EPF members can now download their E-Pass book

Goodreturns :Friday, November 30, 2012, 17:13 [IST]

The Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) members will now be able to download their e-pass book each month, if they are active members.

Today the Central PF Commissioner, Sh R.C. Mishra launched the facility for online access for EPF members to their PF accounts.

In case of the members who are not active (left service) and have not settled their account or have not become inoperative, the facility to download the pass book on request basis shall be available.

The facility shall be available on www.epfindia.gov.in

Any PF member can register himself/herself on the Member Portal by using his/her Photo Identification number such as PAN, Aadhar, NPR, Driving License, Passport, Voter ID, Ration Card and use the mobile number as the password. Thus the member will not be required to remember any user id/password.

The member can add multiple id numbers after registration and can use any one for login.

Once registered, he/she can download the pass book by entering his/her account number. If available the pass book will appear for download.

In case not available a request will be created on the portal and once the pass book is  uploaded by the respective field office, an SMS will be sent to the member to login and download the pass book.

The e-pass book shall contain the transaction wise details in the member's account (all credits and debits) since the month for which the details for the establishment have been processed in the new application software at the field offices.

The facility, however is not available for the members under establishments that are exempted under the EPF Scheme 1952 (as the fund details are maintained by the Trust), Inoperative members (i.e in accounts where no contribution has been received during preceding 36 months).

The facility shall have following restrictions:-

 Only one registration is permitted against one mobile number.
 The member can download the passbook for only one account number under one establishment. Thus in case he/she has worked for different spells in one establishment with different account numbers, he/she has to apply for the transfer of the old account to the new so that the credit may be reflected in the e-pass book of the new account.
 To view the amount balance against any inoperative account also the member should
apply for transfer and then the transferred amount will reflect as credit in the present
account of the member.

Einstein’s brain

Volume 29 - Issue 24 :: Dec. 01-14, 2012

Portions of Albert Einstein’s brain have been found to be unlike those of most people and could be responsible for his extraordinary cognitive abilities, according to a new study led by Dean Falk, the Hale G. Smith Professor of Anthropology at Florida State University. 

The study, “The Cerebral Cortex of Albert Einstein: A Description and Preliminary Analysis of Unpublished Photographs”, has been published in the journal Brain.

Dean Falk, who is an evolutionary anthropologist, along with colleagues Frederick E. Lepore of the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and Adrianne Noe, director of the National Museum of Health and Medicine, has described for the first time the entire cerebral cortex of Einstein’s brain from an examination of 14 recently discovered photographs.

 These were taken shortly after his death but had never been analysed. The present researchers compared Einstein’s brain with 85 “normal” human brains and, using current functional imaging studies, interpreted its unusual features.

“Although the overall size and asymmetrical shape of Einstein’s brain were normal, the prefrontal, somatosensory, primary motor, parietal, temporal and occipital cortices were extraordinary,” says Dean Falk. “These may have provided the neurological underpinnings for some of his visuospatial and mathematical abilities, for instance,” she adds. The prefrontal cortex is known to be important for highly abstract thinking, which is how Einstein arrived at his famous theories of relativity.

 It is believed that the complex folding patterns here probably provided an unusually large surface area compared with the normal, which may have contributed to his extraordinary abilities.

Soon after Einstein died in 1955, Thomas Harvey, the pathologist who carried out the autopsy, removed his brain, preserved it in formalin and later photographed it from multiple angles with the permission of his family. Furthermore, he sectioned the brain into 240 blocks from which he prepared histological slides.

 Unfortunately, a great majority of the photographs, blocks and slides were lost from public sight for more than 55 years. The 14 photographs used by the researchers now are held by the National Museum of Health and Medicine.

The paper also publishes the “road map” to Einstein’s brain prepared in 1955 by Harvey to illustrate the locations within Einstein’s previously whole brain of 240 dissected blocks of tissue, which provides a key to locating the origins within the brain of the newly emerged histological slides.

Success Will Come and Go, But Integrity is Forever

      Amy Rees Anderson, Contributor :Forbes :28 Nov 2012 

If I could teach only one value to live by, it would be this: Success will come and go, but integrity is forever. Integrity means doing the right thing at all times and in all circumstances, whether or not anyone is watching. It takes having the courage to do the right thing, no matter what the consequences will be. Building a reputation of integrity takes years, but it takes only a second to lose, so never allow yourself to ever do anything that would damage your integrity.

We live in a world where integrity isn’t talked about nearly enough. We live in a world where “the end justifies the means” has become an acceptable school of thought for far too many. Sales people overpromise and under deliver, all in the name of making their quota for the month. Applicants exaggerate in job interviews because they desperately need a job. CEOs overstate their projected earnings because they don’t want the board of directors to replace them

Entrepreneurs overstate their pro formas because they want the highest valuation possible from an investor. Investors understate a company’s value in order to negotiate a lower valuation in a deal. Customer service representatives cover up a mistake they made because they are afraid the client will leave them. Employees call in “sick” because they don’t have any more paid time off when they actually just need to get their Christmas shopping done. The list could go on and on, and in each case the person committing the act of dishonesty told themselves they had a perfectly valid reason why the end result justified their lack of integrity.

 It may seem like people can gain power quickly and easily if they are willing to cut corners and act without the constraints of morality. Dishonesty may provide instant gratification in the moment but it will never last. I can think of several examples of people without integrity who are successful and who win without ever getting caught, which creates a false perception of the path to success that one should follow. After all, each person in the examples above could have gained the result they wanted in the moment, but unfortunately, that momentary result comes at an incredibly high price with far reaching consequences.  That person has lost their ability to be trusted as a person of integrity, which is the most valuable quality anyone can have in their life. Profit in dollars or power is temporary, but profit in a network of people who trust you as a person of integrity is forever.

Every one person who trusts you will spread the word of that trust to at least a few of their associates, and word of your character will spread like wildfire. The value of the trust others have in you is far beyond anything that can be measured.  For entrepreneurs it means investors that are willing to trust them with their money. For employees it means a manager or a boss that is willing to trust them with additional responsibility and growth opportunities. For companies it means customers that trust giving them more and more business. For you it means having an army of people that are willing to go the extra mile to help you because they know that recommending you to others will never bring damage to their own reputation of integrity. Yes, the value of the trust others have in you goes beyond anything that can be measured because it brings along with it limitless opportunities and endless possibilities.

Contrast that with the person who cannot be trusted as a person of integrity.  Warren Buffet, Chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway said it best:, “In looking for people to hire, look for three qualities: integrity, intelligence, and energy.  And if they don’t have the first one, the other two will kill you.”  A person’s dishonesty will eventually catch up to them. It may not be today, and it may not be for many years, but you can rest assured that at some point there will always be a reckoning.

A word of advice to those who are striving for a reputation of integrity: Avoid those who are not trustworthy. Do not do business with them. Do not associate with them. Do not make excuses for them.  Do not allow yourself to get enticed into believing that “while they may be dishonest with others, they would never be dishonest with me.” If someone is dishonest in any aspect of his life you can be guaranteed that he will be dishonest in many aspects of his life. You cannot dismiss even those little acts of dishonesty, such as the person who takes two newspapers from the stand when they paid for only one. After all, if a person cannot be trusted in the simplest matters of honesty then how can they possibly be trusted to uphold lengthy and complex business contracts?

It is important to realize that others pay attention to those you have chosen to associate with, and they will inevitably judge your character by the character of your friends. Why is that?  It is best explained by a quote my father often says when he is reminding me to be careful of the company I am keeping:  “When you lie down with dogs you get fleas.” Inevitably we become more and more like the people we surround ourselves with day to day. If we surround ourselves with people who are dishonest and willing to cut corners to get ahead, then we’ll surely find ourselves following a pattern of first enduring their behavior, then accepting their behavior, and finally adopting their behavior. If you want to build a reputation as a person of integrity then surround yourself with people of integrity.

There is a plaque on the wall of my office which reads: “Do what is right, let the consequence follow.” It serves as a daily reminder that success will indeed come and go, but integrity is forever.

~Amy,The lessons learned of an Entrepreneur turned Mentor & Angel Investor

PVR buys Cinemax for Rs 395 crore

PTI   : BT : New Delhi   :Last Updated: November 30, 2012  | 11:05 IST

Multiplex chain operator Cinemax on Thursday said its promoters will sell their entire stake of 69.27 per cent in the company to PVR Ltd for Rs 394.98 crore.

PVR will also purchase additional up to 26 per cent stake from public shareholders through an open offer.

"The company has been informed by its promoters that they have entered into a definitive sale agreement with PVR Limited (through its wholly-owned subsidiary Cine Hospitality Private Ltd) for sale of their entire stake of 69.27 per cent in Cinemax India Limited," Cinemax said in a filing to the BSE.

"The sale has been completed for a total sale consideration of Rs 394.98 crore at a price of Rs 203.65 per equity share," the filing added.

Cinemax shares on BSE closed at Rs 184.25 apiece, up 4.99 per cent from its previous close.

In a separate filing, PVR also said that its board of directors has approved the purchase.

"...board of directors at its meeting held on November 29, 2012, approved, subject to receipt of relevant consents under applicable law, the purchase of entire 69.27 per cent stake in Cinemax India Limited from the Kanakia family," PVR said in the filing. 

The PVR board also approved purchase of up to 26 per cent stake of Cinemax India from the public shareholders pursuant to an open offer under the SEBI regulations 2011, the PVR filing added.

Shares of PVR ended at Rs 255.45 apiece, higher by 7.83 per cent that its last close.

PVR, one of the largest multiplex companies in the country runs 197 screens. For the year ended March 31, 2012, the company's total income stood at Rs 513.06 crore, up 11 per cent from Rs 462.22 crore registered in the previous fiscal.

Cinemax operates 138 screens across 39 properties in Ahmedabad, Panipat, Nagpur, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mumbai, Thane, Bangalore and Pune among others, as per information on Cinemax website