You and your crew must race in an all-out war for the city, risking everything to take over your rivals' neighborhoods one block at a time. As the police turn up the heat, the battle ultimately shifts to Carbon Canyon, where territories and reputations can be lost on every perilous curve. Represent your car class, your crew, and your turf in Need for Speed Carbon, the next revolution in racing games. Strategically choose your crew members and then use their skills on the road and in the garage to help you win races and customize your cars...

Hope it will be shipped to India soon....

For more fun check out ...

ScreenShots - http://www.ea.com/nfs/carbon/us/theater.jsp?media=screenshots
Videos - http://www.ea.com/nfs/carbon/us/theater.jsp?media=videos
Music - http://www.ea.com/nfs/carbon/us/theater.jsp?media=music

All You Needed To Know About Tax

2006-10-16T04:29:00.000-07:00

How much tax will you pay?

If you are a male and not a senior citizen the first Rs 1 lakh of your total income (from all the sources except short-term capital gains) will be tax-free. Beyond that, the following tax rates would apply:

Income slab	Tax rate %
Rs 1,00,000	0
Rs 1,00,000 to Rs 1,50,000	10
Rs 1,50,001 to Rs 2,50,000	20
Rs 2,50,001 and above	30

In addition, you will have to pay an education cess of 2%. This will be calculated on your tax amount.

If you are earning an income of over Rs 10 lakh, you will also have to pay a surcharge of 10%, over and above the education cess.

Will you file a return of income?

If you have income greater than Rs 1,35,000, you would have to file return of income from the year 2006-2007. Prior to that year, you would have to file return of income if you qualified under the one-by-six scheme. One by six was a criterion that needed to be met when you file your returns. In simpler terms, if you fulfilled any one of the six criteria, you would have to file a return of income tax even though your income maybe below the tax-free limit of Rs 1 lakh. The six criteria were electricity bill over Rs 50,000, travel abroad, credit card, car, immoveable property, and club membership

Salaried Individual

Basic
Your basic salary is fully taxable

Dearness Allowance (DA)
DA is fully taxable

House Rent Allowance (HRA)

HRA is given by an employer to an employee to compensate towards any rent he may be paying towards house accommodation. But this element is tax-free only if you are actually paying rent. To ensure this, the income tax laws restrict the exemption that you can get on the HRA to the lowest of the three conditions:

Mumbai/Kolkata/ Delhi/Chennai	Other cities
HRA actually received	HRA actually received
Rent paid in excess of 10% of salary	Rent paid in excess of 10% of salary
50% of salary	40% of salary

(Salary = basic + DA + commission if paid as a fixed percentage of sales)

How to calculate taxable amount

Step 1 - Take the figure of HRA received during the year

Step 2 - Calculate the lowest of the three amounts mentioned in the table above according to the city you are staying in

Step 3 - Deduct Step 2 from Step 1

The balance is taxable

Conveyance allowance

This is an allowance that an employer gives his employee to meet the expenses that he incurs to commute from his home to the place of work. An amount of up to Rs 800 per month is exempt from tax. Any amount paid over and above this is taxable. In case the employee is orthopaedically handicapped, the tax-free limit on this allowance is Rs 1,600.

Children Education Allowance and Hostel expenditure allowance

The employer can pay an amount of Rs 100 per month per child for up to two children to his employee towards children\'s education. He can also pay Rs 300 per month per child for up to two children towards hostel expenditure. Both these would be tax-free.

Leave Travel Concession (LTA)

This is a concession that an employer may pay his employee as reimbursement towards any travel expenses within India that the employee may incur while he is on leave. The travel expenses maybe incurred for the employee and his family. The nature of taxation of this particular concession is slightly complicated.

While this concession or allowance can be paid to the employee every year, it is treated as tax-free only for two journeys in a block of four years. The 'block of four years' has been defined by the income tax laws. They are 1998-2001, 2002-2005, 2006-2009 and so on. These are calendar years.

Let us explain with an example. Suppose your employer pays you Rs 10,000 every year as LTA. Suppose the 'block of four years' is 2002 to 2005. During this period of four years, you can make two journeys, which are tax-free. You can make both journeys in any one of the four years or spread out the journeys over the four years. For any journeys in excess of these two, any reimbursement or allowance paid will be taxed.

The reimbursement would be restricted to actual travel expenses. However, there is an overall ceiling on this, which is restricted to:

Air travel	Economy fare of national carrier (India Airlines or Air India)
Rail travel	First class AC fare
Road	Public transport - First class or deluxe classIf there is no recognized transport - Equivalent of first class AC fare

So what happens if the first time you are receiving LTA is in the year 2005? In order to claim it as tax-free, you must make the journey in the same year to get a tax exemption. You can make two journeys in the same year if you cannot exhaust your limit in one.

Medical re-imbursement

An employer can re-imburse the expenditure incurred by the employee on himself and his family. This amount would be tax-free to the extent of Rs 15,000 per annum.

Perquisites

What are perquisites?

Perquisites or perks as they are commonly referred to are benefits that an employer gives to his employee in addition to his regular salary. These are usually in the form of kind such as accommodation or motorcar or even concessional loans and so on.

These are not part of the monthly salary of the employee, and hence cannot be taxed directly. But they are benefits that the employee receives instead of a cash salary and hence form a part of taxable income.

Which are the perquisites that are taxed?

The Income Tax laws have identified certain categories of assets or benefits that will be considered as part of income and therefore taxed. The main categories are:

Residential accommodation provided by the employer to the employee
Use of motor car
Services such as that of a gardener, watchman, sweeper or any personal attendant that the employer provides to his employee
Provisions such as gas, electricity or water that the employee uses in his house but which is paid for by the employer
Any free education or concessional education provided to the employee or his family
Interest free loans
Reimbursement of holiday related travel or accommodation expenses
Festival gifts or vouchers
Individual club membership

How is tax on perquisite calculated?

The tax on perquisite is calculated on the basis of a value attached to each item. The calculation of this value varies from category to category. Nevertheless, the thumb rule across all categories is that only those benefits that the employee uses for his personal purpose will be considered as perquisites. Further, if the employee pays any amount towards using these facilities, such amount would be reduced from the perquisite value before the tax is calculated. The total of all perquisite values will be added to the salary income and tax will be calculated on the usual slabs.

Valuation of perquisites

· Residential accommodation provided by the employer to the employee

a) Where the accommodation is owned by the employer

In such a case, the perquisite is valued at 10% of the employer's salary in cities where the population is more than 4 lakh. In all other cities, the value will be 7.5% of salary.

However, as per CBDT Notification No. 68, come April 2005, employees will pay double the tax that they currently are paying on company accommodation. So the 10% now stands raised to 20% and the 7.5% will be 15%.

b) Where the employer pays the rent or lease towards the accommodation

In this case, the actual rent that the employer pays or 10% of salary, whichever is lower is considered as perquisite.

In addition, in both the above cases, if the house is furnished, the perquisite value will increase by another 10% of cost of furniture and appliances. If the employer has hired the furniture and appliances, then actual cost of hire will be taken as perquisite value.

· Use of company owned motor car a) Where the car is used for official purposes Zero perquisite value

b) Where the car is used completely for personal purposes Actual expenses for running and maintaining the car

c) Where the car is used partly for official and partly for personal purpose

	Engine <>	Engine > 1.6 CC
All expenses are reimbursed	Rs 1,200 per month	Rs 1,600 per month
Only official expenses are reimbursements	Rs 400 per month	Rs 600 per month

In all cases, Rs 600 extra will be added every month to the value of perquisite if a driver is provided.

In cases where the employee owns a car and the employer reimburses expenses, then actual expenses will be considered as perquisite if they are not for official purposes.

· Services such as that of a gardener, watchman, sweeper or any personal attendant that the employer provides to his employee

Actual expenses

· Provisions such as gas, electricity or water that the employee uses in his house but which is paid for by the employer

Actual expenses

· Any free education or concessional education provided to the employee or his family

In case of free education, the actual value of the education fee and in case of the concession, the difference between the fee paid by the employee and amount reimbursed by the employer

· Interest free loans or concessional loans

If an employer gives loans at zero interest or at an interest rate lower than the market rate, it is considered as a perquisite. The perquisite value will be the difference between the market rate and the concessional rate, or if it is an interest free loan, then market interest rate will be the value of the perquisite. For the purpose of market rate, the income tax rules have prescribed the rates of State Bank of India (SBI) as the benchmark rates.

· Reimbursement of holiday related travel or accommodation expenses Actual Expenses

· Festival gifts or vouchers

Value of the gift or voucher will be considered. But where the value is less than Rs 5,000, there will be no tax.

· Individual club membership

Actual club membership fee

In addition to these main heads of perquisites, there are others such as credit card fees, entertainment expenses etc. All these are valued at actual cost to the employer.

Case study

V Swaminathan is the Vice President of a private limited company in Mumbai. His salary package is as follows

Basic Salary Rs 10 lakh

Special allowance Rs 5 lakh

Medical allowance Rs 50,000

Total Rs 15.5 lakh

In addition to this, the company has provided him with the following perquisites.

Company owned unfurnished accommodation

Ford Ikon, which is used for personal and official use, along with driver

Interest free education loan of Rs 4 lakh for Swaminathan's son repayable in 60 months

Membership in Country Club - Annual fees Rs 1 lakh

We present below the computation of perquisite value:

1. Company owned unfurnished accommodation

10% of basic salary plus taxable allowances

Basic salary Rs 10 lakh

Special allowance Rs 5 lakh

Medical allowance Rs 35,000, since up to Rs 15,000 is tax free

Total Rs 15.35 lakh

10% of Rs 15.35 lakh is Rs 1.53 lakh.

2. Ford Ikon, which is used for personal and official use, along with driver

Since the engine capacity is more than 1.6 CC, the taxable perquisite value will be Rs 2,200 per month, which is Rs 26,400.

3. Interest free education loan

If the prevailing interest rate of SBI's education loan is 12%, then, interest perquisite will be calculated at that rate. 12% of loan amount is Rs 44,658 for the first year.

4. Membership in Country Club as per actuals Rs 1 lakh

Total Perquisite value, which will be added to salary Rs 3,24,058

Deductions and Exemption

The recent budget has prescribed a consolidated ceiling of Rs 1 lakh as investments allowable deduction under the new section 80C. What this means is that out of your total taxable income, up to Rs 1 lakh will be deductible if you invest in certain specified instruments.

While a number of instruments have been included in this section, the good part is that there are no sub ceilings within these instruments. So you can choose to invest the entire sum of Rs 1 lakh in any one of these instruments or diversify the amount among these instruments in the proportion that you desire.

The following is an exhaustive list of all the instruments that you can invest in to get the benefit of section 80C.

1. Premiums paid towards life insurance policy for self and immediate family

2. Any amount paid towards a deferred annuity scheme like those offered by mutual funds

3. For government and semi-government employees, any amount which is deducted from your salary towards a deferred annuity scheme

4. Your contribution towards a Provident Fund, provided that the fund is covered under the Provident Fund Act

5. Provident Fund opened in the name of immediate family members

6. Contribution to a recognized provident fund

7. Contribution to an approved superannuation fund

8. Contribution to a government savings certificate. This would include post office savings schemes

9. Premium paid towards a ULIP

10. ULIP of UTI Mutual Fund and LIC Mutual Fund

11. Any payments made to keep in effect an annuity plan of any insurance company

12. Equity Linked Savings Scheme (ELSS)

13. Contribution to a pension fund set up by a mutual fund subscription

14. Subscription to any such deposit scheme of, or as a contribution to any such pension fund set up by, the National Housing Bank

15. As subscription to any such deposit scheme of an authorized company which provides long term finance for construction or purchase of residential houses

16. Home loan principal repayment

17. Public offerings of equity shares or debentures

18. Pension policy where benefits were available under section 80CCC. However, here, the sub-ceiling remains at Rs 10,000

Programming Languages You Should Learn Right Now !

2006-09-18T02:07:00.000-07:00

Knowing a handful of programming languages is seen by many as a harbor in a job market storm, solid skills that will be marketable as long as the languages are.
Yet, there is beauty in numbers. While there may be developers who have had riches heaped on them by knowing the right programming language at the right time in the right place, most longtime coders will tell you that periodically learning a new language is an essential part of being a good and successful Web developer.
"One of my mentors once told me that a programming language is just a programming language. It doesn't matter if you're a good programmer, it's the syntax that matters," Tim Huckaby, CEO of San Diego-based software engineering company CEO Interknowlogy.com.
However, Huckaby said that while his company is "swimming" in work, he's having a nearly impossible time finding recruits, even on the entry level, that know specific programming languages.
"We're hiring like crazy, but we're not having an easy time. We're just looking for attitude and aptitude, kids right out of school that know .Net, or even Java, because with that we can train them on .Net," said Huckaby.

"Don't get fixated on one or two languages. When I started in 1969, FORTRAN, COBOL and S/360 Assembler were the big tickets. Today, Java, C and Visual Basic are. In 10 years time, some new set of languages will be the 'in thing.' …At last count, I knew/have learned over 24 different languages in over 30 years," Wayne Duqaine, director of Software Development at Grandview Systems, of Sebastopol, California.
By picking the brains of Web developers and IT recruiters, eWEEK selected 10 programming languages that are a bonus for developers to add to their resumes. Even better, they're great jumping-off points, with loads of job opportunities for younger recruits.

1. PHP
• What it is: An open-source, interpretive, server-side, cross-platform, HTML scripting language, especially well-suited for Web development as it can be embedded into HTML pages.
• Why you should learn it: It's particularly widely used. "High-speed scripting with caching, augmented with compiled code plug-ins (such as can be done with Perl and PHP) is where the future is. Building Web apps from scratch using C or COBOL is going the way of the dinosaur," said Duquaine.
• Job availabilities: 1,152*

2. C#

• What it is: A general-purpose, compiled, object-oriented programming language developed by Microsoft as part of its .NET initiative, it evolved from C and C++
• Why you should learn it: It's an essential part of the .Net framework. "Learning C#, which is just Java with a different name plate, is critical if you heavily use Microsoft," said Duquaine.
• Job availabilities: 5,111

3. AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML)

• What it is: Though technically not a programming language, AJAX uses XHTML or HTML, JavaScript and XML to create interactive Web applications.
• Why you should learn it: Ever since Google Maps put AJAX, well, on the map, the requests for AJAX-knowledgeable pros went through the roof. "The demand for AJAX knowledge is huge because it's so damned hard to learn," said Huckaby. Of note, Microsoft announced recently plans to release a tool named Atlas that will make AJAX easier to implement. "If Microsoft's Atlas tool is successful, it would bring the extreme complexity and annoyance of AJAX to the average worker," said Huckaby.
• Job availabilities : 1,106

4. JavaScript

• What it is: Not to be confused with Java, JavaScript is a an object-oriented, scripting programming language that runs in the Web browser on the client side. It's smaller than Java, with a simplified set of commands, easier to code and doesn't have to be compiled.
• Why you should learn it: Embedded into HTML, it's used in millions of Web pages to validate forms, create cookies, detect browsers and improve the design. With its simplicity to learn as well as wide use, it's considered a great bang for your educational buck.
• Job availabilities: 4,406

5. Perl

• What it is: Perl is an open-source, cross-platform, server-side interpretive programming language used extensively to process text through CGI programs.
• Why you should learn it: Perl's power in processing of piles of text has made it very popular and widely used to write Web server programs for a range of tasks. "Learning some form of scripting language, such as Perl or PHP is critical if you are doing Web apps," said Duquaine.
• Job availabilities: 4,810

6. C

• What it is: A standardized, general-purpose programming language, it's one of the most pervasive languages and the basis for several others (such as C++).
• Why you should learn it: "Learning C is crucial. Once you learn C, making the jump to Java or C# is fairly easy, because a lot of the syntax is common. Also, a lot of C syntax is used in scripting languages," said Duquaine.
• Job availabilities: 6,164, including all derivatives

7. Ruby and Ruby on Rails

• What they are: Ruby is a dynamic, object-oriented, open-source programming language; Ruby on Rails is an open-source Web application framework written in Ruby that closely follows the MVC (Model-View-Controller) architecture.
• Why you should learn it: With a focus on simplicity, productivity and letting the computers do the work, in a few years, its usage has spread quickly. As a bonus, many find it easy to learn.
• Job availabilities : 210 and 54, respectively

8. Java

• What it is: An object-oriented programming language developed by James Gosling and colleagues at Sun Microsystems in the early 1990s.
• Why you should learn it: Hailed by many developers as a "beautiful" language, it is central to the non-.Net programming experience. "Learning Java is critical if you are non-Microsoft," said Duquaine.
• Job availabilities: 14,408

9. Python

• What it is: An interpreted, dynamically object-oriented, open-source programming language that utilizes automatic memory management.
• Why you should learn it: Designed to be a highly readable, minimalist language, many say it has a sense of humor (spam and eggs, rather than foo and bar), Python is used extensively by Google as well as in academia because of its syntactic simplicity.
• Job availabilities: 811

10. VB.Net (Visual Basic .Net)

• What it is: An object-oriented language implemented on Microsoft's .Net framework.
• Why you should learn it: Most argue that VB.Net is currently more popular than ever and one of the only "must-learns." "It is currently dominating in adoption and that is where all the work is," said Huckaby.
• Job availabilities: 2,090
* All numbers on job availability were pulled from nationwide queries on Dice.com, a job site for technology professionals.

***Source: http://www.eweek.com

Hey its been long...

2005-09-27T06:34:00.000-07:00

Hey here is bathroom singer's yet another fav. song....

I never thought that I would lose my mind
That I could control this
Never thought that I'd be left behind
That I was stronger than you, baby
Girl if only I knew what I've done
You know, so why don't you tell me
And I, I would bring down the moon and the sun
To show how much I care....

Don't wanna lose you now
Baby, I know we can win this
Don't wanna lose you now
No no, or ever again

Blah blah...
Its from Millenium Album by BackStreetBoys...

My Project RSA

2005-09-16T08:19:00.000-07:00

Im working on a project which involves implementing RSA algorithm which is all about encryption..Security is always been my field of interest..Initially my project mates wanted an easy codeable project..But sticked to my dream and they accepted looking at my confidence...
So whats RSA?
RSA is a public key algorithm to encrypt a message using the reciever's public key(which universally known) and then decrypts using reciever's private key(which only the reciever will know)!
Whats project all about?
Its a simple file transfer application which encrypt a file using RSA algorithm and transfer to intended user..N then its decrypted at the reciever's end..
Thats It?
Ya thats it for time being as we got to do within another 2 months and got to learn language ( to implement) from scratch..
Tough Part?
Want to provide atleast a 512bit key to encrypt!!!
Future Plans?
Ya surely extend it to 2048bit and with more functionalities...

RSS...

2005-08-24T02:53:00.000-07:00

My friend Girish always keeps on buzzing RSS...which made me bit curious to know what it is...
So for the time being all i know is...
RSS stands for "Really Simple Syndication" -----
RSS was invented to solve the problem of going through each blog or website you keep on visiting frequently. Blogs usually have a free "RSS feed". It is a little XML web page that contains the headline, date/time and a description of each new item that the blog is publishing. You install a piece of software called an "RSS reader" on your machine. You connect it to the RSS feeds for your 20 favorite blogs. Then, when you click the "update" button in your RSS reader, it goes out and checks the RSS feeds of your 20 favorite blogs. It tells you the title and description of all the new stuff that all 20 blogs have published. Then you can pick and choose what you want to read. RSS gives you a much quicker way to keep up-to-date on your 20 blogs.

Thats it for now...
To learn more follow this link...
http://www.xml.com/pub/a/2002/12/18/dive-into-xml.html

What is the MATRIX ?

2005-06-03T06:44:00.000-07:00

hey guys..

Im fascinated with the concept of the matrix...coz it really drives me crazy...i have always wanna be in it...looking at the brighter part of it cautions us of being dependent on the machines...which really can take control over us in the near future as everything is being automated...
2 Be frank i feel the dialogues plays a major role apart from the graphics used in it...my fav punch lines in it:

DONT THINK U R...KNOW U R
WE ARE ALL HERE TO DO WHAT WE ARE ALL MEANT TO DO
CAUSE AND EFFECT
EVERYTHING THAT HAS A BEGINNING HAS AN END
and top all...
THERE IS NO SPOON!

Be Cool

2005-05-24T03:00:00.000-07:00

Hey Guys im totally new to this blog stuff! I just wanted to add a comment to my pals site by then i realized i gotta register! So just hopped in...;-) Dont worry u need not to register to put up ur comments...just click the comment link and post it in....